hislopsoffsideagain

52 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

I am not convinced that, good as consistent as Ridgers is, that goalkeeper is ever the best position for onfield captain.

If Doran is up for it  I would be inclined to hand him the armband.

I would be disappointed if a modern football team still relied on one individual to be the team leader on the pitch. I would be expecting several experienced individuals to take leadership roles as and when required.

Outside the UK it's very common for the captain to either be the star player or the longest serving player at the club, because it's more of a ceremonial role. Doran fits the latter and I'd happily give him the armband on the assumption that plenty of his teammates would also provide leadership on the pitch.

On 7/11/2020 at 1:04 PM, RiG said:

The only team in the league making any real signings is Dunfermline and that's because they sold Nisbet to Hibs. Everyone else seems to be very cautious and I think we are hedging our bets to see what league we might be in. I seem to recall Gardiner saying something along those lines?

Anyway, we are in a better position than someone like QotS who have three players signed up for the coming campaign.

Indeed. By my reckoning, Dunfermline still have fewer players aged over 21 (12) than us (13). And yes, Queen of the South have just three players. Ayr, Morton and Raith are still furloughing their squads but I expect a lot of players to leave the former two clubs at the end of July. 

We are starting from a pretty okay position, at least in terms of numbers.

This is definitely going to be a buyers market. There will be a lot of free agents who will have to accept much cheaper contracts this season than they normally would have done. The loan market is also going to be important, especially if they cancel the reserve league this year and Premiership clubs need to find somewhere for their youngsters to play.

1 hour ago, RiG said:

This was the thing that puzzled me. Tremarco, IIRC, was still on a contract from our final season in the Premiership (I'm not sure if he signed a new deal after relegation?) so a new deal on those wages was clearly a non starter. I don't understand why we didn't offer him a new deal on a reduced wage, maybe saying this is the most we can offer you and see if he would take it. That article appears to confirm that it was simply a case of the club were letting him go and ho no interest whatsoever in retaining him which seems quite strange. His performances last season were still of a good enough standard to warrant one more season at this level. Not offering him anything at all seems an odd move. 

For one thing, I believe the club is very, very big on Cameron Harper. If they fancy him as the starting LB next season then it's not good value for us to hold on Tremarco even on a reduced wage, when that could be used on another part of the squad (the rest of the defence, for example!!!)

Whilst Carl is very bullish about his own ability - and to be fair he was very good last season - he is nearly 35 and is already clearly a bit slower than he was at his peak. He's only going to slow down further and he's at an age where the legs can go very quickly...and plays a position where athleticism is vital.

The 7-3 against Ayr and 4-0 against Airdrie are two of the most memorable matches I've ever been to.Thank you so much for putting these up.

The Ayr game was just absolutely mental. David Bagan scored two worldies in the second half. I think Dennis Wyness had only started scoring regularly a month or so beforehand, but he was on fire. That turn and shot for goal number six is, frankly, a bit sexy. It's not in the highlights but I swear Davide Xausa missed a sitter for an eighth goal. It was also so cold that my hands were blue despite thick gloves. Totally worth it though.

As for the Airdrie match, their team of Spaniards really weren't up for the Highland winter. Javier Sanchez Broto (who 2 and a half years late would keep goal for Celtic when we beat them in the cup) spent the whole game being taunted by our fans for looking like a porn star and then gave away a penalty by trying to amputate Mike Teasdale's leg at the knee. Charlie Christie's dinked finish was the pick of the bunch.

Ah, the good old days (I'm only 36!!!)

I'm not sure exactly what folk expect Robbo to accomplish. His first season back was a write-off because he inherited an absolute clusterf*** of a club and its remarkable that we came so close to a playoff spot. Last season we finished third, behind two teams who had enormous budgets in comparison to us. And this season we finished second, behind one team with an enormous budget (United) and ahead of another (Dundee). 

