Mr November

I posted this in the Dumbarton thread when he was mentioned as a possible signing for them. I think he'll do well at Queens, though he probably still has the odd mistake in him. He has quite a lot of experience for his age given he's had two seasons of being first choice at Airdrie as well as his season at Linfield. I mentioned below about our goals conceded record under him but ultimately a lot of that can be put down to playing behind the worst full-time defence Scottish football has ever seen in his first season and a very inexperienced defence the following season.

Yeah I very much agree with this. I suppose it's natural to want a player like that but we're very unlikely to find a player proven to score 20 goals a season at this level. Looking at the players who've scored at that sort of rate for us in the last decade, it's only really Andy Ryan (23), Iain Russell (18) and Ryan Donnelly (21). Russell had high expectations but I don't think anyone expected Ryan or Donnelly to score as many as they did in those seasons. We might end up signing another striker who does very well but I think it's much more likely to be a striker in the Ryan/Donnelly mould, a young player who has a breakthrough season rather than someone who's proven as a great striker at this level. It was obviously a very small sample size but we saw last season that Andy Ryan never really hit the same heights as his first spell, though I would still like to have kept him. I think it's more sensible to try and spread the goals throughout the team rather than pinning all of our hopes on one player. Last season our main complaint was never really about the forwards, on the whole Smith, Gallagher and Carrick had really good seasons, but we really lacked goals and creativity in midfield. Hopefully the new signings can fix that which should only help us going forward.

Thomson’s an interesting one. I was surprised he got a new contract alongside the other key players midway through last season, as at that time he was out injured and before then seemed quite hit and miss. The manager must see something in him though given they were so keen to give him a new deal. He was outstanding in the 3-1 Clyde game as @ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds says but other than that I can’t remember too many great moments, though that’s not for a lack of effort. He’s clearly a wide player but if I remember correctly he played as a left wing back in that Clyde game where he was excellent, though that didn’t work as well the following week up at East Fife. I remember him playing in midfield against Falkirk early in the season too and I guess being moved around and injuries don’t help when you’re trying to make an impact. Definitely a big season ahead for him, especially with all the other attacking options we have available.

I got a phone call today too so you must be next in line at this rate.

I applied straight away too and still haven’t heard anything either. I wonder if they’re working backwards but if I’ve not heard by the end of the week I might just apply again.

Yeah I think the plan definitely seems to be spreading the goals around a lot more. I posted recently saying that we haven’t actually lost too many goals from last season’s team, Callum Smith managed double figures for combined goals and assists but other than that we’ve not lost much. Smith, Gallagher and Carrick all did well in terms of goals last season but the fourth player in the front four (Ryan, Roberts, Hawkshaw) seemed to struggle for consistency, hopefully that’s not an issue this season. Obviously this relies on Carrick and Gallagher continuing to score at a similar rate (I’m sceptical of Carrick given how many were penalties) but if the likes of Stokes, O‘Reilly, Robert, Thomson, Roy etc can all chip in with an average of 3 or 4 goals each that would be a massive boost. If the defence are as solid as they were from October onwards we should certainly won more than we lose, though I think it’ll be a case of nervy one goal wins most of the time.

Unless he’s very good I’ll be surprised if he plays at all but I think that’s alluded too in Sturt Millar’s comments. I’m still not sure whether signing five or six young players who will barely play is sensible compared to signing one or two first team players, especially in a shortened season, but we’ll just need to wait and see how things go.

I'm assuming they were in the advertiser too but there's a couple of short interviews with him about friendlies and next season here, nothing too exciting though.

Hutton's been a good keeper for us to be fair. He was really good in his first season, he did make a few errors but he undoubtedly saved us much more than he cost us. He didn't quite hit the same levels last season and the management team seemed particularly annoyed at his lack of presence at times with not coming off his line to collect corners/crosses. Saying that, I don't think he's even the best keeper at the club never mind the league.

To continue our favourite discussion, I noticed Stuart Millar mentioned we might have another signing "some time next month" in an interview in the Daily Record.

Big Nat’s a decent midfielder at this level and probably quite a unique player too. Very strong, great technique and scored a couple of goals for us from set pieces but he’s also painfully slow, as soon as the ball is played over the top of him he’s out the game. He looked quite unfit at times earlier in the season but he seemed much sharper from January onwards, although even at that he was still the slowest man on the pitch. He’s not a bad replacement for Kyle Hutton, just less mobile. He was quite a strange player at Airdrie, some fans regarded him as one of our worst ever players, others thought he should be in the team every week. The truth is somewhere in the middle. His best games seemed to come against poorer opposition where we had more time on the ball, unfortunately his lack of pace means he can struggle to make an impact in higher tempo games. I do think that he’s quite a likeable player and I was disappointed things never really clicked for him at Airdrie. I think Murray’s initial plan last season was to have Wedderburn sitting as the holding midfielder or in a midfield two with Kieran Millar. In theory that pairing could have worked quite well as Millar’s endless running and energy should have covered for Wedderburn’s lack of mobility but it never really translated onto the pitch. I think Carswell’s a better player though so pairing him with Wedderburn might work better.

