There was less than a thousand home fans yesterday. Of course they are disappearing the home crowd has declined alarmingly this season.
Same old excuses I see.
There was less than a thousand home fans yesterday. Of course they are disappearing the home crowd has declined alarmingly this season.
I know there were less than 1000 St Mirren fans. So if that figure was say 888, there were 1,014 Queens fans.
It was so cold that with 15 minutes to go the Social Club was packed with fans who had given up through the freezing weather and
yet another disappointing second half performance.
I know that some people will disagree with me, - but the extreme temperature put many people off, and lets be serious if the thermometer is registering plus 2 degrees centigrade but the wind is blowing at 25 mph that's a wind chill of below minus 10 degrees centigrade, - possibly even minus 15 degrees. Even with 4 layers of mountain equipment on, I was shivering just before half time, which is the first stage of hypothermia, - so I think we need to accept that the conditions were extreme.
That being said, the midweek collapse against Dundee Utd did not help encourage people to come out.
On to the match itself and the Marshall goal was superb, but even that did not stop people leaving in their droves at half time due to the incredible cold.
Until the free kick Queens acquitted themselves well and St. Mirren did not look anything out of the ordinary. One question I have to ask though is why oh why do teams insist in putting a wall in front of the keeper?
I am convinced that even a Jo-average keeper will stop any shot from 20 yards plus if he has a clear sight of the free kick, (unless there is a deflection.)
Try it yourself on a pitch, - and you will have plenty of time to adjust your footing, - but if your first sight of the ball is once it starts curving round the wall, - you've no chance.
Anyway, - maybe the sold out management question time can give me a reason for placing the wall in front of the keeper to make his job doubly difficult?
Are you honestly suggestion we don’t put a wall up when we face a free kick ?
If we were to concede a goal from that the manager would get dogs abuse FFS
Go in goals and ask someone like Dobbie to fire a range of shots at you from 20 to 25 yards and you'll save them with no real problems. Stick a wall in front of you and he'll score 9 times out of ten.
Put a defender at each end of the goal and you will seriously limit the potential opportunities for the person taking the kick.
The greatest danger from not having a wall is deflections off the myriad of players in the box, - so that probably cancels out any argument for dispensing with a wall.
However, it is becoming increasingly difficult for goalkeepers to save free kicks and so one has to question the usefulness of the wall?
My interpretation and having completed goalkeeping coaching is that the keeper lines up the end player in the wall with that side's post and the keeper then covers the other side of the wall. If Leighfield had positioned himself further towards the right post he would have saved the shot more than likely. He appeared to get a glove on the ball as it went in.