Comparing Naismith to Previous Reigns

There has been a lot of noise regarding the position of our head coach Steven Naismith off the back of a winless run of 3 domestic league matches. It could be argued that factors away from the pitch are fuelling this to an extent which have been covered in my blog from last week so to avoid covering old ground, I have done a deep dive on the form of previous managers during the past 30+ years to draw a comparison to the first 11 league games played under our current manager. I will add some comments to each to highlight the positive and negative incidents that either helped or hindered their cause in strengthening their position in the eyes of the supporters.

To be fair to this process, I have purposely not used Alex MacDonald or Robbie Neilson as comparisons due to their spells starting in the 2nd tier.

Joe Jordan

• Played - 11

• Won - 2

• Drew - 4

• Lost - 5

• Goals For - 9

• Goals Against -19

+ Home win against Celtic

+ European home wins against Dnipro & Bologna

+ Had previous experience managing down south at Bristol City

+ Was viewed as an ambitious statement capture

- Was replacing the very popular Alex MacDonald

- Suffered heavy defeats to Celtic, Aberdeen & Rangers

Were we right to stick by him? - Had a very encouraging start the following season challenging the Old Firm at the top of the league but a post New Year slump saw us finish second and bow out to Airdrie in the Scottish Cup Semi Final. Were always rumours of arguments with Wallace Mercer over available funds and we struggled to build on our second place finish in the 92/93 season. His reign finally came to an end with a 6-0 hammering at Brockville.

Sandy Clark

• Played - 11

• Won - 4

• Drew - 3

• Lost - 4

• Goals For - 7

• Goals Against -9

+ Home wins against Celtic & Hibs

+ Had a solid start to the season defensively

+ A few of the BP youth cup team were getting a chance

- Struggled getting a tune out of the forward line which plagued us for the rest of the season

Were we right to stick by him? - The season was a struggle with our top league status only secured during the final weeks. There was a solid defensive record to build on and the likes of Locke, Johnston & Thomas had received some exposure to 1st team football. Ultimately a changing of the guard in the boardroom saw new incumbents Deans & Robinson want to bring in their own man. Clark's subsequent record at St Johnstone & Hamilton would suggest that he could have improved our fortunes if given more time.

Tommy Mclean

• Played - 11

• Won - 5

• Drew - 1

• Lost - 5

• Goals For - 13

• Goals Against -13

+ Home wins against Celtic & Aberdeen

+ Had joined us off the back of securing 3rd place for Motherwell the season before

- Lost Graeme Hogg and more importantly Craig Levein to lengthy suspensions.

- A damaging league cup defeat to St Johnstone

- Was very reluctant in giving the younger players a chance

- Lost two games running against Hibs along with ending the 22 in a row run

Were we right to stick by him? - We had some very streaky runs of form under McLean which included a very rare unbeaten season against Celtic and two memorable home wins against Rangers. Our form against the so called lesser teams was what dragged us into a second successive season fighting off relegation on the final day of the season. Another semi final loss to Airdrie added to the growing frustration amongst the support. Recruitment was also a mixed bag. We brought in Jim Bett who did very well for us but struggled to get consistent performances out of other signings such as Brian Hamilton, David Hagen & Craig Nelson. Given that there had been a rocky relationship between the manager and the board, it came as no surprise to see Mclean leave in the summer of 1995.

Jim Jefferies (1st Spell)

• Played - 11

• Won - 3

• Drew - 2

• Lost - 6

• Goals For - 17

• Goals Against -23

+ Handed a lifeline to some of the youngsters deemed not good enough by Tommy McLean

+ Started to build his own team around autumn with the captures of Pointon, Fulton & Rousset

- LC defeat to Dundee which would signal the end of Henry Smiths time at the club

- Heavy defeats to Celtic & Rangers

- Bottom of the league in October after a 2-0 defeat at Brockville against his former side

Were we right to stick by him? - The short answer would be May 16th 1998. The building of that cup winning squad took a couple of years and not every signing we made left us with a positive memory of them. League form was inconsistent during the 96/97 season but getting the monkey off our back the previous year in terms of semi finals ensured there was enough credit in the bank to give Jefferies the time to see his rebuild through to the end. It also should be noted that fans are now conditioned into looking for instant results of progress in comparison to this era.

Craig Levein (1st Spell)

• Played - 11

• Won - 4

• Drew - 2

• Lost - 5

• Goals For - 17

• Goals Against -14

+ Thumping 7-1 home win against Dunfermline

- Had to trim the budget which took a hit on the overall quality of our squad initially.

