Berry

O’Hara for me hasn’t had a good game yet this season and getting off lightly due to his high work rate. Do have to acknowledge we’re playing him out of position but still with the ball I’d think he should be doing better. Agree with TRBFC that playing Todorov with McCann, a bit more height for crossing could work out well. Todorov made a right hash of his one opportunity yesterday but think we need to give him proper game time to get the best out of him.

I did find myself disagreeing with McPakes post match interview. He made it out like we were dominant, Alloa sitting back and countering, didn’t think that was the case at all in the first half. Second half we were better without looking really likely to score. He also said to disregard the last 10mins, not sure I agree with that either, we were under some amount of pressure and with all due respect to Alloa we shouldn’t be hanging on for so long at home against this then so I think we need to look at how to be more comfortable in those situations. I’m sure McPake knows all this and that his comments were a means to provide a boost to the current players and build the confidence ahead of next week. If that’s the case then fair enough but I tended to agree more with Rice.

Very pleased to get out of that game with a W, Alloa will be disappointed not to take anything but the game went pretty much how I thought it would. I thought we were very poor first half, Alloa had a lot of the ball and were in control for the majority, thankfully we had someone to clear the ball off the line. I would be interested to hear from fans who had a better view than me to see whether it was over the line or not, looked close. Would also like to have another look at the Sammon incident in the box as to whether a penalty or not. When you’re not playing well, when a chance presents itself you’ve got to take it and I thought Todd should’ve put the chance he had away. Second half we were better but again lacked a goal threat. I thought O’Hara was very poor and we looked more of a threat when McPake brought him and Chalmers off for Todorov and Wighton. We showed a bit of naivety to allow the Alloa players to shoot from range and almost paid the price with the belter off the bar and the good save from Mehmet. It did look like 0-0 but for what was a fluke from Todd and indecisiveness from the keeper, will take it any day. For a team that’s still incomplete and in need of multiple signings, throw in the Hamilton suspension, this was a very important victory to tide us over until next Saturday. A lot of improvement required but can’t be too downbeat. P.S. for the many that really dislike Chalmers, thought he was pretty solid today with some good deliveries into the box.

That midfield is weak, going to do well to leave with three points today. First game of season, big crowd, going to go 1-0 but a scrappy affair.

Limping out against Sligo Rovers, they have been pretty brutal over two legs. Are the Scottish leagues really this bad?

McCann is holding his own, unlucky not to score from what was a cracking save from their keeper. He’s fit for the first team and if you’re going to give him his chance to develop, you’ve got to give him games and in League One this is the best time to do it. He will score goals. Todd has potential, plays some nice stuff from time to time but still a bit raw. If we have serious ambitions of getting promoted this season we need someone more experienced and street savvy in there. If we weren’t so short I’d be preferring he went on loan to be honest. As for Allen, not really sure what he brings to the team and is evidence of just how light we are at the moment.

He wasn’t on the pitch when they equalised. To be honest, I’m not Chalmers best fan, he sloppily gave the ball away for what ended up being a great save from Mehmet but putting that aside, everything he did was pretty solid and thought he was more forward minded than usual.

Well that result keeps feet firmly on the ground doesn’t it. I thought we started alright and made a few good scoring opportunities despite not playing that great. The Hamilton header was excellent but the cross from Edwards was sublime. Defensively I don’t have as much confidence as others in Breen, he did alright today but there were times I thought he was a bit flat footed and against a quicker frontline he would’ve been caught out. Second half we just huffed and puffed and Alloa did well to see the game out with relative ease, looked more likely to score actually. I don’t think O’Hara works down the flank, not faulting his effort but he’s just not a winger, we need to bring someone in who can take on a defender and put some decent balls in. Wighton on the other side doesn’t work either. Midfield is our biggest problem area, and has been for a few seasons. I’ll be blunt, we wont succeed if we’re relying on Todd and Allan in midfield, nor Chalmers. We need Dorrans back (tin hat on) but we need another creative midfielder. Better having this result now than next Saturday, just really frustrated as we had a great chance of qualifying and then even a win on penalties could’ve been enough. A week away from the league starting and I still think we need a defender, two wingers and a midfielder. Certainly is a reality check which isn’t a bad thing.

He has signed for Falkirk on loan. I wouldn’t say it’s a missed opportunity or anything but I’d rather have had him with us than playing against him, especially not with Falkirk but it is what it is!

There was a game on, Civil Service Strollers have a post up on their twitter welcoming us but unfortunately no further updates on how the game progressed yet.

Was scrolling through Flashscore to see what friendlies were going on this evening and it looks like we have a game scheduled with Civil Service Strollers, kick off at 19:30. Obviously will be the young boys but be interesting to see how they get on.

