BB_Bino

There is absolutely no sure fire way to appoint a new manager at any level, never kind this one. We’ve seen experienced pros like Jocky Scott and Paul Hegerty fail miserably, at the same time the likes of Dick Campbell have been a success. First time managers like Paul Hartley, Stewart Petrie and Gary Naismith have been a success, whilst countless others have failed. Your board just have to do what they think is the right thing. Many will disagree, but on their heads be it.

Ours honestly has been spot on and I’m not just saying this, but I doubt you’ll find any better in the lower leagues. We’ve not went down the automatic camera route thankfully. Give it a try, you’ll not be disappointed I don’t think.

Former Falkirk and Brentford youngster Jonny Mitchell signs until January. Not a player that I know but obviously comes with a good background at club level and has a few Scotland youth caps and will help in that Defensive Midfield role.

We haven’t seen Bikey this season, due to injury, but I would personally say he is probably a better all round player now than the one you saw when Montrose were in the league. The move to Hearts was always a strange one and I remember posting on here at the time that he was not good enough for that level, he was far to raw, but they signed him and pretty much discarded him on the same day. He had a spell with a couple of Cypriot clubs then made his plea to “come home” and thankfully for him, the club were able to put a package together and ultimately KR wanted him as part of his squad. When he returned, as mentioned above, he seemed to have matured from a raw youngster with an eye for goal, to a better all round player but without losing his best attributes. It’s hard to compare him to the player we saw in his first spell, Dave Mackay played him more centrally in an attack minded team, KR played him predominantly wide in a defensive structured team, and Bikey ended up playing through injury for a couple of months. What I would say is that he is still an asset for any club at this level and it will be good to see him back in the coming weeks. He obviously has an affection for the club and the area that he lives and I think with KR having maybe a more balanced squad this year, he’ll get a bigger opportunity to shine if he can get back into the starting line up.

After kicking the season off against 3 of the teams you would expect to be there or thereabouts come the end of the season, and maybe being slightly reserved in our play, it will be interesting to see how we do against a team that we will be expecting more of the ball against and therefore will be required to open up more. I’m expecting a comfortable afternoon, but we never got that against them last season so a win by the odd goal would be welcomed.

Annan Athletic 3 - 0 Albion Rovers Brechin City 0 - 2 Stirling Albion Elgin City 1 - 1 Queens Park Stenhousemuir 0 - 2 Edinburgh City Stranraer 1 - 2 Cowdenbeath would be my guess!

With the exception of Oli Burke, I think that’s our strongest squad at this moment in time.....just saying [emoji85]

Superb, let’s hope for more [emoji23]

5 points on the board with 3 tough games gone, you’ve got to be happy with that [emoji1303]

Che Adams bags another goal for Southampton today, was there not an approach made for him a couple of years ago?

For the sake of Stenny fans, I hope their club has been refunded and they pass that money onto those supporters that subscribed. Knowing it wasn’t the clubs fault, I would be happy for them to keep my money but the club should be getting something back.

Well done on your commentary CEMSFC, thought you did an excellent job and it can’t be easy filling in the gaps when there is not a lot of goalmouth action going on. Keep up the good work PS - Just for info, Stenny GK Coach Dave Binnie and Stirling GK Cammy Binnie are not related.

