MrCaleyjag

It's only the first competitive game of the season so I'm not too downbeat about the result but I am disappointed especially with the second half display, as Caley Stan said we were completely dominated. I could go on and on about where we need to improve but hopefully Robbo saw enough from the stand last night to see it for himself. On a side note to our performance, it's good to see that nothing changes with refereeing standards in our games, quite honestly the ref last night was shocking.

With a minimum 3 league cup games and 7 league games before the start of October I'd be expecting them to be at match sharpness way before then and while I expect to see an element of rustiness you eluded to in a previous post, that doesn't account for the completely abject showing in the second half last night. I'm not normally so critical but to have any real title or promotion aspirations we need to start well. Full time professional footballers, imo, do not need until October to be at maximum match sharpness.

Agreed but it all works together and one goes with the other. Investors expect this type of involvement and in part it's about spreading the name and brand as well. For what it's worth I do agree with your original post and believe there's far too much emphasis on it.

Surely if you think about it another way it should be a celebration of a club which is 25 years old and not the recognition of the two previous clubs merging? Looking at it as a recognition is looking backwards, looking at it as a celebration of the current club is looking forward. If you cling onto the past then you'll never look forward. Maybe I'm just thinking about it all the wrong way.

Taking your thoughts on the bigger issue aside and who the collaboration is with , I think the club should be applauded for getting involved. For too long we've all been on here lambasting the board and club for not getting the ICT name out in the wider community and expecting things to come to them so it's good to see a more forward thinking approach. I'm expecting now for the board to push on and get involved in more initiatives.

I actually quite like it but then I don't have an affinity to either of the clubs from the past having not supported either back in the day. I can though understand the comments above and where some people are coming from. One thing I do know is that whatever colours we wear I'll still support the team in the same way and it will have no bearing on how they play, the club has more important obstacles to overcome that we should be focusing on.

Normal service is resumed, looking forward to another challenging NPL and big thanks to Gringo as always for running this season upon season. My prediction HT: 0v0 FT: 1v2 1st ICT: White 1st Opp: McAllister Crowd: 689 Caleyjag's prediction HT: 0v0 FT: 1v3 1st ICT: Keatings 1st Opp: McAllister Crowd: 824

I'll bite first - I can't believe you're asking that question when a ball hasn't even been kicked in the new season yet. How about we see how things go first of all. Have you also lowered your expectations as from memory that's exactly what we achieved last season and unless I'm wrong on the whole it wasn't good enough for you. What's changed?

Could it be that the club have finally taken Alan Simpson seriously and will make him head of recruitment?

I think had you said it this way first then you wouldn't have got the response you did. No one disagrees that we need to improve to win promotion this year from the top down but it needs brought back to reality and is not as clear cut and black and white as you make out. We are where we are for a reason and it'll be tough again next season. I'm sure there will be a few new faces brought in and one or two may well leave but we have the nucleus of a good team, if we can keep them, so lets see what the next 4-6 weeks brings then pre-season.

Whether we should be expected to win the group or not, I always go into the group stage with a touch of realism and tempered expectations all down to the fact that rightly, we'll use the games as pre-season like most do. If it started a month later then I'd raise the bar but see no point in lumping pressure on the team so early on in the season. Looking forward to these games heightened by where the away games could possibly be, certainly easier for us to get to than a home game.

A little insight into Alan's weekend entertainment right there

I'm with Kingsmills as well and given DU have been down for three seasons they'll be used to dealing with the financial aspect of the Championship a lot better than St Mirren probably will, yes they'll have to probably cut but not as drastically as St Mirren. For me DU have a better squad and some better individuals compared to St Mirren that I'd be glad to see the back of.

I would hope that the clubs recent press release would put your mind at ease

I'm now even more convinced than ever that you are a troll or just post ridiculous statements to buck the trend and try and get a bite back. Even you can't believe what you've written above ................ surely?

