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I enjoyed that last night and, for near enough the entire game, I thought we were really good all over the park. Our shape was excellent defensively and offensively, we looked well organised and we played some really nice stuff when we went forward - first-half especially.

You could see that the players were feeling it a bit by the final 20 minutes, but all credit to them. They stuck at the task and defensively we were absolutely tremendous. Big Gregor Buchanan, who I was very critical of last season, especially. He has looked far more like the player we remember from his first spell rather than the guy who played for us last season.

I feared for Martin McNiff at left-back, but he was solid. Although watching him wading through treacle the one time his lack of pace was exposed was absolutely brutal. That's the slowest I've seen a player move since Andy Graham was caught in a footrace with Dominique Malonga about seven years ago.

Stuart Carswell's best position is increasingly looking like centre-half, and I would be keen to leave him in there if I was Faz. And Aron Lynas is a bit of a throwback to players from a good few years ago. Brave as anything, chucks himself at everything and takes no chances. Based on what I've seen of him so far I'm shocked Jim Duffy didn't sign him. He looks exactly his kind of player.

Ahead of them Ryan Wallace did well up against Berra and Brown, linked play nicely and worked incredibly hard which was nice to see. Ally Love showed flashes and Finlay Gray impressed me again with his energy and drive. He could be a real find if he can replicate his recent showings in the league.

There were two players for me though who were our standouts; Ryan Blair and Harry Broun.

Broun was almost flawless in goals. For an 18-year-old kid to turn in a performance like that is remarkable. He looked so mature and that confidence rubbed off on the defence. Aside from fluffing one kick right at the back of the Raith forward I genuinely don't think he put a foot wrong. It wasn't that he was pulling off wondersave after wondersave. He just looked very solid and very drama free. His positioning was absolutely superb, he commanded his area well and his handling was flawless. That performance must've given Faz a bit of a headache, because both his goalkeepers have shown up really well so far.

Ryan Blair was someone I was fairly unconvinced by when we signed him. Nobody seemed to have much positive to say about him, and I'd only seen flickers of his quality. But last night I really thought he was good.

He's awkward, ungainly and not particularly easy on the eye. But his touch, vision and passing were all excellent. He rarely wasted a pass, he got us out of a few awkward positions very neatly and played a key role in some of the good moves we put together going forward. He was also fairly effective at winning the ball back and stayed very disciplined positionally. His whole performance was a nice surprise and I  enjoyed watching him.

I suppose the only negatives, and they weren't outright bad, was the impact of Kalvin Orsi and Callum Wilson out wide. Neither were bad, and they won't be coming up against a defence as strong as Raith's too often, but they both struggled to make any real inroads. Callum, to his credit, had two decent chances and Kalvin caused a couple of issues with his direct running and physicality. But we just don't see it enough from them. The same could be said for Ross MacLean too against Stirling Albion, so whether it's the narrow pitch restricting their space or something I don't know.

After the second-half against Stirling Albion left me fearing the worst it feels like we've started to pick up. By all accounts we played well at Aberdeen, followed that up with a really solid display at Peterhead and then another good showing last night. There are definitely positive signs there to give me a bit of hope heading into the season.

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8 minutes ago, FifeSons said:

What’s the latest on when McGeever will be back?

He said last night he’s due to begin full training shortly and expects to be available for selection in 2 weeks. I’d imagine it will take him a few weeks after that to get up to scratch fitness wise mind you.

On another note there seemed to be a hell of a lot of sand on the pitch last night. I’m nae expert but I’ve never noticed anything like that at this stage of the season when the weather is good. I actually thought the pitch had been over watered when I was watching the game but watching the highlights back it looks to be absolutely caked in sand. 

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1 hour ago, cremola foam said:

Good question.

We seem to have players signed up who only play part of the season. That Norwegain kid, for example, last year.

 

McGeever was pretty unlucky in sustaining a serious injury that kept him out the majority of last season and required surgery but before that he was available for most games. Not remotely comparible to the likes of Syvertsen.

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On 19/07/2022 at 23:11, microdave said:

First game of the season for me tonight and we played much better than I was expecting. I suppose if you go in with low expectations then the pain is minimised but I was impressed with most of the team this evening.

