Kmcalpin

What is your experience of joining the Society - have you encountered any problems? As for me I've experienced a few minor annoying snags but nothing major, although I can understand Weeyin's issue. I think you're exaggerating a bit when you wrote about the Society "grabbing everyone's cash". That kind of implies a Society rep is going around mugging fans and demanding payment. At the end of the day the Society, through its members, has prevented the club from entering administration and thats good enough for me.

Exactly what I was thinking.

Yes, probably a bit more so than ICT. Since the days of Craig Levein, United have been a very physical, competitive and bellicose outfit. Yes they have had talent too but come Sunday morning the team will know they've been in a game win, lose or draw.

I suppose the rise of the car is in large part responsible for the demise of the supporters bus. Cars provide more flexibility and are faster. Apart from that you can choose who you want to travel with. Coaches are now much more expensive than they used to be and in many cases fans are being ripped off. Finally many folk have to have a drink on the way to the match. No doubt there are other reasons. If you are running an organised bus you have to factor in reduced priced for juveniles and charge adults more or subsidise fares..

Nearest station with decent connections is Kirkcaldy. Markinch may be nearer but connections not so good.

Ah, a home game for us!

If you read my quote above you'll see that I have not written the lad off and said that he's due a chance. What I have written is my assessment to date. You can manipulate statistics or selectively quote examples to prove pretty much anything. I note that you didn't cite the Albion Rovers cup defeat, when he came on as a sub or the 5-1 drubbing at Tannadice the season before last in which he played from the start. Now, there are many factors behind a player's performance in relation to the team's performance and just as you can't attribute the team's defeats to him you also cannot attribute the team's successes to him. I am not simply basing my initial assessment on the Hearts, Celtic, Kilmarnock, Albion Rovers or Dundee United games but over 16/17 appearances. Young players tend to be erratic and have good games and bad games. Taken over these 16 or 17 appearances first team appearances to date I have doubts if he is going to make it as I wrote. However he is due a chance to prove himself and I wish him good luck in that.

I'd say his appearances to date. He's due a chance, yes, and I might be proved wrong, but so far hasn't overly impressed.

Quite a win 21-0!

Celtic will predictably win the league at a canter, and the bottom three, in no particular order, will be Partick, Kilmarnock and Accies. I'm not sure that Hearts will fare as well as they and the media are suggesting.

Just watched the highlights and it seemed we were fairly impressive, creating quite a few good chances. On another day our luck might have been better and we'd have scored 3 or perhaps 4. From comments above I've one or two continuing concerns about our midfield but really so far so good. We picked up 3 points from a difficult game. So well done to the management and players. Fingers crossed a better season lies ahead.

Thats worrying. Same weakness as in previous years? Hopefully we can get in a decent central midfielder soon. In fact we probably need two - a defensive one and an attacking one. Probably the one area of the team where there is a real lack of competition. If Pearo managed to last until half time then perhaps his knock is not too serious. Still we're off to a good start.

Great win and start to the new campaign and a clean sheet to boot. Didn't see that one coming!. That should boost squad morale. Safe trip home for our travelling fans - journey will be a bit shorter now. Sorry - wrong thread.

A tough call for the manager but thats what he's paid for. He has to go with the best option for the team.

Yes happy that we have brought in a new keeper if only for the first part of the season. He certainly seems the part and given his size shouldn't be pushed about too easily.

Quite - he is far less effective when our midfield sit very deep and there is a huge gap between it and the main striker.

Last season our central midfield was posted missing on many occasions, a bit less so it has to be said after Pearo arrived and settled in. When we play with 2 wingers you are right in that the opposition usually outnumbered us in the middle. Cadden and Leitch might well have a role to play and it would be great to see them grab their chances successfully. However its a lot to ask of young midfield players to come in and immediately stamp their authority on the opposition, which is what we need right now.

I don't see Joe Chalmers displacing Stevie Hammell straight away, although I might be totally wrong in that assumption. I would expect he'll fill in at LB from time to time to see if he'll make the grade and take over in time. He might make it and he might not. The impression I have is that he won't be our first choice LB.

I assume that Joe Chalmers has been signed to provide cover/take over from Stevie Hammell. He can play left back (his favoured option), centre back and apparently left midfield.

Don't agree with all you wrote but certainly you have a point here. For some years now our goals against tally has been unacceptably high and I'm not sure we have done much to address that. I'm still concerned about our defence and central midfield, especially the latter's ability to compete against younger, faster and more physical/aggressive opponents. We'll find out soon enough though. Central defence seems not too bad on paper but I'm concerned about our keeper and full backs. Hopefully the much discussed new goalie and central midfielder arrive soon.

Aye not much taller than Dan...only 6-3. They've already signed Scott Fox from Partick.

Obviously Ross County were prepared to pay Celtic a development fee and the player himself a substantial wage. We move on.

If I'm correct he's still a Celtic player and so any haggling will be over how much of a contribution we're able and prepared to pay Celtic. He's a player I'd like to see in my starting line up for the new season but not any cost. Discussions seem to have dragged on for some time now and if we can't land him then we need to move onto other targets pronto - probably already doing so.

Hopefully we'll be able to bring in a new signing in the next few days.

As far as Keith Lasley is concerned, its unreasonable to expect him to play box to box - thats Pearo's job. This season I'd judge him on his ability to protect the centre backs and goalie. Put in blocks and close attacking players down. In short a critical off the ball role. The question of a new central midfielder is an interesting one - time will tell.