After Saturday's win it's important we keep the momentum going and while Cove Rangers, IMO, will give us a good game it's really one that we should win. If we aspire to progress in the competition then we need to win.

I was busy Saturday so know little of the game against Raith but from what I've read there's plenty to be optimistic about and it was good that we bounced back after the Peterhead result.

Hopefully see a couple of the younger lads at least get on from the bench, maybe one or two will start.

Current table - https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/scottish-league-cup/table

    

Edited July 26, 20196 yr by MrCaleyjag

He has to start.  Get white on the bench from the start.

And Todorov nets his second in two games off the bench. Top of the group if we can hold on. Are we playing any better now?

Edited July 23, 20196 yr by Robert

Megginson sent off???

At least we are making chances: 24 attempts with 12 on target. 

A win’s a win, and good to see our forwards getting goals.

35 minutes ago, TheMantis said:

Megginson sent off???

Yes , he is a bit of a tit. Booked for kicking the ball away 1st half. Second yellow for a tackle. 

Cheap red card, might have cost them the game.

This looks like being Roddy McGregors season btw...pace and movement giving a decent Cove backline kittens.

Would love to see mcgregor and todorov start on Saturday 

Megginson showed he is a strong player and got his goals although from a caley view they were defensively poor. He should have had a hat trick but made a second poor decision when one on one tried to chip ridgers. His first was to kick the ball away and get a soft booking which resulted in his sending off via a bad tackle. Carson urged the team on when behind and grew into the game. White could have had a hat trick first half. Todorov getting us out of jail. Cove keeper had a good game. Caley gave themselves a test and won through. Go to Dundee now and have every chance.

5 minutes ago, Bronson said:

Would love to see mcgregor and todorov start on Saturday 

We are playing on Sunday   Not a great game but happy with the win!

I am not lucky enough to see the games and have only the BBC text to follow the game and for me Todorov has to start ahead of White, whilst White might get a goal he has many chances that he does not convert . Todorov with much less playing time has scored the same amount of goals so  he has to start.

Tonight's game much harder than many expected and have to give credit for coming back from 2-1 down to win the game. Raith did is a favour tonight in beating Peterhead so now it is down to us Win on Saturday and we are through

That was tougher than it should have been. We certainly didn't carry our form from saturday through to this game. Cove were very good at carrying the ball and broke at pace, while we really struggled to string three passes together. Sometimes, it's just not certain players day, and our fortune certainly changed with the subs. Todorov looks more of a threat than White, and MacGregor was so positive with his runs and energy that he can't be far away from a first team start. The good thing is that we have a lot of young talent who will keep the pressure on the lads who have the jerseys just now, and make them up their game. Top of the league and on to Dundee on sunday.

Cove imo. We're the better team for a big part of the game. We had to work to win

Best thing about tonight is the result, And..  the subs!   we looked like we were playing in 2nd gear! really!    Cove looked sharper for most of the first half and probably should have been leading.  our goal was a wayward header from Mackay that i'm pretty sure came off White's ass.   

Cove equalised with a smart move down the left that left Mackay nowhere and Vincent chasing a shadow, neat ball across the 6yd line and bang.

Cove took the lead with a move down the left again, poor cover and cross into the box was deflected ( i think - sun in my eyes) and Megginson blasted the ball past Ridgers.

Equaliser was a neat move which ended with Keatings smacking the ball into the net -  well worked.

Subs:  Todorov & Curry replaced an out of sorts White and Doran.    

Todorov making an immediate impact by outjumping the Cove defence and heading the ball into the net.

Positives,  Subs including Mcgregor who was so direct and almost scored a beaut,  Walsh was dangerous, the rest were pretty ordinary..  Vincent looked off the pace and needs to sharpen up.  Carson shouldn't start when Welsh is fit.

We are now top of the league, And a sharper performance vs Dundee should see us through!

Edited July 23, 20196 yr by caley100

12 minutes ago, caley100 said:

Best thing about tonight is the result, And..  the subs!   we looked like we were playing in 2nd gear! really!    Cove looked sharper for most of the first half and probably should have been leading.  our goal was a wayward header from Mackay that i'm pretty sure came off White's ass.   

Cove equalised with a smart move down the left that left Mackay nowhere and Vincent chasing a shadow, neat ball across the 6yd line and bang.

Cove took the lead with a move down the left again, poor cover and cross into the box was deflected ( i think - sun in my eyes) and Megginson blasted the ball past Ridgers.

Equaliser was a neat move which ended with Keatings smacking the ball into the net -  well worked.

Subs:  Todorov & Curry replaced an out of sorts White and Doran.    

Todorov making an immediate impact by outjumping the Cove defence and heading the ball into the net.

Positives,  Subs including Mcgregor who was so direct and almost scored a beaut,  Walsh was dangerous, the rest were pretty ordinary..  Vincent looked off the pace and needs to sharpen up.  Carson shouldn't start when Welsh is fit.

We are now top of the league, And a sharper performance vs Dundee should see us through!

Thanks for that. So really we started our top 11 other than Welsh. 

Sunday will let us see how we are likely to cope in the league. 

Peterhead and Cove are decent teams, probably better than the leagues they are in, but if we deal with Dundee we can be reasonably confident about the league season. 

