Cove Thread

[CoveRangers1922]

23 minutes ago, JamesMunro said:

Heard from a Dundee United fan that Mark Reynolds is on his way to Cove in January 

Have we not learnt from Ross Draper .

Reynolds I reckon is far too old, slow and just past it. Barely kicked a ball in months too.

Let's tap into Dundee United but go younger, i.e Ross Graham or even Lewis Neilson if we want cover at CB. Meekinson, Mochrie, Chalmers; any of those would be good additions. Probably unlikely to get any as TC is giving youth a chance but if they buy a few then might let a couple out.

Reckon Ola will be away?

Edited December 29, 2021 by CoveRangers1922

[CoveRangers1922]

15 minutes ago, Ludo*1 said:

We are recalling Finlay Robertson according to the Daily Record.

Thought as much. Not getting enough minutes and well down the pecking order of central midfielders.

From the brief spells I saw of him he chased shadows mostly and looked a bit lightweight. When on the ball, he was relatively composed and recycled it well enough.

Hopefully McPake isn't loathe to give us others going forward.

Btw saw Mulligan at Links Park last Wednesday. The boy has come on leaps and bounds. Looks physically strong and was making bursting runs. Stood out for certain.

Danny Strachan was less impressive. Lyall is an intelligent little player but balls were getting shelled over him especially the 2nd half. Both could be done with more time at this level before playing any higher imo.

[Ludo*1]

2 minutes ago, CoveRangers1922 said:

Thought as much. Not getting enough minutes and well down the pecking order of central midfielders.

From the brief spells I saw of him he chased shadows mostly and looked a bit lightweight. When on the ball, he was relatively composed and recycled it well enough.

Hopefully McPake isn't loathe to give us others going forward.

Btw saw Mulligan at Links Park last Wednesday. The boy has come on leaps and bounds. Looks physically strong and was making bursting runs. Stood out for certain.

Danny Strachan was less impressive. Lyall is an intelligent little player but balls were getting shelled over him especially the 2nd half. Both could be done with more time at this level before playing any higher imo.

Robertson is definitely our most promising youth player so it was disappointing to see him not kick on from that cracking season he had with us when he was 16. Still very young, but needs to develop more and have a bigger influence on games. Frustrating that it's not worked out as he's already regularly outperformed the likes of Graham Dorrans & Jamie Ness at the heart of our midfield in the Championship, but has firmly been pushed down the pecking order by Max Anderson.

Really excited about Mulligan returning in January too. He's played a few times for us and I've never really seen anything in him, but seems to be doing really well this season.

Doubt we will recall the other two at this stage.

McPake has a strong relationship with Hartley and I think it was the Hartley connection that meant Robertson went to a League One club in the first place (we were looking initially at a few Championship teams apparently!) so I can't see us turning any player requests from Hartley down. Although I'm not sure we've got many disposable players that can develop and are good enough for the Championship with you likely being in that division next season.

[CoveRangers1922]

2 minutes ago, Ludo*1 said:

Robertson is definitely our most promising youth player so it was disappointing to see him not kick on from that cracking season he had with us when he was 16. Still very young, but needs to develop more and have a bigger influence on games. Frustrating that it's not worked out as he's already regularly outperformed the likes of Graham Dorrans & Jamie Ness at the heart of our midfield in the Championship, but has firmly been pushed down the pecking order by Max Anderson.

Really excited about Mulligan returning in January too. He's played a few times for us and I've never really seen anything in him, but seems to be doing really well this season.

Doubt we will recall the other two at this stage.

McPake has a strong relationship with Hartley and I think it was the Hartley connection that meant Robertson went to a League One club in the first place (we were looking initially at a few Championship teams apparently!) so I can't see us turning any player requests from Hartley down. Although I'm not sure we've got many disposable players that can develop and are good enough for the Championship with you likely being in that division next season.

Fair play to Dundee and McPake for allowing Finn out on loan to us. Always thought it would be hard to budge Fyvie, Yule, Scully and Vigurs out of a regular place. Most of them are Championship quality players with good experience.

