gc_SMFC

If his coaching ability is what it was, he's a dead cert to get approached by us when we look for a new manager...

He would be an awful appointment. We never be looking at someone who was stripped of their coaches responsibilities during one of our worst seasons.

Passion doesn't make a good player or manager.

If his coaching ability is what it was, he's a dead cert to get approached by us when we look for a new manager...

He would be an awful appointment. We never be looking at someone who was stripped of their coaches responsibilities during one of our worst seasons.

Passion doesn't make a good player or manager.

f**king floated balls. Mallan has been attending the Gary Brady school of sand wedge corners. They are f**king useless, they mean our players have to generate all the power, and allows the opposition to attack the ball.

f**king floated balls. Mallan has been attending the Gary Brady school of sand wedge corners. They are f**king useless, they mean our players have to generate all the power, and allows the opposition to attack the ball.

4th is still achievable, but the entire squad need a massive awakening. They can't get away with some of the basic failures they are repeating. 
Our defence is all over the place, a lack of communication and basic positioning is evident,any defender worth anything should be capable of at least displaying some awareness of what's happening around them.
Our midfield players are not good enough to decide they don't have to do the tracking back and defending that they are required. Hutton, was the only one closing players, and making himself available for out balls, it's not good enough. Mallan especially needs to screw his head, if he's any idea of playing at a higher level. He's no where near good enough, that his goals alone will get him there.
We need to give our strikers half a chance. Passing the ball across the pitch, then turning back only allows the defence to get organised. Big floated balls into the box, help no one.
This isn't stuff that a manger should be telling players, it' stuff they should know even for the most basic levels of football.
 

f**king floated balls. Mallan has been attending the Gary Brady school of sand wedge corners. They are f**king useless, they mean our players have to generate all the power, and allows the opposition to attack the ball.

Irvine had three players behind him. Hardly his fault none of them could defend

Apart from the fact it was Webster. You're correct.

I think you've mistaken Irvine for Webster. Read the play had half an hour head start and still couldn't get there.

Pretty clear you don't like Irvine but stop conjuring up ridiculous excuses to slaughter a player.

I expect the QotS supporters will be in the West stand, if the club have been told not to expect a sizeable away support.
Another game i'll have to listen to the radio while I'm away. I expect us to win, no idea why.
 
3-1 St. Mirren. Sutton, Hutton and Shankland with Dobbie scoring for them.

I expect the QotS supporters will be in the West stand, if the club have been told not to expect a sizeable away support.
Another game i'll have to listen to the radio while I'm away. I expect us to win, no idea why.
 
3-1 St. Mirren. Sutton, Hutton and Shankland with Dobbie scoring for them.

"a thug"

Care to qualify that allegation?

A new nadir in the recent history of BAWA to label our manager "just a thug". All for what, recommending someone who has a grand total of 4 league games experience as a No.1. Jack Ross might well turn out to be a really good manager. He's signed a lot of ex-team mates and ex-Alloa-players-who-didn't-make-it-elsewhere and he's done brilliantly in the cups and league in the first 2 months of his career as a manager. I'd suggest that recipe he has used at Alloa may not be just the ticket for seeing St Mirren promoted. Let's see what happens if Alloa lose a game or two or their confidence takes a knock or they have a few injuries and suspensions to deal with.
For the record, I have no idea if Rae will turn out to be capable of leading us to promotion or not. I think last season he turned a poor squad who were easily beaten into one able to grind out results well enough to become one of the form teams in the 2nd half of the season while still being dull and uninspiring to watch. I think over the close season he took the view that maybe 7 or 8 of last year's team that finished the season could be regular 1st team players and do a job at this level and to that he has brought in Morgan from the U20's, Walsh and Hardie, Sutton, Hutton, MacKenzie and Gordon to add competition, versatility and options to change things. Maybe he should have got rid of more players than he did in the summer, or maybe he took the view that we had established a platform on which to build and that as the new additions settled in we should be able to put in a stronger challenge this season for a promotion play off place. I think Rae has improved our options in attack and in defence but has still got to sort out the midfield and goalkeeper positions over the next couple of windows. Has any St Mirren manager had a perfect window where all the weaknesses were sorted in 1 go? 
My disappointment so far has been to see the midfield be so poor again.
I think Rae has handled himself well when dealing with fans and the media and represents the club well in public, and I also respect the fact that he bounced back 20 years ago or so from having an addiction and has spent time outside of football activities helping other addicts to recover and for that reason I find it very offensive to see him labelled as "just a thug". Given last week's study listing Ferguslie Park the most deprived area in Scotland with major addiction problems being part of the reason for that I'm proud that we have someone like Alex Rae in charge of a community club like St Mirren. Rae has handled himself with a lot more class and dignity than some St Mirren fans have when we have played 9 competitive games this season won 4 (Livingston, Ayr, Edinburgh City, Albion Rovers), lost 3 (Hamilton Accies, Hibs, Raith Rovers), drawn 2 (Morton, Ayr) and think that record deserves the sack before we have played our 5th league game of the season.

How has he shown he doesn't rate the academy? By playing players from it?
The obsession with the youth academy will do us long term damage. Just because they've come through our academy, doesn't mean they should be first team players when they aren't good enough.
We should be looking to develop players through the academy, but for it to be any level of success we need to be attracting potential youth players from across Europe, in the hope one can be sold, in order to fund the scouting of the next batch.

