joewarkfanclub

Boom! Grizzly G will be getting retired if he keeps missing open goals like that!

The Louis Moult debate is an interesting one, and I guess it maybe depends on what your expectations for him were on his return. If you were expecting the old Louis Moult back after 5 years and a couple of serious injuries, not to mention a lack of first team football recently, Im not sure you were being very realistic. That said, the old Louis was never that quick in the first place and relied on his movement and instinct to create space and chances. He also played in a team and for a manager that had a game plan of getting as many crosses into the box as possible (which incidentally is a feature of how St Mirren now play). Add to that he obviously arrived with a niggle of some kind which limited his gametime but has now been addressed by the recent procedure he underwent. Hopefully this will have cleared up the problem, because for me he looks in decent shape, the little we have seen of him, the ability and movement are still there and he is certainly motivated to do well for the team. Whether he will remain fit and not break down again remains to be seen, but none of us can know that. It was good to see him start on Saturday and last 90 minutes though, even if that was borne out of necessity. Hopefully the 4 week break will allow him to do some fitness/strength work that will help in that regard. Personally, I think he is worth the risk, given what he could provide. The missing factor for me is how we get the best out of him and that comes down to our style of play. To me we need both him and KVV on the park together. They are both intelligent players and I see the makings of a partnership there. I also think you get far more out of KVV when Moult is on the park. His body language completely changes. Whether thats because he feels his position is under threat or he just enjoys having another player on the pitch in his wavelength, I dont really care, but its something we need to take advantage of. Hopefully Stevie Hammell and his team will take the time we now have the luxury of to look at how we play and make the changes necessary to make us a more effective unit in the second part of the season. If he doesnt AND we dont make efforts to address the weaknesses in the squad in the window AND we dont take advantage of the more favourable run of fixtures AND we continue to slide down the league into the relegation places, then it will be time to start asking real questions about his appointment. Until then lets all just chill out and enjoy the World Cup.

Thats certainly the case. Im not expecting miracles in January and anyone we do sign is unlikely to have played much football in the first half of the season. Im just hoping that given we have known the issues since the last window closed, work has been ongoing and there is at least the chance of some decent loans coming in as other clubs now know for certain which players are in their plans and which ones are not.

I think the ones on the bench are considered ready. But you generally blood young players when the game is won and their is no risk attached for them or the team. That just hasnt been the case for most of our games recently. Hammell is under pressure from a lot of the very same fans calling for youths to be thrown in. Its no surprise that he has become reluctant to throw the boys in when his job increasingly depends on getting results.

I think we should take the time to rest the players and get our injured ones fit again. A couple of bounce games the week before hostilities resume will do just fine. Let the fans chill out, save some cash and enjoy the World Cup. Friendlies are pish.

I stated from the outset I only saw the second half, so clearly wasnt at the game. I didnt think we were amazing in the second half, but we were far from honking and certainly no worse than St Johnstone. As I said, I thought we were actually looking the more likely to win the game. McDairmid Park is a tough place to go at the best of times. Ive rarely seen a good game of football there. Today looked like a mixture of a bad pitch and having to combat St Johnstones style of play, but we ground it out and gained a very deserved point. Folk have been complaining for weeks that playing nice football is no good if we dont put points on the board, so today we have traded one off against the other. What do our fans actually want? St Johnstone have just racked up 11 points out of 15. That doesnt happen by accident. They have turned their season around and are back to their old hard to beat selves. I think some of our players deserve a bit more credit than they are getting.

Some amount of utter shite posted on here tonight. You would be forgiven for thinking we had been pumped 3-0 and were bottom of the league. Admittedly I only saw the second half, but we were level at the break and from what I saw we looked to me the team in the ascendency and more likely to get the winner. I dont recall Kelly having hellish much to do. Those wetting their knickers about Moult being a waste of a wage, crocked, done? What are you watching? He was still chasing balls down well into the second half, and if there had been any of our players on the same wavelength as him when he beat 2 Saints players and drove into the box to cross, we might have won the game. Give me that level of desire and effort over KVVs petulance any day. Ive no idea whether Moult will get fit, stay fit, score goals going forward, but those writing him off at this stage should hang their heads in shame. We are not in a great place at the break, but neither are we up shit creek without a paddle. We now have 4 weeks to get our injured players fit, identify some fresh talent to bring in during the window and to rethink and reset for the second half of the season. We have a couple of very winnable fixtures after the break. If we can hit the ground running we will be right back in the mix.

Saturday will depend on how many fit players we can get on the pitch. Hammy said last night that we can add Mugabi, Tierney, McKinstrey and KVV to our injury list. Some might get their wish to see the young boys getting a start.

Thought he was unfortunate. Did very well to intercept and must have felt the Celtic player had no chance of taking it from him without fouling him from behind. Maybe should have cleared it first time, but I cant fault him for trying to keep possession and playing a more constructive pass.

I thought Cornelius was having a decent game but he was hooked too early to get MOTM. SOD was pretty decent, one of his better games. Sol did very well after he came on for Bevis. However, Ive gone for Penney again, which seems a but boring, but he puts in consistently good performances and his quality is there for all to see.

I watched it on tv and was immediately shouting for it. I cant see how the VAR with the same pictures could fail to see it. They obviously see nothing wrong with what happened which is bizarre. However, we did get away with one on the Jota goal and Morris yellow card so I guess we cant complain. But VAR isnt really solving anything.

