Kmcalpin

Nothing against him but I just don't think he's Premiership level. He's an honest trier - no argument from me there, but is that enough? First and foremost a right back should be a good solid defender and I just don't think he is that. In the run in last season he had a hand in a few goals that we lost.

No? I'm not saying he was the reason we finished in 11th position - far more deeper rooted and wider factors than that. What Weeyin said and I am agreeing with is that Dan Twardzik is of a standard consistent with the team finishing in 11th position. In other words he is of a bottom Premiership level. If we want to finish higher than 11th this campaign then we need to sign a better standard of keeper as a start. Other positions also require strengthening - indeed a start may already have been made.

Not sure how to take your comment Weeyin. If you implying that he matches our league position ie 11th then I agree. if we want to target 10th position or better then we need a new keeper.

Agreed Andy. Our results against Celtic this season won't determine our final league position. Jackson Irvine is a very mobile, aggressive and competitive player. On more than one occasion he bossed our midfield and is certainly one of the "They shall not pass" brigade. If you need to take a player out to stop him you do it, just don't get caught. He was one of the reasons for County's late run of successes. All that said I have absolutely no idea if there is any truth in this rumour or not.

I think we'll do ok this season and by that I mean finishing in 7/8/9/10th spot. I do have one, as yet, unanswered issue though and that concerns our defence and midfield. We lost a barrowload of silly and avoidable goals last season and the defence doesn't appear to have changed much over the close season (there's still time of course). We may bring in a better keeper; Steve Hammell is back although he's not the best of defenders; and Louis Laing might be more settled. However these factors don't seem to add up to a significant improvement. Time will tell though.

Given the speed of Stephen Craigan's appointment very quickly after the JJ announcement it sounds as though it has been on the offing for a wee while; its not something that has happened overnight.

Last season Ian Baraclough rightly saw him as an impact player. As you say he now needs to step up a gear. He'll need to put on a bit of weight and muscle though - last season he was bundled off the ball a bit too easily. Hopefully that'll come though with some weight training.

New Under 20s Head Coach appointment......Stephen Craigan.

I suspect we'll be looking for another first choice goalie. If Dan is to be our No 1 then before a single ball is kicked in anger our midfield and defence have to modify their game to protect him. Thats putting extra pressure on other players to compensate for inherent weaknesses in his game. They can well do without that. Midfielders and full/wing backs have to cut out crosses and minimise corners and free kicks. Central defenders have to play that bit deeper to cut out any aerial balls.

Livivoice - could you contact the Fife & Tayside club at fatmscatgmail.com Cheers.

Absolutely Greg. If we hit injuries and suspensions in central midfield we could be in trouble. However I suppose we also have Josh Law to fill in in an emergency. Some more cover there is essential in my view.

Nah Jim he looks like a younger version of one of the Dubliners.

Money transferred earlier this afternoon Iain.

With you 100% on that.

Thats my view too.

Quite a few times Andy. He's still there though!

Its been years and years since we brought on a decent goalie through our youth ranks. Alan Martin was highly rated by himself. No harm to the lad but he was a great rush to get on and by moving early his career seemed to nosedive. As far as I know he's had a load of clubs without settling anywhere. Hopefully he'll get back on the rails at NDP but not perform against us. A classic lesson to promising young footballers not to move on too early.

Yes we may have 4 on paper but are any of them even lower Premiership standard (I mean by that 8-10th place). I exclude Luke Watt from that number BTW, as he has still to develop. Craig Reid's position is unknown and I rate Josh Law as being a good Championship standard at best.

Goalkeeper - yes no argument there for me. Centre Back - last season we had a choice of 5 (McManus, O'Brien, Laing, Kerr or Ramsden). This year we have a choice of 2 or possibly 3 - one more needed. Central Midfield - given Las's age and our goals against tally we need another defensive midfielder. I'm not convinced of Jack Leitch.

Put me down for £20 Iain. Thanks again for organising this. Will send money on.

Yes, these should now be our priorities Greg. We have to strengthen defensively if we are to reduce our goals against column.

Whilst the play offs will rightly be remembered for a long time, lets not forget that last season's squad took us to 2nd bottom place. It wasn't all the fault of the players - I'm sure there were other factors at play like a horrendous injury list, but if we are to improve on 11th place we have to upgrade our central midfield and defence, not ignoring our strikeforce of course. Our poor goals against tally wasn't all down to our strikers. Hopefully we see a new goalie, central defender(s) and central midfielder(s) brought in.

Great result once again.

Yes, we have to set a deadline and if he doesn't want to re-sign by then we have to move on to other targets.

I would expect one more striker to come in - can't see us going with just 2 experienced guys.