In keeping with recent tradition, here’s another thread for Rico. Thelins first home game, how’re ticket sales going for it? I’d imagine we’ll be lucky to hit 10k for this, which would be decent for midweek cup game? 
 

anyway, I’d imagine a similar line up to the first cup game, as this is definitely a more testing opponent than EK were. Wonder how close to the saints line up this one will be? can’t see Vinny keeping his place, certainly didn’t appear to earn it and I’d imagine we’ll see Nilsen back alongside Shinnie which will protect him a bit more than McGrath / Clarkson did (not that I think that’s their roles anyway). 
 

out

bed

work

work

3-1, sokler, Shinnie and Nilsen.

Game turned around 😉

Looks like Jimmy has some tactical nous.  Shinnie's awful control with the assist there.

sHinniE's lEgS hUv gOn. We'rE a bEttEr teAm wItHouT hIM.
 

Sit yourselves down for another week.

This is a million times better without VAR.

Just now, Slim said:

This is a million times better without VAR.

Was thinking exactly that, and did in the other games too, even though this is the first real competitive game.

I was gonna say after the East Kilbride game I thought Clarkson would be in for a very good season. Having Shinnie and Nilsen offers him more freedom.

I think he'll be in for a very good season.

Hope so, i'm sure he was as disappointed as we were with his season last time out. No doubt there's a player there.

Good game, end to end.  Still a bit sticky at the sharp end. Decision making could've been better but got the finger out and got the result. 

Hancock looked great. 

Played with a bit more intensity in the second half and rattled Airdrie to get those two goals.

It's good we're aggressive in the middle of the park, but Shinnie and Nilsen both booked tonight. It's going to become a problem later in the season, and maybe in this competition if we go into a big quarter or semi-final without them.

Going forward I like how our players are good at finding space. We could have scored more, we're a bit rusty still up top, but that sharpness will come.

Defensively still a worry. Airdrie knock it about well but we shouldn't be hanging on like that at home against them. 

Based on our current squad, our strongest XI is the one that started the second half. But another winger a must, and I still think another centre half and deep midfielder would give us more depth.

 

While I like McGrath, I still think we are crying out for a left and right mid. Thought Morris had a couple of chances to knock it past them and run tonight but shat it. We didn't see a great deal of width/attacking runs from wide areas, maybe some from devlin but not as much from Mackenzie tonight. Perhaps credit to airdrie. We need wingers.

Both shinnie and nilsen booked tonight, at one point thought we should sub nilsen. a third player in that role is clearly needed. And not clarkson or McGrath.  3 signings please. 

decent win and further preseason progress, but as I said before, we’re showing what we are lacking. Please fix it AFC, signings please!

Good game,Airdrie a far cry from Airdries of old,would be a welcome addition to the top league(without their Hun element)

   Lots of tweaking/changes still to do,work in progress,though for me still concerns about Rubys rashness, and Nilsens dithering,though the win allows us to bed them in further with a few easier games to come

   

1 minute ago, Panda said:

Played with a bit more intensity in the second half and rattled Airdrie to get those two goals.

It's good we're aggressive in the middle of the park, but Shinnie and Nilsen both booked tonight. It's going to become a problem later in the season, and maybe in this competition if we go into a big quarter or semi-final without them.

Going forward I like how our players are good at finding space. We could have scored more, we're a bit rusty still up top, but that sharpness will come.

Defensively still a worry. Airdrie knock it about well but we shouldn't be hanging on like that at home against them. 

Based on our current squad, our strongest XI is the one that started the second half. But another winger a must, and I still think another centre half and deep midfielder would give us more depth.

 

Stop reading my emails as I type them!

5 minutes ago, redordead said:

 

Hancock looked great. 

He was everything we hoped McGarry would be.

2 minutes ago, OrlandoDon said:

Stop reading my emails as I type them!

I like that you're learning from me. Under my tutelage I feel you can be a big part of this forum this season.

30 minutes ago, redordead said:

Good game, end to end.  Still a bit sticky at the sharp end. Decision making could've been better but got the finger out and got the result. 

Hancock looked great. 

