SPL 2 - Rangers @ Home

Let Him Who is Without Sin Cast the First Stone

Many negative adjectives can be used to describe the game on Saturday, but it needs a little examination.

To paraphrase one sage observer, it’s always like that when we play Rangers. Except maybe this one was different.

Last week in Aberdeen, I raised questions about our fitness and hunger; this week, the rest of the WAPpers have cottoned on to these doubts. Forget about Enckleman’s flaps, ignore Robbo doing his Casper impersonation, erase Wright’s lack of talent and consider the second goal. One of our most talented and surely our most successful player was pushed off the ball by Jelavic. That was perhaps an unfortunate consequence of being off-balance; nevertheless it summed up our afternoon.

The game started well enough with Sheridan looking interested for at least 10 minutes. The Twitter comic and Haber worked well together, constantly swapping roles and causing confusion in the Rangers rearguard. Sheridan is the most frustrating player I have ever witnessed. There are times when his touch makes him look like he’s gonna become a footballer, but sadly we only six or seven of those touches in the whole game. Quite why we allowed him back is anyone’s guess, but you do have to wonder how much influence Jody Morris has on our signing policy.

Jody, himself, has been the focus of much attention recently with many WAPpers wrongly blaming him for our negative style of play. The wee man was an attacking midfielder when he arrived, but Del has destroyed a once flamboyant player and turned him into a midfield pass-master. He’s unduly criticised for the not playing the ball forward and/or delaying his pass. That’s all well and good, but too often it’s because our players are neither in space nor in front of the ball.

Many will remember our turgid slog to the SFL1 crown and the juxtaposition between the first thirty games and the final six. I well remember hearing Derek defend his style of play in the Dunkeld Road club, he explained that he encourages his fullbacks to get forward and supply decent crosses, yet all we saw that year was Irvine floating balls in from 25 yards out. When we got to those last six games, Irvine easily got to the by-line before playing wonderful balls on the cut-back. We won 5 out of our last 6 games.....

Around that time I wrote plenty about Derek’s words not fitting his behaviours, the rest of the world is slowing playing catch-up with me. Derek talks a good game about attacking and playing attractive football. He speaks of signing exciting players yet this is the man who refused to start Swankie in our opening games, despite several crowd pleasing performances in his first pre-season.

Swankie, Morais, Taylor, McCluskey, Myrie-Williams and Novikovas have all failed to secure a regular start under Del; whilst grafters such as Midgie and Craig usually retain their jerseys. His team selection clearly goes against his words. He selects teams to sneak a win. That worked well for Walter Smith because he had a team with pace and a clinical striker. We have no pace and tend to play midgets in midfield. Only Haber could be described as clinical but he’s still struggling to find the last few percent of his sharpness.

On Saturday we witnessed a bank of four central midfielders string out in a line. With our only creative players stuck on the outside of the four, we had no way of getting forward and when McInnes inexplicably switched them, Mooner went from majestic to miserable. Some of the wee man’s touches were the stuff of dreams and if anyone had any doubts about his ability he surely banished them in the first half.

Only Derek can explain why he sold out by playing Moon on the left for the second 45. If anyone needed proof that Del is too arrogant to learn from his mistakes, that decision summed up his refusal to admit his faults. Last time we saw Moon on the left of anything was Fir Park in Boxing Day 2009, we didn’t see him in the second half.

Now, I’m not suggesting that Del is corrupt, but Moon’s showing at Fir Park was on a par with Robertson’s showing on Saturday; Moon got hooked, Robbo got to change position. Murray Davidson, who reverted back to the crap he produced last season, was allowed to be a passenger for 90 minutes, I wonder if he’s one of Del’s favourites....

Speaking of Del’s favourites, this is what Del said of Frazer Wright, “This is a very important and I would even say fantastic signing for St Johnstone and I could not be more pleased.” On hearing the news I posted, “Other than being the right shape, I can't think of a positive in Frazer Wright. Still, we're aiming to sign another centre half so things might work out okay. “Sadly, the other centre half was David McCracken.

Frazer Wright is a left footed version of Kevin Rutkiewicz, well on the field at any rate. He seems incapable of playing a short pass, his positioning is wonky, his tackling is poor, he doesn’t use his body well, he has no partnership with Ando and he doesn’t appear to care about our team.

Mind you, most of players seem a bit like that. In recent years, we’ve had a never say die attitude, I loved that day at Palmerston signing; “We are Unbeatable!” Now though, it seems we’re instantly defeated by the first goal. Despite escaping with a point against the Dons, we were never in the game. Against Rangers, we surrendered well before the thirty minute mark.

The lion hearted bravery that we once had, has gone; stifled by a manager who has run out of ideas. Remember the cavalier attach mode at Ibrox, a day when Caddis showed us a glimpse of things to come? We’ve lost that mindset and I don’t believe that Del has the code to re-set it. With JJ and Billy Broon on the market, there is no better time to get rid of Del than now.....

Of course not all the blame is his to bear, not one player reached their full potential and neither did the wet drip of human life in the stands. I’ve been soap boxing for years about our fans reluctance to support the team for the sake of the team. Saturday was yet more proof that Perth does not deserve St Johnstone.

Season ticket sales are surely lower than any other SPL team, yet Ginger Baker and his rebellious army, yet again choose to swell the coffers of a rival club. It’s so incredible and bizarre that when I try to explain it to non-football supporters, they simply don’t believe me. You’d almost think that the Barossa Street Club wants the McDiarmid board to fail in order that one of their throng can put forward a case for joining the board of St Johnstone.

I worked hard to destroy the creation of a fans forum but I am now powerless to prevent this congregation of largely innocent folk. Many have joined in good faith, believing the rhetoric and spin of the leader. We can only hope that the apathy of the East Stand attacks Barossa Street and the club can return to be a pub of the Orangest Order.

St Johnstone are in for a difficult season; financially, structurally and politically. We have a group of fairly well paid players who don’t particularly care. The team has little spine and attracting players is made hard by the combination of a dwindling support and restless manager.

We should all be pulling in one direction. Geoff, Stevie and Stan have delivered enormous success for this club over the last few years, whilst Geoff and Stewart Duff are jointly responsible for allowing us the privilege to turn up and watch our team play in Perth, in a modern and successful stadium. If we don’t back the board, with our cash, they simply cannot give us a financial platform to remain in the SPL. We need to be focussed and determined; whenever possible we need to promote St Johnstone like an over-zealous car salesman. We can all think of many, many happy moments supporting Saints. We should be enthusing and bringing more folk to the park.

Subtle things like offering a lift to a friend, sharing a season ticket whenever possible,  arranging to meet in the Muirton Suite and discussing the game fervently amongst friends in the work place or in social venues.

Let’s forget about organising buses to away venues, let’s focus on bringing the harvest into St Johnstone’s store house. Let’s start now and build some atmosphere ahead of the Pars game. Imagine the atmosphere if we all took one extra friend to McDairmid....