Seasons Expectations.

Thought I'd wait till the start of the season proper before I gave my opinions on the campaign ahead.Solely going on what I've seen so far,here are my own personal thoughts.Starting withe the defence.Im glad Shamal stayed around and we'll need a big contribution from him this season.As for the defence, the jury is still out on them imo.Mistakes at this level will be severely punished and I'm not sure we will be immune from said situations.We can't afford to be prone at the back or we'll get murdered.The midfield looks reasonably steady and hopefully will play their part in controlling games when required.Up front is a major concern for me.We need Yengi,Muirhead and the others to really hit a bit of form,especially at home where their contributions will be vital.Pity Davie didn't get another striker which he eluded to in various interviews, guess Spartans put an end to that hope going by comments in general.Any way on the Scottish Cup, thats just a money generator and I've with respect no real interest in that competition. We're not going to win it,therefore take whatever we can get financially and be done with it.On the League. I'm going to go for a hugely optimistic 4th place mainly due to our so far unknown attributes and uncertain ability to challenge at the top end of the table.God forbid were at the wrong end of the table come next May.Go for it Lions and prove me wrong,again ‍�.

Have no idea mainly because i don't know how other teams will do either, really need to wait till the first nine games are played to make any kind of guess.

Don't think we will get punished in defence with the same ruthlessness as last season, the Prem is a big step up from the Champ, County proved that by cruising it against the 2nd best Champ team.

Top two has to be our aim, either winning straight promotion, or only having 4 games in the play offs, 6 games takes too much out of you.

Well you all know my philosophy, don’t expect much and you won’t be disappointed. I expect we will stay in the division. Not convinced yet which end we will be staying in at.

So many of our league opponents have had free scoring runs in the league cup groups but not many have had solid defences.

In the game against Forfar Liam Sole looked like one of our better players… he scored the first goal and was subbed off shortly after. He’s been a bit part player in the other 3 games grabbing another goal against Cove. So already he has shown promise and seems to be getting his wings clipped, increasing my belief that DM really doesn’t want wingers he just brings them in to break their spirit. Prove me wrong Davie, please!

Now aims are totally different from expectations so we should be aiming for the title and a cup run but I certainly won’t be expecting either.

Obv we can't wait till a quarter of the way into the season before making predictions on our expectations, so will we make a deadline of waiting till after the QP game.

Pars are shite so even if we win it doesn't tell us much, but QP were one of the highest scorers in the cup games, so will be a good test for our defence, and give us some idea how we'll fair against the rest of the teams in the league.

A home win against Dunfermline and an away draw with QP would be a decent start, coupled with good performances and signs of improvement up front and my expectations will be quite high.

Sounds like a plan… I’ll be there tomorrow and hoping to go to Lesser Hampden next Friday

Can i amend my earlier expectation from our opening 2 games, QP's defence and keeper ar shockingly bad, we should be getting 6pts from our opening 2 games. Dunno how they scored so many goals in the group games either, they've looked very poor up front against Falkirk.

Agreed.Id be more worried about Falkirk rather than Queens.‍�.

Falkirk press high, break quickly, and put a lot of energy into their game, last season our defence would be ripped apart by them, hopefully our defence this season will cope. Will be interesting seeing how Falkirk do against a better team though, when they get put under pressure more.
Again quality wise i don't know how Falkirk scored so many goals, for all they pressed and countered, their finishing was poor, the 2 goals they got were gifts from a very poor QP defence and keeper.

1st half today was a worry, looked like we could've played till midnight and not scored, 2nd half was far more encouraging, looked a lot better in attack and could've had 4. Looking forward to QP now, to see if we can keep on improving and maybe even look a title contender.

Auld Nick wrote:Sounds like a plan… I’ll be there tomorrow and hoping to go to Lesser Hampden next Friday

Hope you've got your tickets Nick, we've sold out our allocation.

Really? I had a look yesterday and there were plenty but I didn’t get them

Feckin Lesser Hampden.Wonder if there will be a stream.Tickets were snapped up rapid.Fortunatly I don't finish work till 6 so would have been pushing it but feel for others missing out.

Yeah looks like there was 242 away seats, which is not too bad for our support, the win against the Pars maybe had a hand in us selling it out so quickly.

Guaranteed they'll be no problem them getting as many tickets as they want when they come to us.Benefit of having a big empty stadium for once..

256 on our twitter, prob 14 disabled spots for wheelchairs that weren't on the site, just showed seats. Seen a few folk that tried to get tickets but were sold out, bit shite having a ground in the Championship that has limited tickets for away fans. Bigger supports than us will miss out hugely, which means QP are missing out on a lot of revenue from away supporters that can't get tickets.

Is this a temporary arrangement for QP having to use lesser Hampden them till Sevco feck off from Hampden back to their own ground? Should tell them they want compensated for lost income from Sevco playing in Hampden.

