Double Winning St Johnstone FC Thread

[Radford]

Haha, that was even better than I expected. That's almost right into number one for reasons to bring them back. 

I remember going to a soccer school at Bells in the early nineties. I'm sure it was run by the council as a lot of the "coaches" were coincidentally staff from the Leisure Pool. Anyway, as a treat, they got a professional player to speak to the kids. Roddy Grant? Allan Moore? Paul Wright? No, one day it was fucking Stuart McCall of Rangers, the next Tony Mowbray of Celtic.

Mind you, I remember another one of these summer soccer camps where Saints did send a player. Imagine the excitement when it was Ally Farquhar. Don't you mean Gary, I hear you all say. No. Ally Farquhar. No, me neither. 

[realmadrid]

5 hours ago, Radford said:

The very first one was in 1984, which Saints were part of. Held at the Coasters Arena in Falkirk, whatever that was. 

Looks like Saints went out on the toss of a coin or some such nonsense as both ourselves and Motherwell finished second in our groups with a zero GD and 5 goals scored. We lost 3-2 to Rangers and beat Hibs by the same scoreline.

In the mid-eighties, they had Man City and Forest taking part when clubs pulled out. Imagine Cloughie at the Sixes. Skelping kids with rattles, the whole shebang. 

We went out on the who scored the quickest goal in the first game.

I think there is a thread on it running and someone asked that question.

 

[realmadrid]

6 hours ago, Radford said:

The very first one was in 1984, which Saints were part of. Held at the Coasters Arena in Falkirk, whatever that was. 

Looks like Saints went out on the toss of a coin or some such nonsense as both ourselves and Motherwell finished second in our groups with a zero GD and 5 goals scored. We lost 3-2 to Rangers and beat Hibs by the same scoreline.

In the mid-eighties, they had Man City and Forest taking part when clubs pulled out. Imagine Cloughie at the Sixes. Skelping kids with rattles, the whole shebang. 

This answers the question

https://ian38018.blogspot.com/2021/03/1984-tennents-sixes.html

[Paris Hilltoon]

Haha, that was even better than I expected. That's almost right into number one for reasons to bring them back. 
I remember going to a soccer school at Bells in the early nineties. I'm sure it was run by the council as a lot of the "coaches" were coincidentally staff from the Leisure Pool. Anyway, as a treat, they got a professional player to speak to the kids. Roddy Grant? Allan Moore? Paul Wright? No, one day it was fucking Stuart McCall of Rangers, the next Tony Mowbray of Celtic.
Mind you, I remember another one of these summer soccer camps where Saints did send a player. Imagine the excitement when it was Ally Farquhar. Don't you mean Gary, I hear you all say. No. Ally Farquhar. No, me neither. 

I've still got the signed pic of McCall somewhere I'm sure. From memory, it was run by the councils but it was a Nike thing, we got a red Nike t shirt as a freebie as well.

[Old Pack]

7 hours ago, Radford said:

The very first one was in 1984, which Saints were part of. Held at the Coasters Arena in Falkirk, whatever that was. 

Looks like Saints went out on the toss of a coin or some such nonsense as both ourselves and Motherwell finished second in our groups with a zero GD and 5 goals scored. We lost 3-2 to Rangers and beat Hibs by the same scoreline.

In the mid-eighties, they had Man City and Forest taking part when clubs pulled out. Imagine Cloughie at the Sixes. Skelping kids with rattles, the whole shebang. 

Coasters is still on the go, not far from Falkirk’s stadium, a building that’s seen better days. 

 

 

[realmadrid]

8 minutes ago, Old Pack said:

Coasters is still on the go, not far from Falkirk’s stadium, a building that’s seen better days. 

So have Falkirk FC  

[shibbydoo]

3 hours ago, Radford said:

Haha, that was even better than I expected. That's almost right into number one for reasons to bring them back. 

I remember going to a soccer school at Bells in the early nineties. I'm sure it was run by the council as a lot of the "coaches" were coincidentally staff from the Leisure Pool. Anyway, as a treat, they got a professional player to speak to the kids. Roddy Grant? Allan Moore? Paul Wright? No, one day it was fucking Stuart McCall of Rangers, the next Tony Mowbray of Celtic.

Mind you, I remember another one of these summer soccer camps where Saints did send a player. Imagine the excitement when it was Ally Farquhar. Don't you mean Gary, I hear you all say. No. Ally Farquhar. No, me neither. 

Totally irrelevant but I worked with Gary Farquhar last year for a bit. Doing some Postying - good lad!

[tree house tam]

 I remember a night out in Wick and Gary Farquhar chatting up my brothers mates missus, brothers mate goes ballistic and chases him out the pub and out across the road. Gary gets clipped by a car and then the next few weeks he's out injured,  he absolutely shat himself when I explained I know every last detail of how he got injured when I seen him out in Perth. 

[Center half]

8 minutes ago, tree house tam said:

 I remember a night out in Wick and Gary Farquhar chatting up my brothers mates missus, brothers mate goes ballistic and chases him out the pub and out across the road. Gary gets clipped by a car and then the next few weeks he's out injured,  he absolutely shat himself when I explained I know every last detail of how he got injured when I seen him out in Perth. 

Crown bar, you got thrown out if you were not fighting,   

[PauloPerth]

I know Open Goal is not everyone's cup of tea, and I go through phases of thinking it's shite to not minding it, but surprised to hear Simon Ferry has tipped Saints to be in the hunt for third next season if we keep the same manager and group of players.

