Robert

Jamie McCart for Rotherham last night.

Nat Wedderburn for Stenhousemuir and a Nathan Austin hat trick for East Fife today. In the Highland League, Kevin McHattie for Brechin and Aidan Wilson for Inverurie.

It will be. The normal Supporters Bus is supplemented by the Supporters Trust one plus those who make their own way so it should be a big away support who can hopefully inspire the players to get our first league win.

Can I get a loan to a free scoring attacking team please? To compound things, Nixon scored for Forres on Wednesday in the NoS Cup!

Ethan Cairns was watching the game at Nairn on Tuesday evening so is hopefully not far away. Anyone know what the position is with Sam Nixon? He’s not featured in the squad since pre-season so is presumably injured too, as otherwise I’d have expected to have been in the team at Nairn.

Dumbarton @ 2.15 please.

HT 0-1 FT 1-2 ICT Billy Mckay Kelty Cunningham Crowd 587

Catching up a bit, last Saturday George Oakley for Ayr, Scott Allan for Kelty, Nathan Austin for East Fife, Ryan Fyffe for Buckie and Aaron Nicolson for Strathspey. On Tuesday in the NoS Cup, Andrew MacRae for Brora and Alex Samuel for County, whilst Sam Nixon scored for Forres and Aaron Nicolson scored for Strathspey on Wednesday.

We clearly didn't want to risk any injuries to the main first team players. Nairn deserved their win but we did play some nice stuff at times. Mackay and Thompson had moments when they looked like really imposing themselves on the match but we never really dominated at any time. Of the (very) young subs, Gardiner and Luxton did well, and we finished with seven youth team players on the pitch. No disgrace.

More even that the score line suggests but Nairn have taken their chances and we haven’t. Keogh, Corner and Ferguson all could have scored but that’s been the story of our season.

But as Scotty’s excellent post highlighted, his fanciful bid was the catalyst needed to get everything and everyone pulling together.

I hope to make it. Nairn’s pitch has a great surface and it is one of my favourite Highland League grounds.

Potentially a very significant day. I loved his comments about Gardiner too!

Devine’s been pretty solid generally but was a doubt so maybe he’s not fully fit? I’d need to see the Montrose goal again as in real time it struck me as a poor one to concede. Other than corners, our goalie had nothing else to do. Whilst we took on a few shots, principally through MacKinnon and Longstaff, we continue to overplay things too much and pass or try to play through the defence when a shot was on. We also continue to pull everyone back at corners so we don’t have an outlet for a quick break. If we can change those habits it would help greatly. To the positives, MacKinnon continues to look a good player and he took his goal well. Longstaff was much better playing wide, whilst we improved after Strachan and MacLeod came on. We should have won, but equally could have been in trouble at a quick Montrose break where Devine tried to foul the attacker but failed to stop him, and it took a great challenge by Savage to prevent the player being in on goal. Definitely two points dropped and I hope this doesn’t become a pattern as not turning draws into wins cost us big style last season.

As the only striker starting, surely Mckay will be playing up front! Looking forward to this and hope for a positive, attacking performance.

Wow, you must have done some trawling to find that!

There were a couple of nasty incidents involving pyros last season with at least one young fan injured in one incident.

We have the start of a new era off the pitch, but a long tough road ahead, and I’m hoping for the start of a new era on the pitch, where we play to our strengths and play attractive attacking football. It would be very apt if Billy regains his scoring touch by being played as a proper striker in his 300th game. I’m hoping there will be a large enthusiastic crowd who inspire the players to our first league win of the season.

I’ve heard the new away design is a cracker. Hopefully they are available soon.

It’s Billy Mckay’s 300th game for us tomorrow. Let’s see him restored to the striker role!

Strathspey Thistle have announced the appointments of Ryan Esson as Head Coach and Aaron Doran as Player / Coach.

East Fife @ 2.05 please.

Will we get a “Savage bounce”? I hope so! HT 1-0 FT 2-1 ICT Billy McKay Montrose Brown Crowd 2000

Nathan Austin for East Fife last night.

It’s great to see the positive reaction to the news confirmed today. Credit to Alan Savage for stepping in but also to all who attended the alleged meeting on Thursday that CB advised us of: collectively they look to have got this result. But this is only the start and there’s still a big challenge ahead before the club is financially stable, and an even bigger one to restore our reputation, both locally and in the wider football world. Ketan was a fantasist and would have strung us along and probably been the final nail in the coffin. I’m not going to dignify Gardiner by saying anything: others have done that very eloquently. I also think we need to give Ferguson a bit of a chance. I’m not a fan of his tactics and formation, but we can’t afford to part with him. He’s been dealt cards that are very different to the promises he’d have been given by Gardiner and Morrison (don’t forget his part in our demise) but we need to get behind the team fully. Saturday will hopefully see a large, positive crowd who will help the players get our first league win.