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I'll turn it round and say Doolan is well suited to being a second striker. His first touch is usually excellent and probably the best since Britton. His lay off play and awareness may not yet be of Gerry's quality but is improving all the time. I'd say Doolan is winning a fair amount in the air and on par with Britton on head flicks. All of that is positive and imo makes Doolan an automatic selection even if his goal rate isn't necessarily that of an out and out striker. I think then the key guy is Stewart and it's maybe too early to really know if he can play as a striker as opposed to an attacking midfielder (in a sort of Hardie type role). Meantime for balance I'd rather see the right sided Fraser coming off the bench than Grehan.

My main gripe is the lack of pace that staff move at. I realise that kinda comes over a bit yours, angry, Tunbridge Wells but the service is very slow in comparison to many other grounds. I go shortly before half time and won't join the queue if there's maybe into double figures in line waiting to get served. So my only experience is of very short queues, which are still an annoyingly long wait. It's hardly surprising if takes so long for me to get served with only a handful of folk in front that those that venture along at half time spend so long queuing. Whoever is doing the catering must be losing out as I can only imagine a lot of folk will just give it a miss when they see the size of the queue.

Sorry if I didn't make myself clear when I said Fox was one of the best in the division. I wouldn't want to swap him for Arthur or Tuffey at their best. But that doesn't make him above criticism and I'd certainly wish he was less statuesque at spot kicks. When either Arthur or Tuffey were facing a penalty I always thought they had a sporting chance of saving but Scott appears the opposite. I don't see what's so bizarre about raising this point tho' I do concede if it was only based on two or three penalties it would be silly. I'm sure tho' it's far more than that. Maybe a statto could let us know.

Was shocked but certainly shouldn't have been when that imbecile ref gave the penalty. But to say we deserved to take something out the game I'm a little less sure. I've always advocated a league system where a goalless draw results in both teams getting no points. If you can't score why should you get the same as teams drawing 1-1, 2-2 and so on? I'm seething that Dundee came away with three points more than we lost a point. It was a reasonably entertaining second half but in a game where scoring chances were few and far between I thought we were the more organised side attack wise. Putting thoughts into others is rather presumptive but after today's performance I think that those who reckon we're a likely bottom of league team should be more encouraged whilst those who fancy our chances of being in with a shout will be more than a trifle disappointed. Just to end this post on a negative point (so as I can feel more positive later on) I can't remember seeing a keeper who looks less likely to save a penalty than Scott Fox. Don't get me wrong he's probably one of the best keepers in the division (along with Cerny) but when it comes to a penalty Mr Fox looks clueless. I can't remember him getting even close to stopping a penalty kick and that's good half dozen or so I've seen him face.

Comparing like for like most away grounds are generally none too clever with their catering but we seem to be able to have taken it to a new level of ineptitude.

I got the impression from the pre match thingy on the main site that it was a done deal but we'll only sign him when he's ready to play. Wouldn't be surprised if we don't see him at Firhill till mid September.

Go with that team tho' a midfield of Campbell, Cairney & Rowson has its appeal. Campbell being perhaps at this stage more combative than Bannigan. He also would put in decent cross balls for our three left sided forwards. Alan M does have a point re Erskine. Perhaps we shouldn't be building a team round him just because he doesn't suit any rigid position. The Erskine risk factor may be somewhat reduced if Flannigan is on the bench. That's not another cheap shot at Iain F just I feel it's a bit dodgy starting both him and Erskine.

Quite an interesting read HERE

We're told losing this game means Rangers lose out on serious money. Seems to me they don't help themselves. They must have been aware there was a strong likelihood of playing a team well into their season yet they go into the game with players either just getting clearance the day of the match or just about to leave the club. I've no idea whether Malmo are a better team than Rangers but rather suspect that they won't be. Rangers lack of preparation when playing a settled team was possibly the equivalent of giving a goal start to Malmo. Anyway not our problem.

Find myself wishing we had an away fixture to kick off the season where a scrappy draw could be seen as encouraging. I really believe with our minimal change to the squad we should have a fantastic advantage on a few of our opponents we meet early on, but last couple of games in my mind has shattered that idea. McNamara's 4-3-3 formation is adventurous in such a small division and thus I feel we've got to get off to a good start. Not so certain we're that well set up squadwise for a McCall like defensive Plan B. I still think we've the players to compete well at the top of the league just concerned we're not equipped for the bottom of the table stuff. Main thing tho' is that the players have more belief in themselves than some of us fans. If the team has really learned from last week I see no reason why we can't beat Dundee by a couple of goals.

