the barrhead teacher

Two goals and an away point. Will take that thank ypu

Two goals and an away point. Will take that thank ypu

Two goals and an away point. Will take that thank ypu

I was asked by a Rangers season ticket holding mate before Wednesday if we had a chance of getting anything at Ibrox I told him no as our main striker cannot score easy chances.

That is the story of Obika's season every single clear cut chance he has had he has missed.

This won't only define his season but ours plenty people on here defended him last week after missing 3 sitters against Broxburn my answer to that was its not the scoring 2 out of 6 chances against a 6th tier team its the games where he gets one chance to win a tight game 1-0 and today proved that perfectly.

Would make sense. 
I've given up on Jack returning. 
Danny and Cody are on the fringes. 
We need better service to the front men. 
Doesn't improve our left back position though. 

Source close to club told me yesterday another striker, a wide player and one other targeted to come in next wee. No names though. Also said Mullen and Cooke going. Deal for Baird to sign for Ayr fell through so back to Morton until summer. How true this all is we will wait and see.

I get the point that he is our top scorer and it doesn't matter how they go in. I also get the argument that being in the right place at the right time is the essential ingredient in any decent striker. What l don't get is obika terrible first touch at times but more importantly his inept ability to hit a ball towards the goal with pace and accuracy. Someone said to me today he is always weak on his right foot. In that case use your left. There were at least two opportunities to choose his left rather than right. As l said in my earlier post l am sure he will continue to score especially against teams who open up but l cannot understand how a professional football can be so inept so often at striking a ball towards a gaping net and be called a striker

Looked forward today but it was a long watch. To be fair we always struggle against teams that defend in depth. Obika is not a striker. His three misses in the first half were woeful. Junior is hit and miss but seems more effective playing wide, also thought durmus was more effective when he switched to left side. We tried to shift them backwards and forwards and their keeper made some excellent saves second half but we waste a lot of good positions with poor crosses or trying to walk ball into net. Plus side we scored three did not concede and l feel we are a threat against teams that do not sit so deep. Two difficult games now. Finally two centre backs looked excellent obviously bearing in mind quality of opposition.

My final thought on obika is that l have had a lot of sympathy for him and others up front as the quality of service has been poor at times. That could be said of some of today's efforts but he needs to be more clinical when he has it put on a plate for him as happened today. In most league games we get very few clear cut chances and a number of times this season we have been punished for not taking these. Hopefully we can do better in the run in

My final thought on obika is that l have had a lot of sympathy for him and others up front as the quality of service has been poor at times. That could be said of some of today's efforts but he needs to be more clinical when he has it put on a plate for him as happened today. In most league games we get very few clear cut chances and a number of times this season we have been punished for not taking these. Hopefully we can do better in the run in

I get the point that he is our top scorer and it doesn't matter how they go in. I also get the argument that being in the right place at the right time is the essential ingredient in any decent striker. What l don't get is obika terrible first touch at times but more importantly his inept ability to hit a ball towards the goal with pace and accuracy. Someone said to me today he is always weak on his right foot. In that case use your left. There were at least two opportunities to choose his left rather than right. As l said in my earlier post l am sure he will continue to score especially against teams who open up but l cannot understand how a professional football can be so inept so often at striking a ball towards a gaping net and be called a striker

His goals (overhead kick apart) are a little like Lee Trevino's golf shot. Not a thing of beauty but its not how, its how many. In Trevino's case how few, in a strikers case the more the better. 

He even cannot score in the games warm ups , usually one on target out of six shots every time and the one shot he gets on target is so weak it it is easily saved , check it out at next game.
Having said that he will get 12 goals this season but only have 6 shots on goal!

I get the point that he is our top scorer and it doesn't matter how they go in. I also get the argument that being in the right place at the right time is the essential ingredient in any decent striker. What l don't get is obika terrible first touch at times but more importantly his inept ability to hit a ball towards the goal with pace and accuracy. Someone said to me today he is always weak on his right foot. In that case use your left. There were at least two opportunities to choose his left rather than right. As l said in my earlier post l am sure he will continue to score especially against teams who open up but l cannot understand how a professional football can be so inept so often at striking a ball towards a gaping net and be called a striker

Looked forward today but it was a long watch. To be fair we always struggle against teams that defend in depth. Obika is not a striker. His three misses in the first half were woeful. Junior is hit and miss but seems more effective playing wide, also thought durmus was more effective when he switched to left side. We tried to shift them backwards and forwards and their keeper made some excellent saves second half but we waste a lot of good positions with poor crosses or trying to walk ball into net. Plus side we scored three did not concede and l feel we are a threat against teams that do not sit so deep. Two difficult games now. Finally two centre backs looked excellent obviously bearing in mind quality of opposition.

