Joeboy

Mixed feelings on the Johnson deal for me. If we got 650k or thereabouts it probably represents relatively decent business, given the fuss his agent kicked up. For me he is a guy with all the attributes to make it at a higher level, pace, strength, can create goals, can score them. On one hand he is incredibly inconsistent, yet on the other hand I struggle to think of a game since he has been here, where we've played well and he's not been central to it. I thought he was worth more to us than the figures quoted, but at least at 650k (if that is roughly the figure) we haven't been totally shafted and it marks a good return on our 30k investment. I am glad that we seem to be continuing this model by signing Bowman. However, it does concern me that we now seem to have a plethora of strikers. I like McGhee, but I struggle to defend either the signing of Blyth or the loaning out of Moore when he has then decided he needs another two strikers. Hopefully at least one of them can play in wider areas. I am also annoyed at the fact we aren't keeping Lucas after him getting a slot on the bench for the last few weeks. I know he got 0 minutes and wasn't ever likely to play, but I think we could have benefited far more from young Campbell being in and around the first team squad instead. I thought last season with Cadden and Hall we had maybe turned a corner in terms of his willingness to blood youngsters, but I am now having my doubts again.

There's going to need to be some quick movement today or tomorrow if he goes before the window. There's been some pretty strong stuff said on both sides the past couple of days and I wonder if a sulk would come and it could be particularly damaging considering the wedge his agent seems to have drawn between him and the fans with his statement. However, McDonald was livid in January 2007 that we rejected a bid from Rangers and didn't mince his words in telling us, yet he scored vital goals to keep us up between then and the end of the season. Could go either way.

I'd have had him in the squad over Lewis MacLeod personally. No matter how much of a talent MacLeod is, he only played eight minutes between December 2014 and the start of this season. Cadden has played virtually ever game since January and played well.

Can't believe I'm about to say this, but I think I agree with a steelboy post word for word.

From what I understand Kennedy got a really bad virus during pre season which floored him for a couple of weeks. As far as I'm aware he has been back training for a while since then right enough.

Am I being incredibly harsh in saying that our defender on the line (I think McManus) looked like he was beaten very easily for their first?

I had one for 19 seasons but decided to give it up this summer. I play amateur football on a Saturday and whilst most of my games kick of at 10am, when we play in the Scottish cup etc it's 2pm, I missed a couple of 3pm games through that and I missed one half 12 kick off and came in at half time in the other. All of that considered, I struggled to make value of the season ticket last year. I would still have considered getting another had the prices frozen, but with circumstances, I got the early bird ticket last year and wouldn't have been able to afford it in June this year, meaning a £30 increase. It's difficult to justify spending £30 more on something you found little value on the year before. It's a weird concept paying at the gate and as yet I have been to all four competitive home games we've had, as well as the under 20s against Airdrie. I don't think my motivation to go to games for the most part will wane, but I do remember thinking at the last home game of the season against St. Johnstone that I got nothing out of it and I was only there because I had already paid for it. There's a possibility I could look upon a meaningless post split fixture this season like that.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/scotland/37078886 I refer you to around 2:20 onwards on that video. The ball goes out for a shy, and you can clearly see Chalmers sauntering back with no alertness or energy. They then threw the ball easily into the massive gap between our centre back and left back, whilst Chalmers indulged in a lifeless jog in his own time. I think you'll find at no point did I mention anyone, let alone Chalmers losing their man for the goal in my post. Sometimes more than one person can be culpable for a goal, that one being a prime example. So to answer your question, aye, it did actually happen.

Obviously I know it's not as simple as that. I mean that we should send the feelers out and see who is interested. If I was a league one or league two gaffer, I'd be delighted to have him on loan, based on what I've seen.

One of my thoughts coming away from the game last night was that we need to take this opportunity to send Campbell out on loan till January, maybe even for the season. If he is behind Lasley, McHugh and Clay in the pecking order then get him somewhere we he will play competitive football week in, week out. We allowed Carswell, Thomas and McHugh to stagnate on our bench at a similar age and it seems to have been costly. Campbell looks like he has great potential and we should do all we can to make the most of it.

It is a cause for concern that Hammell is injury prone and our backup player is Joe Chalmers. He looked once again like a fish out of water for me, just has nothing about him. When the ball went out for a shy for their first, he just sauntered back with no urgency or alertness and they threw the ball into the area where our left back should be. I hope McGhee is caning him for it this week. You don't expect guys to be world beaters but simply do the basics well. People on here seem to be quick to slate Hammell these days, yet every game we misses, our team looks so much worse without him it is unreal. I never have been one to advocate players being hastily dropped, but I do think Brill should be given a shot. A "one strike your out" culture would be bad, but in truth Samson has been making these same errors all season, the only difference being on Saturday we were directly punished for them. He was being credited for making great saves against Celtic, which were in essence opportunities created by his inability to catch the ball. Funny how people see things differently about Clay. I thought he got stuck in well and while it wasn't a show of great technical prowess from him, he done enough to get my vote for MOTM. He might not be a direct Pearson replacement, but we had a spell last season of a three man midfield of Pearson, Lasley and Grimshaw. I think Clay is not too dissimilar to Grimshaw and Cadden has many of the attributes needed to fill Pearson's role, so we could see our midfield three set up in that way. Everyone seems to have written Lasley off on this thread and I do agree he did look a yard off the pace on Saturday. However, I'd attribute that more probably to the fact he played 90 minutes twice in three days, than I would to him being "finished". I'd like to think that had McHugh been fit, we would have managed that situation better and that we will manage similar situations better in the future. It does however beg the question as to why we bothered putting Lucas on the bench. I also like how Blyth has been referred to as "the carthorse" after two sub appearances. Deary me.

