Kmcalpin

Yes, Celtic away.

Views probably conform to a normal distribution curve. There are a few who will back him come what may and a few who have never liked him. The vast majority will be somewhere in between.

Its a sad fact of life that managers suffer abuse at almost all clubs when things go pear shaped. Our club and fans are no exception but not nearly in the same league as has happened elsewhere thankfully.

It's far from simple. However to date, SK has proved to be inflexible and slow to learn from his mistakes.

If you had been there at full time you would have felt and heard the toxic atmosphere. Whilst I wouldn't care to apportion a specific percentage you can be assured that loads of fans have turned against SK. That said, I didn't hear much abuse thankfully.

Whilst that will be critical to a good result, we'll also need to set up correctly and change our tactics. We have to be prepared to counter a high press. More of the same won't do. Let's keep the ball on the ground even at corners. Up front the strikers need to link up and play as a unit. Is SK capable of adapting his approach?

Anyone hear about trouble after the game?

We're sitting just 7 points off 11th place and Hearts are improving. Can't see us taking much off St Johnstone and Celtic.

A rumour on P & B that Ross Callachan is out for the season. No harm to the lad and I hope he recovers, but if true, that's one wasted wage. He did come with a bad injury record.

Our group will be represented next week and I'll be there. However it'll be out of a sense of duty to our club. Not expecting much.

That's it for me. As mentioned elsewhere I.e.P &B its hard to detect any kind of system, structure or shape. You can't put a label on the team (no snide answers please!). We look shambolic and disorganised. The defending when we conceded the corner which held to the goal yesterday was downright shocking. Schoolboy stuff. Wilson's positioning was poor but he received no support from anyone.

The travelling support.

Having slept on yesterdays game (not during it), I'm angrier now than I was at full time. I think he's now lost the support and if the directors don't act soon, attendances will plummet forcing their hand. Tentative signs yesterday that the players had lost faith. I can stomach dull football, but not if results are equally poor, which they are. Kettlewell has suffered horrendous bad luck (?) through injuries and I get that to some extent, but his reaction to that has been less than impressive. His summer signings are now coming under the spotlight for different reasons and many are found to be wanting. His now weekly meltdowns and yellow cards also indicate a manager under great pressure and he's not handling it well.

If Stama was a meant to be that person then he was very badly scouted. Surely its obvious from videos that he doesn't have the physique? That shouldn't be hard to find out, even remotely. Yes, others are involved in recruitment and must take some responsibility, but the onus lies fairly and squarely on SK's shoulders. He takes the decisions and is paid accordingly. Whoever is in the hot seat big changes are required for the summer. The problem is that planning is well advanced for that.

There's no point in repeating many of the above comments with which I agree, and so I'll highlight a few other thoughts after today's debacle. On paper our line up seemed reasonable given our injuries although playing Maswanhise out wide and isolated from Vale was a big mistake. I was a bit disappointed that 16 year old Jack O'Connell was named as substitute goalie. I quite get that it may have been difficult to source another keeper at short notice though. OK it was unlikely that he'd be called upon but potentially chucking on a 16 year old in goals in a cup tie? Really. It came as no surprise to me to and some others, whatsoever, that West Ham recalled Hegyi due to lack of game time. We were expecting exactly that. If we could see that why couldn't management? A lack of planning. Early days and although Mair didn't have much to do he didn't inspire confidence with cross balls and fumbled one. Could he have done better at the goal? Its the first time I've seen Kai Andrews but he looked a little boy lost today. Too early to judge a very young player but was he a panic knee jerk signing? Our gameplan, if it could be called that, defied belief. I'm no tactician but constantly firing high balls down the throat of 2 huge central defenders is ever only going to end one way. Talking of defences, our central defence needs completely, and I mean completely, revamping for next season, maybe Gordon aside. No manager is going to have 100% success with signings but it seems to me that SK made more than a few errors last summer and some of his choices & decisions are now looking to be mistakes. A point made by a few posters before. Management and players let down our big travelling support badly today and they won't forget it in a hurry.

I don't know about that. Certainly we do miss Bair - no argument about that though. Stama has the makings of an excellent striker as does Vale. However they're not being used correctly. Neither is a big physical target man although that's how they're being asked to play. I felt very sorry for Vale today having to compete in the air with 2 6-4 centre backs. Hung out to dry. They both need to play off a big target man but that's not how we set up. Given SK's preferred style of play with one striker I just can't understand why he didn't sign a big target man in the summer. A mega mistake on his part.

Agreed, its not all on SK. There were several occasions today when players pulled out of 50/50 challenges or made no effort to put in a very winnable challenge.

Players are only human and whilst they should be professional, it must be hard to give of your best if you're constantly being asked to do things for which you're not suited. I've been in the position of losing faith in a manager and believe me it's very hard, in that situation, to give 100%. In such situations I resorted to vicious compliance. The problem for players is that in such a situation the fans can blame them.

It depends what was behind it. Players have different personalities and I suspect that Dan Casey is a big character in the dressing room. If it was simply one extrovert that spoke up on his own at random then I agree. However if he was articulating feelings of others then the manager has a huge problem of his own making. What concerns me is that many fans including me, feel that SK is hanging some players like Casey, Wilson, Vale and Maswanhise out to dry and is not playing to the team's strengths.

Although I haven't seen recent away games before today I thought that the biggest difference today was that St Johnstone worked far harder than us especially when not in possession. They got in our faces, swarmed all over us and closed us down. We sat off them and just didn't do that. Their attitude was far far better than ours. Our lads lacked self belief and motivation for the most part. That's down in large part to management.

The way things are going, we could easily be in the play off position. There doesn't seem to be much prospect of an improvement in the next couple of games. Next week alone won't determine 12th and 11th spots but it could be season defining for us. If we lose again next Saturday, SK's position with the fans will be irrecoverable. I'm surprised just how quickly many fans have really turned against him , although I shouldn't be, given given recent results and performances. Today was the first tentative sign I've seen that the players are losing faith.

If I was Jack Vale tonight, I'd be totally p****d off. Asked to play a role for which he's not cut out physically and without support.

First signs today that he's starting to lose the dressing room. Apparently Casey told him a few home truths at half time. .

SK did himself no favours today. He failed to motivate the players, and set us up all wrong. Did we do any homework on StJohnstone at all? It didn"t seem like it. I'm sticking with him until next Saturday. Another loss though and that's it for me.

Game being lost off the park.