southernboy

It would be the Spring of 1966 by my reckoning. On checking Iain was born in the same month as me ((August 1951) so that would make us both still 14 at the time. Although, as I say , we had a decent side, the only one who went on to play senior football was Eddie Bashford who had a very brief spell with Hamilton Accies. I remember seeing him play once against us at Boghead.

I recall the same iain Munro in a very different guise. I was playing for the Academy in the quarter final of the Scottish Cup at under-15 level. We were drawn against Uddingston Grammar at the Academy playing fields. We had a really good team that year and were pretty hopeful of reaching the semis. However one Iain (Minnie?) Munro was the centre forward for Uddingston. We went down 3-0 with Iain scoring two of the goals. Hardly surprising he was playing senior a few years on.

I have to agree with most of the posters here. That was a shambolic showing today. Stirling were streets ahead of us and the result flattered us. Yet again though I end up scratching my head over SF's game plan. We have players who , as Ryan McGeever said in commentary, are comfortable on the ball - McKee, the two Wilsons, Blair ( when he returns) and Wallace. Yet these players constantly watched the ball fly over their heads time and again. But why? We don't have a great deal of height up front nor players whose natural game is to hold the ball up as they wait for the midfield to support. In contrast Stirling were strong in their midfield teamwork and controlled the match with ease. Positives? Long and Lynas look decent acquisitions. Wallace, I know is a good footballer. As always, I don't think there's any lack of commitment from the team but they really, really need some proper direction. Again McGeever reckoned we needed someone to put a foot on the ball and play others in. If he can see it....... We have to be better than this. And we play Stirling again at home in three weeks. Not like this, Stevie

Sorry Jan, but I also went along to yesterday's game. I had hoped that , given Gretna 2008 finished second bottom of the lowland league last year and with a goals against deficit of -73, this would be a comfortable, morale boosting afternoon out. As it turned out we were fortunate to win the match at all, and for a team 'looking good going forward' , I can only remember one attempt on goal of any note in the whole of the second half(our goal). By contrast, Gretna could , and should have scored at least three during that period. Our defence, which of course was admittedly makeshift, struggled throughout and was given a hard time by , in particular their CF (Russell Currie?) who looked exactly the kind of lad we could be doing with. Martin McNiff, who did make some timely interventions, looked painfully slow on a number of occasions. We did indeed have five men missing and it was , of course, a friendly, but I didn't see very much by way of slick movement or interpassing. I didn't get the impression we lacked effort, just a bit of direction and organisation. There were definitely some positives. Ryan Wallace looked to have good touch and movement but seemed to be playing all over the pitch. Aaron Lynas, though out of position, seems a decent acquisition and David Wilson did a lot of running and played some good passes. Early, early days but there seems to me to be a fair bit of work and strengthening needed or we may well be struggling again this season. But then, I've been wrong before.

Best player at the Rock last season. Has pace and a good ball winner. I thought Livi might have retained him as he has bags of potential. A good signing for Morton.

Not for the first time I feel as if I must have been watching elsewhere today. I thought Robert Jones was one of our best players, especially in the first half when nothing much else was happening. He worked hard, held up well and laid off to others a number of times. If anything the problem was that he was pretty isolated with our usual gap between forwards and midfield. JD clearly realised this an Carsy was further forward in the second. Hopefully too the return of JP and/ or young Hamilton should help with this.

100% with this. Really good news for us. Shug gives us the balance w e need defensively in midfield. Now just a centre half and someone who can cover the right back position and we're in business!

I know not everyone is a fan of Hugh Murray but it was noticeable the difference when he came on last Saturday. Morton at that point had had a spell of pressure and were on top in the midfield. Shuggy shored things up for us and gave us in the edge in the last twenty minutes. I think it's important we can hang on to him. He gives a different, defensive option to counterbalance our attacking midfielders.