Robert

Do you know how many shares are available in the club that aren’t owned by anyone?

My thinking was that given the shares have no value in the “real world” and that many were issued in return for cash infusions, some may see getting something below the theoretical value is better than retaining shares that realistically will never give a return. Time will tell!

The jury is out for me until we know a lot more than we currently do about his plans, ideas, motivation etc. I do believe Gardiner will exit, but maybe not until the deal is concluded. The Trust is right to highlight that ongoing issue in its statement. My thinking is that one or more of the current major shareholders must be party to the agreement and either selling or transferring their shares to the investor, but that is just my theory. There remain an awful lot of questions but I will give him the benefit of the doubt until things are clearer.

Max Anderson has joined Crawley Town.

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

Scripted by the CEO for him?

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.

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

We won 2-1.

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

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.

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