The Queen of the South thread

[Otis Blue]

2 hours ago, Accies1 said:

Connor Murray just signed for us, good player at this level?

Murray's gonna have 4 good games next season ... wonder which 4 games those will be ...?

[Slipmat]

2 hours ago, Accies1 said:

Connor Murray just signed for us, good player at this level?

Nobody knows.  You've more chance of seeing Lord Lucan riding Shergar across NDP than spotting Murray doing anything on the pitch.

And here was me thinking that Accies recruitment was looking tasty.

Edited July 4, 2023 by Slipmat

[Ian Mcleod]

Think Murray will be more of a squad option anyway don't think he's going to be playing every week for us.

[Fae_the_'briggs]

31 minutes ago, Ian Mcleod said:

Think Murray will be more of a squad option anyway don't think he's going to be playing any week for us.

Ftfy. 

Criticism by some might be a bit harsh but he does look like a player who's easily scunnered during games. When his head drops he just doesn't look interested. Can have the very odd flash of genius but could do better if he showed a bit of belief in himself. Might prove more effective from the subs bench. 

[Ian Mcleod]

15 minutes ago, Fae_the_'briggs said:

Ftfy. 

Criticism by some might be a bit harsh but he does look like a player who's easily scunnered during games. When his head drops he just doesn't look interested. Can have the very odd flash of genius but could do better if he showed a bit of belief in himself. Might prove more effective from the subs bench. 

Yeah we'll have to wait and see how it goes

[Katboy]

4 hours ago, Accies1 said:

Connor Murray just signed for us, good player at this level?

He's a decent technical player who will get the odd goal.  However he doesn't like the physical side of the game and you won't see him getting stuck in to challenges.  During last season he went in to hiding more often than not (to the extent where you forget he's even on the pitch).  He'll be ok as a squad player, but if you're looking for someone to dig you out of a hole when things are not going well then best look elsewhere.

[Skyline Drifter]

7 hours ago, Accies1 said:

Connor Murray just signed for us, good player at this level?

Connor Murray, as you'll have gathered, was last year's chosen fan's scapegoat, certainly online if not in person. Led by @19QOS19's "ghost" assessment and followed by most others. He never the less scored 10 times for us last year making him our 2nd top scorer despite only starting 24 games.

He started the season really well but certainly drifted out of the picture later on. As others have said, when your back's against the wall he's not the first you'd turn to.  The No 10 role is his best but he's a functional wide player too but he's not good at the defensive side of things. When you don't have the ball he's largely a passenger. He isn't particularly quick either but he has ability and vision so he tends to drift into good positions and he'll score a few if he gets enough game time.

Ultimately though, despite the goals, he wasn't good enough for us last season and he wasn't given a new contract offer at the end of the season, unlike for instance Hendrie, who was. In a side winning more than it loses he'll potentially do well. We effectively decided to keep Lee Connelly ahead of Connor Murray. They do roughly the same things.

Edited July 4, 2023 by Skyline Drifter

[19QOS19]

4 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Connor Murray, as you'll have gathered, was last year's chosen fan's scapegoat, certainly online if not in person. Led by @19QOS19's "ghost" assessment and followed by most others. He never the less scored 10 times for us last year making him our 2nd top scorer despite only starting 24 games.

 

Not necessarily accurate. I thought Murray was shite right off the bat last season. I do remember for the first few weeks I was ribbed after he scored a couple of goals. No surprise to see others finally caught up with me and eventually saw the player I'd seen right off the back. 

Murray wasn't the worst player but as you say, when you have your back against the wall he's a complete passenger so it was probably highlighted more given our season. 

I wasn't sad to see him go the first time, I was beyond underwhelmed when he came back and I couldn't care he's gone this time. I expect the Accies fans will soon see the player I saw early on. 

[Monkey Tennis]

17 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Connor Murray, as you'll have gathered, was last year's chosen fan's scapegoat, certainly online if not in person. 

Who was last year's chosen fan?

I missed the announcement.

[Skyline Drifter]

5 minutes ago, 19QOS19 said:

Not necessarily accurate. I thought Murray was shite right off the bat last season. I do remember for the first few weeks I was ribbed after he scored a couple of goals. No surprise to see others finally caught up with me and eventually saw the player I'd seen right off the back. 

Murray wasn't the worst player but as you say, when you have your back against the wall he's a complete passenger so it was probably highlighted more given our season. 

I wasn't sad to see him go the first time, I was beyond underwhelmed when he came back and I couldn't care he's gone this time. I expect the Accies fans will soon see the player I saw early on. 

