All Activity

It’s always hard to tell before the season starts, so my ambition is more based on us consolidating ourselves as a Championship team than on who I think we will finish above. That said, I think Stenny will struggle without Naismith, whilst Morton and Queens Park are those I’d expect to also be towards the foot.

Who do you see us in front of? I’m thinking at the very least we’re ahead of QP, Morton and Stenny. Then it’s about looking at if Arbroath can keep that form going for another season. Raith and Ayr are the next obstacles in my opinion and a slight chance at the playoffs. The rest will probably be out of sight.

That’s excellent news. We are slowly building the squad and hopefully we can be competitive in the Championship, although my target is 8th or better! For me, the priority is now the defence as we need back up for Macleod, Devine, Savage and Boutin. On paper, we have options in midfield and out wide, whilst I hope we bring another striker in. I’d happily see us sign Joe Walters based on what I saw of him on Tuesday and he seemed versatile, playing at both centre half and right back. I enjoy the pre season friendlies but roll on competitive games!

Bavs is back with us for the season! Good bit of business.

I get what you’re saying but it’s a season loan. We won’t see the peak years of either of these players in reality so it doesn’t matter who we get. If we can get both amazing, but if we can only get one I don’t care who it is as they are both incredibly valuable to us.

I think striker is the weakest area of our squad so for me its bavidge over stewart for next season. Macleod, Mackinnon, Allan, all great talents. At striker we have a loanee from swansae.

I hope they do both come back for another year. Promotion certainly helps with the recruitment as they can stay in a good environment that they know and are settled in but at a higher level. Win win for everyone. I have to say though that while I really like Bavidge, if we could only get one it would be Stewart. I think he has the potential to be a really top player. Don't get me wrong Bavidge will have a good career, but when it's all over in 15 years or so I don't think he'll reach the same heights as Stewart.

At the time you wrote this I would have agreed with you. I know relying on results from other games is never a great position to be in, but those other results have been terrible (and partly unexpected) from a Scottish perspective. It is now highly unlikely that Scotland will progress. FIFA's "tie-break" rules have had a very detrimental effect on comptetiveness of group games to the end, and the scheduling has certainly worked in the favour of nations playing for a third place spot later in the tournament. To my eyes (I didn't watch the Morocco game) Gannon-Doak has been the stand out Scottish player.

The Supporters Trust runs Bar 94 on behalf of the club, and is open to all supporters. For some games, access may be restricted to home fans only (as per the Hamilton game) but otherwise everyone is very welcome. We will continue to confirm times in the lead up to each game, whilst there is a page on our website about it too: https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/bar94-and-matchday-bus-service

Chalky chalky hes our man, If he cant find out noone can....

“The big winners here seem to be the Tartan Army who have really been the story more so than the team”! It looks, for all intended purposes the tartan army has supplanted the Scottish football team as the main feature of any tournament the team manages to qualify for. ie A friendly, colourful, noisy engaging mass of people that party on the whole with the residents of the city or area they base themselves. They have become an extension of presenting and representing our country much better than the Scotland team or any political office. I did not watch any our the Scottish matches, primarily due to the time they were televised. That said my views on our nation football team, manager and those running our game have been mostly critical as we continue to fail that great support. The SFA appears incapable of having the whereabouts to address the malaise and slow decline that afflicts our game. Maybe I (we) have to accept we are unable to copy equivalent second tier European countries in raising the standard and quality of our national team performance? We may scrape through by some mathematical formula having dispatched the mighty Haiti, but it would be a hollow success in my mind. We would most certainly loose (possibly badly) against strong opponents. It would also just plaster over the shortcomings in our game IMO and allow the SFA blazers off the hook, ie they would claim it as some sort of improvement by the first qualifying national team (even though it is easier), and simply continue the status quo. I do feel for all the small children, mums and youngsters that dressed up sporting the Scottish strip and other garb. Certainly they and the Nation got full behind the team. The tartan army turned out in strength and for the most enjoyed the occasion and presented our nation and people in its best light. I just wish our team could have given them more to recognise the super level of support they had. Maybe next time. bc

I would add Gannon-Doak to that list. Always looked lively. What's disappointing is that you see Curacao, Cabo Verde, or Haiti, or Panama or other teams fancied to finish 4th and they are clearly putting 100% effort into everything and leaving nothing on the pitch at the end. We, by comparison, looked lethargic in all our games. I am sure they are not, but too many players looked disinterested out there. If we scrape in, we look to be playing Mexico (currently) but let's be honest, we don't deserve to scrape in. The big winners here seem to be the Tartan Army who have really been the story more so than the team.

One of several disappointing aspects of this tournament is that our (supposed) big name stars simply did not shine. Perhaps the only player whose stock went up is Lewis Ferguson who was consistently impressive.

Jungle drums relaying we are focusing more on trying to secure Alfie S than AB. I understand AB (or his agent) believes he should be playing on a higher stage. I like the idea of getting Alfie S back on loan, however I can’t believe we would be the only admirers ie ones from a higher league and with more money. Fingers X so to speak. Again, can’t leave all our eggs ………! Plan B and C need to be nurtured. bc

Don’t forget that when teams in 3rd lose, the team currently 4th may well overtake them! We are going home and deservedly so.

It is absurd that Scotland might not know whether they are through or not until the early hours of Sunday morning when Austria and Algeria will play, knowing that a tame draw will see them both safely through. Meanwhile, the team will have to train assuming that they will qualify whilst fans continue to pay money hand over fist to continue staying in the USA in order to support their team in the event of results going their way. I think Scotland will go through. Four of the teams above them still have games to play and could drop below them with defeats, although probably by a couple of goals or more. And realistically, I can only see Belgium and Congo moving above them. In Belgium's group, if they beat New Zealand and Egypt beat Iran, then Iran would go 3rd with just 2 points. It looks like a nervy 3 days.

I think that just about summed it up. Scotland certianly gave it more apparent effort than England did on Tuesday night, but then I suppose Brazil didn't just park the bus. I do hope that the other results mean Scotland can get through. It's still eminently possible, but equally results could go the wrong way (who'd have thought South Africa would beat South Korea) and there are too many variables to predict at the moment.

Plenty of effort but not enough quality and too many mistakes. Not good enough.

If Scotland was a dog you would have it put down to end its suffering. Please god don't let us proceed any further in this competition with this farce of a team.

Sadly outclassed tonight, and how the BBC commentator thinks we still have a chance of qualifying, goodness knows. We can’t gift rap goals like we did on Friday and tonight.

What a shambles up to half time. Why the *%(£ are we playing the ball back and across our own box constantly. It's an absolute horror show.

I’m not convinced there was any interest in bringing Jordan White back. He was strongly rumoured to be joining Aaron Doran at Strathspey when someone said they’d heard we were looking at two County players, then the Cove story started several weeks ago. I liked the 30 minutes that Bates was on the pitch last night. I know it was only a pre-season friendly, but he could be a handful for defenders and an asset to us, as he looked to be good at bringing other players into play. We also had the tall striker on trial last night so we are clearly working on getting strikers in.

Those players under 18 had the logo covered over last night.

I too like a flutter on the footy. Actually ended up in profit last season [thank you Stevenage] but I wouldn't advertise. So many people are affected by gambling and lots of other things including booze. It's a personal choice of course. I've not bought a team shirt for a good few seasons now, I find them far to expensive for what they are and stick to the casual / leisurewear range.