Kmcalpin

Absolutely. Early days of course, but this is defintely Alfred Johansson's team. Not JBA's. He's had a baptism of fire, with departures of top players; signing a squad of new ones; a long injury list; and a demanding Conference League schedule. Many fans, especially younger ones, felt that JBA was irreplaceable. He isn't, no-one is.

He definitely signed a new contract. The issue is had he stayed with us who would he replace in the team. How much gametime would he get?

Crowd was just over 6,400 I believe with about 600 away fans.

So you're saying the biscuit tin doesn't actually hold any cash, just chocolate buttons. 🤣

Not a good look at the time but in fairness, I think his father had just passed away at the time. Traumatic for most folk. I did however take issue with the way in which the minimum stadium entry age was imposed (later to be amended) without any consultation. We are a fan owned club however, and our standards of supporter engagement should be higher than other outfits. Going back to the seating, we all know its temporary, but how long for? Is the POD being replaced or is Fir Park itself being replaced?

Well said Denny, and others. The email simply amounts to a whitewash. To say that the new seating is "not universally popular", is a gross understatement. We still haven't been told what the club's long term solution is and there must be one. I'm still curious as to what the Society's view is, if indeed it has one.

Ostensibly very unlikely I'd say, but I've seen this mentioned elsewhere so its not impossible. AJ did mention that some older players i.e. not youths, may go out on loan. So, who knows?

Also Vogt, Whyte and Stama? A few possibilities.

Keep posting MJC. I don't often agree with you but I enjoy reading your posts. Its very rare in life that someone is 100% wrong or 100% right all of the time. We need all shades of opinion on these boards. If anyone is not open to considering other people's opinions then they have a closed mind. Personally, I like to consider other points of view, even opposite ones to mine, to shape my own opinions.

Apologies, I got this wrong, It appears that Levitt is more of a deep lying defensive midfielder. Not sure of the significance of that in terms of potential departures.

Pleased with Dylan Levitt. That gives us more more attacking options. An odd type of signing though as I thought we were well off for attacking midfielders. Departures to come?

I wasn't at the game, so could you elaborate?

Exactly. All keepers, and indeed players, make mistakes and I accept that. My point is though that dealing with high balls is a weak part of his game. I accept that you can get keepers who are relatively small but who are great in the air. The late Jocky Robertson springs to mind. But, they are very much the exception. My knowledge of the English Premier League is limited, at best, but I do know that the Chelsea keeper, at 6-0, is the smallest in that league. He's an outlier. Andy Goram famously said that he didn't do cross balls, because of his height. He was an exceptional shot stopper and that was his role. To compensate for that, Rangers had 2 full backs whose job was to prevent any crosses. In the unlikely event that the opposing team managed to get a cross or corner in, then they had 2 huge central defenders whose job was to protect Goram. Last season, JBA's approach was to retain possession to such an extent that it was unlikely that our opponents were unlikely to test Ward much in the air. This season I don't know if we've got this quite right.

Yes, I think he can contribute to the first team this season and I doubt if we'd let him go and certainly not without another midfielder arriving.

Good post Joe. Of course, things are still to settle down and we're still very much work in progress. AJ has still to mould the players into his system. I'm not privy to all the detailed metrics that our recruitment team uses to identify and source players but I'd be shocked if physicality and experience don't come into the equation somewhere. Surely a keeper's qualities should dovetail with those of the defenders in front of him? Like it or not, and I don't like it, many other teams will test us out at set pieces and crosses and we have to be prepared for such tactics. Years ago, I was castigated on here for wanting bigger, more physical, players in our squad. I had a hard, maybe impossible, task to convince some others that that didn't equal thuggish hammer throwers. Freiburg proved my point. You can be a faster, more skilled but bigger athlete than your opponents. Usain Bolt was hardly vertically challenged at 6-5 and 15 stones in weight but he was quite fast. It seems like an oversight in our summer recruitment, which to be fair, seems to have gone well in most other respects.

True up to a point Grizzly, but I feel we have missed Stephen Welsh at the back. He is a big lad and no-one pushed him around. Also Elliot Watt is somewhat bigger than Joe Hodge.

Persistent rumours on the P & B Ayr thread that they want Olly Whyte on loan. IF that is the the case then we'd need to bring in another central midfielder.

Good post and I agree with you. Paulsen is a great shot stopper but too small and poor in the air. Thats why he has no future at Bournemouth. We could cope with that if we had three 6-4 defenders but we don't. A weakness in our recruitment strategy? I agree about another defensive midfielder - someone with a bit of physicality please. As for SOD - a big season for him. Is he past it? Add to that, Sparrow is not a right back.

I'd happily settle for a draw in this one.

I would have taken a draw at 3pm after our Euro exertions and so I'm happy with the result. However, I'm not impressed by the manner of it after having been 2 goals up then losing 3 in a crazy 10 minute spell. That can't all be put down to tiredness. Plenty of positives though like TJ getting back on the scoresheet and our debutant scoring a cracker. Also a few returning from injury. However, we are short of a fit right back just now and I'm not sure our defence has the height and physicality to cope with rivals. Midfield also seems talented but lightweight. Its a young side we have and we seem to lack leadership and experience. Early days and our season won't really begin until after next weekend, but a few concerns starting to emerge.

The last few domestic games have taught us that we are short of physicality and leadership/experience on the pitch.

We can't even blame it on second half tiredness.

We're not a physical enough side.

Get in!!

Should have been a retake due to encroachment. Poor officiating.