Hibs away

Momentous

Every so often in a season, pivotal points occur and you recognise them instantly; Saturday was such a day.

Steve Lomas has transformed Saints from a boring team of low-confidence, under-achievers to a bustling energetic team of believers. The transformation in players is self-evident; Ando has stepped up, Haber works his balls off and Sandaza tracks back with surprising regularity. With signings like Compton and Croft, the future looks bright for Saints. This is a golden era, be in no doubt. Your children and grandchildren will ask you about this era; be sure you can tell them of your match day experiences.

Personally, I am saddened by the loss of Garts and Parkin. The rugged defender couldn’t have had worse luck if he lived under a ladder. That said, a parting of the ways was inevitable following comments by Del in the summer. Parkin, was always gonna struggle from the break and with three recognised, in-form strikers playing ahead of him it was always gonna be wise to free up his chunky wage. Both lads leave with my best wishes, good and devoted servants of our great club. Fraudulent Willie Gibson is also away. His only achievement being to gain one and a half stones of puppy fat during his stay. Oh aye, he played a freekick out the park at Tannadice after Callum Davidson has asked him to show some composure. I reckon we signed him, because Del or Doc lost a bet with the Crawley Town gaffer.

Lee Croft arrived amidst a deluge of crap journalism. Scotland really has very few writers that break away from clichés and stereotypes. The lack of knowledge and research amongst Scottish journalists is embarrassing. I read very little about Croft because our “journalists” found it easier to print captions under photographs of his missus – whoever she is or was. Admittedly, she looks like a cliché personified. Not a patch on Gary Irvine’s missus...

Croft himself got lucky on the field, when from a rebound; the ball dropped kindly allowing him to lash a terrific right footed shot into the lower left postage stamp of Mark Brown’s goal. Initial thoughts are that he’s a poor man’s Gavin Swankie, a brilliant winger who can score for fun. His touch was mostly impeccable, his fitness utterly deplorable. Compton has arrived amidst stinging rebuke of his character and attitude, but for Crofty to be so unfit speaks volumes for his response to being dropped from the Derby side. It could well be that we’ve signed two tricky characters, but as they’re loan players we simply need them to do a job for four months. I trust Lomas to do that.

Both men certainly showed glimpses of promise on the debut, Crofty took his goal well and despite Compton losing Booth for the Hibs second, he arguably prevented a goal just moments earlier. Alert on the edge of our box, he showed great instinct to nick the ball away. I doubt he’ll ever have Crofty’s talent for finishing, but his crossing and willing to run by folk will stand him in good stead. It’s also worth remembering that Compton is a lefty and was asked to play wide right....

In the case of both men, we must temper our excitement with the blunt reality that 10 teams have a better left back than Booth. Only Dunfermline have a worse shirt filler. Remember that Cleve looked good against Kevin Fotheringham for 45 minutes at Station Park. No honestly, he really did....

The other talking point from the game was the disappearance of two midfield players. Kevin Moon has steadily dropped out of the frame under Lomas and that makes little sense from an outside perspective. I wonder if the contract extension was for when Jody departs, if so, he needs to get some games elsewhere. Maybe a loan move to Bristol....

The other guy to disappear is Murray Davidson. I don’t understand the fluctuating levels of performance from his this season. At Aberdeen he was scintillating, yet against Hibs, he looked as poor as he did in his first season. The game passed him by and it felt like we were playing with ten men. His team mates are mostly fans, but the fans are getting frustrated by him. Because we’re playing well, he’ll get off lightly; if we hit a sticky patch, he’ll be castigated by all and sundry. With Jamie Adams unavailable until March at the earliest, there’s no ready-made replacement waiting in the wings. Of course, as has been noted by several Saints players, nobody plays well in centre mid when Jody is selected.....

Jody himself had a decent game. Pushed slightly further up than normal, he had no Murray or Millar to battle with and should have perhaps been more adventurous on occasion. The shape of our side improved greatly in the second half and it’s no coincidence that Jody had a better second half as a result. The wee English terrier can often find his brain working way ahead of his team mates, having Fran and Haber in the side often allows Jody to play smarter balls. For all his baggage, he’ll be missed when he goes. It now looks unlikely that he’ll go in this window, despite Cook electing to stay put at Sligo.

