RiG

Hughes seems to be expecting Shinnie and Mckay to move on and is (allegedly) looking for replacements: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30638895?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

Here is a table from @SPLStats on Twitter https://twitter.com/SPLstats/status/549301715288481792

Why is it a terrible idea to have a central midfielder play in a central midfield role? Wait, Vincent's position is playing in behind the striker, not centre mid. Hughes sometimes plays him on the right and it doesn't work. The only place that he is effective is in the hole. He has never played in where Tansey and draper normally play because he simply does not have the bite off the ball to be in there, it would be like having Daniel Stratford in there again, hence why it's a terrible idea He's played in the middle two of a 4-2-3-1 before and done well. You don't need to have 'bite' to play there and it's completely unfair to say that he is only effective in one position.

Why is it a terrible idea to have a central midfielder play in a central midfield role?

Rumour mill in full swing. From the most suspect looking website ever: Hearts, Peterbrough and Bradford after Mckay Hearts after Watkins http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/bradford-city/transfer-talk/news/bradford-enter-mckay-chase_196064.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Massively disappointed with that. I don't think there is much between us and Aberdeen to be honest and I felt that showed again today much like the earlier game at Pittodrie. Sadly, just like that earlier game at Pittodrie, we decided to help Aberdeen out and set up a goal for them. No idea what Tremarco was thinking. He had no chance getting to that ball which Meekings was going to clear. Good play from Aberdeen to quickly take advantage of the error and a great finish from Pawlett. The goal aside I wasn't overly impressed with Aberdeen in an attacking sense. I didn't feel they created much and I felt we created significantly more chances to grab goals than they did but, crucially, we never looked like scoring most of our chances which is somewhat important in this game. Mckay crashing the ball off the bar and Brown with what looked like an excellent save from Tansey were perhaps the best chances for us. I thought Tremarco was lucky not to be sent off for a wild lunge on Pawlett (I think) in the first half. Plenty of shouts for a handball against Warren but from my view I didn't think it was deliberate although that was from the other end of the pitch so that opinion may change on viewing the highlights. As I said, I didn't think much of Aberdeen in an attacking sense but defensively they were pretty sound. Murray at right back had a good game and Considine kept Watkins relatively quiet. Jack was superb in CM for the opening 20 minutes as Aberdeen dominated the midfield whilst we struggled to get going. Some really poor performances from key players. Shinnie and Doran need to do better than they did today. I think we would have been better with Shinnie at LB and then Williams in CM alongside Tansey. Very strange for Hughes to wait so long to make changes and when he did I was very puzzled when he did. As Yngwie has posted elsewhere in the last five years, over the festive period, we have won just twice in 19 games. No idea what happens but we seem to fall apart over Christmas and New Year. We need to right this quickly and we have two very winnable games coming up (in theory!) against Ross County and Saint Mirren. Fail to up our performance in either of these matches and I can see Saint Johnstone overhauling us in the very near future.

Interesting to read about that. I wonder if contractual situations have something to do with it? Perhaps if we had more players tied down would we see an improvement? Alternatively maybe it's a case of too many sausages over Christmas!

Good to see dougal branching out in his WUM style over the last few threads.

He should be strung from the cross bar and the ICT players each get three shots to smash a ball in to his goolies.

Graham has been cited by the SFA CO. http://sport.stv.tv/football/clubs/st-johnstone/304591-st-johnstones-brian-graham-cited-for-diving-against-inverness-ct/

The Saint Johnstone match scheduled for Wednesday 21st January 2015 has been brought forward to Tuesday 20th January 2015. http://spfl.co.uk/news/article/latest-live-tv-games-announced/

We've lost one game now so I think it's time to shake things up a bit. Esson Horner Devine Warren Raven Draper Vincent Polworth Ross Sekajja

Just watched the second goal for Partick again and I didn't realise that we had struggled to clear the ball so badly. I had thought we played it short to Warren but we were hemmed in by Thistle, ball back to Brill, clearance gets headed back towards our goal and Higginbotham wins a header which is then flicked into the path of Stevenson. Still not great from our point of view.

