Badly need the wingers up and running- plus the left back position filled with either ferry or a natural left footer.

I’ve watched worse performances in the opening premier sports cup games. We had nothing in the wide areas until the two 16 year olds came on . A  fairer reflection would have been 2 or 3 nil but definitely nil as Stirling offered nothing to the game as an attacking force. + their pitch was shite, long grass and covered in sand
On a plus point the steak pie wasn’t too bad to start the season off

As others have said the pitch was absolutely shocking. The amount of sand coming up every time the ball was hit hard was unbelievable, that and an extremely bobbly surface and compounded somewhat by the grass being long. It made guys like Agyei and Camara struggle today with their passing and shooting.

It was a bit of a sleepy affair today and played at far too pedestrian a pace.

But we have to hope the attacking players still to come in will offer us the creativity and pace we need. I also feel we badly need a physical presence up top. If Metsoko doesn't provide that then we definitely need another Striker, particularly if Sapsford is continuing to get played wide more often than not.

Finally, absolute highlight of the day was the performaces of our two young wingers Jack Anderson and Cohen Leiper (i confess i hadn't even heard of the latter until today). Both turned a turgid, one paced match in our favour.

Leiper in particular looked a real good player. Without wishing to build him up too much (it was just Stirling Albion after all) he reminded me a lot of a young Andy McLaren today in his short match winning cameo.

It's time for Jim Goodwin to start putting far more faith in some of our youngsters.

My first player ratings of the season -

Walton 6 - Had almost nothing to do.

Rawlins 6 - Showed promise today. Looks far more mobile than Ryan Strain and got forward today to good affect. Needs to work on his final ball and also show a bit of belief to shoot himself at times. Decent debut though.

Esselink 7 - Could this be the start of his redemption arc? Thought he strolled it.

Forbes 6 - Defensively fine. His long passing was suspect, however.

Naamo 6 - Need more from him. Flatters to deceive.

Tait 6 - I like that he always wants the ball. Didn't do much with it, however. The midfield didn't quite click today. Interesting to see how they gel going forward.

Camara 6 - Good to see him getting forward a bit more today and arrive late into the box. The less said about his finishing the better, however. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt somewhat due to the dry, bobbly pitch.

Agyei 6 - A rare (slightly) poor performance from Manny. Again, i don't think their pitch helped. I'm hoping just a bit of ring rust and him getting used to playing in a different formation.

Eskesen 6 - He never ever seems to get a game in his position (No10) and in that respect i feel for him. That said, it was against 4th tier Stirling Albion and tbh i was a bit disappointed in his performance. Never imposed himself in the match enough. One semi decent shot is all he contributed his whole time on the pitch. For a player of his undoubted technical ability he has to start wanting the ball far more.

Sapsford 7 - Tried hard, but it seemed like another one of those days where nothing much was coming off for him. Took his penalty very well though. Glad he's got a goal under his belt early this campaign. Hopefully another one or two bagged in the Premier Sport games and he can really kick on and get his confidence back.

Rose 6 - A bit disappointing for me tbh. Worked hard, as expected. But very limited quality on the ball and far too often nowhere near the ball when it was played into the box. Incidentally, to have the confidence to have 'LA Rose' on your back, well you better back it up at some point, lets just say that.

Subs -

Sevelj 5 - Quiet

Anderson 7 - Very promising debut. Gave us an initial spark.

Leiper 8 - Outstanding debut. Took the game by the scruff of the neck at 16 years old. Seriously impressive.

lifesanocean wrote:

Anderson may have been put on wide today but he is 100% a centre forward.

Driving down I said to the young lad that I worried that Agyei, Sevelj and Tait were all more sitting midfielder types (albeit they do different things) and that I worry playing the three of them together won't work and today didn't do anything to dispel that, even though they weren't all on the pitch together. A Camara or Eskesen (or someone better) who os either creative or breaks the lines might be needed in place of one of those three to offer something different in an attacking sense.

Didn't think much of Rawlins personally. Get him off corners at the very least.

 
You're aware that Sevelj didn't start today right?

lifesanocean wrote:

Yes? I did say that they weren't hardly on the pitch together. But you can see they all occupy similar areas.

 
Its just a bit confusing when you say it might be better with Camara in there when thats exactly how we lined up. I though Camara was shite today incidentally but I guess its too early to really judge anything.

lifesanocean wrote:

(or someone better)

It's really not that confusing.

 
OK not confusing, just didn't really make any sense

I honestly thought Rawlins was pretty terrible, hopefully he improves massively.

No stand outs bar the young guys who showed confidence, determination and decent skill.  They better get more chances over these league cup games.

I'll give the players a few games to bed in before giving my full opinion, that in itself is giving my opinion on that performance.

Rose to me though looked the best of the starting XI, his movement and layoffs was / were excellent,  when he gels with a partner he will definitely be an asset.

Not being too judgmental after 1 game but i hope the right back improves. We cruised the game but lacked that cutting edge. Get it up Stirling, watered the pitch all day then threw a pile of sand over it. Hammer throwers.

I thought we looked okay last night. Total control the whole game, never looked like conceding. Some chances first half that if we took one of them, I feel it would be opened up a lot more which would've suited us.

Seen a few folk moaning about the pitch, seemed to me that it was done deliberately to stop us knocking the ball about quickly in a way that would open up their deep line. Long grass, bobbly pitch, loads of sand, made for a tough watch.


Thought every player had moments of promise which bodes well, but definite room for improvement. Here's hoping Tuesday's plastic pitch shows we can knock it about a bit quicker.

Watched this yesterday, seen this type of performance so many times in the 1st few games of the league cup that it could've/should've been broadcast on Dave.

Massively comfortable, but rusty, lacking a final ball and a killer instinct, a lot of that will be down to a lot of new players gelling.

I do feel we could benefit from a more intense/testing pre-season but appreciate that's hard given how early this competition starts and the length of time players need to recharge.

Address the wide issues and we'll be fine and we didn't have to watch Strain falter, or Sibbald run about being busy doing nothing.

Thing is it always seems to be that way, we get a favourable draw in the cup, East Fife at home for instance and we plod along beat them 2-0.

Then you look for banana skins St Johnstone away to QotS, or St Mirren playing Airdrie and they'll win 4 or 5 nil.

In cup football being in the next round is all that matters, but we do seem to approach these type of games like a training match, and that's nothing new.

Expecting more of the same on Tuesday, plastic pitch, and we always do great on them, that said it can't be any worse than that surface yesterday.
 

That’ll be Leiper Off to some pishy wee town in England for 100k then.