That Went ‘Well
I’m thinking of becoming a big “Trust the Process” guy.
What do you reckon?
As Richard Tait’s 78th-minute own goal condemned St Mirren to a 4-2 loss away to Stephen Robinson’s former employer Motherwell, ensuring our almost certain bottom-six fate, with eleventh placed St Johnstone now just six points behind us I thought to myself “Wow. What a noble thing that would be for me to do.”
While Robinson didn’t get round to thanking me personally for this in his post-match interview, he certainly had a lot of other things to say. Talks of “players’ heads being turned” amid a relegation battle the Northern Irishman “saw coming weeks ago” have set the St Mirren Heid-Loss machine into overdrive.
With both teams equal on points and goal difference going into the game, Saturday was a huge opportunity for the victor to plant one foot in the top six with one fixture to go before the split.
It was a dance we’ve seen before, however. In the 433 we moved the ball around well in spells – a nice move down the left leading to an Eamonn Brophy tap-in to put us 1-0 up. However, it was defensively we were found seriously wanting, with four defensive collapses leading to four goals and rounding off a torrid day for Robinson’s men.
Amid speculation of a “six-figure bid” from Aberdeen for Charles Dunne, Conor McCarthy returned to partner Joe Shaughnessy in the centre of defence. With Shaughnessy moving left to accommodate McCarthy (who did manage to bundle home Saints’ second goal), the backline seemed to lose that bit of balance provided by left-footer Dunne, and without the protection of Alex Gogić in front of them (the Cypriot only returned to training on Friday after international duties), the defensive unit felt all at sea.
Let’s take Motherwell’s third goal – indicative of issues we had all game on Saturday.
As Joe Efford picks up the ball inside the half, Ethan Erhahon (playing left of the midfield three) makes an unsuccessful attempt to dispossess him allowing a one-two with Stephen O’Donnell which releases the American winger down the left (Saints’ right back Marcus Fraser was targeted by the ‘Well attack throughout). A lack of tracking back on Erhahon’s part (you’re not even IN the second picture Ethan man, c’mon) and some poor positional judgement from RB Marcus Fraser causes LCB Shaughnessy and LB Richard Tait to commit out of position, giving Dean Cornelius the freedom of ML1 to ready himself and pick his spot past an outstretched Dean Lyness (the backup goalkeeper another player who will be desperate to forget his performance on Saturday).
If we’re being totally honest, these aren’t new issues. It is true that we have lost a bit of defensive discipline since Goodwin’s departure, but let’s not pretend these sorts of issues weren’t there during the Irishman’s tenure as well. From the start of the season until Goodwin’s departure we averaged 14.9 shots against per90. In Robinson’s first six league games in charge, we have averaged 13, so virtually identical numbers – albeit in a smaller sample size for Robinson. That we are now conceding from more of these shots could be down to many factors, from goalkeeper form (it is no exaggeration that Jak Alnwick won us points on his own on multiple occasions in the first half of the season) to simple lack of confidence across the squad in the wake of Goodwin’s exit.
A run of six unbeaten league games (including four wins) perhaps papered over issues within our squad that are now coming to a head.
A light bench on Saturday (Robinson was able to name only five subs) meant that once we went behind we never really looked like finding our way back into the game. With young prospects like Lewis Jamieson and Keiron Offord out on loan (much-fancied youngster Dylan Reid also spent a spell away), questions must be asked about Goodwin’s squad management and forward planning.
Since Robinson’s arrival, there has been a lot of monologising about former managers and past regimes and, frankly, a refusal from many fans to take off the rose-tinted glasses makes a litany of past red flags look just like flags. While I am by no means absolving Robinson from his share of the blame in recent weeks’ performances, in assessing why we will fail to make top six, the entire season must be considered – not just the past six weeks.
We now prepare for the visit of second-placed Rangers to Paisley on Sunday. The game comes at what could be considered a good time to face Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men, coming a week after a disappointing Old Firm showing and falling between the two legs of the Scottish champions’ Europa League Quarter-Final against SC Braga, and could represent an opportunity pull off a shock and potentially bolster our points total as we prepare for our upcoming bottom-six scrap.
Of course, there is still a sequence of (albeit incredibly convoluted) events that could see us land a top-six place.
That’s an awful lot of Process to have to trust, though.
Andrew Christie 