Robert

He came on for Doran and got just over half an hour. He took his goals very well (the first was a cracking finish) and all the players seemed delighted for him. I think he does have potential. He is still young and learning. I’m not sure if Doran got a knock in the penalty incident, as he headed towards the touch line behind the goal for a few moments after it. Hopefully his substitution was just a precaution. Someone commented above that Doran should have taken the penalty but I don’t think he was ready to, given the nature of the challenge. I can’t argue with a striker stepping up to take it although Gilmour may have been a better option at the time. A shout out to the ground staff. The pitch held up very well and didn’t look to be cutting up at all. A few seasons back there’s no way the game would have gone ahead.

We got the job done, which was the main thing seeing what happened in some other games. I thought we started well and were trying to utilise the pace of Samuel, but after the early disallowed goal by Doran, we reverted to slow build up play and taking passes when shots were on for most of the first half. Gilmour’s goal was needed as otherwise the first half would have been one of our worst 45s this season. We showed a bit more urgency at the start of the second half and should have been 2 up with the penalty. I felt the red was a bit harsh but he was wresting with Doran for about 10 yards! Samuel’s kick was saved comfortably but he made amends a short time later with Carragher getting the assist. We failed to capitalise until the late double from Brooks added gloss to the score line. MacKay also pulled off one fine save to maintain the clean sheet. We started as a 3 5 2 with Duffy and Longstaff as wing backs, with all of Anderson, Carson and Gilmour in central midfield. We switched to 4 at the back late on after Ujdur went off, with Longstaff at left back. He did ok, but I felt Duffy was the more dangerous of the wide players. Carson had a quiet first half but made some decent passes after the break. It was good to see Doran and MacGregor get game time, along with Samuel and Brooks being amongst the goals. So job done with a good result after a largely unconvincing performance.

He scored 10 (not counted in the 11) in this season’s North of Scotland Cup, albeit against lower standard teams, but maybe lack of game time has held him back? Time will tell.

Hopefully just what we need to compliment Mckay up front. I wonder if County would lend us Henderson too, as he’s not had much game time either. That would be ironic after them (allegedly but from a very good source) telling St Mirren they’d pay them £10k more than anything we could offer when they signed him last summer.

Haspell has joined Queens Park who paid a fee to Rothes apparently.

In fairness one of the Board, Scott Young, attends the Open Meetings organised by the Supporters Trust and does his best to answer questions from the fans attending.

I fully agree with the club not being dictated to by a player, but would be very interested in the cause of Welsh not wanting to play for us again.

MacGregor has been on the bench recently so we can probably treat him as available for match days.

If true, we don’t know the reasons. I did hear that the club wrapped him in cotton wool towards the end of last season so he was available for the cup final as he was carrying an injury that could have been resolved so he was available for the start of this season. I don’t know if that is factual or not, but it sounds like he was wanting to return to the central belt given his house sale but maybe he was unable to do so in the summer due to the injury? Personally I am sorry to see him move on as, when fit, he was one of our best players. I accept the views of others that his many injuries meant it was time for him to move on. I do remain concerned that we seem to incur more injuries than most other clubs and whether that is due to our recruitment or some internal reason with our training regime.

Not allowing the podcasters access to players is one factual example.

Or from players by all accounts.

Looking at our League results this season, goals we have conceded from the 80th minute onwards have cost us 10 points. We let teams come on to us too much late in games too often and it is showing in our results and league position.

Noted today were Sean Welsh for Queens Park (typical!), Ross Draper for Elgin and Nathan Austin for East Fife. In the Highland League, Garry Wood scored for Banks O’Dee.

Losing to another late goal was a sickener as I thought we were the better team on the night. As others have said, we took the safe option too often and as a result didn’t make best use of our wingbacks. Shaw and Longstaff are out of position when we play with 3 (or 5) at the back, which doesn’t let them be as creative as they can be. On a positive, if we can maintain that level of performance against other teams and be prepared to shoot on goal we should survive ok. Just a pity it’s Raith in our next league game.

As said on another thread, Sean Welsh has been a great servant to the club, but sadly the last few seasons have been blighted by injury so we’ve not seen that much of him. He deserves our appreciation for what he was able to contribute during his time here.

Matthew Strachan’s loan to Brora has been extended to the end of the season.

Yes, he moved to Gloucester City.

That might explain why he’s not been restored to the captaincy. I know he’s struggled with injuries, but when fit he’s always been a strong asset to the team. I will be sorry to see him go if the move goes through.

This got a mention during the sports news on Reporting Scotland just now. Hes only played one EFL Trophy match for Wigan this season so not sure how big an impact he will make. Hopefully his father keeps name dropping us to raise our profile.

Two for Rory McAllister and one for Jack Brown for Peterhead last night.

Ethan Cairns has joined Banks O’Dee on loan after spending the last few months at Forres.

I agree. It wouldn’t be fair to anyone, Wotherspoon, us or United, for him to be put in that position. I wonder when the club will confirm he is moving on…..?

It’s confirmed that David Wotherspoon will be joining Dundee United when his short term contract with us expires early next week. Unfortunate but inevitable given his performances and his family being in that area. Story here: https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/dundee-united/4859686/dundee-united-sign-david-wotherspoon-st-johnstone/

Don’t do it on Friday: there will be a big away crowd so we will probably have an announcement saying something between 2500 and 3000.

If the report was true (which I believe it was), I’d imagine we had agreed to him being there given he is out injured at present. He’s about to be a free agent so it would be churlish of us to be awkward and it’s well known that he’s had plenty of offers. I suspect nothing will be announced until after Friday’s game.