7.45pm

Maurice Malpas has been named Manager of the Month for February.  No, seriously.

2.10pm

Ricky's report of the St Johnstone debacle is now available, if you are brave enough to read it.

Maurice Malpas' post-match comments were as follows:
"We allowed too many crosses into the box and our ball into the box tonight was shocking.  If it took us 70 minutes to get the ball into the box it tells you something about our performance.  When you play a side from the lower leagues it's not about ability. It's about attitude and St Johnstone's was better than ours tonight.  I would hope complacency was not a problem.  You could not say we were bright during the game - maybe the expectation (to win the game) was too high for some of our players.

"I'm disappointed with the way we played, we didn't stand up and be counted.  Our attitude was off and we got punished. We had expectation that we only had to turn up to get through.  I think the players realised beforehand the sort of game they were going to have tonight but they were lethargic and pedestrian.  It was our worst performance of the year and probably the worst since the start of November."

As if the performance on Wednesday night wasn't bad enough, the club have been caught up in a racism row after a dozen or so "fans" (with around three brain cells between them) in the Main Stand abused St Johnstone striker Jason Scotland.  They were quickly told to shut up by the decent fans round about them, but unfortunately the racist chanting could apparently be heard on the TV and the incident has received national media coverage.

You can read Jason Scotland's response to the disgraceful episode here, and an excellent Times article gives a balanced viewpoint of the whole sorry affair.  

Thankfully, the club were quick to respond with this public apology, and have announced plans to hold an anti-racism demonstration prior to kick off at the Hearts game on Monday night.  They have also vowed to ban the culprits from Fir Park for life if they can be identified.

Not a great night all round really, was it?

Other news from last week that I forgot to report the other night (because I was in such a bad mood):

• Steven McGarry has been awarded a two-year extension to his existing contract.  The question is, WHY?
• Brian McLean is making good progress from his injury and could feature for the reserves in April, with the possibility of being back in first team contention before the end of the season.
• The club announced a pre-tax profit of £122,000 - the third successive year they have recorded a profit.

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£150,000 for Richie Foran.  A good bit of business?