ALSY

FFS. 1-1. Wonder how much defensive clowning was to blame?

0-1 Vigurs. Good show.

From memory - heard the team lines on BBC about 5 mins ago -

esson

Tokely McGuire Duff Djebi-Zadi

Cowie Vigurs Black (?) Wilson

Wood McAllister

Lots of changes - great if it works and glad to see Vigurs and Wood get the chance.

Hopefully because Hibs have suffered the requisite giant-killing ignominy of this round, we will be spared

For those in the uk it can be viewed here : http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7582359.stm

BBC 2 Scotland are actually showing it live, Scotty.

QoS have been fantastic in the 2nd half but just lost a really unlucky goal on the counter-attack. Hope they can score and take it to ET.

Also brings home the importance of a good cup run - on this evidence, and with a bit of luck in the qualifying draw, it wouldn't be beyond a club like ICT to make the group stages.

I see a player by the name of Smart scored for Eastbourne Borough in the Conference on Monday. Would that be Alan Smart by any chance ?

Think it was a guy called Matt Smart. Isn't Allan Smart at MK Dons now?

The only time I've seen him was that horrible 4-1 defeat away to Killie last season, so it was hard to judge. He had some nice touches in the first half and the impression he gave was of an elegant midfielder who shields the ball well and sees and makes good passes. However, the whole team capitulated so badly that he looked lost in the second half.

I may be wrong, but he didn't look like a wide player, or a particularly hard tackler, which suggests that his main competition in the first team is Blackie. If that's the case, he may struggle to break into the first team in the near future, although Blackie didn't sound that great on Saturday.

Wagaluka is SO skinny and small!!! Looked decent enough though, but didn't really get a chance to do much. I imagine that'll be the last we see of him - hopefully not though!

Everyone played well tonight - Bobby Mann was disgustingly good! No joke, I'd rather have him at the back than McGuire. Nice to see that pretty much everyone got on and that we tried 3 different pairs of strikers up front, the best obviously being Bingo and Paul Ritchie. :thumb04:

Transfer window's still open...

Good God. Probably does mean they sent their entire third team though, which, if true, is a wee bit of a shame for the fans and Barry.

Still, sounds like a good run out for the likes of Wood & McAllister, as whatever the team, these must still be players that Liverpool hope can make the grade.

Probably reading something into nothing here, but I wondered whether there is any connection between the final sentence about Czaba being keen to bring in more Ugandan talent and the suggestion we are going to take Wagaluka on a three-month deal. Three months seems a pretty short period to take such a far-travelled player for, but would take us quite close to the opening of the next tranfer window. Any possibility that Hearts want to see how he settles into Scottish football before snapping him up for themselves on a longer deal?

Also, apparently the world is ruled by giant lizards...

FT 0-1

Brewster's tactics seemed good to me - start with last week's line-up then make changes early if it isn't working - but it sounded like we didn't really start playing until we went a goal behind and Hamilton packed the area, defended well and we didn't have the quality to break them down. Will be interested to read the reactions of those who got to the match.

Always really disappointing when your early season optimism takes its first knock, though.

Rory for Duff :o

Can't criticise Brew for being too cautious

Wilson for Cowie. Suppose that makes sense given that Rooney is now playing Cowie's starting role, but I always like to see Don on the field. Haven't really heard Mcbain mentioned at all this half.

Att. 3595. Thought we might get more than that for a first game of the season (says he, sitting at home). Wonder how many Hamilton took up?

Sounding more encouraging this half, Rooney's contribution in particular.

HT 0-1.

Really doesn't sound like we played much football there - didn't hear Blackie's name mentioned with any reference to creativity or build-up play, and Imrie seems to have been pretty anonymous too, whereas both were very effective last week. Several references to Duncan carrying an injury and being below-par - maybe Brew shoud be thinking about bringing Rooney on early and moving Cowie back, with Black sitting in a bit more, provided he can time his tackles. May also be a case for introducing Wilson for Mcbain quite early if we don't start creating more.

Shame Duff seems to have been culpable for the goal - we're crying out for confidence in central defence, and i hope it doesn't affect him too much. Sure we can come back though - I predicted a 3-2 win and maybe the goal will open the game up and I'll be proven correct.

@rse

Ah - for some reason the link the Rebel posted works for me. Now tuned in.

County seem to be turning their season around! 2-0 up already...

Im having trouble getting game on line is anyone having the same problem.

Dont normally have any bother, can any one help.

Don't know if I'm being thick, but I can only find either the open all mikes programme or the Rangers game through the BBC website. My computer doesn't seem to want to connect to Scotty's link, so I'm making do with the open all mikes stuff.

Rebel - not sure of the Hamilton line-up (same as Monday's is as much as I know), but the full ICT line-up is:

Either Cowie or Imrie may be supporting Barrowman up front, and Imrie played down both the right and the left at different times last weekend, so I'm not sure that the formation I've posted is exactly correct, but the personnel is.

