THE MATCHDAY THREAD Discuss ICT & other games in this thread as they happen Inverness CT -V- Dunfermline PREVIEW 21/4/2018 @ 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

Performance summed up our season in some ways. Sloppy goals conceded, lack of late concentration in games, limited creativity with the midfield absent and overlooked for high balls hoofed from the back - Austin & Oaklel did a great job IMO at creating opportunities out of nothing and doing all the hard work upfront with limited support.

As with last season (especially the Motherwell game) its sad to see fans complaining about officials continually and how the decisions cost us - simply over the course of the season we havent been good enough and if we had then we wouldnt have been in the position we are. This was a league with no stand out team this season and many equally matched - with our experience and budget expecting a higher position isnt unreasonable.

10 minutes ago, bdu98196 said:

Performance summed up our season in some ways. Sloppy goals conceded, lack of late concentration in games, limited creativity with the midfield absent and overlooked for high balls hoofed from the back - Austin & Oaklel did a great job IMO at creating opportunities out of nothing and doing all the hard work upfront with limited support.

As with last season (especially the Motherwell game) its sad to see fans complaining about officials continually and how the decisions cost us - simply over the course of the season we havent been good enough and if we had then we wouldnt have been in the position we are. This was a league with no stand out team this season and many equally matched - with our experience and budget expecting a higher position isnt unreasonable.

It's the first 3 months of the season that's cost us.  We have proved that we can match or better most of the teams in the league but the poor start was always going to catch us out.

I've absorbed all of the above with interest and appreciation.  Last season I saw some appalling refereeing in the overseas videos that we were once allowed to watch live during the home games and inevitably got the impression that refs were definitely out to get our team . You know, the team that beat the top dogs  such as Celtic and Rangers and played them off the park more often that not. (Supercalifragilistic etc.)  Let's be blunt-  these teams are the money bags of the Scottish Leagues and defeats at the hands of upstart minnows will never be welcome. More than once  I've heard the phrase "Tulloch Stadium is a hard place to come to...." and Caley Thistle is a force for anyone to reckon with 'cos we have the Highland spirit. But with regard to Dunfermline it's not clear why they would, be regarded as really special. Again,  it might just be that  the directives from on high that spur refs to rub it into our team are designed to continue to make absolutely certain that we don't go places such as continuing to win  the Scottish cup and so on.

There are some folks on here who seem to want to be petty at the expense of Blair. Please remember that English may not be his native language and  so, please,  just give the man a break. He's the only fan I have heard of that wants, seemingly, to put his money where his mouth is  and you can't deny his interest and zeal for our team. Encouragement is always a great thing to offer anyone who tries hard to succeed so I say.....good for you Blair and "long may your lum reek".

 

I believe that was Stephen Finnie's last match and he's hanging up his whistle.

2 minutes ago, CaleyD said:

I believe that was Stephen Finnie's last match and he's hanging up his whistle.

47 minutes ago, CaleyD said:

I believe that was Stephen Finnie's last match and he's hanging up his whistle.

Then perhaps some light is at the end of the tunnel....  Shame the highlights didn’t show the incident which led to the free kick and goal at the death.  It looked soft, but then I’m biased but I’d love to see it from a couple of angles.

1 hour ago, CaleyD said:

I believe that was Stephen Finnie's last match and he's hanging up his whistle.

I seem to recall reading that as well. Great news as he is an absolutely dreadful official.

3 hours ago, Weekend Hacker said:

Then perhaps some light is at the end of the tunnel....  Shame the highlights didn’t show the incident which led to the free kick and goal at the death.  It looked soft, but then I’m biased but I’d love to see it from a couple of angles.

I was speaking to a Pars fan on Sunday morning who was in the South stand yesterday and he told me that their player dived. It certainly looked soft from our angle.

Edited April 22, 20188 yr by Row S

11 hours ago, Kind of Blue said:

It's the first 3 months of the season that's cost us.  We have proved that we can match or better most of the teams in the league but the poor start was always going to catch us out.