Andy Halliday reckons our back 5 could all "fight like f**k" which I laughed at a bit as I think back to earlier in the season when a fair few of us were slaughtering the defence for being too soft. 

Halliday also reckons we are the best set piece team he has ever seen!  We have definitely turned into a cracking team at set pieces, but that's massive credit to the coaching staff because for the first half of the season we were hopeless at attacking set pieces.  I'm sure Gordon's header on Boxing Day was one of the first goals we scored from a set piece other than a direct strike at goal.  The threat of Rooney has played a big part since he came into the team.

The lot of them show themselves up completely by saying "have St Johnstone ever finished third?" "Don't think so."

I wouldn't recommend the whole thing as it's an old firm fest, but there's a minute of chat on Saints from 53:10...

 

 

[Mr Positive, sometimes.]

You never know, maybe a bit of a step to far, not because I doubt the teams ability etc but find it hard to imagine everyone maintaining the current form throughout the whole of next season all at the same time like we've done in recent months. Big ask for Rooney especially to continue the monster form. Blips expected!

Although on the counter to that, Aberdeen could be a train wreck next season (comedy gold potential) and as me know Hibs haven't shown they can convincingly maintain the levels expected of them either under Ross so potentially 3rd place is there for the taking for clubs like Saints if they can show some solid consistency. 

Edited March 12, 2021 by Mr Positive, sometimes.

[Radford]

Our form since the whole squad got up to speed and we've had a good run with injuries will stack up against anyone outside of the Old Firm. 

The problem for us though is we have the smallest squad in the league. This will cause issues if we get injuries and suspensions and combines with not having much scope to change things at times. 

You look at the start of the season - and the manager touched on this - but we had to persevere with Callum Hendry up front when his form wasn't great and he probably needed taken out of the side. We were bringing on Olaofe and Robertson in games. It's also impacted on Hendry's overall season when a break early on might have seen him return to form more readily. 

The real difference between Hibs and Aberdeen and the next group of teams is they have a bigger pool of their good players. There are of course other clubs with big squads but those ones are filled with shite.

[capt_oats]

18 minutes ago, Radford said:

The real difference between Hibs and Aberdeen and the next group of teams is they have a bigger pool of their good players. There are of course other clubs with big squads but those ones are filled with shite.

[PauloPerth]

49 minutes ago, Radford said:

Our form since the whole squad got up to speed and we've had a good run with injuries will stack up against anyone outside of the Old Firm. 

The problem for us though is we have the smallest squad in the league. This will cause issues if we get injuries and suspensions and combines with not having much scope to change things at times. 

You look at the start of the season - and the manager touched on this - but we had to persevere with Callum Hendry up front when his form wasn't great and he probably needed taken out of the side. We were bringing on Olaofe and Robertson in games. It's also impacted on Hendry's overall season when a break early on might have seen him return to form more readily. 

The real difference between Hibs and Aberdeen and the next group of teams is they have a bigger pool of their good players. There are of course other clubs with big squads but those ones are filled with shite.

It's a fair point, overall we've been pretty lucky with injuries this season with generally few key players missing at any one time.  

It would be nice if we could sustain our form over an entire season instead of the season of two halves we've experienced the last few years.  Last season and this we were awful in the first half then excellent after new year. The previous season, the one with Watt, Kennedy and Wright going well, after a slow start we were flying by December and 3rd or 4th at the winter break.  We then collapsed and finished in the bottom six.

[RandomGuy.]

I'm wary of expecting too much next season. Covid maybe played a part but this habit we have of underperforming in the first half of the season is a nasty habit that's developing.

Davidson has clearly progressed this season though, while keeping us safe, and I think that's what everyone's hopes were.

Edited March 12, 2021 by RandomGuy.

[mizfit]

I said back in June I’d accept 10th place.

[PauloPerth]

8 hours ago, Mr Positive, sometimes. said:

Although on the counter to that, Aberdeen could be a train wreck next season (comedy gold potential) and as me know Hibs haven't shown they can convincingly maintain the levels expected of them either under Ross so potentially 3rd place is there for the taking for clubs like Saints if they can show some solid consistency. 

Agree Aberdeen could well go back, Hibs will be as unpredictable as ever, and Hearts will throw a ton of money at it to finish top 4.  There's usually one of the middling clubs who's up there exceeding expectations, with killie and Motherwell doing so in recent seasons.  I guess with our form and cup win we're a fairly obvious shout. 

[HoBNob]

@RandomGuy.. Your man Adebayo playing for Luton on SSN the now, looks like an absolute world beater until he gets near the box. 

[RandomGuy.]

On 13/03/2021 at 13:46, Grant228 said:

@RandomGuy.. Your man Adebayo playing for Luton on SSN the now, looks like an absolute world beater until he gets near the box. 

He's some boy, will cause chaos around the box one way or another.

On a related note, EFL clubs seem to have extended any decent strikers deals this Summer so there seems to be a real dearth of quality available on frees.

Edited March 14, 2021 by RandomGuy.

[HoBNob]

Just now, RandomGuy. said:

He's some boy, will cause chaos around the box one way or another.

On a related note, EFL clubs seem to have extended any decent strikers deals this Summer so there seems to be a real dearth of quality available on frees.

My punt this Summer, so far, would be a 26yo in the English National League with 5 goals this season...

He was a menace, absolutely bullied defenders, won every header, rolled the Swansea back line constantly. 

However his end product was very lacking, with a bit of refinement he'd be incredible, physically he was outstanding.