Kmcalpin

I'm not sure that releasing information on Moulty's injury was wise. If he isn't going to make it it will give Canning time to shape his thoughts, and if he is deemed fit, Canning will instruct his defenders to target him.

Our defenders should know our keeper's weaknesses and they should adapt their game accordingly. Ok it puts more pressure on them to compensate for a colleague's weaknesses, and thats pressure they can well do without but thats our situation.

It takes all kinds Al. Some would be over a loss 5 minutes after the match, some wouldn't bother at all and some might take a day or two to recover. Hopefully we won't have to find out.

Just hoping for some good luck on Wednesday. We're certainly due it in bucket loads.

He had all the time and space in the world to pick his target out for a free cross. No-one closed him down. Samson too could and should have done better. In short poor defending. Overall though a huge improvement and it was good to see the team have ago at Ibrox instead of sitting back. Robinson seems to have installed some much needed spirit and organisation to the team. It would have been good if our chalked effort had been allowed but in terms of luck it hasn't been our season. Lets hope our improvement continues.

Top tier of the South Stand yes, POD Stand...no thanks.

Our right side should be interesting. Presumably Cadden will be playing RB, but with no-one in front of him? Still its an attacking formation and its good to see Bowman getting a start. He should be a decent target man up front. Fingers crossed we finish the game with 11 men on the pitch.

Well if the likes of Killie, St Johnstone and Partick can do it on similar budgets there's no reason why we can't.

Hateley was a reasonable full back, no more no less. Compared to who we've had since he was a lot better. He was not as good as a few in the recent past though.

He'll also do a job if he has a solid defensive full back behind him. In the right set up he'd do well.

He's an honest trier and will always give 100%. Although not the fastest, he's good going forward. However his positional sense isn't the best and defensively he's weak.

Again, not the biggest of keepers so you're going to have to have 2 defensively excellent full backs and 2 towering centre backs to defend him.

I thought exactly the same Joe. Very strange. So, it would appear that we don't have an out and out replacement right back. To be honest I rate Tait as decent back up but not a first pick. Right back has been a problem position for us for a number of years now.

Jack MacMillan is a right back. Apart from that decent assessment.

How well did Griffiths play in goal last night?

I go along with that Greg, although I wouldn't be concerned if Tait moved on. He's ok but not a great defender and I'd like to see us build from the back for once. We have to sort out our defensive game.

Just watched the TV highlights yet again. Given that Cadden was playing wide right midfield you'd have expected him to be lurking somewhere at the back post or in the vicinity of Craig but he was in the middle of the box and realised the danger far too late. It really is a feature of our play that our wide midfielders frequently get sucked into the middle of the park when defending.

The problem is Haggis that due to the the way we play we don't have a strongest side. My strongest side for games against the bigger clubs away from home is not the same one I'd play at home against the rest.

Agreed. In this game and at the likes of Parkhead, Pittodrie and Tynecastle, Bowman should be our preferred choice. Whilst Moult is the better striker, Bowman is the better target man. He's big and strong, can run all day and hold the ball up. In his limited gametime recently he's shown he can give us something.

Agree 100%. I thought he had a decent game yesterday and was the better of our 2 full backs. Looking at St Johnstone's move from start to finish he was the only one who tried to defend and received no help from anyone. On a wider note, I'm not sure if the return of Tait, McManus and Heneghan, whenever that is, will improve our defence markedly. Its been very poor all season and indeed well before that. The kind of errors which led to Saints' goals yesterday are typical of those we've been conceding all season. Sportsound pundits commented on our poor defensive record and said that our inability to stop unhindered crosses coming into our box was a fundamental weakness of our game. Its not all down to the defence though, our midfield has been rank for years at protecting the defence. When McHugh returns to midfield that should help.

Come the split I think we'll finish up with about 31 points, with Ross County on 29, Accies on 28 and Inverness on 25. However its almost impossible to predict outcomes. I reckon we'll pick up 4 more points from our remaining pre split fixtures. The home games against Accies and Inverness will be hugely important and it will be important to get two wins but I reckon we'll need to settle for one win and one draw.

Agreed, he's been a big disappointment so far. OK age is catching up with him but he's being played in a defensive role which just isn't his game. Too often yesterday he sat deep and allowed Clay to play further forward which he isn't suited to doing.

Just watched the TV highlights. Quick comments on Skippy's penalty claim and the 2 goals we lost. It was a definite penalty (from both the front and back views) as he was wrestled to the ground. So Saints were lucky to get off with that. First goal: Hammell caught badly out of position and he allows the St Johnstone player both time and space to pick out his target. How many goals like this has Hammell cost us over the years? That said our central defenders allowed Craig too much leeway to get his header in. Samson not to blame. Second goal: a horror story from start to finish. On our left flank we have 2 players who could and should have closed the Saints player down but instead both back off (exactly the opposite of how Saints would have dealt with this threat). The Saints player has all the time and space in the world to pick out Craig. Ferguson has lost his man but then again Samson could have given him a shout. Not just Ferguson though - no other defender near the back post. Could Samson have done better at his near post? Maybe? These defensive shortcomings were evident from start to finish yesterday and are typical of our failings this season, irrespective of who has been playing. No wonder we have the poorest defensive record in the league.

It was hard to say at times wasn't it? Improved effort aside, it could well have been him in charge today. In terms of organisation and tactics I couldn't detect much difference. What hasn't worked in the past didn't work again yesterday. We have to be fair to Robinson though in that they probably weren't his tactics - he will not have wanted to change too much too soon. It could well take him a handful of games before he can make much improvement tactically. Midfield and defence looked disorganised for long spells and the hard working Moult and MacDonald were poor. We're still playing lads out of position in midfield and attack - hopefully he'll sort that out quickly.

A very telling post, which hits the nail on the head for me. Over the piece I don't think we did quite enough for a point. Certainly Robinson has given the team a bit of lift in terms of effort and thats plain to see, but I think we, not him, got our tactics a bit wrong. Certainly we were hampered by injury but all too often our old faults were evident. * Moult ending up playing wide * MacDonald sitting too deep and not linking with Moult. * Us using Moult & MacDonald as targetmen with long high balls. * Shambolic defending with Saints players being afforded too much room and time - our players not supporting each other. * Playing Pearson in the wrong role. Saints were far more organised and workmanlike than us; got in our faces; and supported each other. They didn't make nearly as many errors as we did. They were also far more clinical than us in taking chances. Interestingly the corner count was 9-2 in their favour. It took us over 35 minutes to register an effort on goal and we hardly troubled their keepers. That said, we scorned a good few chances. Admittedly Saints were carrying a good deal of luck and shocking officiating didn't help our cause. In the second half we improved a bit and exerted more pressure but Saints always looked like they had more in their locker and so it proved. As Tweed wrote I was a wee bit baffled by our substitutions, although Robinson did try to shake things up. A worrying note for me was in the first half when Saints had a corner. Frear was trying to cover 2 men just outside our box. Faddy gestures to him to move up the park, which he did. The 2 Saints attackers stand their ground, by now completely unmarked, one gets the ball from a poor clearance and fires off a decent shot. So, some signs of improvement for me today in terms of attitude but we have a long, long way to go.