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<h2><font color="#FFFF00" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">THE MATCHDAY THREAD</font></h2>

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<h2><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Dundee Utd -V- Inverness C.T.</font></h2>

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<td><div align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">5th March @ 7:45PM, Tannadice Stadium, Dundee</font></div></td>

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<h2><font color="#FFFFFF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Media Coverage</strong></font></h2>

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<li><a href="http://radioplayertwo.mfr.co.uk/" target="_blank">Moray Firth Radio Live</a> Commentary [<font color="#FF0000"><em>UK Only</em></font>] </li>

<li><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17175806" target="_blank">BBC "Live Commentary"</a> (see links on page) [<font color="#FF0000"><em>UK only</em></font>] <br>

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<li><a href="http://soccernet.espn.go.com/scores/_/league/sco.1/scottish-premier-league?cc=5739" target="_blank">ESPN</a></li>

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<td align="center" valign="top"><div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>VIDEO</strong></font></div></td>

<td colspan="2">Tonight's game is live on <a href="http://tv.espn.co.uk/oo/espl/home/" target="_blank">ESPN</a>. this is the only official coverage. Please do not post links to illegal streams in open forum. They will be removed.<br>

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<td scope="col"><div align="center"><strong><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">TEAM LINEUPS</font></strong></div></td>

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If I recall correctly before tonight's yellow is Foran not the worst player in league on points total - guess he has now stretched his lead

Yer man collides with Esson and it's nearly a 3rd, yellow now to Tansey (harsh) and Golabart lucky not to concede penalty

We're at least as bad as we were last week. Not the reaction I was hoping for.

Ross off Gnapka on

Can't blame the defenders for 2nd goal, after all, Scott Robertson towers over our defence, at 5ft 6inch

This is a truely shocking performance. Nothing of quality in any position, passion, guile or general team work.

Foran and McKay must be doing something right in training because they play week in week out but McKay has done nothing since his arrival except run at defenders never with the ball and always into the wrong channels. Has he scored in the SPL?

Foran just forgets about football sometimes while mouthing off, and tonight was at fault for most of Uniteds better moves.

Getting rid of a quality (albeit sometimes criticised) defender in Munro and never sorting that is ENTIRELY Butchers fault. And his tactics of late have been awful. Not calling for his head but the man has to do something and stop saying 'they played well and I wish the next game was tomorrow'.

We've actually created chances Golabart, Sutherland, Tansey, Gnapka and MacKay. Both Golabart and MacKay should have done better with their efforts.

Edited March 5, 201213 yr by Tichy_Blacks_Back

MacKay off Jones on

Can't blame the defenders for 2nd goal, after all, Scott Robertson towers over our defence, at 5ft 6inch

And it came off his shoulder.

3-0 now - Russell again

Booooo!

Not played well at all in this game - well pretty awful actually. But did I expect much ? prob not. This season has been poor so far due to injuries or whatever. We only need to stay up this season, regroup and then push for better next year.

And before anyone calls for butcher to go or some other ridiculous statement like that, there is no better manager we could get or afford. We need to be patient and accept we are not playing well at the moment and have never found our style or starting eleven that we are happy and consistent with.

Rant over ..... For now !!

A total shambles defensively again.

....and we can be pretty sure that Nigel Clough won't be buying any of our players on tonight's performance.

F-T 3-0

Match summary (click for full size)

A defensive midfielder with no vision, who can't tackle, added with a striker who has scored once this season, wasting chances every game.

Butcher doesn't need to go, he has built a brilliant squad with the resources available, he needs to be sat down for an entire day watching the performances of Foran and McKay. Cannot understand how they get on the team sheet.

11th place it is then , if we're lucky !

Players didn't give up just team lacks cutting edge as several chances created 2nd half but didn't make their keeper work enough. Commentators correct United just have that extra class of player and looked from outset a better footballing team.

Thought Sutherland was best of the bunch in terms of effort and Esson save in 1st half kept us in game although even he didn't look as solid as normal.

Bring on Kilmarnock and the hope that we can get back on track and 3pts but it's going to have to take an improvement on what was on show this evening.

We are not a top six team thats for sure. I think we'll pick up enough points to be safe for another season but we really need to get a team together that plays with each other each and every game. We have no recognisable partnerships and that was our failing tonight. Uniteds defence was excellent. They got forward when they had to. They tracked back when they had to and they covered for each other when they had to. First goal was just a comedy of errors. Leave aside the hand ball from Rankin his strike was something else. The swerve he got on the ball. But it started from Gillet not clearing the ball as he should have done. A poor pass back and poor clearance from Esson. Richie tries to kick a ball thats above his head and Rankin does the rest. The other two goals came partly from defensive errors but more from good partnerships.

