ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds

And to think I’ve heard groans about too many long balls at recent games

Honestly, if we’re getting a share of the gate money I’m absolutely fine with us advertising it. My only issue is that we’ve heard so little about our own academy. Would be nice if we had a full squad list or match reports on their games so we know how they’re getting on. A designated twitter account for the academy would be good and could provide updates on players, matches etc.

I was also unsure about him last year but right now we’re extremely light in numbers and could do with his experience in the middle of the park.

Has there been any hints of what Scott Agnew’s planning on doing since leaving Raith Rovers? I know a few expected him to maybe take the vacant position at East Fife but I’d have him back as a player-coach in a heartbeat.

Do you think any other team in world football has a senior playing squad that’s 22.22% goalkeepers? I feel like that’s got to be some kind of record.

Could Gallagher be the Haalandesque striker McCabe is so desperate for?

A lot of people around me seemed annoyed and surprised it was given as a foul but it looked a clear foul to me. As for the yellow I think it was because it broke a Queen’s counter attack. The actual force didn’t merit a yellow and it was more of a clumsy challenge than anything but it’s not one worth arguing with, two quite standard yellow card challenges in my opinion.

With Wylie officially back to Celtic that’s us down to 14 outfield players, and that’s including the injured Frizzell and suspended Ballantyne. Surely we’ve still got to be looking to bring in some free agents. There’s still some names on the PFA Player Availability List though I can’t say I know any of them. I think Efe Ambrose is still without a club and we’re probably about his level these days.

Agree that we may miss Agnew. We don’t have an experienced and street-wise midfielder that’s not afraid to get stuck in and it may be harming us. McCabe could play that role, but I’m really not sure about Watson or ATS at centre back, and I’d like to see ATS start games at left back if I’m honest because I thought he looked decent when he came on. McMaster was billed as a defensive midfielder and I thought he had a good first half yesterday but a poorer second half. He’s very young and really slight too so it’d take a lot for him to replicate Agnew’s role imo. Telfer has a bit more experience but doesn’t look like a player you could ever coach a bit of fight into. Thought he was excellent in the win against Clyde but he’s been poor since then. Could Devenny play that role? We’d miss him higher up probably and for me he’s been one of our best players this season but he does have a bit more dig about him than others.

Surely if anything the challenge cup would be more awkward? The player would be cup-tied as both Airdrie and the relevant B team compete in that competition.

I can understand not wanting to play the academy players when they aren’t ready for first team football, but surely we’d be as well naming some of the boys on the bench to fill out numbers and give them some first team experience. We’ve heard very little about the academy squad too. The first five signings were named with some appearing on the bench (or featuring) in the League Cup but very little since. There’s obviously a lot more than five now since we know they’ve played a couple of games.

Worth adding that it could be the back 5 that started against Edinburgh with Ballantyne and Devenny as wing-backs and a back three of Watson, McCabe, and Fordyce but I don’t think McCabe would do that again? Surely not?

Lyness Watson McCabe Fordyce Ballantyne McMaster Telfer Devenny Jamieson Gallagher Smith That’s what it looks like anyway. Could be either Telfer or McMaster in the deeper midfield role. We’ll miss Frizzell. That bench is tiny.

He was released by St Mirren a couple of days ago. I don’t think we’d qualify for an emergency loan since we have both Henderson and Hutton both registered and uninjured. Shame it’s only ever goalies you can get on an emergency loan. If the SPFL looked at our squad they’d surely let us claim an emergency to get a centre half or a forward in. ”Can we please get a player in on an emergency loan?” ”Sure, what’s the emergency?” ”We’re shite.”

This is just a guess but I imagine it’s probably to do with not playing or not being in a squad yet this season. I think the rule is that players can’t move after 31st of August if they’ve been registered to another team. I’m not sure how registration works, if a registered squad list needs to be sent to the SPFL or if being named in a match-day squad automatically registers you, but it seems to me that if a player is not used by his club and is then released he doesn’t count as having been registered before the required date.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59662090 Seems to have always been a backup but man of the match vs Celtic once

Thank Christ there’s a second V! A singular one would’ve been too much to handle.

Henderson Ballantyne McCabe Fordyce ATS Frizzell Telfer Devenny Jamieson Gallagher Smith That’d be my team if Frizzell and Fordyce are both available. If Fordyce is out I’d bring in Watson and shuffle the backline so that Watson is RB, ATS is next to McCabe at CB and Ballantyne is at LB. Not convinced by Watson at centre back at all but he’s a better footballer than Deveney. If Frizzell’s out it could be a case of bringing in a defender and pushing McCabe up into midfield but I think I’d rather see McMaster or Wylie (if he’s fit) get a run out.

I’m not saying the young keeper would easily deal with that, but long balls into the box aren’t what most fans are worried about with this keeper. I’d assume Gibson will have watched our highlights and be well aware of the issue.

Home kit has slightly grown on me. Still wouldn’t say I like it, but if it was any other club’s kit or if there was no historic attachment to an unbroken diamond then I’d probably think it was alright. The reaction/overreaction to it is more funny to me than anything. Guy on the facebook group said Derek Whiteford and Drew Busby would be spinning in their graves ffs! I say this now but just wait til the team run out the tunnel on Saturday and the back’s completely bare. The back still hasn’t been shown yet has it?

I’d settle for him in the dug out

Every year I jokingly say “hope it’s white with a red diamond” when new kit talk starts. Next summer I’ll have to be much more serious in that hope.

I was unsure about the third kit when it was released but I can confidently say it’s my favourite of the three. The diamond should never be broken and that away one looks like a training top.

First half yesterday was awful and after 15 minutes with us 2-0 down and Frizzell off injured I thought it might end up a cricket score but we were very good in the second half and deserved to get it back to 2-2. I was particularly impressed with Devenny’s drive in midfield. In the end it wasn’t to be and another defeat is obviously very disappointing but at least the desire was there in the second half which is more than can be said for the Kelty game. I’m just hopeful that Frizzell’s injury isn’t too serious as he’ll be a massive miss. For me I’m not too concerned about us not being clinical in front of goal. Yes we had chances and shots that might’ve been goals on other days but we’ve went away to Montrose and scored twice. We also scored five against Clyde and four against Falkirk. We will have days where we’re wasteful in front of goal, that’s football at this level. My major concern is how soft we’ve been at the back. The goals we’ve been conceding have been sloppy, and there have also been times where we’ve conceded chances through poor play and got away with it. None of our defensive players are innocent here, the goalie and everyone playing in defence has at some point this season gave the ball away sloppily or been too weak/soft in a challenge or been caught out of position. You could argue that, like being wasteful up front, that kind of thing is inevitable at this level but it’s too frequent for my liking. Said many times before I felt we needed to get a quality centre back in as Fordyce doesn’t have a natural partner in defence as for me Watson and ATS are full backs and McCabe is a midfielder, but I think our best bet is returning to last season’s centre back pairing of Fordyce and McCabe with Ballantyne and ATS playing at full back. That should give us enough experience at the back while using players that are all comfortable on the ball. I think part of why we done so well last season was because we retained possession so well that we rarely conceded chances. That back four, in my opinion, would be our best chance at returning to that.

The thing is if we weren't so soft at the back to concede those chances it could easily be 0-0 with us playing some decent enough stuff on the ball to be optimistic about. Instead we look like conceding every time Montrose break.