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Whilst I am all for fiscal responsibility, and have espoused that opinion many times over the years as it relates to ICT, there are times when you do need to "speculate to accumulate". Every league placing is worth a significant sum (was 70K) so, although it is too late for this particular one, if a striker like Mackay could have been loaned in and paid say 2 grand a week then his goals (and I have no doubt he would haved scored some) could easily have taken us up 2 or 3 places and paid for his contract and more ! Yes, its a risk and he might not score any ... but we all know what the cost of relegation is

Couldn't disagree more. He's put in a solid graft since he's come into the team, and shown flashes of quality. If he was 28 and had 400 games under his belt, fair enough. But we're talking about an inexperienced 20 year old who's barely had any first team football. Of course he's going to make mistakes. Give the lad a break. He's only going to get better.

I think people are panicking too early. I'm far from a happy clapper, and although I understand the frustration, things are not as bad as being portrayed. Barring two stupid last minute equalisers, our very patched up side which started the season would have us sitting outside the top six only on goal difference. The margins in this league are very small, as outside of Celtic and Aberdeen(and arguably Hearts) there is absolutely nothing between the rest of the sides. If we can bring in a striker, get the likes of Meekings, Vincent and Roberts(who I'm really excited by) back as soon as possible, and stop the bombshell that is Carl Tremarco self destructing then we will be absolutely fine. Keep the faith guys, and the #TogetherNess that makes our club so special

Mutombo's dismissal sounds utterly stupid but on the plus side it does perhaps indicate a level of passion. Mutombo's suspension might also force the manager in giving some game time to one of the youngsters. I recall a few years ago when Butcher consistently preferred Barrowman to Rooney. Barrowman was injured and Rooney had his chance. The rest is history.

County are not a bigger club than us - I'd say they are almost exactly the same size, based on gates. They are, however, a richer club simply because of the input of a rich benefactor. MacGregor's financial muscle has saved County in the past two seasons. We can't rely on the same rescue if we find ourselves in trouble come January. Cash is king and its killing football.

Ok then. Two of our most valued assets have walked away from the club for absolutely nothing. Not only have we missed out on a transfer fee for both, our board and their belief in short contracts have made sure that we did not get reimbursed for the time and resource spent on their development. Both players have moved to direct rivals within the same division. We have replaced 4 players from a cup winning squad with players that have never played at this level and unsurprisingly they are struggling We have no striker, needed one since Billy left... Christ we needed one before Billy left Billy is now returning to play for one of our rivals We have 2 points after 5 games and only scored 3 goals all season We are suffering from an injury crisis with half the squad in A&E We now have Cabrini as a shirt sponsor and we still don't have our strips (only team in SPFL) - when they go on sale we can only get them through JD sports and there is a very good chance we have lost a fortune on this deal by being so short-sighted. We are now set to lose Ryan Christie to Celtic and if our history of transfer dealings is anything to go by then he will probably go for much less than he is actually worth. We are yet to see the club spend any of the money they received from the sale of Billy Mckay and last years earnings. For the first time in our history I actually feel that County are a bigger club than us.... luckily we have the Scottish Cup win to hold them off but we need to do something quick or we will take a hiding off them this season. I am sick to death of hearing people say "we are only a small club" and making excuses for the board not doing their job properly. We are literally loosing money because they are acting like a small club and failing to reward our players with contracts that would have resulted in some sort of transfer fee. In all business you need to speculate to accumulate - the board were lucky last year that we managed to have such an amazing season because it was not for their doing.

Still my favourite

And John Collins wonders why their is no competition in the league?

He's been named in the Wales squad for their upcoming Euro qualifiers.

