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2019'20 Game 8: St Mirren (H)


Andy_P
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57 minutes ago, gaz7 said:

wont matter who but someone will have to! he will be back and him polworth and campbell would be amazing. I honestly think polworth could be our defensive mid as his passing and vision is outstanding. I know he isnt 6ft and wins headers but today his determination to chase down balls out wide went un noticed by most id imagine. He would run the game in that position with campbell doing same as ever with turnbulls goal and assists. Yes i am excited.

Yes, it is an exciting prospect having Turnbull available to join this team.

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Yorkered I never said we should win the league of 10 I said it’s a 2,horse league at top and yes Hearts , Hibs , and Aberdeen have  much more resources than us but does not mean we can’t end above them but we will certainly be nowhere near the old firm so as it stands we are doing superb 

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4 minutes ago, wellowell said:

Yorkered I never said we should win the league of 10 I said it’s a 2,horse league at top and yes Hearts , Hibs , and Aberdeen have  much more resources than us but does not mean we can’t end above them but we will certainly be nowhere near the old firm so as it stands we are doing superb 

I agree

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In large spells of the game that was as good as I've seen us this season. There are always going to be rough edges to our game, particularly considering the number of changes over the summer, the level the new additions have previously played at the general young age of our team. To see us gel the way we have is outstanding, and some individual performances today (Polworth, Gallagher, Hartley, Campbell) show we have an excellent spine of a team. It's worth mentioning Barry Maguire's performance too, who showed a few deft and classy touches to give himself space. Great to hear Robinson say he's now got a decision to make when Donnelly is ready to come back into the team. 

St Mirren were decent enough and you can see why they don't concede many goals. It was particularly pleasing to see us weather a 15 minute spell around the 70/80 mark where we looked panicky - I was just waiting for that mistake that would cost us the goal.

The only area which we can improve on is up-front. I know they are a rarity, but to have a 'natural goalscorer' up top could make this as exciting a team as I've seen in years. Hopefully Long becomes that man - Robinson said he used to be a real prospect so hopefully he can get the best out of him. 

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Grief, I haven't been able to be as close as normal, so I'm not sure I can cope with us being 3rd at this stage. The usual script doesn't fit anymore as we're normally hearing hollering for the manager's head by now, and how bad every player has been. It must be global warming that has upset the usual pattern. Crivens!!!

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4 hours ago, gaz7 said:

I watched scott walk to dugout and robinson never even said anything to him. maybe im being harsh but a wee pat on back would have been deserved

Robinson definitely seems to be taking a 'tough love' approach with Scott however I think it's because he's got such high expectations of him. In his interviews, he'll say he's got massive potential but it's always with a strong caveat of what he needs to improve on. From what I can see from the stands he doesn't hide his frustrations with Scott well, and seems to be harder on him than he is with other players when mistakes are made. 

He's just turned 19 so that approach could break a young player. Can only hope Robinson has seen something in Scott's character that warrants this approach. 

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It was great to win a potentially very hard game. Very easy to see how St Mirren have conceded very few goals and their defence, up until we scored, looked as solid as I've seen from a team this season - defending 40 yards out from goal. There's lessons for us to learn there.  They were toothless up front though as expected.  It was always going to take something very special to defeat them and Scott and Long produced the two necessary touches of magic.  Hladky in the St Mirren goal was an absolute standout and it was a real shame he had to end up on the losing side. Enough about Saints though.

We thoroughly deserved the 3 points and played some great football in the process although our defence was very shaky at times.  It was encouraging to see us play patiently until opportunities presented themselves.  We're currently third in the league....on merit.  Gillespie again had a very good game and made some crucial saves.  Gallagher was again solid at the back, and we needed that.  What about his run to the by line?  Campbell again had a great game doing a lot of the spade work in midfield, but my man of the match was Polworth.  He sprayed pass after pass about and provided that special spark.  As ICT fans warned us though he's no goalscorer.  A real footballer.  Barry Maguire slotted in well and despite some errors grew into the game - good to see him take his chance.  Scott was good in flashes and what a goal! Long too looked impressive when he came on and took his goal well.  

