Tory Boy

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Unless you're really splashing the cash, you tend to find that players from a divison(s) above are a few weeks into the close season. They usually take their time to see if there is anyone bigger sniffing around them before going down a level.

Watson hasn't been signed as a backup. It was felt we went long too often last season. They wanted to address that by signing a defender who is more comfortable on the ball and will play out from the back. Our next signing is likely to be a young winger. Agnew rates him as one of the best players he played against last season. Having a wee nosey on his current clubs thread their fans seem to have mixed reviews on him but Murray and Agnew both seem to think he should be playing at a higher level. No doubt all usual suspects in our support will have him wrote off before he kicks a ball. lol

I voted for Fordyce. So consistent throughout the season.

I was just up at the stadium, players are all in at 2pm today. So yeah probably tonight or tomorrow we'll hear.

I made the mistake of going to the game against Motherwell Colts. I thought with it being a derby it might be alright. How wrong I was, dreadful. Worse than a pre-season friendly. Gave the Hamilton game a wide berth. Wouldn't go to another game involving a Colt team. P.S. I wouldn't lump all Lowland League teams together, just the clubs that voted for the proposal.

Dates & times confirmed for the playoff games. SPFL Play-off update

Sorry to see him go. Had a few dealings with him and he always came across as a decent guy. Believe he was a popular figure around the club.

Don't know how true this is but I was told that someone involved at Stirling Albion had also offered him a non-footballing job to go along with the football contract. I was told the name at the time but can't remember it. He was something to do with Tom Wothorspoon.

For clarification, I don't expect us to play tippy tappy football and try and play out from the back like Barcelona everytime. I realise at this level you do need to go long sometimes. However I feel when we panic we resort to the long ball game too quickly and too often, when there has been the opportunity to play out from the back.

For me I think a lot of our problems come from a lack of composure, especially at the back. We struggle with teams who play a high press on our defence or when we have to chase a game. We've seen when we get the ball down we can play. However when a team preses our defence, they're not comfortable on the ball at their feet, so start going long. It's especially frustrating when you have a guy like Sabatini who likes to come short for the ball and they miss him out. He is quite happy to play one twos with the defence keep the ball until there is a opening. Unfortunately our defance play the ball into the middle and it comes back instead of looking for another pass they just launch it. Similar happens when we're trailing. They start to panic. Instead of keeping the ball, be patient and build things. We resort to going long. We've finally got players in midfield who can play. Who are comfortable on the ball but if we bypass the midfield with long balls it's a waste.

Didn't realise Falkirk were playing on Tuesday.

With Falkirk playing in the Cup next weekend a win against Cove would put us top of the league.

We were far too slow. We started the game like we just had to turn up and the game was won. There was so little running off the ball. Players passing the ball and just standing in the same position until it came back to them. Nobody really looking to drive us on. Edinburgh never gave us a minute, were constantly pressing. But when they had possession we would back off. In our earlier games where we weren’t getting the passing going the one thing we did well was press the opposition. That was non-existent last night. Stokes has some nice touches however he isn’t aggressive enough to play up front. You see the difference late on when Carrick up top. He shows a bit of urgency and puts himself about, even if at times it’s just drawing fouls from the opposition. He tries to drive us on. I felt Robert has to improved on the physical side in the last couple of games. However his shooting last night was way off, at least 5 chances and only really worked the goalkeeper once. I think he needs a goal to settle down. I’ve been quite critical of Thomson’s final ball however I felt when he came on last night he done alright, got at their full back and put in a couple of good balls. Last night felt like the same problem Airdrie have always had against lower league teams in the cup. We start slow then late on start panicking trying to up the game. We don’t start with enough urgency.

I'd try and stick to as close to the team that played on Saturday as possible, try and get a bit of momentum. Only change to the starting lineup would be Stokes for Gallagher as he is apparently struggling with a injury so not worth risking him.

I've not had any problems. Even won an away strip.

3 big weeks coming up with Cove vs Thistle, Thistle vs Falkirk and then Falkirk vs Cove. I just hope we can put a run together while they're all playing one another.

