THE MATCHDAY THREAD Discuss ICT & other games in this thread as they happen Inverness CT -V- Crusaders PREVIEW 18th Feb 2018 @ 5:15PM, Caledonian Stadium Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Facebook Go to the Chatroom Media Coverage   LIVE COVERAGE Live on BBC Alba and online http://www.bbc.com/sport/live/football/43090596 LIVE TEXT (ONLINE) Sporting Life BBC    VIDEO SPFL YouTube Channel ICT Official YouTube Channel   TEAM LINEUPS TO FOLLOW   Tweets by @ICTFC Tweets by @ICTFC

Oh my that certainly was a game of 2 half's first half game should of been out of sight , second half was shambolic and Fort William could have beaten us. I missed what Brad got the second yellow for and watched it back on Alba and he was very silly shoving the player while on a yellow if they don't sort out the lack of discipline teams are doing the homework on that. Pitch was awful just shocking and did not help . Have to give a mention to Polworth that was his best game this season more of that please Liam but back to Brad at RB is not good he is better at CB with Coll as Warren was a liability yesterday. So Final here we come lets pray the powers that Be make it somewhere fair to both clubs at a sensible KO time and lets get behind the boys and be there because there's no much else to look forward to this season being realistic the play offs are out of sight. P.S I miss Raven

Cut the groundstaff a bit of slack. Hard to prep/fix a pitch when the board won't (can't?) give them funds to hire in the equipment or get the supplies needed.

They spend an hour at home on their ride ons a couple of times a year and think they know better.

Shambles.

17 minutes ago, Shorty said:

Cut the groundstaff a bit of slack. Hard to prep/fix a pitch when the board won't (can't?) give them funds to hire in the equipment or get the supplies needed.

They spend an hour at home on their ride ons a couple of times a year and think they know better.

Shambles.

The pitch is in a shocking state but I know it's not down to lack of effort by the ground staff and also know the club has no money to relay the pitch. 

I agree re the pitch. It would be even worse without Tommy & co doing their best. 

Tommy ("Grass grows by the inch and is ruined by the foot"?)  has a 30 year-long reputation for keeping and sustaining a fine football pitch. It therefore seems unlikely that the reason for the current state of the pitch has anything to do with the capability of the ground staff, but will far more probably be something to do with availability of resources.

54 minutes ago, Shorty said:

Cut the groundstaff a bit of slack. Hard to prep/fix a pitch when the board won't (can't?) give them funds to hire in the equipment or get the supplies needed.

They spend an hour at home on their ride ons a couple of times a year and think they know better.

Shambles.

Odd comment to make considering nobody has been blaming the groundstaff.

 

The pitch is clearly needing significant investment. Doesn't take a genius to work out that finances are the issue. 

Any thoughts on Vigurs performance last night?

Grass doesn't   grow unless the temperature is consistently above 5 degrees which is why ALL grass pitches are a mess this time of year. I always admired the condition of the pitch at ICT, the groundstaff do an excellent job.

20 minutes ago, AncientMariner said:

Grass doesn't   grow unless the temperature is consistently above 5 degrees which is why ALL grass pitches are a mess this time of year. I always admired the condition of the pitch at ICT, the groundstaff do an excellent job.

Even if the temperature was above 5C, there probably wouldn't be enough light around to achieve significant growth during the winter. It's the old story of putting the lawn mower in the shed in September and taking it back out in April. On the other hand, in more recent years, these rough times have seemed to drift a little.

1 hour ago, Bronson said:

Any thoughts on Vigurs performance last night?

Thought Vigurs played well, apart from the penalty miss...

Jeez. I thought he was awful. 

14 minutes ago, jingsmonty said:

Thought Vigurs played well, apart from the penalty miss...

And his free kick ?

Ok we were rusty last night after an enforced mid season break.  Albeit there was a bounce game last weekend which we lost to RC.

But is it not like ;

You have 2 weeks off work on holiday. When you go back you put in a professional performance as you know exactly how to do your job. Then you have your lunch. The afternoon sees you perform the exact same work but as if it's your very first day and you don't know what to do. 

At the end of the working day you walk away thinking, wow I just escaped by the skin of my teeth without making a major c**k up!! 

Anyone else work that way? 

Edited February 19, 20188 yr by Guest

12 minutes ago, Bronson said:

Jeez. I thought he was awful. 

