PerfICT

....some of them even want Butcher!

Well done to JH. Sounds like Watkins made the difference, which is what many were suggesting. Play guys in their correct position and it pays dividends. Williams and Watkins is the way forward for wide players, with Doran to come on - excellent! A word today for the defence: what a unit we have there.....

MAGNIFICENT! LOVING THAT TABLE!! WELL DONE LADS

I think we need to learn some lessons from DUFC here. As soon as Ryan Gauld and Robertson were in the spotlight, they got them to sign lengthy (5 years for Gauld?) deals. I don't think we know yet whether Christie is as good as those two (I would argue that he certainly has the potential to be), but if we want to start getting into the crazy money (>£1M) bracket for players we develop, we should tie them to long contracts if possible.

An excellent watch. Interesting to not how many of these goals came from a winger in behind with a first time pass - we didn't manage one of those last night!

Quite like ICTRoughi's alternative, otherwise last nights starting line up with Watkins in for Vincent. Not sure I wanted to see Ojaama back for Motherwell...

As I said on another thread: pretty + ineffective = pretty ineffective. I admired our ability to play our way out of tight spots in midfield and keep tidy possession, but I just don't see what Billy's role is! By the time we get to the penalty area, he's marked out of the game. Watkins must start ahead of Vincent. Anyone spot the irony that our best chance came from a break out of defence by Watkins at pace. Shame he wasted it! I think we'll need to get used to these kind of performances and scorelines. Doesn't really get the pulse racing.

Renegade's team for me: Watkins has much more to offer than Vincent at the moment and Williams deserves to keep his place on the left. doran off the bench if we need a spark, Vincent if we need to shut up shop.

You could argue that Billy is invaluable to us, given that without him, we'll drop a few places in the league which could arguably put us in the mix for relegation - the cost of the unthinkable would far outweigh any offer for him! however, I reckon £400k would be enough to convince the board and we need to be prepared for losing him. The issue really is that we'd be scrabbling around for scraps to replace him now and we'd not get quality. I really hope he doesn't go, but the Bundesliga might be too tempting for him and I wouldn't blame him for taking the chance, if offered.

Storm in a teacup. Let our stats do the talking. I don't give a t0ss what journos say: they don't give us a chance in any season. Much better being the underdogs!

Most pleasing: 13 chances for us away from home- 8 on target! Sounds like the subs also made an impact when they came on! 2nd season in a row that we've topped the table on day 1....

Excellent - well done lads! Tricky opening, comfortably negotiated. I will say this - if the Hughes style works out, it'll be the tastiest humble pie I've ever eaten!

Unbelievable ruling, given a precedent when a club was only fined £15k for the same error made "in god faith". I'm not sure we've heard the end of it. Still, it would be good for Scottish football to have a rep in the chamions league - kudos, cash and a distraction for Celtic to boot! shame the other 2 didn't make it, but I bet there's a few Aberdonians looking up the rule books.

In this BBC article, JH gives his view on the McKay situation: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28692889 Interesting to see where he's setting his sights for this season "staying up...anything else is a bonus". Maybe a sensible statement in the public domain, but I hope he's more positive than that in the dressing room!

There is almost another month of the transfer window left , deals are done up until the last minute on the 31st so I don't see how this is to late What I meant was, it is too late for us to find a decent replacement, not that there isn't time for the deal to be done. We don't want to be scrabbling around for the scraps that are left by everybody else to fill a crucial position....especially if we were to get <£100k for him, for example!

Acceptable? 6th. Realistic? 8th/9th. I don't think there will be very much between 4th and 12th - hopefully, Kilmarnock (without boyd), St Mirren, Partick Thistle, Dundee, Ross County, Hamilton and St Johnstone (without May) will not be up to much and we'll get away with a low scoring system....particularly if we lose Billy McK!

