northstbuddie

There is not a lot of disagreement amongst those posting on here but the problem seems to be that nobody at the club is facing up to the root cause of why we are in the dire position we find ourselves today, which is that over the last 2 or 3 seasons we have had a massive clearout of players of reasonable ability and replaced them with players of lesser ability, no doubt for cost cutting reasons. As has been previously pointed out by myself and quite a few others on here, the likes of McGowan, Samson, Carey, Imrie, Harkins and McGinn have gone on to other clubs and whilst they might not be setting the heather on fire, they were certainly better than what we have today and you have to ask would we be at the foot of the league if they were still at GHR. Then there are the 'loan' players that we can't afford to keep such as Dummett, Newton and Goncalves. The transfer strategy is no doubt decided by the BOD as is the choice of manager. If the current and the previous managers had been up to the task, perhaps we would have got more out of the players we have/had and also a better quality of replacement players signed. All of which answers the question "Could Anyone Do Any Better?". But the next questions are "Who?" and "When?".

Yesterday I posted that we should turn up and support the team. Today I had the misfortune to witness what I thought was one of the most inept performances I have ever seen from a St Mirren team. Some have stated that Thistle edged it today - they were not at the same game that I was at! Despite scoring only once the Jags were miles ahead of us in almost every aspect of the game. They moved the ball around with much more purpose and skill and were faster, stronger and generally fitter and bigger than our guys and yet are only average themselves by SPFL standards. Yesterday I tried to be positive - today, like the great majority on here, I find it difficult to see where our next point is going to come from. We are just not good enough for this division and we might even struggle next season in the league below us. In fact we struggled to beat Morton (who are two leagues below us) in the Renfrewshire Cup Final. It's great the difference a day makes!

I intend to be at the game and I hope I don't feel too lonely when I get there! Understandibly confidence is at a low ebb at the moment not just amongst the supporters but the players and everyone else at the club. So perhaps we should remind ourselves what a great club St Mirren is and recall the great memories most of us have over our lifetime when there were better days. St Mirren are one of the oldest clubs in Scotland and are steeped in tradition. They have provided some of the greatest footballers over the decades and I have been a bit disappointed to see so many posts on this forum seemingly 'accepting' that we are just a small provincial club with very limited prospects for the future. Let's shake off the current lethargy and pessimism and start supporting the Saints again. A negative attitude is not going to help us get out of the current situation. We seem to have been out-supported at most home games this season, so starting with tomorrow's game against Partick Thistle (another great club with a similarly impressive history) let's get behind the team and the manager and hopefully we will soon turn the corner.

In view of the fact that Jim has proven (time and time again) he is not capable of changing his ways by his own efforts, how about the club offering him counselling in anger management? That is what most responsible employers would do in this situation. On the other hand, some employers would probably have got rid of Jim long ago!

Regrettably Jim has committed one-too-many brain-dead assaults imo especially when you take into account our current desperate injury list combined with the run of horrendous results and pwerformances. The time has finally arrived when the club should seriously review Jim's future with the club. This type of behaviour should not be tolerated for a player let alone a coach. However I won't be holding my breath in light of the total apathy and ineptness now hanging over those in charge at GHR. He has been a good club servant and no doubt well respected for his playing ability and is a good guy to have in the dressing room - but only if you ignore his delinquent and imbecile behaviour on the pitch. The BBC cannot be blamed for highlighting the behaviour of someone with Jim's past record of misdemeanours.

No doubt the players were trying their best as were the management team. However supporting St Mirren is becoming very trying - even more so than usual! Surely time for reflection as to where to from here?

We are now detached from the rest in the bottom three. Success this season will be escaping the big drop but that does not seem likely at this time. Time to reflect how our standards have dropped in recent seasons. Apathy is swamping Paisley.

3-0 and Partick Thistle are 3-2 up at Hamilton. Another uplifting day.

Same old story - missed chances up front - leaky defence - no points again!!! Subs now on but we are scraping the bottom of the barrel given our injury situation.