Aye, I'd agree with that. It's strange that we aren't even producing keepers who are doing much at other clubs either. I previously thought that Jon Connolly was a youth product of ours, but it turns out he came through at Ipswich and we acquired him at a later stage and even he seemed to fade away after leaving us. In my time watching us, the two most successful goalkeepers we have brought through that spring to mind are Jamie Ewings, who's made a decent career for himself at Dumbarton and Alan Martin, who got that move to Leeds but then didn't fulfil his supposed promise and got released from Accies last year. I suppose we currently have Max Currie at Stranraer and Ross Stewart at Albion Rovers, but largely not only are our home-grown goalkeepers not good enough for our squad, they don't seem good enough for anyone else's either. The fact that when our first two goalkeepers were injured a couple of years ago, we brought Dundee's third choice keeper (a division below) instead of playing our own tells its own story about that one.

Not a fan of Calderwood due to that particular incident by any stretch of the imagination, but it is utterly ridiculous to suggest if Brighton meet our asking the price, that we turn it down based on who their assistant manager is. Talk about cutting your nose off to spite your face...

Kennedy mentioned on twitter that he had a virus that had stopped him training for a couple of weeks, hence his absence. Not sure about Laing. Wouldn't be too surprised to see either depart. Interesting that Ferguson is now back ahead of Watt in the pecking order. His early promise seems to be dwindling.

Off the top of my head, we beat Raith on penalties after a 2-2 draw in the league cup in 1999/00. Since then we've beaten on pens by Forfar, Hibs and Accies. I think that's been it.

I'd tend to agree. When he missed the game against St. Johnstone at McDiarmid in February, it amazed me just how disjointed we looked without his ability to hold the ball up.

I've seen better players than him over or under hit similar passes for the first goal. The second goal was more straight forward, I'll give you that. I just find it bizarre, after his passes led to both our goals on Saturday, to come on the match thread to see his passing criticised. How glass half empty do people need to be?!

Against Rangers and in his appearance on Saturday, I thought Chalmers was neither brilliant nor terrible. However, I do think both appearances are by virtue of being the "first team" player, rather than than being a fit for the position. I think in both appearances he has done the basics right, but I've seen nothing to convince me he is even a short term fit at either left or central midfield. There's very little that I take issue with regarding McGhee, but this is one thing. Why not give young Campbell a go in his natural position? Considering he played Marvin Johnson at left back instead of playing Chalmers last season, I think it's clear he's not rated.

Two incredibly accurate passes from Scott McDonald led to goals on Saturday....

He signed a two week deal the day of the East Stirling game I believe, which would take him to Tuesday. Whether there is any eligibility issues with him playing a league game, I don't know.

I said this in the match thread for the East Stirling game, but I really think we missed a trick not loaning Dom out last year. The last time he played more than half an hour was against Morton in September and didn't feature at all between October and January. That does show that he was dispensable from the squad last season. We should have had the foresight to see that this summer was probably around the time where Johnson would become a sellable asset and now would be the time for him to step up with some week in, week out experience. We were similar with guys like Bob McHugh and Stuart Carswell, halted their early development by having them fill a seat on the bench, with the slight threat of them getting ten minutes here or there. A bit of a catch 22 when you have a small squad, but sometimes I think we need to be more focused on the end goal of having a developed player.

Just looked at his Soccerbase page from last season. It's criminal we didn't use last season to loan him out and get him playing week in, week out. After his start against Morton in September, where he played 57 minutes, he didn't feature for longer than half an hour the rest of the season. He didn't play a single minute between October and January. For the little we used him last season, he clearly was dispensable at the time and we should have used it to get him experienced. Definitely missed a trick there, when a year later he's no further on, maybe even backwards from where he was.

I thought he had a really good spell in the first half before fading in the second. Lasley is already signed for the season though- that's the difference, I'm talking about efficiency in our budget, not who's better than who really. I thought Clay didn't look that dissimilar to what I've seen of McHugh either and given his three and a half year deal, Campbell is one of the highly rated prospects in the youth side. With those three (and potentially Laing according to McGhee last year) able to offer something of that ilk in there, I would rather we went for someone more attacking. That said, Cadden does have a lot of Pearo's attributes shining through and could be suited to that role.

It's funny how after Johnson's poor start to last season a lot of us were wanting Thomas to be played instead of him at one point (myself included), when you see how their fortunes have differed since then. Johnson looks to be adding a product now to his pace and his play is oozing confidence. Whereas for me, the excitement that Thomas getting on the ball once provided seems to be slowly disappearing. He looks a lot less confident and indecisive. He probably should have been sent on loan by now, but it's a catch 22 of needing him for backup in a small squad. It's been a while since I seen him make a difference in a sub appearance and thought last night, a start against a lowland league side was his chance to prove himself, but unfortunately not. Thought we were solid, if untested at the back. McDonald had one of his huffing and puffing nights where it's everyone's fault but his. Sadly, for all the great benefits he brings you in a season, this is going to happen now and again. Clay seemed decent but for me, didn't show anything that different to what we have. Booing was ridiculous, we missed a couple of frustrating chances early on, but yet were patient and continued trying to play the right way until the goal came, with no panic stations. On another night we'd have won by several more, but with practice that touch will come. I can't believe anyone has thinks we have the right to be angry with a 3-0 victory against anyone. Some of our fans are total weapons.

I'd agree with this. I thought Clay was impressive in the first half, before being quiet in the second. However, the attributes I found impressive about him aren't anything that I don't think we already have. Seemed more of a ball winner, strong in the tackle. We have Lasley, McHugh and young Campbell. I'd like us to spend our limited budget elsewhere based on what I seen last night, but still it was only one game.