My main memory of that game was my mates buying copies of the Daily Record from a shop beside Munns to laugh at one of our other mates. A few weeks previous he had been boasting about a bird he'd pulled in the Garage. Going on about how she looked like a model. His brother had seen said bird and said he must have had beer goggles as he thought she was a bit rough, but our mate was adament she was a stunner. The day of the game the birds picture appaered in the Daily Record nightclub review page. His brother had actually understated how bad she was. It wasn't beer goggles he had, it was ethanol goggles. Everyone was buying copies of the paper to then post the pic about Safeway/Morrisons where he was working.

It was a Airdrie director who told me we were getting a forward on loan from West Ham. There is obviously the much publicised Harry Redknapp and McKay involvement in Airdrie. But also Miller is friends with Moyes. Airdrie were hoping that a successful loan might lead to more players coming up. I spoke to some other West Ham fans who are bit more itk than me to see if they had heard anything and one of them said it was Sean Adarkwa we were supposed to be getting on loan. I have no idea whats gone on that deal hasn't went through.

Happy with that. Bit scrappy but never really looked in danger.

Now the pre-season is over with here is my tuppence worth. 7 games - 4 wins - 2 draws - 1 defeat. Every player has had a run out and we tried different formations and combinations. In spells, with certain combinations I think we’ve looked decent. Currie looks a good shot stopper but I’ve not been overly impressed with his distribution. I think he tends to go long too often when there has been options. I know at this level you have to mx it up, if you go short all the time teams will just press you higher up the park and players like Crighton who’s a decent defender (and surprisingly good at carrying the ball out of defence) but just don’t have the passing ability to get out of those sort of situations. My only comment would be when we do go long think they should be aiming to go down the channels more often, use the pace of our wide players rather than hoping the likes to Gallagher or whoever is playing centre forward wins an aerial battle with a centre half. It’s good to see McCann & MacDonald continue on from where they left off last season. You always wonder are young players going to be one season wonders. Sabatini looks a class act. Massive improvement on what we’ve had previously. One of my biggest gripes with Airdrie is our slack passing Gallagher has it’s great to see someone like him who is so composed on the ball. I really think once him and Robert get a run of games together they could be the difference. Kerr has looked really good in midfield. Rarely wastes the ball and can get stuck into a challenge. He will be an important player when we're playing the better/attacking teams. Airdrie support always have a fall guy and going by Facebook it looks like McKay is going to be the guy taking the blame for all our wrongs this season. I really don’t get the abuse he took for the Alloa performance. I wouldn’t say he doe anything spectacular but at the same time I didn’t see him do much wrong. When I watched back on the highlights he was involved most things we created. Even seen a couple blame him for the 2nd goal we lost even though it was Crighton that Robertson got away from for the goal. O’Rielly & Thomson get themselves into some great positions. They’re good at going past players and getting in to good positions. However their final ball lets them down. They just need a bit of composure. Hopefully the assist and goal during the week will give them a bit of confidence. Overall I think we’ve improved on last season. However as Shine On You Crazy Diamonds said so have others in division, just have to hope we’ve done enough to challenge for the league again.

First half we were pretty poor. Albion Rovers were more hungry and got in about us forcing some silly mistakes. Some of our passing at the back was shocking. Going forward McCann and O'Reilly got into a number of good positions but their crossing was well off. Thankfully McCann settled down in the 2nd half. I don’t get the hate for Robert? My picture wasn’t the best so might be a bit of mistaken identity with him playing on the far side but I thought he created a few of our chances? We were much better in the 2nd half, Sabatini looks a player and I felt we caused them a lot of problems down the right hand side when Thomson came on. Stokes surprised me, I wasn't expecting much from him but he looked decent. Just watched the goals again on the Back of the Net, all 3 were really well taken. Glad to see Roy get a couple of goals after all the abuse he takes on here. Just a shame the defender got a block to stop him getting the hattrick. You’d like to think with our usual defence, especially Fordyce, we would cut out a lot of the first half mistakes. Also interesting in the 2nd half we changed to 2 up front. I’m maybe getting ahead of myself but wondered if that was Murray having in mind the WHU forward still to come in. I know the resident whingers Jack Reed & Waysider won’t agree but I’m quite excited about the new season and really looking forward to seeing Sabatini, Robert & Stokes playing together.

West Ham haven't started sending players out on loan yet. The youth squad have been working with the first team throughout pre-season with a number of them involved in friendlies and last nights cup tie. Last I heard the deal is still going ahead.

The way West Ham are going we might be needing him to stay and play in the first team.