weeyin

For long spells, Hibs were as poor in their game against Asteras Tripolis as we were against Clyde. Although they manage to pull a win out the bag too. Hopefully McGinn will have been sold before kick off seeing as we won't have Campbell to keep him quiet. If we don't cut down on the defensive mistakes, it could make for a long afternoon.

Just waiting for the "Kenny Miller always scores against us" posts.

The plans was for a "state of the art synthetic pitch" for the 2018/19 season. So, dodgy plastic.

Absolutely. I'm a big fan of the videos we produce. The highlights' muzak seems to be a new thing and not just unnecessary, but very grating.

Aye, if we can use Frear more as a winger than a wing back, he might have a decent season.

We do have MacLean, Hastie and Gordon out on loan to get regular starts. However, as much as I want youngsters to get game time, the format and timing of the League Cup means we have to balance winning games with fit players, getting new signings up to speed, getting unfit players fit etc. as well as trying to fit in the youngsters. As is obvious from the other groups, it's a difficult balancing act that most of the Premiership teams struggle with. It's one more reason I'm not a huge fan of the current timings of the competition. I quite like the format, but I suspect forcing teams into competitive games in pre-season leads to risks being taken that result in more injuries.

I agree about the pitch, but the conditions yesterday meant the best approach was to keep passes short and the ball on the deck. Hitting long balls that got caught in the wind and bounched away when they landed, was the opposite of wht was required. I know it's a pipe dream, but the sooner we get rid of plastic in the top flight, the better - not looking forward to those games this season.

I don't know who thought it was a good idea to put background muzak on the game highlights, but if you're reading this, PLEASE STOP.

Rodriguez looks like he could be a player, so we can expect Bigi to be moved on and Alex to take his place on the bench.

Back 4 next week? Tait, Kipré, McHugh and Taylor-Sinclair?

Same old pre-season. Same old pre-season comments. The only difference this time is how many people are gutted Dunne is out for a few months. This time last year they were writing him off as a hopeless duffer.

Seems like half the U20s are suspended for the first league game for picking up cards in the U20 cup.

Hartley had plenty of time to take care of the situation. He was the man in position to make the tackle. He failed miserably.

Nah, Harltey gave it away and he should have been punished for giving it away again when we were 2 - 1 up. He put in the same kind of performance today as he did when we lost to Accies in December.

Hartley as in the Cup Final squad for the same reason Psycho was in the cup winning squad. He was in light training before the end of last season and there is no way anybody who can't run for 6 months is going to be magically fit with 4 or 5 weeks training. And that's not counting match fitness. Skippy was the master at that - took him until October most seasons to get match fit.

Time for Bigi to save the game with a wee bit of football.

With the pitch playing about 25 on the stimpmeter, I think it's going to be easier playing into the wind. Hartley shouldn't be playing though. He was out for 7 months and not close to match fit. The dry 3G and high bounce mean the long ball approach won't work. We might need to be radical and play some short passes on the deck.

I think our ethos at this stage is "win the group with the fittest players we have" Plus, let's not forget, with guys like Campbell (21), Cadden (22), Gorrin (24), Donnelly (22), Kipré (21), Grimshaw (23) - we're not exactly packing the first team with old pros. And we have some good youngsters out on loan where they are getting first team starts most weeks. If it continues into the league, I might get concerned, but I'd be more concerned if we lost out on winning our group because we wanted to give half a dozen 18 year olds a game 2 weeks into the season.

This link still seems good: http://www.time4tv.live/2017/04/bt-sport-2.php As always, make sure your ad blockers, script blockers and virus scanners are up to date.

No point in having youngsters on the bench today. If we are putting on a Stranraer performance we need the strongest options available as replacements.

They redeveloped it, though, didn't they? Which is when Clyde were kicked out. Or does it still look like this:

A game we should win - and then I remember being put to the sword at Fir Park by a 17 or 18 year old Pat Nevin. Shawfield was a strange ground to watch football in, but a shame that is another one that fell to the developers' bulldozers. Always enjoyed my trips there.

And McGuire did a decent shift there last season too.

So do I, but there's a difference between playing left back and playing the left side of a back 3.

Taylor-Sinclair can supposedly play on the left, so this will be the first test of the depth we have added to the squad this season.