norman

Nah, I agree. It only took two games last season to know we were f**ked, the 3-0 pumping from Hamilton and the lucky draw with Morton. We all should know by now what a losing team looks like, second to every ball, over-run in midfield, struggle to create and concede soft goals. You can tell fairly quickly.

I think it's a confidence issue as well. A few times in both games there have been times where he just needed to have a go and instead took an extra touch, or turned away from goal like you said. He needs to just have a go.

Good to see Lex hasn't let his complete humiliation last season put him off for long. Carrying on in the same thread where he got it so spetacularly wrong and everyone laughed at him is a bold move as well.

I honestly reckon it's far less of a punt to sign a guy who's had two bad, but unrelated injuries and missed a lot of games for that reason, than one of the "two games fit, two games out" guys like Dargo or Quinn (both of whom have been good players for us, when fit).

We weren't that bad. Certainly not bad enough to write off our entire season and all the new signings after one game. We missed 3-4 clear cut chances that unfortunately we didn't even trouble the keeper with on a couple of occasions, and that is a worry, and we lost a soft goal, where I think Buchanan lost the ball in the sun and just didn't get enough on the clearance. We were struggling under the high ball the whole first half due to the sun. I really hope we didn't win the toss, because we had all the disadvantages and none of the advantages of the low sun as it was away by the time the second half kicked off. Think the formation needs a bit of work as well. We were essentially playing a 4-2-4, but Stewart did not look comfortable at all on the right, there was too big a gap between midfield and attack, and the midfield and full back areas were being over-run when we lost the ball. I think it might be worth sacrificing one of the 4 up front, probably Stewart, and bringing Quinn into a 3 man midfield, with Smith, Morgan and one of the strikers as the front 3.

Agree, didn't think Dundee were good at all. We handed them the game by conceding soft goals and missing our own chances, a scenario we've seen all too often recently. I think Irvine and Eckersley will solidify the defence a little at least. Really gutted to miss out on Loy. He would have scored last night. In saying that though, it might come for Reilly. He missed a lot of chances last night, but the last one he took well. After a season of missing chances and getting dropped maybe he just needs that confidence. He certainly worked hard and his movement was decent.

I thought it was a bit worrying in all honesty. We were easy to score against and struggled to put away at least 5 clear cut chances of our own. I've seen this before. Dundee didn't have to work for anything they got today, any kind of cross was causing us problems. We still need another defender for me, and someone to replace Loy.

The first 6 fixtures are a real test, with most of the expected challengers at home and Morton away. We will know what end of the table we will be challenging by the end of them!

I personally would have sacked him over this. We are a club who through the years have had players and fans of all races and religions, including Muslim, and this guy is putting it right out there that he thinks these people shouldn't even be in the country, and expressing his support for a violent extremist? That's really poor, and not something we need at the club.

Mallan should go this summer. Barnsley will pay him 3 or 4 times what we are. At the moment his stock is high after a great couple of months. People say he should stay and "develop", but that's not what he needs now. He could stay and break his leg in the first game and lose another season. He's had his time at St.Mirren, and it's best for both parties that he goes now so we can prepare for the next season without him and he can test himself at a higher level.

I think people need to be a little more realistic about how much teams are prepared to pay for a 21 year old Scottish Championship player with one year left on his contract. £250k and a decent sell on clause if he happens to do well sounds about right to me. Mallan also deserves his move, and I think we do the right thing by our young players. We want youngsters and their parents to know that if you sign for St.Mirren and you are good, you will play, and if you do well enough, we will sell you to a bigger club, where you will earn a lot more money.

Does it matter? He signed 10 players, 7 of whom were first team and 3 of whom became backup players and were generally on the bench. That's an absolutely brilliant transfer window, a compete success.

It seems weird to me that people can't just enjoy the culmination of the last few months and recognise what a great job the manager has done in that time. He put together a good team, who were great to watch and scored loads of goals. He got the crowds back and he pulled us out of a truly desperate situation. Loads of people had their doubts in January. We looked dead and buried, and many people voiced that at the time, but it turned round and you are allowed to enjoy it. You don't have to keep justifying the fact that you were wrong on the internet four months ago.

Who cares about Rae and Farrell now? If they want to bitterly snipe from the sidelines then fair enough. You can't really downplay how brilliant a job Ross has done, so they are just making fools of themselves. Maybe we would have been able to plod along with those two, but I very much doubt we'd have seen guys like McGinn, Smith, Stelios, Davies or O'Brien at the club. Rory Loy might have fitted with Rae's signing policy though...

He's been immense for months. That was at least one good thing Rae did for us this season!