He's also managed to turn Chalmers, Donaldson, McCart, Rooney and White (and possibly Walsh and Trafford) into Premiership players. Ig you'd said that when these guys signed for us you'd have been laughed out of town.

He's doing all right, I think. Certainly I think that, were he to leave, we'd be far more likely to end up with someone inferior than someone superior.

Our starting XI as it stands is probably Ridgers, McKay, Toshney, McHattie, Harper, Vincent, Welsh, Storey, Keatings, Doran, Todorov. Obviously there's plenty of room for improvement there, particularly in defence. But I reckon that puts us in far better shape than any other Championship side bar Hearts and Dundee at this point. 

Scot Gardiner's interview on The Wyness Shuffle was pretty bullish, given the circumstances. He pointed out that getting seasoned pros in their late 20s up to the Highlands was tough and so we're more likely to be targeting youngsters with potential (like Walsh and Rooney two years ago), or players from the English non-leagues like David Carson. But it does sound like we have some irons in the fire...and like our budget hasn't been cut too drastically.

Robbo was very positive about Curry when he left and I can understand why. You can't teach that sort of pace. Curry's spell here was dogged by injury and he never got a run of games. Like Storey, he's probably also better as a striker than a winger. I wouldn't be surprised if we went for him again.

Frank Ross has basically been injured for 2 years and would be awfully high-risk. If we were to take a gamble on a player coming back from long-term injury, I'd try for Calvin Miller of Celtic.

Other youngsters I'd like us to have a punt at signing:

Adam Frizzell - little winger released by Kilmarnock who shone on loan in League One

Kevin O'Hara - has left Alloa to try and get a full-time contract. Was sensational last season

Anton Dowds - has scored a lot of goals for East Fife and is trying to find a full-time team

Dario Zanatta - wasn't that great for Partick last season but was amazing for Alloa the year before

I expect we'll end up signing lots of players we've never heard of...but that's worked for the club plenty of times in the last decade or so...

Obviously it's a huge shame to let go a club captain and stalwart. In an ideal world we would hang onto him as a squad player, dressing room presence and possibly a future coach.

But...

- even before Covid we were not exactly rolling in it. It's hard to believe that our club captain wasn't one of our higher earners. If this helps us retain Doran and/or Walsh I would say it is worth it

- We have a young left-back in Cameron Harper who the club seem to think highly of, and who will be much cheaper

- Age is a bigger issue than it ever was in football. Given the pace of the modern game and fitness requirements too, it's not exactly common for players to keep going into their mid-to-late thirties even at this level. The only outfield players at full-time Championship clubs who are older than Tremarco: Mark Kerr, Christophe Berra, Brian McLean, John Sutton, Darian MacKinnon and the mighty Stephen Dobbie. Only MacKinnon plays a role that involves a lot of running up and down the pitch, and he's regressed rapidly in the last year or so. Tremarco has still put in great shifts this season but he's already a bit slower than at his peak

I do wish the club could have kept this under wraps until they were ready to announce it, rather than it getting to the press first. Carl certainly deserves better.

Thoughts:

- the SPFL's priority seems to be to get the 2020/21 season starting as close to normal time as possible. This is because of the new Sky TV deal; presumably delaying the implementation of that would cost them more money than paying back Sky/BT for the remaining 2019/20 matches not going ahead.

- there is no plan that is totally fair here - as stated above there are plenty of faults with each plan. Therefore the mostly likely outcome is the one that appeases the most clubs

- relegated clubs - particularly Hearts - are likely to call in the lawyers. Whether they have a case or not, a legal challenge could hold up things for a long time, especially with a backlog in court cases as a result of the current situation. Not being able to start the league at all as a result of this would be a nightmare

- therefore it would seem that the best way to prevent this would be to have promotion but not relegation, therefore expanding the top flight

- the nugget about reconstruction in the SPFL statement suggests they know that reconstruction (at least for 2020/21) will be required to ultimately keep clubs sweet and avoid legal challenges

- I suspect Rangers are bleating mainly to keep their fans happy (they have someone on the SPFL board that put together this plan, after all!) and may try and bargain for Colt teams in exchange for agreeing to this

Or, you know, the SPFL could just be making it up as they go along. They do have a bit of a record of doing that...