On the left wing, Liam Craig again put in a stellar performance. Del’s first signing was undoubtedly one of the good ones. He came here with a perceived attitude problem, certainly talked his way into bother with referees in his first half year, but under Del he really turned himself around – with the brilliant exception of the St Mirren game in April 2010! Perceived troublemaker, left footed and a player that Saints fans know little about – that’s the first thing that Del and Lomas have in common, first signing similarities!

Liam took his goal brilliantly and his work rate was great all day. Callum didn’t advance much on the day meaning it was harder for Liam to link up but he always made himself available for an outball. His work rate seems to increase year on year. Any accusations of laziness have been blown out of the water. Indeed it was his full back that put in a lazy, albeit composed shift.

Callum rightly used his experience to spend the 90 minutes with a defensive mindset. The boy will make an excellent manager in due course. He just knows when to attack and when to defend. Very rarely does he get flustered and very rarely does he get decisions wrong. Quite unlike Euan Norris, who managed to book Callum for his first (and only?) foul of the game. A foul committed in front of the dugouts! That’s dugouts plural, Mr Norris; one where a bus load of overly-animated, ruffians shouted and bawled for almost 100 minutes, in the other dugout Tommy was generally under-control. Odd then that Tommy was the one receiving a lecture from the upstart charged with displaying a flashy board for subs and time added on.

We’re getting incredibly lucky with other teams results, but referees, and their band of equally incompetent colleagues, are doing their best to de-rail our push for top six. Not deliberately, I’m not “Celtic-minded”, we’re just getting unlucky. Runs of luck come and go; better to have bad luck when we’re well up, never want bad luck to coincide with poor form.

Inside him, the centre half pairing of Ando Cracks have now conceded 5 goals at Easter Road, but two were penalties which should never have been awarded. “Ando for Scotland” was the chant in the stand, richly deserved too. The veteran centre half made very few errors and can be rightly proud of his performance. We need to hope that the certainty of wages will be the deciding factor for Ando as he mulls over his future. If we lose him, a replacement will be near impossible to find. With Enckleman likely to flee the country in summer time, we need to try and ensure stability in our defence. Let’s hope we nail the deal in the next couple of weeks. His play will improve once the decision is made. He clearly enjoys his football now and he’s becoming ever more vocal on the field which is the sign of growing confidence.

His partner, Cracks, brings an incredible coolness to the backline. Excellent communication, a wonderful touch, strong in the tackle and built like Unimog; he’s been the surprise of the summer signings. I really wasn’t convinced when we signed him, but he won me over from his first game against Dunfermline. His role against Hibs involved marking O’Connor, he did it so well that the petty criminal was withdrawn early in the second half. None of the Hibs attackers managed to impress me; none of them would get in our team, that’s a surety.

Dave Mackay had a pretty poor game. I haven’t watched the re-run, but he let a ball come into the box in the first half that he should have cut out and seemed to be at sixes and sevens for large parts of the game. His strength is generally his ability to maraud forward, but with Crofty and Sandaza ripping the keich out of Booth; he was rather hemmed in. Get pressed much better in the second half as Fran played more towards the middle. Again it’s hard to judge the right hand men because we were being allowed to play the most obvious “one-twos” ever seen in the SPL.  It won’t be see easy against the Well...

Enckleman didn’t have to make many saves but when he did they were mostly under control. He had no chance with the penalty and Booth finished a very slick move to leave the Finn relying on lady luck. He’ll be unhappy to have let in two goals, but really he should be proud of his game.

Up front, I’m out of platitudes for the lads. I was critical of Haber first half for letting his foot off the gas. He knows that Sheridan is after his starting jersey and he should have been nailing his balls to the wall in a bid to ensure that he keeps Cillian on the bench. He didn’t in the first half, he got bullied and let his head drop for the last twenty minutes. In the second half he turned it round and ran himself into the ground. He was clearly unhappy at being withdrawn, particularly because his only competitor was the man who replaced him. I don’t know Lomas well enough to guess at who’ll start against Motherwell, but if I had to bet I’d go with Marcus and Fran. A partnership is blossoming so why change a winning side?

