Widge

I'm at the stage where MacLean now needs to act on what he's said. For me that means dropping the likes of May, Carey and Gordon, I'm going to throw in Ballantyne into that pile as well. All of them need a boot up the arse and take a look at their attitudes and application. It's not just them, but for me they're the worst offenders. May in particular needs reminded he's droppable, I'd hope that another week and some intense fitness work, Jephcott can get himself fitter. I know he didn't have a pre-season and it's tough, but he'll have been with us 4/5 weeks by the end of the Celtic game and that's enough time to at least get a half yard quicker. I've been saying Taylor Steven needs played for a while now. Like I've said, he's maybe not the most technical player, but he's at least direct and will fight for everything. The fact he gets booked every time he's on the pitch shows he's at least getting close to players. I'm also willing to forgive McClelland for the error on Saturday, the guys only played 22 senior games in his career and for the most part has looked solid next to much more experienced guys who're doing him no favours at all. I think he'll end up being a good signing for us. Equally I'm not going to judge Smith based on him being asked to play wide, same with Max, it's not their position and has been forced through having no other options. If it's me and I'm picking the team for Celtic, then I'm playing the below on the basis we're not getting any other players in and a few get back from injury - Mitov Brown - McClelland - Considine Olufunwa----------------------Gallacher McGowan - Phillips Smith Steven - Jephcott

Given some of the things I’ve heard behind the scenes, the whole club is still an absolute mess. Boardroom and exec level are still trying to salvage the failings of the previous regime, but there’s still worrying things at every turn. Let’s not pretend this isn’t a 3/4 year fix, cause it definitely is if we’re to get back on the right track.

That graphic shows you in a nutshell what Cammy Ballantyne doesn't bring to the team. How can a professional midfielder complete 3 passes in virtually 90 minutes, that's criminal!

Just me who’s beginning to think that Sinclair gets an awful lot of injuries for a goalkeeper? Which is never a good thing. I know it’s hardly his fault he keeps breaking things in matches, but it seems he’s got a lot of bad luck. I don’t think there was ever a question about who was number one this season, but it’s annoying we’ve now got to spend more budget on a player we didn’t need 2 days ago. I guess it’ll be someone on loan from down south who’ll hopefully be cheap as chips until January.

I see MacLean is saying both McPherson and Kane are getting injections to try and speed up their issues and that Clark is another 10 days away from coming back to training. It’s going to be end of September by the time we see any of these guys by the looks of it! Plus with Drey Wright taking a knock on Saturday, we literally have no pace up front. Whoever he’s trying to bring in better be an Olympic grade sprinter at this rate, or we just unleash Dare further forward for the fun of it.

Aye that’s what I thought, I’m literally right in line with it in that photo. I might be going mad, but I’ve not fully lost it yet Also loving Dare’s positional play in that phase, the f**k defending attitude I’m here for!

Really? Thats mad and shows we watch different things live. As I said he looked well behind play, but fair enough if he was I stand corrected.

Ohh he was on by about 3 yards he was well behind the line of the defenders when the ball broke his way. No issues with what he did, I just don’t understand why it was offside!

The one I didn’t get was the offside given for Carey’s chance. He was inside by a mile and it was Drey Wright who was offside, who stood with his hands up and didn’t affect play. Yet it got pulled back for offside, both the linesmen and the referee were abysmal yesterday and if that’s a sign of the standards to come then we’re looking at worse than last season which didn’t seem possible.

I think Hearts and Aberdeen are both a level about the other 8 teams in the league and will be 10/15 points clear of 5th this year. Depending on how Aberdeens new guys are and the rest of their recruitment, Hearts look a very good bet for third. It’s the depth that made a difference yesterday and there’s still players to come back. I think there’s a serious chance you give Rosenborg a proper good game and have a really good chance of going through which is great to see.

Aye Ross is the eldest of the 4 and played Rugby over football, think he made the Olympics 7s team a few years ago. Probably just as well, he wasn’t very good compared to the younger siblings.

The more I watch him, the more I’m coming around to Ballantyne being the new Gary MacDonald. He literally doesn’t add anything to the team unfortunately if he plays as he did today and has a really unfortunate habit of tackling his man and never actually winning the ball. He needs to add presence and drive, but I’m not sure he’s got the build for it, Alex Ferguson is 4 years younger and already stronger. Dare and McLelland were solid on their debuts, especially given they’ve had no game time and thrown in at the deep end. You can see Dare hasn’t played senior football and needs talked through the game constantly right now, but he’s got the raw attributes potentially. The fact Forrest made an immediate drive to target him in the first 2 minutes and he swatted him aside easily shows he’s quick enough. McLelland didn’t look like a guy who’d played 20 senior games either and was really vocal which was great to see. Think he might help get Gordon back to acceptable standards. We didn’t deserve anything from the game today, but on another day we don’t concede the silly goals and take one of the half chances we created. So there’s definitely been a reaction and there are positives to take. Fundamentally we were beaten by a better team who has a much stronger bench to bail them out of trouble when needed.

Why he’s been playing in MK Dons pre-season games and has done a full pre-season so far, so he should be fit. Smith is giving my Scott Allan vibes and I’m totally here for that!

I’ve always said I don’t care if a player loses the ball if he’s trying to be creative and do something productive. But you’re 100% right, there’s elements of our support who’ll be on his back instantly for losing it despite trying to play productive football. It’s a generational thing I think for the most part, but I’m all for taking chances and actually playing decent football, so bring it on.

Wouldn't look at the MK Dons forum if you want to stay excited by the prospect of Smith....

These Andorrans don’t like anyone touching them do they!? Very angry team which is going to lead to about 15 cards by the end of the game.

I’d sign him for the name alone to be fair. We could have him, Max and Dare in the same team, listening to a west coast stadium announcer attempt to say their names would be hilarious.

I don’t mind us taking younger guys on trial and seeing what they’re about; however what they can’t be is actual senior signings. If bringing in this guy allows Ferguson, Parker and others go out on loan and is a net zero gamble then it makes sense. If he’s being brought in as a first team starter then you start to worry a bit.

Coming through at that level you’d expect him to be physically strong and fast which does tend to mask basic mistakes. I guess the issue is, like Duffy he’s had no senior games and might fall for the experienced tricks up here. Either way another body isn’t a bad thing and you hope he’s got potential. The fact he’s had a couple of trials already down south and not signed on maybe isn’t a brilliant sign.

I’m going to be honest, it screams cheap punt with shades of Wallace Duffy; however we need all the cover we can get right now. He must have something about him to have been at 2 Premiership teams I guess.

Another game in Max and Ferguson maybe isn’t the worst thing, get Saturday out their system and give them another focus.

Yeah this is entirely fair, I think I'd said previously I've never seen a player get so much good will and support from a fanbase that Theo. I think to a man we all wanted him to come good and show us what he was made of. Unfortunately 18 months later and he never showed anything positive either off the bench or on the rare occasion he started. I've no doubt he'll score against us and I wish him nothing but the best, but he's not up to this level, not even closer.

I mean I can’t believe that Kettlewell has been bold enough to try this. No doubt he’ll score a goal or two by sheer luck, but wow, he was destined for the Canadian league for sure.

Ohh that’s not the part I was referring to as all. If anything that was the only thing you got correct.

I mean you've clearly not got a clue about other teams in Scottish football if that's the extent of your knowledge. How far from the truth you've managed to get.