Scorge

Possibly the worst toss decision the Ingerlund have made since Hussain sticking the Aussies in at the Gabba. Funny though.

I'm around 10 minutes dawdle from Pittodrie, it's wet but would be astonished if this is off. BOD Thistle's junior cup game round the corner at ASV went ahead fine yesterday if that's any indication (although the bogfield at East End was called off TBF).

Ach, Williamson has been fine enough - he took a fair few games to get going, but seems more settled now. He's certainly no Cammy Ballantyne, but he's better than anything we tried last season. So far, so good on the fitness/injury front, unlike some of our other defenders...

Not 'permanently', there's the EOS Premier waiting and ready.... (Torn between feeling sorry for the decent Berwick fans at the shambles, and having a nostalgic guffaw at berwick-the-unsustainable. Probably just do both.)

Maybe just me, but citydiehard seems like the type of poster who could be locked in a hotel room with a dozen supermodels obeying his every whim, have £100 million in the bank, a Ferrari outside, and still moan because the air conditioning is a couple of degrees too high. Geeit a rest!

Enjoyable, hard-fought victory. Thomson absolutley adds value to the front/middle of the park, another fearless passage of play for the goal. Not much between the sides otherwise, referee struggled to keep a handle on some of the clogging though IMO. Next weekend looks like a good indicator of where our hopes are this season - run Lolkirk close and we can definitely look upwards rather than nervously backwards. Think Stirling will be fine this season, robust enough to pick off plenty of teams and get past 40 points. Back to back wins on the carpet, and it feels good.

Pretty sure Osman was quite high up at Endemol when Brand was working for them so he might have an awkward question or two heading his way.....

That'll do nicely. Fair play to the handful of away fans backing that mess - the last visiting side I saw wearing black and red stripes were Clyde last season, and it was hard to tell the difference between both shambolic back lines. We had much better shape, Lyons getting back on form, and a couple of well worked goals. Can forgive some of the second half slackness. Looks more and more by the day that Rory-ball has been holding us back TBH. Next week probably a harder test and better indication of progress.

Tidy performance from the 'fringe' - Cove looked very very cavalier today compared to the LP game and didn't have their shooting boots on. Two nice finishes to seal the points on a tropical day up the hill. Need to take the good work forward into the next two home games.

thoughts, prayers, condolences

Culter 3-2 Blackburn United. Didn't much fancy the trip to Dumfries (oops), so first trip over to Crombie Park for quite a while. It's not changed much, although you now get conventional plastic cups for your Bovril instead of having it made up in a mug which you had to bring back. Wasn't sure how North Juniors champions vs EOS Division 1 would play out, on this small sample size there's not much in it. Could have easily gone either way, Blackburn have a couple of tricky wingers but the forwards had a bad habit of shoot on sight, and several of those in the second half ended up over the fence and into Bieldside. Culter's winner was a cracking wee finish, although both their conceded goals were very defensively weak, and the second one made the last few minutes of the game more nervy than it should have been. Really lovely day relaxing on the grassy knoll in AB14, and a decent game for six quid. Around 200-ish crowd.

Well, all the good feeling from last week evaporated after that 90 minutes, and a lot of deep sighs leaving the Dynamo today. Cove looking not dissimilar to the team from two seasons ago which were just physically stronger and a bit more clever. Not sure they'll win the league, but there's not really any frontrunners yet. They could have had more goals today, really. We weren't exactly chanceless, but never looked like winning that game at any stage. Too much sitting off again. An injury hit defence and another midfield that is all flair and no fight (would take Sena back over several of ours despite his last minute kickboxing fail) could be a big problem for the next few games. We need something to spark our season, at the moment things are heading to another mid/lower table drudge.

Purely from a selfish/tight arsed point of view (can't make the October league game, diddy cup usually cheaper to get in, £0 petrol if it's not pissing down), it landed quite nicely for me. But yes, can see why it is quite tedium, I always want Elgin away and never get it.

Another +1 for Yellow Pearl (second only to Into The Valley for current walk on music IMO), even though it feels quite weird hearing it and not looking at a TOTP graphic telling us how many places some obscure Shalamar record climbed the chart this week. So, quite a bizarre game - I didn't think we were outstanding by any means in the first half, but Annan looked a bit of a mess and we punished them. Lovely move for the first, howler for the second, and a clever header for the third. Really should have been 4 up at half time, but Rory went for glory 1 on 1 instead of sending Hester through for a tap in. I didn't feel we were in any danger, but in the last half and hour we barely saw the ball, Annan finally woke up and started moving it around comfortably, creating chances and getting one back. A second goal when they were on top would have made the last 10/15 minutes excruciating, and I'm just glad their gun forwards weren't playing today. Still hard to draw conclusions at where we are I think, just glad to get three points banked and safely down and up a very skittish M74 today.

Sorry, but anyone thinking SP is genuinely under pressure after 2/36 is either on the wind up or utterly loose at the cranium. Some of the performances have been iffy, yes, but there's still a bit of leeway and time needed to bed all the adjustments and new players in, and still an open window for loans. Looking forward to finally making the trip to Galabank tomorrow. Is there only uncovered standing for the away fans? (forecast tomorrow looks utterly toilet)

Very untidy performance, the type that produces more questions than answers. Really need Waddell back ASAP. Still not sure why our goal got chalked off either.

Didn't realise scenes of gratuitous spanking were permitted on the telly before 9pm. Not complaining, mind.

Be some laugh with all the forwards on show and our thus-far shonky backline if this somehow finished 0-0. Anticipate this game to be a decent gauge of where we are - I thought Kelty might be sliding towards the bubble this season, but they look to have acquired quite well (CJ will almost certainly score against us I fear). Just hope this isn't another season with a fallable midfield dictating how things go.

Yup. Fun on Saturday, but when you try again on a gloomy Tuesday night you spend 70 minutes utterly frustrated before going home with no end product to show for it. Forfar have us sussed out, and 4-1 wouldn't have flattered them tonight. Miserable.

Happy rejection for London ballot day everyone! (dammit)

Couldn't follow live because work, but knew we'd lose, any big one off game and the bottle goes. Surprised by how well we fared overall TBH - but is it because the associates are getting stronger or more to do with the test minnows getting weaker?....

First look tonight - Hester seems in good touch although he was largely marked out of the game. Bit lightweight in the middle but that might just be lack of sharpness/familiarity. Gut feeling is the eventual first choice XI when it all shakes out will be a handy enough unit, but not sure how strong the depth will be.

Could have gone either way, that one. Don't mind the general philosophy of what McCullum and Stokes are doing, but if they lose this series 5-0 with each test being a 2 wicket or 10/15 run defeat then how long will fans swallow it? Scotland under way tomorrow early doors.

Fun day, but think I'd rather be in the Australian camp after that - it's a flat deck, and if they get in and bat for two days and coerce Stokes into risking his knee then it's a problem for Ingerland...

Would set the over/under on Hester at an 8 game ban with a few more suspended, actually tempted to think that wouldn't be a terrible outcome given how heavy the authortities can come down on it. Think we should still have an eye on a loan striker just in case. EDIT: and yes, I do appreciate the irony of using a gambling analogy.