So we head to Motherwell, a team who struggle at home and who were thrashed by the Super Saintees last time in Lanarkshire. We need a strong result ahead of the cup tie, our rivals play Dunfermline in midweek and that will scunner their training for the week. A few injuries would be grand too. Either way, the momentum is with Saints; don’t go expecting, simply go believing! This is a golden age – don’t miss out on your chance to watch Lomas’ Legends.

Rangers at Home Jan 2012

Hard Luck Lads

Stevie Lomas first encountered Craig Thomson at Ibrox; what an introduction to Scottish football. The overpaid, incompetent BMW X5 driver was a clown in that game and was even worse when he visited Perth with Rangers on Saturday.

Whilst I am all too often guilty of sitting on the fence over some issues, please be clear that I don’t think he changed the result of the game yesterday. I do not believe he is a corrupt, in the sense that I don’t believe he deliberately gives the wrong decisions. I firmly believe that he is incapable of making the right decisions. His fitness does not seem to be an issue; he was often up with play and often had a clear view of incidents. He is simply useless. If he’s any sort of man, he’ll admit that Dorien should have been sent off for his foul on Sandaza, if not for his jersey pull on Haber before that. Admitting a problem is the biggest step to resolution of the issue.

The game itself wasn’t particularly entertaining but, whenever a result is possible against the Old Firm the atmosphere is decent. McDiarmid Park has been slowly re-gaining some atmosphere under Steve Lomas and the warmer weather and lighter nights will only help the ambience. There were no obvious stewarding issues and despite a very poor turnout from Saints fans, the contra-singing was strong and raucous.

In fairness, injustice creates a unity amongst fans and we reacted to our players wrongly protesting the Rangers opener. We need to all step back and think about a bit of role reversal. When Fran Sandaza broke away from the idiotic and disgusting hand shaking routine which blights every SPL match he ran to the East Stand gestured us to be more vocal and supportive. How sad that a player had to do that. I fervently believe that we enter into an unwritten contract when we enter the McDiarmid turnstiles; beyond any doubt we have an obligation to raise the roof in support of our players. Personally, I love it when Enckleman gets involved. Alan Main was not without fault, but he worked wonders when interacting with the fans. Lomas should encourage more of this behaviour from his number one.

Perhaps we need to think of new ways of creating an atmosphere. Our half time is wasted with trivial announcements; instead I’d like to see former players on the pitch. Perhaps such as Bruce Fummey would perform a tannoy role at half time, maybe we could have a competition to produce the Official Saints run out music?  The music needs to be upbeat and catchy, the crowd need a stimulus, the bairns on the pitch does not work. Maybe an adults competition, like we see at Scotland games, would be more popular. It would certainly create another sponsorship avenue and that should give increased newspaper coverage too. Please don’t think this is the sole responsibility of the board or Stuart and Paul.

We all have an obligation to the club we love; we all want the match day atmosphere to be better. If you have an idea, daft or sensible, please put your idea in writing and send it to the Commercial Department, McDiarmid Park, Crieff Road, Perth, PH1 2SJ. You will likely receive a standard reply, but as myself and plenty others can testify, if the idea is feasible, it will be given due consideration. The club are working their balls off, just because they can’t publicise every initiative doesn’t mean they are doing nothing. The time and effort spent with school kids is as incredible as it is surprising. It would be boring if they publicised every initiative. Anyway, back to the game...

Saints fans should be delighted that we played against Rangers, lost  2-1 and can rightly feel aggrieved by the score. That’s a measure of the improvement we’ve seen under Lomas. That aside, he repeated an error yesterday and that’s the first time I’ve had to write that.

The lack of Moon cost us dear yesterday. I must defend David Robertson, despite his chronic opening 20 minutes. I still don’t see what he brings to the team, but he is a good player. More than that, he tackled bravely, had a decent effort on goal and blocked/prevented a certain goal. He’s undoubtedly frustrating, but Lomas has seen something in him and he sees more of him than we do. His great judgement affords him the luxury of time.

