St Johnstone -V- ICT : Matchday Thread

[ICTFCkev]

didnt get to the game but was at the killie game last week but i was worried with terry's interview. The st mirren interview he was angry which sounded good as he wasnt happy like the rest of us but todays he was very down beat i know we have lost the away streak but still he sounded very down whic doesnt bode well it is a poor run and it was bound to happen with our squad size but i just hope terry has ideas to stop this turning into a crisis but it aint at the

moment hopefully we can get a couple players in loan or even trialists with a striker to back up rooney and some flair

midfielder ever with pace or a little technique we shall see

I didn't see Terry out of the dugout once today. Perhaps he has a wee bug of some kind.

Presuming you didn't make the 1st half then?

[Donview]

Normally I would not single out any individual player, however cannot beleive that Duncan is carrying the can for the inept midfield performances of our last two home games. With Russell you at least get 110% effort every game and he never hides.

The same can't be said for Cox who could'nt tackle a fish supper and disappears for long spells in games or is found lacking when the going gets tough. Did not think the boy could cut it in the first division and he's done nothing to change my mind on his SPL showing.

[Johnboy]

Normally I would not single out any individual player, however cannot beleive that Duncan is carrying the can for the inept midfield performances of our last two home games. With Russell you at least get 110% effort every game and he never hides.

The same can't be said for Cox who could'nt tackle a fish supper and disappears for long spells in games or is found lacking when the going gets tough. Did not think the boy could cut it in the first division and he's done nothing to change my mind on his SPL showing.

Agree about Duncan, but totally disagree about Cox.

[RiG]

I didn't see Terry out of the dugout once today. Perhaps he has a wee bug of some kind.

He was out of the dugout on several occasions yesterday.

[tm4tj]

I don't think he had a wee bug, just a bad side.

[CaleyD]

What a horrible, boring game of football......

Not going to question who started, changes in playing positions etc as we can only guess at the reasons for such things....what's more, I don't think any of that was the cause of the display we were subjected to yesterday.

What's happened to the urgency in our squad? We were reluctant to chase, soft in the challenge, unwilling to work for space and had too many players hiding for large spells of the match.

Worst offender, Odhiambo...I don't think he made any effort to get on the end of a ball that wasn't coming straight to his feet for the whole of the first 45 minutes and seemed to be AWOL ever time we did manage to venture beyond the half way line with the ball. He did improve on most of that in the second half, but unfortunately it only served to show up how weak he can be on the ball....thankfully it wasn't windy yesterday, as he was so lightweight he'd have need ankle weights to keep him from blowing away.

Duff wasn't much better, but that seemed to be down to him not knowing and/or understanding what his role was in the game. Lots of aimless running around and chasing his own shadow.

Blumenshtein....bloomingheck more like!!! Totally ineffective, even allowing for lack of match practice. Not sure what deal he is on here but I wouldn't be falling over myself to keep him here if we have a chance at signing a headless chicken in his place.

Rooney....how frustrated must he be getting? We struggled to get a ball to him in anything remotely considering a dangerous area yesterday. He also wasn't helped by what seemed to be a game of "Long Ball...Headers and Volleys Only" that was taking place between both sets of defenders.

Tokely seemed, for the most part, to slot back into his old role ok. Seemed to be pulled into the middle unnecessarily on a few occasions, but due to St Johnstone being just about as inept as we were, it didn't cause us any problems.

Munro, don't recall having any reasons to praise or criticise him.

Innes...defensively, he had a decent enough game and stuck all the important tackles. However, his distribution was horrible and I counted several occasions where he failed to clear the ball beyond the half way line and it ended up coming straight back at him.

Shinnie...Thought he had a decent game, dealt with what was thrown at him and made a few great moves forward....unfortunately the rest of the team were on a tea break when he did this, so he was left having to turn back to find a pass or just running into trouble with no support.

Ross...Again, seemed to have an ok game but lacked support/options at the end of his hard work due to the the lack of urgency in getting forward from most of the rest of the squad.

Esson...not infallible, but mopped up all his own mistakes and prevented errors from others from costing us more than they did. His reflexes are superhuman and the one on one with Samuels will need to be seen to be believed.

[DALNEIGHCALEY]

When you say McInnes I take it you mean Innes ?

[CaleyD]

oops.....yeah

I kept calling him McInnes yesterday as well, despite being corrected....mental block!!!

[old caley girl]

Agree with everything Caley D says especially the horrible game bit. I too am puzzled by how poor we have become. I am hoping that this season is not a reverse of last.

[Yngwie]

Munro, don't recall having any reasons to praise or criticise him.

Wasn't it Munro who put Samuel in on goal (resulting in one of Esson's incredible saves)?

[CaleyD]

I actually missed what caused it due to the TV gantry being in the way, only got to see Esson saving the end result.

[RiG]

Wasn't it Munro who put Samuel in on goal (resulting in one of Esson's incredible saves)?

