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2018/19 Game 31: St Johnstone (H) March 30th 3pm Kick Off


Kmcalpin
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10 hours ago, Al B said:

Hearts have got Aberdeen, Rangers and Hibs before the split. I don't think they'll take anything.

That's not to say I think us or St Johnstone will win enough to overtake them, I just think they'll reach the split on the same points as they are now.

Mongo.

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5 minutes ago, Al B said:

To....myself? :huh:.

Don't worry, I apologised to me, and I accepted. I shook hands and both of me have moved on.

Doesn't matter who it was to.

That word went out with the dark ages. Just remember you have one of the biggest disabled supporters clubs in Scotland and that word is extremely offensive to them.

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A well deserved victory today. Gillespie is proving to be a very adept keeper. His early penalty save may have been crucial to the outcome today. Overall the passing was very slack at times. There were at least 3 times in the first half where simple passes across the midfield area were misplaced and caused us problems. We scored at the right time, just when it looked like Saints were getting the upper hand. The introduction of Cadden and Frear certainly made a difference. Cadden looked really sharp. Great took his goal really well and should have had another. Excited about Cadden, Turnbull and Campbell working together next season.

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10 hours ago, MFCL84 said:

...,. Excited about Cadden, Turnbull and Campbell working together next season.

Has Cadden signed an extension? Thought he was out of contract in the summer? 

If he does stay then next season, when we play the Rancid, we all could be singing

”you signed the wrong one, you signed the wrong one, Steven Gerrard, you signed the wrong one”

nothing against Hastie, who I believe has the potential to go far, but yesterday showed that Cadden is a more rounded player and has benefited from spending his time here and developing his skill under no media/rancid fans pressure. 

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31 minutes ago, stuwell said:

”you signed the wrong one, you signed the wrong one, Steven Gerrard, you signed the wrong one”

Belter  :D

Sadly I don't think cadden will be though. Robust, great engine, proven at our level and international recognition. There will be some suitors down south unfortunately for us. Just hope we get decent compensation.

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52 minutes ago, ECOSSE1991 said:

That’s now 2 home games in a row (both 3-0 wins) where we’ve kicked towards the Cooper stand in the first half, can’t remember the last time that happened. Wonder who decided?

The opposition.  I accept that if it happens once it could be pure chance, but when it happens twice and involving teams like Accies and St Johnstone it looks like a very strange coincidence.

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3 hours ago, Kmcalpin said:

The opposition.  I accept that if it happens once it could be pure chance, but when it happens twice and involving teams like Accies and St Johnstone it looks like a very strange coincidence.

Until these 2 games I can’t recall it happening before or a Motherwell captain deciding to face the Cooper stand in a first half.  At the Accies game I thought it was them just playing mind games or being awkward. The sun can’t be the reason yesterday because the St Johnstone keeper had the sun shining in his eyes in the first half and by the second half it wouldn’t cause him any problems. Not a big deal just a rarity that I thought there may have been a known reason.

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We just deserved to win yesterday, but perhaps not by 3-0.  St Johnstone surprised a few of us by parking their bus and defending in depth, presumably setting out for a draw.  Credit to them they'd done their homework as I knew they would and they defended exceedingly well and high up the pitch.  They hassled, got in our faces and closed us down. Thats where the plaudits, if I may call them that, end though.  They were cynical and set out to nullify us at all costs.  Their intentions were clear from the kick off as they conceded 2 fouls in the first 90 seconds. I was wrong in thinking that they'd double up on our wingers they trebled up on them.  Their attacking intentions were limited to set pieces and the odd breakaway, fuelled , in part by our careless passing.  

Not surprisingly we struggled to break them down and showed a lack of creativity.  Oddly ,we played the long high ball too often and this played straight into Saints' hands as they highlighted our vulnerability at high balls.  Had the tractormen scored first with the penalty or otherwise it would have been a very different game.  This pattern pretty much continued until our inspired substitutions about halfway though the half.  The introduction of Cadden and Frear turned the game in our favour and we scored 3 goals in the last 20 minutes.  We also started to play decent football.  Despite his long lay off Cadden looked fresh.  Robbo will want to learn lessons from the game.  In particular, we still lacked a bit of penetration  and we were vulnerable in the air.   A good win though which allowed us to leapfrog Saints, at least for the time being.

