Widge

Ok so this may go against the grain and doesn't actually reflect the way I feel about the management, but whilst we're all very quick to slate the tactics and Davidson (and rightly so in my opinion) I think we as a fan base do need to acknowledge that he's slowly sorting out the biggest issue we had last season. We're now sitting at 13 goals scored, which is more than a goal a game in the league, higher than 5 other teams and only 1 behind Motherwell and third place Hibs. As a team we appear to have found a way to score more goals, which is maybe masking a lot of other issues, but it is at least allowing us the chance to win games now! For example, when was the last time we had 2 players up front who actually looked like scoring? The last time we had a partnership both score was against Dundee in the 3-1 win I think, but even then Kane isn't someone who you'd class as a finisher. Nicky Clark is certainly that, but yet we still need to create more for him, as he will score given the chance.

People gave up and just sat anywhere. We missed the first 15/20 minutes despite being in the queue at 7pm pretty much on the dot. The fact that the turnstiles were then stopped when the game started could have caused serious, serious issues. I felt for the stewards as it was the idiot safety officer who was actually causing more problems than not. It was getting seriously heated, there were a few folk I had to tell to calm down as I was trying to speak with the stewards rationally. (They weren’t happy about it either for what it’s worth and were only following instruction) Yet through it all, the one person who once again comes away with credit, is Bev, who was in an impossible situation yet still managed to help everyone.

I missed the first 20 minutes for tbh us shite! If I didn’t live in Edinburgh I’d be fuming as a saints fan, what’s on show has been nothing short of abysmal. Once again Davidson has totally hamstring the team and played for a draw, it’s still time to go and it has been since mid-way through last season. That 3-0 over St Mirren shouldn’t mask anything. I actually feel sorry for Nicky Clark, he’s having to work with zero service and head home to zero sleep, poor guy.

We’ve had a habit of left backs scoring absolute worldies as well. Brian Easton’s only goal was outrageous, in fact it mirrors Stanic as it was the only goal he scored for us.

This game has got anti-climax written all over it now that it’s being billed as a sell out and a historic game for Scottish football. You almost wonder if the referee will deliberately get something wrong just so VAR can be used

What have we done to deserve Clancy 2 weeks in a row? Would of been 3 if he hadn't been changed at the last minute against Celtic.

Matthews Wright Mitchell Considine Gallacher/Montgomery Max McGowan Hallberg Wotherspoon/Carey Clark May That's what I'd be playing. In attack you'd have the fullbacks pushing high up to give you your width. McGowan can drop back in and form a 3 at the back when this happens and you've still got the legs of the other 2 midfielders to cover and support both forward and backwards. I mean it's far too attacking for Davidson to even consider, but we need to vent on here and this is my preferred system with the personnel available. I think Max has to play now, he's proven he's more than capable and at least looks forward. Spoony being back should help the midfield and the lack of creativity, but whether he'll ever reach the same standards again we just don't know. Yes, this does involve dropping our captain, but as I've alluded to elsewhere he needs to be dropped for his won sake. He's not playing well enough to justify a place in the team at all. The above formation isn't even that different to what we currently play on reflection and could easily switch back into the 5-2-1-2 that we're trying to go with right now. Just even an attempt at something different would be a start, but it's never going to happen.

We’ve become a worse team since Liam Gordon came back into the team. We need to go back to Mitchell in the middle, McGowan on the right and right now, probably Max in midfield with Hallberg. I don’t know what’s going on with Gordon, but his passing is getting worse and frankly having a central centreback who can’t pass the ball is fundamentally leaving us at a huge disadvantage. Captain or not, he needs dropped.

Been there and it's hard, especially when you feel like you're taking it out on your partner, despite them only every trying to help you. I tried various things to get me out of those moods and nothing ever seemed to work and if I can say anything from my experience, it's ok to be in a bad mood from time to time, it happens; however if it gets to the stage where you're waking up feeling like that, then its time to talk to someone honestly about your situation at work, social life, etc. I'm a total introvert who doesn't display or talk about emotions, but when someone lays it out in front of you it can sometimes narrow the exact cause of where the feelings come from. It may be work, it may be something else, but identifying the cause is the first step to finding a way to manage the way you're feeling. It's then about potentially finding something to make you feel even slightly better and increase your mood. Little steps and all that! That's my experience of it, it might resonate or it might not, but if you want to speak to someone who can totally empathise and relate then drop me a PM. As others will probably attest to on here, there's no right or wrong answers and everyone is different, such is life.

