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Paul 'Gowser' McGowan was sent off on his league debut for Cove for an offensive gesture towards Hamilton fans. Must have mistaken them for a police officer.

Queens Park sticking with their 16 year old goalkeeper over Ferrie for their opening league game. Be interesting to see if he's actually that good or if its just hipster QP and their wanky youth project.

Imrie confirming in his pre match interview that Mullen is indeed injured. Also pronounced the word coup as "cowp" confirming that he's only ever seen that word written on paper before.

I was impressed with the football they played in the playoffs as well which will hopefully suit him more than the defensive wingers that Stevie Farrell wanted at Dumbarton that lead to Ross fucking McLean keeping him out the side last season.

Garrity confirmed away to Annan until January. League one a good move for him to see what level he is at.

Dunfermline keeper injured and they've brought in a Dundee keeper on loan. We could have got this one over the line just in time if he still has a house up that way.

He didn't go off injured. It was mentioned on pie and bovril a few hours ago that he was injured and we were after Jamie Macdonald.

With Mullen looking like he's injured this is a really key signing to get someone in of this calibre. I've been majorly impressed with Mullen so far and his distribution has been key to the less direct style of play we've tried to implement so far this season so I'd be disappointed if he's now lost his place as I can't imagine macdonald signed to be back up, but it's a very good problem to have.

It was live on TV so it's not really out of the ordinary of usual posts on the thread tbh.

While there is clearly friction between the board and Imrie regarding signings I don't really think there should be a statement from the club regarding budgets at this stage of the season unless it's something drastic like last summers statement. We are still in July but if we get well in to the season with three or four subs every week then it's clear there's a budgetary issue compared to last season and at that point I think it's fair for fans to expect some kind of statement from a community owned club why that is considering the increased prize money, sponsorships, MCT members, season ticket sales and merchandise sales. I've not saw a fan who thinks MCT should be throwing money at Imrie to sign who he wants, but there is definitely a portion of fans wondering why the players we have lost in the summer vs the players brought in so far don't add up, even excluding "bonus" signings like Ali Crawford, but again July is far too early to be demanding information from the club as we have to let the window play out first.

You could maybe make that argument if our opposition had similar amounts of substitutes however if the team we are playing has more flexibility from the bench in terms of numbers and quality then that gives them a distinct advantage over us in a league where most of the teams are seperated by fine margins.

Not sure what thread to put it in but O'connor is in the tele today absolutely slating the state of the pitch and saying its one of the worst he's ever played on and parts of it are almost unplayable. You imagine it's only going to get worse and not better as the season goes on which is hardly ideal considering our excellent home record under Imrie.

What's happening with matchwinner too? Last I saw there was just an issue with the collar but they tweeted the other day saying the clubs they've officially licensed strips with and we aren't on it.

Website seems to be fucked. No idea if that will affect anyone who was planning on buying the stream for tomorrow's game or not.

Given Imrie's transfer record of ins and outs at the club I'd say 6 additional young players is the last thing he wants at the club so if he wanted Deane then there's a reason why. From what Ive heard he didn't tell him he'd love to sign him but couldn't, the deal was agreed and then pulled for some sort of budgetary reason that I'm not aware of. We as fans can only judge it once we see what the rest of our transfer window is like, so while there's no need for panic it's still the sort of bizarre Morton story that seems to rear it's head and then come out in to the open later like the financial worries last summer that no one believed until the club released a statement.

Frankie Deanes dad saying he wanted to sign but no money. I had heard that Dougie wanted to sign him and Deane wanted to sign but couldn't due to something to do with the budget. What that means for the playing budget I don't know. Is it smaller than it was last season? Has it been cut further recently that Dougie wasn't expecting or is it something else. I'm sure it will come out in the end as always. I'm hoping we still have the budget for a rightback as we desperately need one. Anything else is just padding to the squad.

In the tele today that none of the trialists are getting offered a contract. Deane was the only one I thought was good enough but it's not really ideal that we've had trialists in for weeks and are now at a stage of the seasom where we can't give new trialists any games and have nothing to show for it so far.

Cheers that's exactly what I thought. Person I was speaking to said he's never noticed a trialist starting in a league one/two league game so didn't think I was correct which made me doubt myself as neither have I.

Random question for the dunnings etc. Can you still play as a trialist in the league in league 1 or 2 or are trialists no longer allowed in the league at all? Or was this never the case and I'm just mistaken?

I just don't think it was a very interesting evening planned. Gerry and Andy get rolled out constantly and who in 2023 wants to hear stories from Chick Young. You'd realistically need to be over 40 to have any interest in the evening and a large portion of the 18-25 demographic of fans probably havent even heard of him nevermind want to hear him talk pish about the 80s so you're cutting off a large slice of potential ticket sales which doesn't seem wise to me at all. I'd have happily went to a "warm up night" for Saturdays game but If nights like these are going to work then they need to feel special and unmissable. A night with Brandon Diau or something.

Despite those accolades Dougie still clearly didn't fancy Schwake at times throughout the season. Similar with Efe and his accolades. They sound impressive but I'd still have Jack Baird ahead of him every day of the week so I'm not too bothered at this stage of how players look on paper, because about 95% of dougie's signings on paper have looked utter dung and the majority of them have been a success. Theres every chance the signings could turn out to be worse but they're not at a level of difference between who they're replacing that I'm panicking.

There's no one that we have brought in so far that is a proven downgrade on their replacement. Mullen, Broadfoot and Boyd could be as good as Schwake, Efe and Miller if not better for all we know. Grimmy needs replaced and we won't get in someone as good but he's still replaceable with a competent fullback. The squad is still a bit light compared to last season however most of our strength and depth came from signings once the season already started and I wouldn't be surprised to see that happen again.

Also the initial dalrada investment was supposed to help see us through until the end of next season so the club should really be making sure that we have a decent amount of the profits from last season saved up should a second round of that investment fail to materialise, given how perilous the finances seemed before they came on board. A similar playing budget to last season, improving infrastructure at the club and hopefully we hear something about the space purchased behind the cowshed going in to the league season is all still a reason to feel pleasantly hopeful going in to the new season.