Tattie36

We are in massive trouble and anyone who doesn’t think so is utterly deluded. We were played off the park today by a team playing basic, simple, fast wide, football. Cove are no great shakes but they could and should have won more comfortably.

Utterly grim. Full backs getting ripped to shreds and midfield dreadful. Worst I’ve seen Gold play for us and Allen is terrible. Need to give the ball to Linn as much as possible to run at them, Hilson doing ok but completely isolated. Need subs on NOW!!

I had a look at their respective stats last night and Muirhead is positively prolific compared to Hilson. 2 in 2 for him this season is very much out of character - long may it continue.

Dinna I still had to have a quick look on twitter just to be 100% sure this was a joke.

Touché

All of it or just the LD bit? I was being a bit tongue in cheek re LD as I think it was obvious I was never a big fan. My point was simply that we need more options up front and he was an option, not a good one, but an option none the less.

Normally I, and I'm sure everyone else, would agree with you but I don't think you quite understand how bad our situation is. Read 1320Lichtie's recent post to understand how threadbare we are up front. If you were to ask a fan of any team who they would pick if given the choice of signing a player from Spurs or the Icelandic second division (also been rejected by a few clubs in this division as not good enought to sign and hasn't played a competitive game in a year) then I don't think anyone would pick the latter option. Yes your Spurs guy was sh!t and Isiaka could (and I sincerely hope he is) turn out to be brilliant but logic states it's unlikely.

Yep, agree with all of that although I do rate Shanks higher than some. He just needs a partner. Is it ideal taking a small risk on a young "unproven" Premiership striker? Of course not and if we had done that 2 months ago we would all have all been crying out for someone better and more experienced. However, as you say, we are desperate and we need someone, anyone. Even keeping LD would have seen us in a better position than we are now.

I don't think taking a punt on a striker from a Premier League team is really that huge a risk. We obviously have money and IMO it's better to speculate some of that on a potentialy decent goalscorer than do nothing at all. It's riskier not to do anything as we could end up cut adrift by January. We were in a similar postion 2 seasons ago but totally lucked out with Jack Hamilton. Could that happen again? Yes of course but it's massively unlikely, better to try all we can at the moment. Plus any player who has a full-time contract with a Premiership team isnt exactly of unproven quality. Only the tiniest percentage of what we would call "good players" ever make it to that level.

Yeah I did read that now you mention it. I was joking though but, you never know, desperation can do strange things - e.g. Raith signing him in the first place.

Just so long as the management team don't get too blinded by desperation and sign Goodwillie now he's been released by Raith. Otherwise I'd be happy with pretty much any striker or attack minded player, nothing to lose.

Not having a go at Monkfish85 specifically but I really wish some of our fans would stop with this secret squirrel, insider info crap. Look, if you know there are players injured, missing, coming in or leaving the club - just say it, give all the info instead of these little unsubstantiated snippets. It doesn't make you a superfan or look like you have a hotline to Dick Campbell, it's just annoying af. And now we have one source saying three of our best players are out and one saying we have a full squad.

Yes QP are full-time. It doesn’t matter how much we want or try to sign Simon Murray, the simple fact is he’s a full-time player, under contract to a rival club in the same division. For those reasons we might as well try for Lionel Messi as there’s about the same chance of success. Perhaps in the future if he decides he wants to go back part-time, but that would likely coincide with a drop in his standard. The reality is that guys like him and Dowds will stay full-time for as long as they can, it is their career after all. Re Hester. I watched him for Elgin last season and he’s undoubtedly a good striker… at that level. He’s bulked up considerably since he was with us and puts himself about more, however I think League 2 or even maybe League 1 is his level.

I think it’s around 3k. There are new temporary stands at each end which hold about 850 each. Even though they’re a bit flimsy looking they have massively improved the ground. Feels like a proper league ground now which it didn’t before. I think there’s a small bar/portacabin at the ground but you’d be much better off in the city centre for a drink and bus or taxi to the ground. If coming on the supporters bus or driving then there’s the Wellington bar grill about 10-15 minute walk away for a pre match drink. That’s where I’ll be going then into town post match - helps that I live in Aberdeen. The trains being off is a right pain and severely limits the day oot experience.

Yeah probably… or an 8 goal thriller . Will be astonished if we sign anyone else.

Just like what happening with us. We’ve just signed Scott Bitsindou - a Belgian born Congolese international defensive midfielder/centre half on a season long loan from Livi. Looks a potentially excellent acquisition but, like Cove, we’re desperate for a striker. The bottom line is there just aren’t any kicking about.

Looks like a good signing. Will add a fair bit of presence and physicailty to the midfield, something we've been missing of late. The midfield and defence are shaping up very nicely now. I suppose if we're resigned, for the moment, to not scoring many goals then making it hard to beat is even more important.

Yeah, no problems finding parking on a match day. It’s unlikely but at worst you might have to try the streets or residential areas on the other side of the dual carriageway, still no more than a 10 minutes walk though.

Thanks. I much prefer standing but the standing areas are very limited at Balmoral now so I’ll just buy a ground ticket and see what’s what at the time.

Quick question re ticketing. If I buy an “away ground” ticket for Saturday, do I have to stand in the small standing areas or am I allowed to sit behind the goals if I want?

The simple fact is that a fair chunk of people are erseholes and we definitely have our fair share in Scotland fans and Scotland in general. Throw in a day on the booze and an opponent which brings out the worst in a certain section of our society then, unfortunately, there are bound to be some unsavoury incidents and comments. Personally I love beating Ireland and Wales more than pretty much any other opponent. This is partly down to a wee bit of envy towards their relative success compared to us in recent years, despite our much larger football culture and history. Still wouldn’t cause me to resort to racist or sectarian rhetoric. As I said, loads of people are huge erseholes and will have used last night as an opportunity to air their own prejudices in a more “acceptable” environment than they normally would. Would still say the vast, vast majority of us have no issue at all with Ireland or the Irish beyond sporting rivalry.

Has anyone looked into the possibility of playing both matches on a Saturday when the fixtures clash? It’s a synthetic pitch so that’s not an issue. 1:00 and 4:00 kick offs, quick clean of the changing rooms between games, do a two for one deal on tickets?

Part of me really gets why the management were looking at left-field signings. I am 100% convinced that if we had Nouble all of last season then we would have won the league, probably quite comfortably. Unearthing another one of him must have been a very tantalising prospect but other Noubles just don’t exist at that level. I can just picture Dick and Ian - “Rory Mcallister? Good player but he’s past it and anyway just wait until they see who we are signing”. Again, an understandable approach but risky as feck.

I think that approach is mental. All we needed after last season was to sensibly consolidate. No fan would be upset with a safe mid-table finish. Bring in an experienced striker (e.g. McAllister) to complement Shanks and a loanee. Not saying not to try something a bit different but there should have been safer options, as a priority, in place first before such a risky move. Hopefully the management learn a big lesson from this.

I think you’re right. I think we were probably aiming too high, missed out and then had to resort to a panic buy in Isiaka. Absolutely not writing him off at all and he may come good but it definitely has a whiff of Ford and Bakare about it. Can’t believe I’m saying this but I kind of think we should have held on to Donnelly.