I’m going to be a little controversial, I didn’t enjoy the performance as much as others, I felt we could and should’ve done better. Firstly we need to be more clinical in front of goal, ironic I know considering we scored 5 goals but against stronger opposition we need to put they chances early on away as we’re not going to get as many goal scoring opportunities going forward. I thought we were a bit poor on the ball, slack with the passing and losing the ball unnecessarily. O’Hara puts in the effort but he’s the one that stood out the most for me in that regards. Defensively we clearly weren’t tested but there was that one gift we almost gave them, we need to try eradicate that and remove any complacency. Kept an eye on McPake and it was good to see that he was visually getting frustrated the odd time as well so he’s clearly picking up things we need to improve on. I left the game happy with the win ofcourse but thinking how it may have been if there was better opposition in front of us. That being said, look, it’s a 5-0 win with a team that’s still essentially in preseason with players still to come in the door. Was also great to see a lot of youth getting the opportunity so a lot of positives, just feet firmly still on the ground!

1. Really slow transfer window, squad depth and width not there and missing what you expect to see 2/3 more players. 2. Away from home, and were pretty comfortable. 3. Lewis McCann getting a couple of goals will do wonders for his confidence going into the season. 4. A clean sheet 5. Ross County dropping a point 6. No injuries as far as I’m aware A good days work I’d say!

Pars 1 up! Lewis McCann

Ross County equalised 1-1

We need some width in our team which we don’t have at the moment. An important fixture this for the cup, certainly with Buckie taking the lead against Ross County. Take any sort of W today.

I’d have him back, I think in League One and under McPake I think Kai could prove a few doubters wrong. He didn’t set anything alight his first time here but no one did and whilst he didn’t deliver the only sense of excitement and attacking intent I felt that season was when he was on the ball. I’d give him another opportunity with us, before he joined us on loan weren’t West Ham sniffing about him? There is a player in him, he just needs to find the right environment to be able to start showing it.

Anyone on here that maintains it? The link to the Lewis McCann interview takes you to the Season Ticket update and there’s a couple of typos in the recent McPake interview. I’m not trying to be the grammar police as I’m far from perfect myself and appreciate it may be run by volunteers but do think for our official site it would be worth proof reading before uploading, you get the sense it’s just put up rushed. It’s Monday morning, maybe I’ve just woken up on the wrong side of the bed.

0-2 O’Hara

Trialist on the bench?

I really like and rate Wighton and agree that him on form will bang in goals at this level, clearly wasn’t favoured last season which I think was a mistake and I’m actually relieved that he appears to be staying with us. The most natural finisher we have in our squad. I do take a bit of an issue with the lack of effort, as mentioned above, fans can relate lack of effort to not running about all the time, that is exactly what I wouldn’t want him to do. O’Hara and McCann are better positioned to be chasing balls and putting the pressure on the back four. I just want Wighton to be switched on, getting in the right positions and taking the chances when they come because the boy can finish. Its almost like a game of tag back at school where you just used to always run about regardless if you were the one being chased, when you’re better just chilling out a bit, conserve the energy and use it when you need to.

I’ve probably got questions that wouldn’t really be answered I imagine: 1) Any truth in the transfer rumours with Josh Edwards and moving to the English Championship? 2) Club have been reserved on the ambitions this season, stating the obvious that we need to get back to winning matches, what would be defined as a successful season on this basis, must still surely be promotion? 3) Any progress in securing backroom staff and how many players we looking to bring in to compliment what we already have? 4) With us having for League One a great variety of strikers in McCann, Wighton, Todorov and O’Hara. Wighton and Todorov in particular not getting much of a look in last season, be interested to hear his thoughts on these players, how he’s going to approach it, change our style to get the best out of these players and keep them content throughout the season knowing not all of them will be playing. 5) Big push on developing our own talent, is this the season where we expect to see more youth come into the first team in addition to Todd and McCann and if so, do we foresee that posing a particular risk against our ambitions of getting out of this league? 6) John Hughes made a point that we were a ‘soft touch’ which was clearly evident throughout last season and he failed to rectify. What is he doing differently to address that particular criticism?

According to the press, one very close to being announced by the sounds of it, likely next week. Also advises we lost out on one player who simply didn’t want to play in League One, McPake going to have a tough job on his hands getting the right kind of players in who can see past the league and consider the potential we have as a club (granted failing to materialise atm!).

I don’t think Dorrans is past it, I don’t think he did any better or worse than the rest of the squad last season. He hadn’t had a proper pre-season, had some bother as mentioned with injuries/illness, below par season for everyone I’d say. He’s an influential player but he still needs support and others chipping in, he can’t do it all, he’s not a Gareth Bale who can single-handedly drag Wales over the line. Just think we need to manage expectations a bit, to have a player like Dorrans in our squad when we’ll be playing teams like Alloa, Kelty Hearts, Edinburgh etc, no disrespect but with his career and experience he should stroll it if his mindsets right and possibly one big plus with bringing McPake in is that they’ve worked together and hopefully they have that mutual respect that he’ll want to stick it out with us. As for the financial side of things, can’t really comment but if he sticks around I’d be happy.

Precisely, we should be considering ourselves very fortunate to have Dorrans in our team playing League One football.