Broun was immense imo. Having a keeper that can actually catch the ball makes a massive difference. In the first half, I was jittery any time a high ball came near him simply because of our previous goalies but by the final quarter I knew he'd collect it every single time and he never let me down.

In defence, I thought Buchanan stood out. I don't think he missed a header all evening.

Gray, Love and Wallace all looked good too. C. Wilson took a good corner just before half time that found Buchanan's head but that was about it from him. Joe McKee looked more like his 19/20 self. Hopefully he's got over last season and the pre season has done him the world of good.

I'm actually looking forward to the league getting underway now.

Thought you guys played well and created a couple of good chances, surprisingly my first visit to your ground but enjoyed the warm welcome and that home top is a belter👌🏻

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15 hours ago, cremola foam said:

Good question.

We seem to have players signed up who only play part of the season. That Norwegain kid, for example, last year.

 

Yeah, I’ll be honest, I’m worried about whether McGeever will ever kick a ball for us again. So many previous players were “only a few weeks away” yet to never play for us again. Hope that’s not the case and he’s the same player he was. Certainly not counting on it, though.

Edited by FifeSons
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On 19/07/2022 at 23:27, DobbiesAgent said:

I’d love to be optimistic, but I’d like to see how we cope when we are expected to win.

I have to be honest, I don’t agree with a lot of what you say, but I agree with this. It’s one thing to put in a solid display to hold/limit a team (0-0 with Raith, 2-0 with Aberdeen), but something totally different when you’re expected to win. Coatbridge away, second game, for instance, will be a perfect test.

That said, you can only play what’s in front of you and in the league cup the manager is kind of on a hiding to nothing - win and it’s only a meaningless game, lose and it’s the same old stuff. I think the league is the only fair acid test of where we are.

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13 hours ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

I hope you are not suggesting that Rory Loy, Denny Johnstone and Norway are not bona-fide Sons legends 😨

I’ve got Rory Loy’s shirt somewhere in the back of my wardrobe, so I certainly hope not.

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6 hours ago, FifeSons said:

I have to be honest, I don’t agree with a lot of what you say, but I agree with this. It’s one thing to put in a solid display to hold/limit a team (0-0 with Raith, 2-0 with Aberdeen), but something totally different when you’re expected to win. Coatbridge away, second game, for instance, will be a perfect test.

That said, you can only play what’s in front of you and in the league cup the manager is kind of on a hiding to nothing - win and it’s only a meaningless game, lose and it’s the same old stuff. I think the league is the only fair acid test of where we are.

The league IS the test here, but there is a risk that some folk have dug themselves in so deep against Stevie Farrell that they almost now need us to fail.

The last three league cup performances have been decent and the squad is better than for at least two seasons.  I'll take that for now and see what happens.

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2 hours ago, Frank Quitely said:

The league IS the test here, but there is a risk that some folk have dug themselves in so deep against Stevie Farrell that they almost now need us to fail.

The last three league cup performances have been decent and the squad is better than for at least two seasons.  I'll take that for now and see what happens.

Is the squad better? I think that remains to be seen, but agree there are positives to take. 

Goalkeeper is undoubtedly improved. We are weaker at full back than we were last season given no one is going to argue Lynas, as fine as he looks so far, is better than Carlo. Is McNiff an upgrade on Stanger? I don't think so. Given we shipped goals at a laughable rate last year I was hoping for stronger reinforcements here.

We don't really know what the midfield options bring us, although I am quietly confident we may get a better mix in there this season if the right men are picked. 

Up front, Wallace is a good player and Love should be useful but again neither of these guys will lead the line for us, which is what we missed last year and reverted to using our best winger up there alongside a big dumplin. 

Of course individually it doesn't matter how we compare, we need to be better as a unit and I sincerely hope Faz has learned from last season. I'm most worried about our defence, I don't think enough has been done to fix centre back or left back and if the same trend continues from last season we won't trouble the exciting end of the league table. 

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3 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

Is the squad better? I think that remains to be seen, but agree there are positives to take. 

Goalkeeper is undoubtedly improved. We are weaker at full back than we were last season given no one is going to argue Lynas, as fine as he looks so far, is better than Carlo. Is McNiff an upgrade on Stanger? I don't think so. Given we shipped goals at a laughable rate last year I was hoping for stronger reinforcements here.

