bunglebonce

To borrow a phrase from Malky (no, not one of those ones), Purrington was off it. His pre-season has been interrupted so we should see an improvement soon enough.

We had not had an effective counter attack starting with a right back since Harry Clarke left.

The 'extended summer break in Canada' worked out well for all concerned, then.

On the strength of today alone I'd say sixth choice behind Matthew Wright, who I was impressed by. Wright was unlucky not to get on the score sheet. He had one first-time shot which he shaped toward the far post which the goalkeeper saved, another smart one-touch finish between the legs which was called off-side, then another shot that was well saved with the 'keeper coming out at a good angle. For the latter, Wright showed a lovely first touch to set himself for the shot. He has put on a bit of muscle in the last year and looks better equipped for the first team than before. There are so many strikers though. Other thoughts: - I know it's early days and several players are still getting to know one another, but there was no obvious sense of the style of play evolving from the second half of last season. 3-4-1-2 was used throughout, which is fine, but it still relied on so many chipped balls into the channels. In this day and age you need centre-backs to be able to step up with the ball to build up play. Randall and Reid each went on a foray in the first half, but they seemed to be instinctive rather than drilled. - Turner and Dhanda in the same midfield seems to me to be too much of the same thing. Excellent dead balls from both, nonetheless. - Ruari Paton got goal-side of Baldwin too many times today. Paton looks a mobile enough striker but I wouldn't say he's rapid in the sense that some Premiership forwards are. Baldwin had two red cards last season for preventing goal-scoring opportunities. I can see it happening again. - I am sorry to say that Munro isn't a Premiership-level 'keeper. He got lucky that Paton shot straight at him after the striker got behind Baldwin again and 1v1 with Munro, who was rooted to the line. County scored in a counter-attack from there. + Henderson's crossing and dinked balls behind the defence. He's not a wing-back though. + I know he scored a hat-trick vs Nairn but Wright's performance was still a pleasant surprise. + Dhanda's flicks and deliveries. + Allardice could easily cement a place in the back of midfield.

Back on the wagon. It was miles better than the first half anyway.

With three, maybe four centre-forwards on the bench. There's an argument for an asymmetrical 4-4-2 (Dhanda roaming from the left of a midfield four, Henderson keeping width on the right), but I don't see it happening

Going by Transfermarkt he played three different positions on loan for Stockport in 2023: right-back in a flat four, right-centre-back in a back three, and right wing-back. The squad seems built for the 3-5-2 system again, which makes me wonder where Jay Henderson fits into the equation.

Haven’t seen the clip, but was that an episode about the restaurant at the Glenmoriston hotel?

I really like the volleyed second goal. He made that look so easy, I’m not sure every forward in the squad could do the same.

Were Purrington and Ewan the centre-backs in the first half?

Keillor-Dunn was in the team that won the u20s in 2017. Greg Morrison was the striker - Jim McIntyre gave Morrison a few first team appearances at the start of the 16/17 season but his patience didn’t last (which was harsh IMO). Morrison was left with the development team to win that league, before going out on loan to various clubs and was eventually released. I thought Morrison could have made it, I don’t know where it went wrong. They were the only two with any real first-team exposure. Tony Dingwall occasionally played for the winning development team as an over-ager after losing the manager’s trust in the first team. They were captained by Russell Dingwall but he never looked like stepping up. I watched a lot of that team at the time and there weren’t any other obvious standouts to break into the first team, but they were coached in to a consistent team by Kettlewell. Chris McLaughlin was the best player to come through from the following season, the best youth player in years IMO, but like T Dingwall with the rumours were he didn’t appear to match the talent with the work ethic to keep his place in the first team.

Most importantly, Yan is there.

Could be Purrington that’s away, I saw a few mentions of his name on EFL twitter over the last few months. Exeter the last one to have fans whispering his name.

The signings Allardice and Turner show a departure from the usual transfer strategy, it seems. Callachan was the only player signed from the Scottish leagues in Malky’s first three transfer windows. Turner and Allardice will have the hunger to prove themselves at the top flight. I like that approach, but there should still be some scope for getting potential stars on loan from England as well.

He came on at HT for Scott Boyd at Firhill, then scored an OG within a few minutes. I don’t remember why Boyd was taken off but it left no-one with any experience of the league at the back. We got a total doing. Jim McIntyre ended up relying on Frempah for the first couple of months until Paul Quinn signed as a free agent. Frempah broke his leg shortly after that. He had real potential but we never saw him after the injury.

His highlights reel has him booming headers like Ben Frempah.

Marc Klok's international career is blossoming:

Perhaps not immediately, but if Dhanda stays then he definitely won't be here next summer, whereas Turner might be.

