Kmcalpin

You should be ok ,but as the ticket office is usually busy before games, I wouldn't turn up at 2.55. Give yourself plenty of time.

Presumably too UEFA will be investigating Dundee United as a result of their fans pelting their Russian guests with coins from above.

Not the most riveting game I've ever attended but thats another new ground visited. We secured an away point in very difficult circumstances and thats about it. The team lacked creativity and simply couldn't match Ross County's amazing work rate. Certainly they made it very difficult for us and showed us a lot of respect. At set pieces their height was a real threat but fortunately we managed to hold them out. The central midfield just isn't right in that it failed to compete at times and did not support Michael Higdon. In general he suffered from lack of support. Maybe I'm in a minority of one here but I don't think Jamie Murphy is firing on all cylinders - his roving midfield role just isn't working and is baffling his colleagues. As with last Tuesday he promised a lot but failed to deliver. After doing the hard bit he failed to take the last defender on as we all know he can do. Is it lack of confidence or a fear that he may lose the ball? Hopefully the TV agreement will allow us to sign another combative midfielder. Anyway it was a great day out in good company. Ross County treated us well.

Yes. I rang Ross County during the week. Tickets will be on sale at the ground. The capacity of the away stand is about 1,780 - that should just about accommodate us. --):

A very difficult game and certainly not the one I'd have chosen to open the league campaign. This will be something of a cup final for Ross County, who are my red hot tips for relegation. Even with our very limited squad, I'd hope that Stuart McCall will be able to shuffle the pack slightly.

A bit unfair to single out Ramsden in my view. OK he didn't play well but there were a few others in the same category. Lets focus on the ones who did like Higgy, Lasley and Hutchy. The lads who didn't perform to their own standards last night will be the first to know that and have a great opportunity to redeem themselves on Saturday and next week in Athens.

Maybe you're being a tad unfair. I don't think he played well tonight - he lost his opponent just too often for my liking but he is not a centre back and wouldn't pretend to be. Probably better suited to playing at RB or in midfield. He is doing his best to help out in an emergency.

Certainly the players gave of their best but as can happen in these situations we just blew it. OK Panathanaikos were perhaps a class above us but they didn't have to work very hard for their goals, although their second was well taken. I thought Lasley, Hutchinson and Higdon were the pick of the bunch and didn't look out of place in this game. At the back, too many unforced errors and poor marking cost us. In midfield and up front we lacked penetration and a killer touch. Some poor decision making too. At times our build up was painfully slow when we had the players to hurt them. Felt a bit sorry for Chris Humphrey - he looked to be in the mood early on but poor service limited his involvement. Still on the plus side our lads will have learnt a lot. You don't always have to produce glittering exciting football to win games sometimes being solid and reliable is quite adequate. A great night and the fans turned out in big numbers . A 9,000+ crowd in late July is quite an achievement. The club will have made about £190k from the gate and that can't be bad. If we can just tighten up in defence we can achieve a better result in Athens.

Good news indeed. Well done to all concerned and most of all you, Andy.

It was the Pitch In fund Andy. There was a fund for share purchase and one for general donations/club projects and contributors could choose which one they wanted to opt for. Given the overall numbers it was moderately successful if I recall rightly. Most folk paid in about £10 / £15 per month (that was 10 years ago). This kind of scheme has its place, but I agree with Bop in that monthly sums shouldn't be fixed. Some folk may have a hard month with bills etc. A good idea.

Specialist training Greg - unless you're physically tough you smply won't survive down south in the upper echelons. Just look at Faddy. Not the biggest or strongest of guys when he was with us but within 12 months at Goodison he'd put on a stone of muscle. I was scared stiff when Everton took the field yesterday and I was just watching from the stands. Some very big guys in that side and if they'd wanted to they could easily knock 10 bells out of any Scots side. I saw Adam Cummins and Jelavic together and whilst they were about tthe same height, the latter was about 2 stones heavier. You would not want to mess with guys like Darron Gibson. Everton were not a dirty side and the game was 100% clean yesterday but you knew that the Toffees could take care of themselves if they had to.