Hopefully we make it to the Championship and Dundee stay in the Prem.

[The Gable Endie]

11 hours ago, CoveRangers1922 said:

Have we not learnt from Ross Draper .

Reynolds I reckon is far too old, slow and just past it. Barely kicked a ball in months too.

Let's tap into Dundee United but go younger, i.e Ross Graham or even Lewis Neilson if we want cover at CB. Meekinson, Mochrie, Chalmers; any of those would be good additions. Probably unlikely to get any as TC is giving youth a chance but if they buy a few then might let a couple out.

Reckon Ola will be away?

There’s no way they’re loaning out anybody. You saw the situation with Covid and all that.

[Jan Vojáček]

11 hours ago, Ludo*1 said:

Really excited about Mulligan returning in January too. He's played a few times for us and I've never really seen anything in him, but seems to be doing really well this season.

I'd just like to add that Josh Mulligan has been one of the most impressive players I've seen in League One this season. I was watching the Peterhead game alongside one of our players, and he was absolutely raving about how good his performance was.

The first thing that strikes you about him is how physically impressive he is. He has (and I mean this in a good way...) a bit of Tony Ralston about him when he's charging forward. He's strong, rapid and very direct. He's also scored twice against us, and both him been absolutely excellent finishes.

We've not really played well against Peterhead this season, but Mulligan has never really looked unduly troubled defensively. 

I've no idea if he's first team ready yet, but I'd certainly say (based on the two games I've seen him play!) that he would be capable of stepping up a level.

[CoveRangers1922]

45 minutes ago, The Gable Endie said:

There’s no way they’re loaning out anybody. You saw the situation with Covid and all that.

True, a lot of Prem clubs will hold onto players for that reason. Could be a fairly quiet window this time around.

[JamesMunro]

13 hours ago, CoveRangers1922 said:

Have we not learnt from Ross Draper .

Reynolds I reckon is far too old, slow and just past it. Barely kicked a ball in months too.

Let's tap into Dundee United but go younger, i.e Ross Graham or even Lewis Neilson if we want cover at CB. Meekinson, Mochrie, Chalmers; any of those would be good additions. Probably unlikely to get any as TC is giving youth a chance but if they buy a few then might let a couple out.

Reckon Ola will be away?

Ola will surely be away. Problem with Hartley is he takes in so many players and expects them to shine, doesn’t really have time to help them develop. Apart from Glass, how many players could you say we’ve taken on Loan and they’ve went back a better player? Maybe Ross Graham too

[CoveRangers1922]

4 minutes ago, JamesMunro said:

Ola will surely be away. Problem with Hartley is he takes in so many players and expects them to shine, doesn’t really have time to help them develop. Apart from Glass, how many players could you say we’ve taken on Loan and they’ve went back a better player? Maybe Ross Graham too

He must be lining up a striker as if Ola goes we have 2 and Leighton who is fairly useless to be fair. Credit to him, scored a few lately but we'd struggle with either Rory or Mitch for an extended period.

 

[CoveRangers1922]

Blair scoops player of the month for December. An unsung hero of our team at times but truly a fantastic player with great pace and work-rate.

No surprise that he's shone given he's been playing in his more natural central midfield position. He, along with Fyvie, have been key to our success as of late. 

  

[CoveRangers1922]

League 1 games without Mitch

We've played a total of 43 L1 games since our promotion from L2.

Mitch has been in the match day squad in all but 4 of these. Below are the games he's missed.

Clyde (A) 1-0 win ~ Vigurs

Peterhead (A) 1-0 win ~ McKenzie

Dumbarton (A) 1-0 loss

Montrose (H) 2-1 loss ~ Milne

We've scored 3 goals in 4 games. 0.75 per game average and never scored more than 1 goal in any of those matches. The other 39 games we've scored 68 goals for an average of 1.74.

Admittedly it's a very low sample but still shows how crucial he is for us. Watched all 4 of those matches and we have struggled to be fair.

