St Mirren v Kilmarnock 20th October

[Dibbles old paperboy]

7 minutes ago, guinness said:

Biggest problem is the goalie constantly kicking possession away. Every kick goes straight to a killie player or out the park. Manager seems happy with this. Also Jones should have come on instead of moving entire defence.

I thought our biggest problem today was not managing to draw the second half.

[magnus]

Just now, DougJamie said:

Its a League of 4..... i do believe we will get points next 3 games.  We need same heart and players to keep heads. Last 3 home games have been against quality teams. We suffer when we need to change shape. I saw enough today to be optimistic we can finish above bottom 2

Totally agree. Worrying when big Anton or Jack is missing so hopefully both stay fit. I think we can pick up points and keep in touch until January which allows 0K to bring more of his guys in. I liked the way we played first half today and I think it took Killie by surprise. Plenty hope.

[Dibbles old paperboy]

If we had drawn the second half we would have been up to 9th.

[DLBud]

Hamill and Jackson are a class above anything Stubbs brought in but we need, at least, 4 more starters in that team if we’re going to be able to compete for 90 mins at this level.

I’m not sure what any manager sees in Flynn as he offers nothing in the middle.

Subs were very poor IMO.

We are not a good footballing side at the moment and need to come out of the next two games with some points or we are f**ked.

[Ayrshire Saints]

The lack of fitness in whole squad is shocking. WTF did they do in pre season? Willock, McGinn and Flynn were all blowing out their arse by HT. Also why McPherson for Ferdinand if Jones was on the bench. Pulled McGinn out of position when it could have been avoided. Presumably Jones will be down the road too shortly. Real lack of quality throughout a bloated squad. Who knows if we can keep close enough and then recruit wisely enough to stay up. Personally I have my doubts.

[Cornwall_Saint]

There's no point comparing the opening day draw at Rugby Park and today's scoreline. It's easy to forget that like us, Killie had not yet played a match at that point and were no way up to speed yet.

Also considering we play a few teams 4 times a season, you can't just take two results and use them to twist your point in your favour. We won't beat anyone four times and hopefully we won't lose all four games to opposition.

[DougJamie]

11 minutes ago, DLBud said:

Hamill and Jackson are a class above anything Stubbs brought in but we need, at least, 4 more starters in that team if we’re going to be able to compete for 90 mins at this level.

I’m not sure what any manager sees in Flynn as he offers nothing in the middle.

Subs were very poor IMO.

We are not a good footballing side at the moment and need to come out of the next two games with some points or we are f**ked.

Did you see Dundee s result today. McIntyre without his wee side kick .......... But yes we need a win or a draw soon. Players put a lot into today. My Killie mate said they were lucky 

[Ayrshire Saints]

28 minutes ago, magnus said:

I thought he was brilliant today. Loads of lung busting runs with the ball and tracking back. Just ran out of steam. Could be very important for us this season. I thought Hodson, Willock, Baird, Hammill all excellent. Decent game from big Sammy as well.

f**k all use when your blowing out your arse by ht. His lack of fitness is a disgrace.

[Hambud]

ferdinand off for mcpherson, hope this does not affect the defence too much
ferdindand was doing well at centre half.

It's almost as if the confidence went as soon as Ferdinand went off.

[Hambud]

This makeshift defence now is going to be under a lot of pressure.
How do we have a 31 man squad but no cover for central defence?
 

Especially given he signed 7 defensive players.

[faraway saint]

3 minutes ago, Ayrshire Saints said:

f**k all use when your blowing out your arse by ht. His lack of fitness is a disgrace.

Hard to find an excuse for that poor level at this stage of the season.

We should, at least, be able to match most other teams in this area.

[Hambud]

Devoid of ideas here. Losing at home but don’t look like we are going to score.

Saints have the ball in the net

Good chance for us there, another Hammil free kick from almost the same position as our goal.

This time he didn’t over hit it and it went straight to Jackson who got a shot off but saved by McDonald, hit off Jackson then wide. He should have scored tbh.

[emoji848]

[saintargyll]

45 Minutes of real hope

[Callum Gilhooley]

My take on today’s events. As most have said, really good first half but visibly ran out of steam . Anyone could have predicted Killie would have cam out and pummelled us for the first 10 of the second half which they did to great effect, assisted by our having to re - jig the defence.
Stephen McGinn does not look fit and seems to be getting a bit heavy . If , as some have said, he is carrying an injury , he needs to have it as he is doing himself and the team no favours.
Willock was my MOTM closely followed by Baird.
Why have Jones on the bench if he’s not going to play him when Ferdy went off ?
Mullen and Jackson ran their socks off , Smith needed to come on a lot earlier
Was it over the line ? Who knows but we should be defending better.
We are in possession and the killie player gets head knock but they get the ball at the restart ... how does that work ?

[buddies1877]

My take on today’s events. As most have said, really good first half but visibly ran out of steam . Anyone could have predicted Killie would have cam out and pummelled us for the first 10 of the second half which they did to great effect, assisted by our having to re - jig the defence.
Stephen McGinn does not look fit and seems to be getting a bit heavy . If , as some have said, he is carrying an injury , he needs to have it as he is doing himself and the team no favours.
Willock was my MOTM closely followed by Baird.
Why have Jones on the bench if he’s not going to play him when Ferdy went off ?
Mullen and Jackson ran their socks off , Smith needed to come on a lot earlier
Was it over the line ? Who knows but we should be defending better.
We are in possession and the killie player gets head knock but they get the ball at the restart ... how does that work ?

I don’t understand the point of jones on the bench either if he’s not going to use him

He’s supposed to be a center back but we choose to play players out of position instead I don’t get that.

