Nicked this from a similar thread in the third division, but out of your team yesterday, how many were with you last season, and how many are new?


Darren Hill - Signed last season
Steven Rennie - Been with us for a few years
Roddy Black - Also been with us for a while
Alan Rattray - Signed last season
Jamie Bishop - Four years at the club or so
John Fraser - New Signing
Kevin McMullen - Been with us a long time
Paul Lunan - Signed last season
Bryan Scott - Been with us for a couple years
Barry Sellars - Been with us for a year or two
Scott Gates - New signing


Bench
Andy Reilly - Been with us a while
Terry Masson - Came through the youths
Kenny Wright - New Signing
Robbie Raeside - Been a couple years
Scott Morrison - Ditto

I remember several other posters on here saying that we were doomed to the drop unless we made 4 or 5 new signings over the summer, and that our team wasn't any good (despite our christmas signings. But only 2 players in the first XI have changed since the end of last season, and we looked pretty good yesterday. I think we are showing the benefits of keeping a stable team together.

How about other teams? Masses of change or stable line ups?

Masses of change in the playing staff, but no difference in results.

The change hasn't been made where it's needed most - the boardroom and the dugout.

Michal Kula - In his second season
Davie Donald - In his second season
Daniel Moore - On loan from Ross County and looks assured
Bobby Mann - Signed Jan 2007
Martin Skinner - Signed in the summer
Neil McVitie - Signed permanently in the summer after a loan spell last term
Graeme Sharp - Signed in summer 2005
Craig Gunn - On loan from County
Martin Bavidge - Longest serving player. Signed 2003
Stuart Anderson - In his second season
Stuart McKay - Signed summer 2006

Subs:
Donnie Munro - In his second season
Davie Ross - Signed permanently in summer after loan spell
Dean Cowie - Third season in the first team squad
Callum Macdonald - Signed Nov 2006
Paul Jarvie - Summer signing


A few new boys in there, although a couple had loan spells last season, so whether you would count them is debatable.

We had 3 new starters and 2 new players on the bench yesterday.

As for Arbroath, obviously you got a cracking result yesterday but I still think they'll struggle to avoid a relegation scrap this season. I remember similar comments from the past couple of seasons about 'keeping a settled squad'.

There hasn't been a major overhaul in any of the promoted teams squads and East Fife finished absolutely miles ahead of the other two last season. I can't see the same number of points separating the three of us again this season but I don't see any reason why we shouldn't be finishing ahead of both Arbroath and Stranraer.

Take something from Peterhead next Saturday and I might be a bit more convinced. I noticed Neale Cooper said that yesterdays performance was one of the best he's seen at Peterhead and although they were the better team and deserved the win, the two goals were preventable break-aways and Phd created absolutely nothing in the second half so I'm not going to get too worried yet. Top 4 is still the aim this season.

From our team yesterday:

Zander Cowie-Been around for a few years. Only really got to play at the ned of last season.
Martin Ure-Signed last season.
Barry Douglas-Promoted from the under 19's
Richard Sinclair-Been around for years, has several hundred appearances for the club as well
Jamie Brough-Was part of the under 19's last season, but played for 5 odd games at the ned of last season.
Paul Harkins-Signed from Neilston
Jack Henry-Promoted from the under 19's
Paul Cairney-3rd season in the first team, even though he is now only on loan from Thistle.
Adam Coakley-New signing
John Neill-Signed in march last season.
Ryan Holms-New signing

Subs:
David Crawford-second spell with the club after going to Dumbarton last season
Ross Dunlop-promoted form the under 19's
Tony Quinn-Been around for years
Robert Dunn-Signed for us 3 years ago.
Andy Boslem-Promoted from under 19's but has 5 appearances for the first team.

New signings David Murray and Tony McGrogan didn't make the squad, and some other guys guys who would have been in the 16 if fit(Reilly, Agostini, McGrady, possibly Ronald) all aren't fit just now.

From yesterday's team:

David McGurn- Just signed from Morton. Competitive debut
Craig Wilson- Signed in October 2006
Andrew Cook- Signed in the summer from Edinburgh University
Mark Campbell- Signed in January 2006
Laurie Ellis- Joins us for his third spell from Stirling Albion
Allan Walker- Signed from Livingston after a brief loan spell last season
Robert Sloan- Signed in the summer of 2007
Iain Davidson- Signed in summer 2004. Our longest serving player
Graham Weir- Signed in summer 2007
Kevin Smith- Loan signing from Dundee United until January
Mark Ferry- New signing from Queens Park

Our bench consisted of one player we've had since 2005, two new signings and two under 19 players.

