Kmcalpin

Not really. All they have to do is to instruct fans to sit in their correct seats and enforce it. No exceptions. It isn't difficult.

According to Saints fans he's lightweight and has done nothing despite being a top earner. Brian Kerr Mk2. No thanks.

Very true. Had Stewart been red carded (correctly) then it would have a very different game. Ref was shockingly inconsistent and given the niggly bad tempered nature of the game a red card for one of our players was always likely All that said we were poor.

Last time I was there we arrived in plenty of time and when we showed our tickets to a steward he instructed us to disregard seat numbers and sit anywhere. Other fans were told to stick to allocated seats. A recipe for chaos and trouble.

Hopefully it won't be a shambles and the stewards will get their act together and give our fans correct and consistent advice.

A bit strong. No-one is forcing Turnbull out of the door except perhaps his agent. If he leaves shortly it'll be because of the cash on offer end of.

Yes, his potential contribution to our league campaign between now and May has to be factored in. His agent will be trying to drum up business down south and will be telling potential suitors what his compensation values will be.

Of more concern to me is whether we receive more compensation if he leaves next month or in June.

I agree with your reasoning but don't think we have the players to play this kind of football. Unlike many others I have no problem with playing hoofball or aerial football, but I do prefer open football on the ground. However Frear is unsuited to playing against deep lying defences, when his pace is of limited value. He's better suited to playing in more open games especially when we're a goal up. Apart from set pieces, we don't have the strikers to play aerial football. Of our 4 senior players (Johnson, Main, Bowman and Sammon) none are capable of playing successfully against increasingly towering central defenders. A lot of our current troubles are rooted in a failed summer recruitment campaign, when we signed not only unsuitable players, in the main, but also the wrong type of players. It may be, of course, that we had to resort to signing our 3rd, 4th or even 5th choice targets but thats being generous and speculative. As far as tomorrow goes, I hope that Killie suffer from complacency as, on paper, this should be a stroll in the park for them. First things first though we have to pick the right starting 11 and all of those chosen have to take the field with the correct attitude. That could be a big ask in itself. Still, its a game from which we have to take something. Merry Christmas to all.

Agree with most of your post but in the centre midfield I'd pick 3 from Gorrin, McHugh (not 100% convinced of him), Turnbull and Rose. My gameplan for Campbell would be to tell him to enjoy Boxing Day with his family.

I'm with Smiddy on this. If a player is exceptionally good in an attacking/creative sense such as your Davie Coopers, Bobby Russells or Pat Quinns then yes its not unreasonable to ask less gifted but more "solid" collueages to cover for them. You could build a midfield or indeed team around these players. Without being disrespectful, Bigi is nowhere near that class. By all accounts he's a thoroughly decent guy but there's no way we should build a midfield around him. Despite us playing "hoofball" there's been quite a few occasions this season where we've tried to play a bit of football through Bigi but he simply hasn't performed in an attacking sense.

A big game for us but aren't they all just now. We must take something from it, preferably 3 points.

Its widely believed that the club has budgeted for 10th place, following a few years of unsustainably planning for a top 6 finish. Some reduction in budget was certainly required I have no doubt about that. Financial planning in football is notoriously difficult and its far from being an exact science. A number of factors, such as a number of long term injuries can easily blow a club off course and I get that. There's no guarantee if you budget for a top 6 place that you'll finish in 6th spot. Its not only a case of what our club does its how our competitors budget and fare. Very fine margins indeed. Overall I think our club is well run and has done well off the field but I do feel that budgeting for 10th place is cutting it a bit fine. There's no room for error whatsoever. Should we be budgetting for 8th or 9th place instead? All that said, in preparing our budget, how do we know what rival clubs are going to do? A budget for 8th place this season might translate into a budget for 11th spot if rivals increase their spending. As far as next month;'s window is concerned we need to acquire by hook or by crook some pace and creativity. Make no mistake, St Mirren, Accies and Dundee will be trying to strengthen their squads and they'll find the cash to do so. Whether they, or we, are successful remains to be seen though.

A real debacle on Saturday which I thankfully missed. However I'll be at the game on Boxing Day with our usual group and at Hamilton on Saturday. Right now the team needs everybody's backing, irrespective of whether they've earned it or not.

Agree with both points. Campbell should have been rested by now but hasn't been and thats down to the management. He should be left out of the squad for the next 2 games. Before yesterday I had thought that 5 points would be a decent but minimum haul from our next 3 games. We now need points from both the Kilmarnock and Accies games. Will we get them? Thats anybody's guess, but Stephen Robinson has put himself under unnecessary pressure after yesterday's result. Lose the next two and he'll be deep s**t.

I commented on this some weeks ago. May have been the St Johnstone home defeat. He shirked several 50/50 tackles and at that point he lost my backing. In our position we need 11 triers/battlers on the pitch. TBH I was surprised Robbo picked him again. That said I wasn't there today and I'm not blaming him for today's debacle. Up until today many saw him as a potential saviour, maybe because he wasn't playing, but I suspect thats now changing.

He's ok and creative on the ball when we're the better side, but if not he disappears. He can't defend and his strengths don't compensate for his weaknesses. If he plays those around him have to cover for him. He wouldn't be in my team and I've said so in the past.

Could you elaborate please?

You could indeed. The old story of a team needing a result......

Not as such. Weeyin's figures are correct as of 31 May. However since then 40% of Cedric Kipre's fee (I think) will have gone to reducing the debt, assuming that it was paid in one installment and Les will write off a further £200k through his double you money scheme by the end of this month. So, I reckon we'll still owe these 2 gentlemen very roughly something like £320K by a week on Monday

Just watched the TV "highlights" and I don't get the Charles Dunne blame game. I would say his penalty challenge was down to lack of match fitness. For all 3 goals our defending was poor in a number of respects and stemmed from very poor off the ball work and being outmuscled when we did get close up. Celtic got in our faces we didn't get in theirs. We move on.

Calm down lads. Tonight was never going to be easy and I have no problem with the team Robbo has fielded. I doubt if our defence has played any worse than they did on Saturday but the Celtic strikers are taking their chances whilst their St Johnstone counterparts did not.

Captain Oats (On Pie & Bovril) has posted an article from the Alloa Advertiser which says that following talks between the 2 clubs, Jake Hastie is being recalled at the end of the month. No surprise then.

From Stephen Robinson's comments, several players will be replaced, if we have the cash available, but I suspect you know a good bit more than I do.