Of course individually it doesn't matter how we compare, we need to be better as a unit and I sincerely hope Faz has learned from last season. I'm most worried about our defence, I don't think enough has been done to fix centre back or left back and if the same trend continues from last season we won't trouble the exciting end of the league table. 

Imo the success of our defence will rest on Gregor Buchanan's shoulders. 

I thought he was dire last season, admittedly not helped by changing partners every three games. But in all three Betfred Cup games I've seen he's looked far more like the player he was in his first spell. I thought he played well against Stirling Albion, he had the cigars out in the Peterhead game and was immense against Raith Rovers the other night.

I don't know what happened last season. It might even just have been a hangover and lack of confidence from a bruising few seasons with Falkirk, Morton and QOS. But I'm hopeful that it's sorted now and we can see him playing like he has done recently over the course of the year. If he can replicate those showings, and given the talent he showed with us in the Championship, then I really don't think there will be too many better defenders in the league.

As a general rule last year, when Bucky played well we got results. When he's form dived so did the results.

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4 hours ago, The Moonster said:

Is the squad better? I think that remains to be seen, but agree there are positives to take. 

Goalkeeper is undoubtedly improved. We are weaker at full back than we were last season given no one is going to argue Lynas, as fine as he looks so far, is better than Carlo. Is McNiff an upgrade on Stanger? I don't think so. Given we shipped goals at a laughable rate last year I was hoping for stronger reinforcements here.

We don't really know what the midfield options bring us, although I am quietly confident we may get a better mix in there this season if the right men are picked. 

Up front, Wallace is a good player and Love should be useful but again neither of these guys will lead the line for us, which is what we missed last year and reverted to using our best winger up there alongside a big dumplin. 

Of course individually it doesn't matter how we compare, we need to be better as a unit and I sincerely hope Faz has learned from last season. I'm most worried about our defence, I don't think enough has been done to fix centre back or left back and if the same trend continues from last season we won't trouble the exciting end of the league table. 

Right-back is much less of a worry than left-back.  But any two from the three of McGeever, Buchanan or Carswell looks a decent central defence pairing.  In midfield young Gray has looked promising so far, Blair has been quietly effective and we need to remember that Joe McKee had two really bad bouts of Covid last season.  McLean behaving himself this season can be a good man to have too.

We also have two impressive keepers now on the books, and call me daft but I can't help thinking that in itself will solidify the defence confidence-wise.  I hear we have a couple of trialists playing tomorrow at Irvine so perhaps more still to come.

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2 hours ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

McLean behaving himself this season can be a good man to have too.

The form of our wingers has probably been the most disappointing aspect of our League Cup campaign IMO. Bar the Stirling game the goalkeepers, the defence, the central midfielders and the forwards have shown up quite well but MacLean, C Wilson and Orsi have all been disappointing. In MacLean’s defence he only appeared against Stirling where the whole team were pretty honking and against Aberdeen where it’s always going to be hard for him to make an impact but overall our wingers seem to be struggling for form. At home the narrow pitch certainly wont be doing them any favours.

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12 minutes ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

The form of our wingers has probably been the most disappointing aspect of our League Cup campaign IMO. Bar the Stirling game the goalkeepers, the defence, the central midfielders and the forwards have shown up quite well but MacLean, C Wilson and Orsi have all been disappointing. In MacLean’s defence he only appeared against Stirling where the whole team were pretty honking and against Aberdeen where it’s always going to be hard for him to make an impact but overall our wingers seem to be struggling for form. At home the narrow pitch certainly wont be doing them any favours.

MacLean came on as a sub against Peterhead. Which kinda just adds to the impact he had overall I think. 

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The form of our wingers has probably been the most disappointing aspect of our League Cup campaign IMO. Bar the Stirling game the goalkeepers, the defence, the central midfielders and the forwards have shown up quite well but MacLean, C Wilson and Orsi have all been disappointing. In MacLean’s defence he only appeared against Stirling where the whole team were pretty honking and against Aberdeen where it’s always going to be hard for him to make an impact but overall our wingers seem to be struggling for form. At home the narrow pitch certainly wont be doing them any favours.

Wasn’t Orsi supposed to be a wide forward and I’m not actually sure what MacLean’s position is supposed to be.

I’m not convinced we actually have a proper winger in the team capable of beating a man with a bit of footwork and pace and then have an end product.
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