bishoptonbuddie

Which, arguably, you don't have.

Imagine it gets abandoned.

Sergei Baltacha

Over the piece, I reckon we just about edged that over the 90 minutes, so ultimately another frustrating afternoon. This team has almost been banned from being criticised by certain elements of the support in recent months, when in all honesty, they have deserved any criticism coming their way – especially after the way we played against Livingston and Kilmarnock. I appreciate that we had a decent start to the season and we remain in a decent position – if we get a win against Hearts next week. However, from a form point of view, we really need to get back into a groove if we have any hope of going one step better than last year. Personally, I felt Robinson's subs killed us today. Boyd-Munce was dictating play whereas O'Hara was offering absolutely nothing. After CBM went off, we completely lost control of the midfield and it allowed Motherwell to get more on the ball. Robinson has been loyal to O'Hara to a fault when he has been fit, considering we also have Baccus and Kwon on the bench. The wrong man went off today. Add in that Olusanya was arguably putting in one of his best performances in a while, and he brings on McMenamin, who is looking more like a bust (when you consider the fee we paid) every week. We lost that chaos factor, which the Motherwell defence couldn't get near in the first half. Just to get off my chest too, Hemming's reluctance to come off his line, apart from going mad at corners, continues to put the defence under pressure. Credit where it is due, Marcus Fraser put in a great display today, as did Tanser I felt. Kiltie, strange miss aside, was tireless as always. Should have won. Didn't. Fair play to Motherwell for grabbing the goal. Could have went either way.

Cards on the table, forgot about Bolton's return from suspension. Agree with him replacing Dunne.

As bad as last weekend was, I would be against Mandron being dropped. He's a handful and when he's on it he can be a real danger. I'd argue he links up better than the version of Ayunga we have since he has returned from injury. One bad game doesn't make a bad player. He reminds me of later career John Sutton, extremely frustrating to watch, you think he doesn't score enough – then you see he's scored more than you thought. Then, just when you think you are giving up on him on a Saturday, he will lay on an assist or score a winner when he hasn't kicked his own backside for previous 90 minutes. I wouldn't actually make any changes to the starting XI from last week. I'd be telling them to come out the traps like they did at Livi but just to make that early pressure count. We would have strolled that last week if we had scored the early goal, and in the end we as much frustrated ourselves as Livi did.

Jim Goodwin would never have been appointed St Mirren manager if it wasn't for his past association with the club. He was appointed because of who he was, not because of what he had done as a manager at Alloa, which was bang average. His appointment was uninspiring but the board knew there was a lot riding on getting someone that would get the fans onside after the Stubbs shambles and the somewhat acrimonious end to Oran Kearney. Arguably, Goodwin getting the Aberdeen job is the best thing that has happened to the club over the past six years. It allowed the new board to pick a manager on merit and the results prove that.

From the 2014/15 season alone, we had: James Marwood & Callum Ball Ross Caldwell & Callum Ball Thomas Reilly & Callum Ball Yoann Arquin & Kieran Sadlier (admittedly better than the rest) Yoann Arquin & Alan Gow David Clarkson and Ryan Hardie was briefly hard to watch in the Championship but probably only lasted a couple of games before Hardie got his dream move (recalled by Rangers).

Was disappointed with what I seen from Dundee tonight but we bossed that from start to finish. Pleasing to get one over Carson and, with humble pie, I have to say his departure has been a blessing in disguise as Hemming has been great. Didn't think I would ever say that as I was a fan of Carson's during his time in Paisley. Credit to the full team but CBM was first class, Kwon (first time I've seen him in the flesh) looks a player, and Mandron is becoming the striker that Robinson clearly thought he could be. On tonight's showing I am very happy we didn't break the bank to bring back Curtis or sign Kevin Van Veen. Marcus Fraser, who has his doubters, was dominant tonight and the most comfortable I have seen him in a long time. I thought Bolton's red card was the correct call in real time. There was little complaint from him or his teammates when it was given but admittedly I haven't seen it back. Regardless, the officials were clueless throughout the 90 minutes. No idea what Alan Combe was raging about during the VAR delay for Toyosi's goal. But GIRUY.

