Tough Acts to Follow

*This article initially appeared on The Terrace Scottish Football Podcast's website. Check out their podcast (as well as lots of other great content) which starts tomorrow.

St. Johnstone Chairman Steve Brown’s first managerial appointment of his tenure was slightly against the grain to those of his predecessor and father. Whereas Geoff Brown, more often than not, gambled on inexperienced coaches, giving over half of his choices their first taste as the sole man charge of a professional football club, Chairman Brown Jr. decided to promote from within, replacing the departing Steve Lomas with his slightly more experienced assistant, Tommy Wright. Despite this also being the former Northern Ireland international’s first managerial role of a professional club (he managed at semi-professional level in his native land, as well gaining several years of experience as a goalkeeping coach in England and Ireland), Wright is older than all but one of Geoff Brown’s nine appointments and has at least ten years on each of the last three Saints managers - all at the time of their respective appointments, of course.

If the current chairman estimates that his father is going to be a tough act to follow, he should spare a thought for the new manager who is expected to do what the three most recent St. Johnstone managers have achieved, and that is build upon the good work of their respective forbearer. Owen Coyle was able to stabalise the club after a turbulent few years and may have achieved promotion in 2007 were it not for the lavish spending of Gretna, not to mention a last-minute goal from James Grady. After departing for Burnley, Coyle was replaced by Derek McInnes who secured promotion during his second season in charge, before going on to establish St. Johnstone as SPL regulars once more.

The curse of a successful management team struck once again when English clubs began to take an interest in McInnes. He eventually left for Bristol City and was replaced at McDiarmid by another first-timer, Steve Lomas. Coincidently, the day Geoff Brown announced Lomas as manager was the day he signalled his intention to step down as chairman of the club and pass his stewardship on to his son. Lomas led St. Johnstone to the top six in consecutive seasons, including their most recent third place finish in May, earning them a shot at the preliminary stages of the Europa League. Predictably, this feat led to yet another English side turning to St. Johnstone for their next manager, making Lomas the third head coach to leave McDiarmid for the English Championship in less than six years.

Shortly after his promotion, Tommy Wright’s task was made all the more difficult when Murray Davidson (though the central midfielder has since rejoined), Gregory Tade, Rowan Vine and Liam Craig, all key components of last season’s success, left the club under freedom of contract. The quartet was amongst the club’s six top scorers last season, with a combined total of 29 goals - including 27 of the side’s 45 league goals. Furthermore, what remained of the team was rewarded for last season’s achievements by having their holiday ended prematurely in order to prepare for an extremely difficult tie against a side with the European pedigree of Rosenborg.

Any supporter of the Scottish game could be forgiven for being a pessimist regarding Saints’ chances, but Wright and his side proved those doubters wrong by shocking the Norwegians into a 1-0 home defeat, before coming from behind to earn a 1-1 draw at McDiarmid Park. They did so by employing similar principles to that of Lomas and McInnes before him: a strong, organised defensive unit, first and foremost, with some decent ball players in the middle of the park, along with a few creative outlets in advanced areas.

It was one of those outlets, in the form of new recruit David Wotherspoon, who provided the assists that ensured St. Johnstone would be lining up against Belarusian side Dinamo Minsk next week. The attacking midfielder flattered to deceive at Easter Road for a number of years before finally moving on this summer. It was his corner in the first leg, and clever first-time ball in the second, that allowed Frazer Wright and Stevie May to score the goals that clinched progression to the next round. The hope now is that Wotherspoon can build upon his impressive start and become the player he has promised to be for so long.

The Hibernian graduate isn’t the only decent signing to arrive in Perth this summer. Brian Easton has proved a top performer in the two stints he’s had at SPL/Premiership/What-are-the English-calling-it-now-so-we-can-copy, whereas Gary McDonald brings a wealth of experience from stints both north and south of the border. Gwion Edwards, who impressed during a loan spell at McDiarmid last season, returns to and seems a promising acquisition. Added to these are Steve Banks and Rory Fallon, the former of which has been brought in to provide back up, while Fallon must improve on his Pittodrie performances if he is to avoid a similar fate.

It is, of course, too early in the day to declare any of these signings, or the recent managerial appointment, a success, despite the heroics of the last two Thursdays. Though if those two matches are anything to go by, it would appear that shrewd managerial appointments runs in the Brown family, and that Wright will be every it a success as those who have come before him. It is at least safe to say that, on a night where Pat Fenlon was forced to apologise for a Scottish club’s worst ever showing over two legs in Europe, Tommy Wright’s St. Johnstone were the talk of the nation’s football contingent with a result that will go down as one of Scotland’s finest: A 2-1 aggregate victory over a side with an annual budget eighteen times the size of theirs, and who were recently a regular in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League.

