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10 July 2011
When I discovered there were a number of physios on the job market who are a lot better than the one we have now, I asked our guy to agree to a mutual contract termination. He accepted the deal, we shook hands, and that was that.
The next day, we welcomed our new physio, Kevin Brown, to the team. He's twice as talented (his rating is 8, and our old guy was a 4), and he's making £50 less a week, so it's a win-win proposition.
We drew Bishopmill United as our first round opponent in the Scottish Cup. We'll play them at their grounds in Elgin on Saturday, 23 July. They are part of the Third Division Northwest. At least we didn't draw a club like Celtic or Hibernian.
For a few days, we'd been looking at a defensive midfielder named Sandy Innes, who was playing for Zetland. Innes, 22, drew raves from our staff, and we decided to offer him a contract. The news leaked out somehow, but fortunately Sandy decided to sign with us before too many other clubs entered the sweepstakes. He won't come cheaply--£95 a week, with a £50 appearance bonus--but you have to pay for good players, and our wages are well under control. We think Sandy will be worth it; he's a smart player and a very sure tackler who should make our side that much better defensively.
At Blackburn United yesterday, we ran off a very satisfying 3-0 victory. Marc Mackintosh found the net for the second straight game, James Bowman scored for the first time in Stonehaven colors, and Ryan Spence scored the final goal.
The 4-3-3 formation we've been using seems to work well. We switched to a 4-4-2 after the half, and went to a more defensive strategy. We've had three consecutive clean sheets, and we kept the game away from our own goal much of the day.
The last of our pre-season friendlies is in two days, and the players that will probably begin league play as our first eleven have good match fitness levels.
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