Shut that window

 

Second bottom Queen of the south come calling to the Caledonian Stadium to take on second top Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Saturday afternoon at 3:00pm is the kick-off. Queens have lost their last two fixtures and Inverness are without a win in their last three games. Time to close the transfer window before we have nobody left to play out the season.

Venue - H2H

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	20	12	2	6	36	24	+12
Away	19	8	7	4	33	20	+13
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	39	20	9	10	69	44	+25

OFFICIAL PREVIEW

Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts   1. Arbroath 21 10 8 3 33 15 38 2. Inverness CT 20 10 6 4 27 15 36 3. Kilmarnock 20 11 3 6 26 14 36 4. Raith Rovers 21 9 8 4 28 20 35 5. Partick Thistle 19 9 5 5 32 18 32 6. Hamilton Ac. 21 6 6 9 24 36 24 7. Ayr United 20 5 6 9 19 32 21 8. Morton 20 3 8 9 22 31 17 9. Q.O.S. 20 4 5 11 19 31 17 10. Dunfermline 20 2 9 9 18 36 15

 

FRIDAY 19:45

Partick v Killie

SATURDAY 15:00

  Ayr Utd v Morton

Dunfermline v Hamilton  

 Inverness v Queens

Raith Rovers v Arbroath

Inverness have picked up six points from the two games between the clubs this season, both ending 2-1 in favour of the Caley Jags.

CTO Summary from 25th September: Goals from Sean Welsh and Michael Gardyne were just enough to put Inverness back to the top of the table despite a worldy goal from Lee Connelly for the visitors. Inverness deserved the win but made hard work of it before Gardyne scored a superb volley to win the points and ease the fans nerves.

CTO Summary from 19th November: The visitors opened the scoring when Billy Mckay converted a first half penalty. They doubled their lead when he added a second from a superb Carson cross but Queens forced a tense finish when Lee Connelly smashed the ball into the net to give them hope. However Inverness saw out the game to claim the points and move a point behind leaders Kilmarnock who play Arbroath on Saturday. 

Last Time Out

The Caley Jags recovered from a goal down to draw with Raith Rovers last weekend. The points were shared thanks to two spectacular goals from Ethan Ross and Reece McAlear. A poor first half for the hosts saw Raith lead at the break but a better performance after the interval earned a share of the points although Raith will be aggrieved that they never ended their 22 year wait for a win over Inverness.

Queens were deservedly beaten by Kilmarnock in a 2-0 defeat at Palmerston. Alan Johnston had this to say about it on BBC Sport: "It was never a penalty. There was a tug of the shirt but I've seen it again and it was way outside the box. But we continue to give away cheap goals. We have a fight on our hands. That's for sure."

That's something like only four wins in 25 games since Alan Johnston went to Palmerston. The sort of form that gets teams relegated. Unfortunately, on the whole, we seldom take full advantage of this and often find ourselves struggling to dominate these games. That needs to change now if we want to remain interested in topping this league. Showing some urgency from the start would be an improvement on recent offerings. 

Latest Team News

Billy Dodds saw Sean Welsh return last week as a second half substitute against Raith Rovers. Aaron Dorran missed out with a thigh injury and is a major doubt. Youth player Harry Hennem will continue his loan spell at Brora Rangers until the end of the season. More disturbing news though if true is that Scott Allardice is allegedly out for the season if you believe the latest rumours. Another equally disappointing one is that Robbie Deas is the subject of a six figure bid by St Johnstone to lure our defender to McDiarmid Park, following the footsteps of defenders Jamie McCart and Shaun Rooney. Meh!

Next up for scrutiny will be Shane Sutherland...

As an aside, but equally annoying: Daniel Mackay has joined Killie on loan, and loan Ranger Kai Kennedy has gone to Hamilton Accies.

Willie Gibson should return for Queens who should also have former County and Inverness player Alex Cooper plying his trade at left back. Keeper Sol Brynn has been recalled by Middlesbrough but midfielder Don McMahon comes back from his loan to Dalbeattie Star.

 

Cannot blame the referee for our total lack of a ability to beat the bottom club. QOS probably aggrieved that they only took a point today. 

We are our team in freefall who got lucky at the start of the season, catching the other teams cold, but by f***k they have well and  truly sussed us out now

Dodds looks totally clueless standing there week in, week out. His tactical of change of removing McGregor for Duku was just bizarre,throw the big guy on and hope for the best seems to be his go to plan.

 

18 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

Watching the stream I thought their first goal was onside, from a good pass The reason the ref overruled the linesman for the second was that it was that the ball came off an an ICT player, so no offside, but it was hard to tell.

