Julian Banjos

35 years old and has been out injured for the best part of 3 months. Big Kirk has not got that much football left in him I would think. We'll see how he gets on with Killie the next 18 months.... He was under contract with us until after his 37th birthday on, you assume, a very good deal. Maybe this will be a blessing disguise. Another centre half would be handy though....

Play in their youth team, like him and they'll pay a fee in the summer?

Hodson for McGinn is a good bit of business. The assumption was McGinn was out of the team on Sunday because he was offski. I actually thought he was dropped because it was he who switched off and let Defoe in front of him for the goal we conceded at Ibrox. A good servant and sad to lose a McGinn but Hodson is a better footballer in my opinion.

Would assume then we'll see the exit of Cooke or Mullen in the next 24 hours...

Kibble are not going to be owners of the club. They'll have just over a 1/4 stake (equivalent to a few years of SMISA subs.): 51% SMISA 27.5% Kibble 21.5% A few 100 small shareholders In the unlikely event of this 160 year old charity (with 600 employees and a turnover 10 times more than our own) going out of business..... it wouldn't be that big a deal. No-brainer for me too and was delighted to read about the plans today. We need to do everything we can to get the club and stadium / training complex embedded within and used by the community and this partnership will undoubtedly help. The club is also run, pretty much, by a skeleton staff. Bringing in expertise assistance from an organisation of Kibble's size can only be to our benefit.

Would presume the BBC will take Aberdeen v Killie. Hopefully, for their 2nd pick, they'll go Ayr v St Johnstone or the BSC Glasgow game ahead of ours. Doubtful they'd go for 2 all-Premiership ties.....

The 3-0 at home v Motherwell in 2006 under Gus was one of the great cup performances of recent times. Corcoran and Charlie Adam outstanding. Hopefully, a repeat of that.... Also, assuming it's not picked for TV, will be good to have a 3pm Saturday kick-off!

Also nice to see a player who tucks in his shirt.

Very similar standard to Linlithgow Rose. They put up a decent fight at home to Falkirk in the 3rd round but eventually lost to 4-1.

I see their game today is postponed. Here's their results since the Invururie Locos cup tie: 7/12 = 1-2 loss v Penicuik (H) 14/12 = 3-2 win v Dundonald (A) 21/12 = 1-1 v Boness (A) 4/1 = 3-1 win v Blackburn (H) They're 6th in their league.

Broxburn have sold all their tickets now. A wee boost to our coffers....

Signed by Norwich last January transfer window. They tied him to a longer deal just 6 weeks ago and he's been training with their first team (an English Premiership side). Looks like an outstanding signing!

Goodwin's known Baird for years. I assume that Jim's opinion is that Jack is not good enough to be in the team we aspire to be i.e. one competing for a top 6 place. Great guy, 100% effort at all times but I would have to agree if that is the assessment. We need to aim for the standard of the likes of Davis, Popescu and McLoughlin. Baird is under contract for another 18 months but I reckon he's probably played his last game for us. Will most likely move on in the summer.

Cody Cooke quoted in the PDE. He doesn't seem to think any more strikers will be arriving in January. He admits it was a weight off his mind to hear St Mirren gaffer Jim Goodwin wasn’t targeting new signings up front after he has battled his way back into contention. He said: “It’s a bit of a relief that the gaffer has spoken about being happy with the strikers he’s got at the club. From our point of view, I know there was a lot of question marks towards the start of the year about how many goals the boys were scoring. But now we’ve got real good competition for places. Jon Obika’s got the shirt at the moment and he knows there’s people really pushing him hard to keep his place, including myself.We’ve got Danny Mullen as well, who didn’t get on against Killie. We’ve got a really strong forward line and it would surprise me if he was to add to that number. The only way I could see things changing is if somebody moved out, but that’s not the case. The manager hasn’t mentioned that to me or any of the others and I can see why because we’ve got good competition.”

