pondsman

Our target next season should be to achieve top 6 again with a points total that makes us competitive after the split. But for the points we squandered against Aberdeen in the 2-2 game early in the season, the last loss to Livingston (0-1) and the 5-2 loss at Kilmarnock (when we were 2 goals ahead at half-time), we would be well in the fight for fourth at the moment. My hope is that achieving top 6 status two years in a row will convince players who are better than some of those we currently have to take a chance and come to St. Mirren next season. If we can manage that, we must have a good chance of achieving that target.

Totally agree with this. The draw in August has rankled with me ever since, so to beat them in such a similar way was surely karma. The team showed incredible tenacity and character to still be pushing for an equaliser in time added on, but then to find a winner took the day to a whole new level. Going above Killie in the league was the icing on the cake. Hope Infantino enjoyed his day out at the SMISA stadium. Fantastic day! COYS!!

Dons haven't won a game since Warnock took over. They were beaten by St. Johnstone last night, and Willie Miller openly criticised Warnock after that result. So, surely no better time to play them at the Smisa stadium and give them another doing like we did at Pittodrie last time we met them. And that last minute penalty they got in Paisley at the start of the season still rankles. So, as always......... COYS!!

I expected more from St. Johnstone, but we pressed them from the start and didn't let them settle into the game. Apart from scoring 2 goals, I didn't think there was much difference from last week's performance - played well in both games. Usual players were standouts - Gogic, Tanser, Mandron, Kiltie, but pretty much everyone was solid and dependable. Would like to see Elvis do a bit more. Need to consolidate now by taking 3 points on Tuesday night. Remembering how Brophy played for us, after getting 2 goals yesterday he should be off fhe score sheet for a couple of months at least. So only Murray to worry about. COYS!!

I was confident that we'd take the points from Livingston last week, but look what happened there,. so not at all sure what will happen tomorrow. Clearly Levein has improved St. Johnstone, so it looks a tougher game than Livi. Like others above, heart and head say different things. We're at home, so I'll stay optimistic and say 2-1 to Buddies, but it will be tight.

The Tony Macaroni stadium has been a tricky place for us in recent times, but given Livi's present troubles I feel confident we can take 3 points on Saturday. COYS!!

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts. I certainly get that we might continue to do well by going unnoticed and 'flying under the radar', but sometimes it just grates with me that we get overlooked. After the games I mentioned, the praise was almost like an adult patting a child on the head for doing something well before moving on to the serious business at hand. No real attempt to analyse why we've done so well in the past 18 months. Aberdeen have been up and down this season, but they've also played well and had some great results. Dundee had an excellent performance against Hearts and were unlucky not to take at least a point just 4 days before they came to Paisley. Surely these poor showings against us must have at least a little bit to do with good football and tactics by us? But no, it's all about analysing them and finding out what's gone wrong at Pittodrie or Dens Park. Grrr! BBC seem to be the worst culprits in this, with Kenny MacIntyre salivating over the next managerial casualty for weeks before the poor bloke actually gets the sack (e.g. Barry Robson and Derek Adams). Doesn't help either that Thommo is now on salary at the BBC and has to rein in his enthusiasm for the Buddies.

In 3 recent games, against Aberdeen, Hibs and Dundee, we have scored 8 goals and kept 3 clean sheets. In each game media comment has almost all been about the beaten team ('very poor game from X', 'Y were strangely lacklustre', 'Z's poorest game of the season'). Analysis on radio, on TV and in the newspapers has focused on these poor performances with various explanations offered. However there has been no mention of the common factor in these games - good performances by St. Mirren. Very few of the pundits, analysts or columnists seem to have grasped that the poor performances have been due to our good play. Very disappointing, given that we have been in the top 6 all season. Surely we deserve a bit more credit than we're getting.

Excellent performance and result. Usual suspects played well, Gogic, Boyd-Munce, Mandron, Kiltie(apart from his shooting). Kwon has now settled into his role, great pass through the Dundee defence for Mandron in first half. Disappointing to hear Docherty complaining about the pitch. I couldn't tell if he was right from the TV, but as always, it's the same for both teams. Statistics tell the real story about his team's performance; 4 shots on goal, none on target according to the BBC. Three vital points which puts some daylight between us and Dundee. As others have noted, we have a decent chance of picking up points in the next few games, so, as always..... COYS!!

I see ppv is available for this game. Excellent for fans like me, who can't get to Paisley midweek.

Due to circumstances I was forced to follow today's game on BBC radio. Well done to the lads. Sounds as if they all had a good game. Also, credit to the travelling fans. They must have surely enjoyed what they saw. I think we should petition the BBC NOT to send Michael Stewart to any of our games from now on. Every report he sent was all about how poor Hibs were. He complained over and over about the penalty we got. We understood that he thought it was soft the FIRST time he mentioned it! Also, he stumbled over the names of our new players - clearly hadn't taken the time to check them out. Finally, on Mandron's goal, it was fully 25 seconds into his report before he told us which team had scored. Abysmal!

Just as I suggested this morning. Absolutely f*****g brilliant! COYS!

Given the weather forecast, credit to all those travelling to Pittodrie. Hope everyone gets there and back safely. Let's sneak in, nick a point (or more) and sneak back out again before they realise what's happening! COYS!!