I imagine the story is rubbish but its fun to speculate...

If they were looking to buy a Scottish club, they would I presume want a Premiership one if possible so the players were playing at as high a level as possible. But I'm not sure many of them would be candidates for this - Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs would surely be too big to want to become feeder clubs, while Motherwell and St Mirren are fan-owned/on the way to being fan-owned and Uncle Roy surely wouldn't sell Ross County. That leaves Hamilton, Kilmarnock, Livingston and St. Johnstone.

Aside from being in the Championship, we are probably as good an option as any of those four, and our financial issues surely mean that our board would be more open to selling the club. And we play in (mostly) blue, which would fit with Chelsea.

I'd be open to this to be honest. It's not like it's easy to attract players here anyway - they may as well be Chelsea youngsters as central belt journeymen. And surely it can't be any worse than our increasingly likely fate of being stuck outside the top flight indefinitely.

Morton have put up highlights on YouTube.

All five goals are defensive shockers. Morton's centre-backs don't seem to realize that the heading ban only applies to under-12s. Their keeper made some fine saves, particularly the double block from the White deflected shot then MacGregor on the rebound.

Both Morton's goals came from Rooney getting skinned by Cadden (?). For the first one the cross really shouldn't get through McHattie to the back post, Nesbitt is unmarked because Storey wasn't tracking back, and Ridgers makes a hash of the shot and lets it through his legs. For the second Tremarco thinks the ball is going out and clearly doesn't realize Tumilty has nipped in on his blindside - otherwise he would surely have made more of an effort to shield it. Everyone has gone to sleep as a result, so Carson doesn't expect the cutback and it ricochets off him to give Lyon a tap-in. 

Still, Morton have been in good form recently and are still in the playoff race. That's three points on the board on a night where everyone else was dropping points.

Not sure about the "dogs in the street" line () but otherwise I thought the club statement was pretty damn good. I particularly liked the description of the referee's input about the incident. Its clear that Greg Aitken gave the panel perfectly straightforward grounds to uphold the appeal (ie there was actually clear contact) and it is simply inexplicable that they still felt the red card was justified.

I think its unlikely the panel will be outed by journalists - its not like we're Rangers or Celtic, so they won't be fussed enough to do so - but I wouldn't be surprised if other clubs are indeed backing us here, if only because they have their own interest in overhauling the disciplinary system.

It'll be interesting to see what the SFA do next. I think its pretty certain that Keatings won't suddenly get a reprieve. However the statement probably does enough to question their integrity that they could act against the club. On the other hand, they could probably do without keeping this omnishambles in the news for any longer than absolutely necessary, so my bet is that they'll quietly wait for it to all blow over.

Me for all eternity: "The Challenge Cup is a pointless competition and I couldn't care less about it"

Me after James Keatings gets screwed: "The only thing that matters in the entire universe is that ICT win the Challenge Cup so we can get it up Greg Aitken and the SFA!!!"

— Narey's Toepoker (@Nareystoepoker) February 19, 2020

(even though it's an SPFL-run competition and winning it doesn't really 'get it up' the SFA...or, indeed, Greg Aitken)

— Narey's Toepoker (@Nareystoepoker) February 19, 2020

I was surprised that we'd had as many as 23 shots - it didn't feel like that, mainly because the Alloa keeper wasn't tested too often. It was a strange game where we had Alloa hemmed in almost from start to finish and yet they not only scored but missed at least three great chances (two of which were superb Ridgers stops. His block from Trouten near the end was as good a save as I'll see for a while).

It's tough against a team like that who keep nine men back whenever we have the ball. We actually worked it into lots of good positions in the first half only for the finish or the final touch to let us down. Walsh looked really sharp in the no.10 position but ran out of legs after the break. We were so dominant out wide I wish we had moved Storey more central to offer another option in the box; Rooney had control of the right flank on his own.

