We have to win the game against Ayr and I will pick the best team to win it. Ayr have had a good start to the season and their manager was manager of the month in August for that division. We played them in pre-season down there and we lost on penalties. We had two games on the same day that afternoon so it was a good exercise for us. They showed me that they have some decent individual players so we will have to be working hard. |
We were going well but have been slightly derailed by players not being available to the team. We've had a bit of bad fortune that we're probably missing four starting players from midfield. When my players are all available we can compete with anyone in the league - but the team will keep improving, I've no fears about that. |
We're as good a team as there is in Scotland when we play. |
We're not sure how long Chris will be out. But he won't be available for this weekend. Hopefully he will come into contention the following week. |
We've had a decent start to the season and now we must push on, |
We've lost four of our last five games away from home but we now have a run of fixtures where I'd like to think we could get back to collecting a lot more points. |
We've talked about it and if that's the case for Gary then that's the case for Derek. But that's the era we are in. If he leaves for nothing that's fine, I would hopefully go and find a wee gem from somewhere who is hungry enough to come and score goals and make a name for themselves. |
When the match is poised at 1-1, you know one mistake could be crucial and there is an understandable nervousness. We seem to want to score the perfect goal when I'd much rather see us get scruffy ones - a toe poke or a ricochet. |
When they went down to ten men the secret was to get round the back of them, to get to the byline and pull it back, |
Yes, we've got a few Scotland internationals who play regularly but their last game was still in front of just 1,500 people, ... So, OK, you're playing international football against decent players but European football is about the night, the occasion, the passion, the noise, the expectation, the knotted stomach before the game, so that's the experience you need, not necessarily just playing in front of 1,500 in an under-21 game. |
You would probably be surprised what the ambitions were, having seen them play and seen the first few training sessions, |