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I hope I'm wrong but 7th or 8th imo, said it in the Aidrieonians match thread and if I am wrong I will happily stand up and admit to it so long as it's not further down the table. Our squad is weaker than last season and I don't see us bringing anyone else in, or being able to bring anyone else in, with the ability to make a big enough difference for us to challenge or even make us consistent. For me the manager lacks any real tactical knowledge or if he does have any he certainly doesn't know how to get the players to play to it, there's a definite need for him to progress and try something that is better suited to our squad as a whole. I struggle to understand how a person who has played under the managers he has struggles so badly with tactics and lack of them: is it the players, is it the manager .................... I know who I think it is. Every season for the last 3 or 4 I've slowly got more and more pessimistic to the point I don't even enjoy any little success as it's a double-edged sword when it comes to BD. I guess by setting the bar low I can only be pleasantly surprised 🤪

I predict we will be bang average somewhere around 4th - 7th, with us literally scraping the play-offs if we do make it. Last years end of season papered over some major cracks and I see those being wider this season. I also expect countless excuses to be cited, inconsistent form with runs of several poor results book-ended by a few positives. Games with good possession but little end product before sloppy or poor defending meaning things get tough in games when we will revert to type and Doddsball. However, then January will come and using the promised battery storage funds we will make the Saudi spending look amateur as we cherry pick the best dross on offer in the Championship to form a mighty charge in the league but also back to Hampden and European football.

I’ve nothing to base this on but I’ve a sneaking suspicion we will finish 3rd behind Dundee United and Partick Thistle, with Ayr United completing the play off line up. That said one or more of the other six teams could easily upset that prediction! Hopefully we stay well away from the bottom of the table, where I think this could be the end of Arbroath’s time in the Championship.

Definitely! A great tribute to Billy is on this very site. Thanks Tm4tj.

4th or fifth and I think I’m being fairly optimistic. We haven’t replaced Deas and Allardice with the same quality and Jay Henderson will be a fair miss. Bray looks good and it’s too early to say much about Gilmour and Davidson. Dundee Utd, Partick and Dunfermline look strong as well as the usual teams of Ayr Morton etc who are all eyeing up play off spots. After our game with Airdrie I think they could be involved in a lot of high scoring games. Certainly seemed they like to go forward all the time. We can’t forget Queen’s Park either and Saturday could be an interesting day. Hopefully I’m wrong with everything and we win the league 😀😀

1st place

The two most important things in this league are getting off to a good start and not going on a losing streak. Teams in this league will beat each other and I reckon that there could be 4 or 5 fighting for promotion at the death. So our opening 4-5 games are crucial and if only we could make Inverness a feared ground to come to again. Survival is the main aim but that, in our case, will not be good enuff 👎

Mid table. It’s an increasingly tough league and realistically, making the playoffs is the best we can hope for. This squad isn’t good enough to get promoted, even if you replaced Dodds with Pep Guardiola. Dundee Utd will win the league, getting through as many managers as it takes to do so. I can see Arbroath finishing bottom, but there will be a few decent mid table teams looking nervously over their shoulders and it can’t be ruled out that we might be one of them.

I don't have any expectations of success this season. First time ever no start of season feeling. If I had to guess I'd say bottom half of table but so hope I'm wrong

🙄 I can't stand these optimists. Mid table finish. Lots of moaning thrown in to the bargain. Might lose the odd game or five, somebody might get injured, but really he will have fallen out with the tea lady who picks the team every second week.Grind out some results here and there , promising mid season surge, stutter then fade out at the end. Bit more moaning. Roll up. Roll up, here we go again!!

I usually think we can make the playoffs, but this season, I think this will be the toughest one to get out off in some time. I don't see us making the playoffs, and I think we will end up 6th or 7th. I really hope I'm using reverse psychology on myself and we fly to the top of the league, but I think with Dodds inability to see what tactical changes need made when things aren't going well for us, will be our downfall.

First weeks odds have been posted on the betting forum. I'll unpin and unfeature this thread on Friday when the season starts.

After four games in which all we achieved was a one-goal win over the team that was 3rd bottom of the whole League last season? I don't have expectation - I have trepidation Confidence must be at rock bottom just now. If we continue our current form into the early league games, then avoiding relegation will be the prime objective.

The compilation video is quite some piece of collating for whoever put it all together. It is quite interesting to see how many headers Billy has scored. A great achievement. Ross County were not expecting his volley. Looked fantastic from behind the goal.

If you are happy with our utterly ABYSMAL league cup campaign then you must be easy to please because it was a complete JOKE of a campaign and imho totally unacceptable, to only win ONE f***ing match (amd even that was unconvincing) in a group that had Dumbarton and Bonnyrigg in it is failure of the highest standard, I accept losing to Dundee as they are a league above, and Airdrie because their now in our league and may surprise a few teams. What I am livid at though and will not tolerate is losing to a LEAGUE 2 team, no disrespect to them but I expect us to beat them even if it is a nervy win so I'm afraid that, ONCE AGAIN, Mr Dudds needs to take responsibility for this and stop coming up with crap excuses that us fans don't accept! I'm sorry if I have upset people but I expect better from the team and am not afraid to tell it as it is!

Watch all 102 goals here: https://ictfc.com/watch-all-of-billys-mckay-102-record-breaking-goals-for-the-club/ A lot of great memories there.

2nd.