PauloPerth

I see once again Saints aim to milk the old firm teet to the max. In the process, once again ripping off our own home support. The match v Rangers at McDiarmid on 28th December could have been a pretty decent home support; a genuine chance of winning v one of the OF, the game not live on tv and played during the holiday period etc. Hopefully we'll still see a good support, but this could have been one of our biggest attendances for quite a while if prices were a bit more appealing. A new spfl introduction is that every single person buying tickets has to fill in a wee form with their details on, and names of who the tickets are for. Apparently this will be in operation for all clubs hereon to tackle antisocial behaviour or something. That could be a nightmare if we get a big all ticket cup match with every single person queuing for a ticket having to fill in this form!

Goal of the month! And the goal v Partick Thistle should also have been nominated, another great team goal.

Second prize in the UK Football Hospitality Awards behind Man City. Great achievement!

May 27. We really do need another option upfront.

There can be only one....

You'll need to get a response from someone who regularly watches the U20's. If you go on the we are Perth - saintschat forum, there's a thread dedicated to the Development side, and a few of the regulars on there will be able to give you a better verdict. He's been on the bench for the first team but never come on so far. Here is a wee bit of info: http://www.perthstjohnstonefc.co.uk/team/eoghan-mccawl

I don't remember seeing it on this thread, but apologies if it has already been mentioned.. Is New Douglas Park the only ground to have a toy castle built at the back of a stand/ camera gantry? What is its purpose??

On the paddock-enclosure debate, at Muirton Park the covered terrace opposite the main stand was the enclosure. I think the terracing in front of the Main Stand was a Paddock, but I can't remember if we called it that.

We're no different. Last season we went on a terrible run mid-season and there were rumblings about whether it was the end of the road for our manager, the same one who's currently guiding us through the most successful period in our history.

Firstly, the chat about getting rid of Hartley, however hypothetical. That's bonkers. He got you promoted and established the club as a solid mid-table team. He had his two best players sold right at the start of the season and no time to shape a team with the new players. Its been an average start to the season, nothing to panic over. I'd listen to the st Mirren fan, and be careful what you wish for. It can always get worse.. look at your neighbours. Secondly, if I said "I'd like us to sign Leigh Griffiths as he's a great player, but I just can't see it happening" you'd laugh. Neither are going to happen.

Is Scobbie still injured? If not, him at centre back and Joe RB. Otherwise, hope we leave the 2 centre backs the same as they've looked pretty solid together the past couple of games. Comrie's been on the bench a lot recently, would expect him to play RB. Tough game against Aberdeens pacey wide players, but a chance to prove himself..

2 goals for Craig Thomson yesterday in a 3-2 Stranraer win over Albion Rovers.

In my grief I mistakenly posted this in the Hearts match thread.. Mannus Mackay Anderson Wright Easton O'Halloran Millar Dunne Wotherspoon Maclean May One more and it's over half the team gone.

That reminds me of the interview with Fraser Wright after the Cup Final when he was pretty direct with the interviewer "it's nonsense that they were favourites"

Funny you say that, I don't like Fir Park as an away fan. I imagine the view from the upper level is outstanding, but it's never open for us. The away end is set back too far from the pitch, and it never feels like a very good atmosphere. I understand the advantage of building a huge stand at one end, as it keeps all the old firm fans at that one end and stops them having half the ground, as they do when they visit the rest of us, but it does make the ground look out of proportion. As an away fan, Tynecastle is obviously good for the view and atmosphere, and I like Ross County cos you're close to the pitch and the ground is a sensible size to get a wee bit of atmosphere at. Accies is a great view, being high up and close to the pitch, though obviously only being 2 sided detracts from it a bit. Outwith the premier, other grounds which I enjoy for view and atmosphere as an away fan are: Tannadice, East End, Starks Park, Palmerston, Gayfield, Station Park.

He will be hugely missed around the club. A great player and captain, and he seemed like a real gent. Sad he didn't get to bow out on his own terms, but he went out at the top, after captaining us to 4 European campaigns, a Scottish Cup win, and 4th place at the end of his last full season. Wish him all the best for whatever comes next.

I have a programme from a Thistle v Saints game in the 90's. The cover photo is an incredibly detailed thistle emblem mown into the centre of the park. I seem to recall the groundsman is sat proudly on his tractor in the pic, but I may be mixing up this memory with the iconic photo of Sergi Baltacha sitting on a tractor smiling when he signed for Saints in a cheap, insensitive and inaccurate example of regional stereotyping. It was a Massey Ferguson IIRC.

I just recalled a lad at school who was a Rangers fan coming in on the Monday bragging about how he'd been lobbing bricks over into the Saints end... So in fairness, this is hardly scientific eveidence and you're probably right!!

McDiarmid opened in 1989 with a handful over 10,000... Geoff Brown and the board obviously felt this was the right size. The first season in the old first division (current championship) we averaged 6000, and the next season back in premiership we averaged about 9000 I think. Prior to the next season, the club squeezed in an extra 6-700 seats to bring it up to current capacity. A lot of people were saying the club had been unambitious and should have built it far bigger but fair play to Geoff, he was spot on. He wanted a stadium which was mostly home fans, rather than just milking the old firm cash cow with a big ground that would sit empty most of the time, and for the first few years this was the case. But yes, sadly, even at the size it is, it's too big for current demand. I'd always just felt the other clubs had simply copied the McDiarmid template and scale which is why 10000 became the norm. It was also probably an ego thing, as at the time any league stadia with a less than 10,000 capacity was maybe thought of as a bit too diddy. But thinking about it, you're right, it seems far too big a coincidence that they all ended up at this figure.

I wasn't at the 3-3 Rangers game but I thought it was segregated. Rangers fans were in the Town End and Saints at the Ice Rink End, but with quite a few Rangers infiltrators. If you pause it about 1.11 there's a few police in the enclosure seeming to form a line to keep Saints fans on their side. I could be completely wrong though. Aberdeen paid for the big segregation fence at Muirton to allow a far bigger crowd for the Scottish cup tie in 1988 ish, but there was a fence in place before that. It was just two lines of those silver barriers linked together you see at various public events, with a gap at the top marshalled by stewards, so at most games you could swap ends at half time squeezing past the opposition fans! I don't know when the barriers were first put in place, had always been there when I started going.