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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.

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.