IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER

I would only wish to point out that my addition of a percentage of my NHS early retirement lump sum was devotedly devoted. Unfortunately I was actually approached about this but was sworn to secrecy as none of the other bestards wished to have my name attached to the offer. Lets just say that some are not too afar and were on evidence on tour.

That means that he is going.

They all clearly wanted to impress me and win me over - good words from Foran and all correct - but he listed all the positives. Like I said before we will know a lot more on Saturday evening.

ESSON BROADFOOT TOKELY ALDRED GILLET DORAN TANSEY ROSS HAYES LOWE FORAN

Ryan Lowe is on the radar

Ru going Inter Titty ?

That is what I said to him at the weekend !!!

And bring it on - good run outs at Bristol and Aldershot - any game away from home is difficult and BRFC gave us a good game. We have good enuff players - it is just IMHO is that they havent gelled as a team and I am unsure whether Terry and Mo are even sure of the rite starting crew - I certainly didnt like Hayes in a roving role on Saturday. It may be an old cliche but we have to give some of them time. But the deficts are clear to anyone and I would be really, really surprised if we dont get defensive cover and a centre forward before the window closes. We have also been in 2nd and 3rd gear so far - Muvversmell will show us what do expect, fear or look forward to.

He played central midfield beside Tansey at Aldershot and I fel that he put in a decnt shift. He can pass a ball and appears to have the pace if not the bulk. IMHO he is worth holding on to although that was the only real time that I have seen him. Thought Tansey looked better at Aldershot too.

Well - as per usual - I / We didnt really have to put in much effort to enjoy ourselves off the park. Bristol is a wee bit too cosmopolitan for me but the scrumpy in Bath was worth the wait. Good craic with the Rovers goalie Scotty Davies who gave as good as he got. Brilliant pub crawl on the Friday nite in Aldershot - pubs went down hill a bit after we hit the hill up to the away end - apart from the Royal Staffs - loved messing the brylcreemed hair of the wannabee casual !! Nice wee base as well but hats of to the staff and customers of the Golden Lion (even if half of them were gay!!) - excellent nite, karaoke and a superb Indian to be sick with. In respect of the football it was very much a tale of two cities - Really enjoyed Rovers as it was an attacking game with both teams going fer it - especially in the second half. Hayes made the big difference when he came on with two very well taken goals by Nicky Ross. Personally i thought that there was a lot to take out of this match - thought Shinnie looked a good pleyer and we at last appear to have a footballer in Tansey. Rosscoe and Aldred appear to be bulding up a good understanding but we were alway vulnerable wide in defence - although I thought Proctor did OK at Bristol. Aldershot game - IMHO - was a typical training match and I wasnt actually impressed by either team. To be honest they are stuffy and defensive and possibly just waht we needed but the game never took off. I thought that Proctor AND Gillet were poor and Proc's mistake fer their goal sume up his potential bombscare rating. Tokely and Aldred looked secure enuff and I actually thought that Jamie Stevenson looked quite impressive at times. We were hampered by the performances of Doran and Hayes as they appeared to have turned up fer training. Trying to feed those two much had a negative effect on Nick Ross and foran was left to do far too much running around. We are certainly a changed team in regard to trying to pass our way out of defence and made siome pretty patterns at times but mostly going sideways and rarely looked a threat in the final third - now that does worry me. Tade may sort that out but I would prefer to see Foran a wee bit deeper and picking a complimenting midfield may be a difficult task. Through the scrumpy haze i felt that TB was mell miffed and no feckin wonder.

If anybody had put a mirror in front of Tels visage after the Aldershot game we would have has 7 years bad luck !! You didnt have to be an expert in non verbal body langauge to detect that he wasnt a hapy chappy at all.

As I alluded to on another post I feel that the tactical intent of TB is fairly clear, one that I applaud and he has obviously chosen the players to play in his "system". I still think and hope that he is going to strengthen our defence but I suspect that he is trying to make it more resolute but more importantly creative. This is beginning to look like a passing team with one eye on going forward. We have plenty of relatively young players who all appear to be mobile and pacy - that can be of benefit defensively as well as attacking. We should also have plenty of width and now have options other than Hayes down the flanks. With Cox at the back it has a feel to the days of Cowie,Black, Duncan and Rankin. TB also appears to have a penchant for wee, nippy strikers - perhaps we are going for the ball on the deck, down the wings, breaking from midfield ploy. That would confuse a lot of SPL defensives and cut out the big centre forward playmaker role and see more of the irritating hassling on the last defender. IMHO pace and persisitent is often better than brawn. BTING IT ON

Well feck me - we will soon have as many ins as outs - Doran was always in the pipeline and MacKay could be the next Andy Murray. :rotflmao:

Gilbert is tarnishing our reputation and others will do likewise - feck me - Billy Mckay trained for us fer 10 minutes, suffered an injury and was training with Wimbledon by early afternoon.

Cheers - that early morning one should suit me fine.

I did hear that he had a fine serve and volley. Still hope he prefers playing football for us.

Apparently he tried to hold out for more money. Looks like we have a similar capture in Billy McKay anyway.

How can you offer somebody a contract when they are not fit and have a history of being injury prone - and if he has been medically advised to rest then he is playing on with an injury and will end up with no job whatsoever. He may well be trying to sort out a job but he is going the wrong way about it. Put it another way - could he just have said "No Thanks" to us instead of playing for another team when there is a sort of deal on the table ? Such behaviour can only enhance his reputation as well !!

I really am a misunderstood individual !! Just off to Bristol in the morning and then on to Aldershot. Hopefully little chance of being ejected becos they wont be too strict on the booze and ya can simply stand throughout - and if I do encounter problems I will simply use by charming demeanour to allude captivity or premature ejection.

What train from Bristol goes through Oldfield Park ?

Where the feck have ya been man - you should be leading the tribes - there are 389 of us in Bristol on Thursday. The Golden Fleece Public House Twerton. Address: Avon Buildings, Lower Bristol Road, Bath, Somerset, BA2 1ES Railway Stations - Oldfield Park (0.4 miles), Bath Spa (1.5 miles) Twerton Park is two minutes walk from the pub. Will be in Bristol Wednesday. About feckin time too !!

It was a truly abyssmal performance - we could have been beaten 14-4 if it wasnt for 37 world class saves by Esson. The defence were appalling and all at sea, the midfield were lightweight and disjointed and we have no punch up front. Thankfully we scored from four of the four "chances" we had, three complete mishits and a very dodgy penalty. Yeovil even took their womens team on at half time. TB needs to buck up his ideas and get a few new faces before the SPL kck off. What we need are 17-18 players with a wealth of SPL experience, crowd pleasers, ball players, fit for the start of the season, willing to take wage cuts and a move to the Highlands. WFT is happening - get it sorted. :irritated:

What I was alluding to was not really about his history - if ICT asked him to rest then he is simply disobeying orders and taking the pissh - if he has carried on like that over the years then no wonder he has fallen from grace and is injury prone to boot.

To be fair the 0-0 at Lossiemouth was a creditable performance considering the unbelievable and evidently unprepared for weather conditions - no wind and glorious sunshine - who would have expected that at Lossie. And agai why all the howls of derision - it is a pre season, practically training match and peeple getting to know each other and TB evidently trying things out. Livi have far more to prove.

:rotflmao: Feel free to correct me or challenge me - did I say !! Thank you. From another angle - which of the released players, apart from Munro, would YOU have retained ? I certainly feel that the squad needs strengthening but I feel that the Ins and Outs - successful conclusions or not - have made sense - and that there is still a lot of business to be done.