pondsman

Pluses from yesterday (and the season so far): - we subdued a very decent RC side which had played well against Hearts and Celtic - our general lead-up play was good, as it was v Motherwell and in the early stages v Aberdeen - whole team played well, but special mentions to Ayunga, Baccus (who started the goal move with his quick turn and burst into the box), Dunne, and Tait. - SR seems to have got more out of Curtis and Ethan (although Main could do with scoring some goals) - three points and eighth place in the league makes everyone feel a lot better! Minuses: - Ayunga should stick to using his strength to unsettle defences and bursting into the box to shoot. On most occasions when he tries to dribble around defenders he loses the ball. - strikers need to start putting the ball in the net.

Most of what needs to be said before this game has been mentioned in the posts above. Just putting in my tuppenceworth to support a few points. Two league games played, two defeats and no goals scored from open play. So, we don't seem to have solved the goal-scoring problem we had last season. Looked at like that, things seem bleak. But we played well against Motherwell and, according to radio reports, were doing OK at Pittodrie until we lost Gallagher. And, as has been said above, a win against RC may well give the players the confidence required to kick on. As for the manager, my main concern has been his recruitment. Neither Ayunga or Olusanya looks likely to score prolifically in this league, though I hope they prove me wrong as time goes on. That leaves us with the two front men we had last season, Main and Brophy. Again, neither of them scored as regularly as we really needed, though Main did seem to improve when SR came to the club. I still think SR needs to be looking to bring in a goalscorer, if he can find one we can afford. In midfield, in recent times we've had strong midfielders like McGrath and Ronan, who have been able to pitch in with a few goals to help us out. Baccus looks a decent player and may be able to fill that role, but I notice that Graham Carey has been getting good reviews since signing for St. Johnstone. That is a player who has been at our club and did well when he was here. Was SR aware that he was available? Perhaps we could not afford him. Again, as has been stated, it's early days, but we need to avoid being cast adrift from the other teams in our mini-league (Well, Livi, RC, St. J). Saturday's game is really important from that point of view. Despite all of the above, as always.... COYS!!

After yesterday's same old story (made chances but couldn't take them), the game at Pittodrie looks like our first 6-pointer of the season (just look at the league table). Don't know how Buddies can improve from the Motherwell game, apart from taking their chances! On TV last night the Dons looked a decent team, and Pittodrie has not been a happy hunting ground for us in recent times. Nevertheless, keep believing and, as always..... COYS!!

Elvis, last season most of the 'experts' on Radio Scotland had Ross County or Livingston going down. Look how that turned out. Yes, we've had a really disappointing start to the season, but teams haven't kicked a ball in the league yet. Let's see where we are in October, then start the panic if need be.

While I agree that Ethan has been decent in recent games, I don't think he has improved that much from last season. To say that he has been the stand-out player in the League Cup games just underlines how poor most of the others have been. O'Hara has shown consistency, Kiltie has done well when brought on, but the big disappointment for me has been the other new recruits. Not impressed yet by either Ayunga (despite his goals at Cowdenbeath) or Olusanya. I think Reid needs to play today. If he does well, we will know that he can be an important player for us this season. Whoever plays, we need a win before the league starts next weekend. So,....... COYS!!

Despite the manager's comments about giving as many players as possible 'minutes' on the pitch and the fact that we have Brophy, Main and Baccus to come into the side, I was not impressed by the performance. Having lost the first group game, it is very clear that we need not just to win every group game, but also to score as heavily as possible to maximise our chances of progressing. SR's post-match comments seemed to suggest that he was happy with the day's work. However, we should be beating Cowdenbeath by a good few more goals, even with some youngsters in our team. I echo comments above about the lack of creativity and the dodgy partnership of Shaughnessy and Dunne in central defence. Gallagher was on the bench, but surely he should have been on the pitch in an effort to cement his partnership with Shaughnessy before the league games begin.

Failure to finish cost us the game yesterday. There were plenty of chances, especially early in the second half. Pass marks go to Shaughnessy, Kiltie, Erhahon. Agree that Greive looks lightweight (literally). Said so at the end of last season, and he doesn't seem much better now. Looks like our problem of last season, failure to score goals, is going to continue unless Brophy, Main and the other players still to come in can do the business. As an aside, thought Olusanya and Ayunga were either trying too hard or were a bit greedy. Spotted a couple of times when both of them tried to beat several opponents when it would have been easier to lay the ball off to a teammate. Looks like they will need more time to bed into the team. Win the next three games and we can still get out of the group, so..... COYS!!

I agree that we should win, but this is St. Mirren we're talking about. Nothing is certain till the ref blows the final whistle. Given Arbroath's achievements last season, it should be a good, competitive game, so...... COYS!!

