After the game and after a couple of beers ( and calming down a tad ) i began to wonder if the mistakes by Granty and Esson are as a result of pressure on the players, Grant did not look comfortable on saturday, and athough Esson has had a couple of wobblys he has never done anything as daft as his sprint out of the box.

They (the players) are now under a different kind of strain, firstly from management to get results, and also from fans and media expectations.

The next few weeks as said on a couple of posts will be crucial for us, i hope the players can respond and not let themselves down.

If they are under pressure, which cannot be diffused by blame laid at their managers door, as was the case, perhaps this highlights some of the historic ICT problem.

The players did not accepted responsibility under Brew, all the play on the park was his fault, a simple miss kick - his training not good enough, his over training knackering up the players so they can't even kick a ball, etc.

They have no excuse now and are therefore unable to duck the critics on here.

Of course, they will be bad at times, how else are we at the bottom of the league? Of course, the difference between players, ie who to play, is a talking point, there are no outstanding players and the difference is therefore slight, how else are we at the bottom of the league?

Butch has to make do with what he has and hope they play at their best and if they do we can put one over EVERY team in the league but Saturday's result perhaps just showed up our frailties.

Don't despair, we will stay up and one reason being that Butch will make each and every member of the team be responsible, individually and collectively, even if it does create hiccups along the way. A big difference from the Brew days when NO or little, responsibility was directed at the playing staff because the critics had a scape goat!

They must now be feeling pressure.

.

Edited March 2, 200917 yr by absent friend

i think since terry and MM took over they have being feeling pressure. They new then it was a fresh start to get back on winning ways and now since they lost to motherwell the pressure will def be building up. There next game against rangers mainly everyone will look at that and say rangers will win but i wonder what the players are thinking??? i think its a bad game for us to try and get back to winning ways but you never no we could be lucky.

Utd have being played bad lately and they play away to falkirk on tuesday and falkirk are just picking up the odd point right now. if falkirk do win the team will be right up for it knowing theres nothing else they can do but get the points on board and fast but hopefully Utd will get the points on tuesday

After the game and after a couple of beers ( and calming down a tad ) i began to wonder if the mistakes by Granty and Esson are as a result of pressure on the players, Grant did not look comfortable on saturday, and athough Esson has had a couple of wobblys he has never done anything as daft as his sprint out of the box.

They (the players) are now under a different kind of strain, firstly from management to get results, and also from fans and media expectations.

The next few weeks as said on a couple of posts will be crucial for us, i hope the players can respond and not let themselves down.

I expect this pressure will be sustained to the end of the season. I would however call it passion and not pressure, you can smell the desire to win at matches these days.

Of course there's pressure but all the posts that mention absolute relegation, hitting panic buttons and the woe of defeat by Motherwell aint helping the passion. Lest we forget, TB / MM were appointed due to the panic button being hit (way too late ) and " in case " we are relegated, they are still in place to take us back up to the SPL.

I would be devastated to see us relegated but there is nothing else to do now but have faith in TB/MM. We all have opinions on the team he should field but, do we want to see him changing the team every week the way Brewster did? I'd like Vigurs and Wood to get a start but have they been out too long to gel?

Also, a lot of other results have gone against us which we have no control over, scores and refereeing. No shame losing to Motherwell, just frustrating and dissapointing on how it was lost.

I'm continuing to believe and support in ICT being in the SPL next season.

why on earth would you start wood

why on earth would you start wood

i would have him in mind of starting wood. nothing wrong with him. he's a young player and has alot to give the club

he scored his first goal against celtic, thats sh*t hot for him

in the spl

hes started 11 games and scored 2 games

rooney has started 7 and scored 5

rooney at the moment is a better player. Everytime Ive seen garry wood Ive been disappointed, he doesnt deserve a start in my eyes. hes still young though Im sure he could develop into a better player. I just really dont rate him at this moment in time.

I think that we simply have to put our faith in Butcher and support the team. He has certainly dragged us out of the mire created by Brewster and the muppets - We have a lot of "winnable" games coming up and the split five are all there to be won. At the moment we have to keep in touch with the rest and then get ourselves in the mix. The pressure is well and truly on. We need everyone to be giving their all - I also suspect that Butcher will soon look to starting his strongest 11 as much as possible as most are now hitting peak fitness.

