northstbuddie

The quality of football on display was junior standard - and St Mirren were arguably the poorer of the 2 teams. Even St Johnstone were better than these two. It was brutal to watch and not a good advert for Scottish football. Thank goodness the BBC (as is their practice and policy) only show English games throughout the UK, and thus saved our embarrassment.

There seems to be general consensus re lack of creativity and lack of basic passing skills. I thought this was apparent on Saturday against the bottom team in the league, who showed more creative link up play and running off the ball. I made this point on here on Saturday but was slagged off by some. St Johnstone had Elliot Watt (No44) controlling the centre of midfield with the aid of his team mates running creatively off the ball into spaces and also ex Buddie Graham Carey chipping in with his pin-point defence splitting passing (similar to John McGinn in that regard). Fraser Taylor has the potential to play a similar role to Watt but only with the cooperation of his team mates. Noone else at present offers that option.

I must have apparently.

We have a team full of huffers and puffers - plenty of effort and team spirit - but as SR admits himself lacking in creativity. This includes basic passing to each other and running off the ball. I thought St Johnstone were a class above us in that regard. As someone else pointed out, James Scott, when he came on, was significantly more of a threat than our other regular strikers. We will have to pay more attention to quality and skill if we wish to improve.

It is now becoming more obvious that we are headed for a relegation battle (ie 11th) rather than a top 6 finish. The sooner we accept this fact, the easier it will be for our state of mind. We should use the rest of the season to blood our younger more talented players in the first team - and not just for 5 minutes per game.

We had the effort - but the quality was sadly missing. Mooney and Penman look to have more quality than most of their team mates, but don't get the chance to show it for more than 5 or 10 minutes. Fitzpatrick had the quality and was made captain at the age of 17 by our greatest manager in histoy, but perhaps Robinson sees something which we don't see, in the tried and tested old timers who fall short week after week.

Update to the above. The second plus point is that we don't support the Dons!

In the midst of all this negativity - one plus point from today - we surely can't play any worse than this! It wasn't just the performance of the players - it was the team selection (4 central defenders) and tactics (if we had any).

We have not played worse than this so far this season and come away with at least a point. The omens aren't good for the second half, especially since Killie are apparently our bogey team! Playing with effectively 4 central defenders doesn't help.

Both clubs have apparently confirmed an interest in signing Mooney, which means in the event of a biiding war, we are unlikely to resist a suitable incoming offer in these circumstances, and with the arrival of Oseni, we have a surplus of strikers - so someone has to give way. However, the club might surprise me and hold on to Evan and offload someone else.

Looks like we are clearing the way to sell off Mooney for a song to either Newcastle United or Arsenal!

The reality is that there is very little dividing the teams in this league apart from the sectarian-driven gruesome twosome. The January transfer dealings could determine the final placings. Also the likes of Kenny, Penman and Mooney have to be given more game time to allow them to develop at St Miren.

We have played a lot worse and won. Our defending let us down yesterday but there were still a number of plus points - not the least of which was how our academy duo performed - possibly showing more composure on the ball than some of their elder team mates.

When will the disputed VAR penalty even things up for County?