weeyin

Aye, a lot of teams in the EPL use hybrids - Man City, Man Utd and Wembley are all hybrid. Hearts new pitch is also a hybrid.

Hibs are never bolted on. They should be given their available resources, but they always have the potential to implode.

Are Killie installing grass? I know they are ripping up their plastic, but didn’t know if it was grass or newer plastic that was being laid. Also, don’t forget Accies. I hear their new surface isn’t much better than their old one.

Two hopes for this season. 1) We don't get relegated 2) Two teams with plastic pitches go down and are replaced by two teams with grass

I don't think we'll get pumped, but if the two defences play as well as they played last week it could end up about 8 - 6.

Smug waves goodbye are the social media equaivalent of the "ach, she was a lesbian anyway" rubber ear response. Our strategy is to sign players with a point to prove, so it's unlikely they will be in a rich vein of first team form when the come on board. (Although I think guys like Johnson and Donnelly were well regarded at their previous clubs).

There's nothing to suggest Hibs are any more ready. Or, based on the final mini-league standings, most of our peers.

I think his attempted conversion to wing back took a bit of the gallus out of him. Different level of course, but at Forest Green, taking on his man was his bread and butter.

For long spells, Hibs were as poor in their game against Asteras Tripolis as we were against Clyde. Although they manage to pull a win out the bag too. Hopefully McGinn will have been sold before kick off seeing as we won't have Campbell to keep him quiet. If we don't cut down on the defensive mistakes, it could make for a long afternoon.

Just waiting for the "Kenny Miller always scores against us" posts.

The plans was for a "state of the art synthetic pitch" for the 2018/19 season. So, dodgy plastic.

Absolutely. I'm a big fan of the videos we produce. The highlights' muzak seems to be a new thing and not just unnecessary, but very grating.

Aye, if we can use Frear more as a winger than a wing back, he might have a decent season.

We do have MacLean, Hastie and Gordon out on loan to get regular starts. However, as much as I want youngsters to get game time, the format and timing of the League Cup means we have to balance winning games with fit players, getting new signings up to speed, getting unfit players fit etc. as well as trying to fit in the youngsters. As is obvious from the other groups, it's a difficult balancing act that most of the Premiership teams struggle with. It's one more reason I'm not a huge fan of the current timings of the competition. I quite like the format, but I suspect forcing teams into competitive games in pre-season leads to risks being taken that result in more injuries.

I agree about the pitch, but the conditions yesterday meant the best approach was to keep passes short and the ball on the deck. Hitting long balls that got caught in the wind and bounched away when they landed, was the opposite of wht was required. I know it's a pipe dream, but the sooner we get rid of plastic in the top flight, the better - not looking forward to those games this season.

I don't know who thought it was a good idea to put background muzak on the game highlights, but if you're reading this, PLEASE STOP.

Rodriguez looks like he could be a player, so we can expect Bigi to be moved on and Alex to take his place on the bench.

Back 4 next week? Tait, Kipré, McHugh and Taylor-Sinclair?

Same old pre-season. Same old pre-season comments. The only difference this time is how many people are gutted Dunne is out for a few months. This time last year they were writing him off as a hopeless duffer.

Seems like half the U20s are suspended for the first league game for picking up cards in the U20 cup.

Hartley had plenty of time to take care of the situation. He was the man in position to make the tackle. He failed miserably.

Nah, Harltey gave it away and he should have been punished for giving it away again when we were 2 - 1 up. He put in the same kind of performance today as he did when we lost to Accies in December.

Hartley as in the Cup Final squad for the same reason Psycho was in the cup winning squad. He was in light training before the end of last season and there is no way anybody who can't run for 6 months is going to be magically fit with 4 or 5 weeks training. And that's not counting match fitness. Skippy was the master at that - took him until October most seasons to get match fit.

Time for Bigi to save the game with a wee bit of football.

With the pitch playing about 25 on the stimpmeter, I think it's going to be easier playing into the wind. Hartley shouldn't be playing though. He was out for 7 months and not close to match fit. The dry 3G and high bounce mean the long ball approach won't work. We might need to be radical and play some short passes on the deck.