Coventry Saint

I would genuinely prefer any team other than Rangers or Celtic to win the league. I only wish Hearts could have managed a draw against Dundee that day. Sadly that result was beyond our control.

This handy graphic also helps to put the result into context:

The point he makes is perfect: for teams such as St Mirren and Hearts, 5-0 humpings against Celtic are relatively frequent. If that result in 86 was the only time either team had lost 5-0 to Celtic, then perhaps a rat could be smelled.

It's not the prospect of a long season ahead that worries me. As any Hearts fan will confirm, it's the short ones that catch you out.

The annoying thing is we all saw this after the LC games. Absolutely mad that Jim has tried that at home to Hearts.

Might get slaughtered for this, but it might not be the end of the world if McGrath moves on. We're building the team round him and, while he remains our best player, he's not hugely creative, nor does the system we have to play to accommodate him actually work very well.

I literally never put money on when I do this.

We couldn't match Saintees' offer.

Based on the past decade, that's decent for Hearts too.

I turned it off. What'd he do?

Thank goodness there's only 1,039 people in the ground.

Yep, this has been shite.

I dunno, we could go 4-2-3-1 with Henderson and Tanser pushed right forward either side of McGrath, and Tait at LB. I'd like to see us do it as I think Hearts are having a lot of joy in the channels against our back three.

I'm really not sure Kiltie and McGrath can play together. It just doesn't look right. Thought we were on for a pasting after the first 20, but we have looked better since. Same story though re tonnes of balls into the box finding nobody.

Yeah, that rings a bell. Twitter's a proper cesspit, mind, it really brings out the worst in people.

Can anyone remember the outcome last time we had a home game against Hearts postponed because of flooding?! I remember at the time there was an absolute melter on Twitter accusing Saints of "cheating again" to get the game postponed. (IIRC it did actually suit is to do so; can't remember why.) People were showing him live stream of Paisley, flooded, and he was still utterly convinced it was all linked to the 1986 conspiracy. Remember looking at his profile and he was a reasonably high profile photographer, but was also an absolutely certifiable crackpot. The wonderful irony, of course, being that the postponement may in fact have contributed (in a very small way) to Hearts going down.

That's probably an absolute maximum, tbf.

Apple Chewits or I'm out.

scenes as Pozbaird finally succeeds in the ballot but his phone runs out of juice on the walk up to the ground. Sorry, shouldn't laugh, but...

Cant wait for a Charlie Adam think piece on why everyone should just get round the table and agree to just give the money to the agents. The Old Firm's European presence has been propping up the domestic game for years: now it's time for St Johnstone to share the dividend with Ranger and Celtic.

Starting to think we should be spending some of that Government cash on wages for a couple of temp admin staff. Are there any admin staff that St Johnstone are in for so we can outbid them?

Piece in the Edinburgh News about Hearts' poor away form. Not won at our place since 2010, apparently. Crazy stat. I always find trends like that interesting, because the churn of staff and players involved means it's not down to any of the personnel, training methods, matchday prep, or any actual tangible factors. Obviously that spell has been lengthened because of five years spent in different divisions in that time (Hearts went down, then passed us on the way back up, we spent 3 yrs in the Champ then Hearts were down last year). https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/sport/football/hearts/the-troubling-hearts-away-form-laid-bare-can-robbie-neilsons-men-end-a-29-year-hoodoo-this-season-3334806

Decent of the St Johnstone fans to clear everything up for us when our finances were being investigated last year.

To be fair, there's been very little wrong with our inbound transfer activity over the past couple of years so yeah, it'll be interesting to see what happens. I've only seen a game and a bit so far so far this season but I'm not yet convinced that Kiltie is the ready-made replacement some of us hoped/assumed he might be. Though perhaps he just needs McGrath not to be in the same team in order to flourish.

That's a fairly depressing read, but fair enough. Wasn't that fussed when he left, but perhaps he'd mentally checked out a while before the season ended. To be fair, I'm currently working my notice at my place and it's fairly blissful, giving this little of a shite about work for a change. No wonder we weren't getting much out of JDH.