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St Mirren V Morton Spfl Championship 6/8/16


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2 hours ago, Julian Banjos said:

Really disappointing stuff. Didn't get out the blocks and they hit the bar twice before their goal. Jack Baird lucky to stay on the park. Still looks as shaky as he did last season. Need to get Gordon or Mackenzie in there ASAP.

Huffed and puffed after going behind. I thought they looked comfortable, and was surprised we managed to get an equaliser. 

As feared, the midfield looks ropey. Lost count of the number of misplaced passes. Stevie Mallan, who is supposed to be the main man, flattering to deceive yet again. The manager took a wild swing at an advertising board when he hooked a cross to the corner of the 18 yard box in injury time. Gallagher was poor as well. Thank goodness Morgan managed that one good run and cross for the goal. Problem is the way the manager has built his squad we've only really got Quinn to come in in the centre of the park. Andrew MacDonald from the U20's the only possible replacement today? Rae, the ex £1 million midfielder, has got to get them playing.

The positive I suppose is, despite a shitey performance, we had the fire power to get the equaliser.

Mallan didn't get as far as flattering to deceive at all. One of the worst displays from a Saints central midfielder I can remember seeing from someone who stayed on the pitc until the final whistle. Corner kicks were largely duff, free kicks wasted, rarely found a St Mirren man with a pass, let his man run into the box unmarked and barely won a tackle without giving away a free kick. Other than that he looked quite good. Time for a U20 player to get a shot until Quinn returns if Mallan keeps that level of performance up.

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Well the wee boy from Wishaw was miles better than anyone else on the pitch today, I thought. Jai was a constant threat.

I've seen St Mirren 3 times this season and every game has been the same. No movement, no attempt to make or create space, woeful passing and a massive over reliance on Lewis Morgan to do something. Hamilton and Morton spotted the threat and doubled up on him and from the St Mirren are punchless.

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1 hour ago, Callum Gilhooley said:

Really ?   The very least  i would expect is for our players to be able to find a team mate with a pass !  Mallan , Baird, Gallagher &  Irvine  need a kick up the backside for not being able to do the absolute basics today.  Shanks should spend more time trying to win the ball rather than wining fouls with stupid dives.

And Hutton ??   WTF was he doing today

I could be mistaken but was Hutton not our only midfielder winning tackles without conceding fouls every time. He also managed to find a team mate with most of his passes, and, unusually for a St Mirren midfielder in recent seasons, ran into spaces in support of team mates and made himself available to receive a pass (in the unlikely event of a colleague managing to pass accurately from 10-20 yards).

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I don't think there will be a huge amount between a lot of the teams this year and would not be surprised if there aren't lots of tight games where the quality on show is disappointing. The minute's applause for Tam McGarry coincided with the first time in the game where we got the ball on the deck and retained possession, albeit to no great effect for almost the full minute. Langfield had 3 or 4 outfield moments where his composure on the ball, willingness to get forward and take on a man left midfielders like Mallan in his shadow! Morton weren't great, but at least looked like a team. I can't remember Langfield making any notable saves in 90 minutes and Morton only had 1 corner in 90 minutes and that came after we had equalised. The time wasting began the minute after they scored (70+ minutes left to play).

In the first half we looked disorganised at the back, a few times Morton players strolled through huge gaps in our defence. Webster ended up strolling the game in the end. We gradually did come into the game in the second quarter of the match and it was on perhaps the second occasion in the first half when we got the ball down and exchanged a few first time passes in the final third which set up Clarkson's shot over the bar on the stroke of half time. Our real problem lay in midfield where we don't look like a team yet. Mallan had his worst game I've seen, and it was one of the worst midfield performances I've seen from someone who didn't get subbed. Morgan often had two men on him as soon as he received the ball with more Morton players arriving to close him down... meanwhile our own players ball watched and seemed to hope Morgan was going to beat 4 players and send in a great cross. Lots of the passes / punts to Morgan and Gallacher were really poor, behind them so they had their back to goal while being closed down with few options, or high punts down the touchline. Hutton always made himself available and ran into spaces and found team mates with simple passes, and did a reasonable job of winning the ball without giving away a cheap foul.

