Double Winning St Johnstone FC Thread

[Saint Stevo]

Does Hector-Ingram actually exist? Is he injured/unfit? 

He was doing some kind of training at the back of the East stand pre game on sat. Then he wandered across the pitch and up the tunnel before kick off. Don't know what's going on there.

[Saint Stevo]

Hallberg and Cleary have been big additions so kudos to the club for that

Gallacher has potential I think. I would have liked to have seen more of Mahon to this point as well.

[Valentino Bolognese]

16 hours ago, jamamafegan said:

Airdrie vs Cove this weekend - probably the biggest match in Scotland this weekend - they've also dropped ticket prices to £10 for adults. Some might applaud Airdrie and Dumbarton for their progressive, forward thinking attitudes towards ticket pricing. But this move will obviously result in both clubs going bust by the end of the season. I'm just so glad the Browns are keeping SJFC afloat with their very fair and reasonable prices.

Why would you compare league 1 prices with Premiership?

[Valentino Bolognese]

1 hour ago, PSJ.84 said:

Hallberg and Cleary have been big additions so kudos to the club for that

Agree and would say Sang has been good in parts and Gallacher too.

The only major let-down has been Ciftci, especially as he's the one most fans were probably most excited about. We'd be in some trouble if it wasn't for Hendy and if he's injured I'd put us as favourites for automatic relegation. 

Like to think we'll get more of Mahon and Bair before the end of the year. 

 

[mizfit]

With 10 matches played since the debacle at Kelty, impressions on the January additions? 
Tony Gallacher
Dan Cleary
John Mahon
Theo Bair
Nadir Ciftci
Tom Sang
Melker Hallberg
Oh, and Jahmal Hector-Ingram. 

Gallacher is probably ahead of Booth now, I like him and he has shown his potential after a shaky start.

Cleary, I fucking love him, he does look more raw defensively but we’ve missed the forward pushing. Hothead but I’m not complaining.

Mahon is probably unlucky that McCart has picked up his performances, I’ve liked him when he’s come on and I suspect he’ll have more chances soon

Bair I need to see more of, his size and speed is an advantage and I suspect he’ll be a regular starter before long

Ciftci - bin him now

Hector Ingram - feel like somethings going on there, his background is what we should be going for but he just doesn’t seem fit/interested.

[Zamora Fan]

With 10 matches played since the debacle at Kelty, impressions on the January additions? 
Tony Gallacher
Dan Cleary
John Mahon
Theo Bair
Nadir Ciftci
Tom Sang
Melker Hallberg
Oh, and Jahmal Hector-Ingram. 

Gallacher: Really poor first couple of games with the match-winning error at Kelty and looking out of his depth in Paisley (I think?). Better since then and I think there’s promise there. Sort of as expected in that he’s less solid defensively compared to an in-form Booth but better going forward - if he keeps improving he could be our long term wing back option. Dunno if I’d have faith in him in a back 4 tho

Cleary: Good addition, best fit we’ve had for RCB since Jason Kerr - not that any of the loanees or panic buys are much competition. Having a settled back 3 has brought a big improvement in Gordon and particularly McCart, who’s close to being back to his best since Kelty. Cleary’s aggressive personality is a plus in a team full of wimps, and I’ve liked having a CB that bombs forward occasionally again. In saying all that I actually think he’s the weakest link defensively in the back 3 but he’s young enough to improve.

John Mahon: tbh with hindsight I don’t really get the point of this signing and the money we spent. He was sold to us as a new Frazer Wright and in brief appearances I can see that, but if that’s true the only place he’d fit in a back 3 is as the middle CB. Which is Gordon’s guaranteed position every week probably for the next 5/6 years at least. Mahon might get a shot next year when McCart moves on but is he good enough on the ball to play L or R CB? I’d rather we looked for a new left sided centre half at the end of the season than playing a right footer on the left too tbh. At the minute this guy seems like very expensive cover for Liam Gordon.