It wasn't all plain sailing though and I thought St Mirren had far too much freedom down our wings. Both full backs struggled a bit defensively but Grimshaw's trademark surging runs helped in part to compensate for his defensive frailty.  As one or two posters have said, I thought Hartley had a poorish game; letting his man get just too much space at times and getting caught out.  He made up in part though with some do or die tackles/stops and that caught the eye of many.  Up front, I just didn't see what Cole offered.  We still lack an out and out striker and although we scored two goals, all too often there was no focus for our playmakers.  

In short, we played very well although there are still some weaknesses that better teams would exploit.  The positives far outweighed the negatives today.  

John Beaton had a reasonable game although he had no major decisions to make.  It was interesting that he didn't show a yellow card for a dangerous head high boot by a St Mirren player and no doubt Jake Carroll would have been an interested observer.  Not a dirty game, but Danny Mullen, as on his last visit, didn't endear himself to the home support with his theatrics and tantrums.

Good to be sitting third tonight tonight - well done to the management and players.              

   

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41 minutes ago, CoF said:

Robinson definitely seems to be taking a 'tough love' approach with Scott however I think it's because he's got such high expectations of him. In his interviews, he'll say he's got massive potential but it's always with a strong caveat of what he needs to improve on.

He was complimentary to him on the radio but said that he needed to be more aggressive around the penalty box and fire off more shots on goal. 

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2 hours ago, ropy said:

Ironically I don’t think we are direct enough, shots from 18 yards are allowed aren’t they?

We were a bit shot-shy today, although we have scored more goals than any Premiership team outside the OF so can't complain too much. The fact that there is still room for improvement can only be a good thing.

(I also read earlier today that we have had twice as many shots at goal than Aberdeen have managed so far this season).

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Scott went off injured did he not?

Campbell and Polworth were excellent today, and Maguire took his chance to start well.   St Mirren did squander some really good chances, and Gillespie had some good saves including stopping one with his face, so I wouldn’t put this down as a particularly great defensive performance, from open play at least.

Robinson likes to talk about being brave on the ball and taking the extra touch and I think we saw that today. We very rarely punted the ball long, and we showed great patience in the first half, which comes with confidence. 

I don’t think we’re missing a whole lot going forward, we’re scoring plenty of goals, many of the highest quality, and distributing them across the team which is always a good sign. The front three are moving well and are pretty solid when receiving the ball, and we’re making chances. I could see Cole and Long switch, but I’m not sure that Robinson is going to change much when we’re playing well and winning. 

It will be interesting to see if we stick with the players in possession of the shirts, or if we tweak things in two weeks. I think carroll is back but Donnelly still has one game left in his suspension.

Overall it is great to be on 16 points already, and we still haven’t fully gelled. 

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I enjoyed much of the game yesterday, but it would be nice to have 11 footballers on the park. We are playing with nine men and two guys, who at the moment are pretending to be footballers. Hopefully the manager will get improvement out of them, as they are new to the club, but I have my doubts. Do I have to say who they are? I think it's obvious.

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Given that Saints plundered four points last season from not massively dissimilar games last season it was pleasing to get the win yesterday. I've seen us come unstuck in many a fixture like that over the years.

For all Robinson suggested it was one of the best performances of the season in the first half it was a game I never really felt comfortable about until Long's emphatic finish at the end. When you are giving up nine corners to the opposition you think sooner or later something has to drop for them, although ironically a couple of really good chances for ourselves actually came from their corners.

I think there has been a definite shift in mentality about believing in their abilities to break down teams who are attempting to make things stuffy at Fir Park.  The flip side to not appearing to have an out and out goalscorer for the opposition to focus on is that currently is that there are a number of threats from right across the team.  I think we're into double figures of different players who have scored this season and whilst none of them may have consistency of finding the net there is the potential for a goal to come from anyone in that team. 