I don't think that's necessarily unfair over the piece. He didn't do enough last year. He's another flair player Wullie pinned his hopes on who didn't really deliver enough for him. I don't think he was "shite" and I do think some of his early season stuff when he and Connelly were either side of Paton was pretty decent. His season went downhill when Reilly came in as it left he and Connelly fighting over one place at best and neither made the best of it.

There were absolutely worse players in our team last year than Connor Murray, but he didn't do enough and I'd pick Connelly over him all day every day personally. I don't think he was as good as latterly in his first spell under Johnston for me but Covid ended that rather than any particular choice by either party.

Just now, Monkey Tennis said:

Who was last year's chosen fan?

I missed the announcement.

Aye, fair enough. You knew what I meant though.

Connor Murray wasn't good enough last season and hence he was let go. He wasn't the worst though but he was constantly scapegoated on here.

[Slipmat]

7 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Connor Murray wasn't good enough last season and hence he was let go. He wasn't the worst though but he was constantly scapegoated on here.

I actually think Murray got off lightly compared to McKenna. 

McKenna was near enough an ever present starter under Gibson despite it being apparent from the get go that he was struggling badly in the RWB/RB role.  The frustration with McKenna intensified because most fans were in agreement that we had a better right back at the club who refused to pick himself for reasons which have been surmised upon and discussed to death on this thread, and a young player who never got a look in.  I think it's fair to say that McKenna was a trier but was being asked to do something that he was neither good at nor comfortable in doing.  Matters wouldn't be helped by him being able to hear every criticism levelled at him from the stands (and I'm as guilty as anyone for that) due to the position he was playing in which must surely have affected his confidence.

Murray on the other hand gave the impression of a guy who didn't want to roll his sleeves up and get stuck in and wanted everything served up on a plate for him before he would make an effort to be involved.  If this didn't happen, his head would go down and he would rapidly become a passenger.  Connelly, despite his loss of form from the previous season and being rather harshly dropped (in my opinion) was subsequently overlooked by Gibson after his needless red on the opening day, but at least you could guarantee he would put in a shift.

[MazzyStar]

2 hours ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Who was last year's chosen fan?

I missed the announcement.

It was @Greenacres

[Manwithnoball]

Fair play to Murray's agent getting him a full time gig is impressive. Noticed on the Thistle thread East is playing for them tonight as a trialist. So take he is not coming back at all then. 

[Alex Nesovic's Barmy Army]

13 hours ago, Manwithnoball said:

Fair play to Murray's agent getting him a full time gig is impressive. Noticed on the Thistle thread East is playing for them tonight as a trialist. So take he is not coming back at all then. 

Did he play in defence? Assume so.

[Queens90]

3-0 win against Gretna, Decent workout still a few players missing tonight. Thought young Kennedy looked like a decent player was very tidy in possession but defensively we weren’t really troubled.

[Greenacres]

1 hour ago, Queens90 said:

3-0 win against Gretna, Decent workout still a few players missing tonight. Thought young Kennedy looked like a decent player was very tidy in possession but defensively we weren’t really troubled.

Decent work out young Kennedy did really well. 

All the trialists deserve another run out stand out again the winger from the Livi game he looked  good again has real pace .

Slight worry was our finishing who is going to get us goals.

Still think we need a experienced centre back a ball winning midfielder and a forward.

We have a lot of technical players none really like to do the dirty side of the game. 

[19QOS19]

Good run out with a mixed squad tonight. Our finishing was pretty woeful in the first half and Gretna could have had a couple themselves. But we appeared to be in control regardless. Took full control in the second half and it was a comfortable win. 

Watching the trialist out wide my thoughts are he looks like one of those players who could be anonymous for 85 minutes then come up with a bit of magic to win a game. Really loved him running at players and he looks pretty rapid. Possibly tired in the second as he rarely touched the ball. 

No. 9. I thought looked hopeless early on. Looked pretty clueless and had a very poor touch but then he completely settled and I thought he was the best of the 3. He could/should have had a hat-trick and had he we'd be screaming for him to sign. Thought he held it up well and linked nicely. His finishing wasn't great of course but he was getting into the positions. 

Thought the boy that scored was the least impressive of the 3 oddly enough. He never really had much of the ball tbf but again when the chance game he buried it well. 

All 3 are absolutely worth another look at and I'd expect them all to feature on Saturday. Every one of them were head and shoulders above the ones I watched at EK which is a positive. 

[qos1990]

6 hours ago, 19QOS19 said:

Good run out with a mixed squad tonight. Our finishing was pretty woeful in the first half and Gretna could have had a couple themselves. But we appeared to be in control regardless. Took full control in the second half and it was a comfortable win. 

Watching the trialist out wide my thoughts are he looks like one of those players who could be anonymous for 85 minutes then come up with a bit of magic to win a game. Really loved him running at players and he looks pretty rapid. Possibly tired in the second as he rarely touched the ball. 

