The Torture Continues

 

We face Hamilton on Friday night in a televised game with our winless run now at nine games and getting longer with every game. It's a horrendous run of results since we hammered Morton 6-1 at Cappielow on 11th December. Unfortunately we will be going public on council TV on Friday night in a 19:45 kick-off at the Fountain of Youth. Should Accies win, then they will only be six points behind us. Who thought that could be possible three months ago.

MATCH INFO/TICKETS/SUPPORTERS BUS 07462218717/TV INFO

Venue

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	14	4	4	6	21	19	+2
Away	10	6	1	3	16	12	+4
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	24	10	5	9	37	31	+6

Last 10 Competitive Meetings

1 - 2 (H)

1 - 2 (A)

2 - 1 (H)

0 - 3 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

1 - 1 (A)

1 - 0 (A)

0 - 1 (H)

4 - 3 (A)

0 - 2 (H)

Saturday Fixtures  all 15:00

  Ayr Utd v Queens

Dunfermline v Kilmarnock

    Morton v Arbroath

  Rovers v Partick

Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts Accies v ICT FC Friday night 7:45pm 1. Arbroath 25 12 10 3 38 18 46 2. Kilmarnock 26 14 4 8 34 19 46 3. Inverness CT 26 10 9 7 34 25 39 4. Raith Rovers 26 9 11 6 34 30 38 5. Partick Thistle 23 10 7 6 37 23 37 6. Morton 26 7 9 10 30 35 30 7. Hamilton Ac. 26 7 9 10 28 40 30 8. Ayr United 26 7 8 11 25 39 29 9. Dunfermline 25 4 11 10 24 40 23 10. Q.O.S. 25 4 8 13 25 40 20

We have lost both fixtures against Accies this season by the same score, 2-1. 

October 2021: Academicals teach us a lesson: Accies did inflict the first reverse for Inverness, as the Caley Jags drowned at the fountain of youth, and they did it with ten men for over an hour after Reegan Mimnaugh was sent off for a second bookable offence. They opened the scoring when Lewis Smith thumped the ball into the net after only five minutes. Andy Ryan added a second as Inverness crumbled and failed to trouble the home keeper. 2-0 at the break and Inverness bossed possession after the interval but never made Fulton work for his money. Harper hit the bar as the pressure mounted and Michael Gardyne scored a late consolation in injury time, but it was too little too late. With Raith beating Killie and Arbroath drawing, no major damage was done with Raith and Partick the big winners this weekend.

December 2021: After an uneventful first half, Inverness slumped to their second defeat of the season to a rank rotten Accies when they surrendered a second half lead after Cammy Harper netted. However two goals in the space of three minutes from David Moyo and Andrew Winter ruined our day and knocked us off our perch at the top. I suppose it was only a Winter's tale, but it doesn't make good reading. That's our Jekyll and Hyde season in all its sorry glory... Same side, different day! If anyone can solve the puzzle, please call the Caledonian Stadium and ask for Billy Dodds. After the rout of Morton the previous week, what should have been a routine victory turned into a Christmas pantomime. Oh no it wasn't I hear you say - Oh yes it was came the unanimous reply.

It appears Billy Dodds has learnt nothing or won't listen after these games and the massive slump is now in full flow. 

Morton beat Partick Thistle on Tuesday night, but with three games in hand over us, methinks it's only a matter of time before we drop to fourth, or even worse, out of the play-off places.

Last Time Out

We slumped to defeat at home against a team that had not beaten us in almost twenty years. Twenty years; just let that sink in. Ayr were deserved winners against a hapless Caley Jags where our goal came from a cross that ended up un the net from Lewis Nicolson. Well done on your first goal for the club, just about the only positive from a thoroughly disappointing game.

Accies beat Morton 1-0 with Lewis Spence getting the only goal of the game just after the interval. 

Latest Team News 

We still have a raft of players missing and our season is in tatters. Allardice, Devine, MacGregor, Walsh and Welsh have all been out recently and despite an official preview kicking around on the official site, there's no news, if any, on who is likely to return, so meh!

As it is, Accies could put out their under 16's and take the points, so meh again.

What have Accies been up to in the latest transfer window? Eric has been doing the homework.

Departures

Jamie Smith - The 19 year old Goalkeeper is on Loan to Blackburn United FC. until the end of season.

Ben Stirling - Centre Back on loan to Edinburgh City until the end of season.

George Stanger - The Centre Back left the club in October 2021 on a free transfer to Stirling University FC.

Luke Matheson - The English Right Back's loan from Wolves U23 ended in the January window and is now at Scunthorpe United FC.

Kyle Munro - A left wing player, he is currently on loan to Dumbarton FC

David Templeton - The former Hearts and Rangers left wing player missed much of last season through injury and returned to action at the beginning of the current campaign, but hadn’t featured since coming off the bench in a defeat to Kilmarnock in August, announced his retirement in November 2021. He remains connected to Hamilton FC as a coach with their Youth Academy.

Arrivals

Daniel O'Reilly - The Dublin born centre back arrived in the January window on a free transfer from Irish side Drogheda United FC.

