THE MATCHDAY THREAD Discuss ICT & other games in this thread as they happen Inverness CT -V- Morton PREVIEW 19/08/2017 @ 3PM, Caledonian Stadium Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Facebook Go to the Chatroom Media Coverage   AUDIO COVERAGE BBC Sportsound BBC Sportsound [UK Only]   LIVE TEXT (ONLINE) Sporting Life BBC    VIDEO SPFL YouTube Channel ICT Official YouTube Channel   TEAM LINEUPS TO FOLLOW   Tweets by @ICTFC Tweets by @ICTFC

Very good first 25 minutes when we created 7 or 8 good chances and on another day could have killed the game. Polworth and Vigurs the stand outs in that spell, with Polworth really up for his more advanced role. Would like to see the Vigurs penalty claim again, as he seemed convinced.

The goal was deserved, as the foul on Calder must have just  been outside the box.

Then Morton came back into it and were the better team for most of the rest of the match. That said, Oakley missed a sitter which could have stolen it.

Our crosses into the box were poor, or else we would have had a lot more chances.

The wind made it tricky, with high balls towards the north stand being seriously held up in the wind, making kick outs a lottery at times.

Ridgers on the whole OK, with a couple of saves, but distribution poor.

Warren and Chalmers did well in back three, although Chalmers had a couple of hairy moments. Mckay seemed to struggle.

Disappointed by Seedorf. I'd only seen him against Brechin, and he was not a patch on that today. Calder seemed uncertain of his role, and was being talked through the first half by Rice. A couple of positive runs, including the one which won the free kick which got the goal.

Vigurs had a good game, but a needless booking for backchat. Early days for Trafford but he will hopefully settle in and be a good addition. 

Polworth started very well, but faded a bit when Morton came back into it.

I thought Baird and Oakley combined quite well, especially in first half hour, but Oakley did miss that sitter.

Bell lively when he came on and added pace in attack. Mulraney was his usual self, pace but poor use if the ball. Raven had a cameo after Seedorf sent off. I thought he was coming on at half time, which I thought would have been for Calder, but at didn't transpire.

The ref had a stinker, with some poor decisions. Seems to be a pattern!

The first thirty minutes was the best I've seen for a while, so we need to build on it to climb the table.

Very big game at Brechin next week now.

Edited August 19, 20178 yr by Robert

17 minutes ago, jagster said:

Vigurs  scored last week

Fair point...almost forgot that in the misery of the gubbing.

It was a fluke though, ball into the box that everybody missed.

31 minutes ago, Robert said:

Very big game at Brechin next week now.

A phrase not often used.

28 minutes ago, TheMantis said:

A phrase not often used.

True, but if we lose, we know which battle we will be in.....

1 hour ago, Caley Stan said:

Morton weren't prepared for that system & Polworth found loads of space in the first 20 minutes while Vigurs & Trafford controlled the midfield. We should have killed it in that opening spell but Duffy clearly saw what was going on & flooded the midfield. Morton were the better team thereafter & missed good chances in the second half. 

It was my first proper look at this team having only been at Stirling so far this season. Hats off to Robbo for changing the system - it definitely suits Polwarth and we look more able to create chances. Chalmers was more comfortable in a back 3 & Warren had a good game but McKay struggled. Neither wing-back made much of an impression, Trafford faded & Vigurs was good throughout. I wonder if he's upped his game or if he just looks better because he's surrounded by such mediocrity.

Oakley was very poor. If Susan is as bad as people are saying then we really need to sign someone to play alongside Baird or Bell. 

Fair assessment,  I'd just like to add.....  What the feck happened after 25 mins? If Duffy sussed us out that quick, why did we not have a plan B ?   That last 60 mins were painful.. very painful!   Baird and Oakley I'm afraid will not score 10 goals this season between them - fact!   Polworth and Vigurs did well, then as with most of the ICT players  Faded as the game went on, A draw at home is not good enough!   

We were hoping for the proverbial 'reaction' today after last weekends debacle, and we certainly got one. The game should have been done and dusted at half time. On another day we would have gone in 5-0 up. All that was missing was the finishing touch. The second half was a scrappy, disjointed affair - not helped by the weather. In truth, I think a few of our new starts are still lacking first-team match fitness and dropped off a bit towards the end. Ability-wise our lads are head and shoulders above Morton. 

Trafford looks like one of our best signings for a while. A strong debut.

Special mention to 'whipping boy' Chalmers, often the scapegoat this season - but one of our best players today.

Edited August 19, 20178 yr by AlexJones

We seem to be following on from last season when we had no plan B. We must know that if the rival manager is worth his salt he is going to change his tactics to get back in the game, so we need a plan to counteract that change.

Kicking long balls into a high winds is not a good tactic, we need to be smarter and hold on to the ball. The passing in the first half was good but in the second half we were just punting it away and invited Morton to mount another attack, there were a couple of incidents in our goalmouth when I couldn't believe that Morton didn't score, and at that time I thought we weren't even going to get a point. 

