Don't like to single a player out because I thought we played but Connolly FFS.

Is mark Connolly not able to fucking just hit ball out of play??

Absolutely disgraceful goal to concede

Points lost 100%

New centre halves needed this week

smedDUm wrote:

It was an unfortunate clearance went straight to Craig on the volley, that apart both he & Reynolds strolled it. I wish folk would get off the backs of the two of them, it seems to be the easy option. A lot to be happy about that performance, very good signs. Harkes & Robson were the best & I think if Bolton had got another 10 mins we might have got the goal & the win we deserved.

 
He had a steady game but it was an abysmal clearance. It would have caused less bother if he had missed the ball

I’m honestly gobsmacked the goal we conceded it’s absolutely criminal!

IF Connolly is to play he has to play on the right hand side

Gutted

The loss of the goal took momentum out of the side, and I was expecting another goal from the Saints rather than us after Connolly's clearance. Disappointed, but it's early days, and I'm sure MM will have noted our weaknesses in a competitive game.

Ridiculous from Connolly. Centre half is a massive problem that most of us know.

We should have took the 3 points today few chances we should have done better with.

Whether Connolly is shit or not is down to the manager, but can anyone else remember the mantra that was drummed into defenders when I was a kid "always play it the way you're facing" knock it out and regroup, is that too simple?

Thought the young lad done very well on his debut, played it very safe, will only get better with confidence and match minutes, should be very proud of himself, this is our future please don't spoil it by being over analytical.

I thought we were the better team but a lack of creativity in CM and a brain fart at the back stopped what should've been a comfortable 2 or 3  - nil win.

My only, perhaps controversial, take is that I'm not convinced Harkes is the man many make him out to be. I didn't think much of him in the Championship and didn't think he was very good today either, and an almost catastrophic Mark Kerr esque passback summed up his day.

Other than that, pass marks all round... Well... Apart from Connoly 

Morphman wrote:

I thought we were the better team but a lack of creativity in CM and a brain fart at the back stopped what should've been a comfortable 2 or 3  - nil win.

My only, perhaps controversial, take is that I'm not convinced Harkes is the man many make him out to be. I didn't think much of him in the Championship and didn't think he was very good today either, and an almost catastrophic Mark Kerr esque passback summed up his day.

Other than that, pass marks all round... Well... Apart from Connoly 

 
Ian Harkes seems like a nice bloke. He, arguably, has the best hair in the team. As a footballer he is a  genuine lightweight with luxuriant locks. I can't see what he brings to the party.

Bizarre to think the gehm is only 10 mins walk up the road, but here we are watching it fae the hoose. Utterly phuckin weird if I'm honest.

Connolly was a tad unlucky. He, as he was supposed to, prevented the ba fae going toward the goal mouth. Yeah fowk are right. He didna hit the ba square enough and Craig was fortunate to be there to wallop it in.

Woulda been happier we the 3 points, but as a couple have sayed, the equaliser knocked us back a bit, but yeah we 10 men, we shoulda ta'en mair advantage oe them.

We were the better team, there's no doubt, we had the better oe the play, but the Johnies defended well. But in the 2nd half, Shanks and Coark never really got enough oe the ba and there were mair than enough nearies. The last 10 mins we definitely had the edge on them, and I thought we might just dae it.

It was a bit of eye opener for a lot oe us, and the lads themselves, to what we're gonna be up against this Season.

MOM for me Robson.

First 25 minutes i thought we started well and were by far the more dominant side.

Scored our pen and could have gotten the 2nd if Pawlett takes his chance.

So at that stage of the match i was happy. Thereafter the rest of the match i thought we were poor.

St.Johnstone came back into it in the last 20 of the first half and were unlucky not to equalise after (i forget who) turned Butcher at the end of our box and put his shot wide with the goal gaping.

O'Halloran then gets sent off for his 3rd daft foul and we go into the dressing room at half time a goal up and a man up.

That should have been the impetus for us to change the formation from 5 defenders on the park and go more attacking. We never. We paid the price.

St.Johnstone for me wanted it much more than us in that 2nd half and were the better side for about the first 20 of the 2nd period. Last 10 minutes Utd had a wee bit of a go but it was hardly 'kitchen sink' stuff and in truth i felt we huffed and puffed a bit. Tempo was miles off and nowhere what it should have been.

Positives - Young 17 year old done 'ok' on his debut. In truth he had a quiet game but that is often seen as a good sign if you're a defender. 

Luke Bolton done quite well on his debut. Some moments he was wasteful in possesion but he looked our most likely player in terms of actually wanting to take a man on ,get in or near the box and put in a delivery.

We never got beat

Can't think of too many others.

Negatives - 

No width.

Standard of performance dropped off noticeably after half an hour (fitness issue?)

Lack of penetration from middle to front.

Slow tempo of play.

Poor deliveries and poor finishing.

2 points dropped and against a pretty mediocre side at home.

Not a day that filled with much hope of things to come. We need about 4 or 5 players in the door before this window shuts imo.