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The Family Mess !!

Having just watched the highlights, they have confirmed what I thought at the time. Second St Mirren penalty was not a penalty and referee, in my opinion, saw the St Mirren player fall and guessed he was pushed. There seems to be a trend of referees guessing decisions these days, and not just at this level. I find that incredible as they cannot give a decision unless 100% sure. What would help is if refs would come out and say this after games but by not speaking, they just compound the poor decisions they have made. The foul that led to the second St Mirren goal was certainly never a foul as the player clearly dived ( I was right in line with this in the main stand and thought this at the time). Why a foul can be given for this, and a booking, when the tackle on Doran went unpunished is beyond me. No doubt refs will complain that they cannot win but they need to understand that a lack of consistency in decision making harms their cause more than anything else.

Looking back at the ref's performance, i just cannot fathom: 1. The 2nd St Mirren penalty award 2. The free kick award that led to St Mirren's 2nd goal 3. Our lack of penalty award (especially Doran's claim ... and especially with their previous soft one ... sometimes ref's will "even it up") Completely mystifying ... and sadly nowhere near the first time this season that we've had genuinely serious complaints at home.

What a game Ridgers had, he's proving to be an excellent keeper after a slow start. The second penalty award was an absolute joke and justice was done with the save. Really pleased that the heads didn't go down after the second goal and they battled back to get a deserved point.

Gosh, and there we were, the rest of us, taking it seriously.

Jhesus and Charlie B has an exclusive interview

Caley D is out there looking already

Encouraging to see the team dig out a good result after a below par performance. A few of our lads didn't look fully match fit, Donaldson in-particular who seemed to struggle with the pace of the game early doors. The referee wasn't great, but feel we're grasping at straws a bit. Midden's 2 penalties were soft, we had 2 similar shout's not given - but for me it came down to their players being much better divers than ours. Not even joking. Doran's was a bit of a dying swan routine, and Vigurs didn't even go down. The club should get Barry Wilson in for a couple of sessions to show the lads how it's done.

We need to play most of the guys who will perform in the run to the end of the season - we need the strikers the chance to score a few goals if possible and get some confidence. The number of postponed games recently the guys should be fairly fresh - yes its a packed run in but they have to step up. Brechin wont be a push over - they may be relegated but they wont want to go down without a win this season - they've nothing to loose and everything to prove

Might as well include CJT in there as well.

Absolutely furious at this news! No consultation with the fans yet again! I won't be back!

This doesn't take into account the long history and contribution of Loch Ashie over the years. I disapprove wholeheartedly and will never darken the doors of the stadium again.

Great news but what will we rename CJT ?

I came away mightily relieved after that one. St Mirren could have been out of sight had it not been for Ridgers. Donaldson in particular looked terrified by St Mirren's small and nippy forwards and going in at half time just a goal down was a real relief. Once the 2nd goal went in I felt St Mirren thought they could cruise home but they seriously underestimated us. We were a lot sharper and fully deserved to get back on level terms. Whilst there was no doubt about the MOTM, I thought Vigurs was outstanding today and very unlucky when his shot hit the bar. Four of our team booked and he wasn't one of them! Mind you I think many referees would have booked him for his fairly regular "chats" with the referee. Calder was excellent when he replaced a rather out of sorts Doran. It looks as though we now have some genuine options on the bench and this fighting comeback bodes well for the rest of the season. As for the referee, I thought both penalties were on the soft side but definite penalties. The problem with the referee was the lack of consistency and his failure to penalise St Mirren for exactly the things he penalised our players for. Somebody else commented about the poor standard of refereeing in this country. A little off topic I guess, but I wonder if others noticed the rather sad fact that no British referee has been selected either as a referee or assistant referee for the forthcoming World Cup. There are a total of 99 referees and assistant referees but apparently no official from the UK is deemed good enough by FIFA. That tells you all you need to know about the standard of refereeing in the UK.

