Kmcalpin

Where did you find this information? No reference to it on the SFA's website.

Time to move on from last night's defeat, and I include myself in that. Lets look ahead to an important game. Time to get back on track again, in the first installment of a double header. Time for a change in formation and perhaps some personnel?

Just watched the highlights and I have to say Gillespie looks culpable, to some degree, at both goals. For the first he put us in immediate trouble with his throw out, as he did several times on Saturday, and he was in no mans land for the second. Maybe time to recall Trevor Carson. Manzinga's second card was deserved but you see that kind of thing week in week out with no action taken.

Worth thinking about but perhaps rest the burnt out Campbell and replace him with Ohara. Maybe worth giving young Cornelius some game time?

At the moment our only glimmer of hope is that Watt impresses and gets a run in the team. Given current form 3rd is not realistic and 4th looking increasingly unlikely. Hopefully we can stagger over the top 6 line. The next few league games against St Mirren and Accies will be anything but easy and we'll do well to pick up a win. The problem is that most other teams strengthened during the January window and we don't appear to have.

The problem is that we can't at the moment. Is this our annual winter meltdown?

Unlikely we were going to stop St Johnstone from scoring but at least we've scored too.

The original owners of the land...Dalziel Former Pupils Trust or something similar. The deal turned out to be less advantageous than originally envisaged.

The Trust got their fingers burnt I think with the Dalziel Park deal so might be wary.

Given our busy schedule I'd expect some rotation. Hopefully our midfield and defence will stand firm tonight. If they can do that we'll take something from the game.

Almost certainly we'll be in the north end of the Main Stand. A weather warning of ice and snow has been issued by the Met Office to those thinking of travelling to Perth tonight.

The script is that a handful of fans gave the club a very short term loan of £80K to pay off all outstanding external debts to Les and John Boyle. The club has now repaid that short term loan in full. A good explanation is given on P & B. The Society will continue to give the club an annual injection of cash with no expectation that these monies will ever be repaid. So I suppose that could be termed "internal" debt. Jim McMahon said years ago that the club would rely on this continuous annual cash injection from the Society.

First and foremost put in place a contingency fund for the inevitable bad spell. Secondly fork out for necessary maintenance to our ageing stadium; then raise the playing budget slightly with a focus on the Academy; and finally other priorities like a new training ground. We have to bear in mind though that its only just over £900k we're talking about just now. Its important though that the Society continues to attract new members and existing members are encouraged to contribute. Maybe some non members will be encouraged to join now that the Society hasn't tanked, as predicted by some, and the income is now going to the club as opposed to messrs Hutchison and Boyle. I do recall some fans saying that they would never contribute a single penny as long as it would go to paying off these debtors.

Well done to the Club's directors and management. Society members are also helping to finance the club through monthly contributions, all of which now remain in the club. Who says fan ownership doesn't work. Debt free......you bet.

Great pricing. Presumably it's not all ticket as announcement isn't clear about that.

We have a trialist playing for the reserves at Dumfries today. Barry Maguire is playing too, so must be fit again.

I'm not sure about that. Dunne is prone to the occasional blunder and his passing isn't exactly top notch but I reckon he's better than Hartley. The latter might have good leadership qualities and be better at attacking set pieces but he's not as good defensively and his passing is suicidial at times. I don't think our defence has been great at all this year despite recording quite a few clean sheets. Undoubtedly Gallagher and Gillespie have been the defensive rocks. Both Hartley and Dunne are out of contract at the end of this year, and as far as I know, neither have been offered new deals so far. Defensively neither Carroll nor Grimshaw/Tait have been great, although that may be down to the way they're instructed to play. Certainly many of our opponents have been pretty toothless so far and fortunately have been unable to convert frequent chances into goals. Although we limited St Mirren to one goal on Saturday they missed a few chances and also hit woodwork.

Like their eclesiastically named counterparts in Paisley, the tractormen have strengthened and improved somewhat compared to the first part of the season and this will be a very tricky game. Our recent record in Perth is nothing to shout about. As always they'll be organised, robust and streetwise and we'll have our work cut out to take anything from the game. We've stuttered somewhat since the Accies defeat and we'll need to turn up to get a result. With a busy programme in the next week or two Robbo may play a "long" game and he does have some options to rotate and keep the squad fresh so I'd like to see Tony Watt, Ndjoli and Ronaldo get some game time. Tait might come back in as might Campbell. If we're a few goals up or down late on then lets introduce any unused subs like Mugabi and MacIver. A win please but I'd settle for a draw.

Robbo reportedly made a comment which I found rather odd after the game. We all know that the strong wind was going to affect the game and that it was forecast well in advance, correctly as it turned out, to strengthen after 1600 i.e. half time. When St Mirren kicked off facing our end I assumed wrongly that we had won the toss but had deferred to Saints' tradition (?) to kick towards the north end in the second half. However Robbo explained that he and Keith reckoned that we would play with the wind at our backs in the first half in case the wind died down in the second half. Whatever they are they aren't weather forecasters!

Even from the poor vantage point of the North Stand we could see Saints defenders and central midfielders about to hit balls to their wide men. You could anticipate their moves well in advance. That allowed them to run at our defence as you say. Gallagher had to do the job of 2 men at times.

The right result played out in shocking conditions. Both sides could have won and both could have lost. We played some decent stuff on the deck at times. I thought we had the better set of attackers and they had the better set of defenders. We had to work hard for our chances whereas they were afforded them fairly easily. Gillespie, in goal, coped well in difficult conditions. Hartley did some decent things but was also a bombscare at times with his passing. Thank goodness for Gallagher yesterday he held what defence we had together. Thought too that our midfield was just outbattled, although O'Hara had a great game, maybe his best game since joining us. Aarons looks to be a very good player and I'm looking forward to him getting fully match fit. The others will have better days and were all too often caught on the ball by opponents swarming around them in numbers. The conditions weren't to Polworth's liking. A bit puzzled by Campbell coming on to replace Aarons as I thought that signalled our intention to sit on our lead and decreased what little width we had. Tony Watt can't be far away from match fitness and his presence will help us to freshen up a tiring squad. All in all a good cup tie although it was sad to see so many vacant seats when others were denied entry. My final word: the steak pies were tasteless; too much pastry and not enough meat; not a patch on their FP counterparts!

Just as I thought, no coverage of Rolando's "foul", but coverage of Saints' penalty claim. Were the highlights provided by St Mirren?

Absolutely. From kick off to final whistle it was our achilles heel and I was shocked we never tried to sort it. It ultimately cost us the win. Both full backs had poor games.

Dallas was totally inconsistent petty and like you I want to see the Aarons incident again, if it's shown, before I comment. I've never ever seen a referee reverse a throw in decision because the original thrower took too long. A first for me.

Clark Street.