Steve Lawson - Steve Tevi Lawson is a French born right back with dual citizenship of Togo, a winter arrival without a club since leaving Livingston FC last summer after a 3 year spell at there.

Ellis Brown - A left sided midfield player who has transferred in January on an undisclosed fee from English 5th tier Vanarama National League side Boreham Wood FC

Kai Kennedy - The perpetual loan Ranger turned up at Hamilton in January on loan until the end of this season. The attacking left winger from Rangers Reserves has had several loan spells in the Championship with ICT, Raith Rovers and Dunfermline.

Thanks Eck, good work.

 

 

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Good entertaining second half and that, from a supporters point of view, is what football is all about.

Would have been nice to win it but unlike last week, that performance gives me hope!

Terrible spectacle, can thing get any worse. When is Dodds going to accept this is not a 'blip' to quote  Naismith. This is a crisis that needs to be addressed now, by an ineffective management team.

 

Seeing as Kingsmills thinks I’m an optimist, some pluses from our dismal run:

Cammy MacKay has shown he is a very capable goalie with two very good performances in which he had several good saves and could not be blamed for the goals we lost.

Lewis Hyde did not look out of place at right back tonight (and I may be wrong but is he not a midfielder?).

Lewis Nicolson looks a prospect at left back.

Sam Pearson is a find and his first senior goal tonight should give him confidence to kick on. I wish we’d give him the full 90 minutes rather than subbing him, though.

It is good to have Devine and Doran back. Hopefully they are fully fit for next Friday.

Yes, there are an awful lot of negatives which we are rightly highlighting and discussing, particularly the 10 game winless run and some of our tactics, but I felt it worth taking a step back and looking at positives. 

Edited February 25, 20224 yr by Robert

33 minutes ago, Robert said:

Seeing as Kingsmills thinks I’m an optimist, some pluses from our dismal run:

Cammy MacKay has shown he is a very capable goalie with two very good performances in which he had several good saves and could not be blamed for the goals we lost.

Lewis Hyde did not look out of place at right back tonight (and I may be wrong but is he not a midfielder?).

Lewis Nicolson looks a prospect at left back.

Sam Pearson is a find and his first senior goal tonight should give him confidence to kick on. I wish we’d give him the full 90 minutes rather than subbing him, though.

It is good to have Devine and Doran back. Hopefully they are fully fit for next Friday.

Yes, there are an awful lot of negatives which we are rightly highlighting and discussing, particularly the 10 game winless run and some of our tactics, but I felt it worth taking a step back and looking at positives. 

Just to add Austin Samuels is showing potential and I hope he will improve as he gets more game time.  I don't understand why he took off Pearson early!

1 minute ago, IBM said:

Just to add Austin Samuels is showing potential and I hope he will improve as he gets more game time.  I don't understand why he took off Pearson early!

I agree. If we play Samuels wide, he needs to improve how he tracks back and supports the left back (as does Pearson on the right) but he created the confusion that led to our goal and was troubling their right back at times, particularly when he came inside. 

Hopefully not the last draw in the Championship this weekend. Every team still just about has something to play for which could work to our advantage but draws won't keep us in a playoff spot too much longer. 

17 hours ago, Satan said:

Have you contacted your GP yet?

Sounds nasty.

I will make an appointment first thing Monday morning.

Here's todays games.

Mon the Queens, Pars, Morton & maybe Rovers for now.

 

Ayr Utd v Queens

Dunfermline v Kilmarnock

    Morton v Arbroath

  Rovers v Partick

12 hours ago, IBM said:

Just to add Austin Samuels is showing potential and I hope he will improve as he gets more game time.  I don't understand why he took off Pearson early!

Looking back on iPlayer, it's not quite as good as I had thought, but the goal was still an example of the directness of play from the new guys that I have mentioned once or twice.

Samuels cut inside, then passed towards three of our players in fairly central positions on the edge of the box.  (Three?  How did that happen? )  In that type of situation, either one of your own players receives it, in a dangerous position, or you may well get lucky with a mistake by a defender.  The latter is what happened in this case.

Play the percentages, make direct moves and passes into dangerous areas, and you will make your own luck.

I agree about Pearson.  I thought he did well.  Of all the new guys, Hardy is the one who has impressed me least - though to be fair, I don't think he has had as much game-time as the others.

Does anyone know where Roddy MacGregor has gone? 

Yes

53 minutes ago, tm4tj said:

Yes

You've been on the club's communications training course!

Play it again Sam...

2 hours ago, cif73 said:

Does anyone know where Roddy MacGregor has gone? 

 

1 hour ago, tm4tj said:

Yes

 

31 minutes ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

You've been on the club's communications training course!

 

Nope - he answered the question !  that's not in the handbook !

That last nights performance is seen as an improvement shows how far we've fallen this season. Another poor showing with the defence looking suspect, midfield unable to create anything and wasteful finishing up front. The first half was poor again and although we were better in the second half and probably should have won it we didn't and we drop more points and can kiss goodbye to any lingering dreams of a title fight. Mckay (twice), Pearson, McAlear and Hardy all had great chances to grab a vital win but at no point did any of them really look like scoring.