The team should be holding their heads high after that result today. Not off to the best start granted, but then Stm were straight off the starting blocks and were pressing us heavily all over the park. We needed to settle and build the confidence and it never happened before the penalty was awarded. That could have easily killed off the game, but it never and the players still tried to match stm at every opportunity and did well to go in at HT 1-0 down. To have shown so much fight and then lose the 2nd would have broken many a team but we kept going, even against the absolutely ludicrous level of refereeing. I have never been one to slate referees too harshly, but in this case every insult thrown at him from the stands was completely justified. The guy was 100% biased and should be sacked for that performance. To not only fight back against a stubbornly good stm side and the referee from hell and secure a draw, we very nearly topped it off with a fine glancing header from young mckay that just a foot or do higher would have sent the TCS into chaos. Fantastic atmosphere and brilliant resilient performance from the players. Get the win on Tuesday and we jump back into 7th. Least we deserve. Ridgers was absolutely phenomenal.

Ridgers Warren Donaldson Polworth Trafford Vigurs Doran Oakley Austin Bell Tremarco

His inconsistency was his downfall. He also was nowhere near up with play when he booked Doran for diving wben it was clearly a pen.

Just like to add ref was of the standard we have got use too, absolute phish. Must be the clean fresh air up here they are not used to it

I thought Calder gave us a boost when he came on. He has pace and was the one who managed to get in behind the saints defence and get some crosses in, I would give hime a start against brechin.

I don't think the footage shows it very well, but from where I was in the North Stand it was a clear push in the back from Tremarco. There was no way Tremarco was never going to get the ball so he gave a gentle nudge just as the guy was jumping. Clear penalty. I'd actually said "penalty" before the guy went down. The problem is the lack of consistency. Why give that but not the pull on vigurs in the second half?I appreciate that referees can only give what they see, but if the referee didn't see the pull on Vigurs then the Assistant referee was well placed to see it. All the crucial decisions went against us. It is rather ironic that our equaliser was direct from a free kick for a foul that not even Newlands could ignore. This just moments after Newlands had turn down loud shouts for a penalty. Had he given the penalty, we would probably have missed it!

We could develop the Nessie theme by launching an exhibition assessing the evidence as to the existence of Andre Martins and Felitciano Zschusschen. I’m sure we could compile some grainy images, the occasional eye witness account and some plastic models of what they might look like.

Best news I have heard in a long time. One of our new songs should be ' what's that coming over the hill, is it a monster, is it a monster?'

Not unusual for you to repeat yourself and then make an added comment.

no worries. server had a brain fart today and one of the database tables crashed causing the error. rebuilding it now.

All we need now is for an away win other than against Brechin!! The team did well today after a first half that saw midden batter us stupid, Rodgers a deserved mom, Polworth scored a cracker after another indifferent performance. Referee was a complete clown, and I'm disgusted with the standard of the officials, truly awful.

And our first point against a decent St Mirren team is a big plus too.

First point that we've gained this season after conceding the first goal in the league lads #recovery

