weeyin

Historically, always a bit of a bogey team, but their style should give us a chance to play some football. If we can cut out the stupid mistakes we should be able to get a win here.

Of course we don't want to go down that path, but given the turnover in personnel it was likely we'd be looking around mid-table this season. I'm hoping we can bring in the one player McCall (and the fans) are crying out for, plus maybe add a little in the next window, but there wasn't much chance of us replicating last season right out of the traps.

Exactly. I'm not sure what some fans were expecting this season, but having just ripped the core out one of the best Motherwell teams in memory (a team that took 3 managers, 4 years to build), anything better than mid-table this season will be an achievement. Last year, if we gave away a goal, we had the confidence and the fire power to score a couple in response. Right now, we don't have that, so our mistakes are costing us dearly. It's early days though and the only way to find the best formation and get the players used to it is to grind it out on a match day. It took McCall a number of games to get the best out of Higgy, Murphy, Ojamaa etc. and it won't be any different this time around. This season, however, is more likely to look like the Gannon/Brown season than hit the heights of the last one. Rebuilding doesn't happen over night.

Fair enough. A bit more settled than I thought. Still think we will sneak this one though.

I'm not quite up to speed with all their transfer dealings, but I thought they brought in about 11 new players? EDIT: in fact here's the list - - Norwegian forward Torbjorn Agdestein on a free transfer from Brighton; - English defender Carl Tremarco on a free transfer from Macclesfield; - English goalkeeper Nick Draper on a free transfer from Lincoln City; - English goalkeeper Dean Brill on loan from Luton Town; -Irish midfielder Adam Evans on a free transfer from Burnley; - English midfielder Ben Greenhalgh on a free transfer from Maidstone United; - North Ireland forward Curtis Allen on a free transfer from Coleraine; - English forward Danny Williams from Kendal Town; - English defender Harry Hooman on a free transfer from Cheltenham; - English midfielder James Vincent on a free transfer from Kidderminster; - Irish defender Joe Gorman on a free transfer from Crewe; - English midfielder Marley Watkins on a free transfer from Hereford.

The Board had anticipated the shortfall so presumably budget accordingly to approximately break even again.

You call it a knock forward to beat the offside trap, I call it a sweet reverse pass to the supporting striker. For me, the long ball game is big punts into the box for a tall striker. I know we have drifted into that (especially when the players get tired and look for a lazy option), but if that had been Faddy rather than Sutton that hit that assist, there would have been people on here creaming themselves about his spark and talent to unlock defences.

Did you see our goal against Aberdeen? McCall has shown he likes to keep it on the deck and play a bit of football, so I think that will come in time. Regardless though, I think we match up OK against ICT and will pull a win out of the bag.

We're one point ahead of where we were this time last season and we're going to win this game to keep us ahead of last season's start.

Didn't we beat Killie away last week?

Total agreement with this. Even by our standards, the impatience and panic shown by some is pretty amazing 2 games into the league season. Last year's team was a team that took 4 years (and 3 managers) to build and peak. It started after the last major exodus of players requiring Gannon to rebuild. We finished 5th during that first season of rebuilding and to repeat that season would be a decent return. Any team at any level would take time for so many new players to gel, and even if the management had an idea of the best formation when he signed the new recruits, it's not until they all get on the park that he can see what does and doesn't work. What we have now is not close to a finished product - it's the starting point for a new one. It looks like there will be one more addition before the window closes, but no doubt there will be some tweaking during the next window too. Plus, we should be looking to blood some of the younger players as circumstances permit. Anyone that had expectations of us starting the season as favourites or contenders for 2nd spot this season must be new to the game. If we can get into the top 6 this time around that will have been a decent a achievement given our constraints. We may be lucky enough to hit the heights of last season some time in the future, but it's not going to happen the year after we lose 7 of our first team squad. This is a transition season. So a wee bit of perspective will go a long way. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

We managed to finish in 2nd place without his contributions so it's difficult to argue against the decision - particularly when we have Erwin and Moore waiting in the wings. Would you have ditched either of those in preference to keeping Lawless? I have no doubt he's a decent player, but he had to drop down a division to get a game when he left us. Likewise for Wee Higgy - would you prefer we signed him up for a couple of years or spent the money on a pacey replacement for Humphrey? Again, a decent player, but not what we are looking for in the current squad.

From the BBC: "City manager Phil Parkinson said Kozluk would provide useful cover in the absence of regular right-back Simon Ramsden, out with a broken toe."

Using the "Hollis Error Equation" does that mean McManus should be dropped because of his O.G.?

That's true. I remember being scunnered in the First Division when baldy Dave Smith and his Berwick Rangers team used to park the bus at Fir Park and we couldn't beat them.

He knows he is looking for pace, though. I liked Wee Higgy, but he certainly doesn't fit that particular bill.

100 times this. It will take a few months before we get the best out of this bunch of players and even then we might be adding one or two more in the mid-season window. I know patience isn't a virtue for many fans, but a wee bit of realism is required here.

Is he better than the winger McCall wants to sign? Maybe we should wait and see.

That's not how it worked out when we had a bigger budget.

The thing is, we do play summer football. June is about the only month the players don't have a game. Depending on when you start, pre-season could be an issue too. And then there is the issue with teams that make European League stages (albiet far-fecched currently). Is there a schedule we could adopt that would mean they don't have to play for 12 months? And when we shut down for 4 week Euro and World Cup competitions in the summer (plus the added time the FIFA/UEFA allows teams to conscript players ahead of that), then we would be creeping back into winter 2 years out of every 4. Of course, we could do a 16 team league with a nice winter shutdown - as long as we keep the 3pm kick-offs

The Friday night kickoffs is probably the last time this situation was really looked at. There is another word for those traditionalists - the majority. That is why they keep getting heard. Of course a lot of them would turn up any time, they are fans and do what they can to get to games. Same for the fans that want 5pm or Monday nights etc. 5pm on a Saturday might be fine if you are tootling back from Fir Park, but driving home from Inverness in February probably not so much. The last thing we want to do is start penalising travelling supporters.

It has been considered many times though and 3pm on a Saturday seems to work well for most fans.

Not even close. There are many that would trump it from Dundee Utd beating Barcelona in both home and away legs to Hibs famous victory at Easter Road against Napoli when they had lost 4-1 in the first leg and won the second leg 5 - 0.

Exactly. Broon got us to the 1998 World Cup with only one loss in our qualifying group. Not the toughest group, but not exactly our strongest squad either. Never the sort to talk down our chances along the way. As for McCall, he'll likely get his day in charge at Rangers, but is smart enough to wait until they are back in the SPFL and things have calmed down.

He'll be fine - just as long as he keeps on his Swan Vesta.