purestate

so think what a superstar o'brien could be with coaching and some fan backing and what we could do with £80m of Real's money in a couple of years

we've just sold Clarkson aged nearly 24 on the back of two reasonably good seasons for us. not sure anyone would have paid 600k for him this time 2 seasons ago so regardless of relativity of youth i think Jim O'brien is a younger player who will improve with coaching and encouragement of fans.

Agree. All the talk about the youngsters being given a chance should remember that O'Brien is still just that - a youngster who (hopefully) will benefit from Gannon's coaching.

never said it was the only factor and i agree wouldn't in itself stop someone coming to play for us. more importantly will be the fact that european football is on shaky ground and the associated prize money which could have funded a players wages might not be forthcoming. and without beating it to death about the kit - yes i did notice the difference in colour and i wasn't the only one - a number of people around me commented on it. plus if you knew there would be problems reproducing the colour why design the kit like that. why not white or claret shorts?

point taken although canterbury do teamwear themselves and presumably they manage to get the same colour in the shorts as in the top if required!

I guess there will always be individual quality issues and I know SCDave has confirmed problems with the logo but actually I mean the fact that the shirt and shorts are not the same colour and the design just doesn't look right from top to bottom. you can argue it doesn't matter in the slightest from a playing perspective but my point is it looks unprofessional and in this topic was just another niggling aspect which adds up to a less than positive image/message that MFC are sending out to any new potential recruits.

no it's not just you. but JG was only in the door for 4 days so a bit soon to completely condemn them surely? I just think he got it a bit wrong with his tactics. Maybe he thought the younger players should have been good enough to beat part-timers.

okay one sorted thanks to 'Flow's confirmation of ET misrepresentation now lets get our kit sorted.

fantastic. much appreciated, Flow.

if you can't have a vent in a message board dedicated to your club where can you? I read all the topics, I've been in the shop to see the kits myself, I was at the game. Just let me have my bout of depression and doubt and I'll be okay.

i'm not sure any league would have us at the moment. There is a serious point I'm trying to make. A week is a long time in football etc but if we don't beat Llanelli next week then i seriously doubt our manager will succeed in attracting anyone halfway decent to our club. it won't just be a one off defeat - it will be the catalogue of farce that I listed.

Our so called "quality" deal with Canterbury. Our desperate sale of any of our half decent players. Our loss to a part-time side (not just a friendly but in a European competition and therefore reported across Europe) Our official announcement of first signing and (likely) imminent retraction. SORTED NOW We must be the laughing stock of Scottish, if not British, football right now. Who reckons Jim Gannon might just decide to buy himself out of his contract? Maybe if we are lucky we could get Paul Hegarty back to oversee our descent to the first division?

"last minute hitch" you mean he was at the game last night and thought there is no way I will be furthering my career coming to this bunch of clowns.

Bang on. the goalie practices catching from different angles and was doing so at half time so the strikers should be spending at least an hour each day shooting from every conceivable angle about 10 yards out from the penalty area. stick a haystack in their way to be No.4!

good point and given JG's comments about versatility would make sense - you've convinced me - get him signed!!

Except most of Suttons goals were close range efforts which with an inevitably packed defence means he is just an extra body in the way. Perhaps starting with the more mobile players and getting a few shots in on goal would be worthwhile. A more frequent onslaught like Slane and Forbes efforts late on would I'm sure yield results.

[quote name='Finlay' date='Jul 3 2009, 01:54 AM' post='84751' Anyone notice the Goalie kit tonight? Dark pink top and shorts and LIGHT pink socks? LUDICROUS. Similar to the colour differences with the home kit as well. There "might" be an argument that the goalie kit is deliberately distracting - all the psychology stuff but the main kit is poor. while the top looks okay the shorts and socks were obviously designed by someone else and as someone else has pointed out made in a different country so no wonder they are different colours - looks unprofessional never mind the quality. We would be better with a off the shelf teamwear package like Aberdeen etc.

He IS the boss and Craigan IS the captain and an experienced international. I think Craigan will be as disappointed as anyone, if not more, but he is big enough to realise that JG is talking about all the experienced players and I'm sure Crags will be doing as much as anyone to raise their game for next week. Remember Craigan has been on the other side of this coin - NI 1- 0 England

yeah but he's a left back. probably not our biggest concern

As am I but when he is being honest about his players performances he should be considering his own choices and tactics. at least he made the substitutions but IMO the wrong ones. I am all for switching players about, as he did with Murphy, but he also did this with O'brien - right to left later in 2nd half - but took him off 2 minutes later - which just meant the substitution took longer - you're only meant to do that when you're winning

maybe they weren't first choice starters last season but McGarry has show he has skill and can use it the season before, so has Fitzpatrick and Smith. If we were just going to play our U19 side why not do that - at least they have played together. JG has only been in the door 4 days - I ask again why not go with all your first team players and fit in youngsters where necessary. Forbes may well be turn out to be a 1st team midfield general but none of the others were used to playing with him in that role. Poor tactics by the manager.

okay i'll go with Lasley replaced due to injury but why not replace him with a bit of experience. If we wanted a holding midfielder bring on Fitzy and encourage Forbes to go forward not back or sideways. If we wanted to make a more attack minded move bring DLS on. JG, on the BBC interview, said he didn't want to put too much responsibility on the younger players but that's what he did bringing them on and expecting them to change the tie.

We lost 1 nil to a part-time side. Yes we might turn it around (with an insane amount of luck) but it certainly doesn't do our player recruitment drive any good. Prize money to pay wages and prospect of euro football, or at least the exposure it brings, to attract players are going down the drain. Maybe not a disaster but certainly not good.

Given that JG had only a few days to both work with and assess the players why didn't he start with the most experienced team? Forbes was okay, nothing else so why take Lasley off instead of Forbes. And why bring on Slane and McHugh rather than Darren Smith. I think there's a difference giving youth a chance and expecting too much from them. I was disappointed in the managers tactics tonight.