South v Cleyhole

[JRS LEFT PEG]

The last viewpoint seems pretty harsh to me . There have been wholesale changes to the team and cohesive play takes time to develop as players get more comfortable and used to each other .

I seen enough yesterday to say we will do better this season than what I feared.

[NM_1919]

I seen more in the killie friendly than I did yesterday. What I will add is that Stranraer were pretty hard to break down, had a lot of men behind the ball

[palmy_cammy]

We did enough, but I was less impressed than some others.

I didn't think it was a great performance and but for an absolute sitter of a header put over the bar midway through the second half, we'd have been looking at extra time.

We deserved to win, but only just. I liked Conroy and thought Jacobs and Marshall did fine. I'll not write Hillson off on the strength of one game, but what people saw to give them encouragement today, I'm not sure.

This time last year however, we'd already been eliminated, so I'll take it.

It wasn't a great performance, but I'm struggling to think of many classic season openers from us. The first round of the challenge cup is nearly always a minor step up from a friendly. We won in a comfortable manner though, you can't ask for a lot else in a cup game.

You've highlighted the one real chance they had to suggest extra time was a possibility, yet ignored the additional chances we had in addition to the two goals we scored.

I thought Hilson showed good promise. He probably didn't do enough to deserve his performance being highlighted in normal circumstances, but as a young debutant stepping up to a higher level I thought he did alright. I thought he showed he had more to his game than a headless chicken like Kean, that's a very harsh comparison. It was good work from him to lay it on a plate for Conroy, who should have scored before making amends with the freekick.

Early days of course, and I'm going to be trying my hardest to search for positives whilst the new season optimism is still fresh. It didn't feel like I had to try too hard to find positives yesterday though.

[kirkyblue2]

Not a classic but we won keeping a clean sheet which is a positive.

Thought Marshall was shaky first half and was it him who conceded the free kick on the edge of the box which I thought was a penalty at the time, played better 2nd half.

Impressed with Hilson who I thought was MOTM.

Thought the Ref was poor and Stranraer player should have seen red for the free kick that led to our 2nd goal.

[football maniac]

I thought the complete opposite to others regarding Hilson. For me his touch was great and his ability to retain the ball against stronger looking players was equally impressive. The question is does he have the nous to get in the right position for goalscoring opportunities? He never had a sniff of goal yesterday. Jacobs had a much better 2nd half after a shaky 1st chasing back to help his defence and doing all the dirty work. The level of improvement compared to the Killie game shown by Marshall was staggering. For an 18 year old to play like that in his competitive debut was very encouraging. Conroy and Millar were a delight to watch whenever they got the ball. Unfortunately for them the other around them were not on the same level. Kidd was utterly utterly pish. He is so negative and when you couple that with his lack of defensive ability you have a problem

[SUPERSOUTH]

I thought the complete opposite to others regarding Hilson. For me his touch was great and his ability to retain the ball against stronger looking players was equally impressive. The question is does he have the nous to get in the right position for goalscoring opportunities? He never had a sniff of goal yesterday. Jacobs had a much better 2nd half after a shaky 1st chasing back to help his defence and doing all the dirty work. The level of improvement compared to the Killie game shown by Marshall was staggering. For an 18 year old to play like that in his competitive debut was very encouraging. Conroy and Millar were a delight to watch whenever they got the ball. Unfortunately for them the other around them were not on the same level. Kidd was utterly utterly pish. He is so negative and when you couple that with his lack of defensive ability you have a problem

Agree with all above with Tapping still to come into the midfield we might see Jacobs or Hutton if signs play on the right in your place of Kidd and maybe Conroy moved to the left in place of Russell. Team looking very encouraging considering so many new faces.

[palmy_cammy]

Not a classic but we won keeping a clean sheet which is a positive.

Thought Marshall was shaky first half and was it him who conceded the free kick on the edge of the box which I thought was a penalty at the time, played better 2nd half.

Impressed with Hilson who I thought was MOTM.

Thought the Ref was poor and Stranraer player should have seen red for the free kick that led to our 2nd goal.

Yeah that was a let off. Clumsy tackle that may or may not have been a penalty. Harsh to hold it against him though (I'm not saying you are) because Holt was known for making the odd rash challenging, and Higgins made at least two yesterday.

Yeah I've no idea how that wasn't deemed a clear goalscoring opportunity. Not that it mattered. I think half the Stranraer team could have been booked for persistent fouling as well. Cloggers.

It must have been an emotional time for some of our fans to finally see Jamie Longworth strutting his stuff at Palmerston.

[JRS LEFT PEG]

Yeah that was a let off. Clumsy tackle that may or may not have been a penalty. Harsh to hold it against him though (I'm not saying you are) because Holt was known for making the odd rash challenging, and Higgins made at least two yesterday.

Yeah I've no idea how that wasn't deemed a clear goalscoring opportunity. Not that it mattered. I think half the Stranraer team could have been booked for persistent fouling as well. Cloggers.

It must have been an emotional time for some of our fans to finally see Jamie Longworth strutting his stuff at Palmerston.

