Ya Bezzer!

Went for Las. He's the driving force in the team.

Not exactly a vintage match or performance but it was one we absolutely had to win and we did so I'm pretty happy. Definitely deserved the three points and should have won by more - how Clancy's header didn't go in I don't know and Humphrey has obviously been taking notes from Fernando Torres! Aberdeen actually defended reasonably well and were a tough nut to crack but going forward they were absolutely hopeless. We weren't helped by a referee who was allowing Aberdeen to foul at will. Some decent performances, McHugh was excellent when he came on and showed some real bite and will to win. The goal came from a nothing area that a lot of other players wouldn't have bothered to chase the ball into but Bob did and he got his first league goal out of it. I thought Clancy actually did quite well today and made some good tackles and blocks and Hammell was solid again. Lasley worked his socks off as well. I have to say though I thought some of the abuse that Higdon was getting from a section of the crowd was ridiculous. He wasn't brilliant today but some of the stuff coming out the East Stand was way over the top. Another 3 points and a clean sheet. Hopefully we can regain some confidence from this result and although we didn't exactly set the heather on fire it's something to build on and hopefully that's what we'll do.

As a non season ticket holder I just want a win under any circumstances having put about £80 into the club this week!

He didn't play a blinder but I don't think Murphy was that bad last night. I think people are judging Murphy as a striker when in recent games he's been playing a different role but I accept he's not been at his best. However, for me, he is still one of our most naturally gifted players and one of the few players in the side that has a goal in him. For that reason I'd persevere with him because it's goals that win games. Take the Hearts game, Murphy wasn't at his best but he scored the goal that won it and I think he can do the same against Aberdeen, or anyone else for that matter.

And I don't know lots about football management - taking training, dealing with agents and the press, signing players, man management, but I have watched 25 years worth of football at Fir Park, some fans been going even longer than me, and I think if you watch 25+ years worth of football out on the green stuff that gives you at least the knowledge to have and make an opinion on the football played. I think a lot of fans are ignorant of what goes on behind the scenes and I usually give staff the benefit of the doubt in those cases (signing players, finances etc.) but as for the football out on the park, I think fans can have opinions that are just as knowledgeable as professionals. Also, I think because managers are in the thick of it, choosing the tactics, picking the team, they sometimes lose their critical faculties. It's much harder for anyone to admit they are wrong or spot their own mistakes, that it is to look at someone elses work and spot errors, that's just human nature. It's no bad thing to have a second pair of eyes go over your work, its just in the case of a football club, it's a couple of thousand eyes.

It's for balance. I think we really need someone between the defence and the midfield two. When we played Kilmarnock earlier in the season Mani Pascali played that position perfectly and shut us down for most of the match, I think we only had two real chances. Hateley played that position well under Gannon and again I think Forbes played his best stuff under Gannon and I think that set up really suits him. I'd drop Humphrey because based on last night Daley is just as good going forward and a lot better tracking back. I'd also move Craigan back to right centre half where I think he is much more comfortable and put in Johnny Page at left. Page played there against Clyde and while it was against lower league opposition he looked fairly assured there.

I think it would be harsh to blame McCall for last night. We were winning, having come back from 0-1 down, with only minutes remaining. But I think you can realistically look at the tactics and say 'we could be making things easier for ourselves'. Back when we lost to Rangers I said that we were far too open in midfield and they were exposing the defence badly meaning we conceded more goals than we should have. At the time I thought it was only going to be a problem against the Old Firm with their higher quality players. It's obvious from the last two matches it's now a problem against any team in the SPL. Some of our defenders have made bad personal mistakes that they shouldn't have but you also have to except that we have a pretty ramshackle defensive line up at the moment. You have Craigan on the left side, which isn't his strongest position, and Clancy, who you can tell by watching him doesn't know the position. You have to help them out a bit, you have to protect them. Teams are running straight down the middle of us and to me that's not good enough, even the worst sides with a little organisation can force teams to go wide to get any joy. In midfield Lasley hasn't been in good form, although he came good last night, Jennings, the major problem in the side right now, has been stinking all season, he is just not doing his job game after game after game. Humphrey does not track back, but we all knew that before. Murphy on the other side is being played out of position and isn't as effective but probably has to play there while Hutchinson is out. Law, also, is defensively weak. We need to beef up the midfield to protect the back line and McCall hasn't done this and has remained far too loyal to one or two players in particular. I also think his reluctance to bring players off the bench while is a negative and will be a bigger one in the long run. Firstly, if things clearly aren't working like on Saturday there is nothing to lose bring players off the bench. You might get lucky, but if you just leave it and nothing happens you open yourself up to criticism. Secondly, over the season our 'first team' players in a small squad are going to have to play more football, meaning more fatigue over the season, more chance of injury (both are linked surely?), more chance of cards etc. Thirdly, there will almost certainly come a time, probably during mid winter, when we have to play guys like Page, Lawless, Forbes etc, because there will no one else due to injuries and suspensions. When that time comes, it looks like they will be thrust into the team at a very important stage of the season, in bad weather and pitches with hardly any game time. Forbes has some experience now, but the others have very little experience in the first team and as they say 'make hay when the sun shines'. If you are 3-0 up against Dunfermline, put some of the kids on. If you are gubbing Inverness, put some of the kids on. There is a time and place to do it but so far McCall hasn't done it when he had the chance and I really think he has to re-think that part of his decision making.