We tried to play at times and we got into their box on a few occassions but we just dont have the finish. I'm not going to single out individuals for criticism. They were up against a football team.

I will however criticise the tactics. On a couple of occasions when we kept the ball on the ground and passed it about we got into the opposition box. For most of it it was hit and hope. Lumping balls up to knowhere will not win us games.

Put that one behind and win on saturday.

This was about as poor as it gets. We start again with Mackay up front and then proceed to fire high balls to him. It took us about 70 minutes to start passing it on the deck and put some attacks together yet never looking likely to score. For some reason we just looked off the pace from the start and there doesn't seem to be any movement or desire from the players. Lets hope we can get it together and not get drawn back into the relegation zone. Unfortunately it is not pretty to watch.

can we finally put top 6 rubbish to bed now.

speaking to my father in law today, he gets the p&j daily and courier twice a week. he has never been to a football match but follows ict scores.

he says "why do the players, the manager always talk about this top six. every day in the p&j there is someone on about it.

they are 3 rd bottom, should they not be more worried about dropping down a league"

he also says......................

why dont they do their talking on the pitch??????????????

a question to be answered, but then i know the answer already

Absolute garbage. No pace or dynamism going forward, we just look so slow and weak. Without Johnny Hayes we aren't a threat.

Esson - Poor clearence for the first goal but had a couple of decent stops.

Meekings - Given a torrid time by Mackay-Steven, resorted to stupid fouls on several occasions.

Tokely - Beaten in the air for the second goal.

Golobart - Second best several times, including at the third goal. Looked rusty and distribution was poor.

Gillet - Very slow in his use of the ball, terrible passing.

Tansey - Was OK but doesn't stamp his authority on games at all.

Foran - Caught out for the first goal.

Sutherland - For the first half he was very poor, lacking finesse but perked up during out 'up' spell at 2-0.

Ross - Powder puff, slow on the ball, didn't do anything of note.

Tade - Set up chance fro McKay but nothing else.

McKay - Isolated up front, didn't take right decisions when in good areas at times.

We just make stupid errors and play like we are running through wet sand when we attack. We should stay up but big changes are needed. I said to my mate tonight, I can see Butcher leaving by the end of the year. If this form continues into next season, him walking is a possibility.

Maybe I am just being pessimistic though - our best defender was coming back from a lay off and our two most creative players (Andy Shinnie and Johnny Hayes) are injured. The latter two fit would make a difference to us.

Dundee United have some cracking players and the difference in quality showed. Russell's goal was tremendous and despite the defensive mess that led to the opener Rankin still took it very well while Mackay-Steven was a threat all night (thanks for letting him get away, Tel). We lack a cutting edge because most of our quality players are all crocked, Shinnie, Hayes and Doran were all out tonight and we have lacked a consistent striker all season though i thought Tade put in a fairly decent shift. McKay was not up to scratch, think he is better coming of the bench.

Was pleased to see Golobart back, thought he put in a decent shift for a player going straight back into the fold and thought Rosscoe did ok as well. If we can keep the current back four fit for the remainder of the season confidence will grow and it will get better.

Thought Gnakpa looked ok when he came on though he needs to stop faffing about with the ball so much, he needs to be quicker in his decision making but there is potential in him.

A few positives to come out of tonight though sadly overshadowed by heavy defeat but i hope we can pick ourselves up for the Killie game, that one is a must win imo.

Listened to the radio commentary. Consensus was that the score flattered Utd and that ICT payed pretty well on the whole. The difference is the lack of cutting edge up front. We actually had more attempts on goal and a pretty even split of possession against a team that are on fire at the moment. OTJ obviously not fully match fit and without Doran and Hayes there is clearly a lack of quality in midfield but we created chances and should have scored against a side who have now had 4 consecutive clean sheets.

With Shinnie out, the front men just don't seem to be able to find the net at the moment and that is where we are really lacking at the moment. It's all well and good promising players a run in the side so they are not under too much pressure to score in a particular game but I cannot for the life of me understand why Winnall is not given a chance. He surely can't do any worse in front of goals than the others.

Any lingering hope of 6th is now gone. We now have to get a couple of wins under our belts and make sure that any lingering hopes Dunfermline may have of catching us are snuffed out as surely as our hopes of top 6 have been tonight. Then we can aim for 7th place. 7th would equal our best finish ever and given the injuries we have had this season would represent a really good season.

Agree with a lot of that Chris but I disagree on your assessment of Meekings. I thought he stapped his authority on M-S and stopped him doing what he's good at.