El Grew

As the bard of Avon wrote, “there’s the rub!” Like it or lump it, Derek Adams was correct. The standard of Scottish football is dreadful and every season it just gets worse. I’ve not heard any of his fellow managers say he was wrong. Consider what Livingston manager David Martindale said when asked about it “I had a conversation with someone else who has managed at that level in England and up here and that was the same comment I got from them.” He bemoaned the fact that for financial reasons he was forced to recruit players from the English National Leagues. He made a valid point that the size of the league puts too much pressure on clubs on the relegation front with dread of the consequential financial damages and that if enlarged, clubs might be inclined to take a different approach. A culture of hiring and firing managers has led to short-term thinking and decision making as clubs become more risk-averse and this is another factor contributing to the drop in the quality of our football. On top of that factor in clubs having to play each other up to 4 times in a season and an inane splitting of the league. I think if you’re being honest, you will agree with much of this. These points have been made before and continue to be made by fans of all clubs around the country. Yet those responsible for running the game seem oblivious. The only games that interest TV are those involving the OF who get the lion’s share of TV money and argue they are so entitled, as they are the only reason there IS a TV deal. The OF don’t give a jot about Scottish football. To them, it’s only a medium, their control and domination of which, allows them access to the vast sums of money offered by European football. They are, and always have been, solely interested in preserving their hegemony over Scottish football.

I think you need to smell the coffee.

Well, who’d have thought it? Administration led us to fan ownership model. Could fan ownership model now take us back there? Possibly not, and I don’t want to be a doom merchant but these are alarming times for our football club. Consider: Public admission by CE and chairman, who are both preparing to bale out, that the club has serious funding issues. Relegation is a distinct possibility with all that entails in terms of severely reduced revenues. A gradual shrinking fanbase. A stadium that has and will continue to leach money. No chairman or CE for the foreseeable future. All this unrest and uncertainty must inevitably affect all of the employees at the club, most importantly of all, the players and management. The big question now, is how can this be fixed?

Chickens coming home to roost I’m afraid. ☹️

Battling performance against a team that’s only lost once at home and in absolutely dreadful conditions. Kudos to the players but 4 good chances passed-up. As I’ve said before draws are better than defeats but are no use in our position and will lead to usgoing down. Livingston 5 points behind us but 2 games in hand and our next 3 games: Rangers (h), Aberdeen (a) and Livingston (a).

St Mirren home league form: P8 W5 D3 L1 GF14 GA8 Our away league form: P8 W1 D3 L4 GF5 GA11 Regrettably I can only see one outcome. 😟

Do we not have a media guru that the board can employ to keep fans informed?

Maybe. But I think he’d benefit more if we had at least one midfielder that could make passes into the inside-right and inside-left channels for him to exploit his pace and strength. Sorry about the old-fashioned terminology.😉

Definitely need to keep Davor in the side now. I thought he was quite neat and tidy in everything he did and kept it simple. He seemed to have a bit of a dig and for the first time in a long time I thought him being there gave the side better shape as he provided a link from the defence to the front players. He reminded me a little of Simo Valakari.

I’ll give you Furlong and Butcher but not Casey. Personally I think Casey has been the weakest link in the defence.

I really hope so because the majority of those recruited were bomb scares!

Always glad to shed some light. 😄

Here’s our away record in the league against St. Mirren: P105; W31; D28; L46 Win = 29.5% Draw = 26.7% Lose = 43.8% Win or Draw = 56.2%

Perhaps the silence from the board is a sign they’re doing some research into who they’d appoint before they dismiss Kettlewell. But then again perhaps not!

What an utterly inane post!

Has it escaped your notice that we are 5 points ahead of Livingston but they have 2 games in hand!

We never looked like winning this game and I didn’t think we deserved to, but to be fair I didn’t think we deserved to lose it either. St.Johnstone are a poor outfit who created nothing and only got a goal thanks to our keeper making an utter horlicks of a cross. However whilst home draws against teams like this are better than defeats they will ultimately be our downfall. I’m afraid Stuart Kettlewell is out of his depth and does not appear to have the answer to our present predicament. The board must now decide quickly whether they are going to keep him or get rid and if it’s the former, come out and say so.

Todays attendance dipped below 4,000.

Has to be gotten rid of now! It’s pretty clear he just does not have the answers to sort this out.

Gent and Zdravkovski who’ve spent most of their time warming the bench are our two best players today.

Wasn’t a free kick in the first place.

Wtf was Kelly doing there? If you come out for that kind of ball you must get hands to it. That’s St. Johnstone’s 1st away goal of the season!!

Are you being serious?? Ever since football became a mass spectator sport and fans had to pay to watch it they’ve been praising and berating (your word) players. In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s all part and parcel of the football spectacle. The old adage still applies: if you can’t take the heat then stay out of the kitchen. What do think the current crop at FP deserve with the utter dross they’ve served up since September? Laurel leaves?

If that’s your take on it fair enough. Mine is different. It all depends how you view his remarks in relation to the present context.

Stuart Kettlewell comments from the BBC: “There's certainly not been any conversations about my future at the club. We are so knee jerk in this country. We don't strip layers back and look at factors like budget, size of squad and injuries.” Sounds awfully like a pre-emptive strike at the board. And he didn’t know about any of that before he took the job? Who the f*ck did he think he was joining? Real Madrid!? Well that’s it for me. Time to get rid asap!