CallumPar

He’s not penalty taker anymore, or wasn’t towards the end of last season. Although, Wighton missed one the other week, so might be back to Bene.

Honestly, I’d be very happy with any 2 of those 4. Don’t know anything about Bearne, but seems like the right type of signing - talented, with potential to improve. Are other clubs at this level willing to chuck around 3 year deals like we are? Could work in our favour here - assuming he’s actually good. Dembele would presumably be a loan deal. Again, would be very happy with that, but I’m not sure it’s a realistic rumour/option.

I think McGowan will be announced today/tomorrow. All parties want the deal to be done and he has to be signed/registered to be able to play now. Not the most exciting, but it’s another body in the squad and a player with great experience. Next signing after that will be a striker.

Got to assume that a straight red means it’s deemed serious foul play though? Mistiming a challenge isn’t a red card offence. It’s not like he was sent off for 2 yellows, it was a straight red.

Are referees now instructed to give out red cards etc in friendlies? Obviously there was Talbot 7/8 years ago. But we also had a trialist under Grant, who was sent off for denying a goal scoring opportunity, about 10 mins into the game. Can’t remember the guy’s name, but he’s been on the SFA suspension list for about 2 years (listed as a Dunfermline player) because he wasn’t signed and probably hasn’t even been back to Scotland since.

Think he’s suspended for next 2 competitive games. That was the case with Talbot anyway.

Agree with this. It’s a pretty friendly rivalry. In my experience, a lot of Rovers fans are decent people and can have decent conversations with them about the game/both teams. There’s a lot more dislike in the Falkirk rivalry and those games always seem to bring out a greater number of idiots in both supports. But, ultimately, I would never have ‘hate’ for anyone because of their links to Falkirk/Rovers. Some of the Falkirk fans were alright on here last season and there seems to be a decent bunch of Rovers fans too. At our level, our clubs definitely need these rivalries/derbies. I’ll miss them next season, when we’re back in the top flight and we never see these diddies again - other than the odd cup game.

Is this what we’ve got to look forward to this season? Falkirk fans were a good laugh. Their fans were deluded and we all got to laugh at their nonsense. I’ll miss the build up/aftermath of those games on here, that was fun last season. However, I don’t think any of them were weird enough to use the term “the enemy team”. It’s going to be a very long season if that’s the standard of chat we get from Rovers fans! Saturday’s a funny one. If we lose, the remaining 3 games basically become friendlies, as we have no chance of progressing. Even a draw leaves both teams with very little chance of getting through to the next round. Think I’d have preferred this game to be last, as it really should be between us for 2nd place in the group and potentially a spot in the second round.

Have we not got Alloa on Tuesday? Probably won’t be a particularly strong Pars team to be fair. Been to the 3 home friendlies and I think everyone’s looked like they could be useful - including a couple of the youngsters that have come on. Yesterday was McGowan’s best performance. It seems clear that Benedictus, Hamilton and Todd will (unsurprisingly) be hugely important players for us this season and keeping them fit will be crucial. I also think that McCann, Otoo and Chalmers will certainly have spells where they are important/make the difference in games. We still need at least one more striker and probably at least one more attacking midfielder/wide man. We need full back cover too, particularly at RB/RWB, with Kane being out. They may believe Fenton can step up if Edwards is out, or be comfortable with Otoo there. I’d also be fine with Fisher at RB in a 4. But not at wing back in a 5.

I’m struggling to see any similarities between him and Wighton. So they’re definitely not too similar. He barely started and only played 35% of our league minutes, despite no injuries or suspensions last season. He also got very limited minutes the season before, but will have been one of our higher earners. Personally, I think he’d have offered something. He’s a good player. As for struggling to replace him, that remains to be seen. We need to sign a number of new players and prioritised bringing back those that were here on loan last season. Still plenty of time to make other signings.

Haha, great minds think alike! We must have posted at the same time.

KRH out for 8-12 weeks, according to Mackay. Ankle requires surgery after a collision with Matty Todd in training. If it wasn’t Matty Todd, I’d probably be annoyed with the player that crocked him… Big loss to the team for the next few months, but I’m sure he’ll come back fighting fit.

On the flip side, I think he’s the kind of player we should be looking for. We need experience. Our second oldest player that started last night was Comrie, at 26. If we use that system, it’s likely that he will be backup to 20 year old Kane Ritchie-Hosler, so our starting 11 will get even younger/less experienced. Youth got us through League 1. But I think we’re going to need some more experience for the championship. However, the challenge is that it has to be an experienced player that has the right attitude, won’t disrupt the harmony and will enhance the squad. That’s not easy to find at all.

