Walking Down The Halbeath Road

[Rob1885]

Aye, not a signing that would make sense and one that isn't exactly in his remit given he was seemingly hired on the strength of giving younger players a chance.
Talking of which, ours must be pretty stinking given McPake was fine with giving some youth players a shot at Dundee.

A wild take.

[DA Baracus]

16 minutes ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

How many do we have, where do they play and who would they replace?

Fenton - LB, and Edwards has been playing well. Currently out on loan.

Rennie and Beagley - midfielders,  haven't really been seen since preseason

Young - centre back, only 16, behind Breen, Bene, Fisher and probably Hamilton and Comrie in the pecking order

Tod - midfielder, only 16 but seems to be ahead of Rennie in the queue, has made the bench in the league despite playing Friday nights and played in the League Cup

Sutherland - forward, only 16, fifth choice at best but has been on the bench. Haven't been ahead in games to give him a run out.

So we don't actually have that many in the squad, we haven't been ahead and comfortable in games to bring them on and many of them have at least been on the bench and so have been involved in the squad (even though in many cases they'd played less than 24 hours previously). If I was the manager, I'd have probably used Tod more and brought him on for Chalmers or Todd when they've been struggling but we're top of the league and unbeaten having had many very tight games go right to the death so I'm not going to write off our youth section altogether. Beating a strong Livi team in the Reserve Cup is surely a better indicator?

Aye, hopefully they are decent.

[capt_oats]

Mentioned this on our (Motherwell) thread a couple of weeks ago, McPake was at our Reserves game against Queens Park. I don't know if he was taking a look at anyone or just fancied an afternoon out in Lanarkshire.

These were the teams fwiw:

Motherwell: Oxborough, Mugabi, Devine (Dunachie, 45′), O’Donnell, Gould, Maguire (MacDonald, 71′), Cornelius, McKinstry (Hunter 45′), Shields (Moult, 71′), Aarons (Ross, 45′), Mahon.

Subs not used: Connelly, Wells, Ferrie

Queen’s Park: Heraghty, Mauchin, Naismith, Bannon, Bruce, Nicol (Thomson 80′), Jarrett, Brown (Biggar 65′), Longridge (McQuaid 73′), Moore (Fairlie 65′), McLeish (McCormick 45′).

Subs not used: Graham, Russell, Reid, Lind.

[DA-go Par Adonis]

Shields was the one that was rumoured.  How realistic that is, I don't know though. 

Given that there's only 3 months until the next window, you would hope that there might be a Premier League player or two, who are on the fringes at the moment, that might fancy dropping down to get a dozen games under their belt. 

I could understand if they didn't fancy a season's long loan - unless they are at Celtic or Rangers and miles down the pecking order - but someone currently bench-warming at Motherwell or Livingston could surely see it as an opportunity to impress.

[capt_oats]

28 minutes ago, DA-go Par Adonis said:

Shields was the one that was rumoured.  How realistic that is, I don't know though. 

Given that there's only 3 months until the next window, you would hope that there might be a Premier League player or two, who are on the fringes at the moment, that might fancy dropping down to get a dozen games under their belt. 

I could understand if they didn't fancy a season's long loan - unless they are at Celtic or Rangers and miles down the pecking order - but someone currently bench-warming at Motherwell or Livingston could surely see it as an opportunity to impress.

It may have entirely been coincidence but I clocked that McPake up and left pretty much after Shields was subbed although looking at the timings on those teamlines it was a double sub with Barry Maguire which I had forgotten about.

Like I say, that may just have been coincidence and he wanted to get back up the road with 20 mins to go.

Shields is a weird one in that we signed him on a 3 year deal but it hasn't really happened for him at Motherwell. We've got plenty of graft from him but he's 3 goals in 38 games now.

He started the season in our starting XI but he lost his spot to Joe Efford and Hammell has prioritised bringing in forwards, brought Stuart McKinstry and Rolando Aarons back to the club and that saw Shields bumped to the bench.

Whether it was injury related IDK but Shields didn't even make the squad on Sunday - that said both Efford and Aarons went off injured so that may be a way back in for him.

[Cardle is Magic]

Courier reporting that United will be appointing Liam Fox full-time and he wants Crawford to be his assistant.

Think he's far better as a No.2 tbf and that would be a good move for him.

[Salvo Montalbano]

Could be good for Tony Watt too,  based on what he did for Nisbet.