I thought first half we were reasonably well organised and defended well for the most part without really offering anything going forward. The only notable attempts were KVV rounding the keeper and hitting the post (although I think he was marginally offside anyway) and Slatterys effort from halfway. Im not particularly critical of the first half tactics as its the trade off you make to prevent yourself being cut open by a very good Celtic team as we were in the League Cup tie. But we need to be better on the ball when we have it and everything was very rushed and we made too many misplaced passes. Second half was much better. Not sure it was by design or default, but we managed to get personnel on the pitch that allowed us to push further up the pitch and we created a number of good opportunities. Decision wise I think we got away with one on the Jota goal as that was borderline. The throw in decision before the Maeda goal I cant fathom. Its a yellow card and a free kick all day long. Morris, very lucky to get away with a yellow. If there had been more contact I think he was gone. Overall, a better defensive performance as Kelly didnt have a lot to do, but we still need to use the ball better in transition. Plenty to give us encouragement for Saturday, but I think our biggest problem will be getting 11 fit players to start.

Yes he did. He covered it on Sportsound so guaranteed to be on Sportscene as its the same interview.

Im not sure how he picks players with the abilities you are looking for when we dont have them in the squad. Unless he is Harry Potter......

Re team selection. Im not sure its the right one and doesnt sit well with me, but we dont know if Sol has an injury which has required Mugabi to play instead of Sol rather than alongside in a 3. Maybe he just thinks Bevis is more mobile, which he is, and he wants to stick to our usual formation but changing personnel for the specific threats Celtic pose. Anyway, he has made his decision and we will just need to see if it works out.

Re the Academy, we have to remember there were 2 years of Covid where our youths didnt play football. That interrupted their development right at the time we needed to be bringing through the next group. Its no surprise that we have hit a gap in the production line.

None of those players have any pace. Only Maguire can tackle and you have already said his distribution isnt good. Thankfully Stevie Hammell is the manager if thats the best you can do.

Which midfielders do we have that you think are quicker?

They along with Spittal are the only footballers in our midfield. Without them we have Maguire and Cornelius. Celtic would play around them just as easily and would have more opportunity to do so as we wouldnt be able to keep the ball.

He also thought we would lose by 4 at Tannadice and pretty much forecasts a defeat every week. Now there might be a little bit of self protection or reverse psychology going on there, but Id be depressed as flock if I thought there was absolutely no hope for us every game we played. Happy to admit that I have absolutely zero expectation that we will get anything tonight, but neither did St Mirren when they beat Celtic. These things dont happen very often in a season, but they do happen, and sooner or later it will be our turn. I do think the St Johnstone game is huge for us though after the run of fixtures we have had. I think we need at least a point to stop the rot and go into the break feeling ok about ourselves.

Taken a while to digest yesterdays result and performance and read through all the comments. Lots to process. Without disecting every incident I would summarise as follows. We looked tidy on the ball for the most part but we still make way too many unforced errors with our passes that costs us good field position and destroys momentum. We get into really good areas with some nice play but regularly lack composure to play the right final pass or work the keeper with our efforts on goal. Without the ball we are less impressive and dont seem to be able to track runners. Our marking at set plays is awful (see Hallidays header). We did at least look better against 10 men this week than last and after Moult came on looked like the team with the extra man. When it got to 2-2 I really fancied us to win it until we shot ourselves in the foot again. We got a break with the red card which I felt was harsh, but then every other crucial decision seemed to go against us. Thats not why we lost the game, but it did impact it significantly. KVV is a different beast with a partner alongside him. We need to ditch the lone striker thing and find a way to get him and Moult on the pitch together for as long as possible. His finish for the disallowed goal was sublime. We have no pace at the back. We need to find a way to continue to pass and keep possession of the ball without exposing this weakness. Kelly needs to work on his kicking. He is a great shotstopper but his distribution has become terrible. We cant play that open against Celtic or we will get scudded again. We are not a good team at this point, but neither are we "utter dugmeat". The break cant come soon enough.

I went for Goss. He is a tidy player with a great range of pass. He was constantly taking the ball under pressure and looking for a forward pass. Without him we would offer far less going forward.

I think we need to go 3-5-2 / 5-3-2 in this one, but not sure we can do that unless McGinn is fit. Pack the defence/midfield. Agree with Cornelius as the extra body in midfield. Not sure if Moult would be fit enough to give us 45/60 minutes but if he is it definitely makes more sense to have him on when we are still in the game. We can change him out for Sheilds as and when he is done. If he cant give us that much and we have to make do with another cameo off the bench, then Id play Sheilds through the middle with KVV to chase knock ons and make Celtic sit deeper. Unfortunately I dont se Hammy doing any of that and we will probably match up 4-3-3 again. If so, it could be a long night.

Not sure how you can say that definitively if he hasnt been played throught the middle for any concerted period. You may well be right, but if we dont play him there we will never know. If we are not gonna play him there we would be as well letting him move on and sign someone who is a genuine wide player. Not really Hammells fault. He didnt sign him and right now he has limited options so has to go with what he has and make the most of it. I agree, if we are sticking with the current set up, we need a natural replacement for Efford in January.

I think the problem tomorrow, similar to that at Easter Road, there isnt really an away stand as such due to the number of season tickets they have sold to their own fans. We get a section of the away stand and segregation takes up the rest. Was speaking to the club before the Hibs game and they have dialogue with the home team over how many tickets we are likely to need. I think we base that on looking at previous attendances and make a judgement based on that and current form. We asked for 800 for Easter Rd and hadnt quite sold them out on matchday. I guess it would be a similar number for tomorrow.