lady-isobel-barnett

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.

One for the stattos..... Before yesterday when was the last time we were beaten in any of the three cup competitions by lower league opposition? I remember Albion Rovers knocked us out of one of the cups in the late nineties but can't mind any others since but think it must have happened more recent to that.

No need to apologise but I'm not that certain a favourite eleven, as opposed to a best eleven, has been done. Need to think about it but Mark Roberts would certainly get into my favourite eleven.

Tend to agree, especially when playing Flannigan left of centre. When Erskine plays we've three players up front that favour their left foot (Grehan also left sided). It's fair then to assume the forwards will prefer balls played in from the right. Flannigan can do that but he's next to useless defensively. I feel a mid three of either Campbell-Cairney-Rowson or Cairney-Rowson-Bannigan would be far more preferable.

Beat me to it! I'll take a wild stab at this and say somehow I don't think McCann was a recognised player that HJ had in mind

He was sitting in a cumfy chair (hospitality area). He did "leave" with a steward tho' not at a time when he was cheering. I suppose in the very unlikely situation where he was accosted by a Jags fan the steward would have been found at fault. I say "very unlikely" as those who sit or stand round the hospitality area get used to the occasional outburst from an away fan. The only thing shocking about all that was we gave a supporter of a team two leagues below us far too much to cheer about

Looks on paper a very good draw. There must be a lot of concern about Croatia & Serbia in the same group.

If you accept we were playing three up front then it's hardly surprising one of the three would be sacrificed. I do tho' think subbing Flannigan was well overdue. Can only imagine McNamara was concerned about Cairney either his fitness and/or his earlier booking but it backfired.

Thought it was obvious. It's someone who goes on an' on .

I find it strange to be more or less agreeing with above. We've effectively only brought in one new player that would start in our strongest side so the team should be ready for next week. Normally I'd be anticipating a good few 1st team regulars to be held back. It appears tho' that Jackie needs to play as many of his best starting eleven as possible more from the formation point of view, which looks like it still needs a bit of ironing out.

Well as he was MotM at Ibrox he might just sneak in a Hearts starting eleven.

Be nice to say we beat both Celtic & Rangers in the same month

Think we'll go with a strong starting eleven and hopefully bring on younger players later. Doesn't say on official site whether Robertson is match fit or not.

any update on that? How long is Ryan going to be unavailable? edited to add...ignore, didn't see tomorrow's match preview.

Well there you go. Sorry if it had that effect but I mentioned Hamilton for the complete opposite reason. Something of a feel good factor in fact in that we don't have Jim Hamilton this season.

Are we not slightly stronger upfront than we were at the start of last season or the season before? Not including any at the time untried youngsters I make it two year ago we had Buchanan, Hamilton, Donnelly & a very raw Doolan. Last season we started with Doolan (still quite raw), Buchanan, Grehan & Donnelly. This season we have Doolan (Div 1 top scorer), Stewart, Grehan, Fraser & Donnelly plus, using a wee bit licence, Erskine who's been pushed forward. The point I'm making is not that I think we have the fire power to win the league but that we're better off upfront than in recent seasons.

It looked to me that Archie took the team in the game against Fleetwood. Obviously he could have been in contact with Jackie & Sid who were in the stand but it didn't look that way.