El Grew

Spot on. I’m not knocking the guy we’ve signed but compare the player we got to the one Kilmarnock got and be totally honest, which would you rather have? Ours is 24, 5’8” and on loan from a League 1 club (Div. 3 in old money) We’re now the 6th club he’s been to in 6 seasons and this is his 4th loan deal. During those 6 seasons he’s only played 70 games. Theirs is only 18, 6’0” and on loan from a Premiership club with whom he signed a new deal in January and Steven Gerrard rates him a good prospect. He’s just starting out on his football career. The point I’m trying to make is that if we must sign players on loan then ensure their fitness for purpose first. Stop bringing journeymen in heaven knows we’ve got more than enough already. Perhaps we should try to foster relationships with Premiership clubs who would be willing to loan us their up and coming young players.

I know we can’t possibly have tabs on every player that may be available for a loan deal from England, but it’s been obvious for quite some time that we badly need a left-back. From what I saw yesterday, Kilmarnock looked to have picked up a very decent young left-back on loan from Aston Villa in Ben Chrisene from their academy side who has represented England at under-15, under-16 and under-17 level. Wonder what players our scouting genius is watching?

That’s just what we need another journeyman sand dancer.

Why?

Really?? So what’s keeping the rest of the squads’ head above water then!

Wtf are you girning about Van Veen for? He is in the team to score goals and so far he’s proved pretty adept at that. We’ve played 5 league matches, scored 7 goals and he’s gotten 5 of them. If only the rest of them were as efficient at their job as him.

Spot on mate. Kilmarnock better team by a mile and in the second half they bossed the game. I know we lost 2 soft goals and our back four is very weak but in their defence our midfield was again posted missing - Goss, Slattery and Spittall just not good enough. If Stevie Hammell really thought there had been an uptick in performances from this lot he’s just had a right good rude awakening.

Refs do not cause us to lose games.

Same old same old. Van Veen must be sick of it. Does his business and gets no win bonus because of our diddy defenders. Kilmarnock had a -8 goal difference going into this and only scored 1 goal in 4 games.

As an old cartoon cat called Katnip used to say “Duh, that sounds logical”.

We’ve a decent record at Rugby Park: P115 | W45 | L51 | D19. A lot will depend on how we handle their plastic grass but no obvious reason why we shouldn’t be able to win.

Totally agree Gazzy. I watched the highlights of the games on Sportscene last night and Lundstram’s foul was referred to as “tactical foul”. That’s certainly a new slant as a few years back it used to be called a professional foul and there were calls to stamp it out by sending players off who resorted to it. As for our penalty against Livi it wasn’t. Neither the referee or his linesman on the Hunter Stand side had sight of it and were indulging in guesswork. I I was a corner kick at best. But hey ho we take it with thanks and move on as we’ve had enough that went against us in the past.

I’d agree with that. I think fan sites like this are great but they do afford fans the opportunity to have a rant and vent their feelings almost instantaneously either during or after games when their emotions are running high - not always a good time to be commenting on anything. I can remember after a game, whether we’d won or lost, played well or badly the only outlet for comment was in the pub afterwards with your mates.

Good post Spider. I thought out of the midfield that started the game young Cornelius was unfortunate to be subbed as he was the only one that got forward in the first half. Lamie’s passing was lamentable but in his defence he was having to be play-maker much of the time as Goss and Slattery went missing.

Agreed. Some are saying we need another striker (and maybe we do) but if we aren’t creating chances it won’t matter how many strikers we have. I felt for KVV today as he again battled manfully up front on nothing but scraps.

It’s been utter dross so far. No creativity at all from us. Stats show we’ve had 67% possession but we’ve done very little in the final third.

I’m with you on this. The one thing Efford has is pace and that will always worry defenders. If he could just add an end product he’d be a really good asset.

Grizzly I must say that’s one of your better ones.

Good common sense post.

Despite Livi’s poor record at Fir Park - P17 L10 W4 D3 - they will still be a hard nut to crack. I believe this game will provide a truer yardstick for us as they are one of the sides I consider to be in our peer group in the league. Hoping for a good positive performance and hopefully a win.

I don’t care what anyone says that’s a great signing for Arbroath.

A totally over the top reaction to one good performance and result. We’ve just appointed a rookie manager who has fallen heir to a largely poor group of players from the last management regime. Prior to Saturday, we were second best over 120 minutes against an Irish League team; very lucky to get 3 points at St. Mirren; no more than an average in the second half against St. Johnstone and despite the result and performance against Aberdeen, it was still clear that all of our old shortcomings are still there. Putting such totally unrealistic expectations on our new manager whilst he is in the foothills of his managerial career is just plain stupid.

Fans shouldn’t get too carried away. It’s just one game and as the old adage says, one swallow does not a summer make. For me, although the win was great and very welcome I was more interested in how we set up and played because this is a truer indicator of future performances and in this respect it was highly encouraging. However, given the turmoil over the past 9 months or so I would be more than happy if we retained our top flight status this season and laid a foundation for the future. Anything else would be a bonus.

I know it’s been suggested previously and criticised but I do think it could be worth taking Scott Allen onboard. I know he has had issues which are well-documented but he is 30 now and seems to have wised-up and he is quite a classy player on his day. We could offer him an initial 1-year deal with caveats built-in to protect the club with the possibility of an additional 1-year if things go well.