If we don’t, particularly if they are clearly better than us, it could be squeaky bum time. Hopefully not!

1 hour ago, Bronson said:

Would love to see mcgregor and todorov start on 

31 minutes ago, Robert said:

Thanks for that. So really we started our top 11 other than Welsh. 

Sunday will let us see how we are likely to cope in the league. 

Peterhead and Cove are decent teams, probably better than the leagues they are in, but if we deal with Dundee we can be reasonably confident about the league season. 

If we don’t, particularly if they are clearly better than us, it could be squeaky bum time. Hopefully not!

 

Well the arabs got beaten by east fife so early season games are not always good indicators

1 hour ago, Biggin said:

I am not lucky enough to see the games and have only the BBC text to follow the game and for me Todorov has to start ahead of White, whilst White might get a goal he has many chances that he does not convert . Todorov with much less playing time has scored the same amount of goals so  he has to start.

Tonight's game much harder than many expected and have to give credit for coming back from 2-1 down to win the game. Raith did is a favour tonight in beating Peterhead so now it is down to us Win on Saturday and we are 

 Think White is the guy who I would contnue start with atm.

But its good we now have another player to come on as sub

White has scored 18 goals for us and its just not about his goals. his workrate hold up play and bringing others into play is integral to how we play.

Tonight wasnt his best performance but it wasnt any players best performance to be fair.

But we won and thats what matters 

Im just happy that we have another striker to come into the team as a replacement for White as an impact player and the team dosent suffer from it as it did when Austin replaced him last season.

Personally think White is the starter and Todorov is the impact player

 

 

Breathing a sigh of relief at the win, specially with their late "goal" disallowed. Better than many if not most teams outwith the premiership that have played here in recent years. Could have done without the theatricals, but really hope Brown is ok after going off looking in a bad way though. Definitely nothing theatrical about that. 

I really admired the progress White made last season but he's missed a fair number of chances over the last 2 games. Dundee might be too early for Robbo to gamble starting Todorov but it wouldn't be a bad shout. As for Macgregor - really look forward to seeing a lot more of him

I underestimated Vincent returning.  Really like the look of him so far.  Carson looks like a really busy and hard working player, feeling optimistic about him. 

Really got to improve our defence though, they cut through us for both goals. Not entirely comfortable with Vincent and Carson being the 2 staying back at our corners (and Doran at one) but I'm guessing it's considered worth sacrificing the risk of having defenders up for corners due to their height/attacking value at set pieces?? 

All to play for on Sunday, which is brilliant after how I felt after Peterhead!

That was a proper cup tie. Think Cove will do well in Div 2. How nice to watch a game in warm conditions too. 

We had to work hard to get a result. I felt Cove a much better footballing side, although this may have been because of our attitude we had won before we got on the pitch. A win is a win but it would be so much better if we could of done it in a more professional  manner. 

Interesting game.  Nobody should have under-estimated Cove after they held Dundee to a goalless draw earlier.  We were able to create far more  chances than Dundee managed and if it were not for a couple of bad misses, one off the woodwork and several fine saves from the keeper we could have had 7 or 8.  Having said that, the final whistle was greeted with relief  more than anything as Cove really exposed us going forward, even when they were down to 10 men following the dismissal of their star striker.  There were no new faces in our back line but they really couldn't cope with Cove's pacey attacks and with Megginson and Glass in particular. That has to be a concern going forward into the league season, although I think part of the problem was the lack of bite in defensive midfield and the return of Welsh will help in that respect.  

A downside in Cove's game was they way they went down too easily and feigned injury.  It rather backfired on them once the ref got wise to it.  We scored the winner whilst Megginson was feigning injury in the other half.  He hobbled with an almost comedy limp to the ref to complain but then moved as freely as ever immediately after the kick off.  Soon after  Sculley got a genuinely sore one and it was a little while before the ref stopped play to allow treatment.  The lad was clearly in some pain and had to be stretchered off.  Hopefully it's not too serious.  Nice too see a sporting round of applause from the home fans as he was carried off.

Robbo has said that the team is looking to cut out all the draws that held us back last season.  Last night would indicate a real desire to take the game to the opposition which means taking a few risks at the back.  Lots of interesting games to come  methinks. 

 

This was more like the Cove which smashed the Highland league every week last year, and strolled the playoffs too. 

They have only added one player as far as I am aware, and the fast interplay on show last night tells you they are a settled team who knows the way to play through teams.

Dissapointing to lose the goals in the manner we did - beaten in the wide areas is one thing & not stopping the cross, but to give megginson the freedom of our box is unforgivable.

Defensive midfield needs to be smarter...bigger problems at full back on both sides.

I take it Carson was played at RB again. Shame as he seems to have been poor every time. Against Hearts I was impressed by him playing as a defensive midfielder. 

No, Brad was back last night..

Keep up Mantis, all in the Preview and Report.............

 

 

An observation. When we lost to Dundee United last year we seemed to warm up for nearly 40 minutes being quite a bit more than United. Last night in severe heat we warmed up again for about 40 minutes.  Cove probably spent no more than about 30 minutes in the heat. In the first half they appeared far sharper than us. Spare a thought for Keatings who ran his socks off in the heat especially doing most of the chasing down of their keeper. He looked quite dejected to be subbed on 69 minutes but appeared to have run more than most players in such heat.