gary_411

Not ready for this level he was the best player on the pitch, and could've had a couple of goals. And Humphrey was past his man at least 3 times and twice put the ball into a position where we should definitely have scored. Some people just see what they want to see. Hateley is another one people just love to hate, he gets forward better than most fullbacks in the league and I don't remember him getting toasted.

Fair enough, but had it only been 1-0 at half time, even McCall might have had a bit more belief. And most of the pumping happened when we had just 10 men.

have tried to avoid being sucked into all the misery of the past week, but today is too much. we started brightly, the three in the middle were working well and.we kept Celtic quiet for a bit. They couldn't pass around us so quickly resorted to firing the ball over our defence who were largely shambolic today. They beat us without getting out of first gear. At 2-0 at half time McCall had a chance.to change it but just left us to capitulate further. They could've had ten had it not been for Randolph playing a blinder. Ojamaa (and probably Daley) should have been on so much sooner. Henrik was a standout on Sunday and basically won us the game in Dundee- he surely deserved more than ten minutes. The last 3 games have witnessed an almost Craig Levein level of poor management from Stuart McCall. I can only hope he gets his finger out and we dismantle what has been shown to be a shite Dundee United team next Saturday.

Even without the goals Higdon had a fantastic game. Won just about everything, and found a 'Well player on most occasions. Add to that 3 very well taken goals and it really is a wonder anyone complains about him. Scoreline does flatter us a bit, however. Hateley didn't really do enough in midfield to justify a continued run in that position, and after Law went off we were lucky not to be overrun in the middle, the goals coming at just the right time. Hateley is a very good player but I'd rather see Carswell or Hetherington at CM than him, but given those two both played midweek I can see McCall's thinking. Some great individual performances from front to back should remind everyone why we were best of the rest last season, and have a good chance of doing similar this year. Kerr, Lasley, Cummins, Humphrey and Randolph all really stepped up to outclass ICT, and that could be the difference throughout this campaign. If our key players perform to their capabilities we can outplay and outscore most teams in the league; this can compensate for a small squad and perhaps McCalls lack of a plan B on occasion, but shouldn't be expected every single week! Top of the league and still unbeaten going into the international break is fantastic, especially considering we've had games coming thick and fast all this month. 2 weeks for the players to recover from any knocks and fatigue before an away day to Dundee. Cannot wait.

Referee was a fanny. We might have been poor but St Mirren weren't going to get a goal until he did them a favour. McCall made a good point that a few on here could do with taking heed of. We were far from our best in terms of keeping the ball but we did dig in with some solid defensive performances, and nearly had 3 points but for the last 30 seconds. Again, Higdon will divide opinion but he won plenty, and Murphy/Ojamaa got plenty of the ball from him, they were just wasteful with it. Heard so many people spouting that "Ojamaa's pish", "he's no interested" and "he needs hunted", ludicrous really when you see how tame we look up front when he went off. We have a lot of players who can cause problems for defenders, even when they're not firing on cylinders. We could do with learning to appreciate players like Henrik who are capable of winning games with moment of magic. A poor performance today but still unbeaten and without too much to worry about, we're capable of much better.

That's basically what was played today but no-one was willing to help Hammell on the left, and he was overrun for most of the second half. Ojamaa would rather play as part of a front two than in the deeper position Murphy does but this means the formation is a bit imbalanced. We got away with it in the most part against Killie as ZFA was a bit faster, and Ramsden/Cummins were able to come out and pick up the extra man. Saints played with 2 out and out strikers today so we didn't have that luxury of a spare CB to cover. Added to this, not one of the midfield 3 seemed to settle in the holding role; Law, Lasley and Hetherington all floated in and out of that space in front of the defence. This meant we didn't really get the security that the extra man should have given us. We didn't make the most out of the formation and players we had on the pitch, and a win would have been a very fortunate result.

Good few doses of common sense.

He can put in a decent ball with a bit of time but find myself screaming at him to overlap or play a forward ball. Not as strong or as fast going forward as Hateley in my mind.