For Jamie's sake and the sake of the club, both financially and in a playing sense, now is the right time for him to move on. An English club can toughen him up physically in a way we can't. He has gone as far as he can with us and will not develop any further. The important thing is for us to bring in a replacement who will strengthen the team, at lesser cost.

Both lads are promising but have a bit to go. They are young after all. Stuart Carswell struggled a bit in some games last season and Steve Hetherington looks good going forward but needs to brush up on his defensive skills and positional awareness - if you were at Starks Park last week you'll know what I mean.

I think the club rightly played down the benefits of this game although in fairness they didn't know who we were playing at that time. How many fans would FC Kobenhavn or Dinamo Kiev bring? Don't forget though that if we sell 10,000 tickets HMRC will take their whack in VAT (max £60,000) and a fair chunk of the tickets will be concessions.

Well done folks, and especially yourself Iain. We all have our differences from time to time but its good to see we can pull together when the chips are down.

Presumably too Stuart Carswell is injured I've hardly heard his name mentioned in recent weeks and he doesn't appear to have featured in any game. Is he injured or has he done a Lord Lucan disappearing act?

??????? Its always hard to tell from the stands but they seemed ok when they went off on Tuesday evening. If true we're really in it, with Hutch being sidelined as well.

I don't think we'll get anything like a full house. We'd struggle at the best of times but with the game being slap bang in the middle of the holiday period I'd be delighted with a 9,000 crowd. Hope I'm wrong though.

We were discussing this very point in our office today Andy. The feeling was that BBC/STV would be lukewarm at best but that Greek TV monies will make us a very happy club indeed. How accurate is that? I don't know but no doubt someone on these boards will have good knowledge of Greek TV.

Yes he does. Probably his last chance. The forgotten man of the pre season preparation - presumably due to injury?

I know its a limited basis from which to draw conclusions but I think we'll struggle this season with a mid table finish at best. Central defence is a huge concern to me. On the evidence so far we have 1 good centre back (Shaun Hutchinson) and potentially good one in Steven Saunders. The others are either not good enough or too inexperienced. Central midfield is also a huge concern. Keith Lasley is getting on now and he'll need a mobile ball winner beside him - who? Central defence and central midfield are two critical areas of the team. We could also lose one or two of our best lads later in the window. On the evidence of first two friendlies there are no young lads ready or able to step up. Currently the squad is just too thin - last year we had a very good starting 11 with 1 or 2 reasonable back up players - this year we have maybe 9/10 good first players. Some rivals like Aberdeen and perhaps Hibs will have gotten stronger. Dundee United will finish 2nd as their fans are saying, and I don't think St Johnstone are much weaker. Hearts will finish in the top 6. Of the others Kilmarnock will not be any weaker. Don't be fooled by Dundee - they were tipped off 2 months ago that they could be playing SPL football this season and have announced plans to sign 6 players.

Agreed Iain. Tomorrow night's game against Arbroath will be the same again. However I'm concerned about central defence. I just don't think that we've enough muscle there without Hutch. Tend to agree about Jamie Murphy - he looked to be in the mood tonight but like much of last season didn't seem to know where he was meant to be playing. He was just as likely to pop up at full back as he was to support Michael Higdon. It made life difficult for his colleagues who found it almost impossible to play with him.

Couldn't really take much from the game tonight apart from a chance to improve match fitness and sharpness. As expected an experienced Raith side put themselves about a bit to prove they were SPL standard. Hopefully the Everton game will show us our strongest defensive and midfield line ups. Certainly its not clear to me at the moment. Don't want to read too much into the game but I'd have thought that some of the young lads and fringe players would have sniffed a CL place going abegging and would have taken the golden opportunity to prove themselves but that wasn't the case.

I'm sure you'll hear pretty soon. To date the admin has been reasonably good.