Sounds like an offer has been made by Fleetwood, so this is a reality. This is too late in the window to be taken seriously and I wonder whether Billy would see a move there as a step up? I thought they were a pretty poor team a couple of weeks ago - athletic and powerful, but poor. from our perspective, I don't think Billy suits our new style, so he'll not be scoring 25+ goals this sseason BUT this is so late in the window, we'll not get a decent replacement (loanee or purchase), which means we'll be going with an untried (but promising under 20). For that reason alone - don't sell!

Unfortunately, the window for getting serious money for Billy has gone: he's stopped scoring for several reasons and he's in the last year of his contract. This is, however, the worst time to lose somebody of his calibre - no time to replace with quality. So, we need to hold out for big bucks. Better to lose him for free next year and be able to plan than go a full season with no striker!

The penalty for 5th rather than 4th last season was an extra round of the league cup. Hopefully, SEVCO will be bust by then anyway, so it might be a bye or Queen's Park.

I like Renegade's line-up, but after the World Cup, we could consider going 5 at the back with Shinnie and Raven as wing backs - something like: Brill Meekings Warren Tremarco Raven Tansey Shinnie Watkins Christie Doran/Williams McKay I'm assuming Draper still injured? If he's back, I'd go 4-2-3-1 with the same personnel as above, but with Shinnie back at left back instead of Tremarco and Draper in beside Tansey.

Goals (for your team!) provide top entertainment in football - full stop. I bet nobody can remember the build up to Nick Ross's equaliser against Hearts at ER...it was pretty scrappy! Were you entertained? My problem is that I subscribe to the Barca style of football, but then Barca usually score at the end of a beautiful move. I reckon we will score some beautifully crafted goals this season, but not many. Now, will the beautiful passing outweigh the disappointment of few goals and dropped points. We'll see. Hamilton away is an almighty banana skin - here's hoping the boys turn it on and grab a couple!

Pretty + Ineffective = pretty ineffective. I think this is going to be a theme this year! Our possession stats will be brilliant, but we'll continue to leak sloppy goals and will struggle to score because a slow build up is not playing to McKay's strengths. It's a goals business, JH....please prove me wrong!

I'd have Shinnie over Robertson any day....

OK, IHE, I'll provide a very brief report of how I remember yesterday's game: Cracking weather greeted a powerful looking team from Fleetwood and a small band of visiting fans. The main stand was about half full by kick off. The first half started with long spells of possession for ICT - Fleetwood struggled to get hold of possession and were reliant on long thumps up to their striker. Against the run of play, however, they put the ball in the net from an attack down the right and a low cross, but the offside flag was raised - tight call! ICT played some neat football in midfield and were combining particularly well down the left, with Shinnie always making himself available. However, they created few goalscoring opportunities, the best of which were a free kick from Tansey which deflected off the wall after Christie was brought down and a shot from Billy from 10 yards after his put in behind by Christie's pass. Fleetwood forced a couple of corners on the break before an excellent run and cross from Raven was converted by McKay from 6 yards just before half time. Fleetwood started the second half better than the first and had some possession of their own. Watkins and Ross came on with about 30 min to go (replacing Doran and Christie) and the threat switched to the right, where Watkins made several dangerous breaks from midfield but failed to find the final pass. Fleetwood always looked dangerous from the set-piece and scored mid-way through the half from a free kick on the left that was neatly headed past Brill. Shortly afterwards, another break from Watkins was missed by everybody, but was pinged back in by Williams: his shot was saved/hit the post and the rebound put in by Vincent. Vincent and Williams gave way to Polworth and the trialist. The only chance of great note came from Fleetwood on account of a mistake by Tremarco in a dangerous spot - the resulting low cross was put narrowly wide of the near post. The match finished tamely. A good workout, but few chances for either side.

Meant to say: Doran looked like he's lost about 5 yards of pace (and put on 5 stone!) and Nick Ross had a sub's appearance to forget. Polworth had a couple of scary moments too....