CaleyD

I'm not taking the Limo.....but it seats 8 Passengers. Were looking at buying a larger one, but the law becomes a bit of a nightmare when you go over 8 passengers so we just ordered another Hummer...in pink

The Centenary certainly seems to be the one that rings a bell with me. Outside chance I might get to the game tomorrow as I have a Chauffeur run to Edinburgh in the morning. If I can avoid getting any bookings for tomorrow night then I'll head over to Dundee instead of coming straight back up the road.

SFA Blog Updates

Always enjoy games against Partick...the craic and banter is second only to playing our caravan dwelling neighbours.

I thought they had 1 player sent off in the last round and that was for dissent !! Can anyone confirm this please ? My apologies.....they had 4 players unavailable due to bookings picked up in previous games.

At the end of the day it was "Job Done" by half time and their was little to prove/gain by knackering players who will be required for more important business on Saturday. It was very much a case of adopting a game plan in the second half that would preserve players, without taking the risk of sitting back and trying to soak up whatever Stranaer might have to throw at us given a chance. Also have to bare in mind that this was a team who clocked up 4 red cards in the last round, so in the back of the mind is the fact that they could turn nasty (which they did a bit) and it doesn't make sense to have guys going flat out and risking heavy/dirty challenges....and any resulting injury.

Do I look like I'm the kind of person that would be overly fussy about such a thing? ;)

A lot more positives than negatives to take from last nights game. Width....for the first time in years we're actually taking advantage of the width of the pitch. Tokely and Shinnie working everything from the back and moving it forward which was stretching them in the midfield and defence and allowing us to get in behind on more than a few occassions. Final Delivery/Set Pieces....we've started pinging balls into the box with a bit of pace on them instead of floating them in and making it easy for a keeper/defence to handle. Probably caught ourselves out a couple of times, but we'll soon get used to it and even if it only causes teams in the 1st Div half the problems it did Stranraer last night then it'll pay off over the season. Passing....We were spraying passes all over the place last night and players are starting to understand each other a bit better and beginning to anticipate where balls are coming from and going too. We just have to keep in mind that against stronger opponents we can't pass it in to the net. Even on the slightly longer passes/forward balls Tokely was finding his man...as I said on Twitter, he was in the Bobby Man Zone in that department last night. Shooting....We had shots coming from every angle last night. Lee Cox even had a pop from about 40 yards that the keeper was at full stretch to save. Was also a bit of a relief to see the designated strikers scoring the goals....although every man on the park, bar Esson, had at least one shot on goal last night. Playing for each other/Spirit....You could tell their was a real will among the players to cover and support each other last night. Gone is the sniping at each other, instead we were seeing hands up acknowledging a slightly stray pass or missed opportunity. Added to that the fact that Shinnie (who had a great game) was getting a bit of treatment from there #9 for a bit...and he got a bit of treatment from Munro and Tokely in return when the opportunity presented itself later in the game. One final thing....Ross and Shinnie. These are two fantastic young players we have there and neither of them looked at all out of place in that team last night, and I don't think they'd look out of place against better opposition either. In fact, LDZ and Hastings had better be watching over their shoulder as Shinnie would have done a lot to start moving himself up the pecking order with his display last night. Likewise with Ross, he's had a bit of time on the park already and I can only see Terry becoming more inclined to increase that with what he's been showing. Man of the Match.....The Stranraer Keeper, but if I had to choose one from us then it would be Foran (edging it as a result of his 2 goals) followed VERY closely by Shinnie and then Tokely. Two defenders in my top 3 is not any indication of us having to defend hard, but these two were the catalyst for just about every move forward we made last night.....and they probably spent more time in the opponents half contributing to play than they did in our half having to defend it.

MacDougall and Hastie already supply stuff for the "internal" catering.

I find it quite incredulous that some people seem to be getting so worked up over a colourful t-shirt

According to my announcer notes it is suppose to run before every game.....leaving the Bus Station 45 minutes before kick-off and returning 10 minutes after the end of the game. You might want to phone the club (222880) to confirm though.

Technically your not suppose to, but it's not something they (often) make a big deal off other than cans and bottles.

If they created an area, installed a cigarette machine and applied the rule that you can only smoke cigarettes bought on the premises (as they do with food) then they could actually make money!!!

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Lack of HT Scores was a screw up on my part.....I did have them on my phone, but my phone is hard to see in daylight, and was impossible with the sun on Saturday.....will get this sorted for future. Speaking to players pre-match is unlikely to happen...they are rightly concentrating on warm-up and getting into "game mode" and I think it's best they aren't distracted from that. Having music interspersed with the talking should improve as we have a couple of workaround's to take care of the technical deficiencies of the PA System.

