THE MATCHDAY THREAD Discuss ICT & other games in this thread as they happen Inverness CT -V- Queen of the South PREVIEW January 5th 2019 @ 3:00pm, 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    Tweets by @ICTFC Tweets by @ICTFC

Can I just say....... Tom Walsh was excellent again today. Turning into a very influential player. Not only in scoring the goal, but creating and setting up. Also good to see Carl Tremarco back in, his body was on the line a few times. As for the rest........ ?????? Where were you ?????? 

The players were far too busy arguing amongst themselves and with instructions from the bench. This is not a team. We have the same few trying but most are simply not good enough. Some of these players were so poor that I thought they were substance impared.

Having just gone 1-0 ahead all in my vicinity agreed that the next twenty minutes were going to be a nightmare......................

And so it proved. I know we have scored more goals than some teams, but man for man we must have the worst strikers in the Championship. How often did good opportunities turn out to be wasted opportunities through lack of application or choice. The cracks we once had are now chasms of drivel. 

Priority MUST be a decent striker. Someone like Dario Zanatta might fit the bill. Has to be better than our static striker who looks like he his running in treacle.

Again a game we shouldn't have lost. As soon as we went 1-0 up the team got really casual and allowed Queens back into it. Walsh was the only player who looked like he could score. Dropping down the league and tough games coming up. Looking for divine intervention ?

That hurt. Finally, it confirmed that we are destined to be a mid-table team for the second season running. Winning the league has long gone and we'll need a very decent run to get in the play-offs. The problem is simple on the face of it, but very difficult to rectify: we regularly "win" games in terms of performance, but contrive to lose or draw them at full time. The difference today was - quite simply - Dobbie. 

What to do? A change of personnel will certainly shake things up, but be careful what you wish for. The club is not in a financial position to buy what it needs and pointing the finger at the likes of Liam Polworth is ludicrous. Maybe he needs to leave to salvage his career, but from what I've seen this season, he's one of only a handful that really has the ability to swing a game. If his form has dipped, the boo boys are responsible. 

We have 3 months to scrap tooth and nail for a play off place with a mediocre squad and little chance of a saviour in the window. It is not the fault of board or management - just reality. Good luck to Robbo and the boys - they're going to need all our support to stand any chance.

 

It is fairly obvious the Coaches have no other tactic's well breaking news this one's don't work

12 minutes ago, MuirtownJaggy said:

Can I just say....... Tom Walsh was excellent again today. Turning into a very influential player. Not only in scoring the goal, but creating and setting up. Also good to see Carl Tremarco back in, his body was on the line a few times. As for the rest........ ?????? Where were you ?????? 

Yep agree Walsh only player who looked liked scoring but thought McCart did no bad at centre half.

The,rest lacked any drive or enthusiasm and to be honest I felt pretty cheated by there cant be arsed performance.

Absolutely no improvement from last year. 

Roberston to me looks incapable of tactically winning a game and must improve over the next couple of games, as being put out of the cup by a junior team just cannot happen.

Saw the result coming from a mile off. We're pure awful.

So predictable. The sick twist was obviously conceding a winner but as hard as it was to take it's hard to argue with the result. The usual ICT traits from this season were evident - have a fair amount of the ball, don't create a lot of chances, miss the few chances we do create, score, start to stand off the opposition, defend deeper, defend deeper still, concede, try and get a winner.

Queens best chance of the first half came when Todd found himself in a bit of space in the box but his low drive was repelled by Ridgers who got down well to divert the ball round the post. ICT struggled to create much of note as we seldom were able to attack with any real pace and incision and the Queens defence easily stood firm for most of the first half. The closest ICT came to scoring was when Welsh stood up a cross to the back post and Walsh arrived to header it back towards goal but the ball came off the bar and White and Doran weren't able to force it in from close range before it was cleared. A free kick from Polworth looked like it had gone in but sadly it skimmed the roof of the net.

Into the second half and ICT started on the front foot.  Chalmers found some space on the left flank and he sent in a lovely cross which just evaded White.  An even better chance was passed up by McKay when he somehow failed to connect with a cross at the back post appearing to lose sight of the ball. 

There was then a quite bizarre and hilarious moment when Dykes refused to give the ball back to Donaldson who wrestled with him for a second which left Dykes rolling around on the floor in a heap holding on to the ball. Dykes continued to roll away from Donaldson still clutching the ball delaying the free kick. 

We opened the scoring when Tremarco, at the second attempt, crossed from the left and White headed the ball back into the middle of the box where Walsh strode on to it and lashed a low drive under the Queens keeper. Walsh had perhaps our best chance to extend our lead, and possibly kill the game, when he drilled a fierce shot that swerved and dipped before the Queens keeper fisted it (oo er) clear. Thereafter it was classic ICT as we decided to sit back as Queens pressured us. Out balls to White and Austin weren't sticking and any clearance from our defence was quickly retrieved and a new attacking phase started.

Eventually the Queens pressure told when Marshall skipped down the ICT right and burst into the box and his low cross was met by Mercer who had ghosted in from the right to equalise from close range. Before you knew it Queens had scored a second. McKay contrived to give the ball away in the right back area and Dobbie was on to it like a flash. Cutting inside he then shot back across goal past a despairing Ridgers who flung himself to the right but couldn't stop the ball and suddenly the Doonhammers were 2 - 1 up.

There was a late chance for ICT when White set up Walsh at the edge of the box but his tame effort was easily handled and before long the whistle went and ICT had, as too often this season, blown a lead and have only themselves to blame.

Edited January 6, 20197 yr by RiG
Didn't include the goal!