Thanks for that. If both goals justifiably stood, fair enough.

However, my view of the inept officials remains. There were a lot of strange decisions throughout the game. 

1 hour ago, Satan said:

If all else fails, blame the ref...

He was poor tbf but those blaming him are only deflecting the real issues with the team 

45 minutes ago, forresjags said:

Cannot blame the referee for our total lack of a ability to beat the bottom club. QOS probably aggrieved that they only took a point today. 

We are our team in freefall who got lucky at the start of the season, catching the other teams cold, but by f***k they have well and  truly sussed us out now

Dodds looks totally clueless standing there week in, week out. His tactical of change of removing McGregor for Duku was just bizarre,throw the big guy on and hope for the best seems to be his go to plan.

 

Hard to disagree with this sadly. 

6 minutes ago, old caley girl said:

He was poor tbf but those blaming him are only deflecting the real issues with the team 

..and the management.

So frustrating! Today worse than last week in the end as we really needed to win today. We need new blood in a fast but I'm not convinced the strengthening we need is coming. We the fans believe we can win the league but do Dodds and the club? I dunno.... Billy D just sprouts out the same post match interview every week. 

Very few actually performed well today and for pitys  sake give Sutherland a day off. He's bomb proof as the sub picked today showed. 

Totally and utterly fed up! 

The scary thing is, if Arbroath don’t win the league they could still wipe everyone out in the playoffs and still get promoted. 

That was grim. After a decent opening 15 - 20 minutes from Queens, during which they probably should have scored at least once, we started to get on top and looked like ending the first half the stronger side.

Queens main attacking plan seemed to be trying to slide the ball in behind our CBs for Connelly to latch on to and we got a glimpse of this when Paton (I think) burst through and looked set to round Ridgers but fortunately a well timed challenge snuffed out this threat.

Deas had a couple of decent chances which fell to him at the left edge of the box but your CB filling in at left back probably doesn't have the greatest shooting boots in the world and it showed as he snatched at both efforts. Walsh had a good chance to score as well but I think he tried to be too cute and attempted to shoot back across Rae in goal instead of sending a shot away from him.

The opening goal looked miles offside but that was probably because there was one Queens player standing ahead of Connelly before he raced clear to round Ridgers and, eventually, put the ball into the net. At the time I thought he was offside but folk watching on the stream said he was played onside by Broadfoot. Still annoying given we had a taste of this minutes before with the aforementioned Paton chance.

In the second half and Devine made a desperate challenge to stop a second Queens goal throwing himself in front of a goal bound shot from a few yards out. A bit of route one got us level with a long thump downfield by Ridgers and it looked like Gibson got in a right state trying to decide if he was going to clear the ball or not and Mckay took it off him to bundle in the equaliser.

Sutherland had a good chance to get the second goal for us but seemed to take forever to actually get his shot away and a Queens defender did well to deflect the effort behind for a corner. 

The second for ICT did come eventually with Mckay flicking the ball on for Walsh who got in behind the defence and finished well across Rae. 

But only a few minutes later Queens were back level and no one seemed to know what exactly had happened with Roy turning hom a cross whilst in an offside position. At the game I could only think that the ball had come off an ICT player so Roy couldn't therefore be offside and from what I've read it seems the ball was actually played to him by Carson so the goal, sadly, stood.

An absolutely gutting result with Arbroath winning and other sides around us faltering. Queens looked decent in spells but seemed a bit of a mess at the back and it's frustrating that we couldn't take advantage of this as I felt we had enough chances to put the game to bed. That said I still think we were very poor again and whilst the likes of Mckay and McAlear turned in good performances we need more from the likes of Walsh (although he did score today) and we also need some fresh faces in quickly to try and give the squad a lift. 

Missed all the action today but I feel that I'd rather arbroath won than raith. I still feel that they must logically fall away given their resources. Having said that there is certainly no sign of that happening to date. Given our appalling points haul and performances of late I find it amazing that we are still well in touch and we cannot be without hope. Engrossing league for the neutrals and a tense one for the supporters of half the teams in it. I must finish be saying well done Arbroath.......several friends of mine who never normally pay any attention to the championship are saying "they cant let Arbroath into the SPFL" . Might that be another hurdle they have to navigate?

we need to take Sutherland out of the 10 position and put Young Roddy in there. The number of times he was free and waving his arms for the ball to be igonored for a sideways:back pass was ridiculous. Poor Davie Carson should have been subbed at half time, his crossing passing was awful The pace of the attack is awful. We need to get someone in that midfield who can see a pass - Dodds has to give Roddy that chance, he’s a total waste out wide

 

Poor result but in my opinion you can't fault any player for a lack of effort and commitment. For those who are blaming the management what would you do differently?

