Manager on Friday

21/01/11: JM " He is a player that I have always admired so when the chance came to get him we were delighted to to do so.

Speaking at lunchtime Manager Jim McIntyre started off on his new signing 25 year old Liam Buchanan from Partick Thistle. As top goalscorers in the league, Macca felt it was still important to add to his strike force when they are doing well:-

"He is a striker and always done well against us; he is a player that I have always admired so when the chance came to get him we were delighted to do so.

"He is small, good with his back to goal and his movement in the box is very good because of his low centre of gravity. He can hold defenders so compliments what we have here because we have good strikers here. Steven McDougall has done really well adapting to the position, Pat Clarke has come in and scored his fair share of goals, Andy Kirk will always score goals whatever level of football he plays at, he is just a natural goalscorer. So we felt that having another natural goalscorer which I feel Liam is can only compliment the squad."

Looking ahead to Saturday's visit to the Doubletree Dunblane Stadium (and yes that's Forthbank, Stirling) the Manager used his local knowledge since he lives in that area to classify the match prospects as doubtful:-

"It was minus four when I left this morning so I can't see the game being on unless there is a major thaw. The temperatures aren't likely to go up."

Stirling Albion will be boosted with the appointment of a new manager, Jocky Scott, McIntyre said:-

"Any time a new manager comes in, nine times out of 10 results and performances improve with people fearing for their future and the reaction to a new manager. We've had difficult games against Stirling although winning comfortably in the end.

"The first game through there was 2-1 for a long period and we didn't score the rest of the goals until late on so we know how difficult opponents they can be. We will not change how we are thinking about the game."

Ask if he was concerned about the number of goals conceded by his side recently Jim McIntyre replied:-

"It is not breathtaking play by the opposition, I mean that with the greatest respect, it is more a case of us switching off and not concentrating in terms of doing that side of the job. We need to do it better; we have had a chat about it and looked at the goals conceded. The boys know themselves that it is just sloppiness on the teams' part and I mean not just the defence but the team as a whole

"Sometimes when you have as much of the play you tend to switch off at times. Switch off for a second and you can be punished. Luckily enough against Montrose on Tuesday night we got ourselves into a handsome lead and should have scored far more goals. We made it an uncomfortable end to the game which none of us wanted because some of our play was breathtaking at times."

The Manager confirmed that Chris Smith will be missing for the cup tie against Aberdeen following his red card against Montrose.