Mostly as a 10 under Doolan but with plenty minutes as an 8 as well. That's not a bad thing, if there's an upgrade on the flanks.

Turner - if that happens - would be succession planning for Dhanda, IMO. As Allardice is for Cancola. My grievance with Cancola was that he had everything in his game, but was rarely brave enough to be progressive with his passing, often passing the buck to the centre backs. When he found himself in the final third and had to be more forward-thinking he could be very good. Allardice won't be a downgrade. @Matty-RCFC the highlight of previous friendlies with them was the gudge playing the Grandstand theme before the match starts.

He’s been on holiday, I’m sure you’ll hear soon enough.

They had the ambition to consolidate in mid-table/top-six, but the recruitment wasn’t up to scratch in key areas. The line-up and performance against East Fife in the League Cup group stage seemed to me to be the prototype of how Malky wanted to play this season, i.e. 4-3-3 / 4-2-3-1 Dhanda playing between the lines to feed the wingers The wingers firing quick low balls across the box for Hiwula, who showed superb movement in those early matches before quickly losing his way. A front three or four of any of Dhanda, Hiwula, Owura Edwards, Olaigbe, Sims and Akio looked like a reasonable gamble at replacing RCC, Hungbo and Spittal and replicating the previous season’s performances. Jordan White ended up playing the same amount of minutes as in the season before, but he didn’t start as a first choice. I think the plan was to use Dom Samuel as the number 10 until Dhanda found his feet in the league (which was complacent in hindsight, Dhanda should have just been thrown in from the starts). Dom Samuel quickly reminded everyone how crap he was and Callachan was pushed upfield again, before Callachan’s first injury gave Dhanda the chance to play. Roy mentioned after the shoot-out that perhaps we had tried to be too technical last summer and lost our soul. That is a polite way of saying too many of the squad turned into shitebags. County were in big trouble by the autumn, when it turned out that Owura’s early promise petered out and - Dhanda apart - the other technical attacking players couldn’t be relied upon. That left Malky to rely upon the cart horses who were carried by RCC and Hungbo he rewarded with longer term contracts. We’ve mostly seen five at the back and too much shithousery since then, but Malky had to back himself into that corner because it became increasingly clear that there were few alternatives in the squad. All of that is to say that I am still content with how last season was planned for, I think? However the recruitment didn’t work in the forward areas. I hope that Sims’s season was due to a crisis in confidence and, with a good performance off the bench vs Thistle and scoring the winning penalty he now blossoms into the player he first hinted at (I keep thinking about that sitter at Tynecastle on the opening day of the season as a Sliding Doors moment for his career). Loturi is only going to get better. As much as I give flak to Callachan, I do think there’s a role for him as a leader in the midfield, and perhaps after his injury he can be reshaped into someone who sits further back with Loturi (his discipline bothers me though and since he isn’t gambling beyond the striker, I can’t stand watching him further up the park where he offers little technically). I think Purrington would be very good at LCB and Dylan Smith could see a lot more football at RCB, with Baldwin in the middle, but we need a major upgrade at right wing-back for that to work. I’d prefer to see Dhanda supporting a couple of wingers and a forward who can both hold his own vs defenders and anticipate the crosses, but I feel like I’m asking for too much.

It is comparing apples and oranges, I agree. I was highlighting why RCC was lauded compared to White. I didn't necessarily mean to downplay White's contribution, but while I'm here I do think it is worth sparing a thought to what the opportunity cost is to White's role as a certain starter. How many other strikers could score 11 goals with the minutes White had in the team? I don't have the answer to that obviously, other than Dom Samuel and Jordy Hiwula couldn't.

To argue the other way 11 goals 3 of them were the opening goal of the match (of which County lost 2 of the 3 matches) His hat-trick in the 3-1 win vs Dundee United included a match-winner His goal in the 3-3 vs St Johnstone was the second of three in the match The other goals didn't affect the outcome of the matches. RCC had 13 goals Three of them were match-winners and a fourth secured a point In the seven matches prior to his hat-trick vs Dundee United, White didn't register a shot on target (albeit he hit the crossbar with a point-blank header in the 6-1 loss at Tynecastle). In that spell he played every minute of the first six matches, then was then taken off just before the hour mark in the win vs Livingston. The hat-trick itself were three tap-ins inside the six-yard box. The hat-trick was crucial to County's survival but masks the rest of his performance since February,. RCC was rightly lauded for being a game-changer. Not just for his goals but being able to take on defenders 1v1 in areas of the pitch that we don't often see joy from.

Turner and Hendry are the type of centre-mid County needs to evolve the squad.