Have to agree with that one. Probably a sentimental decision from Butcher to give his buddy one last big deal after all their years working together. Richie delivered for Butcher, and Butcher delivered for Richie. Seems fair enough, although maybe not such good business from the club's perspective! To be fair, he certainly didn't look 'past it' before his injury, so he might still come back into the team and make a significant contribution. Since this thread is about looking on the bright side - we've had a terrible start but we aren't isolated at the bottom. In fact, one win would have us knocking on the door of the top 6. We've also now seen enough of the SPL to discern that most of the other teams aren't any better than us. actually Bucher had left the building when Foran got his contract. In fact I think it was also signed before Yogi arrived!

Have to agree with that one. Probably a sentimental decision from Butcher to give his buddy one last big deal after all their years working together. Richie delivered for Butcher, and Butcher delivered for Richie. Seems fair enough, although maybe not such good business from the club's perspective! To be fair, he certainly didn't look 'past it' before his injury, so he might still come back into the team and make a significant contribution. Since this thread is about looking on the bright side - we've had a terrible start but we aren't isolated at the bottom. In fact, one win would have us knocking on the door of the top 6. We've also now seen enough of the SPL to discern that most of the other teams aren't any better than us.

Sounds like a disappointing end but I think we would have taken a 1-1 draw before the game. We at least can blame our poor start on injuries to some extent. We may not be happy but I think we are happier than this Kilmarnock fan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3QtbD5jHK0 Priceless! - but don't click on the link if you are offended by the odd naughty word!

My only criticism of Fon today was his kicking, there were a few bad ones that sailed out of play. As for Dani Lopez, just like Jennifer Lopez, he has knockers, but I think he's actually got a decent amount of craft, skill and vision. His failing is that he is way too slow, especially for the role he is given. It was good to have Tremarco in the centre of defence, he did really well, whereas Devine had a few shakey moments and I'm not sure what he was doing when he deliberately stuck his arm up to handle a cross that his head wasn't gonna get to. It was also good to have Draper back in midfield. I think our attacking players were sent out to be creative and play with gay abandon today, there were loads of fancy turns and touches from Christie, Vigurs and Mutombo in the first half, all very nice to watch. If only we had the right kind of striker to capitalise.

29 Aug 2015 Scottish Premier A Rooney ( Partick 0 - Aberdeen 2) SL 1 A Barrowman (Albion 3 - Brechin 1) Welsh Premier J Oswell (Newton 3 - Haverfordwest 0) Also, in EL 1, Tom Aldred scored an og in Blackpool's 4-0 thumping by Walsall.

We ARE only a small club. A nationally renowned club but with a regular fan base of around 2500 and a small budget we are undoubtedly a small club. That is quite simply a matter of fact. *losing As for the shirts, it's not a matter of when the shirts are available but that the fans buy them when they are. If you had the money to buy one in June why not keep it aside? Though I do feel a pre order system at least would help. We are now an established SPFL club and Scottish Cup Winners.. as for attendances we are only ever going to increase the gates by showing ambition and by being a progressive club. Apart from the big boys our attendances are competitive with others in the division. I would like to see our net spend for this year (in terms of new contracts) compared to last and with others in the division because I am sure we are well behind the rest of them. No, its not a matter of simply keeping money aside for strips. When are you more likely to buy a new strip? a) when you have just won the Scottish Cup and are competing in Europe with the hope and expectancy of the new season or b) when we are no longer in Europe, memories of the Scottish Cup win are fading* and we are 6 games in without a win and scored only 4 goals and worse yet - County are flying. That's for existing fans. What about new fans that we could have attracted after the Scottish Cup Win, are they still likely to keep money aside for a new top? It's supply and demand. We had the demand and still have no supply. Also Cabrini? The fans are paying the same price for football tops that are being made by an inferior brand ... Imagine a new fan or a fan that is being swayed towards ICT, went to the final celebrated with the rest of us. Loved it! ICT release 2 new nice as **** adidas tops (just for 1 season) ... guaranteed sales. Fans delighted walking about wearing these tops, others see them and also want one.. sales spike and ICT has not only made a profit on purchases but also have recruited a new set of fans. An adidas ICT top is more of a pipe dream but even stay with Errea for one more season and just make sure that we have tops available for any potential new fans! If making a new deal with Cabrini ... insist that we have our new strips before now... better yet get ahead of the game and strike a deal before last season had ended!! Show a bit of organisation .... do your job. * to be fair will take a long time before I forget that day

We are too busy tightening our budget and losing leads to signings. Let's move forward but let's get one to do it.

