PauloPerth

Na, disagree on that one. Everyone should go out of their way to call it that. We had our own brand the ‘Premier League’ but let the English league take it. We then had the SPL which was a great identity. You think of all the leagues in Europe you can name and they have a clear brand identity; the Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga, Superliga, Eredivisie etc that they stick with. We should have kept the SPL title when the SPFL came into being in 2013. I can’t help noticing that the league down south is increasingly referring to itself as the EPL these days. The fact that loads of supporters still refer to it as the SPL shows how strong a brand name it was.

We were talking about that, would be the sensible thing to do. It happened for our late December game v Hibs when we both had a feee Saturday in the middle of the month, so it is obviously possible. Just checked and there’s no championship games on that date so no clash with a Utd home game to affect it.

Just noticed this thread and seen @Dundee-FC92 posted last and thought ‘how fitting’. The biggest attention seeking gimp with dreadful patter on the entire thread. Joe Hart is a bit of a nob as well.

Aye ordinary supporters with kids getting bottles thrown at them is hilarious mate isn’t it.

Cheers, what was the attendance? Not having a go but I thought there would have been a bigger home support. Was that about typical home support size? Airdrie have been going well and must have fancied their chances beforehand.

I’m not sticking up for Levein, jury’s still out on him for me, and I think he maybe gets away with more because he’s a good talker and handles the media well. But results have definitely improved under him since Maclean left. And given the squad he has inherited, and lumbered with in many individual cases, I don’t think it’s fair to write him off until he’s had this summer window when he can move on a lot of shite and put his own mark on the squad. In terms of how we set up, yes I agree, there’s very little attacking flair or creativity and we’re still a turgid dull team to watch, set up not to lose goals rather than take the game to the opposition.

I guess the one thing in Levein’s favour is that he has improved us since he joined. But in isolation today was every bit as bad. Today was always going to be tricky, what with Airdrie going well, on their pitch and us rusty after the break, but there’s no excuse for how much we encouraged Airdrie by being a half-arsed shambles. Even after half time they came out more up for it. Going out the cup is part of life, but it’s the meek capitulations with barely a shot at goal, and treating it as a warm-up to our inevitable relegation battles that we’re being made to accept as our fate, that really annoys me.

What an abject half arsed pathetic showing, in keeping with pretty much all our domestic cup performances ever since we completed the double. Set up with a powder puff midfield and outplayed throughout. The manager is enjoying giving off this chilled out easy-going vibe these days, and by f**k that was reflected by his team. We didn’t show an ounce of urgency until we fell a goal behind. I’d gladly never see Gallacher in a Saints shirt again, an absolute coward on the ball. Yet Robinson came on for him and was arguably worse. I’m all for possession football if it actually leads to something, but it never does, we just keep passing it sideways until we eventually give the ball away under pressure. I hate route one football but I honestly think right now I’d prefer we humped the ball forward to a big haddy upfront and fed off the scraps.. at least we might see some play around the opposition box. There was zero method in getting the ball forward today, after we’ve had nearly 4 fucking weeks to work on things. McGowan and DJ’s predictable passing between them late on down the right a perfect example. No ideas, no creativity, lack of quality. And they were no worse than the rest of the team. Smith needs to pick his game up big time as well. I guess we’ll have to accept we’ve landed ourselves another manager who doesn’t realise the object is to score goals. We are so passive and content as long as it’s 0-0.

Well played Airdrie, thoroughly deserved victory. A good side who can battle physically, play some great high tempo football and have pace going forward. We were shite.

We’ve really broken you smelly wee minks what with that cup semi final, and generally lording it over you for the past 15 years, haven’t we?

Help me out here, tried to put a Saints team together on the thread about players who left a club but rejoined later in their career. There must be central defenders, but I can’t think of any: St Johnstone Returners XI Alan Main CallumDavidson X X DonMcVicar Wotherspoon LiamCraig Swanson O’Halloran RoddyGrant Stevie May Sub: Lee Croft * Wotherspoon played in our academy as a youngster before joining Hibs so I’ve sneaked him in.

St Johnstone Returners XI Alan Main CallumDavidson X X DonMcVicar Wotherspoon LiamCraig Swanson O’Halloran RoddyGrant Stevie May Sub: Lee Croft * Wotherspoon played in our academy as a youngster before joining Hibs so I’ve sneaked him in. Struggling to think of centre backs.