Theo Bair: Hasn’t had much of a chance but looks a lot less like a footballer than Eetu did in his brief spells in the team. One for the future I hope, I’m willing to be patient. Has to be said Hendry’s form has saved the manager though given Bair and Ciftci were brought in to save us in the immediate term.

Nadir Ciftci: Fairly promising start, shite since. In the current system we play Middleton has offered more in occasional assists and play, and May in workrate - so I wouldn’t bother with Ciftci again.

Tom Sang: Pretty much a copy and paste job for what I said about Gallacher minus the long term option stuff. Doubt we’ll see much more of him if Rooney is fit now, but Sang did us a tune while he was out. Had a really impressive game in the win against Hearts.

Hallberg: Exactly what we needed, a midfielder who can run around. More box to box than I expected, his assist record alone makes him a worthwhile presence in our team. Not perfect and he loses the ball a little bit too much for me, but he’s clearly much better than what we had so fair play to the manager on this one. I think fair to say there’s been an improvement in M Davidson and Crawford since too, giving us for the first time this season a first choice midfield to try and pick every game rather than the lottery system that pulled out Macpherson, Butterfield etc at random each week.

I’m sure Jahmal Hector-Ingram is a great presence in the dressing room.

[RandomGuy.]

Can't judge Mahon or Bair yet, nowhere near enough minutes for either to show anything worthwhile.

Ciftci looks like a dud but he's still got something off the cuff about him, might have a role to play yet but feels like he'll just fade into the background now.

Cleary and Hallberg are what we've needed and both have sort of slotted in perfectly to the point you forget what it was like before they both joined a bit. Both have weaknesses to their games which might get shown up with different team mates, but they've resolved issues we had before January.

Gallacher I like but I'm not 100% convinced yet, he's shows some good stuff but also is too safe at times too. He's not a massive improvement on Booth for me yet, but definitely could be.

I doubt we'll ever see Hector-Ingram play, presumably just a total roll of the dice as a number once Kane got injured.

[Theyellowbox]

7 hours ago, Radford said:

With 10 matches played since the debacle at Kelty, impressions on the January additions? 

Tony Gallacher
Dan Cleary
John Mahon
Theo Bair
Nadir Ciftci
Tom Sang
Melker Hallberg

Oh, and Jahmal Hector-Ingram. 

All bar Bair, Cifci, Mahon and JHI have been good additions and to be fair, aside from Ciftci, it's hard to judge based on the limited game time.

Would be interesting to see a league table based on only games post that Kelty game. 

[RandomGuy.]

21 minutes ago, Theyellowbox said:

All bar Bair, Cifci, Mahon and JHI have been good additions and to be fair, aside from Ciftci, it's hard to judge based on the limited game time.

Would be interesting to see a league table based on only games post that Kelty game. 

10 game table is...

Sure it's 10/11 games since Kelty.

[Theyellowbox]

9 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

10 game table is...

Sure it's 10/11 games since Kelty.

That would suggest that the club got it right re the signings in January. Also makes that loss to county up in Dingwall just that little bit more painful. 

[RandomGuy.]

17 minutes ago, Theyellowbox said:

That would suggest that the club got it right re the signings in January. Also makes that loss to county up in Dingwall just that little bit more painful. 

I think January showed improvement in terms of transfer business, but I'm not sure we can say they got it "right" completely yet.

I still feel we ended the window short of a creative CM and a winger, instead we spent money on a 4th choice CB and 4th choice striker. 

Rightly or wrongly it'll be judged by whether we stay up or not, I guess.

[mizfit]

I think January showed improvement in terms of transfer business, but I'm not sure we can say they got it "right" completely yet.
I still feel we ended the window short of a creative CM and a winger, instead we spent money on a 4th choice CB and 4th choice striker. 
Rightly or wrongly it'll be judged by whether we stay up or not, I guess.

Doing visiting January was always going to be difficult. Liam Shaw and Drey Wright both looked like possible signing but both didn’t materialise, I don’t think we’ll go for another midfielder as well have Wotherspoon back in July.