I thought Euan Anderson had a poor game throughout and was far too lenient with Saints' cynical and niggly approach and allowed himself to be conned all too often.  Davidson and Kane were the main beneficiaries of his generosity.  Having just watched the TV Highlights I'm sure he blundered badly by awarding the penalty.  Kane and the other Saints player collided and went down and whilst Gorrin may have made very slight contact it was never a penalty and they should be hauled up for simulation, but we all know that won't happen. What is it with us & St Johnstone and wrong penalty decisions??

Still a good day at the office and we're safe from relegation in 7th place. 

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40 minutes ago, ECOSSE1991 said:

Until these 2 games I can’t recall it happening before or a Motherwell captain deciding to face the Cooper stand in a first half.  At the Accies game I thought it was them just playing mind games or being awkward. The sun can’t be the reason yesterday because the St Johnstone keeper had the sun shining in his eyes in the first half and by the second half it wouldn’t cause him any problems. Not a big deal just a rarity that I thought there may have been a known reason.

Did Saints not win the toss?  I agree that the sun is an unlikely explanation.

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The quality of some of our play and more importantly a lot of our goals has been superb in 2019.  I haven’t enjoyed watching us this much in ages. Probably since the Higdon, Ojamaa, Murphy and Humphrey team.

 

It’s just a shame we can’t keep the nucleus of the starting line up for next season.

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2 hours ago, Kmcalpin said:

Did Saints not win the toss?  I agree that the sun is an unlikely explanation.

Maybe they did but it seems strange that after years of us hitting towards the Cooper stand in the 2nd half of games that twice in consecutive home games the away team who after running onto  the 'away' end at the start of the game decide to change ends prior to kickoff.  The Saints captain seemed to clearly make that decision yesterday. I know it's not of any importance but curious to see what Rangers do on Sunday. 

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9 hours ago, ECOSSE1991 said:

That’s now 2 home games in a row (both 3-0 wins) where we’ve kicked towards the Cooper stand in the first half, can’t remember the last time that happened. Wonder who decided?

There must have been more recent ones, but the only one that sticks out is a loss to Inverness under McCall. Pretty sure Gregory Tade scored a volley from about 30 yards.

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A pretty turgid match really, and while we were certainly the better team, and the only one trying to play any sort of fitba', I'm not sure that we deserved a 3-0 victory.

The last 20mins were great to watch...the previous 70mins, not so much.

 

I'd drop Hastie for our next two matches, either his head has gone completely with all the transfer talk or his purple patch has come to a shuddering halt as other sides are now aware of his abilities. Considering we play two teams that are currently discussing pre-contracts with him, I'd be dropping him to the bench.

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On 3/30/2019 at 7:45 PM, Yorkyred said:

Certainly no main hate from me, quite the opposite he puts in a tremendous shift and as you say is often instrumental. However looking forward to next season would you keep things as they are up front and trust that he finds his goalscoring  form again ? You are of course correct when you say a lone striker has to be more than just a goalscorer, but he does also have to be a goalscorer, he’s scored 3 league goals all season.

The thing for me is that his lack of goalscoring opportunities can be attributed in large part to how he's being asked to play. He spends 90% of the game with his back to goal, attempting to bully and distract the opposition defence. This opens up the opportunities for the likes of Turnbull etc to get forward and do what they've been doing since January.

If we remove Main and replace him with someone who's not as physical, and who can't do the job he's been doing, would we be as successful as we have been? Would we see Turnbull and Hastie get as much freedom as they do if defenders are dealing with a straight forward, regular centre forward?

The first half of this season aside, as the entire team was gash, we saw what Main could do when he came to the club in January. He knows how to score goals, he hit something like eight in twenty one games last season for us.

With the personnel we have now I reckon he'd get goals for us if he's used as an actual striker rather than as a hold up player who's job it is to annoy defenders and be a physical nuisance.

But that would require a change in how we play, and in all honesty I don't see the point in fixing what doesn't look like it's broken. 

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