Rae has managed to put a squad together where, at Championship level, we have some good attacking options in Clarkson, Shankland, Sutton and Hardie. His next priority should be finding a way of giving those strikers even half decent service. In the 2 games I have seen (Ayr and Morton) this season I have felt sorry for Sutton, Clarkson and Shankland with the quality of most of the balls they receive in the opposition half. We appear to expect tightly marked, unsupported forwards to work wonders with floated chipped weedy punts towards the half way line with almost no one nearby in space available to pass / head to.

Perhaps because Morton hadn't been brilliant, and also because I thought we had good attacking options on the bench I felt at half time we could get back into the game and get an equaliser or even a cheeky 2-1 win. In fairness to Rae, he brought on Hardie 7 minutes into the 2nd half, and Walsh after 65 minutes (at which point Morgan moved over to the right) and then went 3-4-3 for the last 20 minute with Sutton on the park. We still didn't look like world beaters but Morgan was getting more joy after switching sides, Walsh did well down the left and Hardie was looking pacey and showing nice touches up front... Shankland competed upfront but struggled with a bad first touch and not having much in the way of good service to work with. By this point Morton had largely given up trying to attack and looked as though they were sitting back hoping to hold a 0-1 win. We were beginning to look like more of a team and were getting the ball down on the deck more often and finally looked like we had a plan B (which looked not unlike Danny Lennon's plan A... ball on the deck, get passes out to both wingers and whip in some crosses for a tall forward to attack). 

In the end I thought we were 'worthy' of a draw even though it was a frustrating performance.

The positives: despite a few bad kickouts as usual, Langfield played well and had some of our best midfield moments of composure on the ball (I'm not claiming all our support were as composed while he was doing this). Webster ended up strolling the game. In the end Hutton, Morgan, Walsh did OK in midfield without being great, and Hardie and Sutton looked alright up front.

The negatives: 1 shot on target in 90 minutes in a home game at Championship level in a local derby will not have fans flooding through the turnstiles. The midfield in general, and Mallan in particular. I thought Naismith was pretty poor and was stunned he won man of the match.

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3 hours ago, santaponsasaint said:

Absolutely pish. Don't blame any player. One to blame Mr Rae. His tactics were dreadful. 90 mins of watching the ball being hoofed up the park. People who thinking about going to Kirkcaldy are now saying no way are we spending 30 or 40 quid to watch those dreadful tactics. The only time we played some decent football we scored. Sorry Mr Rae want to see football not rugby.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Black & White Army mobile app
 

 

I wid blame that awful strip for today's dire performance.

Turned us into Ayr Unitit :whistle

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1 hour ago, Dibbles old paperboy said:

I could be mistaken but was Hutton not our only midfielder winning tackles without conceding fouls every time. He also managed to find a team mate with most of his passes, and, unusually for a St Mirren midfielder in recent seasons, ran into spaces in support of team mates and made himself available to receive a pass (in the unlikely event of a colleague managing to pass accurately from 10-20 yards).

You & I are going to have to agree to disagree on that one Bud. He is slow & hesitant and looks clumsy. Was lucky to escape a booking after only 5 minutes, the Ton no 7 skipped past him at the west stand touchline & he looked bewildered as he pulled his jersey as a last resort .

I`m just not convinced hes the man to hold our midfield together. 

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2 minutes ago, Callum Gilhooley said:

You & I are going to have to agree to disagree on that one Bud. He is slow & hesitant and looks clumsy. Was lucky to escape a booking after only 5 minutes, the Ton no 7 skipped past him at the west stand touchline & he looked bewildered as he pulled his jersey as a last resort .

I`m just not convinced hes the man to hold our midfield together. 

I'm not saying he's great... I think he'll be solid enough. At the minute he's in a midfield with an off form Mallan, and Gallacher is starting most games despite the fact he is pretty poor at controlling a ball or passing. 50% of the midfielders are passengers and I suspect a lot of teams will double up on Lewis Morgan. That's not a great starting point to work from if you are Kyle Hutton. We've looked better when Walsh and Morgan have been on the pitch at the same time, mainly because having that combination seems to start giving us pace and width and we start getting the ball down and playing and posing questions of our opponents rather than lumping loads of high balls forward.