Looking forward to our first competitive match of the season. Think it will be tight, given Arbroath's achievements last season, but I think we will still be too good for them. Excited to see how our new signings perform. Hope the pre-season training and the friendlies have allowed them to gel. Never like trying to predict scores, but as it's the first real game of the season, I'll take a chance and say 2-0 to the Buddies. COYS!!

Fine player on his day, but never fulfilled his full potential due to injuries. I wish him all the best.

Seems opinion is divided on Toyosi. But we are agreed that he has pace. Since that is something we've been looking for for quite some time (pretty much all of last season), let's just give the boy a chance to show what he can do. He doesn't need to be a prolific goalscorer, just someone who will cause problems for opposing defences. His pace might be just the thing for that.

Quote: In what universe would you look forward to seeing Arbroath?? Although brought up in Paisley and a lifelong Buddies fan, I now live closer to Arbroath than Paisley. So I often go to watch Arbroath on Saturdays when I can't make it to Greenhill Road, and I enjoy watching the Lichties. Always been a stuffy, hard-to-beat team, but Dick Campbell has made a big difference to them in recent years and they really excelled last season of course. I was pleased to see them in Buddies' League Cup group. That game will be a good test of Buddies at the start of the season. I'm sure Arbroath will give them a good game, but I will certainly be supporting Buddies to come out on top.

Would have preferred to get free entry to the Arbroath game on 9th July. Promises to be a tasty encounter. We should win, of course, but as we know as Buddies fans, things don't always go as they should.

Anything other than a win and qualification is over for us, so.....C,mon Scotland!

Surprised, but happy to have Ryan on board again. Has not let us down throughout his time with us. Suffered a serious injury but came back as good as ever. Always gives 100%. Looking forward to seeing him in our midfield again. COYS!!

Alnwick off to Cardiff City, it seems. Anyone know where Connor McCarthy is going. I would have liked him to stay. As others have said, SR has his work cut out to find some decent players. A bit worried about the strikers. We seem stuck with Brophy and Main, neither of whom has been exactly prolific. But if they are in the squad along with Greive and Jamieson, there isn't really room to bring in another one. And we all know that's where our problem lay this season.

No Shaughnessy, Main or Brophy. Surely a draw is the best we can get.

After last night's results, we are better placed to finish the season above the Dons. Surely we can get a draw at Pittodrie against an Aberdeen team which is nose-diving!

Thought we battled really well against a strong, physical Livi side. As has been said, the two forwards stuck at it and gave the Livi defence a tough time, though they lacked the quality to finish things off. Worried about Greive. He's just too slight to be fighting off big strong defenders. Was too easily pushed off the ball on many occasions last night. But to his credit he has a great heart, never stopped running and trying and might have got a goal in the second half. We will miss Gogic and Alnwick particularly, but we still have Kiltie who has found his place in the team. Also, I need to mention Ethan because I criticised him on Saturday. Thought he was much better last night, some important tackles and good passes. Sad to see Flynn's game end with a bad tackle forcing him off. Probably won't see him in Paisley again. He's been a great servant to the club, so I wish him all the best. Kevin Clancy? I'd better not start on him. Some very dodgy decisions.

Oops, my mistake. Still fancy Dons to get the points though. We need to be right on it to get 3 points against Livi and set up an interesting game at Pittodrie on Sunday.

Rascal, hope you're right.

With reference to the talk above about finishing above Livi, I agree that it looks unlikely. However, it would be nice to finish above Aberdeen for obvious reasons. Assuming the Dons get 3 points against Dundee tomorrow, we can finish above them if we beat Livi tomorrow and get at least a draw at Pittodrie on Sunday. Livi will be a tougher game than either of our last two but I think we can do it. So......COYS!!

Decent performance against a Dundee team that looked beat after Adam's gift to us. Main looks transformed in the last two games. He gets my MotM for his goal and constant harrying of the Dundee defence. Is he trying for a new or extended contract? Also Gogic, Tait and Tanser were excellent, but can't agree about Erhahon. Apart from a couple of passes, thought he passed backwards more than forwards and even gave the ball away a couple of times. We still need a reliable scorer. That's now two games where we should have scored more goals. Still, shouldn't be greedy, I suppose. COYS!

One man doesn't make a team but we are surely much better with Ronan than without him. Don't think we'll miss Jones so much. He's faded out of the picture after a good start.

I agree that we can't afford to take Dundee lightly. Their performance against the Dons at the weekend suggests that they have more fight about them than St. Johnstone did. So, our team needs to take confidence from Saturday's game and put in another performance full of effort and belief. Three more points would be an excellent result. As always....COYS!!