BB_Bino

I suspect......and it's 100% pure speculation....that we are waiting for a striker to come into a club before they send someone out on loan to us. I could be wrong but the fact that Mackay has known that Bikey was leaving this month and has not moved to secure a deal for someone else makes me think that we are waiting on something to happen. With Henderson not hitting the goal scoring charts like he did at Berwick and Darren Smith being continually injured and having never been a regular amongst the goals, I really do fear for our "play off push" or "relegation battle" if we can't bring someone in who can hit the net regularly. Must admit I am still stunned at the way things have turned out with Henderson and although I have seen nothing to suggest it will happen, I keep my fingers crossed that somehow he can turn the corner sooner rather than later..

Henderson sums up everything about Stuart McLaren's team in 1 signing. He can't defend, he rarely scores, has little movement, is slow building up play but can normally make a pass within 5 yards.

Bikey on the bench for Hearts against Celtic today.

David Verlaque the latest player to leave the club. Thought he started off looking like a player but he seems to have gone backwards since. Wish him well for the future however and hope he can find somewhere to play regularly.

That's my worry.

I wouldn't be to sad to see him leave, if true. Other than put in a decent free kick or corner, what else has he offered this season? If ever there was a match made in heaven, this is it.

Interesting stuff: Mackay said: “We will probably have another couple of new faces before the end of the transfer window. “There’s one that we have had lined up for a couple of weeks, which we had hoped to get done with the other five new signings, and we would also hope to bring a striker in. “There are four players who have been told they are free to speak to other clubs. We had a big squad before the window – now we have brought in more we need to reduce the numbers."

Yeah because someone like......say Bryan Hodge, would never do something like that eh? Come on, these guys are looking out for themselves (we all do I suppose). He wants to play football, rather than travel all that way to sit on the bench, but he's not going to volunteer to leave Peterhead without anywhere to go, so he's fixed something up, that's common sense to me and something that happens all the time in football. As for picking Cowdenbeath over Arbroath....that's a total heads gone, but as has been suggested, maybe the deal was already done and he didn't want to go back on his word or maybe it's more convenient to where he lives/works and makes more sense for him to do. Hodge filled in at Left Back for us a couple of times but was totally exposed by his lack of pace. Sure, he'll do as a stop gap but I wouldn't suggest it would be a good idea long term.

Would rather have Kavanagh and which ever one of the other 2 can actually be arsed this week. Not great, but hopefully Mackay is working on something.

Now my head hurts.......I'm not getting into a tit for tat argument and at no point was I being cocky. If you think that Cowdenbeath squad is good then so be it, the league table and a very large majority of the poster in the Cowdenbeath thread would also disagree with you. At the time of your illustrious win at Forthbank 3 weeks ago, were Stirling poor? Yes!! However, everyone could see that, which is why 5 new players were signed (and possibly more to come)......in fact, we could see how poor we were months before that game and our manager paid the price for that. Your managed still remains in a job. To get back to the original point you made. If a player can't already get into a poor m, at times terrible, team at this level, then why should a team that has already recruited to improve, take a chance on him?

Which is probably the reason 7 of them were dropped for the Clyde game the following week!

Christ that Cowden team is awful, even their own supporters would agree to that, if he isn't ready to step into their First Team then keep him away from Forthbank. Our momentum is starting to build, it's important that we replace Bikey and Beith with players of the same quality.

Ray McKinnon on Radio Scotland saying he is looking for "a forward thinking player who can play wide or through the middle" and "he's been impressed with a boy we've had in for about 2 weeks now".....might be wrong but Bikey ticks those boxes.

Callum Morrison started off slow, I must admit, I wasn't convinced by him. Games seemed to pass him by and he didn't really offer a lot. It got to the stage where he wasn't even in the match day squad and it looked inevitable that he would be sent back to Hearts. Since Dave Mackay has come in though, the lad has been excellent. I'm delighted that the loan has been extended because he's got all the attributes to be a good player. Is he ready for the Hearts team, no, not yet but he certainly has potential and it will be interested to see how he develops over the next few seasons. Angus Beith is a class act. Again, it took him a while to get going, you were starting to wonder if injury had taken it's toll on a player that looked a shadow of the one that was onloan to us over a season ago. With regular football however, he has now shown that he is in fact a better player than that one. I really hope his contract can be extended to, he is a key player for us and going back to Hearts will probably set him back again. If you could keep him at us this season, maybe loan him to a Championship club next season (Raith springs to mind), and I think you'll have a player ready to break through the following season. Beith has it all (except scoring goals) from what I can see, and if he keeps going the way he is going, will be one exciting player.

