Lobey_Dosser

Cadden is still 19, 6 months younger than Thomas and Ferguson. I assumed both of them were too old for u20s this season. Regardless, I'd expect Craigan to go with the new group.

Shinnie could be some signing for Hibs, fair play to them. I imagine his representatives will have talked to a few Scottish clubs. If we end up with Lucas and Clay, it'll be the most baffling business since the Theo Robinson debacle last summer.

Good luck to Laing if that's the case. I had high hopes for him when he signed permanently but for whatever reason he never fully recovered from the East Fife shocker. From a financial perspective, there was little sense in having both Kennedy and Laing on the books so we've done well to get one out the door. I suspect Laing was on a very decent contract.

And not one attacking midfielder with a hint of pace amongst them. Signing Lasley, Clay, McHugh and Lucas in one summer defies logic. Even more so when our hottest young prospect is a sitting midfielder.

Very little confidence in the current team until the obvious weaknesses are addressed. if we go there and sit off Rangers like we did for 60 mins at FP, we'll get hammered. Fair chance that some of our new signings will be like rabbits in the headlights in front of 50k Rangers fans.

Liam Henderson still not been loaned out by Celtic. If at all possible, he's your man to replace Pearson.

Don't think anyone could argue with Cadden being substituted, he looked like he still had the Celtic game in his legs. The issue was bringing on Blyth and losing our shape. We lost any momentum we had at that point.

That was probably Clay's least anonymous performance to be fair. My concern is that despite our budget constraints, our midfield options are far from balanced. Lasley, McHugh, Clay and Campbell are all deep lying midfielders. As is Lucas going by his Annan cameo.

Largely uninspiring way to kick off our season at home, albeit not unexpected given our league cup performances. I think today highlights the consequences of our tightening budget: - We have went with a low cost mediocre keeper in order to invest elsewhere in the team - Pearson is yet to be replaced. Clay might do a job but he's not the man to drive us on and feed our forwards. - We have no cover for the increasing injury prone Hammell. You might get away with one of the above but the accumulation of all three leaves you with a disjointed and incompetent team. That could make for a very hard season if not addressed. As an aside, has there been any word on ST sales? We're still in holiday season but it seemed quieter than normal for the opening home game.

Hammell signing autographs in the 'Well shop tomorrow so no fitness test for him. Wonder if McGhee could be tempted to play Marvin as a left wingback.

So McHugh definitely out and Hammell struggling to make it. Hard to be overly optimistic.

That's a comment I picked up on. Found it particularly interesting as McGhee previously stressed the club had done their due diligence into the characters of the players when Blyth, Tait and Heneghan were unveiled.

Very good deal for Killie if reports of £250k are accurate.

Heneghan is the only one I'm confident about just now but I do like the look of McHugh, we just need him on the pitch more often. Tait has looked chronically slow since his debut but that doesn't mean he can't be a good right back. He'll maybe need a few months to adjust to the pace of our game. For Motherwell to offer him a 3 year deal, we must rate him pretty highly. Reading the Grimsby forums, the general consensus is that Clay is a good pro but him getting a 2 year deal in the premiership is indicative to them of how far Scottish football has fallen. Worth bearing in mind that Grimsby didn't offer him a contract after playing 70+ games, I hope he isn't deemed as Pearson's replacement. Blyth we'll need to wait and see. Few intriguing comments to date from McGhee.

Never have rated Samson and never will. Yes he made a number of saves tonight but he constantly parries the ball into a dangerous area. As for the game, absolute null vote I'm afraid.

You might be right. Otherwise I'm struggling to understand the addition of Clay and the possible further addition of Lucas. Fear we are really weak in a couple of positions, ultimately lacking pace and power at fullback and in midfield.

Lasted until 4-0 before heading for the exit. An all too familiar story at Parkhead, I foolishly thought we'd maybe approach a cup game in a more positive manner. More often than not McGhee is caught out when he overthinks his tactics. Tonight we try and combat our deficiencies in the fullback area by playing 3 slow fullbacks, resulting in a back 3 against 1 striker. Credit to Celtic, they were excellent but we never got near them. The way to compete with Celtic is to have a go at their defence but to do that you need to be comfortable on the ball. Unfortunately when you go with the tactic to sit deep and sacrifice possession, you are never going to get into a rhythm. Tonight is not the best night to judge our transfer activity over the summer but there are a few question marks hovering, none more so than the resigning of Hammell. Should McGhee really have offered him a 2 year contract if he needs reinforcements alongside him when we play Celtic? We'll get get caught out time and time again for pace with Tait and Hammell as our fullbacks. And as for Craig Clay, think I've seen him 4 times now, he's more anonymous than Jake Taylor.

Good luck to him. Sometimes the underwhelming signings are the ones that go on to prosper.

4/5 lower league teams through tonight. Wee bit of an added incentive for tomorrow hopefully.

This was my reading of the game.

Of the 7 subs at Killie, 5 played in the youth cup final. This was partly due to Kennedy and Laing missing, presumably through injury.

Despite not being fully up to speed, I thought Skippy was instrumental in our victory. You'd get much less out of Johnson, Ainsworth and arguably Cadden without his ability to hold up the ball and link up the play. In my opinion, he's our best all round centre forward since TC.

If McHugh manages to recover, it will be interesting to see how McGhee shapes up. Does he bring Lasley in for Clay as a straight swap or does he look to tighten up with Lasley coming in for Ainsworth and Cadden moving forward? It would be harsh on Ainworth after Saturday but if we do manage to keep it tight he's a good sub to have. I've reluctantly bought a ticket for this. Wonder if we'll take a few more than usual to Parkhead.

Our under 20s play Airdrie week commencing 15th Aug in the old B&Q cup. The return of McBride, Fitzpatrick and potentially Leitch. Starting to fancy our chances.

The front 4 all played well in spells but Heneghan caught the eye throughout. This boy loves winning headers and looks to have bundles of potential.