Troy wrote:Guaranteed they'll be no problem them getting as many tickets as they want when they come to us.Benefit of having a big empty stadium for once..

Aye even Falkirk fans will have enough seats at our ground, we've more seats available to them than their own pishy 3 stands ground.

According to what I read, the only reason they are using Lesser Hampden is because of the blue half of the gruesome twosome renting out the real stadium until Greyskull is revamped. Our second game at QP will apparently be in the National Stadium… I wanted to visit LH as I’ve never been to a game there.

Why are we only getting 270 tickets? Surely they don’t have enough fans to fill the rest of the stand?

Troy wrote:Feckin Lesser Hampden.Wonder if there will be a stream.Tickets were snapped up rapid.Fortunatly I don't finish work till 6 so would have been pushing it but feel for others missing out.

No LFC Live stream… it’s been discontinued according to the OCS. Don’t know if QP have it as an option

Will try and find out.‍�

So,wins for Ayr & Falkirk drop us to 3rd.Il take that atm.Mcpake on a shoogle peg at Dunfermline.Raith getting on the board with a narrow win against Partick.The top 2 will take some beating.But if we can get our arses into gear im reasonably confident of putting a spanner in the works.Such a long way to go.Bookies betting has turned this on its head.Check the odds.Falkirk 7s.Ayr 8/1.Start of the season.Raith 5/2 Partick 7/2 Livi11/2..Could they get this wrong?‍�.

2 games in its hard to say, Falkirk have a settled side full of confidence carried over from last season. It will be interesting to see how they react to a loss which will surely come in this division. Ayr we’re close to qualifying as a best second placer and have started the league season flying. Who’d have thought Broonie would be a decent manager?

4 points from 2 games is a reasonable return but we are much too wasteful in the final third and prone to leave guys unmarked in the box (Spartans goal, QP goal, Rudden’s chance that McGowan somehow blocked) so despite the decent defensive record there are warning signs there.

Season’s expectations?
League Cup - I expected us to get knocked out but thought it would be Dunfermline going through prior to the season starting; only got the fear that Spartans would knock us out in the build up to that game.
Challenge Cup - semi-final
Scottish Cup - 4th round
League - 5th unless we find our shooting boots
Top Scorer - Muirhead
Surprise package - Olly Green if he gets a chance to play

Raith and Partick were the top tipped teams, but both haven't looked that good in either cup of league games, Airdrie did well in the cup but got thrashed with Ayr, and both Ayr and Falkirk have looked strong in the cup and league. So on that evidence we're sitting in 3rd, with Ayr and Falkirk above us, and that pretty much looks like how i'm seeing it with my expectations. Between the 3 of us plus either Raith, Airdrie or Partick in the final top 4 spot.

So far we're not looking good enough to win the league, but we will improve as the season goes and players gel. Can see we have talented players in Kelly, Sole, Green, Lawal, McGowan, Pittman, Montano (when fit), and Brandon. Muirhead has shown he can score goals at this level too, and if played properly Yengi will shine, once it comes together with everyone match fit and having gelled, we'll be up there with Falkirk and Ayr challenging for the title.

I'll base my expectation on how i think we'll do once we gel.

League Cup - Well it's gone now but i thought we'd at least get through the group stages.
Challenge Cup - who cares, but i'd prob go to the final if we got there.
Scottish Cup - Hopefully by that stage we'll be hitting top form, so depending on a bit of luck with the draw i'll go quarter finals.
League - 1st
Top Scorer - Muirhead or Kelly.
Surprise package -Green and Lawal (if he gets games)

Muirhead a good bet for top scorer, even having limited game time. Hopefully Martindale plays him more as the season goes on and we'll get plenty goals from him.

Pitts has been a bit of a surprise, he's looking like his old self in the Championship, getting in on the goals, 3 from 5 games. Kelly is a bit disappointing, expected him to thrive at this level and bang in the goals.

We're making ground on Ayr now, with them drawing 2 games, same as us, but they've played a game more, so we can equal their pts once we've caught up and played the same games. Unfortunately they'll be another game ahead of us this weekend, with us not playing Falkirk now with them being in the cup still.

Falkirk 5 wins out of 5 are still going strong, early signs it'll be between them and us, with Ayr maybe falling away a bit. Partick are starting to pick up pts now, so they might get in contention too. Raith still look miles off it, and the rest look mediocre.

Kelly is generally too deep to get into scoring positions and that will continue whilst Martindale persists with playing with the handbrake on. I understand the point that if you keep a clean sheet you don’t lose but attack is the best form of defence, so get Muirhead on from the start along with Sole & attack from the kick off.

Still early doors,but I'm reasonably happy with the start weve made.Still waiting to see our strongest starting 11,but a strong bench gives me hope for my pre season prediction of 4th place or possibly higher.Tougher games to come i suspect,but we're where we hoped to be at this early stage.Promising..