[RandomGuy.]

11 minutes ago, mizfit said:

Doing visiting January was always going to be difficult. Liam Shaw and Drey Wright both looked like possible signing but both didn’t materialise, I don’t think we’ll go for another midfielder as well have Wotherspoon back in July.

Wotherspoon is 32 and has recently suffered a major injury. I love the guy but I'm not convinced he'll be able to reach the levels he set last season ever again.

I'd have liked us to either sign a short term option there to compete with Crawford, or a long term option to replace Wotherspoon. We done neither so are now sort of reliant on Crawford not getting injured. He's limited but he's different to all our other CMs. Unsure if they see Ballantyne/Ferguson playing a part there next season tbh, if so I wouldn't have minded them being kept around this season.

Shaw would've been an alternative to Hallberg I think, as a box to box type.

The winger hunt was weird. Seemed to want Jamie Walker, missed out, then never went back to that. Means we now effectively can't change shape without having to play someone out of position. Wright maybe would've answered that and the RWB query, but ultimately he's shit and not worth the money he'd have been on.

[Valentino Bolognese]

19 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

The winger hunt was weird. Seemed to want Jamie Walker, missed out, then never went back to that. Means we now effectively can't change shape without having to play someone out of position. Wright maybe would've answered that and the RWB query, but ultimately he's shit and not worth the money he'd have been on.

Suspect that the Alan Forrest deal falling at the last hurdle was the nail in the coffin of the winger signing, probably expected it to go through when Livi agreed terms with no backup (he was probably the backup to Walker) and no time to start again. 

[RandomGuy.]

1 minute ago, Valentino Bolognese said:

Suspect that the Alan Forrest deal falling at the last hurdle was the nail in the coffin of the winger signing, probably expected it to go through when Livi agreed terms with no backup (he was probably the backup to Walker) and no time to start again. 

Forgot about him tbh. What you've said makes sense.

[mizfit]

If we revisit any well in the future I would like it to be Deas but seems unlikely now with our defensive options.

[shibbydoo]

On 22/03/2022 at 06:59, jamamafegan said:

I wouldn’t say McDiarmid is an embarrassment, it’s no different to most other Scottish stadiums of a similar size. My issue is that it’s a depressing place to be (like most Scottish stadiums tbh) and in dire need of a facelift. It looks like it hasn’t changed since the day it was built. The cold, grey concourses do nothing to lift the spirit. Mizfit has already covered the main things I’d like to see done. Get rid of the red and yellow seats. Sell them to some lower league jobber like Alloa, Brechin or perhaps one of the many teams upgrading their grounds further down the pyramid system. Replace these seats with a sea of blue and get big block white letters in - ‘SJFC.’ Paint the concourse. Create a mural or get some historical pictures up with some information to read, pictures of famous matches from days gone by, famous players, the cup wins, etc. Erect rail seats in the singing end.

As for the pitch, plastic - not for me. Don’t like plastic pitches at all. It wasn’t so long ago that Ross County had one of the best grass pitches in the country, I’m pretty sure only bettered by those at the Emirate’s and the Ethiad. If those Highland bumpkins are able to produce such a high quality pitch up there then what is our excuse for not being able to produce a decent one?

The weather is better up here?

[mizfit]

I see Callum Davidson’s admitted the team selections being influenced by the pitch.

Maybe Chris was throw another wobbly and kick off like when MOH slagged it off at hospitality a few years back.

[tree house tam]

50 minutes ago, mizfit said:

I see Callum Davidson’s admitted the team selections being influenced by the pitch.

Maybe Chris was throw another wobbly and kick off like when MOH slagged it off at hospitality a few years back.

I'm finding Callum likes to blame everyone and everything rather than looking a bit closer to home.

Don't  be that person Callum. 

[PSJ.84]

Think O’Halloran slagged it off on BT after a Dundee? game on a Friday night as well. Not a great look