Just 3 months? What were you watching? By the end of Jan we were sitting with 6 wins in 22 games, 3 off against Brechin and 11 of the goals scored which by early March was 26 games with 31 goals for and only 8 wins for our 31 points. Its clear that it was the first 2/3 of the season that were honking. 

It really puzzles me why so many fans are just 'happy' and praising the club at all levels because the team started to play as we should have expected once March arrived. Its a testament to how poor the league has been this season that a run at this stage can almost propel from relegation play-off to promotion play-off in 10 games. It signifies how there has been no stand out team and that the position we are in is nothing short of failure with probable dire consequences moving forwards. Those who cannot see this need to open their eyes to our situation and hope that next season we will be lucky to have the finances to put together a team capable of fighting for mid-table. 

14 hours ago, DWH said:

Let's pray for 2 wins and for Dunfermline to crumble against Dumbarton.

Failing that unlikely scenario, let's be positive and look forward to 18/19 with positivity and a return the top division.

I am also a long time Spurs fan, so it hasn't been the best of weekends.........................

You poor fellow! We're linked in our love of Caley and our mutual hate of Man U ......Just keep your hands off Zaha over the summer (Palace are as much a one man team as yours is)

1 hour ago, Eagle4Caley said:

You poor fellow! We're linked in our love of Caley and our mutual hate of Man U ......Just keep your hands off Zaha over the summer (Palace are as much a one man team as yours is)

Ha ha ha.................Spurs are just far too inconsistent : at their best when they play with a fast tempo.

Onwards and upwards next season.....................

5 hours ago, bdu98196 said:

Just 3 months? What were you watching? By the end of Jan we were sitting with 6 wins in 22 games, 3 off against Brechin and 11 of the goals scored which by early March was 26 games with 31 goals for and only 8 wins for our 31 points. Its clear that it was the first 2/3 of the season that were honking. 

It really puzzles me why so many fans are just 'happy' and praising the club at all levels because the team started to play as we should have expected once March arrived. Its a testament to how poor the league has been this season that a run at this stage can almost propel from relegation play-off to promotion play-off in 10 games. It signifies how there has been no stand out team and that the position we are in is nothing short of failure with probable dire consequences moving forwards. Those who cannot see this need to open their eyes to our situation and hope that next season we will be lucky to have the finances to put together a team capable of fighting for mid-table. 

The reality is that 2 more wins, over the course of the season and we would be in the play offs, such is the slim margins in this league. Agree that no stand out team in the league, including St. Mirren, but this is a difficult league to get out of, just ask Hibs, Rangers and Dundee Utd. Some fans would have us believe we would either challenge strongly for the title or make the play offs easily but that was never going to happen with all the pre season turmoil. Even when we won the league before with Butcher, we had a slow start but our winning run then started, earlier than this season, which got us promotion.

Maybe we have found our true level at the moment until we can regroup both on and off the field as the consequences of spending money we didn't have over the last few seasons have come home to roost. The other thing that works against us hugely is our attendances which have been truly awful this season. Falkirk, St Mirren, Dunfermline and Dundee Utd all have greater attendances than us and until we can solve that issue, if it can be solved at all, then we will continue to struggle financially. An extra 500 fans a week next season could make a huge difference to the club's finances.

7 minutes ago, Huisdean said:

The reality is that 2 more wins, over the course of the season and we would be in the play offs, such is the slim margins in this league. Agree that no stand out team in the league, including St. Mirren, but this is a difficult league to get out of, just ask Hibs, Rangers and Dundee Utd. Some fans would have us believe we would either challenge strongly for the title or make the play offs easily but that was never going to happen with all the pre season turmoil. Even when we won the league before with Butcher, we had a slow start but our winning run then started, earlier than this season, which got us promotion.

Maybe we have found our true level at the moment until we can regroup both on and off the field as the consequences of spending money we didn't have over the last few seasons have come home to roost. The other thing that works against us hugely is our attendances which have been truly awful this season. Falkirk, St Mirren, Dunfermline and Dundee Utd all have greater attendances than us and until we can solve that issue, if it can be solved at all, then we will continue to struggle financially. An extra 500 fans a week next season could make a huge difference to the club's finances.

