Kmcalpin

Certainly back in last November Jim McMahon was confident the next repayment would be made on time.

I thought so too, but Stuwell seems very sure of his/her facts.

So are you saying that Plan A is now officially dead and buried? If so Society members ought to be told.

Admittedly the first half hour wasn't great but you'll see much worse. We dominated the game for that period without really causing Cerny any trouble.

Injured apparently.

Even after questioning one or two usually well informed sources at the game yesterday....nothing.

First and foremost absolutely delighted with the 3 points and the performance wasn't too bad either. So, credit is due to the players and Mark McGhee. A physically powerful Thistle side posed a difficult challenge for us but we triumphed. In the first half they defended very well and made it hard for us. Despite having loads of pressure we didn't trouble the annoying Cerny. The penalty, which was a stonewaller, changed the game. As often happens the first goal is very important. At half time a 2 or 3 goal lead would not have been unjust but we lacked a killer touch. The second goal really changed the game and forced Thistle to play a more open game which led to our third. Two well worked second half goals. For the last 20 minutes Thistle had us under the cosh as we sat back and although they flattered to deceive up front it was no surprise to me when they scored. Booth had all the time and space in the world to fire in his shot, which either took a deflection or swerved viciously. I don't blame Ripley for that but rather our midfielders who were posted absent again. How many goals do we lose like that? The last 20 minutes or so were very uncomfortable and cried out for substitutions but as others have said who would we have brought on? I thought Lasley and Pearson had decent games, especially the former, but they disappeared in the last quarter of the game when we needed them most. credit to young Cadden though. He had a decent game throughout and was the one who stuck his chin out and had a real go at the Thistle attackers when others around him were unable or unwilling to do that. In the latter stages we were very exposed on our left flank and Stevie Hammell had a poor closing quarter, although he had no support in front of him it has to be said. Plenty of positives though. Moult and MacDonald were exceptional against 2 leviathans and covered miles over the 93 minutes. Johnson too had one of his better games. Chris Cadden is coming on by leaps and bounds and, although a bit raw defensively, has a great engine on him and kept going to the end despite being exhausted. A fixture in the side now I'd say for his running. Louis Laing had a great game at right back and Mark McGhee is being proven right in that there's more to this lad's game than we thought at first. He was the better of our 2 full backs today, putting in a solid defensive display and proving he can produce some dangerous charges and runs reminiscent of a buffalo on steroids. Both centre backs too had solid games and stood firm in the closing stages. All in all a good day at the office. These late season basement games are rarely footballing classics but today wasn't the worst I've seen. If we can reproduce this form in remaining games we'll be ok but we do need to remain competitive in the last 15/20 minutes of games. Perhaps some of us are being too hard on the senior pros like Lasley, Hammell and Pearson - they do try their best but just no longer have the legs. To end on a positive note though, Cadden gave me some hope with his never say die display and boundless energy.

Louis Moult for me, closely followed by Skippy and as Spiderpig says, Louis Laing.

I wouldn't read too much into 2 departures. These things happen all the time in the business world. A degree of change is never a bad thing providing there's some continuity.

Who are they? Derek Weir and who else?

Accies will treat this as 2 points lost in hindsight, given that they were playing against 10 men. However we have to pick up points ourselves and not rely on others to bail us out.

Where did you learn that Derek Weir had resigned? Nothing on the Official site nor on FPC or here. I didn't pick it up in the media either.

The amount of posts and opinions expressed about possible line ups virtually all focus on variations in the midfield and that tells us something. Our problems are lack of creativity there and weak defensive shield. I thought Gomis might be the answer but he's been a bit up and down since he came. Still settling in perhaps. Any Hearts fans I've spoken to rate him fairly highly. The conundrum seems to be striking the right balance - if we strengthen the attacking element we weaken the defensive element and vice versa.

I can see an argument for dropping Johnson, playing Pearson wide and starting Ainsworth on the right. That way we'd be well balanced and it would allow Hammell some cover which he badly needs. However the downside of that is that it would leave our central midfield dreadfully weak especially in an attacking sense. Gomis and Lasley might also be outnumbered and outfought. If Pearson played on the left side in the middle that would leave Hammell exposed and thats the last thing we need. Decisions decisions. Being a manager is not easy!

Yes. The problem is that our central midfield and full backs cannot distribute the ball quickly or accurately enough to Johnson and the strikers. If they could do so then they'd catch the opposition unprepared and give Johnson, Moult and MacDonald that little bit of space and time that they need. Do that and the threesome's success rate would improve dramatically.

Good post Captain. This is an interesting thread but a complex one. As far as Marvin Johnson is concerned, I suppose to some extent it depends on what his role actually is. I agree he's not a creative player. By the same token he's not an out and out striker. Anecdotally however, I would say that the quality of service to him is generally poor in that its incompatible with his style of play. Perhaps his style of play is simply not suited to the current team and vice versa?

A point worth investigating Greg, but we should also take into account the strength of the opposition.

I'm not surprised in the least given the money they bring in from TV. I think a few years ago Arsenal spent about £8m on a new drainage system. Don't forget too that the climate is a wee bit kinder south of the border.

That could equally apply to most of the team Busta. I'd say that Ripley, Moult and MacDonald would be clear exceptions but virtually the entire defence and midfield are very poor when we don't have the ball. This is probably our main weakness as a team.

Come on Fraz...chill out

Previous to the first half goal that we lost, on 3 separate occasions, St Johnstone players were allowed free access to the right hand side of our penalty box. So, something somewhere was going wrong. Either the gameplan was deficient or a player(s) was not doing what they were supposed to be doing. Surely after the second time the alarm bells should have been ringing with Mark McGhee.

Absolutely. He is not playing particularly well but he is being given very poor service. His game is running onto balls and running at defenders. In that respect he is a one trick pony. Once again on Saturday he was being given passes 6 feet behind him or when he was being covered by 2/3 defenders. I lost count of the number of times he shouted for an early pass only to be ignored. It was frustrating to watch a defender or central midfielder dithering about rather than releasing him with an early ball when the opposing defenders were in disarray. In other words rank poor service. This goes on week after week.

In theory yes, every goal scored is, to a greater or lesser extent, a defensive error. It is the management team's responsibility to analyse every goal lost and devise ways to avoid losing similar goals in the future. That will never happen in reality of course. There is nothing more demoralising for players or fans to hear a manager after a game saying something along the lines of there was nothing we could have done to prevent that goal/I don't know how to prevent that from happening again.

I heard a few folk say exactly this at the game Busta and seen a few comments on here about it. Watching the highlights last night though casts it in a different light. Spoony whacks the ball directly at Ripley who has it covered.Then the ball takes a swerve to Ripley's right and he is left helpless. I wouldn't blame him for that.

It needs to be raised at election time when politicians are desperate to win our votes.