I wasn't as emotional as I thought I would be when Jamie finally stepped on the hallowed pitch

[Monkey Tennis]

I thought the square ball played in for Conroy before the decisive free-kick should have been in front of him. That it wasn't held things up, forced Conroy to get a bit stuck and allowed another defender across, so that when the foul came, it was no longer a clear goalscoring opportunity and the ref rightly kept his red card in his pocket.

[Skyline Drifter]

I thought the square ball played in for Conroy before the decisive free-kick should have been in front of him. That it wasn't held things up, forced Conroy to get a bit stuck and allowed another defender across, so that when the foul came, it was no longer a clear goalscoring opportunity and the ref rightly kept his red card in his pocket.

I thought Madden was pretty fair and consistent. The one right at the end might have been interpreted as a red card but so equally might Marshall's in the first half. Happy enough with both seeing only yellow. Pretty sure Lyle should have had a penalty for being clipped in the penalty area towards the end of the first half though. That's the only thing I'd query from the referee.

[queenslad]

I take it Russell was booked for sharing his thoughts and opinions with the referee!

[Blue1870]

Rumsby's foul on the queens player was correctly given as a yellow. There appeared to be another Stranraer defender around the back due to as one qos fan saying the square ball holding the run forward up.

However in the first half I thought queens were lucky not to get a red card for the foul on Malcolm. There was no queens defenders. Last man foul.

No complaints with the result. Queens to good for us at the moment. A few more signings and pace in the team needed. Big losses over the summer might make it a slow start for Stranraer.

[overthetop]

I take it Russell was booked for sharing his thoughts and opinions with the referee!

Giving the ref the time of day as is his favourite pastime!

[southsidedavy]

(I only got into the ground shortly after the second half kicked off so bare in mind my comments are excluding what happened in the first half)

Yeah I tend to be in the Not Sure camp when it comes to Marshall. I thought he looked far better yesterday than he did against Killie though and he looked keen to get forward and wasn't as panicky on the ball. He made a great run at one point that Conroy should really have buried. I'm by no means writing the boy off as he's only 18. There's definitely something there and if someone offered us the chance to get rid of him right now and replace him, I wouldn't be take the offer. He just needs a run of games. But I certainly don't think he's been great so far.

It was pretty comfortable yesterday, although had Stranraer's header went in it may well have been a different story. Stranraer didn't have the ball very often but when they did they tried to play it on the deck which was good to see. We passed it around quite well too, but I came away from the game thinking the same as I did after the Killie game: we just seem to be lacking something in an attacking sense. That's not a criticism of the strikers BTW. I've been impressed with both Lyle and Hilson so far, I just mean in general we don't seem to be creating as many chances as I'd like. I was right behind the Stranraer 'keeper yesterday and he didn't have a save to make the whole time. He had to do a bit of sweeping but that was it. Other than the goal, the only time their 'keeper was close to being tested was with Marshall's cutback. It's still early days, but I still think we are missing something from our attacking game. The lack of shots on target against a team from a league below was a bit worrying IMO. Next week should be interesting and I'm actually expecting a harder game. Annan will be right up for it and with a few ex-Queens players in the Annan squad I'm guessing they will be giving it that extra wee bit. It should be an interesting game to say the least.

Don't think you were at the same game as me,their keeper made an excellent save to keep out a goalbound header from Lyle in the first half, and reacted well to hold a shot from Conroy in the 2nd,. We looked dangerous once again from set-plays with Jacobs going close with headers on a couple of occasions, and over the piece our attacking play was at times pretty inventive, and with Millar, Conroy and Jacobs, I think that the midfield area looks a lot stronger than it has for a while. Very early days I know, but plenty of positives for me.

[southsidedavy]

For me Hilson done as much in the match today as Reilly did in the matches he played in 2015. He ran himself into the ground, used strength to hold players off the ball & his first touch was pretty good we need to give him & the rest of the players a few games to really get to know each other.

Maybe just me but i wasnt as impressed with marshall as others were. I thought second half he did ok but first half he was a bit shaky imo.

Thought he was one of the better players tbh. After a nervy start thought he handled the pressure of the early booking really well. Admittedly it was a clumsy challenge, but after that he was first class. His passing was good, and his supporting runs down the left were encouraging. To play that well in what was his competitive debut was really quite impressive.

[19QOS19]

Don't think you were at the same game as me,their keeper made an excellent save to keep out a goalbound header from Lyle in the first half, and reacted well to hold a shot from Conroy in the 2nd,

Re-read the opening sentence in my post

I can't recall the Conroy shot you are referring to either. The only Conroy effort I recall was his shot from the cutback, but that was blocked by a defender as far as I recall.

[southsidedavy]

Re-read the opening sentence in my post

I can't recall the Conroy shot you are referring to either. The only Conroy effort I recall was his shot from the cutback, but that was blocked by a defender as far as I recall.

Oops, apologies

[19QOS19]

Oops, apologies

That's quite alright!

[Hawk]

I take it Russell was booked for sharing his thoughts and opinions with the referee!

Just for being his normal self.

[MOTD Wannabee]