I think your right, and in order to address the issue, anyone representing Scotland should have to grow a dodgy beard and/or moustache and large sideburns. Anyone failing to do so will be provided with sticky on ones.

Oddly enough, Paul Hartley, one of the players chosen to model the strip, usually has all three but appears to have shaved them off for this shoot. Or perhaps they were 'sticky on' all along and blew off in a stout west-coast breeze...

Strangely glad if that's true about him starting on the bench as I feared we might risk a 4-4-2 in order to accommodate him and that would have been a mistake IMO.

Not overly upset to see Duff coming in either, but it kinda suggests that Djebi-Zadi isn't shaping up as we might have hoped and highlights the need for another Central Defender.....we shall have to wait and see I guess.

Yeah, I predicted he'd start on the bench on the merged Rooney thread. Makes a lot of sense - the players made last week's formation work really well because of Barrowman's willingness to hold his position and the support Imrie and Cowie offered him. 1 up front isn't necessarily negative. Also might not be fair to throw Rooney in the day after his arrival with everyone waiting to see what he can do. Hope he gets at least 20 minutes in the 2nd half though, as long as the game's going to plan.

According to Sportsound, Rooney starts on the bench and Jamie Duff makes debut - I assume a straight swap for Granty, with the rest of the line up the same as last week.

edit: Scotty (added lineups)

Same feelings as most other posters - this is a bold bit of business which suggests the club is being more ambitious in building for the future. Really hope it pays off for us. It's also nice to be taken slightly by surprise (ie by the permanent deal & length of contract), as every potential piece of club business appears to have been prevaricated over in full public view in the past couple of years.

Will be interesting to see what Brew's tactics are for tomorrow - was he intending to stay with one up front against Hamilton, and will this change now? Gut feeling is Rooney may still start on the bench.

Tenner says he gets sent off on Saturday.

The night out in Aberdeen was a corker afterwards

Looking forward to the new term next monday and seeing a lot of Dons supporting staff and pupils!

Looking forward to the new term? Don't get carried away, Ross...

I think that you may not have appreciated my drift. To back the team ya have to back Brew. It is going to be very interesting to see how we fare and how the spirit develops this season without the distracting side show of over favoured Eastern European mercenaries.

But if Brew does not learn from his mistakes last season and continues to make howlers - then we can criticise fairly - IMHO it should be based on performances this season rather than historical perspectives.

Excellent point. There's nothing to be gained by continuing to criticsie or express doubts now a new season has begun. Yesterday was a promising start for Brew: his tactics were correct, the team looked motivated and worked tirelessly, it wasn't just long ball stuff and two of his signings (Imrie and Barrowman) were among the stand-out performers.

Got to say the tactics and motivation looked excellent yesterday. It took the team about 10 minutes to find their feet and Aberdeen had slightly more of possession (exaggerated to 20 minutes by Tangoman post-match). At first we seemd to lack a little width, but as soon as Imrie started getting the ball in wide positions, we dominated. Cowie provided most of the support for Barrowman, but occasionally he dropped deeper and Blackie pushed up. This flexibility, and the fact that we pressed Aberdeen really hard when we didn't have the ball, meant they couldn't really pin us down and couldn't develop any fluency in their own play.

If this is a formation we are going to use regularly, then Barrowman looks tailor-made to play on his own up front. He's a classic goal-hanger, hardly dropped back at all yesterday, but he was constantly looking for the ball, dragging the defenders around with him and received the ball well with his back to goal. Also seems to have reasonable pace, although it was difficult to judge how much skill he has beyond sticking the ball in the net.

As for the rest of the team: thought Imrie's workrate was superb and he showed a few flashes of great ball control at speed. Definitely looks most effective as a winger IMO - he looked genuinely dangerous on a few occasions; Cowie saw less of the ball than he did for much of last season, but he still worked really hard, closing down opponents and creating options for his team-mates; Duncan was superb in the second half in particular when we had to defend a bit more - read the game excellently, making important interceptions and tackles and not misplacing too many passes; Hastings for me deserved more than the 3 stars most supporters have given him. Now and again he let attackers in behind him a little too easily (as did Tokely on the other side, but like Duncan he made some vital interceptions in the second half and also showed an aggressive streak which I've never seen before in him and which seemed to wind up the Dons players; McGuire didn't do a great deal wrong but he really does lack the dominance in the air that we've missed since Dods left - as someone else pointed out, he's prone to let the ball bounce and then misjudge it, and another thing which irrritates me is his tendency to barge into the backs of players when he's challenging for a kick-out, thus giving away free kicks.

Yesterday wasn't a perfect performance - not enough fluency from midfield to front and still a tendnecy to let opponents in too easily at the back - but the fight from the players was superb, the tactics and formation were well thought-out and effective, and although there was some long-ball stuff, there were also some genuine attempts to play the ball on the ground and build patiently. Early days, but I'm more confident than I was 24 hours ago,