Kmcalpin

We're in that twilight transitional zone between old style paper tickets and electronic ones. A bit like supermarket checkouts and cash v electronic payment. It seems harsh on primeval dinosaurs like me but I suppose clubs need to unilaterally agree to simply stop paper tickets. If you can't handle electronic tickets then we don't want your custom. That time is coming shortly, rightly or wrongly.

Well, if they can do so in other European countries like France, Belgium, Austria and Denmark our governments should be able to do so here. We don't need to reinvent the wheel.

Nothing wrong with that as long as they're physical wee fellas in the Ibrahim Said mould. Also as long as we have height and muscle in the right places and spread throughout the side.

Its a societal problem in the UK as we saw yesterday in a few totally unrelated incidents. The UK and Scottish Governments need to get together for once and ban all face coverings. End of.

A great signing. Maybe we'll now see some departures, either permanently or on loan, between now and Thursday to balance the books and reduce bloating.

Not sure Charles-Cook warrants a start unless its purely for squad rotation purposes. I''m still to be convinced by him.

An interesting game in prospect. Not sure what St Mirren we will encounter given their recent changes. However we're not on here to discuss that lot. It'll be a tough encounter given our injury situation and hectic early season schedule, so I won't read too much into the result and performance, unless we win. Every cloud has a silver lining and Girdwood-Reich and Moormann will be a little more rested than we originally envisaged. I expect that Williams and Sparrow may return to the starting line up. I was a little surprised that SOD didn't get some gametime in Germany, but thats as may be. Some time from the bench for Thor and Stama? I suspect our goalscoring ability will come under scrutiny as will our defensive performance at set pieces, from both our fans and the St Mirren management. For this particular fixture, I'd plead with our fans to be patient and understanding.

Not sure what to make of us so far this season. We've had a spate of injuries; a few players departing and arriving; a hectic schedule; new manager and played against 3 sides we wouldn't normally meet. You could say we were expected to beat HB; HFK Helsinki were about on a par; and Freiburg were several levels above. Its very hard to gauge those performances in domestic terms. Potentially we have a very strong squad, with some decent signings on paper (with quality we couldn't afford previously), but how will they match up domestically. We did well at Easter Road, struggled against Falkirk again, and flopped against Stenhousemuir. Early doors we have had a mixed record in scoring; mixed in conceding; there are questionmarks over our physicality (rivals have some pretty big units in their squads too) and defending set pieces; and been somewhat naive (domestic rivals will be every bit as cute and streetwise as Freiburg). Ball retention has been poorer than last term. A few comings and goings too over the next week or two. So, all in all a lot of unknowns so far and we won't get a clear picture of where we're at for another 5 weeks or so until these factors settle down. This has easily been the strangest and most complicated start to a season that I can remember. Interesting times ahead!

Haven't seen any of the game. Was he up against huge 6-9 defenders and was he given good service by those supporting him?

Agree 100%. We now have a week to make final adjustments to the squad. AJ will now know his squad pretty well and should be well aware of where the shortcomings are. Falkirk, Stenny and Freiburg have been kind enough to help us in that regard. Some fine tuning required, not wholesale upheaval.

I don't believe it does count. Was the foul that serious?

Before kick off I would have taken anything better than 5-0. We accomplished that and with 10 men for half an hour.

Another player getting an enforced rest for Sunday. No problem if Freiburg have scored with another set piece, as long as we learn from it. Lets get ourselves organised at the back for the domestic campaign ahead.

So far so good. A decent result at half time.

Yes, copycats in many ways.

Hopefully Adam Livingstone is going to be ok. Get well soon!

I don't know but you may have a point. Do we know for sure that it was only the Bois who were involved in these events? 74k euros seems a heck of a lot for repairs does it not?

Neither have I.

I've heard of us arranging non contact training for injured players in the past 5 years, but can't recall exact details.

If this comes to pass, he'd be some signing.

This. I've seen flashes of real class from him and am confident that he has ability. Whether or not he comes good only time will tell. Perhaps, given his background, he's just taking time to settle. Just to be clear he was a "JBA" signing.

I received an email from the Society to say that they had passed on my complaint to Brian Caldwell.

A lot of it is down to fitness, gym work and sports science. When Lennon Miller went to Udinese, they had to work on his physicality. I suppose genetics also play a part. You can't turn a 5'6 player into one who is 6'3.

That will be one of my abiding memories of the game. They treated us with total respect as if we were prime Barcelona. Their movement on the ball was terrific and a joy to watch. Off the ball they worked tirelessly to close us down and possessed the physicality and athleticism to regain possession. We simply couldn't match them. That was no slight on us. I hope our younger players, and there were a lot of them, were watching and learnt lessons and also that our backroom staff took cognisance of their levels of athleticism and conditioning.

JGR gets my vote although Hodge wasn't far behind. Moormann was a contender until his red card. I thought about Paulsen as he had some very good saves and distribution was excellent but his aerial ability, or rather lack of, let him down a bit.