Handsome_Devil

We're set up to play with two guys who will contribute very little over the 90 mins and the fact we're not losing (yet) will be deemed proof it's working. St Johnstone will win this. They're not especially good but they're good enough that playing so much of the game in our third will get them another goal. Edit to add: I'm not even that annoyed at the players, they're not notably worse than usual. I just didn't see how Alexander thought this system would work, the match is surely going exactly as anyone would have expected in terms of the balance of play.

Scrappy stuff. Both sides will say they scored a good goal and conceded a soft one. I am shocked, shocked, that St Johnstone seem to be have more time on the ball than us given we've two guys contributing nothing on the wings and they've an extra man in midfield. As an aside, 3-5-2 would probably have a decent chance of working well for us.

Remember when we felt nostalgic for going 1-0 up in Perth and losing 2-1?

Same difference really, the obvious risks remain the same.

I'm bizarrely actually happy we appear to have a plan and are sticking to it. More confusing is St Johnstone appear to be lining up 3-5-2, as was expected, and a set up which so deliberately leaves you a man short in the centre of the park is usually a hell of a gamble in Scottish football. Obviously we'll hope to counter that somehow but it'll need someone with a better idea of tic-tacs to explain me the theory...I can only see that St J will be man for man at the back, a risk worth taking when there's only aimless punts from us, and the maths in the middle will put us under pressure. My best guess is our front three will be spread wide again in a bid to force their wing backs deep but we've seen how toothless we are doing that. Answers on a postcard.

Remarkably consistent... maybe we'll find out how the 5-2-3 works today.

Aside from the team tombola, we also need to be more proactive. You can see GA saying don't worry about possession and territory, sit deep and make sure we don't concede the first goal which which will mean we inevitably concede the first goal.

MOH training today and a couple of knocks who haven't trained through the week apparently - so the tombola machine might be a couple of numbers light, if you believe it.

Thanks for that. Yes, you'd think so but as said the back is where you look to be solid, build the base etc and - ideally - you would think there's less tinkering there than further up the park even with the man or two more.

Dare I ask how many midfield combinations we've tried?

Ultimately it will tell at the end of the season. Certainly at bigger clubs with large squads there's an acceptance that weakening the team a bit early in the season to have fresh legs when the trophies are handed out is intuitively worth it. Does it have a points value? Genuine question I've no idea. Would Liverpool or Man City, in a bawhair tight title race, right now say resting players but drawing a couple in October or February is worth those four points to be fully fit now? Or would they regret not putting every point on the board and just take their chances now with players a little more tired? If that is the plan it's safe to say our price in points has been a fucking high one. But if we storm home with 16 points from the last 24 when everyone else is dropping like flies, GA would be entitled to say told you so. However, if we apply the old Occam's Razor, what's more likely - we have a devilishly cunning plan which is about to come to fruition or GA simply doesn't know what he's doing and is repeating the mistakes which got him sacked three times before?

I'd have felt worse saying so had we not been every bit as bad for months.

I didn't think you were that bad when we played in December - the first half was a nothing game with the only difference being our shot from the edge of the box went just inside the post while yours 10 minutes later went just wide. But clearly there's problems all over the pitch and dugout, you don't get to where we are with St J's record otherwise.

We've kept one clean sheet in 14 (fourteen!), playing for a 0-0 against us is insane.

This was my attitude too but perversely I'm now as up for it as ever despite our form. The Hibs game showed again the players are neither completely useless or giving up. Barring a miracle fifth gets you into Europe. St Johnstone - no offence lads - are clearly absolute horseshite. A scrambled win through a deflection or soft penalty and we're likely top six with a couple of games to go, potentially on course for Europe and are feeling like we might somehow salvage this. I mean, I know that's probably only going to last a week till we lose to St Mirren but there's enough depression and misery supporting us at the best of times, you might as well clutch the straws when they're there. Kelly; SOD; SSJ; Lamie; McGinley; Donnelly, Cornelius, Slattery⋆; Roberts, KVV, Woolery for me though there's obviously no chance of Slattery. I think he'll recall Goss. 0-2. Let's go mental.

We're surely onto last chance saloon with our hopes on Saturday. Or maybe it's the last chance to get to the last chance saloon as we could still easily blow it even if we win. I agree on Hibs and Livingston, last one you're picking out a hat right now. You could borrow the Alexander tombola machine.

Is that just league games or including cups against lower league opposition? Including cups. We've managed it in the league once, unless I overlooked something.

Correct. We've scored three (or more) goals in a game three times under GA.

Not really, no. But it's not impossible There have been a couple of times teams have gone mental post split to save themselves though has there not? You can imagine that whoever of the lot chasing the top six don't make it will effectively down tools and look to next season as Aberdeen already seem to be doing.

Our current form is we draw half our league games and lose the other half, if that continues for the remaining eight games we'll have 40 points. St Johnstone would then need to be unbeaten in their last eight (four wins, four draws) to overtake us on goal difference, lose just once (W5 D2 L1) or twice (with W6 D0 L2). Impossible? No. But highly unlikely. The only way we'll be in any danger is if we actually manage to get worse in the next eight games than we've been in the last 10. Dunno if that's a comforting thought or not...

Are the dolphin and giraffe in the tombola for the starting XI on Saturday?

The Finnish for Brian Martin is clearly Juhani Ojala. A shame because he looked good, if fragile, at first but barring a miraculous fitness turnaround in summer his latest injuries have surely called time on him at any kind of level.

I agree with your analysis of his thinking but he's tried this for ages - with the odd exception - and it's clearly not working. If we lost those first goals because we were playing open attacking football it would be a logical change. We lose these goals because we (generally - as I said there have been exceptions) set out to do nothing but defend and only 'attack' with aimless punts up the park. It's then no surprise our weak defence and nervous players with zero confidence make mistakes. It's like a golfer slicing his tee shot out the park, sticking down another ball and thinking I'll aim a wee bit left so it doesn't happen again. He duly wallops that out the park as well and decides to aim a wee bit further left again with attempt three, only for the same thing to happen. I've no idea how many balls our imaginary amateur golfer needs to blast out the park before the penny drops but in the real world Alexander is still hacking away. I don't normally actually get that angry about us being shite, I accept it comes with the territory. I'm getting right wound up now though because we're so obviously under-performing when there's more there - both in terms of our own level and where we could end up in a season where Europe is there for the taking. And that applies to the manager as well - Alexander can by and large motivate, organize and recruit perfectly well. There are a couple of aspects that need a little polishing but there's no reason he shouldn't be a perfectly solid manager for us other than his determination to prove insanity is not doing the same negative thing over and over again while expecting a different result.

Hibs did all they needed to, asking for more in the cup is rather pointless. A brilliant chance for Hampden thrown away by us though with the likely semi-finals you'd have said we were massive outsiders to go any further.

Ultimately he takes responsibility for the team and saying 'oh it was the ref' carries water in a one-off, not in the sort of run we're on. If we don't turn it round in the league - and I would be delighted if we do but there's bugger all to suggest it - then the end of the season will be brutal and the knock on effect on season ticket sales will absolutely force the board to consider his position. I can't see how anyone will think otherwise.