My main worry is that if this is 'our level' then full time football is not sustainable without the income from the Premiership. Assuming the board don't generate alternative income streams (which we've always been awful at) or get bailouts I fear we just don't have the means to keep plugging away in the Championship. 

I'm a Dunfermline fan.  I was born there, although brought up in Inverness and currently live in Inverness.  Aside from Dunfermline, I certainly have a sweet spot for ICT.

As a football fan we are all guilty of thinking the referee is always against us whenever we don't win a match.  Finnie has always been an appalling referee, and ask any Dunfermline fan and they'll tell you that Finnie always appears to have a vendetta against us, especially as he is from Falkirk.  In reality he is just incompetent and over the course of most games he just about manages to infuriate both sets of fans.

If the free kick for our second goal was soft (I think it was a definite free kick) then exactly the same could be said for the free kick for the ICT first goal.  Talk of vendetta's from up high is just akin to old firm paranoia.

Your poor start to the season is what cost you, always hard following relegation and in reality there is very little between almost all of the teams in the Championship. Take out St Mirren/Dumbarton and Brechin and there is very little between the other seven teams.  If ICT can keep their squad together for next season then hopefully they'll hit the ground running. 

Even if Dunfermline make the play offs this season, I think the second bottom of the Premier League will win against which ever side gets through to the final play-off, so we'll almost certainly be in the same division next season.  Same applies if we lose on Saturday and ICT win their last two games.

Having moved away for 20 years and recently returned, one thing which does disappoint me is that ICT don't have a larger support.  Not sure how that can be changed though.

7 minutes ago, AllyM said:

As a football fan we are all guilty of thinking the referee is always against us whenever we don't win a match.  Finnie has always been an appalling referee, and ask any Dunfermline fan and they'll tell you that Finnie always appears to have a vendetta against us, especially as he is from Falkirk.  In reality he is just incompetent and over the course of most games he just about manages to infuriate both sets of fans.

Talk of vendetta's from up high is just akin to old firm paranoia.

Good post and I particularly agree with these points. Go on Pie and Bovril and do a search for Finnie and you'll find a lot of very uncomplimentary posts about the guy. Appreciate that referees do not, and probably will never, have it easy but it's not bias just the fact that there are some staggeringly poor officials in the league these days.

41 minutes ago, AllyM said:

If the free kick for our second goal was soft (I think it was a definite free kick) then exactly the same could be said for the free kick for the ICT first goal. 

OK, now looking back at highlights that's probably a fair point. The incident  that led to Dunfermline's free kick is strangely not on CaleyJags TV highlights but it is on the Pars TV extended highlights.

Stupid (possibly tired) challenge from Tremarco that gave the ref a decision to make.

Ridgers has been great recently but the close-up goalmouth camera used here in Pars TV highlights the ball going through his hands. Gutted.

On a lighter note, I love the way Oakley bounced up from his head knock ... tough as!

 

On 22/04/2018 at 10:33 AM, Renegade said:

What planet are you on? It’s not a good result, it’s a dreadful result which could well have dire consequences for the club going forward. 

It's a bad result as far as our playoff hopes go (gone, just about....), but against an in form team that gave us a doing earlier in the season? Hmmmm

1 hour ago, cif73 said:

Ridgers has been great recently but the close-up goalmouth camera used here in Pars TV highlights the ball going through his hands. Gutted.

On a lighter note, I love the way Oakley bounced up from his head knock ... tough as!

 

Re; the first goal against ...it was struck from very close range, but it almost looks like it took a touch off our defender who was trying to block it.

As for Daniel Mackay's miss, the damn ball bounced up just as he goes to hit it

1 hour ago, Eagle4Caley said:

Re; the first goal against ...it was struck from very close range, but it almost looks like it took a touch off our defender who was trying to block it.

As for Daniel Mackay's miss, the damn ball bounced up just as he goes to hit it

Ridgers - yes someone should have come across much earlier to block.

Mackay - no idea why Doran slightly lofted the pass, should have been just as easy to keep it on the ground and avoid the bounce. 

All easy to say in hindsight, doing the sitting down "trial by Sportscene" I suppose