CallumPar

I think his experience would add a lot to the midfield this season. There’s times we could probably do with an experienced head in the middle of the park. Hamilton will pick up suspensions/knocks - or need subbed off to avoid a second yellow. There will also be dips in form for Hamilton and Chalmers and I’m not sure we can rely on Paul Allan to be the only cover - which will be the case if we have a defender out at the same time, meaning Otoo has to play there. If we add Wotherspoon, we’re probably only a striker short of our full attacking options - although, it won’t feel like it if Todd and KRH are both out. I think it would leave us with a good mix of youth and experience, particularly in those wider roles of the front 3.

No wonder the club are in no hurry to complete the squad. They think we have another 8 and a half months of pre-season

I’m hoping we announce someone today. Even if it’s McGowan - although, I believe the board aren’t keen on approving that one. Really want Matty to be ok. Another 2 weeks until the league campaign starts and if he can be fit for that, that would be excellent.

That’s always going to be the ‘official’ line until/unless he actually signs.

Yeah. Can’t disagree, was complaining about it earlier in the week/last week. Functionality is awful. They seem to have launched a ‘work in progress’ and the progress is horrendously slow.

IMPORTANT NEWS New range of stuff available in the online store a this includes the walk out jacket worn against St Pauli. Would expect that to sell out fast. The tops worn in warm ups also available. Edit - can’t add it to your basket though. The ‘add to basket’ button doesn’t work

Yeah. Almost certainly the case. Craig Cairns at the Courier reporting it now though and he tends to be very reliable when it comes to Dunfermline. Although, worth pointing out that he is just reporting our interest and not reporting any kind of agreement.

I think he’ll end up here. Connection with Mackay likely to play a part as well. Not certain enough to say it’ll definitely happen, but I have a feeling he’ll sign. He was at the game on Tuesday and will have seen that we absolutely need him, he’ll get regular game time and not have to relocate. Seems like a sensible move for everyone - but if someone offers more money, he’ll obviously go there.

Not saying he’s signing. I have no idea. Just reporting what I saw.

That would be good…. But, let’s be honest, if we had any other players signed up they’d have been on the bench last night.

It’s clearly a work in progress. But it was launched quite a while ago now and there’s been no progress on it. There’s lots of basic things that seem to be poor/missing. At least they’ve fixed the issue of the fixture list being upside down, but I the new website is not user friendly and there’s a real lack of information. A professional football club’s website should have a squad list and a page that tells you who the management/coaching team are.

Surprised nobody’s mentioned that David Wotherspoon was at the game last night, sat in the main stand. A player we were obviously linked with a few weeks back.

Hope Matty’s ok. McCann too. Decent performance from us, but we really weren’t up against much. If Annan don’t sign a lot more players, they’ll be straight back down. That team was worse than anything we came up against last season.

I’m pretty sure he didn’t, since Yogi came in around 6 months after Murray left the club. Think Crawford might have played him there a couple of times in his first season with us, from memory. But he mainly played as CB for us. edit to add - agree on his versatility. It’s a big thing to have. Covered at LB for us without any issue. Think he’ll try and offer Dabrowski an option too, he was always comfortable to take the ball from the keeper and play it out from the back.

Decent signing for you. When I saw he’d been released, I had a feeling he’d end up at Starks. We’re sorted defensively, but he’s definitely a player that will be an asset for a top end championship club.

Agree on this. He impressed me in every pre-season game I saw too. I think he’s going to be fantastic for us. He reads the game very well defensively and is comfortable on the ball. He certainly doesn’t look like a 22 year old with less than 50 senior appearances.

In fairness, I don’t think I’ve seen/heard many folk panicking about signings yet? Obviously we’d all prefer signings to be made by now, but most people I speak to/pay attention to understand that it’s not that easy. I think we’ll most likely have 2/3 more players in by the time the league campaign kicks off. With the potential of a few loans after that too.

Can’t see us signing Murray. We were interested when we lost Fisher, before we brought in Otoo. Now both are here permanently, I can’t see a space for him in the squad. In terms of left sided defenders, we have Breen here for the next 2 years and Otoo for the next 3. Breen is currently a better defender than Murray and I think Otoo has the potential to be better than Breen in time. Experienced defender, who is more than good enough for a top half team in this league though, sure he’ll do a job for Rovers. Maybe he’ll go to Queens Park though, for Dom Thomas’ corners?

Definitely a cracking top. Much better than the referee tops we’re the team wear for warmups. Was hoping Errea would have a wider range of leisurewear available for fans to buy, but so far it seems to be the same kind of thing as Joma. Still time though.

Think he thrives in that left wing/forward role. Not got the pressure of being focal point up front. He’s also at his best with the ball at his feet, running at defenders. When he’s through the middle, the ball just gets punted towards him. Clearly got a lot of talent and physically he is fantastic. He’s tall, strong and quick. He hit great form towards the end of the season and seems to be continuing that. Really hope he can kick on and be a great player for us.

Has to want more money and/or a longer contract. Genuinely surprised something wasn’t sorted out this week. He definitely would have added something off the bench.

Anyway, onto todays game. Thought we were good in spells and very poor in others. But it’s the first competitive game and the squad is far from complete. McCann was very very good on the left, then less effective through the middle. We need a proper striker to provide cover/competition for Wighton. McCann is excelling on the left of a front 3, so we need to keep him there. Mehmet made 2 excellent saves in the second half and had a fairly solid game. Fisher, Benedictus and Breen all played well too. Todd was unusually quiet, but looked like Raith had prepared for him and had 2/3 men on him most of the time - which is probably why McCann got so much joy on the other side. I’ll not really focus/get drawn in on the negatives. Poor goal to concede - 2 or 3 men could have stopped him getting through. If Hamilton’s on the park, Easton doesn’t walk through the midfielders like that. Thought Raith were a very odd team. Constantly tripping/kicking/pulling back our players. Then Vaughan and Easton were diving all over the place. Slightest contact, they were screaming and rolling around, I couldn’t believe the ref bought all of that. Easton should have been off for 2 yellows, after at least 4 really obvious yellow card offences. But then we had a few obvious yellows that were also let go. Ref was alright on the whole and seemed to be trying to let the game flow, which is fine with me.

Yeah, to be fair I’m not questioning their talent. But they were abysmal and completely ineffective with us. That’s 100% on the manager who brought them in on short term deals and didn’t find a way to get the best out of them.

He must have heard that there’s a couple of English clubs wanting a new right back. Will always remember him as the clown that played Todd as RB ahead of Comrie and had the useless Polworth and Lawless in the roles Todd should have been in.

Nah, I’m not feeling it at all. Doesn’t feel like a derby day or that.