Staggered that Samuels is getting praise on here. I must be watching a different player as time and time again he just seemed to run into a dead end and lose the ball. He barely created anything of note the entire game. Yes he helped to set up the goal but I'm sorry, he got lucky there. When he plays that pass it's going to absolutely no one in a blue shirt. I don't think Dodds knows where to play him in this team. Pearson was better on the opposite flank but seemed to fade into the second half. He helped out Hyde a lot when the latter was getting the run around from Kennedy to begin with. I felt Doran did reasonably well as a 10 behind Mckay and linked well with the wide men. Disappointed when he went off.

Easy to say with hindsight but I feel we rushed Devine back too quickly for this one. He seemed to misjudge a header and appeared to jarr his foot in the pitch and looked to have tweaked something as he limped off. Not what we need right now. Broadfoot and Deas both made errors during the course of the match being caught in possession or letting balls run by them thinking there was no one else around.

I thought Sutherland was actually quite decent when he came on. He seemed to give our attack a wee bit of a boost when it seemed Hamilton were coming back into things and he did well to pick Mckay out for a chance IIRC. (Cammy) Mackay did well and pulled off some good saves. Especially the one in the first half when it looked like an Accies player wandered back onto the pitch, was surely offside and came across the path of the ball. Given Muir's performance if that had gone in I suspect it would have stood. As bad an officiating display as I've seen in a long time.

There was no lack of effort but there's just not a lot of good football being played by these guys just now. 

Edited February 26, 20224 yr by RiG

Again, results couldn't have gone much better for us. Other teams in the race falling over themselves to do us a favour.

For all the resources Killie are throwing at it, they are really poor and I sincerely hope they fail.

If we'd had a half decent run since the Morton 6-1 win, we'd have a healthy lead at the top. If only...............

14 minutes ago, DWH said:

Again, results couldn't have gone much better for us. Other teams in the race falling over themselves to do us a favour.

For all the resources Killie are throwing at it, they are really poor and I sincerely hope they fail.

If we'd had a half decent run since the Morton 6-1 win, we'd have a healthy lead at the top. If only...............

With everyone else stumbling to a draw, it is even more frustrating that we did so too.

Arbroath v Partick on Tuesday night and .....

Partick v Inverness on Friday night.

Not one team is that superior to another. Therefore the playoffs are reachable. And more importantly winable. 

1 minute ago, GoliathGrunt said:

Not one team is that superior to another. Therefore the playoffs are reachable. And more importantly winable. 

Wish I shared your optimism!

11 matches, no wins.....................and counting...........

Now now! It's only ten...

41 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

With everyone else stumbling to a draw, it is even more frustrating that we did so too.

This season is ridiculous, it’s’ like nobody actually wants to win the league.

5 hours ago, tm4tj said:

Yes

Thanks for the response. I'm glad I posted the question. 

5 hours ago, RiG said:

That last nights performance is seen as an improvement shows how far we've fallen this season. Another poor showing with the defence looking suspect, midfield unable to create anything and wasteful finishing up front. The first half was poor again and although we were better in the second half and probably should have won it we didn't and we drop more points and can kiss goodbye to any lingering dreams of a title fight. Mckay (twice), Pearson, McAlear and Hardy all had great chances to grab a vital win but at no point did any of them really look like scoring.

Staggered that Samuels is getting praise on here. I must be watching a different player as time and time again he just seemed to run into a dead end and lose the ball. He barely created anything of note the entire game. Yes he helped to set up the goal but I'm sorry, he got lucky there. When he plays that pass it's going to absolutely no one in a blue shirt. I don't think Dodds knows where to play him in this team. Pearson was better on the opposite flank but seemed to fade into the second half. He helped out Hyde a lot when the latter was getting the run around from Kennedy to begin with. I felt Doran did reasonably well as a 10 behind Mckay and linked well with the wide men. Disappointed when he went off.

Easy to say with hindsight but I feel we rushed Devine back too quickly for this one. He seemed to misjudge a header and appeared to jarr his foot in the pitch and looked to have tweaked something as he limped off. Not what we need right now. Broadfoot and Deas both made errors during the course of the match being caught in possession or letting balls run by them thinking there was no one else around.

I thought Sutherland was actually quite decent when he came on. He seemed to give our attack a wee bit of a boost when it seemed Hamilton were coming back into things and he did well to pick Mckay out for a chance IIRC. (Cammy) Mackay did well and pulled off some good saves. Especially the one in the first half when it looked like an Accies player wandered back onto the pitch, was surely offside and came across the path of the ball. Given Muir's performance if that had gone in I suspect it would have stood. As bad an officiating display as I've seen in a long time.

There was no lack of effort but there's just not a lot of good football being played by these guys just now. 

Excellent summarisation Andrew, Thought you might have mentioned our obvious pen claim,  Which after watching highlights was a disgrace that clown Muir never gave a pen.