Flying Manchester to Madrid on the Monday and seeing El Classico at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night. Getting the bus to Valencia on the morning of the game and flying back from Alicante to Prestwick on the Saturday. First time away to see the Well

Annoying to see so much stick for the players after the fortnight they've had right at the start of the season. St Johnstone barely had a look in first half, it looked like it was only a matter of time before we scored with all the possession we had. I thought Hateley kept Hasselbaink very quiet for those 45 minutes, and given he was their major threat we didn't have much to worry about. They did come in to the game a bit more after the break but they only got their goal when we went down to ten men; we should be grateful for the determination shown by the players to rally round as they could easily have chucked it at that stage. McHugh took his chances, seems to have a knack for making the most of his cameo appearances but we'll be interested if he can perform as well when given a start. The boos when Lasley was subbed were cringe worthy. He was playing badly, sitting far too deep and offering nothing around the box; nothing like his usual self. It looked like he was struggling with an injury or fatigue and he's since come out on twitter to say he was unwell. It was unfortunate that Hetherington had to be thrown in at the deep end, into a two man midfield alongside Law who isn't really an out and out midfielder, he had a lot of work to do but managed okay in what were difficult conditions. He's another one I'd like to see starting, hopefully in last season's Jennings role as a return to 3 in the middle is what we really need. A midfield trio of Lasley, Law and Hetherington with Ojamaa, Higdon and Murphy further up the pitch should see us get our goals back. And Humphrey coming back from injury will give us another spark. Nothing to worry about yet. Still unbeaten and only 2 points worse than this stage last year. And Ian Brines can congratulate himself on another fine attempt at ruining a game of football. Needless booking for Ramsden early doors set the tone as he had to book almost every foul after that, and Higdon was never going to have much luck up front with him officiating.

To be unveiled tomorrow at noon apparently.

I'd be more inclined to sign it if it didn't read like it was written by a five year-old.

That shirt is stunning. Shame the hooped sleeves always remind me of the Malpas regime. I'd be surprised if we have a white away shirt next season given that the current one is silver. Wouldn't mind an all claret one if the petrol blue is deemed too radical a change!

Another GIRUY to Rangers, the team they put five goals past last night have five players in team of the year!

Absolutely fantastic tonight to a man, especially in defence. Very impressive. The bottle this team has shown is brilliant and that result all but guarantees CL football, so happy. Atmosphere tonight was amazing, love the away days at tynecastle, especially getting it right up them like that. Also, sad to hear that's Brian Winter's last SPL game, he was brilliant tonight! Didn't have a single complaint, let the game run and didnt do a thing wrong. Well done.

I emailed the club, they reckon there'll be about 300 tickets on the gate. Not sure how many fans we'll take given it's on tele so that should be plenty. 15 quid is a bit steep for a student but I guess thats the way it is! Hopefully the performance will be worth it and we can celebrate (almost ) guaranteed champions league football with a win! Would go with the same team as Saturday, give or take Ojamaa for Murphy. Jamie's put in some great performances against Hearts in recent seasons so with a bit of confidence I reckon he can be among the goals tomorrow.

Fantastic results for us today, hopefully that will take a bit of the wind out of united's sails. A win tomorrow would be massive and I feel like we've almost always stepped up to the plate when we've needed to keep our hold on 3rd. Dunfermline, Hibs and Hearts at home spring to mind. That wee bit of breathing space tomorrow evening would be excellent.

You're right, it should say I've ever seen, but that wouldn't rhyme. Apart from that it's pretty spot on.

What?

To play devil's advocate, if a player is sent off they usually do serve a suspension in another game. But managers are different, and based on what McCall claims to have said he definitely doesn't need punished any further. The truth hurts for the SFA it seems.

Won't hold my breath on anything major coming of this. But change is needed and this could be a step in the right direction. Can't understand Celtic's outrage at us having a meeting without them? What about their 5% on ticket sales pish a few years back, to name but one incident. Hope we can hold them to ransom to get the league living to its full potential. Without the OF we'll still have (at least) a ten team league, and a more competitive one at that albeit with a less impressive TV package than we have now, whatever that's worth. Without US the old firm would have a 2 team league built around hatred and sectarianism. And we need them? Mon the diddies!

Exactly, surely they realise we're a big team now?

If we take anything at all from Kilmarnock this Saturday then we're in second place with 2 games to the split. That is unbelievable, ten point deductions notwithstanding. In my eyes, it would be madness to think 3rd is a given, but just as careless to rule out finishing second. We're as good as Rangers, albeit we very rarely perform against them, and should be taking them to the wire for second place and the £900,000 difference in prize money. Anything else is defeatist. Killie showed today what a 'diddy' team can achieve. We need to believe!

Celtic at home on the last day of the season to take the title from them on goal difference? Jokes aside, would rather have away days to St Johnstone and Hearts. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the post split fixtures any more so will be interesting to see what the SPL decide on.

What must McCall have said? How can they send him to the stand for the rest of the game and then add another game on top of that, just for calling an embarrassing decision embarrassing?