Platitudes aside, he should have had Mooner in the team yesterday. We had a clear tactic not to rush their centre halves – common sense with one up top – but we lacked a gritty spark when the ball did come into midfield. Mooner would have fixed that. A confident Mooner would have buried Robbo’s miss from Fran’s selfless square ball. I understand why Lomas wants Muzz to find the net, but the bottom line is that he doesn’t possess a talent for that part of the game. Moon does and Lomas would do well to ensure he gets good coaching in the afternoons from a striking coach.

Now bear in mind that Robbo was arguably our worst player and you’ll understand why there was huge frustration in the home dressing room following the game. Not one player put in a poor shift, the tactics were virtually bang on (given the injury to Midgie) and the selection gets 10/11 from me.

Although not one of our players excelled in the game, neither did any of the Rangers players. Sone Aluko, a player inexplicably maligned by fans of other clubs, gave Callum Davidson a tough time, Stevie Davis worked well in midfield and Jelavic is decent up front. Other than that, we arguably won the other battles. As I say, great frustration on the day.

So to the issues of the day:

Craig Thomson is useless. The first goal was offside. The freekick preceding it was fine, it was taken from the correct area and, despite what I initially thought, the ball was stopped when it was struck. No problems with that. Players in blue should have firstly blocked the quick free kick and secondly put in a challenge on Aluko. We didn’t and they scored. Not Craig’s fault, but he remains useless. Whatever Lomas says publicly, he will be furious with his players for not defending that set play properly. The first goal against the Old Firm is always crucial.

Our players will review the footage and cringe. So too, should the West Stand linesman, Healy was offside. The goal should not have stood. I was certain at the time, but subsequently doubted myself. Having watched it several times since, I believe the Rangers number 15 was interfering with play, active, call it what you will; I believe Rangers got lucky that their goal stood, whereas Haber’s was chalked off. At least Haber’s was a decent finish.

Liam Craig, owner of the worst hair and boots at the club, sent in a hanging cross ball which Haber sent to Alexander’s right, before the Rangers back-up keeper could get to the ball, his defensive colleague neatly deflected the ball to the keeper’s left and into the back of the pokey. In the stands, I celebrated like mad, I don’t remember being so chuffed by a McDiarmid goal in ages. It just seemed right that we were gonna get a point.

That I felt a point had been secured is a reflection of Lomas’ hard work with the squad. Despite Millar forcing us into a boring 4-5-1, the midfield movement allowed to us attack well and with great fluid passing moves, a far cry from the stuffy and sideways stuff that we suffered under the previous regime. That’s not to say we were gung ho. A slip from Ando the Rock allowed Rangers one sight at goal, the rest of the time we were pretty much under control. Often when a team loses, the manager trots out trite rhetoric - “if my boys play like that, we’ll do okay” – but when Lomas did his finest list of clichés there was truth in his words. We have four hard games coming up, two against teams placed higher than us, but we can tackle them with confidence. Under Lomas we have a swagger and a gallousness that rattle sour opponents. I always argued that Del wasted too much time respecting the opposition; Lomas is proving me right. He, like me, believes in his players and trusts them to do a job. Apart from the Celtic game at home, they simply haven’t let him down.

Of course, as we know, Rangers got a winner, thanks to an awfy blunder from Rangers fan, Murray Davidson. The midfield hard man is coming under curious waves of attack from the WAP brigade and I’m confused by that. It’s well known that I am disappointed by his development but his performances this season have been his best to date. I’m really bewildered and wonder if the WAP brigade convinced themselves that he was genuinely on the verge of the national team. He isn’t good enough for Scotland, he isn’t as good as Jamie Adams and it’s no surprise that folk haven’t been bidding for him. Nevertheless he’s a decent SPL midfielder, our defenders rate him highly and so does our manager. I know who’s judgement I’ll follow.

Yes he made a mistake, it happens. I understand why Mackay, and to a lesser extent, Anderson, blamed Enckleman for the goal, but it was categorically Muzz’s fault. TV replays prove that beyond any doubt. The lion has a good attitude and he won’t let it affect him. We’ll pick ourselves up and look to correct things at the weekend.