We provided Airdrie with the greatest moment in their history, when they were our punchbag in one of the best footballing displays ever seen. You’d think they’d be a bit more grateful. Seriously though, to put into perspective how cheated we are in terms of entertainment these days, and before you settle down to suffer through Saturday’s turgid pish amidst a sterile atmosphere, feast your eyes on how it used to be:-

We had Ace taxis and AA taxis in Perth and probably a few others for that exact reason. It’s also why Aberdeen gave themselves that name when they joined the Scottish League set up, simply so they could be top until the first fixtures were played.

I completely forgot about him

Michael O’Halloran - became one of the stand out attacking non-OF players in the league when with us in 2015 before signing for rangers for £1/2m, re-joined on loan for a few months in 2017-18 ish and tore it up to start with then picked up a few knocks and ended up back at rangers then Australia. Signed back with us for a third spell and apart from occasional glimpses it didn’t work out. First spell great, second spell very good, third spell no. Stevie May - a club legend in 2014, a phenomenon. I didn’t want us to re-sign him after Aberdeen as it could never be the same. Scored only 2 league goals less in one season with us first time around than he has in the 4 seasons combined second spell. Danny Swanson - outstanding the first two spells, third was nowhere near the same. Callum Davidson - Young hard tackling left back that came through our youth programme and remains to this day our record transfer fee received at £1.9m. Came back at the end of his career and still did a good job for us. But first spell the standout. Then got into coaching and I lost track of his career thereafter.. Liam Craig - great the first time, inspirational double winner second time. Both spells a big success. There are many more; Lee Croft for one, but other Saints fans can discuss them..

I was the same with Holt at the time, would have liked to keep him. I think he probably slipped through the net with the change of manager. Nothing spectacular, just a reliable consistent presence in centre mid.

Yes, but apart from all those it must be the only one in the world

Not as a youth player, but we developed him as a first team player. He played for a few years in our development squad and I don’t think had played a single first team game for Hearts. Similar with Hendry for me. That’s the biggest jump by a mile in a young players’ development; from age group/ reserve level to a first team player. Agree about that team Tommy left behind, often wondered if he wishes he’d just waited another year, though obviously Covid was a big factor. We also had that decent centre midfielder from down south on loan, Butcher?

* Apart from Saudi Arabia, obviously.

Is there any other league in the world where 30% of the clubs start with the letter A ? A fantastic, yet often downplayed achievement by the Scottish Championship.

Yeh agree with most of that Ludo. Though the double cup winning side was a different mould, with a lot of talented young players supplemented by a few experienced ones. I think there were a lot of St Johnstone players other sides would have loved to have in their team at that time. Obviously Tommy Wright built that team and Callum Davidson shaped it and guided it to an incredible achievement, but one thing I don’t think Saints got enough credit for was how many of those players were homegrown: Clark, Gordon, Kerr, McCann, May, Kane. Then add in players that had made their name at Saints and were long serving: Davidson, Craig, Wotherspoon. Two great young signings from lower leagues in Rooney and McCart… I’m now just reminiscing on how good a squad that was before being dismantled.

Looking at the long list of defenders we have, you feel Brown and Olufunwa will be eased out. Brown up until this season I’ve always been okay with as a squad player to keep within our budget, but he’s a more experienced player now yet has been a liability several times this season. Olufunwa - certainly think we can do better. Regarding the defence, out of that list are there any that are under contract after the summer? We have always carried a few journeymen pros in our squad and tended to be more about the sum of the parts; For Rosenborg at home we started Tam Scobbie and Gary McDonald, whilst for Lucerne at home Gary Miller and Scott Brown started, with Caddis and Scobbie coming on off the bench. The bench for the Rosenborg game makes ‘interesting’ reading; Did we focus our resources far more on a tighter group of quality starters back then, whereas the last few years we’ve spread the cash amongst a bigger playing pool but seen a reduction in quality?

We should tell Wigan no. He was decent for us and I’d like to see him back here; but let’s be honest, Wigan were happy to take him back early and f**k us over, and you should never ever miss out on the opportunity to be petty and small minded in situations like this.

Yes it’s mostly a P&B thing though. Most Saints fans you speak to are extremely grateful for what he delivered, as a player, a coach and especially as a manager, and have a lot of time for the guy. He’ll always get a warm welcome back at McDiarmid. It was the right time for him to go from us as things weren’t improving, showed no signs of improving any time in the near future and our signings had been poor with money wasted. He just got stuck in that managerial black hole of stubbornly sticking to what had worked well for him in the past. He’s a very good coach, and I’d be very surprised if you don’t climb the table this season. The big test will be over the medium term; if there’s someone brought in alongside that Callum trusts and is prepared to work closely with to identify and sign players, then it’ll show he’s learnt from his time with us, and could be a very successful manager with Queens Park. Wish him all the best.