fizoxy

In agreement on the recruitment team. We had Nick Daws talking up the advantages of the scouting network thing we joined, and how we can use the work permit rules to our advantage to bring in good players from mon traditional markets, and that has brought us Sol, Ojala, and Efford. Not sure how much he would have been involved in mcginn and spittall, and I assume Morris was an Alexander production. Either way, I'm not enthused by the prospect of him bringing the signings we need in the next couple of weeks. Slattery looks to be a decent signing, and Tierney certainly has promise. I can see the logic behind woolery and shields, but for two fast and strong players they/GA found ways to nullify their strengths. Maybe they take instruction from the manager, which in this case seems to have been "sign shite players that I can make worse."

Someone mentioned Mark Fotheringham on Twitter. I know bugger all about him, but at least it's another name to play about with until we find out who it really is.

Our success rate with signings hasnt been very good lately. If we need 3 good players, we're probably going to have to sign 10.

O'Donnell is no longer the captain, it's Kelly now. He's probably better at left back than Carroll, mainly because Im not worried that he's going to maim someone out of nowhere. We do seem to have a habit of letting runners do what they want. Some of that may be tactical, but we fail too often on fundamentals. Our overall football intelligence is about as low as I've seen it. On the attacking sense it's the same, we're way too static, it's like table football at times.

Whether it is hammell or someone else, we need someone that knows the Scottish game and has a realistic vision for a style of play. We've seen the likes of Maloney and Glass try to change the style too drastically and it was a disaster. Our recruitment team doesn't fill me with confidence either. They brought in Slattery and Tierney who are decent, but they also landed Sol, Ojala, shields and Efford. We can't afford to miss on any of the players who come in before the window closes. I assume the contracts for mugabi, mcginley and Maguire were more to do with Alexander, as was Morris.

I'm disappointed we didn't at least get some manager speculation today, I guess the candidates chose to watch a dodgy stream instead of sitting in the main stand.

Goss played well, even though nothing much was happening in front of him. His delivery is usually dangerous, and he did a thing we're he played the ball to someone further up the park than he was. Game changer.

Really sloppy to lose that goal after equalizing, O'Donnell too slow to get out after the corner, but we had chances to stop it even after that. We frequently got caught out by simple punts forward. It's clear that we need two or three good signings to get anything out of this team. Having Slattery back next week will be a bonus, but we'll be up against it with the form aberdeen are showing. Efford looked lively for a minute, then reverted to killing off every attack, and shields was caught on his heels way to often. I thought Goss was good, and Cornelius fared better than Maguire, and Mahon is in fact real.

I was hoping to see Mahon today, just to confirm he's a real person.

We were never keeping a clean sheet with those two at the back, but to lose a goal to a long ball down the middle is woeful. Weird that I'm sitting here wishing lamie was available. We still need anotjer competent defender. Morris and Spittal are miles off the pace, and Sheilds isn't much better. Goss and Maguire are picking the ball up and trying to show some composure, but they've got nowhere to go. We aren't much different than a couple of weeks ago. We're trying to take the extra touch and pass into midfield, but it's not sticking. When it does land with van Veen he's not in a dangerous position, and it falls apart.

Yep Have to assume Carroll is injured, as bad as he has been, he's still worth a place on the bench with his experience and kind of versatility.

McGinn and sod at full backs, no Carroll in squad.

I wouldn't read anything into that, we haven't even held interviews yet. Mcbookies odds are no more a predictor of who it's going to be than this thread is.

The prospect of a Sol and Bevis partnership is both terrifying and intriguing. Stick SOD and Carroll either side and it will be box office, in a bad way. If mcginn is fit we could maybe go with a back three, but I don't see it, as I'm not sure Sol can handle the left sided role. Hammel did mention that he wanted to make more changes for last week, but didn't have the time. Maybe we see that on Saturday? Hopefully the players turn it up a notch in front of their next boss. Maybe some candidates will be in the stands. It's going to be a shitfest of a game, but at this stage all I care about is getting the three points.

I wouldn't take any rumors seriously at this point. The timeline that the club mentioned makes sense to me, and at this point they'll be assessing the applications they have, and have probably sounded out the people they wanted to. Over the next week or so they'll speak to the shortlisted ones in depth then make a decision. Maybe that speeds up if someone blows them away, but I'd be surprised if that was O'dea.

Mcbookie said he went from 10/1 to 3/1 because 3 people put money on him, probably after that video of him denying contact with us.

I thought he'd been a manager for a lot longer, like since the 90s, but he only took the job at peterboro in 2008.

Ideally everyone promoted from the academy can go on to have a decent professional career, whether it's for us or elsewhere. There will be some that get plucked before getting a game for us, and others that will excel and go for a few quid after a good season, maybe two. But we could really do with bringing through a few that are decent at our level and can rack up 100+ games. I'd rather have players we've brought through filling those roles than an endless cycle of English lower league jobbers.

Pretty much a result of people putting money on the names they've seen on places like here. The best thing about those bookies lists is knowing who it isn't going to be. There's a couple in there you could see happening, but I'd put my money on us talking about someone who isn't on that list this time next week.

It's always going to go in cycles with clubs our size, no matter how well organized we are. Good players will be sold or leave, as will managers. The key is to try and stagger these things so we're not left with too many holes to fill each season, and hopefully be in a position where we can make that extra signing or hang on to one or two for a year longer when things are going well. Our attendances are what they are. We've tried multiple initiatives, including almost giving away season tickets, but they have barely moved the needle (or maybe maintaining our attendances where they are could be considered the achievement). That doesn't mean we should stop trying, but maybe we need to manage expectations in that regard. The other reality is that we can quadruple what we're spending and not even touch the city clubs. While they've shown that money doesnt buy success (which is 3rd and or a cup at most for non OF teams), we usually have to rely on them screwing up. Thankfully one of them usually does.

How many robbers has he battered?

While things are up in the air, any points we can get are most welcome. Kelly pulled of two saves of the season, and once again showed the value of a good goalkeeper. Teams are going to get chances at this level, and he's going to win us plenty of points this year. Lamie's tackle was really poor, he was having a really good game and he doesn't tend to leave his feet like that, and it really could have cost us if we were playing against a team that could shoot. I thought Sol was solid enough, but we're really short of pace at the back. Spiers looked nervous, as expected. We probably brought him on to add some legs for the tiring goss (who also had a decent game), which is fair enough, but we ended up overrun. Hopefully we continue to find spots to get youngsters in, they'll be better for it in the long run.

Not much of a difference from us, which isn't a surprise since it's only been a couple of days. We aren't terrible, but still don't have any attacking threat, and could have been a couple down. I hope mcginn is ok, and you have to worry for O'Hara given he's had multiple concussions already. Morris is too tentative, he needs to take a risk, the same goes for shields. The penalty was pretty much a stonewaller, you can't put your arm out like that. Hopefully we don't try and shitfest a 1-0 from here, we need to try for a 2nd. What a fucking save from Kelly, and excellent defending from Sol from the rebound.

Pretty sure Slattery is suspended

Van Veen is the closest we have to someone who might do something exciting, and he has it in him to score from anywhere, but he's falling out of games too easily right now. Tierney has something about him too, where he can find a bit of space and do something positive, but he hasn't found his place in the team yet. Jake Carroll frequently switching from being shit scared of the ball to attempting to murder folk keeps things interesting too.