That performance and result How else can you react to something like that? Abysmal from ICT today and what a way for the unbeaten home record to go. Our normally reliant defence was all at sea today. Midfield never got going and we struggled to create anything up front. Every player, maybe except Tansey, should be pretty disappointed with how they played today. First chance of the game went the way of ICT when Watkins sprang the offside trap but his low shot went wide of Gallachers right post. We perhaps started the better of the two teams but Partick took the lead thanks to a mistake at the back which set the tone for the day. Elliot was able to send a cross in from the ICT left side and as Brill waited to collect the low ball Stevenson stole in just in front of him and poked the ball into the net. Rotten goal from an ICT perspective but it was excellent anticipation from Stevenson to nip in and grab the opener. ICT tried to get back into things but Partick were all over them pressing Inverness high up the pitch. Partick had clearly cottoned onto the desire to play the ball around at the back or, at goal kicks, short to either the centre backs or wide to Shinnie or Raven sitting on the left or right touchline. At one goal kick, when most players tend to congregate on one side of the pitch on the half way line, Partick had around six players inside the Inverness half anticipating a short ball from Brill to his defenders or a short lofted pass to the flanks. Time and time again Partick chased and harassed the Caley players who tried to pass it out from the back and each time the Inverness players were forced back or conceded possession. The second goal was a direct result of this intense pressing game. A short ball from Brill to Warren was closed down and the ball won back by Higginbotham who turned and fed the onrushing Stevenson who coolly placed a shot beyond Brill. for the rest of the half ICT were restricted to long range efforts with Tansey being denied twice by Gallacher. Brill then stopped it becoming 3 - 0 when he produced an outrageous save from a Seaborne header. it was a bit like the save Mikey Fraser pulled off in a win over Celtic. Into the second half and ICT started well but Partick made it 3 - 0 when a cross came in from the ICT left and Fraser leapt highest to nod in via the bar. It looked like Brill should probably have come to claim the cross as he didn't look too far away from it but that may be harsh as my view from the other end of the ground may not be the best. Game over. Caley tried to at least get on the score sheet and there followed an incident packed couple of minutes. Draper burst into the Partick penalty area and tried to find a team mate to pass to but pressed on towards goal before tumbling over under pressure from a couple of opponents. It looked like a reasonable claim for a spot kick but I wasn't completely convinced and, more importantly, neither was Beaton and he waved play on. Tansey struck another wide range effort not long after which Gallacher was equal to as he sprang to his right and pushed it round the post. From the resultant corner Warren went tumbling over in the box and there were more claims for a penalty and again Beaton waved them away. The ball was cleared to Raven who smashed the ball into the net from about 30 yards but Beaton ruled that Mckay was offside and as he ducked out of the way of the ball he was interfering with play. Will be interesting to see that one again but alternative maryhill who was at the game said Mckay also tried to the flick the ball on so perhaps it was the right decision. Partick grabbed a fourth with another cross from the ICT left which was headed in this time by Balatoni. After this the game pretty much fizzled out. Partick had done their job and sat back and defended for the rest of the game. ICT prodded and probed but struggled to break down the Partick defence. The only incident of note was when Gallacher tried to take a goal kick and two young ICT fans ran onto the pitch, one tried to pull down his shorts and the other 'scored' a goal. Gallacher seemed to take it well and when I asked him after the game what he thought of it he said that he was raging he hadn't kept a clean sheet Partick just seem to have our number this season and I can't say I am looking forward to the Cup game in February. We need to try and find a way to combat the apparent high intensity, pressing game that they employ against us otherwise we will be getting thrashed again in a couple of months.

I've said it before and I stand by it - I am more than happy to continue to fly under the radar and go into a lot of games as the underdog. I think we do better with less pressure on us. if we were to get talked up in the media so much then that might change.

Sadly we know why the BBC has picked these games. They will get the highest viewing figures by covering a game involving the Old Firm but from a neutral point of view something like Stranraer v Dundee United would be a "proper" Cup tie. Two teams on good runs of form in their respective divisions and given it's in Stranraer there's a real chance of an upset.

Quelle surprise.

So basically there's no substance to this other than a lot of people have bet on Butcher going back to Motherwell? Okay then.

Dundee defender tries to hook it clear and it comes of Mckays hand and goes in. Certainly not deliberate so Collum got it right.

Fantastic result for us. I don't think we played that well but to not perform that well and still get the three points is a great outcome. Good chances for both sides seemed to be few and far between. Dundee, as others have said, edged the first half whilst we had the better of the second. Disappointing goal to concede for the opener from an ICT perspective. Free kick looped to the back post and we seemed to lose track of the ball and the Dundee players which let Stewart steal in at the back to side foot home. We didn't really get going in an attacking sense in the first half. Perhaps our best chance was from a Tansey corner which was met by Meekings and his header crashed off the bar. I'm still not sure how we equalised to be honest. Mckay found himself with space to pick a shot which Bain seemed to save then it came off Mckay and / or a Dundee defender and ended up in the net. After this we upped our game and the substitutes swung it for us. Doran and Christie gave us more of a spark up front despite and the latter grabbed the winner when Watkins beat McPake to a ball down the touchline and crossed for Christie and it looked like he stuck out his foot to poke the ball in beyond Bain. Aside from our goals and the Meekings header I felt we were relatively toothless going forward. Especially after our recent attacking performances against Motherwell, Hamilton and Saint Mirren. Dundee marshalled us pretty well and I felt we did likewise with the likes of Clarkson barely getting a sniff. Chuffed

There was a camera across from the Main Stand so hopefully we get some kind of highlights of the game. A more one sided match you will not find this season.

Not much to say really. Saint Mirren were awful. Absolutely awful. It's been a fair while since I've seen such a poor team at TCS but Saint Mirren are easily the worst side we've played this season. We weren't even that great and we still ran out comfortable winners and it could have been even more. First goal was simple enough. Corner from Tansey swung into the near post and Warren headed past Ridgers. Second was a penalty from Tansey after Goodwin misjudged a lofted past forward to Watkins and hauled him down in the box. Williams made it three when Saint Mirren couldn't clear a Mckay effort which came off the bar. A pathetic attempt to boot the ball clear instead played in Williams who sliced the ball into the net. Shinnie rounded it off at the death when he found himself in the space after another Saints error at the back (he may even have been offside) and he cooly curled the ball beyond Ridgers to make it four. It's no exaggeration to say we could have had anothern 3 or 4 goals tonight. Saints were all over the place and I can barely remember a time when they threatened. Defensively they were a mess and Ridgers made some good saves from Warren and Doran to keep us at bay for a bit longer. 73 away fans there tonight. They deserved a better showing than that all things considered.

Interesting article... http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/bawled-treated-like-servants--4730659

Don't get too excited it's just the goals - the interviews are longer than the 'highlights'. Pretty poor from the BBC.

The Saint Mirren v ICT highlights are contained in the same video as the Partick v Hamilton ones which is why you see them at the start.