Lex

Hearts

Another relegation battle?

Comfy 3-0 victory for Burgh today over Dundee North end. They literally parked their bus behind the goal, but it wasn’t enough to stop the red machine marching on.

The biggest scam in history. Remarkably, there are still people falling for it.

Got another one coming in March, joining the two under two club. It'll be fun, right? I'm sure it will be some laugh, if nothing else

At what point to Aberdeen do the seemingly inevitable, and reappoint McInnes?

FT 4-0 A fair reflection on proceedings. Don't remember many easier top flight three points than that over the years. We stomped all over the hapless Saintees and could have won by more. Think best player has to be Mandron, a brace and a proper number 9's performance. Could he finally be the double figure top flight striker we've been looking for for so long? Midfield controlled the game and the defence had their cigars out all game too, I don't think Hemming had a save of note to make, easy day all round. Seven points clear of fourth now, and we've played the same amount of games. Have to make us favourites for third at the moment, and why not. Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen are all hopeless and who else could finish there? Hard to see the poor Saintees finishing anywhere that's not 12th. Cut adrift at the bottom now and they looked like they've chucked it already. Parkhead on Wednesday for us now, a win there will take us five points off top. Why not.

Yep think that wound the team up a bit. Had been coasting till that happened. So we ran up the park and scored a third as soon as we got the ball back.

HT 1-0 Deservedly ahead I think. First 35 minutes absolutely nothing happened; don't think either side had a half chance. Then a nice move was well finished by Baccus from the edge of the box. Since then we've pressed on and looked likely to get the second. St Johnstone playing like the perennial bottom feeders that they are, hopeless. Still going to need that second goal to kill it though.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/st-johnstone/4792849/st-mirren-are-the-new-st-johnstone-for-recruitment-success-and-thats-what-perth-club-are-striving-to-get-back/ Interesting article where Steven MacLean is saying that our model is one he’s trying to emulate. I think both clubs recruitment over the last couple of years can be summed up by two players who moved between the clubs in 2021. We picked up Scott Tanser on a free transfer from the Saintees and sent them Cammy MacPherson on loan before later selling him to them for a fee. Fast forward two years and Tanser is one of the first names on our team sheet, has just signed a contract extension, has been called one of the best left backs in the league by the manager and has been involved in four of our last five goals, setting up two of them and scoring two of them. I think the kindest adjective you can use to describe MacPherson’s Saintees career is average. Our left back has scored twice as many goals this season (2) than the midfielder has in his whole Saintees career (1). What a bit of business that was for us.

Great documentary on the BBC about him last night. What a man he was, a legend on and off the pitch. The greatest British player of all time, IMO.

What a consistently awful side Hearts are.

What a kick that is.

What’s going wrong at Firhill? Embarrassing.

Doesn't seem that long ago that Ryan Hardie and Lawrence Shankland were the two starting strikers for the worst St Mirren team I've ever seen.

Was thinking this myself. They’ve certainly went for a low key campaign this time around, wonder if it will work any better than all that tub thumping we went through more than nine years ago. Guess we just show up at our polling stations? I’ll go for 56/44 to remain.

Well here’s what I said in the draw thread when it was made and there is plenty of similar sentiment. Spain one of the strongest looking teams? Did no one see them at the World Cup? They’re clearly nowhere near the level of teams like France and England, as our recent games against the three of them show. I accept there were some Uber pessimists - yourself included presumably - who had us finishing third. And probably some Uber optimists somewhere that had us finishing first. Most sensible and realistic predictions had us finishing second, and that’s where we will finish. Job done, expectations met. Nothing more nothing less.

I think when the draw was made almost everyone seemed pretty optimistic, it was a kind draw. Georgia and Cyprus have never and will never qualify for anything and Norway haven't qualified for anything since 2000. Most Scotland fans and indeed neutrals would have fancied us to finish second, and we will finish second, good. Not sure if that counts as spectacular or not, I'd save adjectives like that for us actually making an impact at major tournament.

I seem to remember Paul Fenwick being away with Canada a lot in the mid 90’s. Didn’t he play for them against Brazil or something?

Hand up and clearly signalling for an offside infringement before Spain take the free kick. As Balague said he did, to be fair.

I think he’s factually offside and the argument is just whether he’s interfering with play or not. Given he’s literally put his hands on the goalie when the ball is in play it’s a tough argument to say he’s not interfering with play. If that kind of thing was allowed you’d have attacking players standing in offside positions putting the goalie off at every free kick. The ref then making the wrong hand signal afterwards certainly hasn’t helped matters.

What a week it's been for Humza. Poor guy.

Looks like another vintage season of The Barclays is incoming. City still the favourites but they’re definitely looking a bit vulnerable. Four or five teams capable of winning the league I think.

We were doing okay up till the red card. Can have no complaints, daft from Strain and that kind of decision will cost us in this game and the next one when he’s suspended. Madness. After that Hemming’s made two great saves to keep us just about it. Suspect a 3+ goal humping is incoming second half, but as long as it’s 1-0 we have a wee chance of snatching something.

Reminds me of that Scotland v Romania game the other day. In the sense it’s not much of a contest and clearly a bit of a waste of everyone’s time. They should just get back on the bus instead of coming out for more.