northstbuddie

Us long standing fans seem to forget this could be as good as it gets....we have finished 3rd once in my 50 years supporting.  We have won 1 SC and first time winners of LC....for the 3rd season in a row we are not in any danger and pushing for Europe....crowds are up we have a great manager and 7 international players to call on... bloody hell this is good.  . Anyone remember us being 10 points adrift of 9th in Championship a mere 8 years ago... in that time Hearts and united have been relegated
 
Happy days.... so enjoy please

Celtic being outplayed but 2 goals up.
Good fortune rather than quality the reason.

Great performance in first half from the Buddies.
Celtic are lucky not to be 2 or 3 goals behind let alone 1 goal up.
When will they get their first penalty? Answers on a postcard.

Celtic being outplayed but 2 goals up.
Good fortune rather than quality the reason.

Celtic being outplayed but 2 goals up.
Good fortune rather than quality the reason.

Celtic being outplayed but 2 goals up.
Good fortune rather than quality the reason.

Great effort and performance (in the second half) - congratulations to the whole team - everyone gave their all.
Were many of our regular posters at the game - I was in Inverness and had to settle for PPV.
One stat that does not give me pleasure - we are only at page 2 after such an important result.
I'm assuming it's not because of the team's performance - more disenchantment with the forum.

The only thing wrong with Baccus is he is prone to lapses in concentration. His overall play is excellent. He will be sorely missed when he goes. Cannot believe the stick he gets. 

The media, in general, understandably focus on attracting large audiences.
This does not just apply to Sky, but also to the BBC (who should show more public responsibility as a public broadcasting authority), and other TV channels.
Newspapers also follow the same line and that is why I stopped buying The Herald years ago. The ugly sisters get 10 times more coverage than the remainder of the clubs put together.
Small countries like Scotland suffer as a result of this commercially-driven mindset.
Unless there is a change in this attitude, things will continue to decline in Scotland.
How to change attitudes in the media is the big question we face.

The lack of youth players getting a chance in the first team is concerning and it's pretty much been the case since Robinson came in. Whether that's because he doesn't rate them or they aren't ready/good enough I'll leave for others to debate because I know very little about the situation in the academy (not that lack of knowledge usually stops people having arguments online). Does anyone who knows about our youth teams know who is likely to be the next to come through? It is a bit of a surprise we found ourselves with no one to put in midfield on Tuesday, or have been playing guys out of position at right wing back rather than giving a young guy a shot. I'm guessing the guys we have in those positions either aren't deemed ready or are out on loan.
You'd have to imagine Reid and whoever we lost to Burnley (apologise, forgot his name) would have been involved by now if they had hung around. It's probably the first time we've been victims of losing kids who have barely kicked a ball for the first team because a bigger club is happy to spend relatively little in the hope they come good. There's not really much else we could have done with them. Henderson would maybe have been a bit more involved had he stayed and I'd have liked us to keep him and let someone like Olusanya go if we could find a taker, even if he has improved, but he obviously wanted more regular first team football, which he wasn't going to get with our system - and seemingly hasn't at County because of injury.
I think some of the kids got some game time in the League Cup. Since then, we've rarely been in a position to chuck the young guys on for some experience late on without any pressure to do something because most of our league games have been tight. I did find it odd we didn't put Jamieson on against St Johnstone (and we made a number of subs at 3-0), however he then got brought on against Hibs and has had some game time since then. Apart from him, I don't think we've had that many young players on the bench - I think Lennon was on it for one league game and away on loan shortly after.
It's a shame as since we sold Erhahon - and Robinson deserves a lot of credit for his progression, even though he was well established in the first team when he arrived - we haven't really had one of our youth products getting regular first team games and I can't remember the last time we have been in that position for as long as this. We had a great run of midfielders and you can draw a pretty much unbroken line from Erhahon back as far as you care to go - I'd traced it back to McLean, then remembered Stephen McGinn - and he broke through at pretty much the same time we sold Lappin (with Shuggy there the whole time!). And that's not forgetting guys in other positions who did well for us like Naismith, McAusland, Baird and Kelly, who were all good players even if they didn't get big moves.
Hopefully Taylor will get his shot, either this season or next. Going by his comments on the Open Goal podcast, Robinson really rates him - however given he joked he'd have liked to loan him to Barcelona for experience due to his style of play I don't think he would have been the answer on Tuesday night!

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.

The lack of genuine opportunities for our academy players is a concern for me.  Yes one or two get a few cameos but precious few see any decent runs in the team.  
The model of bringing in “underperforming” players from lower leagues and hoping to turn them round to be sold for a profit seems to be to the detriment of our own youngsters. 

My grandson is only 5 years old - so we're not at that stage yet!
I was just reflecting on the fact that there was no one from the academy who featured last night and in recent months only 2 or 3 have had fleeting opportunities to display their talents in the first team. Even Jim Goodwin gave youth more of an opportunity to shine.

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.

My grandson is only 5 years old - so we're not at that stage yet!
I was just reflecting on the fact that there was no one from the academy who featured last night and in recent months only 2 or 3 have had fleeting opportunities to display their talents in the first team. Even Jim Goodwin gave youth more of an opportunity to shine.

My grandson is only 5 years old - so we're not at that stage yet!
I was just reflecting on the fact that there was no one from the academy who featured last night and in recent months only 2 or 3 have had fleeting opportunities to display their talents in the first team. Even Jim Goodwin gave youth more of an opportunity to shine.

It looked great and I guess it is all in the context of the opposition.  Here's hoping he gets tested more and still makes that kind of contribution.

It would help if we had a midfield.

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.

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.

Just watched the highlights. Fantastic result.
Fantastic timing of a run by the captain for the opening goal.
The penalty? Shocker. Lack of confidence evident. Confident Mark would have scored. Over to Kiltie for the spot kicks but full support for O'Hara. None of this dropping him for his own good crap. He's out Captain. Support him through this dip in form. It's the same player who had us third in the league for so long.
The game was good viewing. We were clinical in attack and stoic at the back. Yet another great goalkeeping performance. 
Fully deserved all three points. COYS

Penalty to Saints