For whatever reason (probably lack of money/good judgement) we have off-loaded a number of players at the end of the last few seasons only to try to make up lost ground as each season progressed by selecting inferior players from those they replaced. We have thus given ourselves a huge hurdle to get over and this all of our own making. Aside from the loan players we have made use of but couldn't afford to keep, we have disposed of the likes of Samson, Carey, McGowan, Harkins, Tesselaar, Imrie and McGinn. Granted not all of them achieved their full potential at St Mirren but where does the fault lie for that? At least we managed to re-sign Tess. As a result of this disruptive strategy we end up chasing our tails after the obligitory poor start to each season. The present pool of players is youthful but could develop into a useful team - given time, which we don't have. Today's game illustrated our obvious weaknesses - an attack with no natural goal scorers and a defence which lacks concentration and organisation and is easily panicked - even by the likes of Ross County! All we can do as supporters is hope that the current personnel can turn things round before it is too late. However we are where we are in the league by merit and nothing else.

An alternative in the meantime would be to bring in a defensive coach to get the best out of what we've got.

Why all the pessimism and negativity - this isn't the Referendum debate? We are already well on the way to achieving one of our principal aims for the season - GREATER CONSISTENCY. Oh for the inconsistency of last season!

Does anyone on board or the management actually care enough to even read the posts on here let alone pay heed to the views expressed by the fans? They fail to do so at their own peril!

It's difficult to say anything positive after that performance. Everything was predictable about this match - missed chances and a porous and accident-prone central defence. These issues have not been addressed and nothing is likely to change in the foreseeable future, since the management are apparently happy with the defenders they've got. We are being described on BBC Radio Scotland as one of the crisis clubs - and that is an outsiders' view! This is the time to separate the men from the boys.

Agree with your comments. The running off the ball was not good last night and that was why there were gaps between the midfield and up front and behind. One report commented on Osbourne 'trading passes' with our central defenders. I felt a bit sorry for him as it only appeared to be Cheesy and Plummer who were making themselves available.

TC's record as a manager is not good for the simple reason he has been a No2 most of his coaching career. I cannot comment on his record in Belgium as I do not know the circumstances that prevailed there (nor does anyone else on here) but even the most successful of managers without exception have had losing streaks. But you cannot judge any manager based on only 20 odd results. I seem to remember that St Mirren's results picked up when TC became DL's assistant and it was being hailed at the time as an inspired appointment. And whilst I would question the extent to which any manager can influence results, at the end of the day it is mostly up to the players on the park to produce the goods. We have had 2 good performances out of 3 league games from the players and I would echo the sentiments expressed on here by others that there are signs of improvement from last season but that relates only to performance so far and not to results. Watch this space!

Overheard Dundee fans after the game saying how lucky they were to get all 3 points. Although it was a huge improvement from the Hamilton game the worrying trend in the 3 games so far is that we have failed to score and we look vulnerable at the back - that's not a hopeful sign for the future. We still need a steady CH but that does not look as if it's going to happen despite how glaringly obvious this shortfall is. Having said that Chessy played well today but has got to take part of the blame for the sucker goal we conceded. Our "rejects" Harkins, McGowan and McGinn all played well and you have to ask is it necessary to have the musical chairs at the end of every season rather than get the best out of the players we have. For instance I cannot remember seeing Harkins play as well for us as he did today for Dundee.

For "GD" read "JG" - not thinking straight in my depressed state!

People on here are not commenting on GD based on this one game but over the past 2 seasons where he has shown a consistency for irresponsibility if it was applied to our results would guarantee us a place in the top three.

So much for the drive for greater consistency and winning 'ugly'. The only things we are consistent at are (1) loosing when we are playing well and (2) Goodwin being red-carded.

Competent performance in monsoon conditions. Unusually, John McGinn had a below par performance but otherwise the team were ok. We had a few good scoring opportunities but failed to capitalise on them. All the new boys showed promise despite the pre-season game atmosphere - unusual for a Renfrewshire Cup final game.

On the chance of giving my age away this team reflects a buddie brilliant team:- Campbell Money Cammy Murray Jim Clunie Jackie Copland Stevie Clarke Paul Lambert Tommy Bryceland Archie Gemmill John McGinn Frank McAvennie Peter Weir Subs: Billy Thomson Iain Munro Gordon McQueen Tony Fitzpatrick Billy Stark Frank McGarvey Tommy Gemmell Steven Thompson Manager: Alex Ferguson