The channel is that way. Seethe away and take yet another team in to the abyss

We ARE only a small club. A nationally renowned club but with a regular fan base of around 2500 and a small budget we are undoubtedly a small club. That is quite simply a matter of fact. *losing As for the shirts, it's not a matter of when the shirts are available but that the fans buy them when they are. If you had the money to buy one in June why not keep it aside? Though I do feel a pre order system at least would help.

The problem is the club is being run as a business and not a football club. The group that have put money in (there's been a fair few) don't care about being successful on the park as long as we don't get relegated.

I'm keen for this deal to go through.

I've got to say that I've never been so concerned about our football club. Granted, I was dreaming when I thought that the Cup success would improve our gate and attractiveness to players, but I'm really disappointed that we haven't managed to solidify our position (note: not "go to the next level" which is both a horrible expression and a pipe dream) and to make reasonable signings to replace the inevitable departure of our best players. Irreplaceable? Maybe in the short term, but there must be some rough diamonds out there as Watkins and Mckay proves! Instead, we are exactly where we were: a small club on the periphery of the radar with a very small budget that appears to be pretty low down on players' wish list. The Cup victory doesn't appear to have made one iota of difference. JH clearly hasn't been sitting on his hands with respect to transfers but he is quoted to have said that he has been turned down by a number of signing targets. Why? Salary? Lack of training facilities? Location? Whatever the reason, we're now left to scrabble at the bottom of the barrel 3 days before the transfer window closes, with an injury list that could fill the first team! My disillusionment isn't really with the club - they run a very tight ship and rightly so. I think it's just with the realisation that we will eventually find our level, based on the size of the core support (~2500) and our lack of resource, and that this might well not be in the premiership (but could be in an expanded top league, if that were to ever happen). Cash is king - whether borrowed, stolen or earned - and we quite simply can't compete in that market, cup winners and European candidates or not! A miserable post, I know! On a chearier note, I will nevertheless continue to buy my season ticket to support my local team!

8 games, no wins and 4 goals. Regardless of players lost that is abysmal.

I seen on Sky Sports that he is listed in the squad for Wales, although it says he plays for Tranmere!

It's a very famous business cliché and is as relevant to our situation as any. It isn't even speculating in the cases for Shinnie and Ross, both have left the club for absolutely nothing due to lack of foresight. We should never have let their contracts end at age 23 when they could walk away the club without us receiving any compensation for their youth development. When contracts were being negotiated this should have been the first thing to take into consideration. Of course players/agents have a say in this but we should have absolutely insisted on this point for our 2 of our own. Why am I not surprised that you would come to defence of the club. Feel free to comment on any of the other points made in the list or all of them if you can provide a reasonable explanation for the position we are in. I'm sure with your position at the club you will have as good an explanation 'excuse' for all the failures in that list. ... here's another relevant business cliché for you: "If you're not moving forward, you're moving backwards" I take your point KB but it's more in terns of Shinnie and Ross I was referring to - why have a youth system if by the time we actually produce 2 excellent SPFL players they are able to walk away from the club for free?! We have shot ourselves in the foot for the chance at a transfer fee but more concerning is that the money we've spent coaching & youth contract to get them to where they are is all down the pan. As explained above we should have insisted on this as an absolute must, if the player leaves for free the following season then good luck to them but I hope the club has now learned their lesson and will look at Polworth, Ferguson, Sutherland & Christie The Foran contract is crazy as well? Why give any 30+ player such a long contract. Impossible to predict injuries he's had but surely a player at his age was more susceptible and that money could have been passed around the team.