Kilmarnock 1 St. Johnstone 2

For the second match in a row, Kenny Shiels lined up his side with a three man defence flanked by two wing-backs.  James Fowler and Gary Fisher were deployed as holding midfielders with Dean Shiels and James Dayton just behind Paul Heffernan in attack.  Shiels made two changes to the defeat at Ibrox.  Liam Kelly was out and replaced by Alex Pursehouse, while Gary Harkins was dropped to the bench in favour of Dayton.

St. Johnstone kept their familiar 4-4-2 shape and also made two changes from their previous fixture.  David McCracken was missing so Callum Davidson came in at left back.  This meant that Alan Maybury was moved to right-back and Dave Mackay to the centre.  The other change saw David Robertson preferred to Chris Millar in midfield.

The first twenty minutes were largely uneventful as the two formations cancelled each other out.  A look at the formations from the image above shows that each side had a spare man at the back – Kilmarnock enjoyed a 3v2, St. Johnstone a 4v3 – and a band of four across the middle.  In a 3-5-2, the main advantage of playing three central defenders, assuming the opposition are playing 4-4-2, is to provide a man advantage in the centre of midfield.

Unfortunately for Kilmarnock, the advanced nature of Dayton and Shiels in the 3-4-3 meant that they lined up man-for-man in the centre of the pitch and enjoyed no such advantage.

St. Johnstone’s solid rearguard

St. Johnstone’s defending was another factor of Kilmarnock’s shortage of chances in the opening stages.  Heffernan has shown himself to be a real goal-threat this season but struggled to find much space in this match – apart from one occasion where he worked the space himself by a quick turn on the ball, taking two defenders out of the play.  The St. Johnstone back four defended very narrow, meaning that the two centre-backs were able to stay close together and deny Heffernan space.

Moreover, if Dayton or Shiels collected the ball in the final third, one of the St. Johnstone defenders would come to meet them, allowing the other three to hold the defensive line and not be overmanned.  As well as this, Liam Craig and David Robertson would track the forward runs of the Kilmarnock wing-backs.  It was a very assured defensive display from Derek McInnes’s men.

Both sides attempted to patiently build from the back where possible but it was St. Johnstone who were more comfortable in doing this.  On several occasions, the Kilmarnock defenders were put under pressure after a stray pass, but their manager insisted post-match that his side will persist with this strategy regardless.

Another notable feature of the match was the lack of pressing in midfield.  Both sides’ central midfielders stood off their direct opponents and it was this lack of pressing that led to the opening goal.

Jody Morris and Robertson were allowed to easily work the ball through midfield before Robertson turned and fed Francisco Sandaza.  Manuel Pascali dived in, missing the ball and allowing Sandaza a clear run at goal, and the Spaniard again showed his potency in front of goal, scoring his sixth goal of the season.

St. Johnstone’s strategy once taking the lead is usually to keep things tight but as the half wore on they began to commit more men forward than they had at 0-0.  One of these attacks led to a scrappy counter-attack which resulted in a Kilmarnock corner from which they equalised.

By this point the momentum had swung the way of the home side, but despite this, St. Johnstone were unlucky to see the ball ricochet off their own player and into the back of the net.  

Second half

The second half continued in a similar vein to how the first half had ended with Kilmarnock on the ascendency.  Heffernan continued to struggle to find space on the shoulder of the last defender and began to drop off the St. Johnstone back-line and link with the midfield.  Kilmarnock enjoyed a spell where they worked some intricate passing moves around the edge of the box, while Heffernan saw his deflected effort saved well by Peter Enckelman.

Derek McInnes responded by withdrawing Kevin Moon for Chris Millar, a like-for-like swap which improved his side’s ball-retention in the middle of the park.

St. Johnstone were ahead again when Cillian Sheridan rounded Cammy Bell in the Kilmarnock goal to net the winner.  In almost a carbon copy of their second at home to Hearts last week, a long punt from Enckelman was pounced upon by Sandaza after some defensive hesitancy, and he reacted quickly to send Sheridan through on goal.

It was another well created and taken goal from the St. Johnstone front two but a poor one to lose from a Kilmarnock perspective.  Mohamed Sissoko’s poor attempt at controlling the ball, as opposed to a safety-first approach, allowed the pace of Sheridan to once again exploit a high defensive line and it proved to be decisive.

Kenny Shiels introduced Danny Racchi, and latterly William Gros, to the play, moving into a 4-4-2/4-2-4 formation but, with St. Johnstone now sitting very deep – Sheridan and Sandaza were even coming into their own half to close down – they struggled to work the ball into an area where they could pass or cross the ball into the box, let alone create chances.

Conclusion

For the second match in-a-row, Kenny Shiels lined his side up in a 3-4-3 formation.  On both occasions they have been up against a 4-4-2 and on both occasions they have lost.  Their failing, seems not to be in their shape but the ease at which they concede possession.

Derek McInnes’s side are not overly-defensive or negative, they are just one of the better sides in the league at defending.  They held firm but for an own-goal conceded from a set-piece.  Their impressive defence was evident last season; they have now added clinicalness in front of goal to it.