I think I have more chance of becoming manager than there is of McCall actually playing this line up but I would go like this ................Randolph................. Clancy....Craigan........Page.....Hammell .................Hateley................. ..........Forbes.........Lasley.......... Daley.............................Murphy. .................Higdon.................. And I know that is tough on Nicky Law but I think in terms of balancing the team up sometimes a good player has to sit out.

Got to say I didn't think it was offside and I was more or less in line with the assistant referee. He had a couple of other shockers as well.

Nicky Law had a good game but he missed too many chances and of course the penalty at the end. Lasley did well, as did Daley when he came on. But I'd give it to Darren Randolph. Maybe three or four crucial saves in the second half.

Mark Brown's revenge! A mixed report card tonight. The energy and effort was much, much better tonight and I think that was the thing that was most disappointing on Saturday. You certainly can't blame the players for a lack of effort. However we still look pretty shaky at the back, still look a bit rattled and lacking some confidence and we are making far too many basic errors. It was an entertaining match with lots of chances, Randolph saved us on numerous occasions, at the other end we squandered so many chances it was untrue. Law in particular let two excellent chances go that would probably have won it for us. And of course the goal that was chopped off in the final few minutes was debatable. I don't know if it was offside but it certainly wasn't obvious to me. I think we have real problems in the centre of the park by which I mean central defence and midfield. We are far too open and teams are cutting through the middle of the formation far too often. Clancy is very much an amateur in central defence, Craigan had a bit of a nightmare and has no pace whatsoever, Jennings looks absolutely lost these days which only left Lasley who had a good game tonight. But when you are playing a 2-2 (2 central defenders, 2 central midfielders) in the middle and 3 of them are not at the races you've got a big problem. I think we really need to reorganize in that area of the park. Strictly speaking we played a 4-5-1 and Law was playing in the middle but he was going forward most of the time and was nowhere when the opposition attacked so really, defensively, the five in midfield wasn't giving us an extra man. If we are going to play with 5 in midfield we need a sitter behind the two in central midfielders rather than one in front. There was also some bizarre goings on in the first half when Stevie Hammell was coming inside almost into the middle of the park and that lead to Hibs first goal, when Wotherspoon had all the room in the world down our left (due to Law not covering the gap), Craigan was pulled out of position into the gap and we were left with one defender in the box to defend the cross. I don't know if he was under instructions to go there but he seemed to do it quite a bit and it seemed out of the ordinary for Hammell to take up position there. Finally Omar Daley looks a better option down the right than Humphrey. Not only was he going to the byline he was also tracking back really well and on a couple of occasions made really good defensive runs. Disappointed to lose, but it was an improvement on Saturday and it was certainly exciting and worth the £15 but we need to get out of this rut of losing games and conceding goals.

One that sticks out was a James McFadden effort against Dundee. Pretty sure it was a midweek match. It was at the time when Dundee had a bunch of rather grizzled Argentinian and Italian defenders. Faddy got the ball down by the right hand corner flag, brought it out the corner, skinned the left back, ran across the 18 yard line weaving between two centre halves and then curled one into the top corner! There was just something great about seeing a young kid do that to experienced Serie A defenders.

Even though we were atrocious on Saturday I expect us to win this one. McCall is taking a bit of a gamble naming the same team as on Saturday but I hope it works out for him, and all of us, and we get a reaction for the guys that let us down so badly a couple of days ago. I'm not sure we'll keep a clean sheet with our under strength defence (O'Connor is going to be a big danger tonight) but even though we've not been scoring lately I still think we can get two or three tonight. If you breach the Hibs defence once they tend to give away more than one goal - although you can say the same thing about us! I still believe though that we are a better team than Hibs and losing tonight would be a bit of a moral blow.

I know its been a bad weekend but if you can't see us scoring against that Hibs defence...

I think its very unfair to single out strikers after yesterdays display. Our Strikers didn't play well but they need supply and they didn't get any yesterday. You just have to say it was a very poor team performance with no one even looking average. Funnily enough I think the only serious save of the match that Enckelman had was from Higdon.

Gannon and McCall are at opposite ends of the scale. Gannon changed things unnecessarily when it was going well and there was no need to. McCall doesn't change things when things are going shite and its obvious there is a need to.