16 minutes ago, Jaggernaut said:

Kicking long balls into a high winds is not a good tactic, we need to be smarter and hold on to the ball.

I actually thought we handled playing in to the wind better than Morton did, albeit our distribution was poor at times. 

Who is in charge of the players' fitness.?

Everyone is talking about Plan B.  All very well but what the feck is Plan A 

3 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

So far, the standard of football in the Championship appears not too different to the lower reaches of the Premiership. The standard of refereeing, however, is abysmal.

Agreed. It's actually ruining what little enjoyment there is watching a game. I honestly think decisions would be fairer if, like in school playground kickabouts, there were no officials and it was left to the players to determine what's a freekick / penalty / booking and what's not!!! 

4 hours ago, PerfICT said:

Fair point...almost forgot that in the misery of the gubbing.

It was the only high point. Apart from the steak Bridies and the jugs of beer in Legends 

11 hours ago, Caley Stan said:

Morton weren't prepared for that system & Polworth found loads of space in the first 20 minutes while Vigurs & Trafford controlled the midfield. We should have killed it in that opening spell but Duffy clearly saw what was going on & flooded the midfield. Morton were the better team thereafter & missed good chances in the second half. 

It was my first proper look at this team having only been at Stirling so far this season. Hats off to Robbo for changing the system - it definitely suits Polwarth and we look more able to create chances. Chalmers was more comfortable in a back 3 & Warren had a good game but McKay struggled. Neither wing-back made much of an impression, Trafford faded & Vigurs was good throughout. I wonder if he's upped his game or if he just looks better because he's surrounded by such mediocrity.

Oakley was very poor. If Susan is as bad as people are saying then we really need to sign someone to play alongside Baird or Bell. 

Sounds like Doumbouya was not the worst forward we've signed in recent years after all

16 minutes ago, Eagle4Caley said:

Sounds like Doumbouya was not the worst forward we've signed in recent years after all

Everyone has such short memories we slated fisher on here for a long time until he got his streak. We need to give all our new players a chance. 

I think oakley has been great at linking and holding up play and defending from the front. Biggest issue with the front three yesterday was poor supply in the 18 yard box caused by v poor decision making.  They all went to the same positions to did not commit to attack the ball. 

One notable example was when bell took ball down right and whipped  a ball  between back pedalling defenders and goalkeeper but polworth had stopped on penalty box waiting for a pass. The gel between the team is not there and the commitment to gamble on your teammate and attack space is not consistent yet. 

I don't remember people slagging off Fisher at all. In fact, quite the opposite. Many knew he was a good player and were desperate for him to come back in when he fell out of favour. 

As others have said we had the better of the first half but regressed significantly during the second. Whilst we should probably have been more than one goal up at the break Morton could and probably should have scored more than one goal in the second half so a draw was probably fair over the course of the game. And whilst most of the team also began well they also faded badly as the game went on. The likes of Chalmers was much improved compared to last weekends disgraceful showing (he wasn't the only one of course) but in the second half he was making basic errors again and giving the ball away. Perhaps only Warren and Vigurs were mostly consistent over the piece. Mckay struggled in the first half as Quitongo exploited the space in behind Seedorf, playing further forward, and Mckay playing as the right CB. He (Quitongo) probably should have set up at least one Morton goal in the first half. Second half was largely dominated by the Ton. Our best chance was probably a header from Oakley that looked like he headed it backwards away from goal and into the box rather than into the net with the keeper flailing. Really bizarre looking header.

Improved from Dunfermline, though that wouldn't be hard, but we still look really, really poor over the course of a full match. Still shaky at the back with Mckay and Chalmers not looking too great and we lack any real attacking edge up front. This is now the 3rd or 4th formation that Robbo has used and with players still trying to get to know each other this constant changing can't be making things easy for them. So many are on completely different wavelengths from one another it's going to take a long time for them to click. I don't get the fawning for Trafford. He broke up play well but his forward passing was very poor and seldom found his man although that could well be down to the previous point about players not really knowing where one another is on the pitch. Like so many others in the team you really hope there is more to come from them.

With my Caley hat on  the match I thought was not a match of two hales , but a match of 20 minutes  and the rest . The game until we scored was all Caley  shot after shot  came from the team, but no reward.

Probably the worst thing we could do was score.  It just led to complacency , players I fell began to think the job was done.

With my football watchers hat on , I felt the game was not a classic but good entertainment , end to end stuff. Morton's 4 4 2 line up seemed to be working two quick lads up front for them never stopped working.

Towards the end of the game Morton were unlucky to not score as they piled on the pressure.  The old song , " you are supposed to be at home" , came to mind

Having said all that Morton finished 4th last season and beat St Mirren 4 .1 this season , so they are obviously a dangerous outfit, . I thought the referee was none to bad, he gave a lot of the doubt and early on let the game flow.