By the way, where’s this version of Lewis McCann been hiding? He finished last season very strongly. Then tonight, he played out wide first half and was very effective, had a great shot that hit the post and was causing the defenders problems. Second half he played through the middle and had good runs in behind, good linkup play, beat defenders a few times, went on a few good runs and almost got a goal at the end. He was nutmegging defenders and everything tonight. Hopefully we see more of this and he goes on to fulfil that potential. Always looked such a raw talent and seemed to stagnate a bit, never really progressed. But he’s powerful, quick and good with the ball at his feet. Got the makings of a very good attacker. Hes not Matty Todd though. Todd looked like he was match fit, certainly didn’t look like he hadn’t kicked a ball for months. Some boy. He’s so important for us and has 100% earned that number 10 shirt.

Don’t really know much about your squad if I’m honest. But you’ve definitely been the best team since the equaliser. Strange half, where we were in total control for about 25 mins and have barely kicked a ball since. Your wingers (11 & 14) look like good players, who are causing problems. Stevie May’s clearly still a very good player and has been dropping deeper to get more involved during your dominant spell. 25 and Crawford been good in the middle. For us, Todd’s obviously so crucial to everything we do going forward. McCann been having a good game and Wighton has had his moments. Comrie’s done nothing since I praised him (typical!). We started with real intensity and seemed to just fade towards the end of the half - which is understandable at this stage of pre-season!

Wonder if RandomGuy’s at the game tonight, watching Comrie dominate St Johnstone down that side of the pitch early on… 20 mins in, we’re 1-0 up and playing very well. Todd, Comrie and McCann all been excellent. Wighton took his goal really well - seems to be playing a false 9 role, with Todd and McCann running beyond him, which is working.

Think Otoo’s in midfield. Guess this is the time to try these things.

This better not be a wind up.

Don’t think we’ve gone above 3000 since we stopped the free u12 season tickets/started monitoring for adults using u12 tickets. Along with the money from the Nisbet sell-on, this should see us having a very healthy budget this summer to attract the desired calibre of player. Obviously don’t want us to blow it all, but we should have surplus funds, to bolster the squad/tempt a few top end of championship quality players our way.

Honestly wasn’t expecting sales to be as high as that. Fantastic effort, particularly given the cost of living right now. As 101 says, still another payday before the league campaign starts, so might get another 2-300 signed up. Good news regarding finance options as well. Would have been very surprised if the club weren’t exploring options. Hopefully they can sort something out soon!

I hope so. But I’d also be (pleasantly) surprised.

Yeah, if we’re signing McGowan just announce him. He’s played in both games so far, scored at the weekend. I’m sure he’ll be a decent enough squad player, but we know that Hamilton, Todd and Chalmers are ahead of him in the pecking order. Think he seems to be best as a holding player these days, so would be able to provide cover for Hamilton if he’s injured/suspended. Hopefully they don’t try and hype that one up on social media, as I don’t imagine it’ll get a great reaction. I guess there’s a chance that they’re holding off so that they can announce him, then another signing shortly after…

Agree on Mullen/Jakubiak. Both have potential to be really good signings. I’d be very pleased with them. Mullen playing alongside Jakubiak or Wighton, or wide in a front 3, would be good. But I wouldn’t be relying on him for goals. From what I’ve seen of him though, he causes defences problems and is good at linking up the play. Was it Mullen who missed an open goal after Mehmet had a howler in the cup game last season? I can’t remember, but seem to think it was. As mentioned above, Sutherland took to social media to slate Caley, who then shot down his claims, by pointing out that they followed legal procedures - which involved a face to face meeting with him. Don’t really want someone like that around the club.

Hoping to see one or two new faces this week. I know that the league is the priority, but I’d like to see a couple of new signings getting a chance to play v Hearts and Alloa, before we start the league cup campaign. I know everyone has been trying very hard to get players in and I’ve got no doubt that we are close to getting a couple sorted out. But we are very light in numbers, particularly in attacking areas and the league cup is such a busy schedule to start the season, with 4 games in 11 days. It would be good if we had rotation options/cover. Guys like Breen, Wighton and Allan seem to be quite injury prone and I don’t want us to be too reliant on them at this stage and for that to result in injuries that impact the league campaign. Although, the reality is, if we end up losing to Raith, we basically have 3 friendlies after that as we won’t be getting into the next round anyway.

Nope. Stripes in the Belgian flag are in a different order. If you rotate the German flag, it’s black-red-yellow, like the Partick kit. Belgian flag is black-yellow-red. So that’s not like the Partick kit.