Coventry Saint

You've lost me.

TBH, I've been totally bored by all football that doesn't involve Saints this season. I've been fairly bored by most the football that does involve us too. That said, I'm quite excited by the prospect of a couple of neutral, high-stakes games that I can just watch and not give a shit about the outcome beyond the point and laugh potential. I'm rooting for the Championship side to not get rolled over. That's about it.

Potential playoff opponents. Kidding, obvs, but it does look like Raith maybe have the potential to at least make the playoff a decent contest over two games.

I nearly added exactly that to my post. as with Chabbi, you get the sense there's probably a player there, but I'd rate the chances of us seeing that player as very low.

Get Blown Away; same album. Fucking brilliant. They were labelled as dadrock in the 90s so I guess they're grandad rock now.

I've got my doubts that we'll see more than a couple more cameos from him before he disappears at the end of the season.

Record reporting Dennis could be back for Accies, but it's actually based on quite old quotes and I don't think he actually says he might be fit this weekend. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/st-mirren-striker-kristian-dennis-23819777

Thought we just looked physically and mentally exhausted against Accies, and arguably for most of Feb. Simple balls not finding their man, sloppy decision-making, lack of movement. Lots of pressure on the cup game for me, now. A significant improvement is essential. Don't think Accies will be standing aside here: a win could spark their survival bid into life.

I interviewed Colin Healy once. It was a Q&A thing for a matchday programme while he was on loan at Coventry from Celtic. He just shrugged his shoulders at every question and just kept saying 'Ah, just put anytin...' They weren't the sort of questions you could make up answers to. Worst interview ever. He was an awright guy though.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/six-st-mirren-stars-out-23813521

That's brilliant. Certainly haven't got anything to rival that. I've done bits and pieces of PR work with footballers who've been decent and happy to give way more time than they needed to. Trevor Brooking and Steve Ogrizovic were two examples. I also had a great chat about St Mirren with Ally McCoist around the time we got promoted under Gus McP. McCoist was training with Saints at the time. Was very happy to talk to me about Stewart Kean.

Decent logic, to be fair. Much like them admitting that it was actually losing heavily to us earlier in the 85-86 season actually robbed them of their title that year.

Not on Saturday he didn't. Very off the boil, along with several others. We'll never see the data, but I'd be fascinated to find out exactly how knackered our players are. Like, are they basically so fucked that two weeks off wasn't even going to touch the sides in terms of the recovery they needed? It just felt like some of the bread and butter stuff we were trying simply wasn't coming off.

We play a 3-5-2 and he's been given a cautious 'sitting' role, usually alongside Erhahon. The sense is that JDH is potentially much more dynamic than that, and that he could play a far more creative role. The problem is, all of our midfielders kinda fit that description. Flynn, Erhahon, McPherson, McGrath can all play the deeper role, and all have done for us, but they all seem more at home in more advanced positions.

I'd be happy leaving him in the side, I just think there's a zero chance he's still with us next season. He's always been very clear about wanting to get a 'bigger' move so I have no ill feelings towards him, and we came within goal difference of getting top six, so he's more than played his part. His arrival was certainly the catalyst for the spell of form that turned our season around after a frankly dogshit start. All that said, I very much want to see Reid getting lots of game time before the end of the season so I'm hoping we see some more of him.

I strongly want a change in set-up, despite various promises I made to myself after we won at Parkhead. JDH hasn't actually been great for us since he came back from his injury and, as @djchapsticks has pointed out several times, he's being mis-used in the middle anyway. Difficult to say what the problem actually is with JDH - could be injury, could be the system, could be a mental thing (the public announcement that he was about to sign a long deal was clearly a huge miss-step by Goodwin). He remains our best option in there but a whole load of things haven't been clicking for us across the team, of which he is one. Point taken re them not being like-for-like; I more meant just 'here's something else we could do with the money'.

I think we have to be at the point where we need JDH to shit or get off the pot - if he doesn't want the offer then we need to start making other approaches. Wouldn't surprise me if he's already confirmed internally that he's not staying, tbh. I'd get Polworth in instead. Out of contract and I'd imagine Well won't be too fussed to see him leave.

The prospect of Reid (or others) getting game time is likely to be the only thing piquing my interest, aside from the cup games. (I'm all talk: I have said this tonnes of times this season and still get all excited when the line-ups are announced.)

Yep. TBH, it's good that we've been knocked out the league now so we can concentrate on the Cup. Was it the start of this season we went through a spell of conceding really soft goals from low crosses, too? That got largely resolved and since then we've generally been quite hard to break down from open play, but as you say the set pieces have been a bit of a mare. So the theory goes. Just saw your edit: I admire your optimism but can't see it panning out.

Apologies in advance to Killie's relegation rivals who may be hoping we'll in any way show up on 12th May.

Still feeling slightly deflated after Saturday, but as is so often the case with Saints, it was the sense that we failed to muster a performance of note that hurts the most. We've made clear strides this season, but too often have ended up sitting deep in games, or have largely failed to lay a glove on our opponents. Lots of lovely, meaningless possession but nowhere near enough of a cutting edge. Very firmly want to see some contract announcements now. Fraser would now be top of my list, followed quite closely by Durmus (though I'm hoping he won't be getting made to play LWB next season, if we keep him. Seems a bit of a waste to me.) Maybe a nice surprise PCA from somewhere unexpected. At least the basis of the squad is there, and I'm assuming most clubs will be skint so hoping we won't have to fend off bids for the likes of McGrath.

Nah, we definitely can't. Hamilton need all five wins to beat us; County and Killie need four wins each, which obviously they can't do if they've both lost to Accies and also have to play each other.

We'd all love to see that, but I think they'll win enough to keep their heads above water.

Actually, I just did... We can't finish 12th, but we can finish 11th if Accies win 5, Killie win 4, Well win 2 (against us and United) , United win 1 (against us) and County win 3 but finish bottom. Just an example.

Again, without working it out, I'm pretty sure that for, let's say, the bottom two teams to catch us, that would also necessitate that at least two of the others wouldn't pick up enough points to catch us. Sadly I really can't be bothered to do the maths.