Thought Hancock was impressive. Although I also said that when he played a few games, only for him to be released. He’s also an athletic kid, Mackenzie Malloy ruby sivert all make us look a rather unathletic looking group.

VAR missing was the absolute highlight tonight, getting home at some point before 23:00 always a bonus.

Enjoyable enough game when we got going. Played some nice stuff at times, with Clarkson clearly being encouraged to try things, a lot of which don't come off, but hopefully fans will understand his role (I doubt it, I heard a lot of "stop deein that funcy shite" type shouts). The bench is a huge worry still, with nothing beyond Miovski. Morris was, and is, absolutely dogshit. He ruins the game because he doesn't know how to play it. He reacts to everything. Hopefully that's enough of his experiment. Sokler proving my point about Mackie, that was a classic Mackie performance tonight. Shinnie great, as was Clarkson. The fullbacks were fine and Rubi okay. Molloy very rash, and a worry. The idea behind Nilsen is a sound one, it's tactically great, but I don't think he's going to be good enough for the SPFL. Too slow and because of that, too many slack passes and being caught out of position. 

I like the way we're approaching it, but we're 4-5 players short, and that bench is honking. 

Airdrie look good side and will be better than some of the dross at the bottom of league this season. Whoever in the recruitment team decided to release Hanncock and pay a fee for McGarry is hopefully no longer employed. 
 

Looked a better team when Bojan came on but we desperately need to a winger in as Morris isn’t good enough. Not convinced at all by Rubi and Molloy as a central pairing so think another centre half is a must. Agree that another defensive central mid might be required if Shinnie and Nilsen keep picking up bookings like they are just now. 

22 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

VAR missing was the absolute highlight tonight, getting home at some point before 23:00 always a bonus.

Enjoyable enough game when we got going. Played some nice stuff at times, with Clarkson clearly being encouraged to try things, a lot of which don't come off, but hopefully fans will understand his role (I doubt it, I heard a lot of "stop deein that funcy shite" type shouts). The bench is a huge worry still, with nothing beyond Miovski. Morris was, and is, absolutely dogshit. He ruins the game because he doesn't know how to play it. He reacts to everything. Hopefully that's enough of his experiment. Sokler proving my point about Mackie, that was a classic Mackie performance tonight. Shinnie great, as was Clarkson. The fullbacks were fine and Rubi okay. Molloy very rash, and a worry. The idea behind Nilsen is a sound one, it's tactically great, but I don't think he's going to be good enough for the SPFL. Too slow and because of that, too many slack passes and being caught out of position. 

I like the way we're approaching it, but we're 4-5 players short, and that bench is honking. 

Good point on lack of VAR. It definitely helped game be an enjoyable watch. 

While he didn’t have a lot to do, I like the look of mitov. One particular cross he gathered, Roos would have crumbled. Decent addition me thinks.

1 hour ago, OrlandoDon said:

While he didn’t have a lot to do, I like the look of mitov. One particular cross he gathered, Roos would have crumbled. Decent addition me thinks.

He was notably quick off his line. Too quick on a couple of occasions, where he could have waited for the ball to come into his box, but good to see. Kicking was okay, nothing special, but didn't look afraid of the ball. Think he'll be a good goalie. 

I would actually like to see us try McGarry on the wing. He was always better going forward than defending (hence why I was surprised we got him as a defender anyway). This would free up space for Hancock.

McGarry doesn’t seem to have the heart to try and beat a man, almost the complete opposite of MacKenzie who would run through a brick wall to try and get to the byline. I’m happy with Jack as our long term first choice left back.

6 hours ago, manc_don said:

I would actually like to see us try McGarry on the wing.

I'd like to see us try McGurry on a different continent.

Hancock undoubtedly had a point to prove last night and certainly did look impressive.

Sure he picked up a bad injury, whilst out on loan during his last season with us. Obviously someone made the decision not to give him another year at that time.

Rightly or wrongly, this is still our pre-season so three wins from three is all we're looking for. Airdrie are a decent outfit but it's encouraging to see the team getting tweaked at half time and improving immediately, exactly what you'd hope for as the players work in a new system.

Surely we'll get some more players coming in once Bojan's exit is finalised so on that basis I'm not hugely worried about Morris starting at the moment.