The biggest disappointment for me is that we ran out of ideas in the last 15 minutes and resorted to hoof ball when Alloa were tiring and struggling to keep their shape. I'd have liked us to keep doing what we were doing. It didn't help that MacGregor failed to have anywhere near the impact Walsh had and so we strugged to pick our way through.

Glad to see Welsh back. We are infinitely better both going forward and defensively when he is on the pitch. I'd have him and Carson as the starters next week.

20 minutes ago, caleyboy said:

Maybe Todorov will drop into CB as he has seemingly played there before.

That's a decent point. I had forgotten he was an option at CB. I remember he had an excellent game in that position against us for Livingston a couple of years back (and scored at a set piece too). 

10 hours ago, Robert said:

Mckay was meant to be our saviour in our relegation season and it didn’t work out so I’m not in favour of that. 

Are you saying "I'd rather have White and Todorov than a striker who scored 20 goals at this level last season and who is an ICT legend because even he couldn't sort out the mess Foran got us in a few years back"?

Okay.

18 minutes ago, Robert said:

As things stand, our first team squad is now only 19 players, with only 5 defenders to cover 4 positions. 

Rooney, Mckay and Tremarco have all missed games through injury so we really need more cover or, at the very least, to recall Harper from Elgin. 

Whilst if McCart wanted to go we were as well to let him go and get some cash in, I agree with others: our chances of getting up have reduced this month. 

However, if we do manage to go up, do any of us think we could build a squad that would keep us up?

Yes. Promotion comes with more cash and its a damn sight easier to attract players here if we can offer better wages and Premiership football.

I really think people need to take what any football manager tells the press with a pinch of salt. Often they'll be overtaken by events. Either St. Johnstone have offered us enough of a fee to make this worth our while or McCart has threatened to down tools to force a move (or both). It's a nightmare to lose two central defenders in this window but that's the way of it; if we can't get promoted from this league then its inevitable that our best players will leave for teams in the top flight.

I would be surprised and concerned if we didn't bring in another defender by the end of the month. Even if we get Harper back from Elgin we're now a bit thin for defensive cover even if Tremarco can go to CB in an emergency.

In an ideal world we would exploit the loan market but this is hard for us because of our location - we essentially have to pay for accomodation for players on top of any loan fees. That is of course unless we were to try and grab players from across the bridge. For example, they might loan us Tom Grivosti at centre-back - he did a decent job at this level last season - and at the other end of the pitch the arrival of Oli Shaw pushes Billy Mckay down the pecking order HINT HINT HINT.

There's literally no chance that we're signing Osman Sow. He has already played for both Dundee United and Kilmarnock and therefore can't join another club this season.

On 1/10/2020 at 5:37 PM, hislopsoffsideagain said:

Toshney was considered a real prospect when he was a Celtic youth, and Dundee United paid a transfer fee to sign him shortly after they were relegated. But his time there was wrecked by a serious knee injury. If his fitness is fine he should be an asset - a big centre-back who can also play right-back.

 

I doubt we'd be signing him just for depth though. I think this is a sign that Coll-to-County is imminent.

Sucks to be right.

Good luck to him. I wish people would stop all this 'snake' and 'traitor' rubbish. In the real world no-one bats an eyelid if somebody switches job for a significant pay rise and a promotion. Why should it be any different in football?

I'm intrigued as to what the fee was. Given the time remaining on his contract £75k would be crazy...but so would us letting him go for peanuts. It would be a very Roy MacGregor thing to do to pay us a decent fee to make sure County get Donaldson now and to offer us a bit of charity as well (how depressing though!).

I've thoroughly enjoyed watching Coll rebuild his career with us. He came here for buttons for the first few months to try and turn things around and totally earned the contract he got after that. He's been one of our best players for the last 2 years. He's also earned the chance to play at a higher level again and there are certainly no guarantees he'd get to do that with us. I hope he does well at County, except when he plays us.