This is something I've been a bit concerned about too but looking at who we've released, we've not actually lost too many goals from last season's team. Falkirk and Montrose have both lost their top scorers from last season too, though Falkirk do look to have recruited fairly well up front. We scored 38 in the league last season and 53 in all competitions which is alright but as you say, lower than all the other teams around us. Wedderburn (1), Roberts (1), Smith (4) and Ryan (2) scored 8 of those 38 goals but the rest were all scored by players still in the squad (mainly Gallagher and Carrick). Obviously Roberts and Smith in particular were good at creating chances but our main complaint last season was a lack of creativity from midfield. I suppose the hope is that the likes of Stokes, Robert, Sabatini and O'Reilly can all chip in with at least 3-4 goals each to replace the outgoing players and help create more chances for Gallagher and Carrick. I'd like to see another striker come in anyway as I'm not confident with Roy as the second choice striker but even he managed 5 goals last season, albeit only 2 of those were in the league. If we can be as solid defensively as we were from October onwards and add a few more goals we should do well.

Yeah I'm a big fan of this album, definitely one of my favourites of this year so far. As you say, it's a very good debut and while it does dip in quality a little in the middle, on the whole it's a really enjoyable album.

The other one looks a bit like Reece Willison who was Airdrie’s third choice keeper last season. He only played a couple of games but generally looked quite shaky, would do fine as a cheap backup though.

I think Currie will start, he had a good season at Stranraer and I don't think he would have come without knowing he'd be starting initially. Hutton is a very good backup though, it's good to have two proven keepers at this level and I think Currie will be an improvement on Gallacher who never really convinced me. Other than that I pretty much agree with that team. We certainly have a lot of options in attacking midfield/out wide (Stokes, Carrick, Thomson, O'Reilly, Roy, Robert). Hopefully Murray can work out his best team earlier this season, it seemed to take him until the second Forfar game last season to stumble upon our best team and we dropped a lot of points in the first quarter due to poor team selections. We know that playing the usual defence, McKay, Carrick and Gallagher works pretty well, so it's just finding the best players to fit in around them.

I think Hutton, Currie, Carrick, Gallagher and Thomson are all part-time so we should just fit into the 18 players for one coach thing, although I think Crighton is involved with coaching as well isn’t he? Murray as the only non-playing coach is an issue though, one of the reasons for our poor form at the start of last season seemed to be Murray coaching all the full-time players himself with no one else to help out during the day so hopefully we can get someone else in.

Seems to be with the same agency as Griffin Sabatini so I guess that makes some sense. He doesn't seem to have played anywhere since 2019 and doesn't have a particularly great scoring record, though looking at that video he seems like more of a wide player/attacking midfielder than an out and out striker. We definitely needed another forward player though so good to get one in.

Hard to say really, he only came into the team in mid February so didn’t have too much time to make an impact before the season ended. I thought he looked really good on his debut against Dumbarton, seemed decent on the ball and hard working and took some decent set pieces, but he struggled to make much of an impact in the following games. I’d be surprised if he’s in the initial starting eleven for Alloa but there’s probably enough there to show he can improve and be a decent player at that level.

Our squad numbers run up to 25 at the moment with three gaps so I'm expecting another two or three players in. Even as it stands the squad is probably bigger than what most teams in this league will have, albeit ours is padded out with four or five players from last season's reserves. Much like last season when we had about 35 players including the reserves, I'm not sure whether signing all these reserve players is the best idea when we could have one or two better players for the cost of their wages, though there's definitely a balance needed between Airdrie last season and Stevie Aitken's Dumbarton team.

Yeah I agree with this. Solid striker at this level and good for double figures, especially if Cove are in the same scoring form they were in last year. He was a strange player at Airdrie, ended up with double figures due to a flurry of goals in the meaningless last few games but he was still our best forward that season. I don’t think anyone was too bothered to see him go though, as for all he managed double figures I never really felt he looked composed in front of goal. Missed a few good chances which ultimately cost us with how many home games we lost 1-0 that season.

Bain's a good right back for this level and probably an improvement on Clyde's defence last season. He's pretty versatile, he played on both sides at full back and on the wing for Airdrie but he's primarily a right back who's better going forward but seems to have improved defensively in the few times I've seen him play since leaving Airdrie. He's also good for a great goal every now and then.

Looks like Sabatini and Ritchie have taken 12 and 13, so still potentially three players left if they’re filling out all the numbers. A 25 man squad seems massive at a time when most clubs are running with smaller squads, though I guess even that is much smaller than last season.

Last seasons midfield was generally quite experienced though. Nat Wedderburn’s played in League One and the leagues above before and Kieran Millar had been in this league for five or six years and while not necessarily experienced Kurtis Roberts is 25. Despite that experience the midfield was our main complaint last season, mainly due to a real lack of creativity and ability to control games. I think most fans are excited about the unknown rather than because we think these new signings will be great players. They may well turn out to be rubbish but signing unknown foreign players is always going yo be more interesting than signing players from other League One teams. Ideally we would sign an experienced midfielder who is good on the ball and has the ability to control a game and drive the team forward. Unfortunately there’s not too many players like that at this level and Falkirk and Thistle will always be able to outbid us, let alone teams in the league above. Rather than settle for the same average midfield, the club have gambled on a few unknown players who might be able to improve the team. I’ve got more confidence in the current regime than previous ones given that we’re taking a few gambles while having a mainly settled squad rather than filling the team with young, unproven players.

Even if Robert and Sabatini don’t work out we still won’t be as bad as those teams (hopefully!). We still have the same settled core from last seasons squad and even some of our signings this summer (Currie and O’Reilly) are known quantities. I’d be concerned if we signed a full team of unknown players like your examples but signing a few of them is great fun. Much more exciting than signing Kieran Millar and Nat Wedderburn anyway.

So far this summer we've signed players from Stranraer, Truro City, Hearts, St. Johnstone, Montpellier and SC Dnipro 1. Certainly a much more diverse list than usual...