Zamora Fan

Video + audio for me (enjoying an afternoon in Paris).

Brian Graham was (and probably is) much better than Jordan White surely? Goals not the only factor but ... Brian Graham in the premiership: 25 goals in 96 games, total 4512 minutes. EDIT: goal ever 180 mins. Jordan White in the premiership: 13 goals in 90 games, total 5896 mins. EDIT: goal every 453 mins. White has 8 "assists" according to transfermarkt, Graham 5. If you wanna look at their championship records since that's where they've both spent most of their career it's even clearer. Especially since Graham is 35 and still a regular while also coaching Thistle's WFC. Graham: 75 goals, 237 games, 14,208 minutes White: 35 goals, 144 games, 9697 minutes White is very much not for me. Very Tommy Wright sort-of signing .. and Graham is the exception that sort-of worked when most of them didn't. Fallon, Iwelumo, Sutton and Denny Johnstone did not. At least all of those were free! Having a big man up top for Liam Gordon to punt balls toward sounds like just about the only way we could get more eye-bleeding under Davidson.

We started a midfield 3 of Butterfield, Gilmour and Crawford behind Kane and Ciftci on this day last year. Efe Ambrose was on the bench. Our squad is still stuffed full of shite but we've come a long way since then IMO, even if the squad building has been very haphazard at best. The aftermath of that Kelty game was the first time I wanted us to sack Davidson. Since then I've never wavered from thinking our interests would be best served by getting rid, but I've also not felt as strongly about sacking him as I did on that day. Basically; that day was the Nadir under Davidson, everything since then has been varying degrees of marginally better, but without ever really being what I would deem acceptable. If he can continue to make progress this season, get us out of this weird slump, score a few goals and not end up in a relegation fight then I think that would satisfy my and most people's standards for now. If we stay in the slump and drop near the bottom in March-ish the calls for him to go will be louder than they were after Kelty, when he benefited from having won the cup double less than 12 months earlier. Yesterday's performance was much more suggestive of the first scenario than the five games before it were - that's why people on here are feeling better about things @Dick Van Dyke

Our equaliser here would have been disallowed for a high boot no one moaned about at the time.

Davidson is good at setting up a side to play the old firm. Aside from a few shockers we’re generally competitive against them and have been unlucky not to pick up more results during his management. At this level and in this league that is a really good managerial trait to have + one you need to win cups and have truly memorable success. Things like that are part of why I don’t really agree he’s an irredeemably bad manager or whatever. Plus I think at times during his 2 and a half years as manager we’ve looked a really well drilled side, sometimes we press well, when on form we don’t allow many shots on goal at all. These things, which are down to Davidson, contributed to the immense success of his first season and the more limited successes since then. Sadly his flaws gave us the horror show last season, and we aren’t really going anywhere this season. There’s a road he (and the club) could still go down that could see him become a good manager both for us and for himself in general. More tactical flexibility, less stubbornness, more ambition against poorer sides and someone at the club to say no to his recruitment suggestions. And maybe a more assertive assistant who could say things like “Graham Carey has been off it for months you moron” or “James Brown can’t play on the left” or “Liam Gordon could really use a break and our best player plays his position and is on the bench” would also help. It would be great if amid all the off field nonsense the football team could become one of the positives rather than yet another negative. There are enough good players there for this to be the case! tldr: More performances like that and the fans will be off Callum Davidson’s back in no time

Might have been easier to maintain the positive start and vibes if our fans weren’t outnumbered 16.1 tbh

Rangers, Rangers, Motherwell away, Celtic then Dundee United Away. We'll get two points max

This has to be it but I suspect it won't be.

This is particularly damning IMO - the fact Flaherty basically told a lie he presumably thought no one would be any the wiser about. Wonder if there’s more fibs in there. This might be harsh but I increasingly feel like any new owners need to “clean house” at the top level of the club. Lots of things just aren’t working.

