Robert

MacKay saves a Clach penalty after foul by left back Nixon. His second good save after keeping a great free kick out at 1-0. Brooks missed a sitter at 1-0 but otherwise a lot of possession but not a lot of chances. Good fun with a noisy young crowd though.

Lodovica again. Another header. 3-0.

Lodovica brought down in box. Takes penalty himself. Keeper saves it but Lodovica taps in rebound. 2 up.

Lodovica (I think, Duffy was there too but Duffy congratulated Lodovica so assume he got the touch) header. 1 up.

A young team! Thanks for posting as otherwise it would have been hard to work out. Shaping up to be a decent crowd. Three former players plus Hennem in the Clach team.

Marley Watkins with the only goal of the game as Killie knocked Celtic out of the Viaplay Cup.

Jordan White for County today.

Andrew MacRae for Brora on Wednesday.

Hopefully evidence of renewed efforts in this regard.

2023/24 preview, squad update and fixture list: https://ictfc.com/ictwfc-2023-24-season-preview/

Received an e-mail from the club this morning that confirms it is pay at the gate, £10 adults and £5 children and concessions. It also includes various other updates.

Admission is £10 and £5. It doesn’t say who get in for £5 but presumably concessions and children? https://clachfc.co.uk/news_article.php?id=91

Certainly there are more people around in club staff tops than previously, and far fewer stewards, so it looks like they’ve taken much of the stewarding in house. That should be a cost saving.

The summary of the accounts further down the page, whilst nothing we didn’t know, highlights the gravity of the financial situation. February will be interesting if the next accounts are lodged on time.

What a boring draw. One of the few times we can get a club we don’t normally play and we get our biggest relegation challengers (as at the time of writing)!

Jordan Roberts for Stevenage and Miles Storey for Curzon Ashton last night. Belatedly in the Highland League at the weekend, Andrew MacAskill got two for Buckie. Calum Ferguson scored for Clach. He started his career with us as a youngster (back when we were good!) and made a few appearances off the bench.

Queen of the South @ 1.75 please.

What’s the normal set up at Clach for tickets: pay at the gate?

Wonder where it has been all these years. Forres were the last winners in 2005/6 I understand, as there used to be guest teams invited to participate. That followed 10 years when it was won by us (7) or County. I may take the game in.

I thought he declined the opportunity to stay on when his time as Interim Manager ended due to his commitments in the central belt. My understanding is that the club had wanted to keep him and only tried to find a Manager after McCann confirmed his intentions. Dodds and others applied with Dodds being selected. I’ve no idea who else was interested at that time but agree with the comments above about the difficulty of attracting an experienced Manager who is based in the central belt.

I hope we do turn things round quickly, but if a change is made, I’d like to see Gary Warren and Carl Tremarco involved as Manager and Assistant. Both are in coaching roles so are not total rookies. I’d retain Ryan Esson as goalkeeping coach and look to bring in a forwards coach.

Is that due to his role at County?

Notwithstanding our concerns with the CEO, Sporting Director, Manager and coaches, I’ve been considering how we could turn things round on the park if there was the appetite to change our approach. We have some decent players at Championship level but are not getting the best out of them. Despite our defensive frailties which have cost us in several games already, we’ve stuck with four at the back despite wanting our full backs to get forward. That’s leaving us short of numbers at the back whenever we (frequently) lose possession. Davidson and Harper are both capable going forward, so to tighten things up I suggest we go 3 5 2 with two wing backs in the 5. We’d need Duffy or Ram back to be able to do it, and it also gives us the added benefit of 3 in central midfield where we have been getting outnumbered. The only downside I can see is how we fit Shaw in, given he’s been our best performer in several of the games but his pace with Mckay in the front 2 could work well. Looking at the line ups in today’s top flight matches, 5 teams have gone with 3 at the back, with only Celtic starting with 4. Any other thoughts?

Fair enough.

With Arbroath - Queens Park being pulled forward from Halloween to next Saturday, will it be opened up for predictions?