Kmcalpin

I used to work beside an Irish boyhood friend of his who now follows St Johnstone. He always referred to him as "Tom". I just picked that up I suppose.

He was seen at Fir Park last week at the Ross County game. Presumably spying on us.

A tough one to call. St Johnstone haven't hade the best of starts to the season so far as they are without a league win. That said, they've had a tough run of fixtures. They're usually well organised, hard working, combative and streetwise and I doubt if that'll change tomorrow. Their defence though has been a bit suspect especially when they open up. Add to that our recent record on the road at Perth is pretty poor. Tom Wright watched us in person last week and will be well aware our shortcomings. Our squad is perhaps more suited to counter attacking, so you'd hope that our style is compatible with this fixture. Right now our biggest weakness is in defence. I'm not convinced of either of our likely full backs defensively and that'll place unnecessary and unwanted pressure on our central defence and goalie. It also means that Donnelly and Campbell, if they play, will need to step up their game to counter a very abrasive and competitive Saints' midfield. I'm not sure about Hartley now but we can rely on Gallagher and Gillespie. Will Mugabi be thrown into this one? I want us to play a classic away gameplan; sitting deep, restricting Saints to long range efforts from 40 yards out and making very few errors. If either of our full backs is taking a roasting in the first 10 minutes (as has happened regularly at Perth) then I hope Robbo responds by making a quick change. No high balls above chest height for the strikers. If we can do all that we'll take at least a point from this game.

Official site reports that Charles Dunne will be out for 3-4 months following groin surgery. David Devine is also out for 6 weeks.

He's a thoroughly decent lad and a true Well fan. Good luck to him.

There's no doubt that the full backs have, for a number of reasons, been problem positions for us. Without upsetting the right hand side, we have no clear replacement for Carroll, when he is unavailable. In turn this overall issue is causing problems for Gillespie and his central defenders. We need to get it sorted asap but its not clear what the solution is. I'd be loathe to move Gallagher out of the middle.

Agreed. Am I not right in saying though that Ilic's "best" position is left back? Quite a few fringe players like Ilic, Mazinga, Mugabe and Sloth were given a run out the reserves today.

Usually by the end of September, we can get a good feel for our strongest 11 but I'm struggling this year. We've yet to see what the likes of Mugabi, Sloth, O'Hara, Manzinga, and to a lesser extent Ilic can do certainly. Some players may not be 100% fit yet. I'm interested to find out what others think of this summer's rebuild. As always there will be some successes and some failures and thats the nature of things. My own view is that we haven't quite got the full backs right in terms of back up; and we're badly missing a first pick number 9 striker. Cole, Long and currently Scott are all what I would term "secondary" strikers who, in normal circumstances, should be vying for 1 place but as its turned out we're picking 2 of the 3. Views folks?

Once again a well organised team doubled up on them - expect the same next Saturday too. In fairness, a lot of the service they received from the defence or central midfield wasn't great - shelling long high balls at them or passing behind them.

Yes. A powerful, but one sided, PR article in the Sunday Mail that blasts some limited (?) abuse on social media right out of the water. He must have friends in high places. I'm not fully into social media so don't know the nature or scale of the criticism. From the few comments that I've seen mainly on Fb or on here I haven't detected that much abuse or criticism - the odd comment maybe that he ought to have been more loyal but thats about it. I wish to the lad no ill and he was entitled to move on as he wanted but has this been blown out of proportion? Usually the sign of a good and well connected PR campaign is a press headline and lengthy article refuting a claim or comments that you haven't seen. I'd like to get MFC's side of the story, as a balance, but thats not going to happen any time soon.

Officials were shocking and not just at the major decisions. County gave the impression of being a very streetwise team and the ref couldn't cope with that. Gardyne for example could have received 3 yellow cards and Henderson broke Ikpeazu's recent record for the number of fouls committed without being punished - 7 by my count. I've not seen the highlights but if what you say is true about the "6-7 county boy" then the Compliance Officer should cite him, for bringing the game into disrepute. POD Stand side official let an awful lot of blatant jersey pulling go unpunished and that was really annoying. As far as Ya Beezer's comments about Cole are concerned, I agree that he looks to have something but just not in the role we played him in. To me , we had no central focus yesterday, no-one to cause danger in the box. Plenty of good leading up work but no destination for it. Our "strikers" are just not producing the goods and that needs to be urgently rectified in January. Our priority for next week should be to get the defence and defensive midfield sorted out though.

