Valentino Bolognese

Any idea who scored? Did The Strangler take any bodies?

Gloagburn Farm

In another month we should be looking at that as an absolute minimum but against Celtic, despite a much better performance, we did ride our luck a wee bit. Folk always say you need them to have an off day to get anything and we seem to have caught them struggling a bit with transition coupled with some below average finishing and Mitov heroics. Dundee looked pretty decent on Sunday, but saying that Hearts were mince for the most part, so hard to get a handle on. Can see Dundee getting a few chances and we might not be quite so lucky. This is a hard one to call but I'm wildly optimistic about this Costelloe boy after he skinned Scales twice at the weekend and manged to get a shot on target from that angle. Seems quick too. And we've still no idea about Turner-Cooke in a properly attacking role but at least he looked fit. Saints 3 Dundee 3. Costelloe, JTC, Kane (pen), Shaughnessy, Considine (OG x 2). 4 red cards. MacLean, Craig and Phillips (2). And remember, anything can happen in a derby.

Nah, I think St Mirren win it.

Any news on how long Drey Wright is out for? Think that Costelloe is mostly a left winger? Based on yesterday having them on either side would allow us to stretch things a bit more than we have been, and show a bit of attacking threat. We might even be able to score our first league goal.

Don't think so. After the one-handed take the slow-mo showed that he rolled his left ankle a bit. Pretty sure it was a sore one. Saying that his kicking didn't seem to suffer. He was down for a bit but neither that nor the subs explains 8 added minutes though, not that it mattered in the end.

Lots of decent and few very good performances out there today, new lads all did well. Not seen anyone pick out Smith though - thought he was excellent in reading the game well, breaking up play. He could be big for us this year. Interesting that Macca was saying just yesterday that Jephcott could be October before he's properly fit. Looked like that to me too.

Week 1: Falkirk Week 2: Queen's Park Week 3: Hamilton Week 4: Dundee United

Let's not lose sight of the reason for these odds. It's not weight of money.

If you feel that way you have draw no bet on Betfair exchange at 48/1. Also 33's some places on Saints win or draw (i.e. laying the Celtic win) I've got a fiver on that.

Coral and a couple of others had 55's earloer this week. You can still get a bit better than 50's on exchanges.

To be fair to myself ... I wasn't being particularly serious. I'm fairly ambivalent about our new signings until we actually see them play for a bit.

Know who was consistently touted as being the fastest guy in the team? Theo Bair, that's who.

Week 1: Falkirk Week 2: Queen's Park Week 3: Hamilton

Gordon really has to stop the WWF stuff. Constantly giving away free kicks in that area and it's only a matter of time.

If he had a back spasm that bad he won't be back in a week, even with drugs and physio, IMO. We're not getting any points this month. But to be fair to McLean, even if he'd kept the 17 players he got shot of I don't think that would be any different. Bite your hand off for a 0-0 today.

I was under the impression that they were both still out. Again the back 5 might be an option, i.e. put both Considine and Parker on the left and hope that between them they give us enough cover. I agree though if Brown is fit he'll play there. James Brown vs James Brown.

I expect it will be 4-3-3. If Gallagher is out that's a big blow, probably one of the top 3 so far this season and not somewhere we have easy cover for. Considine would be the only real option, or maybe Liam Parker(?) which would be a real problem. You can absolutely see Brown's goal from last week on repeat.

Are we close to signings - early speculation or 'photograher at the ground' stage?

You'd have to think that bringing down average squad age will improve the injury situation over time. Always going to be exceptions of course but in general we should see the benefit. Tempting as it is to noise up Random by suggesting 5-2-3 (although not sure that's a good option with what we have now) the idea of 4-3-3 seems fairly sensible. Same back 4 as Hearts; Smith, McGowan and Phillips in the middle; Carey, May and Jephcott up front. No pace but if Smith's not a ball-carrier (is he?) but likes a tackle and can see a pass it gives us some bite/disruption and hopefully the capability to move the ball up the park a bit quicker than we've been doing for the last few years. If we're intent on playing a high press as McLean says it's pretty important we get the ball out of midfield faster. That our CB's are prone to shelling it over the middle is maybe understandable when we've lacked the ability to move it on the ground with a bit of urgency.

Better not try that against us. We'll get in behind the midfield gap with our lightning pace and clinical finishing.

What I've been doing is opening the app and keeping the ticket(s) open before getting to the ground and flipping to it when needed.

I thought that first half we were on the front foot but going in level at half time the instructions were to camp in a bit and play for the point. Seemed to me that we sat noticably deeper after the break. First half looked promising in bits but for the most part the second half felt more like Davidsonball. We can point to injuries, new players having lack of time with the squad but so can Hearts. As others have said, clearly a work in progress and I think we should be prepared to be bottom, or at least bottom 3 until maybe even end October. I'm hoping e start to see something more coherent after the international break. On a different note after being initially excited about Jephcott I think the jury is very much out. Of the new recruits, McClelland looks a prospect, and that's a few games where Ballantyne has looked very average. Smith will surely take his starting place as of next week.