St Mirren Away

[CoF]

Happy with the point but slightly dissapointed in the performance. Lack of chances was the most frustrating part however I think credit has to be given to St Mirren in that sense. They were pish on the ball but off the ball were very well organised, got plenty of men back and gave us absolutely no space at all, as a result it's no surprise we didn't have any clear cut chances.

[mikeecee]

Just in from paisley. We wanted to pass the ball into the net in the second half. Humprey should probably been pulled 15-20 minutes earlier as he couldn't get passed the boy Carey (who was probably the best player for them and arguably on the pitch) and when he did cross the ball he couldn't beat the man at the near post! Craigan was getting bossed by Higdon especially in the first half.

 

But yet again the ref takes the spoils! I have no idea what game MacDonald seen at times. Plus he nearly set one up for them

 

Think the point was a fair result but they must be kicking themselves for the three chances they had.

[tree]

Happy with the point and pleased some players were rested with Saturday in mind as I thought I heard a few comments on the radio about a couple of our players looking tired.

 

After Hearts, the players get the chance of some well earned R&R.

[steelboy]

just on the ref i thought a few of the decisions our fans got worked up about were correct. the one with forbes about 35-40 near the halfway line was definitely a foul by him even although he got took out. the one with sutton near the end was for a jersey pull which sutton is very fortunate he doesn't get pulled up for more often (like his brother) and the one with jennings and johnston just before half time was never a corner but jennings booted johnston's leg before the ball went out so it should have been a free kick anyway.

 

 

two he definitely did get wrong were the one with the centrhalf charging into humphrey and the one were the boy jumped at o'brien both in the second half down our end. i think some people are being OTT about his overall performance though. there's no point moaning about the ref when your own boss isn't bothered about winning the game.

[gdalli10]

pish game, pish first half tactics, pish ref just pish. don't know what else i was expecting paisley is a magnet for pish. can't say im going back there any time soon.

 

ack well another clean sheet i guess. all will be forgiven if we beat FHW on saturday

[andrew weston]

that was really average and freezing. got some reaction and my match report here.

 

http://twitter.com/PressSport

[Tweed]

I actually think some folk are being overly negative with the performance. There were periods in that game when we buzzed around that box for a long time and whilst people might argue we were trying to walk it in, the problem was we had nowhere to shoot because St Mirren had bodies everywhere as tends to happen when you play ten men behind the ball like they did for the first 80 minutes of that game. We just lacked that final cutting edge to create 'the chance'. But to say we were not playing to win the game is mince. Their organisation forced us into a slower game than we have seen in some other games but apart from the last ten minutes we coped pretty well and seldom gave the ballaway.

 

Would agree that we did not see Coke and Forbes enough and both were rightly hooked.

 

Dorman did us a favour with his two misses. Not the best stand for seeing the other end but they did look gilt edged. And a good clearance on the line at full time as well.

 

Didn't think Dougie McDonald had a great game tonight. I am one of the few who thought he did exceptionally well in the Old Firm game but he just has too many wrong calls, especially from decisions where two guys jump for the ball. The corner decision right on half time - shocking and he gave us a free kick when Reynolds had someone in a headlock and he gave them a couple, both of which should have been ours (one on Humphrey and one on O'Brien). To his credit though you could see him talking to players on both sides throughout explaining himself and keeping his cards in his pocket.

 

Oh and to the guy who shouted 'Humphrey you're too fucking slow' I think you'll find the pass was too fucking heavy! But you have me a chuckle at the time.

[steelboy]

we were very, very lucky to get away with a point. the bbc says 58% possession for us but i don't remember gallacher making a save and st mirren had 4 stick on chances. if we had came away being beat by 2 or 3 we could have had no complaints.

 

at halftime it actually felt as if gannon had sneaked back into the dug out as it was very reminiscent of the cup game. again it was disorganised from back to front: humphrey had no idea how to play as a striker, forbes didn't seem to know who to mark at any time and everyone just seemed to forget that hateley was actually there for the entire first half. we're never going to get anything out of any match unless we put 100% in and it just wasn't there tonight from the manager down. mcglinchey on rather than the juke was the big sign that we weren't bothered about taking three points, lets hope we don't end up regreting it.

 

on the positive side it's a another point on the board and keeps us ticking over and unbeaten. i remember saying similar things after a much more boring 0-0 at love street almost exaclty two years ago and we ended up third. i thought reynolds, ruddy and jenno were good again and the main bright spot was saunders who looked refreshed and ready to contribute to the run in.

[gary_411]

Could've seen that coming, shitey 0-0, St Mirren were actually better than usual but still not really that interested in football although neither were we to be honest. SOme decent play but far too many below par performances especially first half. The ref was shite again, some of the decisions were baffling, but nothing major and we can only really blame ourselves for not gettin the 3 points but St Mirren should be more annoyed at not getting the win than us if I'm honest. Onwards and upwards and hopefully a wee (or big) win on saturday will get us pushing up the table! MTW!

[Neil]

Anyone know how many we took through? Looked busy to me but thought I heard it announced only 259?

[steelboy]

Anyone know how many we took through? Looked busy to me but thought I heard it announced only 259?

 

was it not 509?

[LadywellToi]

How often do you ever hear a manager give an interview like that?

 

Can understand his honesty and reasons, however I'd be a little more aggrieved if I'd paid good money to see the experiment.

 

Clean sheet and a point against our bogie team of late.