A sore one to take but County deserved their win. Unfortunately controversial and inconsistent refereeing left a bad taste in the mouth. Its no exaggeration to say that County could and should have had the game won before the clock showed 15 minutes. In that opening spell they could have scored no less than 4 goals, all from good chances. Our defence and midfield was a shambles. For the middle part of the game we played reasonably attractive football but lacked punch in the final third. Despite that I never at any point felt we were comfortably on top. We scored a peach of a goal but after that the wheels came off big time. In the last 30 minutes or so we completely lost our way and had Carroll not been red carded I think there's a fair chance we would still have lost. Our substitutions were poor, with the exception of Hylton for Seedorf. Tait was brought on, presumably to play left back but then didn't seem to play there as we retreated tortoise like into our own box. Once again defensively we were shambolic and disorganised. Hopefully lessons will have been learnt and we haven't suddenly turned into a bad side but top 4 we are not. Some decent performances from the likes of Gallagher and Polworth and Campbell and although the latter two weren't in top form they still put in decent performances. However we must move on and some fine tuning of the team is required. Once again today Grimshaw proved he's not a full back. Midfield maybe, right back definitely not. Hartley had a nightmare and if Mugabe is half like the thing then I'd start him at Perth. Up front we look lightweight without an out and out striker in the middle. The squad really lacks a number 9 and thats something that ought to have been recognised in the summer as it will cost us on the park. Goal apart I thought Cole contributed little and looked ill at ease in an unfathomable and ineffective position. James Scott showed some nice touches but, to me, is wasted out wide but not yet ready to play against hulking defenders. County did ride their luck and it just wasn't our day. A decent goal chalked off and a very strong penalty claim waved away.

Declan Gallagher for me. Did nothing outstanding as some others did but he was solid and consistent throughout; qualities we needed more of from others.

The same as Gardyne's challenge then, for which he escaped Scot free.

Quite possible Ross County will beat us 4-3 but Vigurs won't be on the scoresheet as he's injured.

Very true. I think we can expect the "lesser lights", including for example Ross County, in the Premiership to come to Fir Park and sit in. That will certainly test us. We'll need on the deck creativity and a powerful aerial prowess in equal measures.

Just watched the TV highlights onn BBC. Hearts were very lucky to see their first goal stand as Ikpeazu clearly fouls our defender, Gallagher I think.

Yes, there was. I think St Johnstone were also looking at Polworth, but they were certainly hoping to sign Gallagher. I don't know the details but Tommy Wright threw his toys out of the pram when he rejected them and signed for us. I don't think I've ever come across such a weird situation where neither the player's then current club (Livingston) or his new club (us) didn't announce the transfer but it instead was announced by a third party club (St Johnstone).

A very good result at a traditionally difficult venue from which to take points and we hit 3 goals. Performance wise, quite impressive although a weakened Hearts were very poor. Still, you can only beat the team in front of you. Some good individual performances too from the likes of Campbell, Polworth and Gallagher. The latter is really proving to be a very good signing and he's more than just a big central defender. Our two new wingers are also beginning to settle in. So, despite a huge turnover in players over the summer Robbo and Keith seem to be getting it right, although there's a long way to go. I do have two ongoing concerns from yesterday though. Our defending was bit sloppy at times and we lost 2 avoidable goals, making the end result far closer than it should have been and Hearts could have scored more. At the other end we made plenty of chances but despite hitting three we weren't as clinical as we should have been. In my opinion we still lack an out and striker, as the final piece in the jigsaw. Still its work in progress and so far so good. Very satisfying for the fans, who were fleeced by Hearts to be able to celebrate leaving the stadium with the 3 points.

Spot on. Good enough to play for Scotland - no, but there again who is? He's one of the best central defenders in the Premiership right now and whilst not lightning quick is pretty fast. Virtually unbeatable in the air.

Very true and thats no doubt why O'Hara has been brought in although he'll be short of match fitness. To Tynecastle you can add several other venues such as Pittodrie and Rugby Park.

Seems like Charles Dunne will be out for a month with a groin injury. It now seems clear thats why Mugabi has been brought in. That also reminds us of Robbo's earlier comments about us being short in central defence. Not sure what that says about Barry Maguire; maybe consistent with his revised listing on the Official site as a midfielder. Mugabi certainly seems to have all the necessary attributes for a central defender.

Likewise will Aaron Hickey be in the Hearts squad afer being withdrawn from the national Under 19 squad? Prices for this game are ridiculous and its plain that Hearts neither need nor want away fans.

I haven't been to Tynecastle for some years now because of the pricing, but this is plain ridiculous especially for an aspiring fan owned club. That said I think Edinburgh has just about the highest average salary levels in Scotland so £29 is relatively cheaper for their inhabitants than it is for those who live elsewhere. They're just at it.

Pretty much this. I lost all interest in international football years ago because of this failure to admit there is a problem, let alone deal with it. Too many vested interests as you say.