This is something that has been talked about. I can ask if the club collate/want to give out that info No...this is something that announcers at other grounds have tried and failed at elsewhere and it takes you into very dangerous territory. I did say hello to the Ayr fans and make note of the fact that it was a credit to them that they had all travelled so far for the game, but that's about as far as it's reasonably possible to take things. The "Fat blokes in football shirts" thread springs to mind ;) 60" Chest....just send them to Stadium and mark them as "Shirt for CaleyD/Announcer"

When you do something new, and which is so different from what's come before then there's always the risk/chance that you can/will polarise opinion. This was something we discussed before Saturday and which was discussed again with the club to day following some feedback (including this thread) that we've had. The general consensus seems to be that it is a move in the right direction, but that it needs some tweaking....which we always knew would be the case....but we will be continuing with the concept of having someone (me for the foreseeable) at pitch side doing announcements and things. It was felt that this is/was better than having a faceless voice stuck away in a box. We'll play with the level of "interactivity" a bit until we find a level that works for most people and we've also come up with a couple of possible solutions to resolve the issue of getting the music working more in tandem with the speaking. Also, as I said earlier, the club are keen to introduce other elements to the "Matchday Experience/Entertainment" and they'll continue to work on that. The club are listening, so keep the feedback, ideas and comments coming.

The radio Mic does seem to be far better....not perfect by any means, but an improvement. With regards to the music v talking....again, we've come up against limitations on the PA system which doesn't allow us to set up the radio mic with VOC, but I do have someone giving me a hand up in the box and we'll work a bit more on trying to co-ordinate it and get a manual system working. There's a lot of "making the best of what we have", and trust me that's as frustrating for me and the club as it can be for those in the stands, but I think we're working in the right direction and it will get better....and hopefully one day a bit of money can be found from somewhere to upgrade the PA and maybe get in some Karaoke. No HT Challenge today...and that's in part down to the fact that there's a realisation that there's no point in having it just for the sake of having it, especially if it's not providing any entertainment value. It's not gone altogether, we're just trying to come up with something people might want to see and we're also looking at other possible forms of HT entertainment.....ideas/suggestions welcome on that one. As that was our first try at getting a person out there with the mic I will admit that I was flying by the seat of my pants just a little.....but I tend to do that anyway to try and avoid things coming across as overly scripted, even though you can never get away from the fact that it is/has to be as it's as much about putting out information as it is about being entertaining. My aim, and some might not like/agree with it, is to make the crowd more a part of things instead of just a spectator to things. Today was a major change to what has been done before and, for the most part, I think the idea has been well received (even if it does need some work/tweaking). Those of you in the stand can do your part, and did do your part today. I love the heckling....it doesn't bother me as I can feed off it....and the more people who get into it the more it will spread and the better the matchday atmosphere will become......which is what everyone wants at the end of the day. Thoroughly looking forward to getting out there at the C*unty game with the added buzz and banter that comes with these games. Oh....I was joking about the Karaoke :(

The shirt or shirts (todays was calm compared to the one I had on a fortnight ago) came about as a result of me turning up for the first home game fully suited and booted as a result of having coming straight from work. The staff were ribbing me for being "the best dressed announcer in Scottish Football" that day, so the following match I turned it on it's head for a laugh and wore a bright blue Caribbean shirt for a bit of a laugh....best dressed to worst dressed in a week. As a result it's become a bit of a joke with the staff as to how loud/bad/funny a shirt/t-shirt I can turn up wearing...so be warned, they aren't going to get any better

I don't have the full details or an official statement on what happened with the catering. Mike Smith came out and asked that I apologise on behalf of the club for the problems, which were beyond the clubs control, and that he found the situation totally unacceptable.

We were fortunate to take 3 points last week when a draw would have been a just result, and unfortunate to only take a point today when we should have had 3.....so all in all we probably have as many points as play has merited across the two games. One point that came up in a discussion I had after the game was that the team seemed to panic a bit in the last 15 minutes....they knew they should be winning the game and they got a bit desperate to get the ball forward too fast and when it got forward it was as if players were scared to shoot in case they missed. Let's bare in mind also that there's a great deal of pressure and expectation sitting on the shoulders of the team this season. The club have stated that the target is "Straight Back Up" and there's a good few fans with the attitude that we should be walking games. Give the team a bit of time to settle in and find their stride and I believe they'll come good and start winning games like todays where they dominated for large spells. 34 games to go....let's not be panicking and getting on anyone's back just yet.

Looks like I already updated the form.....just not changed the trust website. Form attached to this post. trust_mem_app_0910.pdf

You can just use the form that's on there for the new season.....and I'll add updating them to my "To Do" list.

The easiest way for people to put themselves forward for being contacted for these things is to join the Supporters Trust. Being a member of the Trust is about more than helping with painting and matchday stuff....the "Grunt Work" for want of a better description. Projects need people to manage them, they need people to get on the phone and do organising, they need promoting and any number of other things. Some people will have these skills, some people will want to learn these skills and by working together everyone benefits.

We've done it!!! Just speaking to Darren at the club sorting out things for tomorrow and he informed me that we officially go into our first home game of the season having sold more season tickets than we did last season.