MrCaleyjag

Well done Gringo, was my first season of taking part and thoroughly enjoyed it (apart from a lot of the results)

Thanks Gringo, provided me with weeks of watching games I wouldn't otherwise have paid attention to. I know I enjoyed it and I'm sure everyone appreciated your efforts as well. Looking forward to next season :)

Berwick v Stranraer - draw @ 3.40 please

HT: 0v0

FT: 1v1

1st ICT: Hayes

1st Opp: S Thompson (striker)

Crowd: 4218

Have you been let out on day release and had nothing to do?

HT: 0v0

FT: 0v2

1st ICT: Hayes

1st Opp: Hardie

Crowd: 3028

Can I use my other Joker please

HT: 1v0

FT: 2v0

1st ICT: Doran

1st Opp: Heffernan

Crowd: 4126

1st Yellow Card: Tansey

Ayr v Dundee @ 3.60 please

Berwick @ 2.25 please

HT: 0v0

FT: 2v0

1st ICT: Hayes

1st Opp: Fallon

Crowd: 3827

Berwick @ 3.25 please

I always have hope, it's what supporting a team and following them is all about and is far better than expectation. With hope you are less likely to be be disappointed than with expectation.

For tomorrow though if we play like we did in the first 60mins of the Hibs game then yeah I genuinly believe that we can get three points

I haven't read any of the post other than the title as I didn't want to be swayed by anyone elses response before posting but in a word yes I do believe he is the man for the job however like most managers he isn't the complete package and has his faults like everyone else does.

On the whole I can see what he is setting out to achieve by trying to build his own team and try and put across his own style of play and in some respects in terms of play you can see that as we have drastically cut out the long hoof up field but it still shows through sometimes, the problem though in my eyes is he changed the squad far too drastically at the end of last season whether that be through his own doing or not. I tend to think he was given a budget and told he had free reign to do what he wanted but to stick to the budget and thought he could bring in better players than he did and out of necessity ended up bringing in loanees to bolster the squad. This coupled with the lack of quality that he brought in has caused the style of play he is trying to enforce to suffer as the players aren't capable of what he is asking but to that his failing is he isn't able to adapt it to suit what he has available. That along with wanting to lower the average age of the squad meant we suffered with too little experience - just my opinion and observation.

Saying that you can't take away from the fact that after going down on the last day he brought us straight back up, yes we didn't start well that season but he turned it round and we all remember the run we went on and I along with many stood on the pitch in Ayr and lauded him as he addressed everyone. We all praised him with last seasons efforts but yet so many want to get on his back for this season which is notoriously harder than the first season after coming up. In some ways maybe he's suffered by having a bit more to work with, we come up from the First Division and are still on a tight budget so he has to work with what he's got, second season in Premier and we have more of a budget and he changes it, not sure it's that simple but along those lines.

What's for sure is that in order for him to win over those that are usure about him just now is he needs to adapt and certainly needs to sort out the use of subs and also the ability to change a formation or style of play to influence a game and definately earlier than he does at the moment. I also think he needs to melow out a wee bit and change the way he comes across towards players, it may have worked over the past two seasons but the team was older and could probably deal with it better, this squad is young and maybe need more of a gentler approach towards them as there is no doubt he leads with an iron fist.

I have no doubt that without TB in charge from when he was we would still have went down but stayed down and languished in the First Division like Dundee have, we have many things to thank TB for but for me next season is the make or break, it'll determine whether or not what he's been trying has paid off or not. I am one of those that hopes that's true and still stand by him.

The other question I ask is, who really could we attract that would do a better job and give us the style of play that as fans we all crave for? The only one I came up with is now in a job and very much vastly under-rated in my mind - John Collins

I'm afraid I have to disagree about Proctor, I just don't see it and everytime I see him play I have no confidence in him at all and certainly not as a defender. His positional play is terrible and at right back often gets caught too far inside and more often than not gives wingers/attackers far too much room, he can't read the game quickly enough to get into the correct positions either, he can't pick a pass and panics and hoofs it long, where do you want me to stop.

At the moment we don't have any stand out defenders unfortunately and I just don't see where he fits into it to make it any better.

I still fimrly believe and have been saying since last season that the only reason TB has kept him is because he was still in contract and has had various injuries when the transfer windows have been open. I very much doubt he'll be offered a new contract

HT: 1v0

FT: 2v1

1st ICT: Hayes

1st Opp: Sandaza

Crowd: 3547

Annan @ 2.10 please

HT: 0v1

FT: 2v1

1st ICT: Sutherland

1st Opp: Griffiths

Crowd: 3297

Getting played off the park. We are woeful in all departments. Amazingly we had 2 great chances to score but Tade & Mackay managed to feck them up. Ref getting a lot of stick for penalty but Tade totally cleaned out the Saints player. Grim.

Makes you wonder why he was even back there anyway? One of our only strikers and he wipes out a player in our own box? Sums up our season so far really

There's a lot of ifs and buts to be answered before we can really say to what extent TB will change the current squad

- where we finish in the league, every place brings with it an extra £80000 or so which is one/two players wages for a year

- the possible introduction of this under 20 league that has got TB in such a fury, with the prospect of not having a reserve league can a team like ourselves afford to have as many fringe players as we do and not have them playing at any level week in week out

- whether we can keep certain loan players for another year or not? I would think he would be looking to try and keep Golabart for another season

- how many of our out of contract players stay

If we managed to keep the current crop of players which is highly unlikely we need to definately look at getting in another striker as the return this season isn't anywhere near being good enough and another central defender.

Quote of the night so far goes to TB during his pre match interview with Chick 'the sun shines out of the OF ar#e' Young when he told all the other teams in the SPL to 'get it right up yea' when talking about everyone having to travel up to the Highlands next season another twice to play County if/when they ultimately go up.

It made me and Caleyjag chuckle

HT: 1v0

FT: 2v0

1st ICT: Tansey

1st Opp: Sandaza

Crowd: 3354

Ayr @ 2.20 please

I do think Dunfermline will win on Saturday but don't see them challenging to come of the foot of the table, a team will always get a boost from a new manager coming in, it's only natural that they'd want to make an impression and try that little bit harder however they just don't have the spine of a team that they require to drag them up.

If you look at all the teams in the bottom six too many of them are going through bad runs and I just don't see any of them going on a prolonged run of wins to drag them up from the positions they are in. Even if after the split we are in the same position I just don't see both Hibs and Dunfermline putting together enough wins together to bring them up the league, if anything we'll all take points from each other and the positions won't alter that much.

There's more chance of St Mirren being dragged down below us than Dunfermline making it above us in my opinion.

I'm sure we all moan about the same thing every year when a new strip is in the offing whether it be home or away and tbh doesn't it get just a bit boring? Not bored of everyone moaning about it more that we actually have to moan about it as we shouldn't have to, not at the price we have to pay for them.

I agree with Old Caley Girl with respect to the away one before last, it was awful and mine had more resemblance to a ball of wool a kitten had got to rather than a football top!!

When is someone actually going to take notice of the fact that the quality is just plain sh#te, do we all need to stop buying replica tops to make a point?

It is only with the strips as well, I have one of the big heavy jackets, it's warm and durable and shows no signs of wear unlike the replica strips.

HT: 1v0

FT: 2v0

1st ICT: Foran

1st Opp: Sandaza

Crowd: 3130