I expect, like January '19, we'll be getting a few unknowns.... Anyone heard of Corbu, Popescu, Hladky, Muzek, Nazons or Dreyer this time last year?!

Broxburn now selling the final 210 tickets for the away end. Looks like they'll fill that stand.

Regarding the lack of a goalscorer, let's not get carried away because going back 30 years in the top league our best returns are: Higdon, Thompson = 13 Torfason = 12 Sutton = 11 Gillies, Dorman = 10 Obika is on 5 and we're just past the halfway mark. He could well be in amongst those above at the end of the season. Mullen and Morias both have 2 from sporadic appearances and Cooke is now fit again. We had the imcredible fortune to get 3 great years out of Thommo. If anyone else had scored that number of goals for us we'd have lost them pretty quick to another team (see M.Higdon!). To find that elusive goalscorer is very difficult. The Saintees thought they'd solved their problems by splurging on Stevie May and it looks like they've ended up with a guy whose career is disintegrating. Would be great to get an Isma in for 20 games but we're not that badly off up front, in my opinion.

Some stats to show the improvement under Goodie. Going into the winter break: 18/19 = 12 points from 21 games (-24 GD) 19/20 = 19 points from 21 games (-12 GD) We eventually went into the split on 21 points.

I was hugely impressed with that yesterday. After Wednesday I feared we might end up struggling through the festive period with our makeshift defence. In fact, we played them off the park and the defence did its job. Suddenly as well, 2 guys who were looking like squad players (Morais and MacPherson) have staked their claims as first picks. I just hope we can get 3 points against Livi and open up a wee gap to 12th.

Broxburn are pretty much level-pegging in their league with Linlithgow Rose who lost 4-1 at home to Falkirk on Friday night.

Here's our record against non-league opposition in the past 33 years (don't think I've missed any...?): 0-0 East Kilbride (home, 2019) 2-2 Spartans (home, 2018) 7-1 Lothian Thistle (away, 2017) 5-1 Spartans (home, 2016) 3-0 Spartans (home, 2006) 0-0 Spartans (away, 2006) 3-0 Caledonian (home, 1987)

I don't think we're too far away. Just need to get the right mix up top: Obika and Mullen deserve a chance after their showing in the second half I would say. Again though it's going to be a tough season. I hoped that one out of Hamilton, Livingston and Ross County would do a Dundee, but it's not looking likely. Maybe St Johnstone...

Given McLoughlin's efforts on Saturday, this is reassuring. Loved big Kirkie the first time round and his song must be resurrected! I remember him bursting onto the scene as a teenager scoring 2 excellent goals from outside the box at Somerset. I think he may have played midfield that day? Even after settling into being a centre-half he was partial to the odd marauding run through the midfield. Gus talked him up as being one of the most committed players at the club. Would always stay behind after training when others were away home. No surprise he's had a good career, even managing a goal for Scotland.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-transfer-news/jamie-murphy-loaned-out-rangers-18885671 Gerrard will now sit down with the former Brighton star to discuss his option, including a loan stint elsewhere. The manager said: “Murph is a unique situation because he’s missed a year of football. He’s doing everything he can to get back to the level he was at before But the fascinating thing is, is Jamie’s level before good enough to fight for a starting spot here? That’s the challenge for him. We need to help him find the best solution to get back to his peak, his A-game, as quickly as he can. It’s not going to happen overnight. I predict it could take four to six months. I’ll have a chat with Jamie and see what we think is best. But a loan will be one thing on the agenda. We’ll give him support and listen to him. If he’s not up for a loan, if he’s not up for reserve games, if he wants to do it through training on his own, we’ll listen and as a group decide. But he needs as much football as possible at a decent level to get himself back where he was. Then he can compete for a place here.”

He's not become a bad player overnight. He was a standout in our excellent Championship side which ran away with the league. The United fans seem a bit puzzled as to why he's not getting a chance there. I looked it up and 9 starts in the Premier for us last season during a horrendous period. You then have to go back to February '16 for an Aberdeen top league start.