And further afield imo. I think with the fans ownership in place that there could be more of a chance of being able to discuss possible avenues of linking up with youth setups abroad, especially in places like Canada and the U.S.
Its fair enough trying to bring through your own homegrown players, but cash could be generated through unearthing talents from overseas, where their opportunities may be limited.  

How has he shown he doesn't rate the academy? By playing players from it?
The obsession with the youth academy will do us long term damage. Just because they've come through our academy, doesn't mean they should be first team players when they aren't good enough.
We should be looking to develop players through the academy, but for it to be any level of success we need to be attracting potential youth players from across Europe, in the hope one can be sold, in order to fund the scouting of the next batch.

No wonder he didn't rate our youth, apart from releasing McLean absolutely none of them went on to prove that they were capable of playing to a higher standard.
 
McPherson always gets battered with the didn't rate youth stick. Which is nonsense considering he started Stephen McGinn, Craig Molly, Ryan McCay, David Barron and Chris Smith. There's probably a few others. It wasn't McPherson's fault the youth product of the time was nonexistent.
 
The only negative that can be said about McPherson is that he didn't have enough faith in his teams at times, but when we went out to attack we normally looked pretty good. 

No wonder he didn't rate our youth, apart from releasing McLean absolutely none of them went on to prove that they were capable of playing to a higher standard.
 
McPherson always gets battered with the didn't rate youth stick. Which is nonsense considering he started Stephen McGinn, Craig Molly, Ryan McCay, David Barron and Chris Smith. There's probably a few others. It wasn't McPherson's fault the youth product of the time was nonexistent.
 
The only negative that can be said about McPherson is that he didn't have enough faith in his teams at times, but when we went out to attack we normally looked pretty good. 

No wonder he didn't rate our youth, apart from releasing McLean absolutely none of them went on to prove that they were capable of playing to a higher standard.
 
McPherson always gets battered with the didn't rate youth stick. Which is nonsense considering he started Stephen McGinn, Craig Molly, Ryan McCay, David Barron and Chris Smith. There's probably a few others. It wasn't McPherson's fault the youth product of the time was nonexistent.
 
The only negative that can be said about McPherson is that he didn't have enough faith in his teams at times, but when we went out to attack we normally looked pretty good. 

Youth scouting abroad. Try and exploit emerging football markets for cheap young players. 
A risky strategy, but the only real way we'll see proper results from the setup.

I generally pick and choose my away games these days as frankly other than the social side of it I haven't enjoyed watching St.Mirren very much in the last 3 years.
I was there on Saturday and I didn't enjoy much of the 90 minutes, and I left Somerset pretty despondant.
On Sunday though I watched the highlights again and I looked for some positives.
Personally I think the new shape has some legs in it. The 3-4-1-2 formation offers us more protection in the middle of defence and allows us to play three of our attacking players.
I thought it looked better on Saturday, particularly in the second half when we started to get the ball down and play.
We were without MacKenzie, Gordon, Quinn, Gallagher and Morgan on Saturday. That's five players most of whom might be expected to start in a full strength side. The manager has bought in a fair few players but we're still operating with a 20 man first team squad. Take 25% of those players out and we're going to struggle and so we are.
The international break is coming at a good time for us. The Albion Rovers match will surely see Gordon and MacKenzie play, and we also have a 20s game tomorrow against ICT where they can get game time. I feel MacKenzie in particular will be a big addition for us. Hopefully he'll provide the leadership we're sorely lacking. Quinn will also hopefully be on the road to recovery by the time QoS come to visit.
The manager came in last season and made us harder to beat. In the summer he's assembled his own squad and whilst it hasn't quite happened for him yet I personally see no reason to even think about sacking him after 4 league games.
Confidence in football is massive. If we can get a win under our belts the players will start playing with a bit more belief and start passing the ball more. At the moment some of them look a bag of nerves and that is why they are shelling it. It's an easy option.
I remain confident that we will get those wins soon and start moving up the table. Keep the faith and all that!
 

I'd definitely wait until MacKenzie and Quinn are both fit at this level you can't afford to lose two key players in the spine of the team.

The players also need to actually get involved and try and work as a unit no matter what the tactical plan is.

Who cares, he's found his level in the seaside leagues. There's a reason why he's at Alloa.
A cup winning captain, who done an good job, but then proceeded to let the team down with ridiculous retrospective bans during our relegation season, and the completely inability to tread the disciplinary line when he did play, never mind his complete failings at coaching. People cheered when he came off the bench, and ploughed into a player unnecessarily, got booked, then could do nothing the rest of the game. Potentially the most overrated player in recent memory.
 
He was done, he's gone, but yet he's becoming a better player every passing week.
 
 

I'd definitely wait until MacKenzie and Quinn are both fit at this level you can't afford to lose two key players in the spine of the team.

The players also need to actually get involved and try and work as a unit no matter what the tactical plan is.

For a player who had limited passing ability and general tactical awareness, and didn't contribute much for two seasons, he's talked as if he was one of the greatest holding players we've had.

He did have a couple of decent seasons with better players around him but there was a massive drop in form which everyone ignores. Never mind his disciplinary record and coaching ability...

Running about and clattering players doesn't make a good defensive player. He was awful for leaving massive spaces for the opposition to exploit when he decided to chase the ball no matter where it was.

Thomson and Murray where much better midfielders in their prime than what Goodwin ever was.