Yup as mentioned here:

Earlier post

He seemed to try and knee it back to Esson but obviously didn't get enough power behind the ball. Luckily Esson was quick off his line to sort things out. He really has saved us a lot over the last few games.

[Yngwie]

There was an interesting choice of tannoy music at McDiarmid. Led Zep, Thin Lizzy and its surely the only football ground in the world to ever play Mountain's Nantucket Sleighride.

Was this 1970's theme the choice of the announcer, or is it because they can't get these newfangled CD things to work in their record player?

[Coggiebob]

There was an interesting choice of tannoy music at McDiarmid. Led Zep, Thin Lizzy and its surely the only football ground in the world to ever play Mountain's Nantucket Sleighride.

Was this 1970's theme the choice of the announcer, or is it because they can't get these newfangled CD things to work in their record player?

These songs are chosen on the We Are Perth website. The tannoy man takes requests. Usually depends on the team we are playing.

Edited January 3, 2011 by Coggiebob

[AJS]

There was an interesting choice of tannoy music at McDiarmid. Led Zep, Thin Lizzy and its surely the only football ground in the world to ever play Mountain's Nantucket Sleighride.

Was this 1970's theme the choice of the announcer, or is it because they can't get these newfangled CD things to work in their record player?

These songs are chosen on the We Are Perth website. The tannoy man takes requests. Usually depends on the team we are playing.

Requests for the tannoy on matchday...not a bad idea.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Well I actually will praise Butcher as he has been under pressure for weeks to change the formation and the tactics - from mny who are chastising him now - and despite having a depleted squad he made an attempt - and very close to what I suggested after the Killie game.

Esson - MOM again by a country mile - shurely a Scotland squad place is now a just reward - and spare a thought fer poor old Tuffey.

Tokely is and always will be a full back - he looks good in central defence at times because of his strength and committment but he has lost us a lot of goals and is reliant on the cover of Munro. He has more positional sense at full back and gives us an attacking option.

Granty and Innes arent used to each other - that was evident but we may have to persist and allow them a few games to gel - and dont forget that Innes has been out fer ages so will evidently be match naieve.

Shinnie put in a fine shift again as did Ross and I put the two youngsters in the top three for the POY.

A lot of people have been shouting to play Duff in midfield and again I would say that this is summat the we should persist with unless we get a ballplayer in the window. He is a fine full back but a better midfielder - and look at what he had to play to in front of him !!

I can wholly understand the logic of dropping either Duncan or Cox as they are identikits - Cox undoubtedly go the shout as he has been the better of the pair for the last three games.

I almost cant say it again but why is Eric starting and why isnt Gil been played "in the hole". I would have loved to see Foran start deep left with Gil and Rooney up front. Gil simply isnt match fit and like Sanchez may never be the best player to start on a cold January afternoon in Perf. Gil has always looked lost to me when he is played wide left.

Poor Rooney put in the effort but was practically double teamed most of the match with little or no support.

So praise to TerryandMo fer trying summat different and lets face it - we are not the same team with out the outlet of Johnny Hayes - how may times do defenders and midfielders look to him when they try to look for a pass. Esson has been a one man saviour of late but Hayes is a missing match winner or saver.

And gawd do I hate Colin Samuel - as soon as he came on I began to feel that what looked like an inevitable 0-0 was on the cards - but at the end of the day St Jones Toun were the ones who deserved it - maybe apart from the support perspective.

[Ronaldo]

Mountain's Nantucket Sleighride!? I've got that in the house somewhere....

We need to adopt this idea for pre match music, as what we play is generally embarrassing.

[PaderbornCaley]

Not missed an away game all season, and have to say that was the worst we've been. I lost interest in the 2nd half . I hope now, Sanchez will get a chance. However, Esson has now overtaken Calder as my all time favourite keeper after another amazing performance! Despite result, i'm looking forward to Motherwell away... need another good away day after that!

[qwerty11]

Not a great game! St Johnstone were probably the better side and were worthy of their victory. Duberry at the back was very solid and I can't recall him making a mistake. Morris pulled the strings for them and even Duff who looked like he was told to man mark him didn't cope very well.

We were very poor especially 1st half. Rooney must be so frustrated at the lack of (quality) service he is getting. The long ball to Rooney's head wasn't working - Duberry was coping easily. IMO Rooney is most effective when he gets the ball to feet and can hold it up and bring in Eric/Jonny/Richie. Esson was again sublime and after Camy Bell's performance against us he is surely ahead of him in Levin's plans. Too many of our players didn't perform. Gil was pretty ineffective but he may just be lacking match sharpness. I think he may still have something to offer especially when Jonny is back and we can counter-attack with more pace. Don't know if Butcher was resting Duncan or if he was dropped but IMO we missed his bite and determination even if a few of his passes sometimes go astray.

Ross and Shinnie were IMO our 2 best outfielders. Ross was at least having a go at the defence.

Hopefully we can regroup and gain some confidence from a solid performance vs Elgin!