The only other real talking point was the lack of red card for Goian’s persistent fouling. Booked early in the game, he should have walked for a blatant jersey pull. Not content with escaping punishment for that foul, he felled Fran Sandaza just after our equaliser. His dismissal may not have changed the game, but that’s not the point. Gerry McLaughlin was sent packing for a near identical foul in the same area the week before. No consistency, no parity, no consequences for the men in black.

I’m not rating the players this week, partly because I’m lazy and partly because they all performed well. Lomas is taking this league by storm and is making a mark in many ways at the club. A few players could well be heading for the exit in the next fortnight but he has good men ready to come in.

These are exciting times. If you’re not involved, you’re missing out.

Brechin at Home SFA Cup 4th Round

Steve Lomas and the Deathly Hush

Steve Lomas has been taken aback by the Scottish training facilities since his arrival three months ago. One can only imagine what his private thoughts are about the level of support his team gets at home.

Let’s put aside the argument that “we pay our money, we can say what we like”. We are sitting in fourth place in the SPL; unlike St Mirren, Inverness, Killie and Dunfermline we are through to the next round without the need to play an extra game. Not bad for a club that budgeted to finish eleventh. Our rookie manager has made very few mistakes and our performances at home have been much improved under his stewardship.

Folk also have very short memories. I’ve read much about what a great cup tie we witnessed at Glebe Park in 2011, I’ve read very little about how we only just scraped a win in the replay with a stuttering performance on McDiarmid’s tattie field.

At kick off on Saturday, everyone connected with Saints would have taken a victory in any circumstance. In the end, we got a comfortable albeit turgid win. None of the players can hold their heads particularly high after that sort of performance, but neither can the home support.

Steve Lomas didn’t lambast his players, nor should he have done so, but his tenure in the stand was notable by its brevity; he cut a most irritated figure for the bulk of the afternoon. He wasn’t helped by what appeared to be poor communication from his players. Murray Davidson gave a very clear indication that he wanted to be subbed, Mooner was shouted to the dugout yet Muzz, despite going down injured in front of Enckleman, stayed on for the 90. There was some confusion over Lomas’ gesture to Fran. Some folk thinking the gaffer was asking more of Fran and threatening him withdrawal, others thinking that he was re-assuring Fran that he’d be off in five minutes. Whatever the truth, Lomas picked the right team and they got the job done.

I love the fact that we scored very early in both halves, yet some expert has questioned Lomas’ team talks... Irony not lost on him, then! Once again the big ginge delivers a much needed result. We have three very tricky fixtures coming up and we need to ensure we get some points from the next nine. It’s not impossible that we could win all three, but it’s equally feasible for us to lose all three. We must work extremely hard to ensure we stay on course to sneak into the top six.

It’s worth considering that Saints are struggling to find decent pitches to train on at the moment. Many first team regulars are unable to train on the Astroturf so getting ball time into players hasn’t been easy. The pitch behind the east stand isn’t suitable in its current format. It would be folly for the club to spend money on McDiarmid until the new stadium/road matter has been resolved and that won’t be in time for the summer spend.

I’ve said it to death over the last few reports but we need solidarity and unity between; coaches, players and fans if we are to sneak into the top six. Outside of the park, I am all for freedom of speech and disagreements – I keep arguing with myself about Enckleman – but in the park the negativity and reckless abuse is bang out of order. I’m not the biggest fan of our club captain, but to lambast him as not being good enough is clearly nonsense.

Even the players who have grievances with Jody wouldn’t deny his undoubted ability. He still sits quite deep at times, but it’s clear to see that Lomas is working at making the midfield more fluid and that Jody is an integral part of that change. Personally, I remain firm in the belief that Mooner is a better player, we’ll probably not get the chance to see that much over the coming months unless Jody gets an injury or a ticket to Bristol. He judgement and skill let him down badly for the Brechin goal, though the striker reacted well and showed great strength against Ando and great bravery against Enckleman. He also finished it with great confidence given the tricky nature of the pitch.

It’s important to recognise that the ball was always out of Anderson’s reach, so kicking it out of play wasn’t an option. When he saw Enckleman on one of his outfield foray’s he had little option but to try and clear a path for Big Pete to get his boot to the ball. As at Dunfermline, it seemed that Enckleman hesitated when he came off his line and that made all the difference. The televised coverage was very poor so we’ll never know if my supposition was right or wrong, all that matters is Morris fecked up and we lost a goal as a result. Other than a well worked move late in the game, they didn’t threaten us much after that.

