Matty-RCFC

Have heard it’s potentially broken ribs, but that could be utter nonsense.

I’m flabbergasted at the number of people that thought Iacovitti was, for the most part, good last season. He was nothing more than a meat and potatoes centre back. He’d head a brick if it came towards him. However, he was one of the worst players I’ve seen at County for a few years in possession. He had no composure on the ball and would just shell it up the channel at any given opportunity. As long as Leak doesn’t do that, he’ll be an upgrade.

You do gods work, RandomGuy.

Transfers Scotland has you boys interested in him. I don’t know how credible that dude is, if at all, though.

If we receive offers for him in January, I still believe we should hold onto him until the end of the season. Yes - he’s available to leave on a free at the end of the season. However, the difference between him in the team and not is night and day so I’d rather have him leave for a free in June and get a full season out of probably the best player in the bottom six, than get a pittance of a fee that we will definitely not be able to find a player of his calibre for and slide down the table.

I thought we played through him more on Saturday at Parkhead than we did all year last season. Hopefully he’s finally realised that Dhanda is our primary creator. Quite enjoyed seeing him come off the left and cutting in on his stronger side.

£28 for two sides likely to be playing each other 4 times this season is ludicrous in the current climate. Muggins over here will still pay it, though. Weirdly optimistic about this on Saturday. Watching Sportscene on Saturday (admittedly you can’t take too much from a 5 minute highlight reel) I thought St Johnstone didn’t look to carry too much of a threat going forward. Hopefully it takes a little longer for their new signings to settle in and gel than this weekend. That being said, you’re going to get chances out of our back 3 because we still don’t look to have any defensive structure and have conceded in literally every game we’ve played this season (including Nairn). There is cause for optimism - we have genuine pace going forward and creativity in midfield. We just need to get that balance right and hopefully that starts this weekend. I think we’ll start something like: Laidlaw Brown - Smith - Baldwin - Nightingale - Harmon Loturi - Turner Dhanda White - Murray That side is dependant on a few things. I suspect we won’t sign another centre half before Saturday so I assume Dylan will play at centre half as he looked comfortable coming on at Parkhead. Harmon needs to come back to where he’s comfortable as he looked a bit lost at centre half on Saturday. I expect us to probably have the majority of the ball on Saturday so I can see Turner coming in for Randall to give us more creativity in the middle of the park. Hopefully Brophy will be fit for a 30 minute cameo off the bench too.

In fairness, the two wins for Broch have come against a hapless Lossie side and an Inverurie team that looked to have recruited pretty grimly until signing Paul Coutts yesterday. That being said, I do agree that Broch will do well this season. Grant Campbell coming back out of retirement should give them a huge boost.

I definitely think they’ll be top 5. I think Broch, Buckie, Brora and Brechin all have better squads than them. If they can keep the same home form as last year, though, they’ve got every chance.

Week 2 - Rangers

The referee got both decisions spot on yesterday though.

I agreed with his general analysis of the game, however saying we would’ve been “2-0 up if we were a European team” is a bonkers comment to make and doesn’t make any sense.

Was at Lossie/Forres yesterday. Lossie were completely void of ideas going forward but fairly stodgy at the back. Forres struggled to break them down and got the opener due to a dubious penalty. They then got a second due to a mix up in the Lossie defence and the third came with the last kick of the game as Lossie piled forward. I expect Forres to be lower mid-table with Lossie occupying a bottom 3 place.

Work that one out.

Thought Avoch would beat Clach Ressies, but thought 7-0 was a bit of a surprise. Groats win the other semi against Stromness to set up a repeat of the 2015 final, I believe.

I take it we’ve all seen Malky’s latest word salad. Genuinely at a loss to discover whatever he means by his statement, but go off!

In fairness, I just mentioned the Staggies because of its proximity to the ground. I don’t drink in it myself, but the St J fan above might have just wanted somewhere extremely close.

7/4 for a penalty is literally free money given Jack “The Bombscare” Baldwin is literally going to be playing in this very football match.

Will give this a punt now: 1 - Celtic 2 - Rangers 3 - Aberdeen 4 - Hearts 5 - Hibernian 6 - Motherwell 7 - Kilmarnock 8 - St Mirren 9 - Ross County 10 - St Johnstone 11 - Livingston 12 - Dundee

The Mallard is the general “go-to” for away fans when coming to Dingwall. It’s just off the train platform and is very close to the stadium (in fairness, everything in Dingwall is close to the Stadium). It will be busy, though. The National (which I think is now renamed The Stag but that could be wrong) used to be a very decent post-match pub. I’ve not been in since the rebranding, but I’ve heard decent things. There is also the Staggies Bar which is situated inside the stadium. It’s quite convenient but I found it fairly expensive for a drop in there last time I was in. The rest of the pubs in Dingwall aren’t worth your salt.

As two players that play competitively, what are your rough averages? It’s not something I’m keen to get into; rather just always been curious of the standard at pub level.

I have several lamp posts I can stare at in my street for free, so I will not be paying the £30 + travel to head down to this one and listen to my team concede 5 whilst gazing into the eyes of green concrete.

It is absolutely embarrassing that a team in the top flight of Scottish Football cannot produce a simple highlight package. Another example of the bizarre off-the-field running of the club.

Airdrie in the next round of the cup. Not a gimmie, but a certainly a good chance to progress to the next round of the cup.

It was a 4231 - with Murray in behind White. Randall and Allardice centre of the park. County were decent and probably should’ve had another 2-3 goals. Thought Jay Henderson was good again and Simon Murray looked really sharp. Edinburgh goal was a belter. My favourite moment of the match was spotting Kenny van der Weg in the stands watching on. What a hero.