Well that was another snooze fest from a Stirling perspective, another game where we sat in not to lose rather than Attack to win the game and it almost cost us, in fact, it was probably unjust when we scored in the last minute although as has been said above, after doing well in the First Half a draw was probably fair. Not only was the Stirling display frustrating, Stenny’s AI camera also added to it. The camera somehow missed every incident apart from the 4 goals, it was funny at first but the joke wore thin. The commentators were explaining things like “good save from the keeper” or “ball blasted over the bar” while we sat watching the Half Way Line, empty half’s of the pitch and polly bags floating along. I’m not blaming the lads on Warriors TV or those associated with the club, but that really was poor coverage to charge £8 for. Some may argue that it’s better than nothing, but if fans aren’t back before our next visit then I’d rather not watch it because it was incredibly frustrating. For the sake of Stenny fans, I really hope it’s sorted. Anyway, back to the game and I thought Stenny were the more creative, oh how we missed a player like Tapping that could put his foot on the ball and make something happen. Andy Munro was comfortable at the back at the same time Andy Ryan was described as our danger man without actually getting on the ball. KR said the aim for this summer was to build on our attacking threat after last seasons defensive displays, well that’s 3 games that I have watched now, all be it against 3 of the leagues stronger teams, and from what I can see the game play is very much the same as last season, I hope I’m wrong and I know it’s still very very early doors and this could just be a period where our new flair players are taking time to click together, but things are feeling a bit deja vu at the moment.

I tried to look for it just there but couldn’t find it, however I remember reading a Kevin Phillips article in the Birmingham Mail about him when he was at Aston Villa, Phillips felt he had all the attributes to be a Villa First Team player for years to come. Not sure how he ended up at Brentford then, but over the last few years they have certainly nurtured a fair amount of young talent, so let’s hope so.

Looking forward to the game but honestly don’t know what to expect. It was hard to tell from the Queens Park game if Stirling have improved as an attacking force, but on paper that’s definitely where Stenny’s strengths should lie.....probably be another draw but certainly expect both teams to be in amongst the Play Off mix come the end of the season.

I did chuckle at that actually, especially as he shares the same name and is manager of our local rivals [emoji23]

The league is only 1 game old but reading the comments above, you have to fear for Brechin already. I only saw you once last season and you smashed us 4-2 and I thought at that point your season would turn around, but it obviously didn’t. After finishing bottom last year and by all accounts looking all but down and out but surviving due to technicalities, I thought you would have taken a leaf out of Montrose and Cowdenbeath’s book and come back stronger this year, determined to never let it happen again, for the sake of your supporters I’m sad to see that hasn’t happened. Sounds like it’s going to be another long season for you, I don’t feel sorry for the board but I do for the fans, it’s not nice going through this.

Yip, very true, forgot about that chance when I was replying above.

Didn’t really have a save to make but he looked comfortable and assured throughout. Dealt with a number of cross balls well and despite dropping one of them, never looked like he was under any pressure. Not sure how long the loan is for but going on today’s performance, I’d have no qualms about him getting a run in the team.

As I put in my original post, I think it’s harsh to label that to the team after one game against a team that’s full time and very strongly tipped to be League Champions come the end of the season.

Really happy with the 90 minutes, I thought a draw was a fair result but we never really looked like losing the game. I think we’ve got to acknowledge that Queens Park are a very different animal to the team and squads that we have seen over the years. They’ve got some very very good players that could cut it at a higher level, yet we reduced them to a few half chances in the last 10 minutes, and that was pretty much it. We showed last season that we are defensively sound, at this level, and we look like a team that will carry that onto this season as well. With the quality that QP have, it’s hard to judge if we possess that Attacking flair that we so desperately desire but the signs in the First Half were good and Andy Ryan looks like he gives us something that has been lacking for many a year. I think all the players can be happy with the shift they put in, it was very much a team display that got us the 1 point, from the young Goalkeeper from Hearts all the way to the subs that came on. Would have gladly taken a draw before the game kicked off and was impressed with what I saw, roll on another difficult game next week, it’s great to have football back.

If he’s shite then I doubt he’ll establish himself as a First Team regular at Celtic.

Neill Lennon goes with Stephen Welsh in today’s Old Firm game, he’s a regular with the Under 19 squad, could this be the start of a run in the Celtic First Team? If so, then he must come into Clarke’s thoughts in the not to distant future.

Can only happen on P&B

We announced the signing of Lewis Magee tonight. How did he play for you last season? I remember him playing well in the opening league game, but can’t say I noticed him other than that.