Here we go again  we scored then sat back again  how many times have we done  this and lost   another bad feeling in the dressing room    worse feeling for the fans  who are dwindling away     I fear for the worst    relegation could happen 

Terrible defending and glaringly obvious we have never replaced Raven at right back.

FFS Roberston get your finger out and address the problem ,even a loan signing till the end of the season would be better than doing nothing.

First the one positive; Walsh is becoming sharper as the season progresses and, if we don't add another forward in the transfer window; is a much better option than White.

On the negative side, I can't remember a season in our entire history when we have squandered so many points from a winning position often finishing with nothing at all.

I know that the quality of the squad is not what we've become used to but the players are often good enough to take the lead and the failure, far too often; to hold on to it is a failure of management and coaching more than anything 

It's looking increasingly likely that we will be spending a third successive season in the Championship. Whether Robbo is the right man to lead us into it depends, in my view, whether he can arrest this destructive tendency.

Edited January 5, 20197 yr by Kingsmills

Another  hard watch.  We were trying to think when the last time we had a good 90 minutes at home, we gave up!

It's the same old same old, we score, we sit back and let the opposition come onto us. Robbo has no plan B. He seems to not want to use subs early, even when it's painfully obvious that things need to change.  We have too manysplayers who know they will be playing week after week, because of our small squad.  It's high time to play the young players, they at least would have more energy and play for the shirt. We are now slipping down the league as the teams beneath us start picking up points. Watching football in Inverness has never been this bad, and we have Ayr next week, I hope Shankland isn't back.

Just shows that the unbeaten run supported by all those draws that did little than paint a false picture of our true capability and paper over the cracks. Many couldnt see past the statistics maybe now eyes are open and given our financial position don't get hopeful of any significant personnel changes to improve the quality.

We have at least 5 of the management team sitting in the dug out , yet not one of them can spot the obvious that as soon as we score ,we are at are most vunerable . Do they try and change the game,  maybe go for a second, No chance,we defend on our 18 yard conceding possesion trying to run down the clock. Then with 89 minutes gone and the game slipping away they then decide to make a double substitution.

 

As has been said above that hurt. First have we dominated having a goal disallowed as the ref positioning was poor to see it had crossed the line and hitting the post at the start of the second half. We played queens of the park until we scored and then same old same old switch off and sit in. Jordan white is not a striker his positioning, passing, forward vision and end product are rubbish and throwing a hissy fit every time he loses the ball for his poor ball control skills was laughable.

Austin although he has been out for a while when he came on started to cause problems on the left wing and got some good crosses in.

Polly was brilliant in the first half but seemed to loose his spark in the second and went back to his huffy attitude.

Tremarco welcome back a warrior to the end. Not sure for queens second but

Ridgers  seemed to be delayed in getting down to the ball. Possibly his view was impeded but some brilliant saves again today. The others not sure if they thought 1 - 0 up sorted yea and medals time.  Walsh who was everywhere today and his sweet strike for our goal loved it. Robbo didn't come up to hospitality today as Graham Rae informed us he was feeling u see the weather not sure what with. 

We need a striker. If we had won today rave was still on but now we will be lucky to finish 5th, promotion is gone. 

Not much to add but as the season slips past it's been dire and I don't see it improving.

46 minutes ago, bdu98196 said:

Just shows that the unbeaten run supported by all those draws that did little than paint a false picture of our true capability and paper over the cracks. Many couldnt see past the statistics maybe now eyes are open and given our financial position don't get hopeful of any significant personnel changes to improve the quality.

Has been said by many others and completely agree, the only difference now is we're losing these games. Disappointing again, even a striker on loan from one of the ugly sisters or Hearts, does Robbo not have connections there?

As an aside any reason why Barry did the post match press and not Robbo?

1 minute ago, Caleyjag said:

Has been said by many others and completely agree, the only difference now is we're losing these games. Disappointing again, even a striker on loan from one of the ugly sisters or Hearts, does Robbo not have connections there?

As an aside any reason why Barry did the post match press and not Robbo?

Might be Robbo lost his voice shouting at the players from the touchline!

I sit near to the home dug out....... not much from any of the management team until the last 15 minutes and at the very end with the panic substitutions.,,,,,,,,, poor stuff !!!!

3 minutes ago, MuirtownJaggy said:

I sit near to the home dug out....... not much from any of the management team until the last 15 minutes and at the very end with the panic substitutions.,,,,,,,,, poor stuff !!!!

Quite agree you never see the 'coaches' on the touchline for 90 minutes shouting instructions think they are sitting over a heater in the dugout?

14 minutes ago, IBM said:

Might be Robbo lost his voice shouting at the players from the touchline!

I forgot this 

He didn't do pre game speech in hospitality Graham Rae informed us he has some sort of illness virus.

I think the time to change the coaches is now, we've stuck with this slow passing style attack since Yogi and the one guy that's still here is Kellacher. Time for a change, we're the ONLY team in the championship that once we get the ball and break actually STOP and reassess before slowly building up towards a laboured charge at goal. Both of QOS goals today came from an intercepted ball and a quick charge down the pitch, with some good passing and awareness but quickness was the key to both goals. I have never seen us do that in the last 4 years, we simply can't play that way... It always ends up stalling and passing sideways and out to the flanks before the attack fizzles out and its out for a goal kick. Throw all the new signings and exceptional strikers at this all you want, but it's the style of football we play and the way we choose to counter attack that is killing us and until this is addressed we will continue to be a mid table Cship side at best 

Edited January 5, 20197 yr by CableGuy

2 minutes ago, MorayJaggie said:

He didn't do pre game speech in hospitality Graham Rae informed us he has some sort of illness virus.

Absolutely this......................... Apparently he has a bad side.