[Onthefringes]

just on the ref i thought a few of the decisions our fans got worked up about were correct. the one with forbes about 35-40 near the halfway line was definitely a foul by him even although he got took out. the one with sutton near the end was for a jersey pull which sutton is very fortunate he doesn't get pulled up for more often (like his brother) and the one with jennings and johnston just before half time was never a corner but jennings booted johnston's leg before the ball went out so it should have been a free kick anyway.

 

 

two he definitely did get wrong were the one with the centrhalf charging into humphrey and the one were the boy jumped at o'brien both in the second half down our end. i think some people are being OTT about his overall performance though. there's no point moaning about the ref when your own boss isn't bothered about winning the game.

We've heard this before...

[KirkySuperSub]

Sitting in the main stand last night in front of Chris Woods and Chris Houghton who were both sitting together.

The St. Mirren fans sitting next to us were telling us Houghton was up to watch Dorman. Noticed he left very shortly after he missed his second sitter!

 

Felt we were VERY lucky to come away with a point. Two aforementioned sitters spurned by Dorman and two excellent saves from Ruddy kept us in it. IMO we were never at the races for most of the game. Although I predicted a 2-0 win last night in this thread, I was getting more worried as the game drew closer, I said before the game to the other guys I was with I would have settled for a point right there.

[johnstone]

Can't really grumble at a point away from home if we played shite.

 

This must be a record this season for nil-nil draws for one team.

 

Also look at it this way we will now never see St Mirren again until next season, unless they get relegated, but can't see that happening.

 

EDIT - we have had six 0-0 draws this season.

[Big Stall]

I was in the main stand as well lastnight, at least I got a padded seat and comp ticket for my troubles. From where we were sitting we had a great view of the 3 gilt edged chances St Mirren missed. We were really lucky to get out of jail. While we could maybe say we shaded the match in terms of play, we certainly didnt have chances like that. We could easily be sat here lamenting a 3-0 pumping.

 

At the end of the day though, we are not the old firm. A point away from home is not 2 points dropped. If we keep winning our home games and drawing away, we will be in a great position come the end of the season.

 

Mon the 'well and lets hump the FHW!

[WellTiliDie]

A good point gained considering how badly we played and the 3 or 4 clear cut chances that they should of scored from. If we win on Saturday that's 7 points out of 9 for the 3 games which i would of taken this time last week.

 

Forbes is mince and should be playing in the lower leagues. The amount of times he left Hammell with 2 St Mirren players on him in the first half was unbelievable and his passing was poor. I thought Coke did ok going forward but half the time he doesn't look interested.

 

In the second half we looked a bit a hungrier but never really got anywhere. Some of the simple passes that were going astray were abysmal, Craigan,Saunders and Hammell the 3 that stick out. Humphrey could do with trying to cut inside at times as all he seemed to do was try to take the ball down the line at every opportunity and get nowhere.

[Yir Elder]

A good point in the circumstances, considering how hard the team have hard to work in the last two games, four points is a great haul.

 

Very surprised we lined up 3-5-2 as it failed big time in the cup tie, but thankfully this time we escaped unscathed. Second half was much better overall although they did miss a few decent chances. We seemed reluctant to pull the trigger in front of goal, and if we had gone in front I think one goal would've been enough.

 

The positives are another clean sheet, another point, moving the unbeaten run to eleven games and some of the squad getting a wee rest. If we can beat the jambos on Saturday it'll have been a superb week, and then the players can have a fortnight's rest.

[KirkySuperSub]

I think it's a bit harsh to call Forbes 'mince', but I do agree he had a poor game and that he left Hammell exposed on a number of occasions. To be honest, I thought Humphrey was pretty poor last night. I don't know how many times he beat his man but his crosses were fruitless or he just didnae want to take the shot on. The guy I was sitting next to said he reminds him of Ted McMinn, can beat umpteen players then scalf the cross into row Z.

[Neil]

Forbes played like a headless chicken last night, had no idea where he was meant to be playing and this put the midfield and defence under pressure as he seemed content to just chase the ball like an 11 year old playing football in the playground.

[Andy_P]

Anyone know how many we took through? Looked busy to me but thought I heard it announced only 259?

 

 

was it not 509?

 

I thought he said 590 for what its worth.

 

As for the game I felt it was a point gained rather than two lost given the clear cut chances they had. Would have taken that prior to kick-off so wasn't unhappy at the point.

 

Eyebrows were raised a little with the team and formation we started with but to be fair in a defensive sense before it was changed at the break, it was only in the last couple of minutes of the first half that they threatened.

 

It's not a set up I'd hope to see as the norm but I don't think it should be dismissed out of hand completely. With more practice at it I think there's a place for it in certain games or at least in certain stages of games where a bit more solidity is required.

 

Where the formation did fall down was going forward where we offered very little. Could understand the theory of trying to utilise Humphrey's pace but it never really happened and to be honest had he managed to burst through on goal I wouldn't have a huge amount of confidence that he would be able to finish. I still see him as a very raw with much work to be done when he gets into the final third both finishing and crossing.

 

Strangely it seemed like it took St Mirren to bring two of their more renowned threats on in Mehmet and Dorman before we began to look a bit more threatening ourselves though we still rarely if ever tested Gallagher to any great degree.

 

But all in all, quite content to come home without us having lost.

[decorator]

get their left back signed please

[LadywellToi]

Over Hammell?

[fatcalf]

Over Hammell?

Quality cover.

[decorator]

Over Hammell?

yes