The biggest mistake that Aberdeen made was giving Barry Robson the job in the first place. You could argue that the calibre of managers, certainly at the beginning of this season with the likes of Beale, Robson and MacLean, was the lowest it has ever been in Scotland's top flight. Very few managers had a proven track record. Don't mind saying it but clubs like Aberdeen and Hearts are too big to be giving someone a "crack" at management. Robson has been sacked and Naismith has seemingly been close to getting punted on a near weekly basis. Neil Warnock would certainly be interesting but it reeks of a lack of long-term plan and vision from the Pittodrie board. There has been zero rhyme or reason to any of the appointments, everything seems to have been a snap or emotional decision. Glass should never have got it, Goodwin should never have got it, and Robson should never have got it. Alex Neil would be the sensible if not very boring choice. Having a look at the managers currently without a club down south, Gary Rowett is also out of a job and would tick a lot of boxes. He would certainly be an ambitious appointment and could see it as an opportunity to build something. He doesn't appear to bounce around clubs, is well respected, and available. Another is Scott Parker, although he is at a stage of his career where if an English club fluttered their eyelashes he would probably boost back down the road. Most recently at Club Brugge, he has shown a willingness to go off the beaten track so to speak. And if Cormack is feeling mental and actually looking further than Paisley, managers like Enrico Maaßen (struggled at Augsburg but respected for his work at Dortmund) are out of work.

I hope so considering some of the comments underneath Exeter's post on Twitter. They seem to see him as nothing more than a waste of a wage and all-round sh*t.

Alan Stubbs.

A fairly exciting appointment by Ayr United. By all accounts, Brown has toned it down since his playing days and appears to have his head screwed on right. Looking forward to seeing how it pans out.

That's promising, hopefully pushes the other midfielders to up their game going forward now there is a little bit more competition.

Didn't make the game today, how was Kwon?

From the outside looking in, Adams always looked like a risky appointment but arguably also a bit of coup to convince him to come back considering his reasonable success in England. For that reason, this has a touch of the Alan Stubbs at Saints about it (minus the signing jobbers), and for that, I genuinely feel sorry for you.

That's exceptional journalism tbf

100%, would love to see more of him. I think our form before the break is a key element as to why he hasn't as Robinson went in search of the right formula, to the extent it was desperation every week in the hope that something clicked.

Stav Nahmani may well be the best striker at St Mirren. But how anyone can confidently say that is beyond me considering he's played next to no minutes.

The fact anyone keeps signing Oli Shaw is mental. He's a shite Lee Erwin and that's saying something. Tough loss Biereth. Does that mean you'll all stop being annoyed at Charles Dunne now?

Darryl Duffy was class in India. Darryl Duffy was not class for St Mirren. Bet you forgot Darryl Duffy played for St Mirren.

Never seen a transformation like it when it comes to Main, but if anything it showed the difference in quality of manager between Goodwin and Robinson. He will either be incredibly frustrating or a joy to watch. Hopefully it's the former when it comes to playing against St Mirren but you should be pleased with that bit of business. Not jealous at all.

I know it has no doubt been covered in detail way back at the start of this thread, but he has consistently been his own worst enemy. That rant at the end of his Raith Rovers tenure should have put a stop to chairmen even considering him. To think he pulled out the running for the St Mirren job, then took the Raith job in the space of a few weeks, and then took them down and we stayed up. No luck Yogi.

Ian Black was capped for Scotland a year before McGowan absolutely dominated the League Cup Final against Hearts. Regardless of the tint of your specs, McGowan was an infinitely better player. However, for balance, Scotland actually had a somewhat impressive centre midfield by the time Strachan took over from Levein, including Darren Fletcher, James Morrison, James McArthur, Scott Brown and Charlie Adam (yes he was rank for Scotland) – all of who were playing at a decent level. He could have been the token spare man on more than one occasion but was always going to be unlikely, with Strachan always more comfortable calling players up from England.

I think that is par for the course for most clubs at this time of year, especially in Scotland where budgets are generally tight across the board. The crux of the January window is most players are going to cost too much money, so you end up with loan deals or jobbers desperate for a chance. Clubs battling relegation will go for the jobbers, and it is always fun to see what names are thrown up. We've had it ourselves in many a season, who can forget the likes of Viktor Genev, Duckens Nazon and Laurentiu Corbu.