Matchday Thread St Johnstone -V- I.C.T.

[caley100]

Kind of sums up all the talk in the press recently by some of our players on how far we can go this season!!  big reality check, and back to earth with a big feckin bump! 

[Yngwie]

Just home from the game.  It was every bit as bad as the score suggests, if not worse.

 

The ease with which they were able to cut through us was frightening, and we had so little to offer upfront today and only troubled their keeper once.

 

The only positive is that between the 2nd and 3rd goals we were pretty decent, but on the whole it could have been more than 4.

[tm4tj]

Time for the players and some fans to wake up big style.

[+DoofersDad]

With the way the other results went, a win would have put some distance between the top two and the rest so it is disappointing that we have been soundly thumped.

 

Sounds like a real reality check here.  We got off to a flyer because we had a settled team which apart from the keeper and Vincent knew each other from last season.  Other teams are beginning to gel and there will be no easy games from now on.

 

Celtic 3 points clear with a game in hand and I would expect them to run away with it now.  The rest of the the sides are all capable of beating each other and I am sure all will have good runs and bad runs.  We can always dream but we need to be realistic and accept that for a club with our resorces a top 6 finish represents an excellent season.  We have to expect days like today but overall we are still doing very well.

[Pele_Is_God]

Butcher needs to realise that he can't play the same system home and away and just hope we have the players to win. Too many hoofs and Devine is not a right back...

[Yngwie]

Devine's defending was fine, and none of the goals came down his side - but his distribution was particularly poor at times.

[bdu98196]

We missed the overlapping runs from raven. The passing and distribution throughout the park was poor, nobody made runs into space or gave options for passing. Too often playing high balls which the st j defence lapped up all day.

Not sure about polworth didn't look ready for this level. But for brill we would have been really hammered. Also TB took too long to make changes as first half showed it just wasnt working.

disappointing but was a good away crowd today.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

The away system was going to catch us out one day - lets just hope that TB will change it. Let's go back to last season away from home please which ain't that different from being at home.

I blame Absent Minded and Naelifts,

[anniemac]

Totally unacceptable performance and tactics. Let the travelling fans down big style. Totally ineffective all over the pitch only maybe brill can hold his head up. Some players going through the motions looks like they dont give a feck. Wtf does greenhalgh need to do to get a start, both ross and doran passengers again, getting tiresome now. Accept losing part and parcel of the game but being embarrased by a mediocre st j is bollocks

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

It ain't the players it is the system ? Come on peeple - we look like we have sorted it at home - so why not go fer the old 4-5-1 to 4-4-2 away on the feckin break. If we go with that system at Dungwall ??!

[caleydawson]

im at a lose to why we played polworth instead of Ben considering ben did well when he came on last weekend, also we missed Dave's overlapping on the right-hand side. then why did we play devine at RB when Josh would be fine there, although i don't mind polworth replacing Vincent i just don't understand why we didn't play him with draper and put foran in the CAM position it would have made more sense because polworth could play in front of the back four. then why did we wait till after the 70th minute to make a change when by that time most of the damage was done 

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Perhaps WE are expecting too much ?!,

[AJS]

Havent scored a goal at McDiarmid Park since 2011 and have only taken 2 points from our last 5 visits there in scoreless draws. Safe to say its not a happy hunting ground us. I didnt expect us to win today but I also didnt expect hammering. Its disappointing but we know we are capable of better. All about how we react now. 

[Andrew Fraser]

Not sure why Ben didn't play today? Feels a bit strange after plaudits he got last week for his second half performance?

[Broonerz]

Exclude Brill and Billy from criticism today, but seems to me there are several players comfortable in the knowledge they are stick on starters every week. I my opinion TB had chance to make a statement today and make 3 changes at the break, freshen up things and have a real go in second half. There was no shortage of candidates to be subbed. Disappointed the changes were left so late.

