MelvinBragg

Our aim is always initially to avoid relegation, as it should be. The likes of Dunfermline, Raith Rovers, Dundee United and Partick Thistle have all gone from mid table to relegation. You have to remember the size of club we are, we have no divine right to have been in the top division for over 30 seasons in a row. An ongoing record only bettered by Celtic and Aberdeen, by the way...

One of the most lucrative certainly suggests a fair bit north of £500k. Add to that the fact that Borrows has said that it has the potential to be the most lucrative. Well, I don't think any add ons take a few from £500k to £1.75m easily. The club have shown recently a willingness to turn down a few if it's not right. On that basis, we have to trust them on this one. Definitely leaves us short handed with only four guys fit that can play centre half, with one of them suspended for Sunday. Would be fine if we didn't play three at the back. As others have pointed out, the fact that Kipré came as an out of work trialist suggests that there are players out there...

To be honest, I think we already had Humphrey's best years when he was with us. Seem to remember him starting at Hibs doing really well in the first couple of games and then tailed off...

Indeed. Dunne, Bowman and Tanner still being out left us short in certain areas as is. Do we really want to be five or six players down for the first couple of months of the season? I know we'd try and get replacements in but how long will they take to get up to speed? A 433 of Gillespie Tait McHugh Hartley Taylor-Sinclair Rose Campbell Gorrin Johnson Sammon Frear or a 352 of Gillespie Donnelly McHugh Hartley Tait Rose Campbell Gorrin Frear Johnson Sammon doesn't look the most tried and tested. Wouldn't leave a great deal on the bench either. No point being financially secure for the season and then going down...

Campbell is suspended..

Ordinarily I'd agree but Grimshaw played at Stranraer and it was noticeable that when Campbell went off on Saturday, Grimshaw stayed on the bench. I wouldn't be surprised if Grimshaw started but I don't think it's definite...

Or better because everyone else is playing so badly? I will admit that due to work commitments, the Clyde game is the only game I've seen but on that basis Donnelly looks no better than Maguire. The midfield in the first half seemed to be lacking something So it's understandable that people are looking for alternatives within the squad...

Cheers. I was only going on the previous post. Good to know as I have yet to see a plastic pitch play well in a professional game. Heard a lot of talk of hybrid pitches but have no idea if they'll be any better...

St Mirren have an artificial surface as well? That's four in the SPL this season. Good grief...

Frankly the team might pick itself with injuries and suspensions. Expect it to be along the lines of Carson Kipré McHugh Hartley Tait Cadden Rodriguez-Gorrin Rose Frear Main Sammon Personally would go with Johnson ahead of Main and were there other options, the back three might change but reckon that's what we'll go with. Not confident...

Too many are describing Frear as a winger here. He's playing wing back. If a winger in a 442 or 451 takes a man on and loses possession then there's a full back behind him to cover. Frear doesn't have that luxury. It would be slightly different if Dunne was left side of the back three as he's naturally left sided and quick enough to get out and cover. At the minute if Frear loses possession there's only a slow right footed central defender behind him...

If we're selling a striker, make it Main... But in general, I agree. We have players in the squad that Robinson clearly doesn't want. When Bigirimana had his squad number shifted, that was all the clue you needed. We had Grimshaw, Rodriguez and Bigirimana on the bench yesterday. And McHugh playing at centre half. How many injuries would it have taken for Bigirimana to get on the park? If Cadden, Campbell and Rose had all gone off injured, I suspect we'd have seen Grimshaw, Rodriguez and Donnelly coming on with McHugh going into midfield. I'm not one who is suggesting Bigirimana is the answer to all our problems. What I would say is that if he's so far out of the picture that he's realistically 7th in line for 3 midfield spots, then it's maybe best for him and for us that he moves on...

September is all the official site says. Whether that's the 1st September or the 30th, just need to wait and see. Unfortunately, and this will apply to Dunne as well, I suspect that similar to Hartley that it's going to Tanner a good while before he's back at anything like 100%...

Tempted to go for Rodriguez-Gorrin as he definitely looked to give us more urgency. But given Frear set up two goals and looked our most dangerous player most of the day, I'll go for him..

I actually thought that Gorrin made a difference when he came on. Always showed for the ball and moved it on quickly. People are saying that Main is rusty. Given his previous career, I'm wondering if he's reverting to type and the second half of last season was an anomaly. Obviously I'm hoping not. Hartley, we can only hope that his sharpness will come back. Loss of our quickest centre back for a few months at the same time makes the problem worse as Dunne's pace could have covered for Hartley while he gets up to speed. With Tanner and Dunne out for a while yet, we have to hope that we find a solution without them, or we could end up in real trouble...

First time I've seen us this season and it wasn't pretty. Back three looked iffy all day, marginally better with McHugh but given so much of last season's relative success was down do being hard to beat, it's a major concern. Midfield seemed to disappear for long periods, particularly in the first half. Gorrin definitely improved things. Main was dreadful. For me, he's done next to nothing since the semi final. If Bowman is unavailable, I'd be starting Johnson and Sammon. And finally a word on Elliot Frear. I know he frustrates the life out of people by being conservative and not always taking his man on. Problem is that you're judging him as a winger when he's playing at wing back and if he loses possession, there's no full back behind him to cover. Frustrating as he may be, he still set up two of our goals today...

Nowhere near good enough. Back three is an absolute shambles. People last season questioning McHugh's place in the team as captain, we now have the same issue with Hartley..

Maybe good as last year we were and were away to another SPL side..

Not confident at all. Hopefully the team prove me wrong...

You see, this is what irritates me. Last year and this year, all we hear is how 'we'll be ready by the first league game' and these games are about getting fitness. This is a cup, one of only two trophies we can win, not a pre season tournament. We did well in the cups last year but even then I remember feeling the group games (for all we won them) had a sense of not being treated like competitive games. When it's all about 'minutes in legs' results like today can happen...

Really not good enough. I had a feeling this would be a difficult season and it seems I might be right. Unbalanced squad, all hard work and no guile. A lot rests on Tanner coming back and Gorrin coming good...

I'm guessing 442 diamond given the lack of obvious width?

Ross MacLean scores for Morton along with a former player of hours...

Really should be winning all four group games but Stranraer away could be tricky. I suspect it'll be a late winner for us..

Professional job even if we didn't score in the second half. Was working so unable to make the game. Be interesting to hear how we played and how the new players performed...