There is no replacement for him or indeed anyone even likely to contribute in the same way waiting on the bench.

Being a league 1 club we're not going to have the depth of 3 truly quality strikers, happy we have 2 very good ones, but it worries me that Leighton, Leitch, and Ola are are the fallback options.

Mitch clearly does a lot more than score his share; he links play, creates space and brings other into the frame.

 

Edited January 13, 2022 by CoveRangers1922

[Cove1922]

3 hours ago, CoveRangers1922 said:

Blair scoops player of the month for December. An unsung hero of our team at times but truly a fantastic player with great pace and work-rate.

No surprise that he's shone given he's been playing in his more natural central midfield position. He, along with Fyvie, have been key to our success as of late. 

  

The clubs headline on their news article about it sounded quite surprised.  Maybe because he's from the old Cove the club don't appreciate his abilities.  

[CoveRangers1922]

Not a signing but good news

[marello]

Got my ticket for Hibs - roll on next Thursday. What's estimate of away fans - 500ish? Shame it's a Thursday and TV otherwise would have hoped for 800-1000

[CoveRangers1922]

8 hours ago, marello said:

Got my ticket for Hibs - roll on next Thursday. What's estimate of away fans - 500ish? Shame it's a Thursday and TV otherwise would have hoped for 800-1000

I went along last night and got mine. Looking forward to it, we should be high on confidence especially if we can pick up 3 points tomorrow. Saying that we'll need to be at full strength, defend well and take any opportunity we get to have a chance against Hibs. We've moved on in fitness and performance from Hearts in the PS cup so expecting to be more competitive at least.

A new signing before then would be welcome but fairly small chance of them being not cup tied.

Normally for an away game we're around 50-75, maybe a bit more depending on distance. We've only been getting 500-600 to home games including away support. Would be surprised, if there are any more than 200 at Easter Road.

Edited January 14, 2022 by CoveRangers1922

[CoveRangers1922]

There's been a rumour since summer of Reynolds joining us. Is this him leaving Dundee United and coming to Cove?

[Cove1922]

2 hours ago, CoveRangers1922 said:

There's been a rumour since summer of Reynolds joining us. Is this him leaving Dundee United and coming to Cove?

Given he had a major knee injury on the day the pitch was opened by Aberdeen I'm not sure how quickly he'd be returning to the ground regularly.  

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/sport/football/aberdeen-fc/1655978/mark-reynolds-hits-out-against-plastic-pitches-ahead-of-aberdeens-trip-to-hamilton-accies/

Unless there's a reason he's given to change his opinion I'd put this in the unlikely category for just now.  

[CoveRangers1922]

17 minutes ago, Cove1922 said:

Given he had a major knee injury on the day the pitch was opened by Aberdeen I'm not sure how quickly he'd be returning to the ground regularly.  

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/sport/football/aberdeen-fc/1655978/mark-reynolds-hits-out-against-plastic-pitches-ahead-of-aberdeens-trip-to-hamilton-accies/

Unless there's a reason he's given to change his opinion I'd put this in the unlikely category for just now.  

True and since he's barely kicked a ball in 6 months I would be sceptical on how good a signing he would be.

The link to Cove is probably because  he's living near or in Aberdeen and being ex-Motherwell I'm sure Gordon Young knows him.

[Diamonds_Are_Forever]

Mitch Megginson subbed off after 15mins injury any serious ?

[CoveRangers1922]

7 minutes ago, Diamonds_Are_Forever said:

Mitch Megginson subbed off after 15mins injury any serious ?

I know like losing your best sniper!

He missed the Clyde game last week with an injury and probably a reoccurrence of that. Was feeling the back of his leg after about 10 minutes and then again before going off. Hoping he was being cautious and not wanting to worsen it ahead of Easter Road on Thursday night.

Shay also went off with a niggle as did Vigurs at half time.

Not ideal but a few weeks to recover before our next league match away to the Sons.

Nice win today, heard Easton was on fire

Edited January 15, 2022 by CoveRangers1922