Sexy b*****d of a man!!!

Didn't realise it was this summer, what are City's plans then mate?

I don't think anyone is saying they are overly confident that Mackay will be a good manager Yoda. What there is is an acceptance that something had to change and that the players he inherited have taken the club to the bottom of the league and showed little sign of recovery from it. Mackay could have done one of two things. He could of come in and done a Stuart McLaren and say that the players are good and that he can work with them and all it takes is time before we turn it around or he can acknowledge that the players have had a big enough chance and the belief that he can bring in others that will do better. Mackay has decided to go with option 2, will it be the right option? Time will tell. Nobody that I know or have read is saying Mackay is a master for doing this, we're just waiting (with our fingers crossed) to see how it will pan out. Your average supporter knows as much about Connor McLaren or Conor Quigley as they did about Darren Petrie or Jack McCue. What has been a surprise to me though is just how blunt Mackay has been in saying that the squad isn't good enough, and I admire the fact that he has stood by his word and I don't think the changes will stop there. The players you have mentioned in your post have done absolutely nothing for the club (with the exception of Marc McKenzie, who I would argue has been our best outfield player this season and I would of liked to have kept, but I wish him well at Clyde) so if your rumour is true that they are next then no Bino will shed a tear at their departure. It might sound harsh but it's the reality of the situation, they've just not been good enough.

Haha, fair point [emoji23] Did he play there twice? When he signed for us, Alloa fans (and Albion Rovers fans) were quick to point out he was brilliant when he signed for the club, then hopeless then after.......guess what happened at Stirling?? In all honesty, I really hope Ferns does do well somewhere because when the guy is on fire, there are few better in the league, and I mean that, but his attitude is rotten, which is why I wouldn't wish him on anyone. If Campbell can get him to screw the nut and is the man to get that out of him, then brilliant but i'm just warning you, he has the (high) potential to be a passenger.

Hodge and now Ferns (allegedly)......and to think I put a decent sum of money on Arbroath to win the league [emoji22] I wouldn't wish Ferns on anyone, surprised he's getting another deal in the senior leagues.

Delighted with the news. Probably the most disappointing signing in recent times, started with a bang and then faded away to a whimper, however I remember Albion Rovers and Alloa fans saying on here that he did the same during his spells there. He just didn't seem to be interested for months now and after slagging the club off on social media, there really was no way back for him. To be fair, McKenzie has been decent for us this season, I wish the other players had his desire and determination, Henderson had alarm bells ringing in a few peoples head in preseason, but managed to bag a hattrick against Elgin and Dickson has never looked decent for us, but takes more stick from a small section of the Stirling support than what is justified.

2 very good signings, if true. Caddis was spotted in the stand at the Annan game (or was certainly the rumour going around hospitality that day) but was alleged to be "looking a bit heavy" after a season or so playing Juniors. Certainly steps in the right direction I would say, let's hope it's true and a Striker is next to follow.

Don't know why, but I remember him coming off the bench the last time the teams met last season (0-0 game was it?). Can't remember him doing much in truth, but he must have done something for me to look at the line up to see who he was. Welcome to the club anyway. Fingers crossed he'll give us something in the middle of the park that's been missing for the last few years.

Decent but nothing spectacular. Was really poor yesterday but every player is allowed an off day. Haven't seen anything to suggest he'll cut it in the SPL, but with better players around him, who knows.

When Hodge was hooked at Half Time in the 2-2 game against yourselves, it was obvious that he just wasn't fancied by Mackay. Colquhoun was brought in afterwards and he and Beith became the Midfield pairing. You shouldn't read too much of Hodge being released from us. In a 4-2-3-1 formation, (which Stuart McLaren favoured.....and I think Dick Campbell does as well, but I might be wrong) Hodge played well just sitting in front of the back four, but he did appear to struggle in Mackay's preferred 4-3-3. Although Bryan Hodge didn't do anything of note to stand out, he didn't really do anything wrong either and was probably surplus to requirement due to not fitting in with formations rather than his actual ability. To win the ball and pass it, he's good, possibly the best in the league, but you'll never get any more than that out of him. If that's what you are missing in the middle of the park, then Hodge is your man, if not, then he's been brought in to cover. I wish him well though, under McLaren I liked him and felt he was one of the few who regularly had pass marks.