Brown has had a number of terrific interceptions and general bullying today. One could make a decent case that heās the greatest living Irishman.
GMS should have done better there. Good play by Wakaso.
Wakaso picks out GMS and he really should have scored with that volley. Disappointing effort.
That OāHalloran has impressed me again. Heās stood out against Celtic a few times before.
Wakaso has looked a bit dodgy since that nice cross.
Fuck. 0-1. Some strike.
Screamer for them. Drilled in from 30 yards after a corner was cleared. Another corner which came from Wakaso getting caught out of position.
Stokes close enough there. St Johnstone had come into the game a tiny bit before the goal but still came out of nothing really.
I believe I made the point previously that full back is a very difficult position to play in this system. It took Izzy a few months to get the hang of it. Matthews was the same. Theyāre both in great form at the moment but itās very easy to get caught ahead of the ball.
Coughed up a chance from a corner there. Poor.
Forrest for GMS. Hmmmm.
Forrest and Bitton for GMS and Stokes.
Not much happening for us now. Bitton has brought a bit more balance to our build up play but weāre giving it away by rushing things up there.
Creating a few more chances now. Ambrose close with a header.
Bittonās turn to work Mannus from distance. Again it was a fairly controlled stop for the keeper.
Chance for Griffiths there but poor touch.
Heās been awfully poor tonight.
Just mistimed a 1-2 with Johansen there that was a good chance.
Havenāt played well in general. Brown has done well in general but weāve been relying on long shots and individual efforts to try and score. Not enough cohesion and build-up.
Injury time summed it up there. Couldnāt work a crossing position despite them not applying much pressure.
Not the worst performance ever, and it was a stunning goal that won it, but we looked sluggish and it highlighted the reliance on Bitton, the dependency on having fit full backs and the fact that Griffiths is our only relatively consistent striker and we were fairly toothless when he was off form.
Missed Bitton playing deeper. Johansen isnāt brilliant at playmaking - heās come onto a game in recent months playing further forward. Wakasoās introduction induced a bit of chaos and they had some play in the early part of the second half arising from that. Several other below par performances and we lacked energy and gave it away too cheaply.
A bit of a reality check ahead of two knock-out games over the next two weekends. Play like that and thereāll be no treble.
Matthews twisted his ankle. Whatās the story with Commons? Weāll be without GMS and Armstrong for cup games. The form and confidence we built up might be questionable if weāre missing 3 or 4 starters from the team for these important games. Donāt think the system works well without Bitton - weāre very reliant on him now so hopefully he can stay fit. That means we should be a bit more balanced up front. Stokes, Armstrong, GMS, Griffiths and Johansen was one too many attackers. Johansen is certainly more effective when heās played further forward and Stokes looks every bit as short on form as Guidetti in truth. In that context you can almost understand why Forrest was brought on but he did absolutely nothing again to suggest heās got anything to offer apart from overrunning the ball repeatedly and playing timid, underhit hospital passes to full backs.
How apt in the week that the peerless Dave Mackay passes away that a St Johnstone side assembled on a shoestring and captained by none other than Dave Mackay pull off such a notable result.