What are Montrose playing at?? Letting our best goalkeeper go to St.Johnstone on Loan till January. I would like to think we could keep our better players to remain competitive. What a farce the last couple of month have been and fully expect to lose tomorrow if things have not been sorted out since last week.

Ill be sad to see kelly go but if Saints are paying his full wages then it will certainly soften the blow. He does also train with them full time.

It will give peaty a chance to play again too.

and lets remember, Kelly does have the ability (and probably the desire) to play at 1st Division level, this could be a good chance for him to get back into full time football.

His contract is up come June, and this could be an opp for us to get a bit of money for him in January which could be used for new signings or wages.

Its wrong to try and stifle his ambitions when we have a perfectly good keeper on the bench each week. Id rather he went in January and we got a decent fee for him and use peaty each week.

I'd have to agree with that post 100%. This move makes total sense to me.

Yep, I agree. It's the unfortunate side of playing 3rd division football. You can't stop players from improving themselves and maybe even winning a full time contract!

If St Johnstone are such fans of his, why did they release him in August?

His release could have been conditional based on the asumption that Greg would return to Saints on-loan once Peaty was fit? Then the situation could be re-apraised at the end of the season?

Maybe saints just think they made a mistake?

When Peat injures his groin, I will then be worried as we will be playing a young inexperianced keeper again. Dont blame Greg for wanting to go to Saints and improve his future. Who would want to hang around a club in disarray and plummiting down the league.

On the first point, they signed him as injury cover on a month's deal and he was on the bench for the first 3 games of the season. He then rolled up on trial at Montrose and after a game or two was signed - don't think there was any connection between St Johnstone and Montrose at that time.

Second point probably correct.

He was only brought in over the summer to cover Alan Main's injury. The deal was the Kelly would get to do a full pre-season at a full-time club and that we'd use him in two or three friendlies, so that scouts could come along and take a look at him. At the outset, it was stated there wasn't going to be an offer of a permanent contract as we couldn't carry three goalkeepers.

Euan McLean broke a bone in his hand last month though and after having Lee Robinson on loan from Rangers for 28 days, Kelly has now come back in to provide cover. He clearly impressed during his short spell at the club (and in the time since that he's continued training with us) but the deal was always that he'd move on once Main was fit and would hopefully get a good gig for himself off the back of a full pre-season with Saints.

Don't think we could ever justify having 2 keepers of Mark and Greg's ability on our books, but especially given the deficiencies elsewhere in our squad. Both are serious contenders for being the best keeper in the league (and in Mark's case he was recognised as such last season), though it amuses me this season the number of posters on here who believe their club's keeper is the best.

The problem is that when both are fit, you then have one of our highest earners warming the bench every week. But equally do you want to have to rely on an unproven youngster if your first-choice is out for say 8 weeks. In principle the signing of Jim Butter over the summer wasn't such a bad move. Experienced, capable of doing a job for a game or two and probably happy to still be involved in senior football. Also if you feel that your back up keeper isn't quite up to covering long-term there should be no problem getting in a 3rd or fourth choice in from a SPL club on an emergency loan.

All in all then, can't argue with Greg going to the Saints, though I can't say I'm impressed with the signing of David Craig.

He's 39 FFS and no left-back. In all the years I've seen him play (since his days at Shire in the early nineties) he's been a big bruiser of a centre-half. Very effective stopper but not a lot of culture to his play (great exponent of the big punt forward) and no pace, which is even more worrying if he is going to be playing wide.

His style of play is the exact opposite of what Hannah has been trying over the past few weeks and I just can't fathom why he has been signed. Has he been turning in impressive performances at Arthurlie? Have we had scouts watching him? Or is it just a knee-jerk reaction after Hannah's wake up call last weekand and he has signed him because they were together at Utd in the mid nineties?

Thommo may be rubbish, but is this the best alternative we can come up with?

Really concerned that there doesn't seem to be any clear strategy at the club at the minute. Too much uncertainty all round and a much poorer squad than last season. Worry that by the time things are sorted out our season will be over.

Only saw him once for Arthurlie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3unXaHi7Nw (1st half)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bi2g2Df2Rs (2nd half)

Great viewing for a Lok fan - he was dire, dire, dire, particularly 4 mins into the 2nd half highlights.

Thanks for boosting my spirits! Craig looked spent by the start of the second-half.

Interesting to see that Arthurlie operate a squad numbering system with him in the much sought after No 23 shirt.

Would love to be proven wrong but I do fear for us if we are now at the stage of signing such has-beens.

PS The clips brought back happy memories of last season's trip to Pollok, even if it was squeaky bum time for most of the game. Hope things are going well despite the early cup exit this year.

Not too bad just now, 4 wins out of 4 in the league, cup a big disappointment but c'est la vie. Hopefully we can win either the Junior Cup or the league again to get back in.

I haven't seen the David Craig story anywhere else - when was this deal announced? Local paper?

All Lok fans remember the Montrose ties warmly too, maybe we'll draw each other again in future.

On the BBC website and in today's Dundee Courier

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/output/2008/11...y12214360t0.asp

In Davie's defence he wasnt ever fully fit when he played for us (esp Pollok game) but did show quality in some flashes, he went through a double hernia in the summer and was rushed back when we lost our other 2 centre halves. He played in a friendly against alloa a few weeks back and I have been told looked quite impressive. Tbh he is an excellent leader and communicator while working well with the younger players and a quality guy off the park with the fans.

Good luck to the big man.

Fair do's.

Over the past couple of years at Dumbarton he was a pretty commanding figure at the heart of their defence when we played them and I gave him credit for that in one of my earlier posts. However, I don't see him as a left-back and I think as far as Div 3 goes, age may have caught up with him.

Also slightly worried about his recent injury issues that you've highlighted.

Good performance from Craig today solid and commanding. Deffinately better than Thommo.

to be fair Craig was great today, but he would easily get found out by quick strikers

Kelly has been recalled because of an injury to another of your goalkeepers.

Can we have Jim Butter please?

He got canned in September.

JB is doing a bit of coaching at Lochee Utd I'm told

Kelly played for Saints reserves tonight.