Watson Nimrod

That’s 49 more than he did when he was with us. Staggered he got your gig.

First half was abysmal, but second half was way better. Harrington in particular and Murray looked pretty assured and linked up with Glass who was also way better in the second half. Is Mitch injured?

Yup, I like the purple flashes!

It’s easy to update the fans tho rather than it turning into a he said she said on Facebook. I couldn’t imagine 2 construction sites going on at the same time in the winter in an operational football stadium so someone from the club officially needs to say what’s going on as it affects a lot of ST renewals. Anyway let’s hope we can avoid these monsoon showers that are predicted this afternoon and get the season off to a winning start tonight!!

I wouldn’t disagree. It’s become part of football tho and I guess you get a slightly better mark up if you agree to a yearly cycle. I worked in John Lewis when I was a student and the mark up on sportswear was dreadful then and can’t see it being much better now. To me it’s endemic of the way the club is run. It’s corporate first and everything else second. That’s fine but it’s doing nothing to attract any new potential fans. I’m totally convinced if we want to become established we have to do better to get bums on seats. We are way behind every other club in this division when it comes to fan interaction. If we have designs on the Championship, corporate won’t substain that in the long term. No club can survive and progress without a growing core support if you are starting with a small base. Agree on the stands but it would be simple to update the fans to avoid 3 folk not renewing to watch the dross that’s being served up down at Spain Park.

Couple of good signings today. Seems to be a few questioning Grady McGrath but with the little I know about football I’m really confident he will score a bucket load of goals at this level if he gets the service from Glass and Fraser. I’ve seen him a good few times before he came on loan and I’ve been banging on about him for a year or so. I really liked the ability and the balls into the box from Quinn who played on loan. If we get him we are starting to look good. Maybe really good but the defence still looks shaky AF in the middle. The new kit is just the same old story from last season. We must be getting a new one as none of the signings have been photographed in the old one. Probably nothing but I notice ACE haven’t sponsored any players this season. Maybe reading too much into the rumours (which I don’t do anymore ) disappointing as so many folk buy a new strip for their holidays and kids for the summer and other clubs at our level make a big deal about their kit release. Arbroath for example make it into a big event and sell a rake of shirts. The club just does not help themselves with stuff like this as they probably make FA out of shirt sales. My boy keeps on asking me when the shirt is out and it’s like an episode of 321 for older readers . It’s a promotional thing, the more kids who wear them the more might come along to game to be with their pals. Just look at Peterhead….. We chuckle about all the drama about stands on the supporters FB page, but so many folk are waiting to see what’s happening. You can’t just announce it and then sweep it under the carpet. There has been nothing official from the club to my knowledge? I would probably go regardless but some people need an experience, they want to be able to buy merch at the ground, they want a bit of shelter, it’s not too much to ask really to let people know what’s happening.

I wonder how much business will be done over the next few days. Unclear if the better trialists played on Saturday as the club seem to not acknowledge publicly that this game took place! By all accounts we were half decent in the second half although Rotherham seem to have played with a second 11. I guess the club are classing it as a ‘bounce game’. I wonder if we had beaten them what it would have been classed as. Pre season hasn’t been bad but we still desperately need a striker and a Centre Back. If Mitch or Fraser play the same amount of games as they did over the last 2 seasons then we will really struggle unless reinforcements are brought in but if we are not signing Grady or Quinn then it’s starting to seem a bit Dejavu fr last season.

I would say that’s definitely Scott. Just didn’t hit the highs with us but was largely used as sub, sometimes in games where we were already well behind, I wouldn’t say he was frozen out per say, Burrell hit form and Hartley wouldn’t drop Mitch if his arm was hanging off so he never really got a chance. Like someone said there is a player lurking in there. So many times it seemed he did everything but score. Wouldn’t have taken a huge amount for him to gain confidence. I spoke to his old man a few times at away games (he never missed a game where Scott was in the team) and I hope he gets a chance somewhere and it works out.

Haven’t seen anything posted yet on yesterday but the levels were not of that on Thursday night, maybe 3 games in such quick succession took its toll. No Mitch or Fraser (thankfully both not injured) and we seemed to give the ball away very easily against a very determined Locos side who closed us down at every opportunity. Well taken goal by Grady McGrath who hopefully we will sign this week? Other than the goal he wasn’t really much on the game but that’s strikers for you!

Very hard to compare but I wonder if Grady is perhaps a better option than Bavidge….. now if we managed to secure both then that’s a pretty decent forward line. I thought Gaffney looked OK last night but as you say its going to be back up at the very best. Luke Strachan was decent too. The others didn’t have enough time or enough of the ball to be fairly judged. Interesting to see that Golding has signed for Elgin and scored a hatrick the other night. What a very odd situation that was. A better man manager would have handled that differently. Is he L1 level? We never really got the chance to see after the ‘fall out’! If I’m being honest I’m surprised we are even trialing Grady unless there is other interest. I would sign him. I wonder if the hybrid model has something to do with that. Not seen it mentioned but it was good to see Mark Reynolds back at the Balmoral.

I just think it’s a no brainier signing Grady. It’s absolutely the type of signing we should be making. He has scored a pile of goals, did his apprenticeship with Dundee and has been prolific at the levels he has played at. I would rather sign him than someone who started brightly at an SPL club at youth level and failed at the championship level. Let’s face it our expectations are maybe too high anyway. I hope he plays tomorrow, way too many young players are written off way too quickly. We forget football is very often about opinions.

Any confirmation that this is Grady McGrath ex Brechin? Looks like him from the recent photos online but I can’t be sure as it’s not the best photo ….

There are players in the HL I think can easily step up to L1 (but I’m struggling really to think of anyone at BoD) McLeod up front maybe? Only seen BoD play a couple of time last season but they seem to play as a unit rather than any outstanding stars. Looking at pictures this morning I’m wondering if the No9 is Grady McGrath? If it his he is definitely one I would take from the HL in a heartbeat.

Glad I went up tonight. First half was actually really entertaining. I think I’ve worked out that Ben Quinn played no 11…. He was my man of the match to be fair (although we missed the first goal) and looks VERY lively. We will do well to sign him as he looks a class above, lovely cross on him too. We know it’s only BoD but we put more balls into good areas tonight than we did for most of last season! Ryan Harrington played No3 and yes I thought he looked good too (we actually thought they were shouting Brian!!). No9 we are not sure but I thought he looked lively and did well but seem to tire a bit before he was hooked…… Second half wasn’t as good and it petered out a bit. I thought Gaffney and Strachan looked half decent. Strachan again providing lots of decent balls into the box from set pieces. Didn’t see enough of our other players to have an opinion and the trialists playing 14 and 22 were not of a great standard in the short time they got which is maybe a bit harsh. Would like to see a bit more of Quinn on Saturday that’s for sure.

Going back to my original question how did Ochmanski play? I’m hearing good things about him