Highland ITFC

Sounds like an excellent performance delivering what was of course an excellent result! Roll on to next week & hopefully a new record six wins on the bounce. Good also to see the club now doing a better job of in-game Twitter updates & various other good stuff on social media. Just need to sort the website now!

Rough headcount of 350 at the Huntly-Buckie game

Rough headcount of 190 for Huntly-Forres

Thanks Aqy. Will be interesting to see how 'take 2' goes this Saturday, weather permitting of course!

Another good cup result.....well done lads. The Shane & Kane partnership seems to be back firing again, & good to see Soapy on the scoresheet aswell! Hopefully take the last couple of weeks cup form into the league next week.

Great result for Fort. Anybody got a report on the game?

Headcount of 200 at each of the Huntly-Formartine & Clach-Huntly games

Great result! Clean sheet away from home, & also good to see Hester back on the scoresheet again. Well done lads!

Guesstimate head count of 150 at the Huntly-Wick game

Yup, good to a few goals going in again, including a midfielder getting on the scoresheet aswell as Shane, & 3 points as a result. Should be another win next week, barring an almighty f*ck up, so confidence from two wins to take into the next league game after that, all being well!

Good to see Stirling & Stenny fans joining the conversation & exhibiting interest in & concern for Elgin. A quick check online shows that Elgin had an average gate of 622 last year (587 for Stirling & 571 for Stenny), third behind Peterhead & Clyde, & this has increased to 701 for the season to date (597 for Stirling & 462 for Stenny), second behind Cove, so it would seem that optimism for the new / current season & Cove's addition to the league (the gate was 1,000 for that game) means that additional fans are already coming, which of course accordingly means additional revenue in the coffers already. Couple that with the £14k reported as being received for the BetFred TV game vs Hibs, & progressing in two cups (assuming that Elgin don't manage to lose to Berwick), then one wouldn't imagine that the Club's finances are in a parlous state, although clearly not in the same league metaphorically as Cove. I don't have any idea about Stirling & Stenny's positions, so might be interesting to hear some comparative thoughts. Anyhow, one way or another, I'd still suggest that Elgin should be able to find a few bob to ensure a decent presence online. I'd imagine that the previous incumbent in the role wasn't doing it for nothing as believe that she was a Club employee. If any other Elgin fans know better though, I stand to be corrected. What do other Elgin fans think on this anyhow? The question was asked & I've added my thoughts, as has Thom & Gerry, but would be good to hear from others.

Yes, absolutely appreciate that budgets / cashflow may be tight, but one can equally look on it from a more positive & pro-active perspective. Taking your £20k p.a. example, employ somebody part-time (or as part of another role) for say 2.5 days per week - plenty of time to cover matches & manage website & other social media content - at £10k, & that is equivalent to their work delivering just 46 more fans through the turnstiles at each home league game.....46.3 @ £12 x 18 games = £10k. Not a lofty ambition I would suggest, & this without taking into account cup games, pre-season friendlies, incremental spend at the ground, or importantly increased sponsorship income. Businesses want to see consistent / ongoing exposure on clubs' websites & social media in return for their sponsorship dollar, & if this isn't clearly visible then any that are doing it with half a commercial eye on the spend i.e. not just seeing it as a donation to the club, won't be interested. If any club has ambitions to progress, without the benefit of contribution from a handy sugar daddy, then there are definite bases that need to be covered, & decent website & social media activity is definitely one of those.

Volunteer?! It's a commercial organisation with paying customers, & any such business will / should have a marketing function to inform & retain current customers, & to attract new ones. I wouldn't be expecting anybody to volunteer to maintain my business' website & social media. If the prior expertise in this area has left the club, then they need to recruit somebody new in her place.

Club is very poor on that front. Do very little on the website or social media to engage with the fans & keep them engaged. Look at how many clubs these days give ongoing Twitter 'commentary' during games, do all sorts of features on players etc on social media, & have loads of content on their websites. Some great examples locally are Huntly & Nairn who both do an excellent job. Did hear during the summer that there was meant to be a new website ready for the start of the season, which would explain not updating the old on, but nothing has transpired, so just left looking half-cocked instead. Disappointing for anybody that's interested in the club, & won't help to gain further support &/or sponsors.

Let's be honest, for all Darryl's qualities as a strong ball-playing centre back & talismanic leader that has he ability to influence a game, he's not a fullback or a midfielder - he played left midfield in the BetFred game at Arbroath & could see he wasn't comfortable there, & neither does he have the skillset to play there - or a striker. He's not as good a centre back as McDonald, & if played in front of the back four (as somebody suggested) isn't as good as Dingwall, so suspect that Gavin either has to play him in his best position, or not at all. McDonald seems o be out injured a fair bit, so every chance that Darryl will get opportunities in a back four alongside Bronsky, but would still stand by the thought of a back three that would enable him to come back into the side in 'his' position, & the side would accordingly benefit from his undoubted qualities.

Good to be confident Gordon. Hope it proves to be well placed. A kickstart to the season this coming Saturday would be very welcome.

Agree with enclosureview re Darryl's useful goal tally, but can only see him coming back in if it's as part of a back-three, as he won't displace McDonald at left centre back. Him, McDonald & Bronsky in a back-three could be an option though, with Spark at left wing-back & Mackay on the right side, as he works back hard aswell as going forward with pace & energy, & of course has quality on the ball. Would then enable playing all of Dingwall, Cameron & Omar centrally, which should give added goal threat from midfield, & Shane + 1 - yes, why not try Aitken as presumably he was brought to the club with the view that he'd score goals - up top.

Shane is the league's top scorer with six out of only eight goals scored in eight games, whilst defensively only three teams have conceded less, so a very simplistic conclusion would be a lack of goals from the rest of the side is the reason for why Elgin aren't getting results. Kane seems to have dried up since the betting thing came out - possibly coincidence, but equally possible that it's affecting his game - so perhaps trying somebody else up top with Shane could be worth a go? Just an observation / thought.

I'd reckon 100 at Strathspey - Rothes yesterday

Turns out that the nagging doubt was the winner as well as Brechin. As was commented above by both Elgin & Brechin supporters, the continuing inability to hit the target (6 from 20 shots yesterday accordingly to the BBC stats) & take chances again looks to have been the Achilles heel.

Big signing news.....not......Calvin Roddie on a short term deal until January

Hopefully Shane has got the habit back after notching four in the midweek training game against Lossie. Fingers crossed!

Struggling to be confident on how this one might turn out. Earlier in the season when Elgin visited in the BetFred they were in excellent form & banging goals in for fun, with a much tighter defence than last season, whilst Brechin were seemingly in disarray & everything was doom & gloom about the club. Elgin proceeded to play some lovely football & bang in five, whilst also demonstrating some dreadful defending from set-pieces to concede four. Since then Elgin's form hasn't been great overall, goals haven't been flowing so freely, & league wins & points have been hard to come by, whilst Brechin seem to potentially be slowly emerging from the doom & gloom. Would like to think that Elgin would come & deliver a decent performance across the team & the 90 minutes & take home all three points, but a nagging doubt is suggesting a draw, or even a home win. Any other thoughts?

Thanks Woody. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to make that critique your first post on here.....& I mean that most sincerely. Feel free to join the discussion on the football!

Saw one (unintentionally) humorous comment on their Facebook where somebody said that they loved seeing this 'angry football', with all the players that had been used to getting humped every week now having turned it around & putting in performances that were getting them results. Not quite got his finger on the pulse there! By the way, I'm English but not patronising about Fort, so won't take offence! ;-)