northstbuddie

Hardie on for 90 mins? What's happened to Shankland?

Hutton our best player today.

If only we could manage another shot at goal!

If only we could manage a shot at goal.

Keep the heid folks - now's not the time for negativity, sarcasm and despair. Most are agreed that the team has to be better than this - the potential is there for improvement. This is hopefully our lowest ebb at present and the only direction of travel has to be upwards. Whoever is appointed manager has a huge task on his hands and we, the fans, have a huge part to play in encouraging the players to turn things around on the park - the new manager can only do so much! Now's not the time to destroy the confidence of the players with bitter criticism - they must know they are under-performing and they don't need us to tell them.

Team news?

As against incessantly?

My apologies Shull - I thought the malaise of the game in Scotland has a relevance to St Mirren and explains why we are today partly reliant on now-defunct Rangers trainees and ex players getting us out of the mess we are currently in. Silly me - dodgy tannoys and strip designs are obviously of greater importance to our club's longterm welfare and should justifiably be prioritised in this thread.

Second episode is being shown this week - can hardly wait!!! In this in-depth study (one hour long) into 'Scotland's Game', the so-called experts failed to even mention St Mirren, Motherwell, Kilmarnock, Dunfermline, Queens Park, Raith Rovers, Falkirk, Morton, Parick Thistle, Hamilton Accies, etc etc. In fact they mentioned only five teams - Celtic, the now-defunct Rangers, and then coming a very poor second Dundee United, along with Dundee, Aberdeen, Hibs and Hearts. Whilst so-called religious sectarian prejudices can be attributed to a great extent to the dominance of the former 'Old Firm' in Scottish football over the past century, this has been fuelled and sponsored by the Scottish press. Can you name a national daily (tabloid or broadsheet) in Scotland that does not devote at least 80% of its football coverage to the cancerous twosome? Then they have the cheek to pose the question "what's gone wrong with the game in Scotland?". The simple truth is that only Celtic and the now-defunct Rangers count and every other club is irrelevant and of no consequence.

Also fondly remembered for sorting out so-called hardman Tam Forsyth of Rangers at Love Street in a '50-50 tackle'. These were the days when we had a team worth supporting!

Nothing is impossible if you have enough self belief.

Are we being stifled by "keeping our shape"? Rae complained about our lack of shape when he took over but this seems to have been achieved at the expense of a functioning midfield. We do not appear to have players prepared to run off the ball into a position to receive a pass. Come to think of it - we do not appear to have a midfield who can pass a ball.

Says a lot about our midfield this afternoon when Langfield showed the best bit of skill in that area of the park when he sold a beauty of a dummy on Quitongo just a few yards from the centre line!

Nothing in this performance to suggest that we will finish higher than mid table - we were fortunate to get a point today. As has been pointed out by many already, we have no-one in midfield able to control and direct the play. Someone said that we are too reliant on Mallan for creativity - maybe that's the problem. Whatever Stevie's strengths are they apparently do not include creativity and midfield guile. Perhaps the reason we seem to persist with the long ball through the middle is that we have no midfield to play through. Sadly, Morton were the much more competent all-round football team and have a much better chance of competing for a top-four place than us - based on today's performance. However, it is too early in the season to be making sweeping forecasts and at least we now have some more attacking options compared to last season. If we could just sort out the midfield...

Yes the manager and players are the ones who produce the goods on the park, but the fans have not covered themselves in glory for the past couple of years or so in getting behind the team. A recent example of this was when a few dozen Ayr United fans drowned out the St Mirren support despite the fact that they were outnumbered by about 10 to 1.

I agree that Kelly was never that good defensively but the present full backs are no better defensively. My opinion as against your "fact"?

That's simple - by comparing his performances in central defence/midfield with what is on offer in the current squad. The present fullbacks are no better defensively and certainly lack Kelly's attacking/creative skills. We are particularly lacking in creativity in central midfield at the moment and do seem incapable of controlling that area of the park. Kelly is better there than what we have got in the current squad. I think it was more than Kelly who had "run out of steam" last season.

It was patently obvious to most fans that Sean was/is better than a lot of players that were retained or brought in - we possibly assumed that there was something going on behind the scenes that explained the baffling decision to let him go. As previously stated by many on here he would have contributed much to the Saints' cause either at centre half or left midfield. Best of luck at Wimbledon Sean.

The problem with your post in attaching blame to the SNP is that the excessive overtime payments to consultants applies even more in England. You obviously don't let the facts get in the way of your arguments Stuart! There again, maybe in your eyes, it's also Nicola's fault for the overtime payments in England. The UK separatists really are in a world of their own.

I don't disagree with your comments but I did think that Hutton showed more method and purpose in central midfield. He looks as if he has the potential to organise things there which is something we have been sorely lacking since the departure of McLean and McGinn, with the possible exception of Goodwin. (However, Morgan's performance last night surpassed anything I witnessed from these two and I rated McLean and McGinn highly.) Mallan is a different kettle of fish from Hutton and while he is not yet the finished article he has the potential to excel as an attacking midfielder rather than a midfield general.

On the other hand, Paul McGowan was at the match tonight. Perhaps a swap deal might be in the offing????

Make that two.

I did not like the 1987 strip, or the famous bib strip that followed. Come to think of it, I have never liked anything other than simple black and white stripes. Then like Shull, I am just an old fashioned traditionalist.

If this isn't a windup, it's possibly a "belter" but it's certainly not a St Mirren strip - unless of course you agree that anything goes when designing your 139 years old club's strip.

The 'Little England mentality' has got its way. What a sad and tragic day for the UK, Europe but especially Scotland who are once again getting a dose of UK democracy in action.