So  again it was really encouraging that the temptation to lose faith in the ability and resort to hoofing it was very pleasing and resulted in a terrific goal from James Scott.

As you might expect they rallied somewhat in the second half but Gillespie's tip over and Hartley's timely emergence from seemingly nowhere to block apart I thought we generally defended everything they hit us with well.

The display of Barry Maguire was another positive and if he can turn in similar displays it won't so much be a case of having back up for Liam Donnelly but a genuine challenger for his position.

All in all very happy to go into the latest break on the back of a very good result.

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1 hour ago, Andy_P said:

For all Robinson suggested it was one of the best performances of the season in the first half it was a game I never really felt comfortable about until Long's emphatic finish at the end. When you are giving up nine corners to the opposition you think sooner or later something has to drop for them, although ironically a couple of really good chances for ourselves actually came from their corners.

A completely unexpected aspect of the game for me.  Despite packing their defence for much of the first half Saints managed to win a surprising number of corners; 9 to our 2.  Pre match I expected us to have to aerially bombard a packed defence at set pieces etc but for a long spell, with a few exceptions,  we struggled to get anywhere near their penalty box to either win corners or put in crosses. In short first class defending and the way in which I'd like us to see out games in the last 15 minutes or so when we're winning but on the back foot.

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An interesting stat I heard on the radio last night from Stephen Craigan  was that it took us until mid December last season to reach 16 points, so its a pretty remarkable turnaround from then to now, 3 of the next 4 games at Fir Park, in between an away tie to Ibrox so we should fancy our chances at picking up more points in there.    First half we were superb but we really should have been out of sight at half time but its another win and clean sheet so we cant complain at that.

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11 hours ago, yosemite sam said:

I enjoyed much of the game yesterday, but it would be nice to have 11 footballers on the park. We are playing with nine men and two guys, who at the moment are pretending to be footballers. Hopefully the manager will get improvement out of them, as they are new to the club, but I have my doubts. Do I have to say who they are? I think it's obvious.

I'll bite and ask who. I suspect they've got something in common unrelated to football.

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I was encouraged by Ilic when he came on, I thought he used the ball well. I know he had some good performances in the league cup but he didn’t look up to much when it came to premiership opposition earlier in the season. 

What a frustrating player Seedorf is. He does well at times and causes the opposition problems but is always looking to shoot rather than pass to someone in a better position. 

I felt it was harsh on Long when he was dropped in favour of Cole but I think it could’ve  been due to the family problems that Robinson alluded to. He’s a clever player and I think if Cole had been in the same situation that long was when he scored he wouldn’t have had the composure to pull it off. 

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30 minutes ago, grizzlyg said:

I take it Long had 1-0 on his coupon judging by his total grumpy face after scoring, come on Chris, gies a smile  

I think he was playing it cool with his "of course I scored from there - that's what I do" reaction.

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The Scott goal gets better every time i see it, he made that finish look easy. Overall I’ve been impressed since he moved out to the wing, he is very comfortable on the ball and he links up well. 

Seedorf’s final ball may not be perfect, but he’s scored some crackers this year and is no doubt being encouraged to shoot. There’s also the run he made to the byline in the first half where he breezed past two players, maybe he could have squared it to cole, but he scored a goal from there in the cup and it took a good save to stop him. I’d rather have him in the side creating those moments than keeping him out until he’s perfect. He’s going to improve with experience.

Hylton isn’t much different, but I think it would be harsh to bench Seedorf for another unpredictable winger. 

I see cole getting some stick on Facebook (surprise) and I’m not sure why he’s being singled out. He’s doing a good job of holding the ball up, has good movement, and was denied by a good block from the keeper. There were also two or three occasions where he was free to be played in and the player chose to shoot instead. It’s disappointing that there’s always the need to pick the worst out of a good run/performance. 

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