No. 9. I thought looked hopeless early on. Looked pretty clueless and had a very poor touch but then he completely settled and I thought he was the best of the 3. He could/should have had a hat-trick and had he we'd be screaming for him to sign. Thought he held it up well and linked nicely. His finishing wasn't great of course but he was getting into the positions. 

Thought the boy that scored was the least impressive of the 3 oddly enough. He never really had much of the ball tbf but again when the chance game he buried it well. 

All 3 are absolutely worth another look at and I'd expect them all to feature on Saturday. Every one of them were head and shoulders above the ones I watched at EK which is a positive. 

Would happily not see any of the two striking options again. We badly need our last 2/3 signings to be of quality, not making up numbers which I feel them two would. Thought the winger looked good in spells as you say but a few times over done it especially when cutting inside which he won’t get away with against league one sides and the like. I think there’s a player in there that could be coached. 
 

on last night was fully expecting more knicker wetting but it was nothing more than a training game. Hard to gauge anything on it tbh 

[Otis Blue]

Appreciate the feedback on the friendlies and the trialists folks, very helpful. 

Think its no secret that our main worry is where the goals will come from.  Connolly and Reilly (and maybe even Doherty) will no doubt chip in with the odd goal now and again, but not enough to trouble the top four places.  I'm hoping that Marvin's coaching will make us a fairly decent side, but I'm not sure that coaching alone will deliver a striker that nets in double figures - that's kind of instinctive, they have it or they don't.  Of course every side is looking for that striker so it ain't easy to get, especially with our fairly limited means.  Here's hoping though.

[Skyline Drifter]

2 hours ago, qos1990 said:

Would happily not see any of the two striking options again. We badly need our last 2/3 signings to be of quality, not making up numbers which I feel them two would. Thought the winger looked good in spells as you say but a few times over done it especially when cutting inside which he won’t get away with against league one sides and the like. I think there’s a player in there that could be coached. 
 

on last night was fully expecting more knicker wetting but it was nothing more than a training game. Hard to gauge anything on it tbh 

I thought the one who started was ok to be honest but he missed a couple of sitters. He was strong and quick but with the greatest of respect to Gretna, it's not a comparable level to what we need him to look strong and quick against. He did very well to create the 2nd goal too. He did prevent Josh Todd scoring in the 1st half by running into his path though! I'm not going to Dundee United on Saturday, and clearly wasn't on the same wavelength as team-mates at times, but I certainly wouldn't mind him getting a run out against them to see how he does.

Can't really comment on the one who came on as a sub and scored. He didn't get that long and was by then playing a tiring Lowland side. He also largely finished the game surrounded by teenage team-mates. He wasn't really seen in a 1st team context sufficiently to judge anything.

The winger showed excellent pace again and delivered two or three good cutbacks that we should have made more of but again, he was up against a 17 year old full back in Douglas Simpson who was released by our u18 squad in the summer. I'm not reading anything much into that. Again, hopefully they have a look at him again on Saturday. I imagine they will.

I was actually expecting to read more knicker wetting to be honest. We ultimately ran out comfortable winners but 0-0 at half time against a weak Lowland side is knicker wetting territory. Especially when they could have scored a couple of times on the break. We did completely dominate it though and only played about half a first team with guys like Reilly, Cochrane and Brydon who played more than an hour on Saturday not used, Doherty injuring himself in training yesterday, Church and Wilson still out also. It's also worth bearing in mind that our guys had done a double session of training before the match, which won't normally be the case obviously!

We finished the game with only Paul McKay and potentially the Trialist (no idea who he is or what age he is) on the pitch who were even 20 I think. Cammy Edgar who played the last 5 minutes or so is only 15!

I thought Mimnaugh looked much better this time than against EK. Connelly, eventually, showed his class second half, creating the first goal for Kennedy and then scoring the 3rd when Kennedy returned the favour. Defence was wholly untroubled really apart from being caught over the top with a couple of quick breaks. Appreciate he had free rein to join in attacks due to the level of opposition but I thought Finlay Kennedy was very good last night. We may just have another diamond on our hands there. He's just turned 17 though and is still at school so once the schools go back he's not going to be training with the 1st team. I'd like to see more of him though.

Charlie Cowie did well in goal for Gretna without really having to make any spectacular saves. He was confident and assured though and took cross balls for fun all night. Another season playing adult football on loan and he could well be ready to make the step up to first team for us.

Pitch looks great of course but noticeable a lot of players, especially early on, were slipping over. I assume that's a combination of the new-ness and the fact it was heavily watered before the warm ups and then briefly watered again between warm ups and kick off. A reaction presumably to the difficultly of playing on the very dry pitch at East Kilbride a couple of weeks ago.