THE MATCHDAY THREAD Discuss ICT & other games in this thread as they happen Inverness CT -V- Falkirk PREVIEW Dec 1st 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

1 minute ago, Kingsmills said:

For once, I, at least partially, agree with you. Livingston did indeed get promoted last season with a smaller budget than us and Ayr are leading the division this season also with a smaller budget although they have a striker on course to score forty goals this season which certainly helps !

Unfortunately, we don't possess such an asset which is why strengthening in January is essential if we are going to retain any real hope of promotion.

Haha knew I'd win u over brother! To win you need to score and our strikers just aren't capable of double figures there must've been better than White available his record at Barrow was shocking I'd have kept Bell before him! Your right tho no more looking at midfielders we don't need priority in Jan has to be a half decent striker even on loan!

The squad is down to the bare bones ,how has this been allowed to happen . All very well getting rid of players who were apparently big earners but not replacing them has now come back to kick us in the balls.  Appreciate the finances are tight but trying to mount a promotion challenge with a first team squad of  barely 16 players is a big ask for any manager.

 

 

 

2 hours ago, bigman said:

Absolute shambles could say more but just a waste of time. I am at a state were I would sell my season  ticket but I don't  think anyone would want it

Fiver o.n.o ?

Grim

A dire state of affairs when the unbeaten run ends at what should have been one of the most winnable games of the season so far. I like to remain upbeat and optimistic but from so many of the accounts in the forum about abject performances over the past couple of months we should have seen this coming - sad.

40 minutes ago, forresjags said:

The squad is down to the bare bones ,how has this been allowed to happen . All very well getting rid of players who were apparently big earners but not replacing them has now come back to kick us in the balls.  Appreciate the finances are tight but trying to mount a promotion challenge with a first team squad of  barely 16 players is a big ask for any manager.

 

 

 

Totally agree : the speed at which we fell (and there's no realistic sign of it improving any time soon) is a disgrace. Not sure who is to blame, but we have come from a solid top league team (and worthy cup winners) to a mid table Championship team going nowhere fast.

4 hours ago, Polo Chick said:

Brad should be taken off he is having a howler of a game he is a liability 

always has been imo

9 minutes ago, DWH said:

Totally agree : the speed at which we fell (and there's no realistic sign of it improving any time soon) is a disgrace. Not sure who is to blame, but we have come from a solid top league team (and worthy cup winners) to a mid table Championship team going nowhere fast.

The previous board and there ridiculous loyalty to Foran when it was clear before xmas he'd lost the dressing room and couldn't run a bath are totally to blame! Tho some deluded punters on here will no doubt blame yogi

Extremely poor especially in defence, 3 so called centre halfs can't attack a ball in the air. Rooney never a right back looked lost on touchline for long periods. Apart from snow what will Jan bring in.

 

this was dire today  too many players not good enough  cant remember such a toothless ict team ever   players and management need to take a long hard look at themselves   fans are getting a raw deal here      let's get sorted out for Tuesday night   or crowds will keep disappearing  hopefully in January we can bring in some quality    we might then start enjoy going to games again

2 hours ago, Alan Simpson said:

Haha knew I'd win u over brother! To win you need to score and our strikers just aren't capable of double figures there must've been better than White available his record at Barrow was shocking I'd have kept Bell before him! Your right tho no more looking at midfielders we don't need priority in Jan has to be a half decent striker even on loan!

listen up folks

Oakley 7 league starts 4 goals

White 8 league  starts 4 goals

Anyone with any knowledge of football will know these stats are very good.

Stop blaming the strikers and look at the other end of the park and maybe you will find where we need to improve.

 

That was a hard one to take.  We dominated for much of the game, but the hard truth is that very poor defending gifted them 3 chances which they efficiently put away whilst we created several decent chances which we should have done better with.  There were at least 3 missed chances which certainly should have been put away.  A bit more sharpness in front of goal and concentration at the back and we could have romped that. I felt McCart was excellent and that Polworth played better than I have seen him play all season.  

