Yoss

They've been trying to get their Colt teams into the senior system in some form for years.

Let me check that I've got this right - Premier League sides have managed to force their way into the Challenge Cup on the supposed grounds that it enables their young players experience in senior football. They then recall the players they'e loaned out to senior sides to play for their own under-20s in that cup, in the process ruling them out of any chance of playing for the loaning club in the same competition? Right you are then.

Going by the website, it doesn't actually say that the game is all-ticket, it just advertises advance ticket sales. There'll probably be a cash gate, unless tickets sales are unexpectedly high, but they'll not want to say that just yet because it does keep gate queues down on-the-day if as many people as possible already have tickets.

Christ, it's gone mental already. Wasn't a very good performance but we've all seen much much worse. That Alloa side looks better than the one they had last time out in the higher division. The only thing that annoyed me was our failure to return the ball properly after a stoppage. Pretty classless, that.

I'm reasonably sure that I wasn't. Or not at this stage of the season, anyway. (Come January it was obvious we were short of forwards, but that's because we had, like, one.) Anyway, not complaining either. Just a bit surprised. I guess I got used to the McGlynn / Murray method of starting the season with a small squad and then bringing in loanees once it became evident where we needed them.

Well, maybe. If we get injuries and stuff it'll obviously be useful, but at the moment we're going to have more players than he can give regular chances too. Just feels a little bit kid-in-sweetie-shop.

Supposedly we did try to sign him last season, yeah. I quite like him, actually, in a big-clumsy-c**t sort of way. He's a bit more like the kind of forward we're missing, anyhow, if we do need another one at all.

We're going a bit daft with signings now, that's going to give us something like nine players for the front four positions.

@Scottydog - you're not helping.

People are way too hung up on Hardie - as well as way overstating how good he is. He did well for us, had a couple of very good games in particular - as well as some quieter ones. The idea of him being the ultimate answer to any perceived deficiencies up front is a bit silly, even if there were any chance of him coming back. That's not to say I don't want him, or anything. But I rate Vaughan higher.

I don't think there's been a single season since I first came onto p&b where pretty well everyone hasn't thought the squad was too small at the start of the season.

You're always in danger of looking light in centre-mid if you want to play two forwards and two proper wingers. I thought Matthews and Callchan did okay.

He looks like he has the potential to make a considerable nuisance of himself, yeah. In more ways than one.

If he wants to sign the player he can't pretend he doesn't have that knowledge - what else is he meant to do? Based on what's in the public domain (which may not be full story, granted) I have no issue with what he or Toshney have done. We move on.

Sure that was 2012? I remember us beating them in 2010. The website doesn't list a game against them in 2012 (and doesn't go back any further than that, at least as far as friendlies are concerned).

Cheerio, Toshney. Clearly you can't blame him for wanting to go to a bigger club - if he'd been out of contract and moved on he'd have gone with best wishes like two or three other players and no-one would have thought anything of it. Any talk of disloyalty or the way he's handled it is a bit daft. As it was, extending his contract during the season so we ended up getting some money for him in the summer turned out to be a very good bit of business by, uh, Ray McKinnon. sold? If you're talking about first-teamers rather than kids we got a few bob for, I'm really struggling to remember. bought - I think we paid a token fee for Joe Dunbar, which would have been a year after Winter.

If Toshney wants to go he's as well going. Sure, we can and should hold out for some sort of fee - that's our prerogative. But in these days of freedom of movement, any money we get for him is just a bonus from the fact that he signed a contract extension during the season. He could as easily not have done and left as a free agent just as Craigen, McKeown and Connolly have. As for Laidlaw, I've probably said all the same stuff numerous times on the thread, but I still think he has the attributes of a good 'keeper, and again he's still quite a bit younger than McGurn was when he moved clubs and became a long-term first choice for the first time in his career. It wouldn't the least surprise me if Laidlaw does similar and ends up becoming a good 'keeper somewhere, over the next few years. Be a bit of a pity if that's with someone other than us, but there's no point in us keeping him kicking his heels as a third choice if we don't have more confidence in him than that.

Sad day, but inevitable. Just rewatching his triple save against Ayr on youtube - I'd completely failed to realise, until just now, that it was Chris Mitchell who scored Ayr's goal that day.

That's a bit boring, was hoping for a good day out at one of the Highland League grounds. Cove Rangers have signed Mitch Megginson, incidentally.

McGurn was playing at Stranraer until he got injured.

Liked him a lot, and sorry it's ended like this. Never quite as good a player as he sometimes threatened to be, though.

Is someone slagging Allan Walker? He did well for us. No thanks to Falkinkham, anyway, just 'cause I never liked him and don't want to have to change my mind.

Sure, might have been reasonable at the time. Just amused me that it was the first post that came up, now. (I'm easily amused.) What became of Wallace, anyway? ETA: I see he's just been released.

You know how p&b has this thing where you can click on the button next to a thread and it takes you straight to the first post on the thread since you last looked at it? Well I just clicked on it and it took me to this ....

According to Inverurie's website they've already arranged a home friendly against Aberdeen on the 16th - http://www.inverurielocoworks.co.uk/club/290371/News/view/918187 So Cove are going to have to persuade them to change it or use another venue that day.