Hawk

Young, Mitchell and Durnan, all the others have done well but without these three players playing week in week out we wouldn't be in the position we are in.

What about Durnan think he's been outstanding for one so young? To think I wondered why we signed him at the beginning of the season.

Ok who does he come in for, Lyle has been excellent recently and Gav didn't actually do much wrong last time he started. Do you think they're going to give Nicky a break?

Watching him this season, I think Ryan is the model pro.

I know what you’re saying but looking at his record he’s not actually been a very prolific goal scorer so far. Before anyone else says it, I know neither was Nicky till this year.

I find the signing of Paton a real strange one. The league’s won so have we given this guy a 10 week contract on £££££ a week just to give us cover for the one game, the Cup final? Willie played in the game against Newco Res so he must be close to being fit again and as previously mentioned we would seem to have up top well covered through to the end of the season. I would have thought if we were to sign anyone it would be a left footed fullback to give us balance. Maybe it’s that we’ve had a lot of early entrants to the shirt draw and have spare money or is Sandy just helping out a friend from the past. Don't really get the clamour for a fullback, we have two people suspended for one game. No need to waste money.

Hearts sack John McGlynn, Alan and Sandy may fancy this one!

That should read WED 27th March with a 19.45 ko. That gives us three hard games in a week, although the league will be over by then. Just hope we don't pick up any injuries on the run up to the cup final.

Funny you should say that.

Probably just Sandy using his media contacts to try and sell Nicky as he didn't manage it in the transfer window.

Want another go at trying to get his name right? I realise you're new to this, don't worry you'll get the hang of it soon.

Aye very good, hit the booze early this weekend? Most footballers would give their right foot to have achieved what Johnston did in his career. His managerial one has only just begun.

Ah didn't read it that way at first, see what you're saying now.

Thought we beat the top team in league 1 at the moment on our way to the final!

It looks and plays a hell of a lot better than Raith's did yesterday!

Seemingly a scholarship at Stirling Uni, not the type of thing to turn down.

Couple of things, Heard colleagues at work saying Gavin Reilly is leaving at the end of the season and going to universiity. Hope this isn't true but I can understand that there are other things outside of football. Read in the daily rag that Ian "Lovejoy" McShane is having a scan on a troublesome hip injury. That explains why the lad has not featured much this season. From what I've seen of him I think he is another good young prospect. He could easily play in alongside either Young or McKenna and would therefore allow Mitchell to play in his more suited fullback position. Hope he's back playing soon.

That's assuming we still have the four of them at the close of the transfer window!

The Parkin signing was a good one. It was just we still had some of Gus's dross playing in the middle and at the back, and that's what cost us our survival.

Well you never know, and just a short jaunt down the road from Peterheed for Scotty McLAUGHlin to join up with them as well.

I think a lot McKenna's good work has come about due to the fact that Derek Young has been playing alongside him. As previously said (jokingly) we have narrowed it down to 15 for the player of the season but to me Young has been outstanding in the vast majority of games he's played in. It was no coincidence that we lost when he was absent against Alloa. That was one of the few games where we never got to grips with the centre of the park. Young seems to be a real calming influence to all that are around him. When we play with both Young and McKenna sitting in the middle we generally control games and the work McKenna was trying to do on his own last year is shared therefore he doesn't have the need to be chasing all over the park, diving into challenges. Nothing against Mitchel or Burns, who's been a great servant to the club, but they look lost when asked to play in the middle. I also think we should keep to a basic 4-4-2 formation which suits us a team a lot better instead of these fancy continental ones where some of the guys don't seem to know weither to stick or twist. Yesterday for the first hour was another example of this.

I saw on Sky sports tonight that a couple of players from the English leagues had already signed pca's

Is it, why would that be then?

Well that's the first one taken care of, even though we made hard work of it in the first half. 4-4-2 suits us so much better and this showed in the second half as we pressed high up the pitch putting their defence under a lot of pressure. Hope and think Ayr will do us a wee favour at the weekend, even though they seem to be a team in disarray at the moment. Although it won't be easy I think we could pick up all nine points in the next three games. Alloa hopefully will not do the same in their fixtures, which I think look slightly more difficult. A 14 point gap at the end of the transfer window would do us fine.

Boxing day fixture, ah great, the first of our 4 games in ten days. This is where it will test the size and strength of squads as they have a number of games in quick succession. Four good performances and results over the festive season will really set us up to put this league to bed. It's now a two horse race and Alloa have a couple of tricky games coming up. Let's start with a good performance today watched by a healthy vocal crowd with three points for us at the end. Mon the South