Kmcalpin

Steady on there that’s a step too far.

Yes but Steven Thompson comes with 2 not inconsiderable pluses. He did play for Sevco and St Mirren. You shouldn’t underestimate that.

Welcome. Enjoy following us, the Steelmen, or to older fans, the Dossers.

Thats what I would think given that Robbo has said that Long is behind the others fitness wise. I still think we'll go more with a 4-5-1 set up or a variation of that. Lang will need some game time to get him up to speed.

Yes. I hope though that our midfield is good enough this year to take a lot of pressure off them and offer them a protective shield until they settle in.

Very sad. Willie was part of the the first Well side that i can remember watching. A very talented player. RIP Willie/Billy.

Welcome to the forum. You're spot on I think. With no reserve side this season, players have been competing for gametime and very few have notched up a full 90 minutes in a game, so fitness will be an issue - for Ross County as well I presume. 5 subbies will allow us rotate the squad and freshen it up during a game as legs tire as you say. At this stage, fitness may be a key factor in team selection. At the moment there's questionmarks over the fitness of players like Gallagher, Turnbull, Hylton, Seedorf, White, Long and Lang. However ultimately management will know best about how they want us to play and who is fit or not fit.

Yes he can play right back Andy. However it’s only in truly exceptional circumstances that I’d move him out of central defence. He’s the massive rock on which our defence is founded. If we were to move him out wide it would destabilise the middle of our rearguard. We do have a couple of more preferable options to fill in for Grimmy should he be indisposed.

I'm looking forward to the start of the new season albeit under coronavirus restrictions. We look to have a very strong squad this time round with plenty of exciting midfield and attacking options which will hopefully translate into a good few goals. Hopefully DT will regain his form as he's been quiet pre season. My only fear at the moment is our defence. Carroll is out injured; I'm not sure about Grimmy at right back; and Lamie and McGinley will take to settle and prove themselves. How fit is Declan Gallagher? It'll take a month or two to settle on our best 11, if indeed we ahve one; it may be horses for courses, given the hectic fixture list. Exciting days.

Livingston's adult season ticket works out at £17.11 per game, so if they'd charged say £18 or even £19 that might have been very slightly more palatable. Their concession season tickets work out at £11.84 per game, which is a lot less than £20. I'll give this away game a miss.

St Johnstone charging £17.50

I did wonder about that. Probably a few of our lads have not yet played a full 90 mins. Not normally an issue but our first league game is in just over a weeks’ time. Still Robby & Keith will know best.

Ditto. This has frustrated me for years. I'm no football manger or tactician so don't know the reason for this. Its been the same under several managers and involved many full/wing backs. Is it a weakness of our full backs or are they asked to play this way? Just looking back to the brief spells of the Rangers game that I was able to see on Wednesday it was notable that on one occasion when our wide man was in possession near the corner flag he was closed down by 3 defenders and lost the ball. Now, on the night, that may have been down to the fact that Rangers were far fitter and/or have much quicker players than we do. However it happened freqently last season against all levels of opposition. Even when defending in depth we play very narrowly. If we're going to play like that then you have be very certain indeed that your defenders and keeper will gobble up crosses. Unfortunatley they haven't been, maybe for good reason.

Yes, early days and all that. We shouldn't read very much into pre season results but we seem to be losing a good few goals. Certainly, the defence has comprised a fair number of new lads who will take time settle so its all the more important that our midfield shields them as far as possible. I think today's team will be pretty close to the one which starts at Dingwall.

Absolutely. Its all too easy to blame Nicola Sturgeon/Boris Johnson, testing labs et al but it is a complex and evolving situation where even the so called medical and scientific experts don't agree. It might be the labs' fault it might not we just don't know. No party be it be MFC, the "Government" or NHS should be above scrutiny.

Good point. I didn't get that far however. Several hours prior to the game I tested the link and it worked fine. I then tried to log in about 20 minutes after KO and the page wouldn't even load.

Thats the theory of it but hopefully we will all get access in practice after last night's problems. I did eventually get to view parts of the game but that was through Youtube and not the club's stream. Hopefully a dummy run last night to identify and iron out problems.

Very early days but I agree with Yorkyred that our defence will be under scrutiny this season and particularly in the early games. Without putting too much emphasis on results so far Robbo must have his thoughts about our rearguard having lost 7 goals in 2 games. Certainly we have a number of new players just settling in and naturally they look a bit disjointed. You'd imagine that he'll want to pair Gallagher with McGinley in the middle with Carroll and Grimshaw on the flanks. However its not clear when he'll be able to field that formation. Where does Lamie fit in? Will he play McGinley at left back? Will some young lads like Cornelius, Devine and Hussain push on? More questions than answers at this stage.

A fair assessment. Rangers looked to be a fortnight ahead of us fitness wise and their superior work rate when not in possession was very telling. On paper we look to be very strong in central midfield and up front but I'm not sure about our defence especially our 2 full/wing backs. Our defensive midfield, will also need to get up to speed and quickly. Worrying though that when big Deccy is out Donnelly has to revert to central defence - not his best position in my view. More gametime for the players and the result, although pretty meaningless will help our ongoing preparation. We shouldn't forget too though that many of the players haven't played together very much - it showed. Maybe some of our younger lads will be thinking they have a chance to step up this season.

Unable to login either on a PC or on an iPad. Sites just not loading. Probably just as well!

As others are saying no immediate rush to sell with the window not closing until October. We shouldn't sell unless a ridiculously high offer comes in.

Its interesting that a Celtic representative reportedly watched him play in a closed doors game. If true, that suggest that the club knows about their continuing interest.

I'm sure when he picked up his injury it was said that he'd be out for a few weeks and would miss the remainder of the season. As we're now some 5 months further on I suspect he's suffered some kind of complication or the injury was worse than originally thought.

An “interesting” start to the season. Only 2 games in and 1st August rapidly approaching, and it appears that Carroll, Semple, Devine and Gallagher are all injured to some degree and haven’t kicked a ball in anger yet.Seems unlikely that Carroll will face Ross County and big Declan must also be very doubtful.

Quite understandable and I suspect the vast majority will agree, although its not a no brainer for everyone. My added fear is that if it became the main stream then home attendances could be affected too. Its a wet freezing day in January, when I could sit in my comfy warm house 3 miles from Fir Park, and save myself some dosh and maybe have a few beers. TV football is not for me, except in unusual circumstances. For a start there's no atmosphere and you have to put up with shocking commentaries and punditry more often than not. Each to their own though.