R.R.FC

Wonder who we're sending to Livi for Dale Carrick? He's all we're missing for a full house on Gary Locke bingo.

Whilst I don't disagree Mark Stewart is our best striker currently, that says more about how poor our other strikers have been rather than how good he is. If he is still viewed as our best striker at the end of the season, I think it's a safe bet we won't have made the play offs.

I agree with your main point that Osei must be pushing to get more involved in the first team with his goals. Vaughan has been poor since he came back from injury but he was out for a year, he was never going to come back as the same player quickly. Also pretty sure he scored a couple of goals in his outing for the development team the other week so the same as Osei. It's not too long ago he was being hailed as a messiah, the truth of his ability is bang in the middle between that opinion and the one he has suddenly turned to shite. We need to be patient with him coming back and hopefully his form will pick up. An injury and surgery at that important stage of his career has a lot more of an impact that people think. He needs to show more in his sub appearances than he did against Hibs if he's to get himself back in the team though.

We're getting plenty experience of both right now.

I would say so. He always said it would take 5 years from when it was first put in place for us to start reaping the rewards and getting a steady stream of talent from it.

Bryce's lack of footballing ability cost him a lot more than his attitude.

Yeah no overreaction at all. Nobody is demanding Locke's resignation or going overboard. Everyone just seems to be calling it as it was. We were awful and never looked like scoring all game. Surprised Vaughan was taken off, not his greatest game but he always has a spark about him that can create something out of nothing. Don't want to judge anyone too soon, still getting up to full sharpness but M'Voto and McHattie were poor. Coustrain looked lively when he came on, I thought.

He deserves a place in the Hall of Fame just for the part he played in finally getting us out of the Second Division.

I really admire your positivity so fair play to you for that but I can't agree. M'Voto has got a decent pedigree but you can't possibly say he is better than Toshney at the moment. We've barely seen him so far. Also Roberts has played 30 minutes there's no way we can say he is better than Craigen just now. They are both unknowns. Johnston is probably the signing I was most excited about and he definitely has the potential to replace Connolly but he's just back from a long term injury so it's still relatively unknown how well he'll do. Dont want to try and a dampen you enthusiasm, Stark's would be a better place on a Saturday if everyone was as positive as you but I think it's far too soon to be getting carried away. All the signings, while promising, still have a lot to prove.

Lennox - McGurn/Law/Laidlaw McHattie - McKeown M'Voto - Toshney Barr - Longridge Johnston - Connolly McManus - Hardie Coustrain - Anderson Skacel - Panayiotou Osei - Thomas Roberts - Craigen I've probably missed a few obvious ones out (not including the likes of Petrie/McCord who had little to no game time at the end of the season). But that's a quick comparison between the players we finished the season with and the players who replaced them. Lot more outgoings than I realised. You could argue having Vaughan back is like a new addition to the squad this year. Obviously, some of the match ups aren't direct replacements. However, looking at that you have to say the jury is out on whether we currently have a stronger squad. I don't think we do, there's a few too many unknowns to be getting carried away about after the games we have played so far. There is certainly the potential in the current squad and I'm feeling a lot more confident about this season that I was when Locke was appointed. But it's far too soon to say this is our best squad in years. I personally think we will still finish around 5th/6th this year.

Would be a lot happier with McManus than Harry, not sure if that just says more about my opinion on Harry though. Remember McManus scoring against us at Starks last year, also remember him missing a rake of chances in that game too. Jury is out for me but my gut says he is an overall upgrade on Stewart and Osei (although he's a different type of striker to both).

Anyone heard when Craig Barr and Scott Robertson are likely to be back? Both players who could really have done with getting a full pre season behind them. Depending on how good M'voto is, I think Barr may play more of his games in midfield this year. Apparently he was excellent there for Airdrie. Also very happy with the depth of the squad, being able to rotate players week to week was a big reason for our strong form at the tail end of last season. I would expect a more settled line up to start the league season but always good to have options.

Martin Scott was absolutely hopeless for us. Even at League 2 I wouldn't get excited about him signing. At least McCord showed flashes of ability when he could be arsed, never seen anything from Scott. Glad to see Whatley doing well for you, I know a few people who coached him when he was younger and they never understood why he didn't get a chance with us. Good player.

See Stuart Findlay has been released by Celtic, wonder if Locke will go after him as Toshney's replacement? Signed him for Killie and has been good during loan spells in this league at Morton and Dumbarton.

Yeah more worried about the injuries than the result. We've only been back training a week, a lot of teams are in their 3rd week of training so that'll show in the first few friendlies. Couldn't have picked 2 worse positions for there to be injuries than left back and striker.

Laidlaw to Hibs is very odd, would be surprised if he was anything more than 3rd choice there. Strangely, I think the best 2 games I've seen him have were at Easter Road.

Is that not exactly the type of players the Toshney and Davidson are in the middle of the park? Another centre back would only make sense if we were planning on playing 3 at the back but that won't be happening with the signings of B. Barr and Johnston.

McHattie is a underwhelming signing based on reviews from his previous teams but I think he'll be fine. I don't understand people that are basing their displeasure on one appearance in a cup game 3 years ago when he was 19 though, makes very little sense to me. I wonder how people would feel about him if McKinnon had made the signing. I still don't get the Locke appointment (watching his interviews I think his emphasis on bringing the community together probably played a large part). However, he is our manager so we really need to just accept it. People were even getting on his back regarding the signing of Johnston because he played at Killie. Personally I couldn't care less if every player he signs played with Hearts/Killie as long as they improve the team. Happy to give everyone a chance. I reserve the right to boo him mercilessly a few months down the line if it doesn't work out though!

As they say, football is all about opinions. I really, really don't understand why anyone would rather have Longridge than Connolly. Seems to be quite a few people of the same opinion though so fair enough. Would have liked Longridge back but think Barr will be a more than adequate replacement.

Seems unlikely but I really hope he's not on anything more than a one year deal. Otherwise the cheap option could end up being pretty costly in 6 months time.

2 anonymous users reading this topic. **waves to Eric Drysdale** Good luck tomorrow.

Right, f**k it, it's happening. Let's try and put together a list of positives... 1. His complete and utter failures have at least been at a league above us. 2. His name lends itself better to songs, McKinnon was too long. 3. He's not Claude Anelka. That's all I have. Feel free to try and add your own.

Any Killie fan reading this, please tell us he was an improvement on Allan Johnston at least? You don't even have to believe it, just anything to cheer us up, please!

Okay, anyone want to have a go at guessing the key similarities the board see between Locke and McKinnon? I'm struggling.

Maybe the board are just utterly scunnered with another club taking our manager this season so have decided to appoint someone nobody will ever try to take...crafty...