We seem to get frustrated with decisions and paid the price for bad mouthing the Ref.  Poor psychology an issue the manager must address. If we get suspensions during the seaso for such behaviour the players are to blame not the Ref. 

Not a good day at the office for the lads, they must work on their composure.

What I don't understand is that after Morton sussed us out we had no plan b. They flooded the midfield after 20 mins we should have expected that and moved our game on. Management or players wanting.

Hard to disagree with much of what has been said but we should have put the game to bed in the first half as we missed some good chances. Wind definitely had an impact on play as Morton struggled initially in the first half as we did in the second half. All in all, a draw was probably fair but had we taken our chances in the first half........ Having seen Dundee Utd, Falkirk and Morton, not a lot between the teams.

However, some major concerns for me. Defensively, we are still poor, had it not been for Warren yesterday, we would have lost. Ridgers was poor again, doesn't come for crosses, poor distribution and almost cost us a goal again. If it were me, I would drop him. Seedorf and Chalmers are poor defenders but at least Seedorf offers something going forward. Chalmers, well he just offers nothing. Midfield generally okay but Polworths decision making is poor at times which is causing us problems as he invariably gives the ball away when this happens. The other major concern is up front. While Baird and Oakley do get into good positions, they don't make enough of them and they do not appear to have an effective partnership yet. Calder was quiet compared to other games but he was talked through the game by Rice in the first half. Players seem to have lost the art of thinking for themselves.

Finally, yet another poor officiating performance. Referees complain about a lack of respect from players well after yesterday, Mr Finnie needs to earn this. He seemed to take great delight in lecturing players and showing he was the boss then making an arse of very basic decisions. Seedorf's sending off for two cautions was poor as debatable if they were even bookings. Stafford booked for persistent fouling yet the Morton centre half committed as many, in fact more as many went unpunished. Truly dreadful refereeing.

 

It was a strange game.  We looked pretty bright early on and were good value for our lead.  There was a positive attitude and a willingness to take players on and shoot at goal.  A goal should have settled a few nerves and given us a bit of confidence but it seemed to have the exact opposite effect.  Perhaps a centre back scoring  brought home to others in the team how inadequate they are in the goal scoring department.  In many ways it was quite an entertaining game and the scoreline probably reflected the lack of quality in front of goal in both sides.  

Minus points.  Raven didn't start.  The lack of confidence throughout the team is palpable.  Although he had another decent game, Vigurs was in a petulant mood: he fully deserved his booking and was lucky the referee didn't show the card earlier.  Seedorf does not look like a right back - plenty of promise as an attacking midfielder though.  Baird doesn't have the sharpness that once made him a reasonable striker: he looks unlikely to score half a dozen all season.  After a reasonable start, the referee increasingly looked like he had money on a Morton win - some strange decisions.

Plus points.  Trafford looks like a proper player - if he can stay fit he could be a good replacement for Draper.  Chalmers played significantly better than I have seen him before and showed some pretty good awareness on occasions; as he and the team settle, I think he could be pretty solid defensively.  Bell looks way more lively than Baird - he looks as though he will harry defenders into making mistakes and he looks as though he has a sharper eye for goal - I'd like to see him start.  Mulraney put in a couple of decent crosses and had a generally more mature  performance when he came on.  On a more general point, we had players finding space in the middle (as well as wider) and carrying the ball into the danger area much more than I can remember for a while.  OK, we didn't do too much with the ball when we did get forward because there was either a lack of willingness to shoot, or there was a misunderstanding between the player with the ball and those running into space.  But if we keep playing with that positive attitude, the goals will follow.

15 hours ago, Eagle4Caley said:

Sounds like Doumbouya was not the worst forward we've signed in recent years after all

Doumbouya wasn't even the worst forward we've signed over the pastb2 seasons...Lopez & Boden would be my contenders

8 hours ago, jingsmonty said:

Doumbouya wasn't even the worst forward we've signed over the pastb2 seasons...Lopez & Boden would be my contenders

TBH, Doumbouya although looking lumbering and immobile gets a bit of a bad press on here I think, while he may not have been great he was equally as effective as Billy Mckay at getting goals. It'd be interesting to see the points tally with each in the team, I don't think there's much differenc. Perhaps if we had played Fisher alongside Doumb we may have seen better of him and occasionally tried something other than hoof ball.  

Referring to the refereeing, based on what I have read on here since the start of the season, ICT do not appear to have  been given any breaks?

Does the top brass of the SFA really feel that ICT are upstarts and should not be allowed to enter the ranks of the chosen ones in the Premiership? And so have been influencing their referees to  take every opportunity to penalise them as much as possible?

Just a thought?

I thought, in the first half against Morton, that we did what most teams do to us, we managed to break at pace from our own box and in two or three passes get a shot off. Last season we would have waited for the opposition to get back into their shape and try and play through their 11 by using pass after pass and getting nowhere. I thought that this was a vast improvement and got the fans more vocal. If we can have more of an end product with these tactics we should win more games this season. I also thought Trafford had a good debut although he faded towards the end.