[DA Baracus]

Shields would be a tremendous signing, but if he was available he'd surely be wanted by Championship clubs? Would be very (pleasantly) surprised if he signed.

[ATLIS]

16 hours ago, Chubbychops said:

I would be very surprised if McPake thought we needed a wee kid on loan. We've got enough of our own.

To be fair, I don't think there's any chance he's even League 2 level at this point in his career. He's just getting good development minutes in at a young age, could go on to do well but we seem to step up our loans. Jack Hamilton for examples went about a few non-league clubs and then went League 2>1>Championsip x3/4>English League 2. We seem to have a plan in place for some level of developing these guys but you'd imagine it's still 2-3 years before he'd be ready to start even in League 1.

Only one that broke the mould was Schwake but he was in League 2 TOTY and a standout for Edinburgh City. He went League 2>Championship

[101]

5 hours ago, DA-go Par Adonis said:

Shields was the one that was rumoured.  How realistic that is, I don't know though. 

Given that there's only 3 months until the next window, you would hope that there might be a Premier League player or two, who are on the fringes at the moment, that might fancy dropping down to get a dozen games under their belt. 

I could understand if they didn't fancy a season's long loan - unless they are at Celtic or Rangers and miles down the pecking order - but someone currently bench-warming at Motherwell or Livingston could surely see it as an opportunity to impress.

I was thinking that might be perfect for the Ukrainian lad at St Johnstone, Brechin seemed to rate him and he was with Kelty for a bit last season, so would be impressive if he went from L2 into playing in the Prem. And I think they have folk like O'Halloran ahead of him on the bench.

[HoBNob]

8 hours ago, capt_oats said:

Mentioned this on our (Motherwell) thread a couple of weeks ago, McPake was at our Reserves game against Queens Park. I don't know if he was taking a look at anyone or just fancied an afternoon out in Lanarkshire.

These were the teams fwiw:

Motherwell: Oxborough, Mugabi, Devine (Dunachie, 45′), O’Donnell, Gould, Maguire (MacDonald, 71′), Cornelius, McKinstry (Hunter 45′), Shields (Moult, 71′), Aarons (Ross, 45′), Mahon.

Subs not used: Connelly, Wells, Ferrie

Queen’s Park: Heraghty, Mauchin, Naismith, Bannon, Bruce, Nicol (Thomson 80′), Jarrett, Brown (Biggar 65′), Longridge (McQuaid 73′), Moore (Fairlie 65′), McLeish (McCormick 45′).

Subs not used: Graham, Russell, Reid, Lind.

Aye, your post brought out the only rumours we've had for weeks! 

[Have some faith in Magic]

On 03/08/2022 at 17:08, Have some faith in Magic said:

When can the bed wetting about lack of signings officially commence? 

 

17:00 on 11 August for me if nothing happens. 

I have held off long enough. Surely we get 2 or 3 in this week. 

[Lord Snooty]

McPake is playing the long game, in more ways than one.

Edited September 25, 2022 by Lord Snooty
Only 7 posts to go and I am free from this madness!

[DAFC.]

Next Friday then is the cut off for loans, but out of contracts any time? We need players pronto.

[parsforlife]

18 minutes ago, DAFC. said:

Next Friday then is the cut off for loans, but out of contracts any time? We need players pronto.

Aye, but any of out of contracts will have been without a club for at least a month.

[Stoo61]

Anything happening over here? Been enjoying being a Scotland fan for a bit. 

[parsforlife]

22 minutes ago, Stoo61 said:

Anything happening over here? Been enjoying being a Scotland fan for a bit. 

f**k all.  They only thing to speculate on is couple of random trialists a taxi driver dropped off.  One at least seems unavailable until january.

[Stellaboz]

Any games that people would like covered on our podcast? Or periods of time?

[Rob1885]

Any games that people would like covered on our podcast? Or periods of time?

The 4-1 Motherwell game from 2007 or the Forfar play off semi 2nd leg from 2013 are 2 of my favourites and are outwith maybe the normal favourite games of the past that get mentioned.

[Cardle is Magic]

29 minutes ago, Rob1885 said:

2 hours ago, Stellaboz said:

Any games that people would like covered on our podcast? Or periods of time?

The 4-1 Motherwell game from 2007 or the Forfar play off semi 2nd leg from 2013 are 2 of my favourites and are outwith maybe the normal favourite games of the past that get mentioned.

"Classic Pars wins...just before relegation" series?