daver

I appear to be in a minority of one of one but have gone for McManus. Made some important interventions, particularly in the first half.

He's English really but I think he was born in Germany as his father was posted there with the army.

Who do we need clearance from? Is clearance only required when the signing is coming from another association or could it be clearance from the SFA?

Standing ovation may be an exaggeration but he certainly got a warm round of applause.

I didn't think we could get rangers due to seeding but are we now a top seed due to three higher ranked teams going out?

There also seems to have been the assumption by a good few that it didn't matter who we got in as long as he was taller than Dan. I know we need to give him a chance (and we'll be sticking with him regardless) but Twardzik would have been slaughtered for some of the goals that Ripley has let in.

I thought Taylor was in the first team squad at Reading and should have gone through pre-season training. The only excuse for him then is that he missed the first two competitive games. I didn't go on Saturday so have only seen him twice and he didn't offer anything more than Leitch. He's obviously going to stick with him so hopefully he can improve.

I thought Moult was very poor in the first half but improved greatly in the second. Not enough for me to consider as man of the match though. Nobody was head and shoulders above the rest but I've gone for Ainsworth who I thought was always looking for the ball and trying to create.

It was one of the criticisms made when he was here but this was one post on a Sheffield United forum. There were far more posts lamenting his departure than there were complaining about his build.

I can't see any reason she wouldn't want a night out in Methil rather than St. Andrews. Then again. ......

My tongue was firmly in my cheek with that comment but I don't have smileys on my phone. My point is that a lot of people seem to think that signing a tall goalie is the answer to our perceived goalkeeping problems. There's a lot more to being a goalkeeper than just being tall and it remains to be seen if Ripley is better than Twardzik (from the little I've seen of him he possibly is) but he wasn't particularly convincing at the second goal. Hopefully that was just a blip and he will go on to have a great spell with us but he's not guaranteed to be brilliant just because he's tall.

I think there's likely to be less of a scramble after last night's performance and was never really convinced we would sell out our allocation anyway.

I thought he was pretty anonymous last night but he was far from alone in that so it would be pretty harsh to judge after one game where the whole team never really got going.

By all accounts we sold out our allocation of seven hundred odds and I heard a few got turned away. I thought away clubs were due a minimum allocation of 5% but it sounds as though we were given less.

It was a long way away but it looked tonight as though all that height meant it took Ripley longer to get down.

I've sent a donation over.

How did Chalmers play? Not heard much about him.

Brian McLair probably didn't think they were going to cause us problems the last time round but we certainly made hard work of it. Sorry - I'm thinking of the match before. Forgot about the one linked to above.

Looking at the confirmed comings and goings post, is Mcdonald supposed to be described a whinger/striker?

I'd be much more concerned about playing a goalkeeper who possibly hasn't even trained with his defence.

I previously tried to pay and was allowed to enter predictions (I hope they are still saved) but I'm still trying to sort out Paypal. Is there another way to pay and will it be ok to pay after today's fixtures have been paid?

I've put down my predictions but am still trying to get PayPal to resurrect my account as I haven't used it for a while.

There's something wrong with punting him a few days after his testimonial. Just doesn't seem right although I appreciate it may be for the best if he's not in their plans.

A last minute victory over Sligo Rovers doesn't instil the same level of confidence in me but my hopes have been raised by the signing of Mcdonald. Hopefully we will see a difference from the fitness training - has this been evident from the games so far? I haven't seen any games yet but am hoping to see an improvement in the same way McGhee turned around the careers of several players.

He's getting linked with Spurs as well now but he's 24 - would Accies still be due a development fee? I think he is too old for that to still count and they got the sell-on fee when he moved to Everton.