I didn't think Falkirk looked like a bottom of the table team (in fact, they aren't bottom any more!).  They worked hard as a unit and were noticeably quicker than us getting back behind the ball after attacks had broken down.  In Zac Rudden I think they have found a striker who will help them get comfortably mid table before long.  They have  taken 7 points from their last 3 games which is more than any other side in the division.

The referee didn't help either.  Whilst we were trying to play football, Falkirk were trying to stop us by fair means or foul.  How the officials failed to notice all the holding  Harrison and Brough were doing is beyond me.  BBC Stats show 14 fouls against us and only 7 against Falkirk.  It's a joke.  At the end you could see the frustration of everything getting to the players and that probably led to the sucker punch at the end.

All very disappointing but I am not as gloomy as many on here.  There were enough positives there to make me think that when things click,there is a big league win in this side sometime soon.  Hopefully the frustration and disappointment of today will get taken out on Edinburgh City on Tuesday evening and we'll kick on from there.

2 hours ago, forresjags said:

Better technical players kicking about,the Highland League than some of the donkeys out there today .

Did we not try to sign Mitch Megginson during the summer and got knocked back for a 3 year deal with Cove?

 

I cannot wait until the season ends so I can start to work out how to spend my £300 that I won't be wasting on a useless shower of clowns that have no interest in football and couldn't care less about winning. Time to focus on other non stressful activities. Time to give up 

14 minutes ago, Gregor said:

listen up folks

Oakley 7 league starts 4 goals

White 8 league  starts 4 goals

Anyone with any knowledge of football will know these stats are very good.

Stop blaming the strikers and look at the other end of the park and maybe you will find where we need to improve.

 

Its not starts or games to goals, its goal scoring opportunities to goal ratio. But yes the defence needs to improve, this was our strongest point earlier in the season but now a problem. I think the injury to Tremarco, bringing in McCart (although not entirely his fault) and having to makeshift the back four has disturbed the continuity. As experience has told us that when we don't have a settled back four historically we have struggled. Our worst seasons all have something in common, an unsettled back four.

I would have to disagree about each end of the park, the need for improvement is needed from front to back including the midfield which is our first line of defence.

5 hours ago, forresjags said:

The squad is down to the bare bones ,how has this been allowed to happen . All very well getting rid of players who were apparently big earners but not replacing them has now come back to kick us in the balls.  Appreciate the finances are tight but trying to mount a promotion challenge with a first team squad of  barely 16 players is a big ask for any manager.

 

 

 

With that we take the most important point. Our finances and squad show the boards expectations. We are running a team we can afford to keep in the championship. If we lucked out and went up im sure the board would be over the moon but i really dont think any expectation of that is being placed on that.

So if anyone is expecting anything more  tha a signing with the wage freed up by Ricky leaving, i'd think again.

I now expect us to beat both Ayr and the Arabs.

11 hours ago, Alan Simpson said:

The previous board and there ridiculous loyalty to Foran when it was clear before xmas he'd lost the dressing room and couldn't run a bath are totally to blame! Tho some deluded punters on here will no doubt blame yogi

There are many authors of our current demise. Those who were too loyal to Foran for too long are among them but so was Yogi Hughes. If that is being deluded then I have been deluded for a very long time.

13 hours ago, Alan Simpson said:

Can't blame everything on lack of money Livi had a far smaller budget last season and recruited well ! We get lumbered with traffic cones up top and a central midfielder made of balsa wood! A striker is well needed in January!

Yeah and to think Shankland was a free agent last summer and we opted for Mr White ?

6 minutes ago, Polo Chick said:

Yeah and to think Shankland was a free agent last summer and we opted for Mr White ?

What makes you think we didn't make an effort to sign Shankland ?

1 minute ago, Kingsmills said:

What makes you think we didn't make an effort to sign Shankland ?

I would bet my ST we didn't  Anyhow 2 half season tickets going cheap any offers ?

