northstbuddie

Unfortunately it would appear that amongst the dizzy echelons of the SPL, our management team do not consider that any of our promising youngsters are good enough to mix with the greats of Scottish football. Whereas, in the Premier League in England, a number of clubs have no such hesitation in blooding young players at the top level. Against Celtic last night we were literally operating without a midfield - no tackles - no energy - no play making. And up front we are still persevering with a toothless bought-in strikeforce. St Mirren used to be a club who developed their own younger players - but that is the case no longer, despite having a good academy setup.

At last - Gogic has moved into the midfield.

Even James McFadden on Sky Sports is suggesting that the midfield should be bolstered by moving Gogic there. We have no ball winners there with this lineup.

The way scores have gone elsewhere, if we can keep the score to a reasonable level, we will not lose too much ground against our nearest rivals.

The way the rules stand at present, the ref had very little choice. It was clearly accidental but have seen similar outcomes elsewhere. Umpteen games have been spoiled by decisions like this. It's time that a 10 minute sin bin was introduced in football for incedents like this.

Can't argue against the red card even if it was accidental. That's the way VAR/Celtic(and Sevco) operate. Yet another game spoiled in this way.

It would help if we had a midfield.

O'Hara injured?

But what is there to moan about? Zilch.

Full time comments Elvis? And not your usual happy clappy response please.

Caught the first half on 'Open All Mikes' but then visitors popped in and I missed the second half. You could have blown me over with a feather when I saw the final result especially after our penalty miss. What a great result - probably the best of the season. And well done the players for rolling up their sleeves when the chips were down.

At the moment yes. But I feel the 'Elvis' psyche has finally engulfed the team.

We seem determined to drop into the bottom six.

Is that a surprise at the moment?

Missed

Penalty to Saints

No problem scoring today!

Don't want to place too much emphasis on this, but I felt Ryan Strain was the one player who made us tick during the first part od the season. He seemed to be able to get the whole team into an attacking position. What's more, Conor McMenamin, linking up with Strain, was also a real threat on the right wing (despite the fact he is left footed). Also, Stav Nahmani is the only striker who seems to run with real purpose and be able to decide when and who to pass to. Alex Greive is a trier and has earned the affection of most of the fans. I personally believe he will come right in the end (and I hope it is with us). Many of our immediate opponents appear to offer more of their young players the opportunity to develop their skills in the first team, whereas the likes of Lewis Jamieson (and others before him) is struggling to get first team experience. And as others have argued, it would be worth giving Alex Gogic a midfield role, as we seem to have plenty of cover in central defence. Hopefully Mark O'Hara will rediscover last year's form soon. All of the above points suggest there is room for some optimism in the second half of the season.

The problem is that the likes of Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs, struggled to adapt to the busy playing schedule and superior skill levels they came up against through their European experience. Whereas clubs like ourselves, Kilmarnock and even newly promoted Dundee, gained an early advantage in preparing for the home competition. Even when the Buddies were last in European competitions in the 1980s, there was less of a gulf than there is now - mainly because of Scottish clubs current obsession with an over-defensive and negative approach to the game. Having said all that, I would still love to see us compete in Euarope again, but it seems that it is not worth the effort with the prevailing Scottish tactics in vogue.

Our third place for the early part of the season probably flattered us a tad. We are about to find our true level and that is going to involve a tussle with Kilmarnock, Dundee, Hibs and Aberdeen for the 4th to 6th positions. However as seasoned Buddies fans, we are more used to scraps to avoid relegation, so why should we be carping about the current situation? Our best hope is a 6th place finish as that will not involve us in an embarrassing early exit from a European competition next season - we are far from ready to compete at that level.

Thanks for that Shull. Proud of John as well as Stephen and Paul - they are all 'made in St Mirren' and are a credit to the club we all love. But John was always something special.