Indeed and given the criticism we've given them for past failures to address the fans and wider community they should be applauded especially by being so open and to the point. Hopefully this is a turning point with regards communication. I'd also hope they report Dundee for the unsolicited approach.

Wow, I know we're all entitled to our opinions but the inaccuracy of some of your rant coupled with the admittance of other factors almost makes your post believable. Part of me was going to agree with you at first glance when I saw feeder club until I gave myself a shake.

I would definitely but I suspect they might wait to see how he copes with pre-season and how he starts the season before making a decision.

I seem to recall them signing our ex players last time they were in the Premiership worked wonders.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/48303984 I see the rumors were true and the SFA have announced Steve Clarke as the new Scotland manager on a three year deal. Personally I'm not sure it's a good move for him given his rising stock, he's always been a revered coach and worked/learned from some of the best, the job he did at Kilmarnock was incredible but I wonder if this will prove to be a poisoned chalice. I hate to see a good manager ruined by an international job and I hope I'm proved wrong, maybe he can ignite a passion into the Tartan Army again and make the nation believe. Here's hoping. Whatever happens, if he's successful it'll only mask the very true issues that surround and entrench Scottish Football and the way it is governed.

Most might not like this but given our financial plight and not being able to speculate to accumulate possibly to bolster the squad we need to dip into the loan market a bit more successfully than previous seasons. 2 or 3 players who can offer a genuine difference, there must be some players from the top flight who'd jump at the chance of first team football and some clubs who'd jump at the opportunity of their players developing. Yes we want our youngsters to develop first but if the backroom team don't feel they are ready then we need to explore every available avenue.

and if what's been reported about how he plays is true he'll bring about more directness than Joe possibly ever offered.

Now here comes my rant for the season ............... Officiating: quite honestly it's been horrendous and some of the worst I have ever seen across a season and that is not just confined to matches we've been involved in or our league, it's right across the board. The level of arrogance that our referees show towards players and staff is appalling and while they have a very difficult job to do, someone should remind them that they get paid for it and it's their job to keep order. Referees in other sports across the world can do it so why can't they. One of my biggest gripes is the speed at which a referee, and they are all guilty, can't wait to get a card out. At times struggling to get a card out of their pocket while they run to an incident! Take some time, sort the situation out, pull players away, discuss the incident then produce a card if necessary. It projects a better form of control and sets the tone for the game but we don't appear to have one official that can do that nor the authorities to make it change. It's no coincidence that this season has saw more managers than ever speaking out about the levels of refereeing in this country but still they are the ones that are punished, it's about time that the beaks in charge started to deal with the situation properly instead of making managers and players the scapegoats.

I wonder if somewhere in the middle of those that feel we overachieved, those that think it was a successful season and those that think it was down right rotten, there's some middle ground to be found and a different way of looking at things. Yes the quality of football may have been lacking, yes we struggled to score goals at times, yes when we finally fell to cup defeats it was bruising, yes we had a ridiculous amount of draws and yes we didn't get promoted but we did finish third behind two substantially better backed clubs, we did get to the Scottish Cup semi-finals, we finished top of the rest and from start of season to finish we have improved gradually as individuals and a team. For those who feel we underachieved; if playing crap football and being toothless at times gets us 3rd in the league, playoffs and cup semi-final then imagine what a better style of play and being more prolific in frot of goal would do. This alone gives reason to be optimistic and to believe that we can better things next season. I would be feeling far more downbeat had we been playing good football, playing teams off the park and finished lower down in the league. We finished the season with the second least amount of defeats in the league along with joint 3rd best defence and while rightly some will point out the draws were horrendous, at least they weren't defeats. We can, and I believe we will, build on this for next season.

If we don't currently have any targets for LB then I may be inclined to offer McHattie a year's extension. I'm not sure Robbo and the club will be rushing to offer many of the 2020 players contracts right now and possibly waiting to see what Donaldson and Walsh decide to do but it would be good to see McCart the next player offer an extension. I suspect they'll wait and see who we manage to bring in before making any decisions.