Coventry Saint

'Sup guys? Missed this place and I am delighted - DELIGHTED, I tells ya - to be back in the mix. We are stuffy and hard to beat (opponents' PPG is about on a par with Hearts on the below), but those draws and our inability in front of goal could kill us. We've lost the same number of games as Dundee in the last 8 but they have found a killer touch and won where we've drawn 4. Popular stat doing the rounds is that we've had well over 100 shots in the past six games and scored three goals*. Overall table for reference: * Paging @craigkillie and @Sortmeout to the thread: they may have Brophy-related comments to add at this point.

There's no way you're getting pumped straight to League One, mate.

We really are. Three wins from 16 is dogshit. The draws are papering over the cracks.

I've just read the latest three pages and, as is usually the case with that place, it gave me a headache. Some unsubstantiated stuff from people whose language reads an awful lot like conspiracy theorists'. To be fair, I'm more inclined to believe the likes of @glenburn bud, but BAWA is bad for your health and I'll be steering well clear.

Aw, FFS.

For clarity, I'm absolutely not saying I want him out. He's a personal hero of mine and I think he's done a (qualified) good job so far. But we can't ignore the evidence of our eyes and we are about to hit a very difficult run of fixtures. If we are 10th/11th by Christmas - not beyond the realms of possibility - then I'm simply predicting that questions will be getting asked.

I think Brophy would work wide in front three - he works the channels well, and he likes to cut in and shoot, but he's not a pure number 9. To be fair, I remember folk saying much the same about Danny Mullen. Brophy definitely an upgrade on him, but suffers the same sort of problem. I think we could get away with a 3-4-3, which is the way England play - the 4 being wing backs and a solid platform of two, and when McGrath goes I'd like to see us try it.

I'm always pretty impressed by him, I think he's a tidy player. How come he's not an automatic pick? That back four absolutely gives me the fear, but I can't think how else we might play. A midfielder, a fullback, a crock and a RB at LB...

Fancy deleting this thread and starting again?

TBF, there were elements of fortune about our win at Dingwall, and I said at the time County were better than their league position. Doesn't surprise me at all that they've grabbed a couple of results now. If Jim doesn't start to get a tune out of us in the final third - especially with the resources we've got - then he's going to be in trouble by Xmas.

Weirdly, I feel less annoyed coming away having lost 2-0 to a decent team in a game where both teams have gone at it, than after, say, the 1-0 to Dundee.

Decent Saints line-up; pleased to see the back three (presumably) in their proper positions. Hoping Ethan and Millar get some game time.

The big story here is actually that three points tomorrow would put us on the same number of wins as Hearts managed in total two seasons ago.

I would take that draw right now. We rarely get pumped, but I do expect Hearts to win this relatively comfortably, albeit not by a big margin. Early goal for Hearts should settle it. (The obvious footnote here is that we have tended to pull out a few decent results right at the point when I'm questioning our tactics most strongly, but this run of draws and losses really has been quite dismal.)

That was a clusterfuck, tbf.

Decent post, and good points. Obviously the Killie away support won't hugely affect the average over a season, but it's definitely a factor, especially when you see the crowd Livi brought through at the weekend. What's interesting to me is the concept of that apathy that comes with being relatively comfortable in the league. Our support, especially the W7 boys, were really galvanized by our flirt with relegation to League One. We had that escape, then a title win, then another mad narrow escape. The adversity bonded the club with the fans. Now we're just a bit turgid and it feels like there's less riding on games. Just a thought. I would be interested to see how your season this year impacts your support, especially as your actually in more of a title race than most of us expected. Coming out on top in a close league could do wonders for your crowds.

I'd love peak Higdon back in our side.

Or, that I found it funny and continued to do so. Whatever mate. I've read enough people ripping us repeatedly for this being our "best side in 30 years" without thinking any of those posters had been gotten to. It's just the way this site works.

Thing is, every time I start to feel really dissatisfied, we string a few decent results together and I feel obliged to wind my neck in. We got past the whole 'squeezing Kiltie and McGrath into a 3-5-2' phase and things improved. We strung three wins together and things felt good. But take a step back and see they remain our only three wins, and suddenly it's not so rosy. Most teams are playing a version of a back three now, so I'm happy to shut up about that, but we remain wholly unconvincing as a team, and definitely not entertaining. We won't go down and I don't think we'll be close to relegation, so it feels churlish to complain, but what's the plan from here? We've got to get players in who can play this system. Millar looked like the answer but has gone AWOL. Brophy blows hot and cold, and lacks the service. I'm not saying the team we put out yesterday should have blown Livi away, but it should certainly have been good enough to cause them far more problems than we did. We turn in far too many turgid performances. I'm far from calling for Jim's head, because at this stage the parallels with the final days of Danny Lennon are very strong, and that turned out to be a huge error. But fans won't come out in numbers to watch that bollocks.

If using irony to call out obvious bullshit is being got at, then honestly I don't know what P&B is for any more.

Plucky result for us against the league's best midfield. It's good for McGrath to get game time against talent like that: it'll only improve his overall game.

I'd agree that Livi edged that, but it was incredibly poor all round really.

Shame it's a moot point given the quality of the opposition.

Decent line up. Pleased with that.

To be fair, when they realise they could be fucked, it does make those clubs very easy to deal with, transfer-wise. *Glances at Kilmarnock"