Stevie May isn't even 30, so I don't understand this comment at all?

If ever there was a game fraught with bad decisions it would be a Hibs vs Saints game so they’ve picked a good one to start with at least. Not that I’m looking forward to it in the slightest.

The one good thing about Max is that he’s an absolute battler, same as Spoony. Yes they’re creative and have flair, but even if it’s not going for you then you don’t feel like you’re a man short as they’ll always try. The likes of Crawford are an empty jersey when things don’t go well, we’ve seen plenty like that in the past too where there’s no effort off the ball if the team are having a bad day.

I think you’re being incredibly harsh on a young kid who played 10 minutes as a sub and then against a Celtic team who dominated the ball. The games to judge are against teams of our own standard where he gets minutes to show positivity going forward. Yes he overhit a cross, but that’s the chance you take with giving youngsters a chance.

If Max doesn’t start ahead of Crawford for the rest of the season, then it’s yet another failing for Davidson.

Craigan is waffling if he thinks that’s anything but a red card!

Guess getting Brown some game time at left wing back isn’t a bad thing before the Celtic game since Gallacher isn’t fit enough to play in that one. Only issue as others have said, is Crawford, but in that free role behind the strikers he might be alright I guess.

Motherwell’s result last night has made this an even bigger game for both teams I guess. A win for Killie and they can get some form going and get the leap on County. A saints win and we move further away from the bottom and keep on the coattails of Motherwell and Hearts in the top 6. So a dull draw that helps neither team incoming.

Mitchell is out of contract in the summer, I’d hope we’d at least ask the question about a contract offer in January. You’ve still got Mahon as well, he’s not a bad player and still young, the likes of Considine will be teaching him surely to make him a viable option again next season if not this? Remi Matthews is also out of contract. He’s probably made his money down south, so again the question in January should be, do you want to be playing first team football now, or are you happy to sit on a bench down south. That’s why it’s so important to put points on the board and be clear of the bottom 2 going into the World Cup break, you’re going to have a month of planning for January and the summer transfer window, we need to use it wisely.

We’ve got more leaders on the pitch this season which is helping. Hallberg, McGowan, Mitchell are all very clear in shouting if they’re not happy and spurring the team on. Last season we had Rooney and Cleary shouting at each other which isn’t productive. Craig wasn’t playing and we lost his voice in the middle because of it.

He’s got 2 goals and 3 assists in the league so far in 8 games (not all of them starts). So he’s averaging a goal contribution every 1.5 games right now, not that it’ll continue but it’s the sort of form that we’ve been crying out to see since he first signed. Other teams fans might laugh at May since he’s not the player he once was and can look scared at times, but the one thing that’s never been in doubt is his footballing intelligence. He learnt to play a 2 striker formation alongside MacLean and it does show. He isn’t capable of playing upfront on his own, he never has been, but if you let him drop off and play where he wants knowing that you’ve got a central striker (in this case Clark and Murphy breaking from deep) then he’s a threat. He’s also got an advantage in that teams are quite quick to dismiss him as not being a threat based on previous seasons, so he can kind of sneak into positions unnoticed at times.

The last one having played in the game on Tuesday where Guy Melamed made his Israel debut interestingly enough.

A quick count of our squad and 10 members have full international caps, with a decent number more having under 21 caps. Must be the highest number for quite some time (if not ever).

Based on this season, if we score it’ll be 2 or more goals. If we don’t score we’ll lose. Hopefully we have some fit midfielders for this one and can shift McGowan back into defence and drop Gordon until he’s sorted his game out! Captain or not, he was woeful against County and any team playing us would be wise to give him all the time in the world on the ball, close down Mitchell and Considine and then we’re scuppered. We can actually play decent football on the deck when we want to, so the fact 90% of Gordon’s passes went long is so infuriating!

Third free pack opened and I packed a tradeable Cannavaro, that still won't be enough to convince me to buy the game properly I don't think!

I assume that Cammy Ballantyne is never going to make it with us now?