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| St Johnstone, Away; Saturday 17th May, 3pm | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: May 11 2014, 10:53 PM (3,013 Views) | |
| TheDean | May 18 2014, 02:55 PM Post #46 |
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ALLEGEDLY CALICO
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Well of course we have to improve and I'm sure we will. McNamara is certainly working hard to control expectations because as he said earlier this season, this squad, entertaining as they are, have won nothing yet. Judging on that entertainment level it woudl be churlish not to renew Stickets just because our performance level was poor in one match. What will be interesting will how McNamara react to the need to strengthen. I wonder if we'll get Good for another year's loan, will the other more senior players not on the bench today be binned? Has Graham sealed his fate with those second half misses? Will Gauld recover from his growing pains? Can Souttar recover form in pre-season? Will we see Watson at centre back on a more permanent basis. Will we re-sign the freed Scott Allan? I'm sure the answers will start coming in the next few days. |
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| zico | May 18 2014, 03:29 PM Post #47 |
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Ivan Golac
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Do tell why my comment merited that statement, mr smug git? |
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| Naebody | May 18 2014, 04:57 PM Post #48 |
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Twat
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No, I meant it sincerely. Blaming yesterday's defeat on McCall's release of a 19-year-old a decade ago requires an uncommonly lateral application of logic. That's impressive. In a sense. Anyone notice how cheesed GMS was to be taken off? Last game in the jersey? |
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| litljortindan2 | May 18 2014, 05:35 PM Post #49 |
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Ian McCall
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Damn. |
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| zico | May 18 2014, 06:10 PM Post #50 |
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Ivan Golac
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Fccall was crap |
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| Setenza | May 18 2014, 07:14 PM Post #51 |
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Knitting with only one needle
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He took a knock not long before he came off for which he needed treatment, not sure if that had anything to do with it. As for last game, who knows. Going by some other parts of the internet, he'll be lucky to get a game for Brechin next year, along with most of our team. Maybe the move upwards he deserves would be a good thing. |
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| reekie | May 18 2014, 08:39 PM Post #52 |
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lum raker
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Edited by reekie, May 18 2014, 08:46 PM.
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| reekie | May 18 2014, 08:40 PM Post #53 |
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lum raker
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He took a really sore one from Dave McKay, which I'm not sure was entirely unintentional. He could barely walk between that and being substituted. I think he was just disappointed with having to go off. Certainly, anyone who's watched him recently would struggle to reconcile what they saw with the young turk on the showreels. We undoubtedly need some squad surgery but nothing drastic. A full-back of each flavour and one centre-back minimum. Whether they'll come from the youths or outside the club... Assuming Farid goes, another striker would be nice. Unless Kudus comes back? I saw a report of five targets having been identified (as well as a transfer fund!), which is reassuring. |
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| Conan the Destroyer | May 18 2014, 10:00 PM Post #54 |
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I prefer it when we're pish
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Money spent on transfers is money wasted. Have you not read Soccernomics? |
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| Cobardon | May 18 2014, 10:36 PM Post #55 |
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Uncle Smurf
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I know what you mean. Some of the comments -including from journalists- have been difficult to understand. Is their angle that the workmanlike Saints stopped United playing and none of our flair players rose to the game as a result? If so there's some truth to it but it's lazy (and downright wrong) to say it's the whole story. I was speaking to a neutral this evening who thought United were the better side overall. Yet I look at player scoring and see all our team played poorly while all the opposition were above average. Crazy stuff. Is it that sheer chance isn't allowed to be the deciding factor in sport as that detracts from the value of it? That's my guess. |
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| vvhatsthatonyourback | May 19 2014, 07:54 AM Post #56 |
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wild eyed
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Ah weel, that was a bit of a let down. Never really got going, much as many predicted would happen when St Johnstone set out to stop us playing and we do nothing to change things. Fairly even match nonetheless, just that they scored and we didn't. I thought Ciftci was excellent, Dillon also good, but the rest just adequate. Except for Super Stu, who was genuinely terrible. Nothing he attempted worked. Nothing. A really awful game, like Mark Kerr awful, from one of our two players of the season. Most disappointing. Thought the ref was fine. Usual grumping from defeated supporters, but he does what Thompson does in trying to let the game flow. He should have booked those stewards for time wasting when they took an age to remove the scrunched up paper balls from the pitch though. Atmosphere created by the largest ever Dundee United supposedly supporting contingent was very flat. The St Johns behaved like they were actually pleased to be at the cup final. We just sat there expecting the team to please us. My ambivalent attitude towards the result persisted during and afterwards. Pleased for the Perthshire team. |
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| Hamish | May 19 2014, 08:09 AM Post #57 |
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Ian McCall
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Ditto reference Stuart Armstrong. Bitter disappointment. I had hoped it would be his day to shine and can't figure out why he was so anonymous. Day in general was a bit flat. Drizzle didn't help, but the forecast was worse. I'm reading there were turnstile delays in the east stand, hence the gaps before kick-off. 2010 was the 125th cup final, but pre-match stuff was much better that year. I've always like Celtic Park, but perhaps the return to Hampden next year after the Games is a good thing. |
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| vvhatsthatonyourback | May 19 2014, 08:34 AM Post #58 |
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wild eyed
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Oh, I wish Armstrong had been anonymous, Hamish. That would have been a vast improvement on his performance. I was sitting with a couple of Englishmen with no knowledge of Scotch Football and even they were moved to comment on what a poor game our number 10 was having. |
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| Setenza | May 19 2014, 08:39 AM Post #59 |
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Knitting with only one needle
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I thought the atmosphere was also a bit flat, there was no real excitement on the pitch to get things going, and there was no effort from the fans to really make any noise. I think the style of the game didn't help, was very start stop and no momentum to get behind. As for Armstrong, I think just an off day. Seemed to be trying the right things when he had a bit of time or space, but didn't come off. Other times he was just crowded out. Gauld was the same when he came on. |
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| Naebody | May 19 2014, 09:16 AM Post #60 |
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Twat
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Perhaps I'm being dim, but I thought we did change things. The formation looked to me like a very conventional four-four-two, with Armstrong (in theory) a winger. The consequence was that GMS and Stretch spent much of the match pootering about 20 yards behind where the usually play, the full backs seemed more hesitant to go on the overlap, and the only out ball was to punt it long for Ciftci to control (which he did admirably). Was that formation a mistake? Possibly. But it's also worth remembering that, had Dow's deft little flick been half an inch closer to Camlachie Burn, we'd not have lost our deposit on the open-top bus. Those are the margins of success and failure. Football, eh? Fuck it. |
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7:21 PM Jul 11