weeyin Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 I remember when half of Fir Park screamed abuse at Steve Kirk every week. That was shortly after the demonstration demanding Tommy McLean get the sack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The African Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 I remember when half of Fir Park screamed abuse at Steve Kirk every week. That was shortly after the demonstration demanding Tommy McLean get the sack. Only half? I can remember Kirkie giving the 'well fans the fingers at Dens Park after a particularly rotten team performance in a Scottish Cup game in 1988 and I think he had only been a sub that day. The whole team was rotten but he was a favourite target for the boo boys at the time. As I recall, it was also at Dens Park that he started to turn things around with a late winner in a mid week relegation dog fight. Amazing how things can turn out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al B Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 Fraser Kerr grabbing a goal! O.G. though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
punk_in_drublic Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 When you see the places that some of our former players are ending up, it begins to make sense that we were horse shite last year. Formatine United Albion Rovers Falkirk St. Mirren Gateshead 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 Looks unlikely that George Long will be back for the season ahead. Howard has been injured for Sheff United and he has been playing pre season. Adkins says he is happy to go with Long until Howard recovers and is in no rush. http://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/sheff-utd/no-rushing-howard-ahead-of-long-year-1-7381772 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superward Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 Me too. Said it all the way through the last few months. There was little, if anything, between Long and Twardzik. In that they were as average as each other. So we might as well go with Dan as the perm player for now. Hopefully we do get someone else in though sharpish as I don't want to go a full season with Dan as our no. 1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 I'm not totally distraught at the thought of not getting Long in, I'm in agreement that in terms of ability there probably wasn't that much between him and Dan. Nevertheless we did pick up more points and concede less with Long in goals than Dan. The obvious caveat there is that the team started to find a bit of form and benefitted from having a more settled back 4 and having the likes of Pearson & McDonald involved (though Long was playing in a team with Tony Straker at left back). Considering the suggestion is that Long made as many, if not more, gaffes per game than Dan then it seems curious taking that information into account that we conceded less goals with him in. Again, there's nothing to say the results wouldn't have been the same with Dan in goals and that outfield team playing in front of him. I guess we'll find out soon enough. The above isn't a defence of Long as such, or a slight on Dan per se. I'd like to think that there are better options out there than both and given there's obviously a GK spot available then we should be looking to bring in players who are better than what we currently have. There are players that we might be happy to pay a nominal fee for, I don't think Long's one of them, bringing him in on a free would be another story. I note that it looks as if Long's contract with Sheffield United is up at the end of the season, I suppose it all depends on whether how they view him & whether they cut him loose as Forest did with Laing. We may have been hoping for a season loan with a view to taking him on permanently after that, who knows. It's all fairly academic though if he's getting the opportunity for first team football at Sheffield though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
postiejim Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 Worrying with just a few days before our first league game we seem prepared to be going with our second choice keeper. Are we waiting to pick up a loan from England at the end of the transfer window. Surely weve got some irons in the fire and not all our eggs in one basket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weeyin Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 Baraclough's quote from Sunday: "We definitely need another keeper in because we’ve only got one senior keeper, but we’re not too far away on that." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
numpty Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 Worrying with just a few days before our first league game we seem prepared to be going with our second choice keeper. By definition, he's no longer our second choice keeper. He may not be even if we do manage to bring in another "senior keeper". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodge Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 Worrying with just a few days before our first league game we seem prepared to be going with our second choice keeper. Are we waiting to pick up a loan from England at the end of the transfer window. Surely weve got some irons in the fire and not all our eggs in one basket. I would only be worried if we were thinking of going through the entire season with someone thought to be 2nd choice. All the noises coming out of Fir Park is that we are actively trying to recruit a new keeper (see managers recent interviews and recent podcast with Flow who mentions we've several irons in the fire). Whilst using Dan is far from ideal if he isn't seen as immediate first choice, the time for worrying was during the play offs and not to dampen the enthusiasm of getting back to business in a new season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fizoxy Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 If Dan was seen as a quick/lazy appointment, I'd rather we take our time and make the right choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andalg Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 I remember when half of Fir Park screamed abuse at Steve Kirk every week. That was shortly after the demonstration demanding Tommy McLean get the sack. Not abuse I liked to think of it as constructive criticism which he took on board and became a Fir Park legend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ya Bezzer! Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 I'm not totally distraught at the thought of not getting Long in, I'm in agreement that in terms of ability there probably wasn't that much between him and Dan. Nevertheless we did pick up more points and concede less with Long in goals than Dan. If you look at our results with Laing and without Laing I think it's pretty obvious where the improvement at the back was. Not much to do with the goalkeeper I'd say. When Laing dropped out with injury or suspension our goals conceded average went from less than 1 goal per game to almost 2 (0.92 goals per game to 1.75). He was by miles McManus' best partner and McManus performed a lot better along side Laing as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrosshillWell Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 Will be interesting to see where Kennedy fits in, but certainly a better central defensive unit with McMannus and Laing. If you take those the two that Barraclough brought in and compare them to O'Brien, Kerr, Ramsden and Cummings, then I think we can all see an improvement. I'll be happy as long as the young lads show more promise and perform better than Kerr or Cummings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ya Bezzer! Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 Bit disappointed Jackson Irvine has joined Ross County. Could have done a job for us I think, got a bit more in his locker than the average Premiership footballer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 If you look at our results with Laing and without Laing I think it's pretty obvious where the improvement at the back was. Not much to do with the goalkeeper I'd say. When Laing dropped out with injury or suspension our goals conceded average went from less than 1 goal per game to almost 2 (0.92 goals per game to 1.75). He was by miles McManus' best partner and McManus performed a lot better along side Laing as well. Cheers. I was wondering about that when I was writing that earlier post. Genuinely interested to see the impact Laing had there. I knew there would be some improvement but didn't expect it to be quite as dramatic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrosshillWell Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 Will be interesting to see where Kennedy fits in, but certainly a better central defensive unit with McMannus and Laing. If you take those the two that Barraclough brought in and compare them to O'Brien, Kerr, Ramsden and Cummings, then I think we can all see an improvement. I'll be happy as long as the young lads show more promise and perform better than Kerr or Cummings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goggles & Flippers Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 Will be interesting to see where Kennedy fits in, but certainly a better central defensive unit with McMannus and Laing. If you take those the two that Barraclough brought in and compare them to O'Brien, Kerr, Ramsden and Cummings, then I think we can all see an improvement. I'll be happy as long as the young lads show more promise and perform better than Kerr or Cummings. So good you posted it twice? Laing did improve after a pretty awful start however Kennedy as yet is unproven, other than having the pedigree of the Man City academy. Gunnar was also there for a while and hardly had an auspicious time with us. Ramsden was the POTS in 2013/14 for many, injury and the confidence malaise that infested the team helped with his demise. O'Brien, will never fully understand his renewal other than Les' chequebook may not have been opened when it happened. Kerr I think got a wee bit of a rough time, whenever called upon under Baraclough he did as well as any other, but then again I didn't see him in training daily. Cummings I agree, he maybe has had a few seasons more than he should have at a higher level than he is capable of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superward Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 The bold Anthony Straker has scored this evening v Newcastle. York currently leading 2 - 0. Sign him up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The African Posted July 30, 2015 Report Share Posted July 30, 2015 Having a slight worry that we are not being active enough in strengthening our squad. I think that one of the major problems last season was the length of time it took us to get anything done. We were complacent that our squad from the start of the season, good enough to finish second, would come good and get us back on track. We then waited for McCall to jump ship rather than give him a shove, wasting more time. We then took what seemed an age to appoint a new manager who then waited for the end of the transfer window to try and rebuild the team. While I am not suggesting we panic, I would prefer to see action rather than reaction. The whole squad needed a serious shake up and I am not confident that this has happened. We were guilty of losing so many avoidable goals last season, it wasn't funny, yet no signs of any experienced defenders being looked at. Our midfield also lacked defensive shape and dynamism leaving an already leaky defence seriously exposed, but no signs of a defensive midfielder in the offing. Relying on the benefits of a more rigorous pre season seems foolhardy, especially when you consider the age of some of our squad. I am not advocating signing just anyone willy nilly but there seems to have been very little real action beyond our forwards in the transfer market. The phoney war of friendliest is now over and the real stuff starts on Saturday. Are we anywhere near ready? How much of the season's start can we afford to write off before we are competitive? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fizoxy Posted July 30, 2015 Report Share Posted July 30, 2015 7 signings/ re-signings is a fair amount, and we also extended law, Pearson, watt and Thomas before the end of last season. We have two spots left to fill and one of them is a backup as las and Pearson will start when fit. This leaves goalie, which I assume is going to be a loan so will probably be closer to the end of the window. I'd rather we brought in our own keeper though. If they had spaced the announcements out a bit more there would probably be less worry. Last off season was a failure, but I don't think many people were complaining at the time, since we just finished 2nd and we had no money. Then we had to wait until the winter window to make signings because we had just changed owner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kmcalpin Posted July 30, 2015 Report Share Posted July 30, 2015 Having a slight worry that we are not being active enough in strengthening our squad..... The whole squad needed a serious shake up and I am not confident that this has happened. We were guilty of losing so many avoidable goals last season, it wasn't funny, yet no signs of any experienced defenders being looked at. Our midfield also lacked defensive shape and dynamism leaving an already leaky defence seriously exposed, but no signs of a defensive midfielder in the offing. Don't agree with all you wrote but certainly you have a point here. For some years now our goals against tally has been unacceptably high and I'm not sure we have done much to address that. I'm still concerned about our defence and central midfield, especially the latter's ability to compete against younger, faster and more physical/aggressive opponents. We'll find out soon enough though. Central defence seems not too bad on paper but I'm concerned about our keeper and full backs. Hopefully the much discussed new goalie and central midfielder arrive soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superward Posted July 30, 2015 Report Share Posted July 30, 2015 Having a settled back 4 and fit Hammell is key for me. If we can get that we will be much more solid. Last season we chopped and changed so much with McManus dealing with non left backs most of the season and different partners in the middle. Also if our wingers are fitter and also have it drummed into them to defend this pre season then they may offer more defensive support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MelvinBragg Posted July 30, 2015 Report Share Posted July 30, 2015 While I agree that we need another midfielder, I'm hoping to see Leitch and Cadden feature this season. I'd be happy with Leitch or Cadden alongside Lasley or Pearson, but I wouldn't want to see a midfield of Leitch and Cadden this season. Start of next season, if they get a few games under their belt and prove themselves, then it may be something I'd be more comfortable with. Until then, we do need someone with a few more games under their belt should the worst happen and Lasley and Pearson both be unavailable for a game... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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