There's no doubt that the seeds of our demise were sewn under Craig Brewster's hopelessly inadaquate management and if Terry Butcher had been appointed a few weeks earlier we would have almost certainly survived.

However, the fact is that in recent weeks the team lacked resilience just when it needed it most. Immediately after the victory against St Mirren we looked the least likely of the bottom five to go down. Since then the side have not ben able to hold on to winning positions against a Motherwell side who had very little to play for or against Hamilton. Finally, when the chips were down, we were unable to take a single point from our final two fixtures when any single one of the above would have sufficed.

When push came to shove the current bloated squad were unable to show the mettle to take any one of the four opportunities they had when a single extra goal would have secured our SPL status for another season.

Frankly, although there has been a considerable improvement under the Terry Butcher, that's not nearly good enough and certainly will not do for next season if we are to have any reasonable prospect of winning a very competitive First Division.

I'm not advocating a wholesale clear out but if we a serious about defying recent trends and bouncing straight back up we will, subjest to the obviously constrained budget, have to bring in a number of players with sufficient steel to stand the heat at the business end of the season. The current lot have proved that collectively they don't have the bottle for it when each game is crucial.

Edited May 23, 200917 yr by Kingsmills

Couldnt agree more. We have wasted many opportunities to prevent it coming down to the last day. Most of which have being after the split. Most noticeably the Motherwell and Hamilton games. In one case we were minutes from safety but whats done is done.

Edited May 23, 200917 yr by andrewt

Couldnt agree more. We have wasted many opportunities to prevent it coming down to the last day. Most of which have being after the split. Most noticeably the Motherwell and Hamilton games. In one case we were minutes from safety but whats done is done.

Correct...

No one could accuse TB of lacking passion or committment....

Unfortunately there's much more to the job than that, as John Hughes clearly demonstrated today.

The last 3 games we could have won and put it beyond coming down to this.

All we needed today was a draw, and we have a squad more than capable of achieving that.

They were sh!te today and fully deserved to go down, would be happy with a full 1st team squad clearout starting with that fudd Imrie.

for me , the motherwell equiliser killed it for us but the players have performed great under terry and maurice. the blame lies firmly at the feet of the board for failing to act sooner in getting rid of brewster and they know it now too.

I think this is harsh on the players. They had too much to do, what they did was magnificent and they only just fell short. (goal difference!)

If we had stayed up with current squad and they played next year with the same spirit they have had since Terry came in I think we would easily have finnished 8th or above next season.

If anyone is to blame it's the board for re-employing Brewster giving him too long and playing too safe financially. You have to invest in a business to make it successful.

Edited May 23, 200917 yr by kiltarlity

Why does there have to be someone to blame?

The board at ICT have been excellent.

We have performed well since the arrival of Butcher.

The SPL set-up ensures that most clubs will be involved in relegation dog-fights

regularly and the only certainty is ultimate relegation.

So, stop the finger pointing and look forward to next season

when we can get behind the club as we win the double once more.

Why does there have to be someone to blame?

The board at ICT have been excellent.

We have performed well since the arrival of Butcher.

So, stop the finger pointing and look forward to next season

when we can get behind the club as we win the double once more.

We certainly didn't perform well today, did we?

But what did you expect with a c.back who sees himself as a f.back and a f.back who sees himself as a c.back...

We could have ended this few games ago but what is it the team are doing wrong to let it come down to the last day??? 2-1 up against Motherwell

????????????????????????

We were the worst team in the league this year - that's the bottom line. Afrer 38 games, the element of luck etc is factored out.

Brewster did the damage but ultimately the board have to take the responsibility for fu**ing up by not getting him out sooner.

And, on the day, Tokely f***ed up and cost us Premier League football next year.

Edited May 23, 200917 yr by Hamish

We certainly didn't perform well today, did we?

But what did you expect with a c.back who sees himself as a f.back and a f.back who sees himself as a c.back...

Were you at the game?!

We were the better team and could've scored 3 in the first half... Mallo had a great game and kept Falkirk in it, we would PROBABLY have held on if it wasn't for Rosscoe's red card; which having only seen it at the game I thought it was extremely harsh.

We were the worst team in the league this year - that's the bottom line. Afrer 38 games, the element of luck etc is factored out.

Brewster did the damage but ultimately the board have to take the responsibility for ******* up bt not getting him out sooner.

