Kmcalpin

According to the good Captain on Pie & Bovril, Alan Burrows has tweeted that Cedric's down payment fee is the 3rd largest in the club's history. So, on that basis it must be roughly between £800k and £1.25m. Also, we hope to sign more than one player shortly. Hope I've read that correctly. The English window closes on Thursday (very sensibly) so the next few days should be interesting.

No idea but as you say likely to be like for like. We need someone different to what we have to achieve abalance. Maybe a young guy with height and physique and possibly pace? Dunne apart we lack pace at the back and although Hartley and McHugh are decent defenders they aren't a dominant centre back in the way Cedric was.

I'm not Kmac but yes, you're right. We cannot rely on the youth stepping up. They can be encouraged but there's no guarantee. Some will succeed, some won't. Its not all about talent its also about character and as SR said thats why youngsters are loaned out - to put them in competitive and pressure situations and test them. SR, KL and SC see these lads day in day out and we don't. In a way its a similar situation to Bigi - SR & KL have their reasons for not playing him and they know him far better than we do.

As far as I know, and I stand to be corrected on this, Les will only match monies raised by the fans, and not the club. As for team building, we have improved depth of cover and not the calibre of our first pick 11. That should prove imporant during spells of injuries and suspensions, like now. Time will tell on that and the new boys should be given time. Ordinarily though I'd like to see us target our weakest position every year and strengthen it, thereby raising the overal standard of the team.

Apologies Wellowell if I seem a tad impatient. We've been over this issue time and time again ad nauseum. Its quite normal these days for transfer fees to be classed as undisclosed. Usually, but not always, its at the request of the buying club. There can be a number of reasons for it including not publicising to rivals how much cash you have to spare. Deals, these days, are far more complex than they used to be and can be hard to quantify. On a separate note we do need to replace Cedric's physicality and pace. I'm sure the club has already plans afoot as they would have been expecting this bit of business months ago.

Absolutely. We have no need to sell right now and should only do so if the right bid i.e initial payment of £1 million comes in. Personally I'd be looking for a down payment of between £1 million and £1.5million. A few hundred thousand is chickfeed to a club like Wigan. Add ons after that.

Overall agree but presumably Dylan McGeoch won't be taking much part in the proceedings. Hibs will be up for a real fight and we'll have to match their aggressiveness. Hopefully the referee will be even handed.

Agreed. As a minimum I'd be looking for a down payment of £1m plus add ons.

If Kipre goes then he will need to be replaced long term with a similar style of central defender with physique and pace. He'll be a big loss. As for Sunday ????? Dunne out; Kipre "unavailable"; McHugh struggling with injury; and Maguire suspended.

Oddly enough thats not quite how it happened. At the time he left, the financial powers that be running the club wanted to retain our best players including him in order to keep the club as a going concern and thereby remain competitive and attract a buyer. It was big Terry who wanted to sell him for playing reasons. His previous boss at Glentoran (I think) told TB that he was very talented but inconsistent playing exceptionally well in perhaps 1 game out of 4 and then being anonymous in the other 3. Terry said the same of his stint at Fir Park and classed him as a luxury player we didn't need. Thats exactly how I saw him at Fir Park. He would be an absolute stand out in one game but then disappear in the next 3. Hull obviously brought consistency to his game. A nice guy by all accounts.

Given our injury situation I'm more concerned about who McGinn is going to mark.

Not into predictions at this stage as its too early. However I think St Mirren will be safe and Livingston will go down. Dundee will be near the bottom as could Hamilton. Killie will challenge for a top 6 place as will we. I reckon St Johnstone will be a tad weaker.

With injuries and suspensions it could be: Carson Kipre Hartley Donnelly Tait Grimshaw Rodriguez-Gorrin Rose Frear Main (or Johnson) Sammon

We need to be patient with some of the players. Main has only played 90 minutes in 2 competitive games so far. Hartley had a 7 month lay off. Our back line has chopped and changed frequently since the game against Edinburgh City. Yes, we need to get up to speed quickly now but the time to start worrying is if some of the players aren't performing by late September.