Were we right to stick by him? - The fans ongoing battle with Chris Robinson during this time seemed to constantly overcloud the good work that Levein achieved and in hindsight may have impacted on our ability to forge a relationship with the manager.. He built his team starting with the back line and proved adept at getting a lot with little funding with the likes of Maybury, Mahe, Webster & Mckenna all signing during his first 18 months at the club to help shore up the defence. Steven Pressley also became the captain we all identify him as during this spell. There were disappointing early cup exits but the home form was impressive and two successive top 3 placings in the league is something that very other managers in the current era can match.

Csaba Lazlo

• Played - 11

• Won - 4

• Drew - 2

• Lost - 5

• Goals For - 12

• Goals Against -17

+ His personality seemed to win over fans and the general media outlets

+ A revolving door of managers during the past 3 years, meant that fans wanted to give this time

- A league Cup defeat to Airdrie

- No statement wins during this opening period

Were we right to stick by him? - You cannot argue with a 3rd placed finish during the first season and fans were encouraged by a more settled approach to team selection and tactics after suffering the tombola approach of the previous two years. Meddling in recruitment seemed to rear its head during the summer of 2009 and it became apparent that the boards reluctance to support Lazlo's pursuit of a new striker pushed him into trying to force their hand with playing a younger side in a 2-0 Scottish Cup loss at Pittodrie. There was only going to be one winner in this and he was gone shortly after this. By this time his departure created little backlash from a fan base that had become weary with our turgid displays.

Jim Jefferies (2nd Spell)

• Played - 11

• Won - 5

• Drew - 1

• Lost - 5

• Goals For - 12

• Goals Against -15

+ Wins at Pittodrie and at home to Hibs

+ Had credit from his previous spell

+ Blooded the likes of Templeton into the 1st team

- Had to deal with internal disciplinary issues involving Nade, Black & Stewart

Were we right to stick by him? - Having a more familiar style of play and managerial set up certainly brought comfort to the fans and there were further signs of encouragement when it appeared that Jefferies had almost full autonomy in terms of recruitment. In his first full season back we finished 3rd largely in part to the unbeaten run which stretched over 3 months. Our form after this and loss of Kevin Kyle to injury created a challenge which Jefferies seemed unable to overcome before a surprise exit at the start of the 11/12 season.

Paulo Sergio

• Played - 11

• Won - 5

• Drew - 2

• Lost - 4

• Goals For - 12

• Goals Against -7

+ 4 home wins out of 4 including against Celtic, Aberdeen & Hibs

+ Solid defensively

- League Cup exit to Ayr United

Were we right to stick by him? - From the off the fanbase seemed to understand that Sergio was brought in and immediately had his hands tied in terms of freshening up the squad. Much of this season was overshadowed by the late payment of wages and talk of financial difficulties at the club. Our league form was patchy with our away form in particular disappointing but Sergio cemented his legacy with two memorable Scottish Cup victories over Celtic & Hibs at Hampden.

Craig Levein (2nd Spell)

• Played - 11

• Won - 3

• Drew - 4

• Lost - 4

• Goals For - 10

• Goals Against -12

- Had to deal with the optics of being involved in the managerial recruitment process and ending up with the job himself

- A defeat to Hibs

- Had to play all our home games during this initial spell at Murrayfield

Were we right to stick by him? - There were parallels to his first spell to draw on in terms of making us harder to beat and building from the back to provide optimism to the support. 12 Months into his reign and we found ourselves enjoying a good run of form but injuries to Naismith & Ikpeazu along with a health scare for Levein seemed to hinder on our progress and we never recovered from this. It has been argued that the board failed to react in a timely fashion to the regression in results and performances and by the end of the 19/20 we found ourselves bottom of the league.

Steven Naismith

• Played - 11

• Won - 3

• Drew - 4

• Lost - 4

• Goals For - 15

• Goals Against -12

+ Good home wins against Ross County & Aberdeen

+ An identifiable style of play in particular in the home games during the auditioning period

+ A big European win against Rosenborg

+ Was getting a tune out of previously unfancied players

- Optics around who has been in charge at the start of this season

- Mixed communications from the board regarding our managerial recruitment process

Should we stick by him? - Much of the concern, anxiety and frustration at the moment stems from the recent scars as a result of the very sudden downfall of the team under Robbie Neilson. There were example of progress and a different approach under Naismith last season in terms of a more direct system and bold approach to defending set plays. This season has saw us revert back into our shell somewhat and undo all of the good work seen in the final 7 games of the last campaign. At this stage it would be prudent to give him until the end of the first round of fixtures and then properly analyse where we are if there has been enough evidence to suggest that there will be a long term upturn in our fortunes.