That was the only disappointing thing for me today was the substitutions.

Very encouraging 1st half but injuries haunt us yet again this year.

[magnus]

11 minutes ago, faraway saint said:

Hard to find an excuse for that poor level at this stage of the season.

We should, at least, be able to match most other teams in this area.

Willock's fitness is not at a poor level. He put in a huge shift today and was our MOTM. He was up against a right good midfield and more than held his own.

Edited October 20, 2018 by magnus

[Hambud]

Hamill and Jackson are a class above anything Stubbs brought in but we need, at least, 4 more starters in that team if we’re going to be able to compete for 90 mins at this level.

 

I’m not sure what any manager sees in Flynn as he offers nothing in the middle.

 

Subs were very poor IMO.

 

We are not a good footballing side at the moment and need to come out of the next two games with some points or we are f**ked.

I'm generally not a big fan of Flynn but felt today was one of his better performances.

 

He played at least two very good slide rule through balls in the second half that we should have scored from.

 

I feel Danny Mullen needs to consider his approach to the game.

 

He spends so much time looking for a foul and often tries to do too much when holding up and passing the ball should be his job.

 

[faraway saint]

20 minutes ago, Ayrshire Saints said:

f**k all use when your blowing out your arse by ht. His lack of fitness is a disgrace.

 

4 minutes ago, magnus said:

Willock's fitness is not at a poor level. He put in a huge shift today and was our MOTM. He was up against a right good midfield and more than held his own.

Funny how people see things differently, and I didn't mention any player specifically, just in general.

It's looking like the majority agree we ran out of steam AT HALF FECKING TIME.

Not acceptable really, is it? 

PS It is a good sign we did compete, and take the lead, in the first half, that a positive. 

 

Edited October 20, 2018 by faraway saint

[magnus]

1 minute ago, faraway saint said:

 

Funny how people see things differently, and I didn't mention any player specifically, just in general.

It's looking like the majority agree we ran out of steam AT HALF FECKING TIME.

Not acceptable really, is it? 

 

Totally disagree bud. We lost Ferdinand and that badly affected us. Killie were really good second half; the boy Power is a great player. We kept at it - no fekn steam involved. 

[jaybee]

2 hours ago, TopCat said:

2 hours ago, buddies1877 said:

Lol I’m sure that’s what happened he said bounce ball and Mullen just walked away.

I seen Mullen arguing with Gollum looked to me asking why it wasn’t to be contested and just dropped for Mcdonald to pick up as both teams had already backed off.

I think he just decided because the ball ended up with McDonald after Flynn just kicked the ball towards the goal after the whistle had went for the game to stop.

Suppose sammy just ran straight to Gollum for no reason aswell

 

 

I think maybe the issue was Mullen expected their Keeper to give us the ball back, which he didn’t.

If that was the case, it’s not Collums fault. It’s Mullen’s fault for assuming that and the killie keepers fault for being unsporting.

 

 

One thing we can ALWAYS be certain of TC, Nothing is ever YOUR fault; opinions or otherwise. 

[gc_SMFC]

Fitness has always been an issue with us. Even last season the majority of players were struggling by the 70 minute mark, even against part time teams. I'd never describe our style as particularly high tempo either.

Either our fitness training isn't good enough, or more likely the players don't understand or don't commit to what is required. Fitness can hide some technical deficiency, and even a slight increase can be a massive improvement on performance.

[jaybee]

1 hour ago, TopCat said:

FT 1-2

Think we deserved to lose that over the piece. It was an even first half separated by a freak goal and Killie were much better second half.

Wasn’t sure if their second was over the line, but we can’t be giving free headers 6 yards out and expecting not to concede.

Our main problem is we aren’t any good going forward, at the back or tactically. We also don’t look interested.

We weren’t any good under Stubbs, but remarkably we have managed to get worse since he left. Stubbs drew at Rugby Park in our first competitive game of the season, and he actually won a league game, oh for those halycon days. He returned more points from his 4 league games than Oran has from his 5.

Now we have lost 4 on the spin under Kearney, the only time we he didn’t lose was against a team who had 10 men for an hour, where we managed to scrape a 0-0.

Barring a miracle and/or Dundee continuing to be worse than us, we will be relegated.

I think someone rearranged your internal pipework , reason being; it's the only logical explanation for the shi*e that comes out of your gob.  

[northstbuddie]

Men against boys today. We were too slow and too easily brushed off the ball.
We also did not appear to have a clue at throw ins - usually doing a good impersonation of statues.
Midfield is our biggest weakness at present - by a mile.

[faraway saint]

Just now, northstbuddie said:

Men against boys today. We were too slow and too easily brushed off the ball.
We also did not appear to have a clue at throw ins - usually doing a good impersonation of statues.
Midfield is our biggest weakness at present - by a mile.

Exactly what was witnessed against Aberdeen a few weeks ago.

Surely some players can't STILL be injured/unfit after the international break? 

[gc_SMFC]

Men against boys today. We were too slow and too easily brushed off the ball.
We also did not appear to have a clue at throw ins - usually doing a good impersonation of statues.
Midfield is our biggest weakness at present - by a mile.

Which is slightly bizarre, because of our midfield strength last season.

Our style of football from last season was never going to translate to the top flight. Despite us winning the league, in a strange way Livi were better suited to the transition, their main strengths were without the ball, then attempt to strong arm teams out of games.

I feel Stubbs sort of had the right idea, with the players that were suggested he was looking to replace, but he completely failed to do so. 4 midfield ball players is fine when you are generally going to control possession and set the game on your terms, but actually we needed a whole lot of dig in this team. I don't see that with our current team.