Tree

CC has no reason or justification for dropping the Bayne/Wyness combination up front at the minute. In the games prior to Stirling (mainly when Dargo was injured) the front pairing not only performed extremely well but they were chipping in with odd goal. In such a situation the manager will tend to keep with the pairing until there is some form of justification for changing this. I'm still of the opinion that our best pairing is Dargo and Wyness, albeit Bayne has something to offer from the physical side, however I don't see how fair critisism can be made of CC at this stage particularly as Dargo's earlier form was not that great (although the service he was receiving was poor).

The Man of the Match sponsor has to chose the player relatively early in the second half and this often leads to the best player in the first half being picked. This somestimes skews the choice. Given some of the home games this season you can imagine that chosing somebody would be hard :001: It is often the case that a guest with no knowledge on football has the final choice. I recall about 7 years ago being asked prior to a game by a guest at the MoM table who I thought ICTs best player was. Suffice to say that he was MoM the next day dispite player a 'mare' :014: I have no issues with Wyness being MoM as his all round play was immense. Hastings and Rankin both had strong shouts.

The word is indeed that Falkirk have made an offer (£30kish) for Mark Brown (though making an offer is different to a player actually leaving!). I suspect though that Mark will be off sooner or later and Hibs are also in the fray and on the face of it are a more likely option (talk of a player possibly coming this way from Hibs as well!). We are of course lucky in that we have a ready made replacement for Mark. Have to say though that none of this is directly down to CC!

We are left in a bit of a difficult situation if we allow Dodds to leave in that the amount time prior to the end of the Transfer Window is limted. We do not know if there is anyone available to replace Dodds, or at least anyone of the standard of which we need. Caff offers an element of cover for the middle and RHS of our defence, however I do not believe that he has the physical presence necessary to play against the taller players and this may leave us exposed. It was notable how much we improved in not conceding goals when Dodds came in two years ago. Caff is still an asset however. The final factor is that we should not be looking to ensure that D Utd can improve their squad at the expense of ours unless we are adequately compensated. The message coming from the D Utd side is that an offer of £15k has been made and a clause exists in Dodds' contract which sets the fee at around £25k. I would suggest that at this level of fee it is more in our interest to keep hold of Dodds for a year. If he goes in the sulk and we are not able to play him then we are only slightly out of pocket and are ensuring that D Utd are weaker. I do think that Dodds would remain professional enough in the situation and would continue to perform if required.

Hastings has the most to offer as left back (other than we should be feeding him some raw meat to increase his aggression levels - see Messer Tokely for reference). An improvement in the consistency of his crossing would also be of value as this can be a bit of a mixed bag. Based on performances from last season and on Saturday Golly must surely come third in line behind Morgan. Morgan whilst also being a good option in left midfield has played left back for all or part of a game on a number of occasions. Golly has been a good servant and is a useful asset to have around to cover for injuries, etc and assist with the reserve side of things, but at the his performances over the past months have consistently not been of a sufficient standard merit a start.

The underlying figures are not as bad as might first be thought. In addition to a good amount of the expenditure being 'performance' related - i.e. the players bonuses, failure to proceed in cups, etc would result in lower expenditures as well. Other 'one off' exceptional items will also be included, from recollection this will include payments in relation to elements of the undersoil heating which I think were noted by DS at one point as being held over into the next FY, as well as costs associated with the football licensing requirements. What also needs to be known is how much of the Tulloch £400k is include in the income stream, as this figure was a maximum to cover a number of the one-offs. This amount may well have been reduced due to the very good performance and it is clear from a number of sources that the playing staff budgets have been significantly increased (this decision will be based on an objective assessment of this years income and will exclude cup income as this is not guaranteed and is viewed therefore as a bonus).

I think that a good number of us would rather that we play with 10 men :006:. Nothing personal, just that he does not bring anything to the team.

TJE probably does make a reasonable point in regarding to Rankin. We must however not give players the general perception that they can leave at any point during their contract as and when it suits them. (I would point out that we do not actually know if any of the players involved are actually taking this stance). It is equally important that we do not give the impression to so called 'bigger' teams that we can be 'plundered' for players at their leasure. Realistically we have to realise that the very big teams will always offer an attraction to players and ambition to play at the top level is not unreasonable, however Utd at the moment are living on their past glories and we should not be considering selling players unless it is in the clubs interest.

Yet again the management at the club come up with a corker. Do we reduce pricces for the Utd game when lots of kids can be taken along by their parents hopefully assisting in increasing the long term support base, or do we wait till a midweek game against Falkirk when many parents struggle to make it due to work and the younger kids have to be in bed for school. Why try and reward the fans for supporting the club throughout the season (in spite of the dire home performances) when you can just try and make sure that you do not post a new record low crowd! What an astute Chief Exec we have! :x

Wouldn't you in their position!

BBC say deal has been agreed with contract to be signed in next couple of days. Agree that this is good news.