The Great Stagsby

Love that second goal from yesterday. I'm SO looking forward to actually going to games again!!!!!

Wait now - did the Dingwall Academy P.E. teacher Mr MacPhee (spelling?) not play for County at some level once upon a time?

Yeah I'd wondered about Ferries too, he was just finishing up as a player when I was starting up as a supporter. And aye, Mikey Rae. I only remember him as he turned up at Dingdong Academy when I was in P.E. one day... it was before I got really into football, I didn't have a clue who he was but a few people were starstruck! Turned out he was a bit of a ned, but I did find it ammusing him standing behind Jackie Springers (who was introducing him to the class at the time) and mimicking all his strange gestures and faces. Ah, Jackie Springers. Do I hear an Amen, anyone?

The current banter on the Hamilton match thread has got me wondering: Who would play in an All-Time Ross County Local Lads XI? Guys who would qualify as "locals" (though not necessarily make it into the team) from the time I've been following County: Conor Campbell Don Cowie Michael Fraser Some other keeper who went on to play for old Rangers (but never really made it there) Gary Mackay Steven (even if he never played for County first team) Tony Dingwall Steven Ross Steven Mackay, IIRC? Who else?

P.S. I'm not back in the country until the 11th, so if we start badly it's nothing to do with me. Or entirely my fault for not being there yet! But if we start well, it's down to me being on my way. Of course if we lose to Hearts on the 15th, erm...

Well this is tasty! Something else which I appreciate the flavour of, is the fact that I am now the proud owner of my FIRST EVER season ticket - quite a treat, after probably getting to around 25 games over the course of the past 16 years! I am returning to Scotland, among other reasons so my eldest child can start school... and let me tell you that EVERY time I have returned to Scotland for reasons relating to my children, Ross County Football Club have experienced something special. Scottish Cup run 2010? Stagsby was in Scotland for the birth of child number 1. (Left before the final, sorry ). Promotion to Premier League? Stagsby in Scotland for birth of child number 2. County 3-2 Motherwell, the start of the comeback? Stagsby, Scotland, child number 1 passport renewal. Expect a good season, Staggies, and remember to thank Stagsby('s kids) BRING IT ON! :thumsup2

I'm probably asking for answers to the unanswerable, but what kind of season do people who know a bit about our new signings / have seen the new squad in action, expect we have ahead of us? And how much of a difference would you think having / not having Irvine would currently make? For example, predict what position we'll be in January a) without Irvine, b) with Irvine. Or don't. I just want to know what we're in for, try to be ready emotionally...

Typical fickle glory-hunter footy fan, you are. But nah, yeah... Biscuity Boyce has rammed its (his) way into my top 3 now, too. Welcome to the party

If Fraser Forster fostered freakin' Fraser 'n Foster, find the freakin' Fraser 'n Foster Fraser Forster fostered.

Come on, Spain. How hard would it have been to put them the other way round? You've already predicted comfortable safety and decent derby results, go the whole hog, man! Anyway, I'm looking forward to this season. I suppose I always do, but surely this time we're in for a slightly better one. If anything though, however enthusaistic / optimisitc I am, the last few years have taught me to be cautiously so! I'm also learning that "the makings of a good team" is a horrible thing, and all you really need is one weak link for everything to fall apart. The boldest prediction I'm making is we'll finisz top 8, but a lot more comfortably than last year's 'top 9'. ^^ Oh look, Polish computer also changes "finish" to "finisz". From now on I'm going to let my computer do what it wants. Look out for all those tchems!

But then I won't need P&B any more Nah, thanks for that. Just did, will do again. Can't decide if I like those strips or not! Although initial thoughts are I like the away better than the home, again. But not as much as I liked last season's home...

On more serious notes though... it's nice to have some activity at least, just really hoping that some of the potentially hit-or-miss signings are a bit more 'hit' than some of recent seasons' hit-or-misses. Also of interest to me, are we having new strips next season? I know there's a whole thread dedcated to strips for next season, but at the moment I only want to know about ours, and can't really be bothered trawling through that thread with no guarantees of finding what I'm looking for anyway. (If the answer is yes, and pictures happen to be available, posting of said pictures would go down rather well.)