The post by Balmullo Bud pretty much sums up my view. I'd just add that SR's post-match comments were treading a fine line between giving an honest summary of the game and trying to keep our players' confidence up. He mentioned the gaps in quality and budget between the sides and indicated that he was looking for one of the strikers to start scoring regularly. Gave the impression that he was revolving the starting strikers to see if someone could seize the jersey, as has been mentioned on here. On to Wednesday and we need to get a big crowd into the ground, as Killie will surely bring a decent support given their recent run of form. So, as always....... COYS!!

Agreed. But even if Kettlewell is still in charge on Saturday, there's still the old custom of generous St. Mirren giving a team in difficulties a hand to break out of a bad run. We've seen it all too often over the years. So, no complacency, a repeat of last Saturday's performance, everybody in good form and playing at full blast please. COYS!!

'Pessimism' and 'pessimistic' are perhaps too strong, but I certainly think we will travel with a degree of apprehension tonight. I agree with W6er that current form is a better indicator than league placings. Not so long ago I would have said we should collect 6 or 7 points at least from our next 3 games (St Johnstone, Ross County, Motherwell), but now I have to drop that estimate to 4 or 5 points. The first 2 teams have new managers and seem to have turned a corner. Like us, Motherwell are on a bad run and continue to struggle. This is SR's first real challenge of the season. He needs to get the players out of the rut and back to the form we showed in early season. Can he do it? I sincerely hope so. So......... COYS!

Poor performance yesterday. Players slow to react , Dundee first to every loose ball and much sharper in possession. No point naming individual players , it was just bad all round. I'm sure the players will know that without needing to be told. There were signs of something similar against Hibs on Wednesday, but we managed to scrape a point out of that game. Maybe the illness in the camp had something to do with it, but well below the standard of play we've become used to. The break next weekend should give everyone time to recover from any illness and put the required work in on the training ground to get this out of their system. As supporters (the clue is in the name) we should remember that these are the players who have put the club in its present strong position in the league and give them a chance to put things right. Next two games (Livi and Ross County) are eminently winnable, so let's wait till then before barracking them about their performance. COYS!!

Yes, PPV is a godsend for those of us who can't travel a distance midweek to be at the Smisa stadium. COYS!!

Let's not get carried away. Yes, the Ibrox lot played poorly last night, but the Limassol team played some slick football and thoroughly deserved to win. This is St. Mirren we're talking about, and, as we all know, Buddies can very easily make an a**e of a good-looking prospect. No doubt the opposition will have a real go at us on Sunday to get their supporters back on side. I'd take a draw right now. That would keep us 3 points ahead of the Ibrox crew, solidly in second place. More than that would be a real bonus. So, COYS!!

Very scrappy game, probably due to the dodgy surface, as others have noted. Thought Gogic was still good, though not up to his recent standard which has been outstanding. Given the surface and the rain we were fortunate to come away with a point and no serious injuries. Like others, I'd have taken a point before the game. Next week will be a different story - at home, on a good surface and facing a team which got turned over on their own turf yesterday and quite possibly without a manager. So.... COYS!!

Another great day at the SMISA stadium. I'm getting used to this. Fabulous performance from the whole squad, including the subs! Stand-outs for me were Hemmings (when required), Gogic (Lawrence who? Liam who?), Strain (again!) and Tanser (again!). Better than previous games as we actually 'won' by a few goals - it's just that the officials and VAR only saw one. As has been said by others here (and even Sportscene pundits) Mandron's effort should have stood. As for Greive's tap-in, I hope the VAR officials had a better view than we got on TV last night. It was impossible to tell from the shot we saw on screen whether he was offside or not. Tricky week coming up, but confidence is high (we've won at Easter Road already this season) and we owe Killie one after the defeat at the end of last season. So...... COYS!!

Stephen Robinson being linked with the Hibs job after Johnson's sacking. Only to be expected, I suppose. Funny business being a football manager these days. If your manager loses a few games, he gets the sack, but if he puts together a winning streak, another club comes along and takes him away. So how does a club like ours achieve stability and then continuity of performance?

Wasn't able to attend yesterday. Had to make do with PPV. Bitter sweet feeling, having taken 7 points from 9 in our 3 league games, but knowing it should have been 9 from 9. Brilliant performance from every Buddie who took the field. Completely outplayed Aberdeen for the whole game. A joy to watch. Hemming's mistake for the first goal, I'm afraid, but he has credit in the bank for his previous penalty save and general performances so far. Fine run by Mandron and link-up with Greive for our second goal. As for VAR, I tend to side with the other 'oldies' that it has spoiled the flow of the game. Everything has already been said about the Aberdeen penalty, I think, but who decides the amount of stoppage time - the referee or the VAR official? If we hadn't had 8 minutes added on, the penalty would never have been given. A nice OF draw at Ibrox next week and a win for us at Livi would put us top of the table. Feels really strange, as a Saints fan, to be thinking that way, but as always..... COYS!!

The Dons finished last season very strongly under Robson, but they haven't started so well this season, though one of their games was against Celtic. Sunday's game comes after a trip to Europe for them, so I think we have a decent chance of getting at least a draw. But we must play for 90 minutes, and not let them into the game in the second half as we did against Hibs and Motherwell. COYS!!

Was feeling confident about this game until I saw Motherwell's new guy, Biereth, on Sportscene on Sunday. On loan from Arsenal, big strong lad playing up front, scored a fine goal at the weekend and will need to be kept quiet by our defence. Today I hear that O'Hara is ruled out for this game and another two as well, so not feeling nearly so confident now. Still, as always..... COYS!!