Motherwell 3 St. Johnstone 0

Motherwell booked their place in the Scottish Cup final with a comfortable 3-0 win over St. Johnstone at Hampden Park. Despite the three goal margin, Stuart McCall’s side didn’t have to perform to the best of their capabilities to see off their opponents.  All three goals were avoidable and included two goalkeeping errors from Peter Enckleman, who we know is no stranger to a blunder or two.

Teams and formations

St. Johnstone welcomed Jody Morris back into the centre of midfield with Chris Millar missing through injury.  They lined up 4-1-4-1 with Morris patrolling the area just in front of the defence and Colin Samuel leading the line.  St. Johnstone’s midfield was quite narrow considering there was five of them, with Liam Craig and Danny Invincible more inclined to drift inside than stay out wide.

Motherwell started in a 4-4-2 formation that often looked like a 4-2-3-1 when Chris Humphrey and Jamie Murphy pushed on and either Francis Jeffers or John Sutton dropped deep.  Keith Lasley and Steve Jennings sat deep for the most part, allowing the wingers to play higher up the pitch, and dominated despite a man disadvantage in that area.  At times the numerical advantage was negated by one of the strikers, usually Jeffers, dropping deep to keep tabs on Morris.  The other alternative would have been for either Lasley or Jennings to come and meet him, which consequently would have left space for Kevin Moon or Murray Davidson to exploit, but they resisted this and remained disciplined.

Motherwell gifted two goals early on

For the first few minutes it looked as if St. Johnstone were going to take the game to their opponents.  They almost opened the scoring through an Invincible header after a Danny Grainger free kick but their bright start was undone after only five minutes when Enckleman came for a Tom Hateley corner and completely missed the ball, allowing Stephen Craigen to nod the ball home from a standing position.  The finger can also be pointed at Invincible who was caught ball-watching and left the Northern Ireland international unmarked.

The match was over as a contest when Murphy put Motherwell 2-0 up after fourteen minutes.  It was a well taken goal from the 21-year-old but the goal, again, could have been avoided.  After a lucky break following a poor Craigen pass, Motherwell bypassed the St. Johnstone midfield all too easily.  Sutton then dropped deep and fed Murphy, who cut inside with a diagonal run.  Michael Duberry looked to have Murphy in his sights but was impeded by fellow centre-half Steven Anderson before Murphy finished well from the edge of the box.

Two shots for Motherwell = two goals.  All without having to massively outplay their opponents.  Game over.

St. Johnstone offer nothing going forward

Predictably, Motherwell then became more inclined to sit deep, allow St. Johnstone possession and hit on the counter attack.  Morris was now seeing plenty of the ball although there were several occasions where he was visibly frustrated by the lack of options in front of him.  You could see that after waiting for some movement in order to pass the ball forward, he would turn and play a sideways or backwards pass before shrugging his shoulders or stretching his arms out in a ‘what am I supposed to do’ manner.

Samuel looked isolated up front but to be fair he never really offered his teammates any option.  He looked sluggish and rarely got into space.  The few times he did drop deep or wide, the midfielders very rarely attempted to get beyond him.  All St. Johnstone’s first half chances came from set-pieces.

Another goalkeeping error made it 3-0 going into half time.  A long punt up-field from Darren Randolph was nodded down by Jeffers and hit by Sutton on the volley from around twenty-five yards.  Enckleman’s positioning was so poor that he struggled to get across his goal and could only get a hand to it on its way into the net. 

A mostly uneventful Second half

After the third goal St. Johnstone moved Invincible up front and Moon to right midfield, switching to 4-4-2.  At half time Samuel was replaced by Jordan Robertson, who done more for his side after ten minutes on the pitch than Samuel had managed in forty-five, and stuck with the formation they had ended the first half with.

With two target men in attack, St. Johnstone were now more inclined to hit long balls but after a while their play settled and they enjoyed long periods of possession but again without creating much.  Keith Lasley admitted post-match that Motherwell were happy to spend the second half focusing on not conceding a goal rather than adding to their tally.

A few substitutions for either side failed to change the outcome of the match or add to the scoring.  St. Johnstone managed to string together a few decent passing moves with Davidson the main driving force.  The same player struck the bar with a header late on but it was too little too late from a side who had gifted the win to their opponents very early on in the match.

Conclusion

After the match, Stuart McCall conceded that his side were “2-0 up without turning up”.  This is a pretty accurate assessment, even if ‘without turning up’ is a little bit of an exaggeration.  St. Johnstone, and Enckleman especially, gifted Motherwell their goals, making the win much more comfortable than it perhaps should have been.

Starting with a extra man in the centre of midfield should have caused St. Johnstone to dominate that area, but three factors – (i) Jeffers and Sutton taking turns to drop deep and pick up Morris, (ii) the fact that Jennings and Lasley were better on the day, and (iii) that the more attacking Motherwell players offered their midfielders more options – meant that Lasley and Jennings dominated. 

The second half was little more than Motherwell sitting back and protecting their lead and St. Johnstone huffing and puffing but to no avail.