See, one of the other signings was also in that photo, but since he's not being officially announced until tomorrow they cut him out. I happen to have got my hands on it, and it proves helpful in solving these height questions... Turns out we were way off with both of them.

Dudgeon sounds like some kind of fish*. Or like 'dungeon'. Any dragons there? McDiarmid... McMermaid? *There is, of course, a fish called a gudgeon. Rather Highland-sounding I'm happy for Brittain over all, with a splattering of other conflicting emotions in there too. Expect he'll be seen around Victoria Park on a regular basis for many years to come. That's some team Brora have themselves. How many of ours now? I can think of Tokeley (still playing?), Munro, Kettlewell, Brittain... Feel like I'm missing someone else?? (Edited to leave spaces between paragraphs that my phone just refuses to do!)

Budapest is the cheapest place in the world for me to fly to from where I am. Those dates, I could get there and back for 50 quid ...Shame I most likely won't be free Hungary is an interesting and kind of unusual choice. Good one though, in my opinion - assuming they've found somewhere usefull for practising some football in addition to the 'nice place for a holiday' aspect.

FTFY

(Apologies for every time the word THEM comes up as TCHEM in my posts. I bought this computer in Poland, it does it automatically, I need to reinstall! In fact, every spelling mistake I ever make, and actually every rubbish post I ever contribute, is because of that.)

With the general emotion of the end to our season, Brittain moving on, and so on, I have found myself looking through a good few youtube clips from the last few seasons. OH, HOW, I, LONG... to once again have A COUPLE of players in our squad who you EXPECT to score just about any time we're awarded a free kick in a dangerous position. Remember how valuable those were to us, how many of tchem we got when Vigurs and Brittain were on form and we were generally struggling to score from open play? Imagine having one of tchem just now, IN ADDITION to guys like Boyce and Gardyne.

Well then thank you, old sport.

I am one happy clapper. Surely we have a better season ahead of us than the one that's just finished? Mostly unrelated, but I discovered this yesterday, hadn't seen it before. I mean, I was AT the game, and have of course seen highlights, but not seen this on youtube, and don't think I'd ever seen the little introductory highlight reel. Those are some fantastic memories, I was lucky enough to be around for most of that cup run. The bit at the starts features a fair bit of Mr Gardyne, and again reminds of how much he has contibuted over the years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctpkQkZl4Bw (I notice it was loaded by "thesherrif" - that you by any chance, Bunnell?

I think it's fair to say looking back we can easily break our past season down into 2 parts: 2 wins and 12 points from the 24 games up to Valentine's Day; 10 wins, only 2 defeats from 14 games Valentine's Day onwards. This is who was involved in the last 14 games of the season: Brown / Reguero Fraser Boyd Quinn Reckord Woods Irvine De Vita Gardyne Curran / Dingwall Boyce Kiss (in there somewhere, sometimes) And some smatterings of: Carey, Cardle, Jervis, R Quinn, Sernas, Brittain, Ross, Palazuelos. Of the 'key' players in our over-all very impressive last 3 months, so far only Kiss and the goalies are definitely gone. I make it 6 of the most regular contributors (Fraser, Reckord, De Vita, Curran, Boyce, Dingwall) already signed up, plus Rocco, and still hope of holding onto Boyd, P Quinn, Woods, Irvine, Gardyne? And we have of course added Brian Graham and the boy McShane (right?). Who out of the 'maybes' would people consider our biggest priority to persuade to stay? I'm obviously thinking Gardyne, but who else? There is potential for a very decent team going in to next season, and with a decent element of continuity. Obviously we want a good keeper in, and over all a smaller number but higher standard of summer signings than in previous years. Special mention to Boyce. With him getting in shape and finding form, he should be hitting the ground running next season. The club have done an excellent job with him. I'm feeling rather positive about the whole thing!

Quick, find a St Johnstone fan!

Teams do much better if they have someone who is allowed to use their hands to stop the ball going in the net, Les is spot on.

That is jut beautiful. When I get to a computer I'm putting that in my sig.