by Willie Wastle » Wed Jul 18, 2018 4:43 pm
Maybe I was getting a bit carried away in the OP. Or maybe we just need more time.
We've brought in almost an entire new team of players, and we've had next to no pre-season, not for the first time. Clearly the new players need time to settle, and at a quick estimate 3 of them have played about 180 competitive minutes, 3 have played 90 minutes or less, and the others haven't played at all. We also have Ziggy returning after a few seasons away, and Miller getting more game time than before. And the manager probably doesn't even know his best XI yet.
The work over the summer has been impressive, but once again, we seem to be using the group stage of the League Cup as our pre-season.
So I suppose I'm saying let's wait and see. I was told last night that when Ziggy came over to the fans at the end of the Annan game, he was saying "stay with us". Obviously he knows how quickly some of our support turn negative, and was making a timely plea for patience.
It's frustrating we haven't scored yet. We seem to have the target men we need: Bloomfield as 1st choice, Oggy, once fit, as back-up, and Bingham as 3rd choice - so we had to play our 3rd choice last night. Bloomfield apparently picked up a knock at Annan, so wasn't risked, but he looked sprightly enough jogging up the steps of the stand, so I hope there's no "other reason" for his omission.
I actually think our scoring problem is more to do with the creativity. Who do we have who can hit a decent corner or free kick? Or have the vision to set something up, or play the killer ball to a striker? We've lost Templeton, Crawford and Redmond, and replaced them with... I guess Kelly and Smith, but it's too soon to tell what quality they have. I suspect we're still short in this department.
It could be we've solved last season's defensive frailties (again, too soon to tell, but we've certainly got the bodies). I hope we haven't exposed a similar problem area from middle to front. If so, a season filled with 0-0 draws awaits.
sic a wife as Willie had, I wadna gie a button for her!