Agree Forbes should get his chance. Has done really well when given the nod this season and as has been said Jennings has been really a shadow of what he can be so far. Humphrey needs a spell on the bench as well. Either Daley or Lawless should come in. Lawless is another player I think should be playing a bigger part. Like Forbes he's done really well when given a chance but McCall has been loyal to others and not even brought him off the bench in league games. I think that loyalty needs to end after todays performance, if only to make it clear to players that coasting isn't an option. I don't think Clancy was any worse than anyone else today but it has to be remembered he isn't a centre back. Give Page a chance there, Clancy can go to his natural position and Hateley becomes an option in midfield, either wide right or in the middle.

I think we do have players who's heart is with the club but today was one of those days when nothing went right from start to finish. There was just something wrong with the whole build up to and the atmosphere around the game. I think fans as well as players were guilty of thinking this was going to be an easy 3 points despite the fact that as I and others pointed out St. Johnstone's away form is pretty good over an extended period. At this stage you just have to write it off as a one off and hope we take on board some lessons from it. However if we play like we did in the next two games then obviously it's more of a problem.

No one really deserves it but Nicky Law was the least worst.

One of the problems, and I've mentioned this before is our wide players, especially down the right hand side don't get to the by line. Instead we either hit crosses from the 18 yard line or play triangles and either try to cut inside by dribbling into the box or move it back into midfield again. A wide player has to hit the by line and then cross to be effective, especially when like St. Johnstone today, the opposition is playing with two fours really compact in front of the goal, there is no space to cut inside, you aren't going to through the middle of them and crossing from 18 yards or so makes it much easier to defend. You have to give your own players a chance of winning it by having the ball crossed out towards the players moving forward instead of straight on to the defending players.

Where do you start after a performance like that? You could spend all weekend typing. From the management team to the goalkeeper to the rest of the team from back to front it was absolutely woeful. Not a single player out there with perhaps the exception of Nicky Law gave it more than 65% at any point in that match. Stuart McCall. It's not good enough to have a Plan A and then cross your fingers. If it's not working you have to make changes, you have to switch things. It was obvious changes had to be made today AT HALF TIME and nothing happened until the 72nd minute! Darren Randolph. Brilliant last season. This season he is rapidly going backwards. Came out and missed a cross under no pressure whatsoever. Did it again the second half and then the third goal was poor from him as well. I'm not saying he is at the liability stage but it is worrying to see him doing things you would never have dreamed of him doing last season. It started with Leeds Utd and it's been creeping into his game ever since. The rest. Sloppy in defence, the midfield was BLOWN AWAY by St. Johnstone's second string midfield. Did Steve Jennings sign a new contract or what? Shocking display. I'd drop him for next week. He looks like he'd rather have moved on during the close season. Kevin Moon and Jamie Adams ran all over the top of us in midfield. Up front nothing but to be fair its hard for strikers to do it on their own if the rest of the team is rank rotten. That said we had one shot on target today as far as I can remember that required a save. We were just timid, lethargic, under performed in every criteria you could imagine. The midfield needs to be revamped for next week. Humphrey, Jennings, even Lasley - not good enough. Let's be honest about this - our points tally this season has flattered us a bit. We were lucky to get a point at Kilmarnock, we were lucky to get three points at St. Mirren. We probably deserved the win against Hearts but Hearts were terrible and we didn't exactly set the heather on fire in that game. I think too many people, including some of the players, think we are better than we are because we've had some breaks this season. Time for a kick up the arse, I'm afraid.

I think if Rangers are forced into administration, and that is not something I'd bet on, they would time it so they would be able to get out of administration before the Euro deadline. The potential cash bonanza from Champions League is so large that missing out on it could negate the benefit of going into administration in the first place so I reckon Rangers would pull out every stop to make sure that Champions League qualification wasn't effected. As for us, we shouldn't go into debt ever again and as far as I know we have nowhere to borrow the money anyway since the banks won't lend to football clubs anymore.

St. Johnstone Away form 09.04.11 Dundee Utd L 1-2 30.04.11 Hibs W 2-1 07.05.11 Aberdeen W 2-0 14.05.11 St.Mirren D 0-0 23.07.11 Aberdeen D 0-0 21.06.11 Celtic W 1-0 10.07.11 St.Mirren D 0-0 So undefeated in 6 away matches, not conceded an away goal in 5 matches (or 517 minutes to be precise). Will be a tough nut to crack but I fancy a debut goal for Omar Daley and a 1-0 win. If we can do better great but I just want the 3 points.

Seems amazing that we've only played St. Johnstone once at Fir Park since Jim Gannon got his jotters! Since I missed the last match (the 4-0 win) this will be the first time I've seen them at Fir Park since that fateful day back in 2009.

We'll need to keep an eye on Sandaza especially with an under strength defense. Good player and if we'd got him I'd have thought it was a bit of a coup. Then there is Ciaran Sheridan who hasn't scored in 6 games and who I didn't rate at all and therefore is probably a stick on to score on his return!