But what about the co-efficient?

In the interest of balance at least we shouldn't be embarrassed at our youth policy, which by bringing down the average age helps somewhat. By that I mean our younger players won't be so wage dependent than those in their late twenties and older. If we've to feel embarrassed by being a club of our historic status reduced to paying peanuts at least we don't need to feel ashamed. Shame should be more the domain of fans of Livingston, Dundee, Motherwell and to a lesser extent Dunfermline. At least we've not plunged to that level.

HJ, even if I agreed with you re a recognised striker priority I am saying that I don't think Pat Clarke would offer value for money. That's based on the assumption he wouldn't take a wage cut on what I surmise he'll be on if he sees out his contract at E End Pk. In other words I don't particularly rate Clarke. A few seasons ago Danny Lennon told me we should sign him from Clyde as he had a great partnership with Buchanan at Cowdenbeath. Clarke was one player McCall said he wanted to sign to take the Jags into a promotion race. But that was then. Clarke hasn't done that much since and even the partnership with Buchanan is no longer valued, well by McIntyre at least.

The way I read that about Clarke was he's happy to stay at Dunfermline and take his wages, which even if he's still on the Pars SFL rate will be considerably more than we'll be paying Stewart or Doolan. Can't blame the guy but even if we miraculously found the dosh to match his wage and signed him we wouldn't imo be getting value for money. I wouldn't be surprised to see Clarke back at Dundee or joining Hamilton before the month's out but I still wouldn't feel we missed out.

Fair comment but I don't think Flannigan not tackling is an absolute. I've seen him track back and get dug in on at least two occasions. I'm not making excuses for him, in fact I'm being even more critical in that he can work defensively and tackle but too often he fails to do so. To widen the criticism of Flannigan I'm not impressed with his dead ball stuff so far this season (fair to include friendlies when talking about free kicks and corners) plus he's failed to get any power on a shot at goal and he's had a good few attempts. On the whole his corner kicks last season were much improved on what we've suffered prior to him joining us but they've largely lacked any quality of late. If Iain was to go away and sharpen up either what he's supposed to be good at or his tackling and tracking back there'd be more of dilemma as to whether he should start or not. Actually I don't particularly think he had a bad game for most of the time he was on the field on Saturday but too many warning signs are showing and in a three man midfield too much to ignore.

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Damn you. sir. How can you say such a thing

Any two will do for me . Maybe if we left out the better known players the remaining shirts would be easier to sell?

Reminds me of one of the Black Isle beers. Not usually impressed with beers with silly names but I do make an exception for their extremely strong Xmas special ale, St Nicholas Knicker Dropper Glory.

Certainly there are no certainties for bottom two places this season. What makes it worse is last season, bar one occasion out of eight, we couldn't even have regarded either Cowden or the Binos as cannon fodder. One thing's for certainty and that's we don't have the squad equipped for the proverbial relegation dog fight. I do tho' feel we'll be nowhere near that end of the table but we really need to get points early on.

I'm almost 100% positive that Calderwood, Davies & Levein aren't Portuguese

Still struggling to come up with a team but given thornwood jags time frame I'd add Kenny Arthur and Boab McCulloch to my previous list of one (Mark Roberts). I can think of at least three better keepers than Kenny over that time but not one as committed. Boab wasn't with us that long but I think his presence was all important. Without much thought, as hardly necessary, I'd add in Shaggy, The Ghost and Chic. btw I hope this thread doesn't get hijacked by folk posting their best eleven ever. That really has been done to death.

We were beaten at home by a part time team two divisions below us. That is the reality we have to realise. Arguably our best player yesterday was a guy who last season played in the same division as Berwick. I don't get the impression our squad is full of Billy Bigheads so I fail to see how our humbling yesterday could be seen as "a blessing in disguise". Also at this point in time I'd much rather we won yesterday and subsequently lost a league match. I see myself as one of the more positive posters on here, certainly more of a happy clapper than a boo boy, but even putting the result apart yesterday's performance left serious questions about our team's effectiveness, resolution and even simple proficiency. Compared to others I'm far from the first to overact to a defeat but at the same time I don't believe we can make any excuses either of age or experience for yesterday's dire showing. It's going to be a long hard week to get our players confidence restored whilst at the same time also cured of yesterday's failings.

Thanks, Tom.