And I hope to god that Lewis Toshney can fill the gap...

Toshney was considered a real prospect when he was a Celtic youth, and Dundee United paid a transfer fee to sign him shortly after they were relegated. But his time there was wrecked by a serious knee injury. If his fitness is fine he should be an asset - a big centre-back who can also play right-back.

I doubt we'd be signing him just for depth though. I think this is a sign that Coll-to-County is imminent.

Given the weather forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning I thought the game would be in jeopardy.

However I assumed the call off was in anticipation of this (and to save the QOS players from travelling up today as they'd planned). The weather in the last day or two has hardly been extreme.

It does raise questions about the state of the pitch. I understand that there was one area during the Dunfermline game (which I wasn't at) which looked very dicey and perhaps this is the problem. That said, every time I've been to the ground this season I've been impressed by the surface which has looked the best it has for years and seemed to be holding up well after being relaid in the summer. 

Harper looks a good prospect and at the moment I'd rather have him backing up Tremarco than McHattie. However Harper needs gametime for his development and will get it at Elgin. This is a calculated risk we're taking. If all goes well, Tremarco stays fit and Harper returns to the club in the summer a better, more experienced player. If Tremarco gets crocked and we have to play McHattie a lot, then, um...

As stinkers go, this was pretty epic. Ridgers made three excellent saves, two of which were late on to keep it 1-0. Aside from him, everyone else was absolutely awful. Apart from an effort that was disallowed for offside, I don't believe we created a single chance of note after we went behind.

As Robbo said post-match, we were dreadful from the word go. We were slow, no-one wanted on the ball, and everyone's touch and passing was completely off. The swirling wind didn't help but it seemed like nobody was willing to take the ball down. Everything was headed or volleyed aimlessly away. If anything the subs made it worse; Curry and Todorov barely got into it whilst MacGregor followed everyone else's lead by repeatedly getting caught in possession.

It's worth noting that following the substitutions our senior outfield player was...Charlie Trafford. When the going got tough there was a clear lack of leadership on the park.

How much is Robbo to blame? One could argue that taking off Doran, who at least looked interested, was a terrible move. But to be honest, it felt like regardless of whom he played and what formation he used it would have been just as rank.

I feel like I should be giving Arbroath credit, but for what? Keeping their shape properly and not making stupid errors? That should be the bare minimum. And the bare minimum was enough to beat us today.

6 hours ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

A message from Hislopsoffsideagain - 

Hi folks,

For those who haven't seen it mentioned on Twitter, the club will be providing live audio commentary throughout the Festive Fives - This will also be streamed on Setanta via Belfast Belgrade and the Crystal Palace website via Eagle4Caley.

I'm not sure whether to feel honoured or appalled

Hope the commentary was useful to those who weren't there.

There were maybe two moments when Ridgers' goal was threatened - one when he had his rush of blood in the first half, and then his excellent late block from McKenzie. Other than that, we were very comfortable.

Someone appears to have given Storey an injection of confidence! From the word go he was looking to get on the ball and he absolutely terrorized Harvie (a Scotland u21 international). His crosses were generally good and his goal, which was assisted by a poor piece of goalkeeping, was well deserved. Easily his best performance since he returned here.

I was also particularly impressed by Trafford, who won the physical battle in midfield, and Carson, who is looking more assured in possession. It was Carson's burst forward that set up White's goal.

No one could have complained if the margin of victory had been greater. Their keeper made three excellent stops and Todorov had one cleared off the line.

In truth Ayr offered little. They are really struggling with injuries and I think Dunfermline and Dundee are bigger threats to us for second place over the rest of the season.

Hi folks,

For those who haven't seen it mentioned on Twitter, the club will be providing live audio commentary from Saturday's game. A link to the feed should come up on the club's Twitter account about 10 minutes before kickoff. Hopefully it'll be another good result!