So, that's the end of the 15/16 campaign.

I've made a quick wee graph to show the form over the season and looking at it there's definitely a couple of high and low periods in terms of performances.

Compared to last season's ecstasy, we've seen a sharp return to reality with a mass exodus of talent over the summer, and an injury list the same length as Ross Draper.

I would like to hear everyone's thoughts on this year's serving of football.

 

 

Can be summed up in one word... Where's Jacqueline the Celtic fan when you need her? 

Here she is in all her glory 

 

Too much experience of poor tactical decisions losing important games, especially Cup games - an apparent loss of the degree of "togetherness" that resounded the previous season - a manager probably "saved" by securing an early contract and a winning end to the season - and a Manager of the Month award.

Plagued by injuries, lack of width, disappointing but acceptable

Yip - we now demand / expect more !!

Rather surprisingly perhaps, we finished with the 4th best goal diference in the league, along with the 5th highest points tally, albeit helped by facing easier opposition for the last 5 games.

Despite having spent much of the early and later parts of the season being concerned about relegation, we ended up a very satisfactory 16 points above the play-off spot!  In 2012/13, we only finished 13 points above 11th place, but achieved what at the time was our highest ever league position, 4th place.

It's taken a bit of time to assimilate my thoughts on that season! On the face of it, the basic stats make reasonable reading:

League position: 7th

Points: 52

Goals for: 54

Goals against: 48

Scottish Cup: QF (lost to Hibs 1-2 (h) replay): League Cup: QF (lost to Ross County (h)) Europa cup: lost to Astra 1-0 agg.

So, mid-table and 2 quarter-final appearances: what's to be glum about?

1. Style

Yogi's persistence with possession football really did my head in! It is not entertaning or effective. In general, we actually did better when we adopted a more direct approach (e.g. games against Aberdeen and Ross County). We had the 3rd lowest number of shots and number of shots on target. Conversely, we had the 3rd highest conversion rate (goals/shots), suggesting that when we created chances, they were more clear-cut. Equally, we were tight at the back, with the lowest % shots on target in the league, perhaps suggesting that teams were forced to take shots from range against us. This also is relected in the number of goals conceded - the 3rd lowest in the league.

Summing up - a reasonably effective style that worked well defensively, but made us too slow and predictable going forward. The players seemed afraid to shoot unless there was a clear goalscoring chance.

2. Players

Some terrific performance this year, particularly from Ross Draper. I've always seen him as a ball-winner, but this year he was a really attacking midfielder who won us a few pens and scored a few key goals. Fon Williams was generally solid in goal and Tremarco really came onto his game later in the season. Tansey had a really slow start, but was neverthelss a key player in midfield. Warren was solid on his return, but would have liked to see his partnership with Meekings rekindled. Devine was OK, but has the odd crucial mistake in him. Of the guys definitely leaving: Vincent had a really good spell in January, but injuries let him down, Williams was reliable at left back and midfield and Storey was an excellent find from obscurity at Swindon. Vigurs was his usual mercurial self, while Roberts played really well when he got the opoportunity. Mutombo was exciting at times, but lacked a final ball and had a couple of petulent moments early on.

3. Manager

Yogi refuses to shift from his principle of possession football. In fairness, it does yield the occasional cracker of a team goal, but too often it doesn't yield even a shot. If he'd just swallow his pride and go more direct occasionally, and encourage the players to shoot and get in the box!

Off the field, Yogi has had a shocker IMO. The DUFC debacle was embarrassing: Yogi should be delighted that KC helped him dodge a bullet! All his statement did was to alienate him from the supporters who then doubted his commitment to the club!

In addition, what is it with bigging up Auld Firm opponents? How many players has he offered to "drive them down there myself for the money they've bee offered"?

The thinly veiled spat that is playing out in public over budget is unhelpful. And what about the comment about injured players playing through pain?? Meekiings wasn't impressed.

4. Injuries

If one word summed up the season it was "injuries". There were times when there were more players on the treatment table than the pitch. Easy to forget after the event, but we really were struggling to field a team at times.

5. Recruitment and retention

My biggest gripe all year. Everybody was aware that so many contracts were up at the end of the season and yet we failed to recruit effectively during last summer and then continually brought in midfielders when short of defensive cover and attack-minded players. Granted our late finish to last season and early start to this contributed to the problem, but starting the season without a recognised striker was justt shambolic. At least efforts were reported to have been made to keep Williams, but he turned down the offer - the same wasn't true of Vincent, who Yogi didn't rate for whatever reason. The Raven saga was just poor form - here's a player who really wanted to stay and he's punted by the manager....

6. Attendances

In many ways, this was the most depressing aspect. Average attendances almost exactly the same as last season (3,753 v 3,732), despite all the buzz of the cup win! I know these figures hide many things (e.g. who we play more times at home and midweek games, poor form etc), but it certainly highlights that there is no "other level" for us to go to in this respect and that we failed to capitalise on the cup victory. My pipe dream of perhaps 500 extra bods lay in shatters, which is why we find it so hard to retain and recruit!

 

 

 

 

Excellent summary!

Meant to include late goals! 75% of our goals conceded away from home were in the second half and goals in the last 10 minutes cost us about 12 points. In contrast, we rarely scored in the last 10 and late goals only gained us 3 points that I can think of (2 in injury time to win at Hamilton.....just how crucial was that result in hindsight??!)