Kmcalpin

Don't blame him. Why was he selected?

Our build up so far has either been a long punt up the park to the Saints defenders or a deliberate, slow and predictable build up.

We need to switch to a 4-4-2 as the midfield 3 are being bulldozed and we're sitting too deep. St Johnstone seem,so far, to be a far fitter and hard working side than we are; far more energy than us. Someone needs to tell the players that this is a one off cup tie

2 yellow cards there?

You can't blame the strikers Iain, as they've been given almost no service.

Midfield has been anonymous so far.

Here's hoping we defend the wings better in midfield and protect the full backs. No unnecessary crosses to pressurise our central defence and goalie plaese.

Almost the same team as last week but Lamie replaces McGinley who is on the bench. Interesting.

The Society has emailed members about the cost of tomorrow's game stream. Basically, for all domestic cup competitions both clubs must agree the prices. We had proposed a slightly lower price, but St Johnstone wanted it higher. £12 was the compromise. The SPFL stipulates that monies from this streaming has to be split between the clubs. There are also additional costs for this match. For tomorrow's fixture our club, not the SPFL as normal, has had to pay a company to film the game and transmit the signal to its streaming providers. The streaming provider also takes a small cut as does the SPFL. In short, the club says it has done everything possible to minimse the price whilst an attempt is made to at least cover the costs. I'm sure season ticket holders of both clubs are very grateful to St Johnstone for protecting our rights and not setting the price too low.

If I remember rightly, Alex Ferguson started his psychological nonsense well before the game. He very publicly implored the referee to protect his naive and frail players from our likely brutality. They would need protection from our "thugs" like Davidson, Marinello, Graham and Pettigrew and Wark. In reality his young charges were streetwise and anything but naive. They were old way beyond their years and had been very well coached in the dark arts of football.

Like others I'm a wee bit surpised at the venom of some comments on facebook. Yes, I do get that the quality of streaming hasn't been great. I suppose the club could have jacked up the PPV prices to say £18 per game and chucked in free cup games to season ticket holders but whatever the club does it will get brickbats. Personally I'm happy with the arrangement in the circumstances. I doubt that we'll have to share the TV income.

Just had the benefit of watching the highligts on BBC. Our goal was well taken and worked although it had a slight element of good luck about it when the ball was deflected nicely into O'Hara's path. That kind of thing though has often happened against us so I'll take it happily. Saints' penalty was a tad harsh but Mugabi was a bit naive and May made the most of it. That said O'Hara shouldn't have been dispossessed so easily and the No 10 had all the time and space in the world to work his forward. Any one of 3 midfielders could have closed him down but didn't. Bryson ought to have seen red as a few have said. It was a trip - he tried to rake his studs down Chapman's calf and the ref only stored up further trouble by failing to show him the red card. All in all though a decent away point at a difficult venue, especially in view of unavoidable late call offs. If our injury situation improves there's no reason why we shouldn't be in the mix for a top 6 place. On paper we have a decent squad if we can get all of them fit.

It might even be competing for 6th place as Dundee United are starting to pull away, as they should be on their budget. Pre season I thought they'd be a good bet for a top six finish and I've seen little to dissuade me of that notion.

Ankle knock after a tackle.

Wee bit concerned again at the amount of freedom the St Johnstone wing backs were afforded to sling over crosses.

A good point which I would happily have taken pre match. St Johnstone have, for some years, been a combative and abrasive team. That is no accident and is part and parcel of the way they play. They could and should have picked up a couple of red cards but were very lucky they didn’t. Very annoying given the number of red cards we’ve picked up in Perth. This will now impact on next week’s game which will be very niggly. Knowing Saints they will be out to needle our lads next week with gamesmanship and “experience”. Questions need to be asked of the SFA as to how the covid 19 situation arose and why the need for Campbell and Maguire to self isolate was only confirmed 4 hours before kick off. It’s grossly unjust that we should be disadvantaged by helping out the SFA if any organisational errors are found to have taken place.

I assumed that the SPFL is waiting on the results of the investigation into Kilmarnock and St Mirren in case there are implications arising from that.

I think so too, and thats why I reckon he'll be with us until May.

Your concern about Lamie I understand, but McGinley hasn't been too bad so far - as good as O'Donnell I'd say. Assuming that Carroll is not quite fit yet then the only other candidates are O'Donnell and Grimshaw. I'm happy to stick with McGinley.

I can't see O'Donnell staying and quite frankly I never expected him to do so. Big Dec's stock has risen due to his international escapades and I'm not surprised that the hawks are circling, but I don't think he'll move on until the end of the season. I wouldn't sell him for less than £500k in the January window and I can't see any interested parties offering that in January. As always, time will tell though.

So, who is your preferred left back?

Very predictable draw. I thought we'd get St Mirren, Hibs or St Johnstone, but more than likely the latter because we play them next weekend in the league. At least its at home.

Almost certainly he'll have been offerd one some months ago, as have the likes of Allan Campbell and Stephen O'Donnell. Whether he signs it though is an entirely different matter. It wouldn't surprise me if he did and it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't.

No, they dived off the park. Funniest thing in that game was Willie Watson about to tackle Bobby Torrance. The wily Willie stopped dead to fox Torrance. Torrance hoping to con the ref jumped 6ft in the air, landed and rolled about on the turf. He looked ridiculous as no tackle was even attempted.

Will they need to consult the SFA? That could take several weeks until the relevant committee/sub committee meets and deliberates.