Handsome_Devil

Jim McMahon was sitting among the support yesterday rather than the prawn sandwich seats. I've no idea how connected he usually is to the feelings of us in the humble masses but safe to say he'll have little doubt after that display.

Given his previous record of starting well and struggling there was no reason to extend his deal before he'd shown he'd avoid that same slump with us. On the back of the year and in particular the run up to Xmas it was hard to be mega negative about it but it certainly seemed pointless to me. With our style of football and the tight nature of the league he wasn't attracting interest from anywhere else (publicly at least) and with his previous deal we could have easily waited till now or summer to extend it. The potential reward from extending him - that he became so attractive he was poached and we would bank more money should he leave essentially - seemed a very dubious reward in contrast to the risk of costing us more should the wheels fall off the wagon sometime in the future. In contrast to some folk I don't have major issues with the leadership of the club, I think by and large they get things right and in general we're well run. But this decision was a strange one even before our current form.

McFadden is a mental shout. But lasley couldn't do worse as caretaker till we find a solution.

Without wanting to go all conspiracy theory, that was a managerial display which makes it look like he wants sacked.

I don't see the point of that tbh. We either double down on the project and give him summer or say enough is enough and bin him now to try and rescue this season.

Brilliant goal to win it. Scarcely deserved on ability, entirely deserved on actually wanting to win the game.

How can you watch this for 75 mins and decide the first sub doesn't even up the 3v2 in the middle?

It would be hugely frustrating if not 100% expected.

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.