Interesting that not once in this thread, anyone brings up the referee...In all fairness, we were crap in the first half, but in the second we had picked it up very well, and shouldve won it. But the referee turning blind eyes to very obvious penalties and a corner, when beardy slid behind the line, ball in hand (look at the highlights, black and white, ref shouldve done something) really cost us a draw (and dare I say it, a win). Either way, terrible game, just nursing my knuckle after punching the gate when venting my anger (which I am rather glad I did, because I doubt I could've held it in after two Falkirk fans started being d*cks about it later on, in the subway by Rose Street).

I'm not saying that we were absolutely insane, but, we were better than we are most weeks...

I'm at a loss as to how we lost yesterday.

We had a great start, with a tremendous pass from Polworth that set Walsh up, and he took it well.

Falkirk's two first half goals were soft. Ridgers should have claimed the cross that led to the first, and Rooney seemed favourite to deal with the ball that resulted in the second.

We started the second half well, and looked hungry, even moving the ball fast at times. Too often, we played it square, and other than Polworth and Rooney seemed reluctant to take players on and drive forwards.

Oakley came very close before he scored, and Chalmers had a shot that looked close from where I was.

I didn't expect Welsh to be subbed, but Trafford had one of his better games when he came on. He gave the foul away that led to he goal, but it was a very soft award by the ref. How the winning goal got in at the back post I don't know. I think it was another soft goal.

Falkirk showed no desire to win the game, and we should have won it quite comfortably, but our defence suddenly seems frail or error prone.

Ridgers seems below par, Rooney is better going forward, and we had a back three for most of the second half. Donaldson and McCart were ok, and I'd pair them in the centre of defence.

Polworth was the pick of the midfield, but there was little directness from Chalmers, Walsh or Doran. Welsh was fine.

Up front, Oakley was trying, but had little service.

In some ways, losing the unbeaten tag may ease some pressure and allow us to kick on. Time will tell!

 

Massively disappointing result but it might almost be a good thing. This unbeaten run malarky has disguised the fact we have been an absolute gang for weeks now. We really don't have much beyond that team which started yesterday and it's starting to tell.

Lovely ball through from Polworth to Walsh and a fine finish across the keeper. Awful defending from Mckay for the first Rudden goal. It's almost as if someone playing as ICT on FIFA suddenly loses their controls connection with the PS4 as he just stops dead and doesn't even bother trying to challenge for the ball. As if that wasn't bad enough Rooney then follows it up by getting distracted by a shiny object in the North Stand and forgets to challenge Rudden for the ball and let him ghost past before finishing well past Ridgers. Perhaps the keeper should have done better but it was still good play from the Falkirk striker. Thought we had a decent claim for a penalty after that. Oakley I think was pulled down in the box. Referee gave a free kick but the foul definitely looked to continue into the penalty area. 

Second half was typical of our season. Mostly shade possession but ultimately do very little with it. Walsh sent a few good crosses in from the left but aside from that we didn't really look like we were going to take the three points. That said Oakley gave us hope when he stooped to steer in a header from a few yards out. Chalmers came closest when he curled a shot towards goal from about 20 yards out which clipped the roof of the net. But more poor defending right at the end gave Falkirk the winner. This time Donaldson seemed to doze off the let his man steal in to seal the three points. 

There was a massive difference between Falkirk back in August (?) and the one we saw yesterday. MacKinnon is starting to turn them around and despite their bad cup result last weekend they have to imagine they will start to pull away from the bottom of the league. Meanwhile, for us, it's a case of some old. A lack of real creativity in midfield, lack of pace in wide areas and no real threat up front. What's more concerning now though is that our previously settled defence is starting to creak a bit. Granted we are not playing with a left back at the moment but it's still alarming how bad we were at the back yesterday. Play that badly again on Friday against Ayr and Shankland will have a field day...

 Rooney and Mckay both need to better for the first two. Ridgers has to come claim the first inside the six yard box and for me has to do better with the second too. Joe Chalmers not street wise enough giving the ball straight back for the quick free kick at the second.

Coll beaten too easily for the 3rd too. Contact begun outside of box for oakley foul so fair decision for me.

I dont buy the lets blame the ref game today we conceded 3 to a side who were over the moon to get a point never mind the 3.