Anyone expecting to see a good game of football on that pitch was deluded. That immediately influenced our performance. With the wind it was alwatys a case of just getting the job done, which we did. McHugh's injury was also a blow. Hartley and Donnelly's lack of match fitness is more of a concern. Just like last year, the group stage of the League Cup will count for nothing once the league begins. My concern ahead of next Saturday is fielding a solid secure defence. I didn't like the fact or the way we lost the goal yesterday, but our 3 goals were the textbook way to win against a packed defence on a shocking pitch. We haven't been the only Premiership to struggle in the group stage. We won, we qualified, unlike Accies, and now move on.

Ah yes but then add in the likes of Vic Davidson, Peter Marinello, Bobby Graham and Willie Pettigrew and you have a very well balanced team. As far as today's game is concerned win the game then bring on a young lad or two.

Part of the best Well side I ever had the pleasure to watch. He's alive and well living in Larkhall.

Conor Sammon for me as he played very well and scored the 2 goals that won us the game.

In defence of both players they were left pretty exposed by their teammates at times. After ATS came on, he frequently had a couple of players running at him.

I thought the season ticket collection system in the Centenary Suite worked well last night, although quite a few punters were still unaware of it.

A win was important last night and we got it but it would have been nice to get three and edge Queens out on goal difference; we'll just have to beat Clyde now. A decent overall team performance although the midfield looked very shaky in the opening 10 minutes or so. Queens were also given acres of space on our left flank for much of the game and a better side would have made that count. Enough of the negatives though. The defence looked reasonably solid with Kipre improving and McHugh playing well. Midfield played played reasonably well but lacked a bit of creativity at times. The pick of the bunch were Cadden and Campbell. Cadden had no right to survive the 90 minutes given the treatment that was dished out to him but he did and was one of our est players. I thought Sammon was our best player - just. Not quite the player many have labelled him...a slow, ponderous, big target man. He was surprisingly quick and has a deft touch as he showed with his goals. An intelligent player in the Higdon mould who can bring other players into the game and create chances. Johnson looked lively when he came on and ATS did ok. Queens were a very streetwise outfit who possessed a bit of pace, but other than in the first 6 minutes or so when they had 4 efforts on target didn't create very much with the exception of the attempt which brought out an amazing one handed save by Carson. They were fortunate to have 11 men on the pitch at full time. We played some decent football on the deck for example our first goal but overall lost out a bit in the air, moreso than I would have expected. A decent night's work in that players hade more game time and we won. Some weaknesses to work on though. Bring on Clyde.

Yes very much so. All 3 are "physical strikers", but no more so than Stevie May for example who isn't classed as being one, but none are especially good in the air. Tomoorrow's line up will be interesting and Robbo may place his focus more on beating QoS than giving players game time - we'll see.

Why? We have no right to beat any team even the bottom team in the senior leagues. We have to earn wins.

I'm not a fan of our thread on Pie & Bovril. Whilst there are some very good and thought provoking posts its also bedevilled by more than its fair share of trolling and a condescending attitude to some on here. However, one of the best posts I've read recently was written this morning by Welldaft and it pretty sums up my view (we might disagree slightly on Bigi). I hope you don't mind if I quote you Iain. "In all honesty you could debate our style v substance all day long as Ya Bezzer likes to do on occasion. We have a players wage budget and one that is lower than almost every other team bar Hamilton for the season just gone. Probably will be above them Livingston and St Mirren for this season. I am not sure what players we are expected to sign at that level ? A team full of silky creative types just like Luka Modric... The reality is that our Manager is trying to use the budget to get a team on the park to avoid relegation first and foremost. On the budget we had we had no right to reach 2 cup finals and beat Rangers and Aberdeen in the semis. It is almost as if that did not happen and that Robinson is getting almost no credit for that. The compromise is that our football is robust and not always a lot of fun to watch at times. But I have said it before and I will say it again. Would we rather have a team full of Bigi’s for example and find ourselves bumping along the bottom of the table. I am sure the usual glass half empty on Steelmen and on here would be content with that as long as we were trying to play football the correct way - NOT. For all that I do agree with a number of points. I would like to see the likes of Turnbull, Scott and Maguire given a little more opportunity. Quite frankly Scott looked better in pre season friendlies than Sammon has so far. Time will tell as I still think Sammon will be a decent enough signing for us. I also like Bigriamana and the few times he has come on as sub end of last season we improved immediately as a team. I am surprised and disappointed there appears to be no place for him. I can see him leaving and us regretting it."