bridge of allan bairn

Falkirk 2-1 Queens Park Airdrie 2-3 Raith Rovers Hamilton 1-1 Ayr Livingston 2-0 Dunfermline Partick 2-0 Morton

I was at the pre season friendly that season v Alloa, a game we actually won 2-1, however, remember going from feeling ecstatic about all these guys from Chelsea and Brighton etc being signed in pre season to seeing them first time in the flesh and thinking these guys are awful. Heaven knows how he got away with signing so many duds. Dennon Lewis could trap the ball further than I could kick it. The absolute definition of a chicken with no head. Thankfully those days are long behind us now. Re the game tomorrow night, any win will do just to get us off to a winning start, momentum will be everything this season again. Not sure what to expect from Queens Park but know we should be at them from the start and it should be an exciting game. If Nesbitt is fit all bar one position picks itself. I'd be happy with Yeats or Adams at right back, nice position to be in spoilt for choice. Neither has put a foot wrong.

It was discussed in great detail last season

Informative post thanks. I would say, if you can stand to do it, just boycott the Hamilton away game, hopefully they will get the message soon enough and revisit away fan prices. Last season I attended both Falkirk home games against Hamilton but boycotted both away games due to the shoddy way they treat away fans. I fully appreciate not all fans will want to do this but I'd rather pick games where my own club makes money and also away games where you are treated better by the away club. Away clubs that treat away fans with respect should get higher attendances and vice versa.

Was hoping the Hearts game was the Sunday as the world pipe band championships are on in Glasgow on the Saturday. Disappointing.

Okay League Cup group stage out the way and the league starts Friday so time to have a stab at predicting possibly the most unpredictable league Falkirk have ever been involved in. 1. Partick - decent signings, decent manager, been through it all before so experienced, Brian Graham will still score 2. Raith - bit like above, but a lot will depend on Lewis Vaughn fitness 3. Livvi - expect all the payments they've received, experience and a street wise manager to see them alright 4. Falkirk - we have a good squad and I'm optimistic but not sure how we will react to defeats after not losing for so long. Like other squads will need a bit of luck avoiding injuries. Think the outfield squad is really good but personally would have liked a commanding experienced keeper signed in the close season. 5. Ayr - Seem to have signed well and playing an attacking pressing game under Brown, think these middle league positions really could go in any order TBH. A lot will depend on how many goals Oakley and Dowds will bag 6. Airdrie - Rhys McCabe is a manager I rate highly, plays good attacking football, lost some decent players but am confident he'll rebuild well, another club that could finish higher than I'm predicting 7. Queens Park - Bit of an unknown for me, again another experienced manager, they potentially have money available to strengthen if needed, fans seem to think short of 2-3 players at the mo, so might depend whats brought in by end August. 8. Hamilton - Again really difficult to predict, saw a lot of them last season and they were largely poor v Falkirk. Rankin did well though to get them straight back up and relatively comfortably through the play off v Inverness. Not sure if they will have enough goals in them to finish in the top half and need to predict someone in the bottom half, so 8th it is! 9. Morton - Struggled in the League Cup and don't see much, as yet in the new squad to see a top half finish 10. Dunfermline - Squad seems really small, with only a few decent players and lacking budget to improve things. Fans seem unhappy with McPake and his formations and way of playing. Had our number 2 seasons ago so hopefully this wont be the case this season Never known a league so difficult to predict but that makes it one of the most anticipated seasons I've looked forward to in a long time. Quite a lot of ambitious experienced managers in this league which will make it even more spicy.

@Skyline Drifteris usually good with these queries

Is the additional £30K or so (£60K ish for getting out of group), plus 8,000 tickets (presumably shared) minus costs v Hearts and potential TV money unbudgeted (probably not on TV as Old Firm picked)?

Happy with that. Home tie and full house.

Aberdeen or Ross county at home would be interesting. I too am listening like a caveman to radio Scotland

In terms of yeats, I agree with this and hope this is what he does. As brilliant as Adam's has been yeats has done absolutely nothing wrong and been part of an invincible winning team. He won't and shouldn't drop him. Adams will rightly get plenty of opportunities at both right back and centre back. We are in an excellent position with competition at right back, left back and centre half and that's before Lang gets back fit.

Thought the multi ball system worked brilliantly yesterday again, one of the best improvements in recent years at the club to prevent teams time wasting. You could see Stenny players thinking how do we waste time when the ball keeps getting thrown back to our hands/feet? Especially the goalie - all the usual stuff pretending to speak to players when the ball was thrown at him, taking the bye kicks from the opposite side (every time), going down if he was touched. Well played to whoever organises and trains the ball boys/girls...could be worth a few extra points this season at home, when we need goals and a quick tempo.

Was thinking the same, really enjoyed today again, and the chances we create, it's exciting to watch, however, just had a look at the stats in our League Cup Group - we had 70 shots at goal and scored 11. If we continue to create chances at this rate and it clicks in one game then someone is getting a real going over. Hopefully its Queens Park next week, however, they are looking decent on paper (Hibs aside), will be a very interesting game next week. Think McGlynn is getting frustrated with the opportunities being missed too (see Buckie post match interview), need a bit more composure in front of goal. Wonder if Nesbitt had played today how many he would have bagged? Think he's one of our better finishers.

Delighted to win this tough group and hopefully earns us a plum tie which in turn will buy/loan us another player or two before the window shuts

Stenny hard on the eye, starting to hope we don't pick up more injuries. Appreciate they don't want a doing just before the season starts but the time wasting, hacking and diving is awful to watch, ruining the game

Stenny the definition of anti football here.

Shame nesbitts injury keeps him out today as he's pretty much the first name on the team sheet for me. His tempo, a bit like the ultras drum, sets the pace we play. His composed finishing is among the best in the squad too. That said like Oliver's finishing too and hope he bags a couple today. Looking forward to an entertaining game as reckon Ayr could win by five goals plus so well need to be on it.

Great idea. Hope it goes well.

Another good informative show lads. Enjoyed the piece with Craig Telfer. Looking forward to a VFTT coming back in September too.

Per above I'm looking for a 1-0 united win over Ayr. Means we've a chance of finishing top, and we might need that as a lot of second placed finishers in the other groups are likely to have very good goals for columns. An Ayr draw or win means they are likely to finish on 10 points and we can't catch that

Could MacIver be at the back again?

This. The podcast should, and does reflect the opinions of "normal" fans. The guys do a fantastic job discussing in a manner fans would in the pub. I like this and it's the reason I watch every week. I think they should continue to discuss grey areas such as competition for McIvor and are the club asking for money too much as two such examples. Keep up the excellent work it's much appreciated.

I saw these guys as well and thought there must be some reason for them being there in their official club gear. In terms of @Senor Bairnsaying he thinks another 2 players might come in, I wouldn't be surprised either if by the end of August we have another 2 or so in. For reasons he's stated, if we get out of our League Cup group, Jordan Allan leaves and also I might be wrong but I thought JS said we were budgeting for 3,200/3,300 season tickets, last count we were nearing 4,000. Appreciate we had to secure existing players/loan players but thats still a helluva uplift on the finances budgeted for.

One of the most pleasing, of many pleasing things yesterday is that after we went one up there was absolutely no strategy to sit in tighter on the lead. We went for the jugular and second goal. I hope we continue to do that in the league. They just folded after that, we gave them no encouragement to get back in the game. Great to see.

They must have been "healthy" given the speed they were all jogging out the exits with 20 minutes to go!