As I said on another thread he has been picking a team based on passion, sticking by them to send out a message to the others - he is playing some out of position becos of their style and or pace - again I suspect that will soon change - as the pressure increases.

TB will get to know his best 11 soon enough, which will help. We will also get 3 points soon somewhere unexpected.

As for pressure, some like it some don't, but our team was definelty under pressure on Sat because a win was expected, to many people counting points before we had any.

why on earth would you start wood

IMO Good ball control on the ground. Fast over short distances. A striker.

Once again, we all have our own views. I'd like to think that TB/MM know exactly what they're doing, especially in training and morale, for the entire squad. As the last post said, we may well get 3 pts from where we least expect it.

Good luck against the Rankers and I hope you get enough points to stay up like to see you`s do well.

Of course there's pressure but all the posts that mention absolute relegation, hitting panic buttons and the woe of defeat by Motherwell aint helping the passion. Lest we forget, TB / MM were appointed due to the panic button being hit (way too late ) and " in case " we are relegated, they are still in place to take us back up to the SPL.

I would be devastated to see us relegated but there is nothing else to do now but have faith in TB/MM. We all have opinions on the team he should field but, do we want to see him changing the team every week the way Brewster did? I'd like Vigurs and Wood to get a start but have they been out too long to gel?

Also, a lot of other results have gone against us which we have no control over, scores and refereeing. No shame losing to Motherwell, just frustrating and dissapointing on how it was lost.

I'm continuing to believe and support in ICT being in the SPL next season.

In the history of the SPL only one team has ever gone straight back up.

Of course there's pressure but all the posts that mention absolute relegation, hitting panic buttons and the woe of defeat by Motherwell aint helping the passion. Lest we forget, TB / MM were appointed due to the panic button being hit (way too late ) and " in case " we are relegated, they are still in place to take us back up to the SPL.

I would be devastated to see us relegated but there is nothing else to do now but have faith in TB/MM. We all have opinions on the team he should field but, do we want to see him changing the team every week the way Brewster did? I'd like Vigurs and Wood to get a start but have they been out too long to gel?

Also, a lot of other results have gone against us which we have no control over, scores and refereeing. No shame losing to Motherwell, just frustrating and dissapointing on how it was lost.

I'm continuing to believe and support in ICT being in the SPL next season.

In the history of the SPL only one team has ever gone straight back up.

Let's face facts, relegation is NOT an option to this club. I doubt if we could come back in one season as it takes time to adapt to the 1st divi style and there are lots of good teams after the same pot of gold. I also think you will find that TB, MM and ICT will have an option in the contract to part company if we are relegated. Let's be POSITIVE - we are NOT going down!!

After the game and after a couple of beers ( and calming down a tad ) i began to wonder if the mistakes by Granty and Esson are as a result of pressure on the players, Grant did not look comfortable on saturday, and athough Esson has had a couple of wobblys he has never done anything as daft as his sprint out of the box.

They (the players) are now under a different kind of strain, firstly from management to get results, and also from fans and media expectations.

The next few weeks as said on a couple of posts will be crucial for us, i hope the players can respond and not let themselves down.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see Esson make this sort of mistake from time to time. He's far more "proactive" / adventurous / foolhardy (delete according to your preference) in the box than Fraser or Brown ever were. On the whole I think it's been a good thing. Against Utd a couple of weeks ago he was throwing himself at everything in the box and winning most. Dunno about Granty - saw the highlights but not the whole game. He was covering a hole in the left back position at the time, wasn't he? That's where he made a mistake or two against Hearts. Looked to me like he just took his eye off the ball and swiped wildly, (pressure?) but on the oither hand maybe he's not comfortable there.

Saturday's result was depressing but the players had responded really well before that. Really hope we get a reaction tonight - just about to head over to Brechin's, more in hope than expectation.

Edited March 4, 200917 yr by alternative maryhill

For me the pressure's on rangers tonight, hope they don't cope with it!