This has the unmistakable Callum Davidson-era Saints vibe of a lower league side clinging on away at a below average top flight side. 9 times out of ten they’ll break our resistance at some point. Talking of which, have we completed ten passes yet?

Why is his place in the first 11 untouchable? He’s a decent footballer but not sure he’s done anything of note for us, and he’s been shocking recently Edit: Because I've resolved to be less of a negative f**k this year, I will say its good to see McGowan back in midfield and Crawford not in the team. I can see McGowan and MacPherson working as a pair, though I would have had Phillips in there instead.

Can’t see Gallagher being worse than Brown at LWB, but it’s also v obvious that if he has anything other than a flawless game Davidson will jettison him from the club and then use this as justification - just like the time he started Vertainen at Ibrox

What the f**k was that? Would love to see the stats for Graham Carey and James Brown’s first half. Did either of them manage to complete a pass?

Welcome to the forum Callum. If that’s one of the “highs” for us under this manager this season, f**k that.

Your midfield is responsible for winning the ball back, keeping the ball ticking over and always being available for it. That isn’t Carey’s game which is why he’s spent most of his career (successfully) playing further forward. Do you really think the problem is just players giving the ball away and not the fact that when they get the ball their passing options are so limited that they are likely to do this 7 times out of 10?

Q: What do you get if you play a soft winger, an attacking midfielder and a centre back in a midfield 3 ahead of 3 very defensive centre backs who aren't good on the ball, at home against one of the worst teams in the league? A:

If McGowan’s out, who plays in midfield with Hallberg? Presumably one of Phillips (is he fit?), Wotherspoon or Max K, none of whom sound particularly ideal for that role. I just don’t think Davidson really understands why Ali McCann was so good in the midfield two and what he needs to recruit to ensure we don’t look so lost in there every week. McGowan an improvement on what we’ve had up to now but still a square peg alongside another square peg in Hallberg IMO.

Sorry for the blunt response, I panicked and did some very hurried googling when I read “gone”!

I just can’t understand the mindset behind the urge to drastically change a sport that I and millions of others loved as it was. Like the super league it’s another thing being driven by people involved in the game who don’t actually care about the sport itself. Super league is billionaire owners etc whereas this is TV and prem fanboys combined with refs and superstar managers who want a “perfect” game. And as others have said those whiny p***ks who can’t cope with losing a football game and have to find someone to blame so it doesn’t happen again. VAR isn’t about helping the small guy, it’s about giving the big guy every possible advantage to ensure they win as expected.

I think this needs an edit. I thought he had died after reading this. All best to them both.

One of my bigger issues with Callum Davidson’s management style is that during the Tommy Wright days he and the coaching staff clearly spent a lot of time analysing the team we were going to play and then setting up a team, strategy etc based on what he saw as their weaknesses. Sometimes this didn’t work and people gave him the “tinkering Tommy” title. Generally though I always felt we did better against the Hibs/Hearts etc thanks to this preparation. Now under Davidson we set up the same way and play the same way every single week with no obvious variations based on who we’re playing. Sticking to the long throws against Livi’s backline of giants is a good example of that. This sort of management means that he is so easily outthought and we rarely ever take anything against better sides under Davidson.

I can’t believe he’s persisting with this. So many problems across the park and we haven’t done anything since the first ten minutes. Is the plan to just keep punting it over the top in the hope that might work at some point?

Sorry not having that Davidson has been unlucky with injuries. He’s the one who signed perma crock MacPherson, has relied on injury prone older players like Booth and Davidson during his whole time here, and tried to build his team this season around a core of decent, but ageing and inevitably injury prone pros like Murphy, Carey, McGowan, Consi etc. He’s unfortunate with the long term injuries to Kane and Wotherspoon, and to an extent that Tony Gallagher got injured as soon as he arrived, but we’ve known about all of these things for ages.

14/15. Loved the end to that season with the Kane winner at Aberdeen to clinch 4th.