From yesterday's starting XI (Players in red are the new 'uns)

Myles Hogarth - Been here for years, solid, and usually fairly reliable. Except against Alloa.
Andy Graham - Now into his 4th season with us having joined in 2005. Centre half currently playing at right back for reasons known only to the management
David Lowing - Bombscare new signing from Ayr. Aye, thanks guys
Andy Lawrie - Experienced ex Falkirk and St Johnstone defender, signed in the summer. Right back currently playing at centre half for reasons known only to the management.
Ross Forsyth - One of our best players, who can play in a number of positions. Key player for us.
Paul Murphy - defensive midfielder miles out of his depth in Division 1 last season the few times we played him. Seems to look a bit more comfortable in this league. Had his best game for us yesterday.
Liam Corr - Promoted from the youth team. Got a couple of run outs at the tail end of last season, but looks set to become a first team regular this year. Cracking prospect.
John O'Neil - Signed from QOS in the summer and has looked fairly hopeless so far. Disappointing, but obviously still time for him to turn it around.
Ian Harty - Signed during the close season. Was unsure about him coming to us, but has really looked the part since he signed. Good player
Martin Grehan - Another new signing, looks to be forging a decent partnership with Harty.
Stewart Devine - Been here longer than any other player having signed in 2001. Another player who can play in a variety of positions, although his favoured one is left-back. I wish he bas back in that position.

Although we have kept our side fairly constant, and I mentioned this in our match thread, going by yesterday it looks as if a couple of our players have had some fire re-ignited in their bellies that was missing last season.

The pessimist in me thinks I may have seen our best performance of the season already, but the optimist in me thinks that maybe we are capable of doing more than just avoiding relegation.

I keep waiting for this "jump in quality" from Division 2 to 3, i think its going to be alot less than what people think.

Its coming, you only beat Alloa! Yes they were fancied but only on last years form; teams to watch i think are EF, RR, Peterhead, BC and AU.

As for our team I think we had one new signing in the starting team (Twigg) with Canning coming on. The rest have been with us a couple of years, with Diack, Dyer and Murie coming in at various points last year.

Lets be honest if yourself and EF are "teams to watch" then we aren't going to have as big a problem as people predict because you are both pish tbh.

Did we only start with 10 yesterday. Probably why we struggled.

You forgot Neill.

Someones getting a bit carried away after one good result, do you think we'll finish 30+ points ahead of you this season again?

Yesterdays result was obviously fantastic, but I'm not going to get carried away on the basis of one game. The next two or three games should give us a more telling indication of the standards we'll have to reach if we're to survive in this division, which realistically has to be the objective for the season. Time will tell.

It is fairly noteworthy that, although we made a few signings in the close season, the starting line up for the last couple of games has only contained a couple of new faces. JMcG clearly has faith in the majority of the players who got us promoted last year.

I love how every single season promoted teams have a good start in leagues all over the country, and every single year the supporters of said club start crowing about how weak the league is compared to how they thought it'd be. Six months later, said club are involved in a relegation tussle.

My money was on East Fife being that team, but it appears the dark horses Arbroath have romped their way to victory.

He was a damn good centre half when he played for us!!!

And as you said he is now "experienced" he can only be better now surely???

Not really, we've kept pretty much all the best players from last year and added some decent new lads as well. Clearly our performance yesterday was a shambles but you cant write a team off on the back of that any more than some people were wrongly talking us up after beating Dundee last week. The truth is somewhere in between and Im confident enough we'll be a match for most in this league this season. Its similarly daft for somebody to talk at this stage about the gap between Divisions 2 and 3...we're only a game into the season!

As for new faces in our team yesterday we had Dougie Hill, Pat Scullion and Jamie Stevenson. The other new signing, Iain Campbell, is injured. We also have two of our best performers last year, Brown Ferguson and Dougie Wilson, still to return to fitness.

I think that sums up our last jaunt into the second division. I think we won our first 3 games and were top of the league and I'm sure we were still in the top 2 by the end of the first quarter too. All downhill from there.

Sorry, forgot him. Edited the original post now.