Robert

Quite a few in the League Cup last night:

Graeme Shinnie for Aberdeen, George Oakley and Jay Henderson for Ayr, Roddy MacGregor (2) for Queens Park, Nathan Austin (2) for East Fife and Jordan White for Ross County. 

Like others, I didn’t know him personally but loved his contributions on here and he was clearly a very big character.

My sincere condolences to his family. 

I made a late decision to attend.

A draw was a fair result with few clear chances for both teams.

I felt we were mainly 3/5 at the back with Bray and Strachan as wing backs in a first half of few clear chances.

MacLeod was my pick in the first half, closely followed by Strachan.

It’s good to see reports that Walker is ok as it looked a bad one and you never like seeing anyone stretchered off.

We changed to a 4 after his injury with Gilmour in front of the back 4.

In the second half, Bray was the pick with some good runs down the right and good crosses. Longstaff saw a lot of the ball, and Savage got forward menacingly a few times.

The stand side linesman wrongly flagged in our best move which had Mckay one on one with the ‘keeper.

Arbroath ended with 10 due to injuries and adopted a 9 0 0 formation which we just couldn’t play though.

The teams were pretty even. Some of our passing was very good but we just didn’t have an end product once again.

Shaun Rooney is now at St Mirren. 

HT 1-0

FT 2-1

ICT Brooks

Arbroath Dow

Crowd 647

Jordan White for County and Andrew MacAskill for Buckie today, with Ryan Fyffe scoring an own goal in the Buckie - Falkirk game. 

I see Ethan Cairns was not in the squad again today. Is he injured?

26 minutes ago, Jack Waddington said:

"Six. Hundred. And. Eighty. Two"

Are they counting people driving past on the A9 too?

20240720_152319.heic 1.84 MB · 6 downloads

When we played them in the group stages on 15 July last year the crowd was 1077 (credit Gringo’s NPL). 

Looking ahead to the league campaign, I see Annan won 3-0 at Arbroath. It will be interesting to see how we do against Arbroath on Tuesday. 

2 hours ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

Slightly off topic but is it true that Billy McKay is the new coach of the Under 18's. Another cost cutting exercise to give him two wages to be closer to his previous one 

I’d heard that too, with Ryan Esson not offered a new contract. 

2 hours ago, STFU said:

 

So fans do nothing?

I didn’t say that either!

I think the apparent slow take up of season tickets and the likely poor attendance today shows that fans are acting as they see fit.

As you’ve said, it’s personal choice whether to attend or not.

I’m not going today but, unlike many others, I normally do attend the League Cup group games.

A protest would risk not achieving its objective. How many people would actually turn up on a summer (if we can use that term this year!) Saturday afternoon in the middle of the holiday period?

I think it would end up being a small number, which would not achieve anything other than allowing Gardiner to gloat.

It may also spook the investors which would damage the medium and long term future too if it caused them to have doubts.

34 minutes ago, RednBlackComeback said:

It's a car crash interview and a big two fingers to the fans!

Unbelievable what this club has become!

Scripted by the CEO for him?

28 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

Todorov has left Airdrie ‘by mutual consent’.

He’s joined Hamilton. 

Buckie have confirmed the signing of Mark Ridgers tonight.

Ryan Esson now has a coaching role at St Johnstone.

It’s an absolute disgrace that we didn’t offer them new terms.

4 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Someone better tell him that then as the tail is currently wagging the dog. 

Which is one of the reasons why change is so badly needed.

HT 1-0

FT 2-1

ICT Mckay

Bonnyrigg Barrett

Crowd 489

We won 2-1. 

I see seat reservations for season ticket renewals stop at 1200 tomorrow and full prices then apply. 

On 6/30/2024 at 5:14 PM, Robert said:

Strathspey Thistle are advising that they are playing us in Grantown at 1930 on 18 July:

Thursday July 18 H Inverness CaledonianThistle 19.30

Pay at Gate 

Our Under 18s are playing this friendly in Grantown tonight. Half of the proceeds are being donated to Mikeysline. 

Iain Vigurs has joined Banks O’Dee. 

2 hours ago, Northern_jaggie said:

My favourite formation was 4-2-3-1, with the two central defensive midfielders and the back four doing the groundwork which freed up the forward 4 to take on players and terrorise defences. The good old days. 

Mine too, and I feel we’d get the best of our current squad playing that formation now, utilising the pace of guys like Bray, Brooks, Longstaff and Thompson and getting Mckay back up front.

Last night in our group:

Annan 2-2 Bonnyrigg, with Bonnyrigg winning 7-6 on penalties

Arbroath 0-2 Dundee

We will come up against a couple of loan players as Scott Allan is now at Kelty and Kai Kennedy is now at Queen of the South.

Jay Henderson is on loan to Ayr from Ross County.

Reece McAleer has joined Livingston.

Dan Mackay and Logan Chalmers have joined Partick. 

For me, survival as a club comes first, anything positive on the pitch is a bonus.

That said, some of the feedback from Saturday is encouraging. In Bray and MacLeod we have youngsters with great potential and others may start to shine too, such as Mackay and Thompson who both looked good at Clach and Nairn. We’ve also Nicolson to come back which will strengthen us.

On the other hand, Ferguson said that he played Brooks, Gilmour and McKay for longer on Saturday than he had planned to, given they’d had injuries. That is a major worry that we are asking too much of players who are not fully fit.

I’m cautiously hopeful that they may surprise us this season and at least make the promotion play offs but, as others have said, it is very early days and we do not yet know the level we are at.