Looked forward today but it was a long watch. To be fair we always struggle against teams that defend in depth. Obika is not a striker. His three misses in the first half were woeful. Junior is hit and miss but seems more effective playing wide, also thought durmus was more effective when he switched to left side. We tried to shift them backwards and forwards and their keeper made some excellent saves second half but we waste a lot of good positions with poor crosses or trying to walk ball into net. Plus side we scored three did not concede and l feel we are a threat against teams that do not sit so deep. Two difficult games now. Finally two centre backs looked excellent obviously bearing in mind quality of opposition.

Looked forward today but it was a long watch. To be fair we always struggle against teams that defend in depth. Obika is not a striker. His three misses in the first half were woeful. Junior is hit and miss but seems more effective playing wide, also thought durmus was more effective when he switched to left side. We tried to shift them backwards and forwards and their keeper made some excellent saves second half but we waste a lot of good positions with poor crosses or trying to walk ball into net. Plus side we scored three did not concede and l feel we are a threat against teams that do not sit so deep. Two difficult games now. Finally two centre backs looked excellent obviously bearing in mind quality of opposition.

On the 2nd half showing, I'd agree. 

FT 3-0

Job done, move on. Definitely a bit rusty after the break. Should have still had about 6 or 7 though, the Broxburn keeper definite man of the match.

He had about 5 fantastic saves in the second half alone. Mullen’s goal at the end was a much easier save than several he made.

Broxburn did well enough but as with most part time teams their fitness went in the second half.

Delighted for big Jon Obika to get another brace. Bizarrely he gets a lot of pelters from a section of our support. Doesn’t stop him scoring goals thankfully.

Great result today but it could have been so much easier. Obika and morias made great contributions but just don't look like strikers. Makeshift back four did really well. Cammy had a mixed game, great ball winning but poor passing. We give the ball away too easily and don't compete enough at times for 50:50 balls. However the goal was fantastic and with a true goalscorer we would have been out of sight today. Well done saints for sending everyone home happy especially given Hamilton result

Regarding the lack of a goalscorer, let's not get carried away because going back 30 years in the top league our best returns are:

Higdon, Thompson = 13
Torfason = 12
Sutton = 11
Gillies, Dorman = 10

Obika is on 5 and we're just past the halfway mark. He could well be in amongst those above at the end of the season. Mullen and Morias both have 2 from sporadic appearances and Cooke is now fit again.

We had the imcredible fortune to get 3 great years out of Thommo. If anyone else had scored that number of goals for us we'd have lost them pretty quick to another team (see M.Higdon!).

To find that elusive goalscorer is very difficult. The Saintees thought they'd solved their problems by splurging on Stevie May and it looks like they've ended up with a guy whose career is disintegrating. Would be great to get an Isma in for 20 games but we're not that badly off up front, in my opinion.

Best I have seen Durmus, consistent over the 90 mins and probably explains why he stayed on for the full match, needs to happen for me a lot more often

The best accolade I could give is that that makeshift defence at no time looked like a makeshift defence. McLoughlin was his usual reliable self. Foley was immense. P. McGinn looked just as natural in his left side defensive duties and Flynn worked his socks off to the end. The midfield were fine though we did start to lose the battle for a while, second half. Nonetheless. This was a fantastic result and could have been far more emphatic.
If I had one criticism, Obika and Morias, (and Cooke later on), worked hard and gave the Killie defence no peace and no end of problems BUT we really need someone with a better scoring ratio if we have aspirations of safely keeping our top league status.
ETA. Killie are an absolute shambles and, if they don't stop the rot, they'll be in the mire with us and the rest.

That's a real pity as he's improving all the time
Foley looked a lot better at the back and wouldn't surprise me if he stayed there
How good are McGinn and Flynn? Outstanding
I thought our midfield was poor today couldn't keep the ball.
The effort was there but the quality wasn't
A really good goal by 2 bits of quality need to get more out of Durmus
The effort,workrate and always showing by Junior and Obika was excellent
The finishing on the other hand was dreadful as we should have ran out 4 nil winners today
Centre back,left back and an Andy Dorman, Billy Stark type midfield player and we should be safe
How the feck Hamilton do it, a real downer hearing that result

I'm delighted with the 3 points but couldn't help leaving the stadium a bit exacerbated at how powder puff we are in front of goal. 19 shots, most of them into the crowd or even into the Cart in Cookes instance! 
 
Against better teams and when the scoreline is 0-0 this is no use. Even thought a slightly better saints team would have got a draw in that Celtic game.
 
It's a case of being pleased at winning but when looking at the bigger picture we're in desperate need of some quality because we are going to give up a lot of important points in the remainder of the season. If I was Goodwin I wouldn't be going in and praising the team, I'd be ripping into them for not winning more easily against a team that gave us acres of space and time.
 
As for Killie if they keep playing like that they'll be relegated.