And, on the day, Tokely ****** up and cost us Premier League football next year.

Don't you think some blame should be apportioned to the management team for playing Tokely and Mihadjuks in positions they were not comfortable with?

We certainly didn't perform well today, did we?

But what did you expect with a c.back who sees himself as a f.back and a f.back who sees himself as a c.back...

Were you at the game?!

We were the better team and could've scored 3 in the first half... Mallo had a great game and kept Falkirk in it, we would PROBABLY have held on if it wasn't for Rosscoe's red card; which having only seen it at the game I thought it was extremely harsh.

I was at the game and I've now seen (twice) the recording on Sky+/Setanta....

Do you know what?

The more I watch it the angrier I get.

We were the worst team in the league this year - that's the bottom line. Afrer 38 games, the element of luck etc is factored out.

Brewster did the damage but ultimately the board have to take the responsibility for ******* up bt not getting him out sooner.

And, on the day, Tokely ****** up and cost us Premier League football next year.

Don't you think some blame should be apportioned to the management team for playing Tokely and Mihadjuks in positions they were not comfortable with?

Sorry, but Tokely's mistake wasn't down to being played in the wrong position...

Sorry, but Tokely's mistake wasn't down to being played in the wrong position...

Of course it was...

Mihadjuks or Granty should have been challenging Lovell.... He came straight through the middle.

We were the worst team in the league this year - that's the bottom line

Rangers 0-1 ICT

ICT 0-0 Celtic

Aberdeen 0-2 ICT

Cant be the worst team in the league (he though were we finished)

I would say Killie have being the worst team this season

We were the worst team in the league this year - that's the bottom line

Rangers 0-1 ICT

ICT 0-0 Celtic

Aberdeen 0-2 ICT

Cant be the worst team in the league (he though were we finished)

I would say Killie have being the worst team this season

But we finished last after 38 games. Things average out over that many games and there's little opportunity for the worst tean to sneak through on luck. We were worst over the season as a whole.

Sorry, but Tokely's mistake wasn't down to being played in the wrong position...

Of course it was...

Mihadjuks or Granty should have been challenging Lovell.... He came straight through the middle.

So he had no option but to take Lovell down? Come on... Even if he'd let him through to score, it's better than 10 men for more than half the game.

There's little doubt that failure to hold on to the 2-1 lead in the Motherwell game cost us dearly, as did the result last week at Rugby Park.

Sorry, but Tokely's mistake wasn't down to being played in the wrong position...

Of course it was...

Mihadjuks or Granty should have been challenging Lovell.... He came straight through the middle.

So he had no option but to take Lovell down? Come on... Even if he'd let him through to score, it's better than 10 men for more than half the game.

If roscoe let him through and he scored what would have happend next???

There's little doubt that failure to hold on to the 2-1 lead in the Motherwell game cost us dearly, as did the result last week at Rugby Park.

If you had a 2-1 lead over a team and only had 10 mins left i would have went with 5 at the back just to make sure. The Killie game still holds a big ? over it. We've being unbeaten to them in 5-6 games something like that and out of no where they get the win. Thats the only thing brewster could do was beat killie and hibs

I was raging at Butcher today.

Tokely and Mihaduks- why were they not in their right positions?

Why take McBain off who has experience as a defender and put on Duncan there?

Why take off Morais?

Why sit back like that from 60th min to their goal we never had the ball for more than one pass.

40% Brewster for signing players like Barrowman.

60% the board for not sacking him earlier.

Did Butcher make mistakes yes but which manager doesnt , he had a short space of time to turn around a team that was on their ass given a whole season his mistakes could have been overlooked however given what he had to take over he had no such luxury. not Mr Butchers fault

Butcher - 20 points in 15 games.

Br*****r - 17 points in 23 games.

The Mantis makes the critical point here. Our points per game record in the league under TB was better than the average required to make it into the top six. And we still fell short.

Fact is, in a lot of ways the remarkable thing is how close we came to survival. Remember, when Butcher came in we were five points adrift at the bottom and no-one could remember the last time we won a game.

Yes, in the last four games we blew opportunities to get ourselves to safety. But the fact we came so close to escaping the drop is one heck of a feat. And the reason why our impressive record since January wasn't enough is - our record before January, under Craig Brewster.