[HeScoresWhenHeWants]

Can't believe we lost by that margin, worst performance by ICT in a long long time IMO. Hope we bounce straight back against Partick with a win but that was unacceptable today and I have to say why did Polworth start instead of Greenhalgh? And where was Raven?

[ictchris]

utter pish

[+bughtmaster]

Oh dear I think I'll go back to my darkened room, some of these posters are more depressing than the result.

[Sneckboy]

The players were obviously still thinking about today's 'Terry's teaser'... "give me 3 consecutive days of the week, but don't say either Wednesday, Friday or Sunday in your reply!"

No idea what answer to that is, but the players today didn't look like they'd have scored in this game...yesterday, today or tomorrow!

[Renegade]

That was an absolute disgrace.  Absolutely outplayed by St Johnstone, who to be fair were very good, but were ultimately handed the win due to some horrid tactics and all-round bad performances.  Could have been even more of an embarrassment had it not been for Dean Brill.  He was a class act today.

 

Last week, Greenhalgh came on and was excellent.  Surely the logical thing to do was to start with the team we played best with last week, which was with him out wide and Nick Ross down the middle.  Did we do it?  Of course not.  Polworth, who has barely had any game time at all at this level, was thrown in at the deep-end.  Where's the logic in that?  Unsurprisingly, apart from a couple of nice touches, he was nothing but a headless chicken and should've been hooked at half time.  

 

Devine at full-back against Hasselbaink and May was another strange decision (Raven got injured yesterday apparently), but did okay apart from some poor distribution.

 

But lets get on to tactics here.  A couple of seasons back and more recently, people were bemoaning the tactic of long hoofs forward towards Billy Mckay.  Well today, we had a new tactic.  Big long hoofs towards Nick Ross!  Did it work?  Ehm...no.  Nick Ross for my money anyway, is not a winger and has been poor out wide for weeks, while Foran had a bad game by his standards.

 

After the Aberdeen game, people were talking about a reaction in the next league match and heralded the result and performance against Hibs.  Forget that attitude right now.  Away games are a totally different animal and we've been going from bad to worse in them since the Kilmarnock game a few weeks ago.  Home matches have not been a problem for us at all this season, but away from home is a different story, which is strange considering prior to this season we were such a good side on the road.  Times need to be a-changing, and a reaction is needed.  That test will not will be in the form of Partick Thistle in our next home match but our next test on the road - away to Ross County.

Edited October 5, 2013 by Renegade

[Eagle4Caley]

Well I guess the good news is we don't play St Johnstone again for a while, and we have a break to get that mess out of the system, not sure if it helps with the injuries though....I am up for the Partick match, so hope they are fired up for a response

[Sneckboy]

Well I guess the good news is we don't play St Johnstone again for a while

Sadly not! Not sure how, but we play them in the league again next month!

[Kirishima]

It is one bad result, and probably marks the end of the halcyon start. That was bound to happen. And ICT have played badly and won before, but this time, STJ were on fire obviously.

Third to every ball sounds as though the players got too cocky.

[+Fraz]

I found this game to be most displeasing.

[Scarlet Pimple]

Right On Kirishima.

 

Sounds like a real Hiroshima for the team then.

 

I was thinking along the same lines as you and surmising from past reports about the possibility of a certain self-satisfaction having started up accompanied by a downturn in passion and commitment by this team in general terms.

 

Success always brings complacency until the wake -up call arrives. In my case , in my past business, the wake -up call came and although it had not been too severe it still shook me when I realised that I had lost business but had not been able to go out and replace it as easily as in the past. The problem there is that often the initial momentum has either been downgraded or even lost completely . Then the struggle starts to find a way to regain lost ground--usually that means extra effort and commitment and complete  elimination of complacency. Tough going for the inexperienced players since  this scenario can sap one's confidence.

 

I am commenting from the reports I have read but only the fans who actually have been attending the matches can pass an opinion on that viz-a-viz the current team.

 

However, in the past there seems to have been a reluctance by our Manager to react swiftly  and make even experimental changes in response to downturns or adversity like this and  hopefully he will become more decisive.