The back four were in decent form. Dave Mackay’s crossing was very poor and Alan Maybury probably could have been more adventurous against lower league opposition. That said, Mackay has been in great form ever since Lomas arrived and Maybury slotted in so well at left back that we simply didn’t miss Callum Davidson – that’s praise. We are very lucky to still have Maybury on board. Lomas would do well to ensure that Maybs gets a new deal sooner rather than later. He always seems to play in our important wins.

McCracken and Anderson had a curious afternoon. The wind was horrendous, the pitch was tricky and the midfield very as lazy as they’ve under Lomas yet they really had very little to do. They still put their bodies on the line but there were no really outstanding moments from either of them. Good players though – let’s hope they don’t get split up for the visit of Glasgow Blue on Saturday.

In midfield, the gaffer has a dilemma on his hands. Finnigan simply hasn’t cut the mustard on the right wing and a change would be nice ahead of the Rangers game. His options are very limited. We need to ensure that Davidson isn’t risked for the game as it’s the “least winnable” of the next three, that means that the defence should remain unchanged for next week.

He might choose to play Haber wide right, but that’s a waste. He might choose to put Mooner wide right but it’s not a position he plays well. Then it boils down to Robbo (who has never played well for us) or one of the bairns. Both Rikki and Scotty deserve a chance, but playing against Rangers is a big ask, especially when they haven’t played a competitive game for almost two months. Oh aye, the overweight Wullie Gibson is here until 22 January...happy days.

Given that, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him go with a five man midfield, hopefully with Mooner in the most advanced role and Haber on the right. That gives solidarity with the ability to move forward quickly and break in numbers. Of course if he goes to 4-4-2 for the second half, I’ll be delighted.

Sandaza has been a man in the news over recent weeks and his agent has probably been called every football insult by the board and the management. Fran ought to be old and wise enough to recognise why he ended up at Saints in the first place. Of course football clubs and managers are often as fickle and thick as the average fan; but he had few, if any, admirers last August.

Rumours continue to circulate that he didn’t want to play against Dunfermline and rumours also suggest that he is a poor worker at training. I don’t know enough to comment on the East End Park story but he’s certainly not the worst player at training, far from it. He doesn’t come in “under the weather”, he hasn’t ballooned in weight during his time with us and he managed to turn up for training over the festive period. That puts him three places ahead of some...

My own opinion is that nobody will front the cash to release him. We don’t need the money that badly and few clubs will be happy to pay the requisite fee when they can secure his signature on a pre-contract agreement. It would be different if a club could trust him to stay for two and a half years without causing bother.

One way he might be sold is if Rangers really have secured a deal with HMRC. It’s feasible that he could go to Ibrox in a double part-exchange deal that sees Murray Davidson head west with Cole or Wylde coming to us. As Steves Lomas and Brown have said, the deal must be right for St Johnstone. We will not roll over and let Rangers tickle our balls,

Three final comments:

• The referee was a joke – for both sides.
• Gerry McLaughlin didn’t deserve to be red carded – neither foul merited a yellow. I was ashamed of Fran and Marcus.
• Our home crowd is a pitiful disgrace. Would love to see us clap for 90 minutes solid at a home game, bet it wouldn’t last three. We act like a bunch of uncommitted, passionless hangers-on. If we continue to behave like that, we’ll not get top six because we won’t win enough games at home.

The atmosphere when the players run out affects their mental state, that’s beyond any doubt. It’s only natural that any player will take confidence from hearing a raucous noise heaping adulation on them; it’s the main reason why venues such as Parkhead, Ibrox, Tynecastle and Easter Road are tricky places to win. When an army marches into hand to hand combat they use noise to intimidate their opponents. If it’s good enough for warfare, it’s good enough for football.

Lomas cannot make McDiarmid a fortress without our help, it’s embarrassing that we’re not doing more to help him. Come on folks; let’s try uplifting noises, positive cheers and encouraging clapping. It costs nothing, but it could be priceless. Please help our club!