Reading the previous posts what do people think is the issues with the team? There's a lot of talk but no one seems to say what they they would do to rectify these problems. It seems most people just like to jump on the bandwagon and criticise the team but can't back it up with any justifiable response.

We are second in the league with a game in hand on the top team. If that team was Killmarnock we would all be delighted. Just because it's Arbroath suddenly it's a disaster. Yes we could create and look more dangerous than we are but we have more than 2 weeks left of this transfer window to address this. 

The negativity by some of our fans by is unreal. We still have a great chance of winning this league, probably the best chance since we were relegated. I agree we're not playing well but we are in a great position in the league.

Sometimes us as fans need to remember who we are as a club and where we came from. We've no devine right to be anywhere near where we are, if we can all get behind the management and the team until the end of the season fingers crossed we will be celebrating promotion. 

 

8 hours ago, Naelifts said:

I must finish be saying well done Arbroath.......several friends of mine who never normally pay any attention to the championship are saying "they cant let Arbroath into the SPFL" . Might that be another hurdle they have to navigate?

Won't be much of a hurdle to navigate given Arbroath are already in the SPFL 

Absolutely right we are not playing well. We have a strong squad of players and you have to ask yourself are management getting the best out of them. Roddie Macgregor probably the best young talent at the squad stuck out wide on the right hand and then taken off just so we can   batter the ball forward at every opportunity. 

 

What the hell is even going on anymore. This is the same side that went 7 on the bounce, and were going to "1-0 our way to the title", but now, we've soiled our pants and are clinging on for dear life whilst only being saved by results elsewhere. Granted, we've lost Gardyne, who was a major pillar on the field (and a major pillock off the field), but it doesn't change the fact that this has been going since Octoberish.

Don't want to be calling for Doddsy's head quite yet, buttttt it won't be long if we don't start seeing 3 points...

At the end of September, we were clear at the top, with 19 points from 7 games, but we all knew that many of our performances were not reflective of our league position.

Since October started, we have had 14 games and only taken 18 points. That’s a run of 4 wins, 6 draws and 4 defeats.

Early in the season we were winning games we would normally have drawn, but we have reverted to not being able to grind out results.

One issue to ponder: Duku started all our games during our good run. He didn’t score but did his presence and style create chances for others?

Can we fit him, Mckay and MacGregor into the side in a way that gets the best out of them?

That may need a change of formation to three at the back, using wing backs for width, so we maintain two central midfielders but allow MacGregor to play further forward to support the strikers. Something like 3 4 1 2 with a line up, using our current squad, of:

Ridgers

Broadfoot Devine Deas

Carson Welsh McAlear Harper

MacGregor

Mckay Duku

We do need new faces this month, particularly a wide, creative player.

We also need to consider the defence, as Carson, Broadfoot, Devine and Deas have all picked up bookings so could well be suspended at some point.

Just a thought as to how we get the best from the squad given the current style is not getting results.

 

 

Edited January 16, 20224 yr by Robert

Yes...thanks RIG. Slip of the pen

10 hours ago, Naelifts said:

Missed all the action today but I feel that I'd rather arbroath won than raith. I still feel that they must logically fall away given their resources. Having said that there is certainly no sign of that happening to date. Given our appalling points haul and performances of late I find it amazing that we are still well in touch and we cannot be without hope. Engrossing league for the neutrals and a tense one for the supporters of half the teams in it. I must finish be saying well done Arbroath.......several friends of mine who never normally pay any attention to the championship are saying "they cant let Arbroath into the SPFL" . Might that be another hurdle they have to navigate?

Are you aware that Dick has got Jack Hamilton and Craig Wighton in? I wouldn’t worry about the depth of their squad compared to ours. 
As RiG pointed out, you mean the Premiership. The rules regarding seating were relaxed years ago. Palmerston is suitable so I imagine Gayfield is too.

Absolute dross. One of these teams is trying to get promoted, the other is trying to avoid relegation. Dress it up any way you want, but it's difficult to tell the teams apart. No wins in four for Inverness but still second in the league that nobody wants to assert their authority on. Well done Arbroath, without Nouble and Dowds, but still able to beat Raith on their own patch.

Carson and Deas were absolutely useless yesterday, there's no other way to describe it. Deas maybe trying to bodyswerve suitors, went the right way about it, absolutely woeful. Carson, wtf. We need to get some serious ball striking practice done this week. If anyone needed a goal it was Tom Walsh, but even that failed to have the desired effect. We were clueless how to break Queens down until they did it for us.