Nope. He had a good first half. Only Ridgers had a good second half.

He did make a mess off the penalty, ala Baggio and Chris Waddle lol. Thankfully the penalty didn't really matter. 

I'm glad this game is over. It has been hanging about like that bit of DIY you keep making excuses to avoid. 

Let's crack on with the matches that really matter now. Starting with 3 points against Morton on Saturday. 

I thought Vigurs was excellent, especially in the first half. They were always going to up energy levels after the break. Whyte is top scorer in Ireland with 18 goals, Heatley has 15ish now I think and Murray is around 12. They are no mugs and will probably end up as NI Premiership Champions this season. I thought Polly was top player, Vigurs next then Ridgers with Jake close as well.

Haha, penalty was a shocker.

2 hours ago, Bronson said:

Any thoughts on Vigurs performance last night?

I've been a big supporter of Vigurs this season and think he has been our stand out player.  Yesterday I was less impressed and thought he gave a rather mixed performance.  His free kick when he passed the ball to the guy at the end of the wall was one of the worst free kicks I have ever seen, but he also had others which were poor including some short ones when everyone had gone into the box.  

I was particularly concerned to see him and Warren having a right go at each other early in the first half.  I have no idea what it was about but clearly that sort of thing needs to get stamped out.  I sort of got the impression that Vigurs was sitting back a bit more  as if he was protecting Warren.

On the plus side, he didn't get booked.

A more pertinent question is to ask about Warren's performance.  Sad to say, but his best days are gone.  We look far more assured at the back with Donaldson and Mackay as the central pairing.  With a limited squad like we have, there will be times when there is really no alternative but to play Warren, but I think it is time to hand over the captaincy to Vigurs.  I doubt that will happen but the manager certainly needs to get a grip on leadership on the park issues.

10 minutes ago, DoofersDad said:

I've been a big supporter of Vigurs this season and think he has been our stand out player.  Yesterday I was less impressed and thought he gave a rather mixed performance.  His free kick when he passed the ball to the guy at the end of the wall was one of the worst free kicks I have ever seen, but he also had others which were poor including some short ones when everyone had gone into the box.  

I was particularly concerned to see him and Warren having a right go at each other early in the first half.  I have no idea what it was about but clearly that sort of thing needs to get stamped out.  I sort of got the impression that Vigurs was sitting back a bit more  as if he was protecting Warren.

On the plus side, he didn't get booked.

A more pertinent question is to ask about Warren's performance.  Sad to say, but his best days are gone.  We look far more assured at the back with Donaldson and Mackay as the central pairing.  With a limited squad like we have, there will be times when there is really no alternative but to play Warren, but I think it is time to hand over the captaincy to Vigurs.  I doubt that will happen but the manager certainly needs to get a grip on leadership on the park issues.

Agree re Warren being benched. Captaincy? If it is to be changed I would go for Donaldson. He will be here next season. Vigurs, I think he will be gone (hope not though). 

By the way, if we are sending Brad off for what he did, Burns should have been off for a much more aggressive shove on Oakley late in the game.

Anyway, what a bunch of greetin faced gits we have become.

I said to my mate at half time that a performance like that summed up our season so far, make a lot of chances but don't take them all and looked poor defensively ( a better team than Crusaders would have scored in the first half). Then came the second half which must have been simply one of the worst I have witnessed at the stadium. Crusaders sussed us out where our weak spots were and targeted these to great success and we could do nothing in response. Why the players or management couldn't generate a response is worrying as if we play like this on Saturday, we will lose and struggle to make the play offs.

As has been mentioned by several posters, McKay is not a full back and was a major weak spot yesterday. He needs to be moved back to central defence with Warren being dropped. Who then plays at right back is hard as Seedorf was poor yesterday, goal saving tackle apart, as was caught ball watching continuously leaving their winger with acres of space to run into. Something that could have been easily fixed but wasn't. Warren is getting continually beaten for pace and is a liability unless you play someone with pace behind him (like Meekings used to do) but I would drop him as we were at our best defensively when McKay and Donaldson were the pairing. Warren also got out of jail big time when he conned the referee into giving a foul when he let himself get beaten by the Crusaders forward who would have been clean through on goal otherwise. I do think Warren needs to be stripped of the captaincy as well. He, to me, provides little leadership on the park and seems unable to manage/reorganise things on the park when required. Midfield disappeared in the second half with Vigurs looking to have run out of legs. He wasted 2 free kicks in good positions as well. Polworth was good up to a point but his final ball is so often wasteful which is so frustrating. He also seemed to have a bee in his bonnet yesterday with constant complaints to the ref and Crusaders players and he was lucky not to be booked before he was. His booking was also needless as the game was won and he should simply have walked away. As for Chalmers, he just disappeared when we needed him to help out defensively when under pressure.