Deserved that today. We more than matched Saint Mirren for large parts of the game in terms of possession but our lack of a cutting edge in the final third really came back to haunt us. The best example of this was probably when Polworth broke clear with Doran to his left and Austin (I think) to his right and he passed the ball out of play for a goal kick That said Ridgers made some outrageous saves to keep us in it so over the piece a draw was a fair result. Saints went ahead after some sloppy defending from Donaldson. He was asleep when Mullen burst past him into the box and as Donaldson tried to get back with him he started clawing at Mullen's shoulders and he went down. Bit of a theatrical fall maybe but still a clear and stupid foul from Donaldson. Davies coolly slotted the ball into the bottom corner of the net. As mentioned above any potential ICT attacks usually broke down outside the Buddies box as we struggled to find a killer final ball. Whilst we had more of the ball it was Saint Mirren who looked more likely to get the next goal as they had the clearer cut chances of the two sides. Morgan passed up the best one of these when his fierce shot was turned behind by Ridgers. Then we had an incredible few seconds of play as Ridgers somehow managed to claw a goal bound header off the line and ICT scrambled the ball away only for a wicked cross to be sent back in from the left and MacKenzie (I think) threw himself up in the air under pressure from Tremarco and the referee gave a penalty which led to mass protests from the ICT players. Looked incredibly theatrical from the Saints player but arguably justice was done as Ridgers saved the spot kick with his foot giving ICT a big boost just before half time. Vigurs almost got ICT back on level terms when he sent a wicked left footed shot towards goal but with Samson already having given up on getting near the ball it crashed off the bar and behind. With ICT continuing to control most of the ball but Saints still a potent threat on the counter the referee denied ICT what looked like a stonewall penalty when Doran dinked the ball over a defenders foot only to be barged over. Incredibly Doran was booked for diving leading to yours truly having an almighty heads gone moment in the North Stand. With about 20 minutes to go Lewis Morgan struck an utterly ridiculous free kick into the net off the post to put Saints firmly in the driving seat. It really needs to be seen to be believed, a truly awesome hit. Limbs AOTS in the away end. With ten minutes left on the clock ICT got a goal back. Polworth floated a corner into the box and with Samson static in his goal line Warren sent what looked like a pretty tame header into the ground. Samson looked like he sort of fell over instead of saving the ball and it squirmed past him to give ICT a big lift going into the final moments of the game. That faint hope was nearly extinguished seconds later when Morgan broke clear of the ICT defence and again sent in a powerful shot which Ridgers dealt with well. Saints were made to pay for that missed chance when ICT were given a free kick about 25 yards to the right of the away goal. Polworth somehow smashed a free kick past a despairing Samson into the net leaving the home fans dreaming of the impossible come back. Both sides then had opportunities to claim what would surely be the final goal and the three points. First Mackay stretched to get on the end of a chipped ball into the box but he couldn't get enough height on his header to lift it over an advancing Samson. Then the lively Morgan was again denied by last ditch block from Tremarco before the loose ball was blazed over. A quite incredible game, frenetic and end to end for almost the entire 90 minutes. Ridgers kept us in the game with some great saves whilst Vigurs performed well in the middle seemingly feeding off the sense of injustice felt by the home side with some of the referees decisions. For Saints Morgan was just sensational. He's an easy player to pick out but even if you had been sleeping under a rock for the last few months you would have left being impressed by the guy. He tore Mckay apart on several occasions and I suspect Brad will be quite glad the game is over. A really good away support in attendance, about 800 odd, who never stopped singing for almost the entire game save for the few minutes when we finally found our shooting boots. Referee was laughable. Clearly not a fan of playing advantage.

Well, that was definitely a point gained! St Mirren came out flying, backed by a large, noisy support. Mullen was tormenting our defence and they looked dangerous with their pacy attacks. No argument from me about the first penalty, but I didn't have a view of the second, but a great save from Ridgers, one of several. We couldn't keep the ball in the first half, and I feared a rout. We started the second better, and were more in it. Their second came after a very soft free kick, which went in off the post. From then on, our guys were immense. Calder made a real difference playing wide left when he came on. Warren found great space for the first and Polworth scored a great free kick. Delighted we rescued a point, but also felt we were the more likely to win it at the death. Ridgers a clear man of the match. Warren did well against a pact attack. Polworth did well, especially after the break, and Oakley put in a serious shift. Credit to Calder, though, as his introduction increased our tempo. We also had a couple of decent penalty claims turned down, particularly when Doran went down and ended up being booked. We are surely safe from the relegation play off, but the promotion play offs look beyond us, but who knows? Overall a good week, unbeaten in four, and the last 20 minutes must have increased the players' confidence, as St Mirren's first half performance was probably the best I've seen from a visiting team this season. Hopefully Robbo is focussing on who we want to keep so we can kick on next season.

In all honesty we should've been 4-0 down by half time but Ridgers pulled out save after save to keep us in it and more than deserved his motm. We improved greatly second half though with Oakley seeing and winning more of the ball. Liked Calder's directness when he came on too. Two good goals from Warren and Polly, and unlucky not to sneak a winner. Yet again we're all talking about the referee....his 'performance' today was disgusting! Something really needs done about the standard of refereeing in this country.

I think we should put out a Select XI from our Walking Football and FFIT Fans teams.

The Family Ness!

April fools day!