While Ben Gordon and Gary MacKenzie are out injured, we basically have the same personnel as last year in goals and in defence, so I'm not expecting a huge improvement there. I think Hutton will be an improvement on Carswell, and Morgan and Walsh give us better options on the wings than we had last year and Quinn (once fit) is obviously better than Agnew, while upfront having Hardie and Sutton as well as Clarkson and Shankland means we should be stronger there (assuming we get some reasonable service for them to work with). I'm quietly confident we'll battle our way into the top 4 this year.

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Webster strolled the game that was the problem he was at fault for the goal and nearly caused a 1 on 1 because he strolled the game. He needs to attack the ball and command the central defense. If Rae is using him as the backbone then we are going to leak goals.

 

on another note this take over is not going to plan. A poor performance against Hamilton a decent first 45 mins against Edinburgh and a very poor dis-interested game against Morton. Granted we won against Ayr but huffed and puffed with nothing to show for our possession.

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Maybe I'm in a minority, but I think that the days of "Duelling Banjos", "Gypsies Tramps & Thieves" and "Daydream Believer / Cheer up Rajamaki" should be assigned to the past. Maybe these songs were funny a couple of decades ago but now they are simply embarrassing. The joke is over and now it is just tedious. Can we move on ?

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FFS.

Very very poor today, a totally meh so called derby game. No need for mogadon at the pie stall.

Its clear we are still in sleepwalk mode, and that's being kind.

We presently resemble previous seasons piss, we are a team with no snap , we are seriously lacking in sharpness and it appears belief and motivation. Im already struggling to justify paying and attending to watch more dire stuff like that today. My lad was wanting to get home to his x box or go for a kick about , he was utterly bored with that today.

I suppose it's a sign of the times more over, but seriously , today was dire and on a wider brief, I think today just reflects the relative poverty of our game overall, it is still degrading and offers little prospect of much excitement.

Shite.

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Morton certainly were the best team in the first half however don't think Langfield had a direct save to make during the whole match.We were much better when we reverted to a 3-4-3 formatIon and possibly could have nicked it had we more tIme to play.We have to find a formation that allows us to play Sutton Hardie and Shankland together.On that basis I would opt for a 3-5-2 formation Hardie playing just behind and supporting Sutton and Shankland.Sutton will get goals if Morgan and Walsh provide the crosses.Baird is not ready for this level of football and I am hopeful that McKenzie will bolster our defence once fit.Not that down today and still hopeful of a reasonably good season.




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So it was the first game of the season and we got a point which in  my eyes was a fair score. 

Lets not start blaming players, management just yet. Mallan will come good, Gallacher will run and run for us and will do ok. He reminds me of Graeme Carey will give his all. Shankland will get goals. But I will say this one time and only one time I think Jim Goodwin was missing today. Midfield had no direction which is what Jim gave when playing. 

Jamie Langfield I am nervous when watching thats all i will say on him.

The team has had changes again new players in and it will take time for them to gel as a team. Given a few weeks it will come together. It will be the same next year when loanees go etc. Thats is how our team is made up loans.

So lets stick to positives and leave negativity till december if nothing has changed.

 

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38 minutes ago, Seaside Nipper said:

FFS.

Very very poor today, a totally meh so called derby game. No need for mogadon at the pie stall.

Its clear we are still in sleepwalk mode, and that's being kind.

We presently resemble previous seasons piss, we are a team with no snap , we are seriously lacking in sharpness and it appears belief and motivation. Im already struggling to justify paying and attending to watch more dire stuff like that today. My lad was wanting to get home to his x box or go for a kick about , he was utterly bored with that today.

I suppose it's a sign of the times more over, but seriously , today was dire and on a wider brief, I think today just reflects the relative poverty of our game overall, it is still degrading and offers little prospect of much excitement.

Shite.

It really was absolute shite. My daughter pleaded to leave most of the second half. We eventually left just after Sutton's goal.

Headed straight to the Pitches at Corkerhill for an enjoyable kickabout.

St Mirren are a f*cking chore presently.

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