rubber_duck

Wasn’t a vintage performance but Queens deservedly won. Pleased to get a positive result as had my doubts beforehand. Thought Cochrane had a very good game today, best he’s been in months. Couple great saves from Stewart too. Both players I personally thought to questionable starters this season but they were solid today. Decent crowd too.

Thought a draw to be the fairest outcome, to actually win both surprising and encouraging as it was pretty dire to watch and as previously stated it was a game we’d have lost last session. Solid enough at the back despite a few hairy moments. A fit Brydon is crucial to a successful season, he was excellent. Thought Ben Johnstone done well given his lack of experience and his age. Some naive and frustrating moments but there’s a decent player there. Walker deserves a start. Coves no.10 was a constant menace. Thought they’d nicked a draw at the end, looking forward to seeing the highlights of that. Did Stewart get a hand to it?

If the only perceived negative of the McLinden tenure is a two year deal to his son (who may or may not make it professionally but has an arguably better chance than others due to circumstances) against the relative positives of the last few months in comparison to the last few seasons, I’m ok with that. I just want to look forward to a season where there’s progress on the park, around the club and in the community.

He had a busy(ish) 10-15 minutes in the first half. Not the most physically imposing keeper but keen enough to come off his line, looked relatively assured in dealing with things and made a decent save low to his right from a free kick. Hope Murphy doesn’t chop and change too much between Stewart and Hogarth and one of them (for me, preferably Hogarth) gets a run of several games at least to then allow a fair judgement to be made.

Lyon looks like an excellent acquisition, the type of player we sorely missed last season in midfield. My minds still not made up on Cochrane despite how long he’s been at Queens now. Thought nothing really came off for him last night despite lots of endeavour and a couple neat passes. I really want to see him performing consistently at the level he’s capable of but all too often he’s not quite there. Fingers crossed the new additions across the midfield will allow him to thrive. And I thought Doherty did reasonably well on the right until he was taken off. As someone noted earlier, there’s still an experimental feel to the team but there’s grounds for positivity going forward.

Absolutely this. Even though some of the younger ones find it entertaining to cajole the vermin, straining my eyes eyes through two dozen gulls zigzagging about is migraine inducing (to be fair, the football at Palmerston latterly has been generally migraine inducing without the gulls). Just use the bins and don’t encourage them.

One thing to learn from yesterday - nobody, absolutely nobody, should discard any foodstuffs whatsoever on the terracing. Those bloody gulls were horrendous after half time. Anyone found lobbing half eaten trays of chips should be forced to pick them up whilst being dive bombed by gulls then ejected from the ground. Possibly. Seriously though, what a pain they are.

Haha. Steady Whats encouraging at the moment is the communication, social media and tempered positivity coming from the club. Oh, and the new kit. The signings are certainly looking more appropriate and positive than this time last year. Just need to see how things shape up on the park over the next few months to entertain any ideas of ‘league winning’. But things feel different for the better and not just sound bite-y like last year.

Kit gets a thumbs up from me. Wasn’t sure how a pinstriped effort would shape up after yesterdays teaser but it works really well in an understated way.

Just read he is without club.

Is Mumbungo still with Accies or was he released? Given the relatively urgent need for more forwards, could go worse than giving him another chance.

Intrigued as to who Bartleys 7 or 8 ‘bad apples’ were and who now may be left in the squad. More likely there there 2 or 3 significantly negative influences then a number who just couldn’t (or wouldn’t) buy into Bartley’s ‘vision’ (whatever that may have been). Just a shit show of a season in which he’ll never absorb any of the blame.

Ralston is third choice. He looked third choice. He played passes that were third choice. He was (reasonably) often third to where he was meant to be…but his work rate was first rate. As was his willingness to accept he fecked but… he kept going. I thought he was tireless. And that’s to his credit. Still…

Ralstons limited, gave a goal away, looked awkward…but by god he hung on. Fair play. Deserves his place.

I tried to put that list into order of Queens related loan success. Obviously appearances have a bearing and negates the involvement of some , but I do have Stewart at the bottom of those who’ve at least had at least half a dozen appearances or more. I’ve got Clark top.