That said, I thought the referee was poor in the second half and looked out of his depth and let the game develop into a nasty one at times. His first booking for McKay was nonsense and bookings thereafter became a lottery with some bad tackles being punished and some not. McKay's second booking was justified but the ref seemed to be letting it go until Crusaders players kept at him to book McKay and send him off. Either way, sheer stupidity from McKay. At the penalty, a Crusaders player clearly lifted his hands and pushed one of our players and this continued in the middle of the park with the referee oblivious at first to what was happening. The referee lost control of the game through his own actions in not being stronger with the players and Crusaders certainly cottoned onto this.

Anyway, through to the final and that's the important thing.

 

 

4 hours ago, Caman said:

Ok we were rusty last night after an enforced mid season break.  Albeit there was a bounce game last weekend which we lost to RC.

But is it not like ;

You have 2 weeks off work on holiday. When you go back you put in a professional performance as you know exactly how to do your job. Then you have your lunch. The afternoon sees you perform the exact same work but as if it's your very first day and you don't know what to do. 

At the end of the working day you walk away thinking, wow I just escaped by the skin of my teeth without making a major c**k up!! 

Anyone else work that way? 

Fair point, but for the team, it's the actual physicsal fitness that creeps in - me, its more about having my head screwed on!!

7 hours ago, AncientMariner said:

Grass doesn't   grow unless the temperature is consistently above 5 degrees which is why ALL grass pitches are a mess this time of year. I always admired the condition of the pitch at ICT, the groundstaff do an excellent job.

There was little to admire about of the state of the pitch yesterday. However, that is in no way the fault of Tommy and the groundstaff. As has been said, he does a remarkable job with the resources he has and without him the match would probably not have be een played and no doubt he is already working more hours than most of us getting it in a fit state for the next home game.

Edited February 19, 20188 yr by Kingsmills

Serious question - why is the Northern Ireland Premier League part time? There are almost 2 million people in Ulster. Belfast is bigger than Glasgow. They can't produce a full time club? Seems a strange one!  

Agree with the shouts to restore the McKay-Donaldson partnership. The clean sheets spoke for themselves. Warren is still a good athlete. His decline seems as much mental (erratic decision making) as physical. Perhaps a performance analyst / sports psychologist could help out. Seedorf has been generally unconvincing (with flashes of brilliance) at right back - but hasn't really had a run of games to establish himself. TIme to give him a chance IMO.

1 hour ago, AlexJones said:

 Belfast is bigger than Glasgow. 

Really?! Any like for like comparisons I’ve seen show Glasgow to have almost double the population of Belfast.

1 hour ago, AlexJones said:

Serious question - why is the Northern Ireland Premier League part time? There are almost 2 million people in Ulster. Belfast is bigger than Glasgow. They can't produce a full time club? Seems a strange one!  
 

Simple - Glasgow is much bigger than Belfast which is only about the size of Aberdeen, 300000 or so and about double that with the surrounding area. Greater Glasgow is about 1.2 million.

Only Linfield and Glentoran can draw over 2000. Ballinamallard are in the premiership but are in a village of 1300, less than Whitehill Welfare in the Lowland League. Warrenpoint is about the same as Brechin. Linfield may have some full timers though.

Edited February 19, 20188 yr by TheMantis
Damned autocorrect ;-)

13 minutes ago, TheMantis said:

Simple - Glasgow is much bigger than Belfast which is only about the size of Aberdeen, 300000 or so and about double that with the surrounding area. Greater Glasgow is about 1.2 million.

Only Linfield and Glentoran can draw over 2000. Ballinamallard are in the premiership but are in a village of 1300, less than Whitehill Welfare in the Lowland League. Warrenpoint is about the same as Brechin. Linfield may have some full timers though.

That and the hoards who board the ferry at Larne every weekend to watch one of the Ugly Sisters for reasons that are not always entirely football related.

Edited February 19, 20188 yr by Kingsmills