Rageen mun!  😡 🤡 

 

I still think that our main problem is inability to capitalise on the many chances that we make.  We don't score as much as we should.  Other teams seem much better at taking advantage of the few chances that they make.

Not the most reliable stats, I know, but the BBC has us with over twice as many shots, shots on target, and corners than Queens yesterday.

We have the 3rd lowest "goals against" in the league.  Killie 15, Arbroath 16, us 17.  So although I too would like to see improvements in the defence, I don't think that is where the problem is. 

We are 5th for goals scored.  I'd much rather have the ability to score goals than to have a great defence and trust to luck to win 1-0.

Game to game, I don't think our performance changes that much, although admittedly in the last two we have been better in the second half than in the first.  I think we just go out and play, and sometimes we get lucky, and sometimes we don't. 

It's pretty random.  And I can't see how to change that in just a few weeks. 

Duku is not the answer.  As an off-the-wall suggestion, I'd still be interested to see Carson pushed up front, just to see what he could do.  He has drive, determination, power, and he usually finds his man when he passes.  If he could keep his head and ignore the inevitable niggling from defenders, then he might make a big difference to things. 

Numerous teams have visited us recently, and after about five minutes I have thought - ahh I see how they are trying to play, how they plan to get the ball up the park with quick passing, how they pull our defence out of position to create more space for the dangerous players to exploit - they seem well drilled, regardless of the quality of their players.

I don't see that with us, we have a formation, evident at kick off, but I don't see a clear plan of attack once the ball starts moving. Occasionally we have periods of half decent passing, but this is often more like keep-ball as the opposition press us...leading to backpass to ridgers then hoof...(goal).

Not sure what we practice during the week, but there's not much sign of a cohesive plan week to week.

What is annoying, as some have alluded to, is that when we do create a good chance we don't often finish it, and despite our goals conceded being quite good - if we can't score then it only takes one goal to win the game.

I don't think we have enough pace in the team, particularly in the middle - too often caught up the park trying to force a goal and easily countered with quick breaks.

Not sure it's worth signing anyone at this stage unless he will guarantee us goals. 

13 hours ago, SteveA said:

Poor result but in my opinion you can't fault any player for a lack of effort and commitment. For those who are blaming the management what would you do differently?

Reading the previous posts what do people think is the issues with the team? There's a lot of talk but no one seems to say what they they would do to rectify these problems. It seems most people just like to jump on the bandwagon and criticise the team but can't back it up with any justifiable response.

We are second in the league with a game in hand on the top team. If that team was Killmarnock we would all be delighted. Just because it's Arbroath suddenly it's a disaster. Yes we could create and look more dangerous than we are but we have more than 2 weeks left of this transfer window to address this. 

The negativity by some of our fans by is unreal. We still have a great chance of winning this league, probably the best chance since we were relegated. I agree we're not playing well but we are in a great position in the league.

Sometimes us as fans need to remember who we are as a club and where we came from. We've no devine right to be anywhere near where we are, if we can all get behind the management and the team until the end of the season fingers crossed we will be celebrating promotion. 

 

I don't agree that anyone is being unduly negative.

It is precisely because this represents our best chance of promotion since relegation that so many of us are so frustrated and disappointed with many recent results and, more particularly, performances.

I well remember where we came from but I also remember where we were just a few seasons ago and, with one minor blip, for a decade or so.

The club’s report:

https://ictfc.com/match-report-ictfc-2-2-queen-of-the-south-15-01-2022

I was really impressed with Queens number 10 yesterday, Lee Connelly I think it was. Looked exactly the type of player we need, pacey and direct with an eye for a goal. 

3 games against us, 3 goals scored.

19 hours ago, SteveA said:

Poor result but in my opinion you can't fault any player for a lack of effort and commitment. For those who are blaming the management what would you do differently?

Reading the previous posts what do people think is the issues with the team? There's a lot of talk but no one seems to say what they they would do to rectify these problems. It seems most people just like to jump on the bandwagon and criticise the team but can't back it up with any justifiable response.

We are second in the league with a game in hand on the top team. If that team was Killmarnock we would all be delighted. Just because it's Arbroath suddenly it's a disaster. Yes we could create and look more dangerous than we are but we have more than 2 weeks left of this transfer window to address this. 

The negativity by some of our fans by is unreal. We still have a great chance of winning this league, probably the best chance since we were relegated. I agree we're not playing well but we are in a great position in the league.

Sometimes us as fans need to remember who we are as a club and where we came from. We've no devine right to be anywhere near where we are, if we can all get behind the management and the team until the end of the season fingers crossed we will be celebrating promotion. 

You're so close to figuring out why some of the fans aren't 100% happy...