Friday Footie Frills at Firhill

 

It's Friday Footie Frills at Firhill for a TV spectacular as we take on fellow contenders Partick Thistle in the Championship. This game can be seen on BBC Scotland, that's cooncil TV to you and me, or even better get yersel along to Firhill and cheer the lads on. It's a 7:45pm kick off as two of the fancied teams for a play-off place meet head on. We have history of course. We ended Partick's ambitions last season with home and away wins in the play-offs. Early doors yet, but both teams will be looking to keep pace with favourites Dundee at the top of the table.

MATCH/TICKET/SUPPORTERS BUS INFO

 

Venue H2H v Partick

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	23	10	6	7	37	33	+4
Away	22	6	6	10	23	30	-7
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	45	16	12	17	60	63	-3

Home advantage looks to be the deciding factor in these fixtures. We did however get the better of Partick in last seasons play-off games, winning 2-1 at Firhill:-  Advantage Inverness: The first leg of the Premiership Play-Offs saw Inverness travel to Glasgow to take on the Maryhill Magyars as a place in the top division beckoned. Neither side were able to dominate on the Firhill tattie field and they went in goalless at the break although Logan Chalmers looked to be impeded as he tried to get a shot away. Crawford opened the scoring when he got onto a reverse ball from Graham to shoot high into the net from inside the box to put Partick in the driving seat. Inverness turned it round in the second half with goals from Shane Sutherland and Austin Samuels and it's back to the Highlands on Friday night to conclude this tie. And that turned out to be a 1-0 home win for the Caley Jags.

Here's the goals from that last game at Firhill

Last 10 Competitive Meetings v Partick

1 - 0 (H)

2 - 1 (A)

0 - 1 (A)

3 - 3 (H)

0 - 0 (A)

3 - 1 (H)

1 - 3 (A)

1 - 3 (H)

2 - 1 (A)

1 - 2 (H)

Saturday fixtures

   Arbroath v Queen's Park

Cove v Ayr Utd

Accies v Rovers   

Morton v Dundee  

This Season

Partick Thistle started the season with a bang. A tremendous away win at Dens Park in a five goal thriller was followed up by a home draw against Hamilton Accies, Brian Graham salvaging a point with a late equaliser in a game that Partick always had the edge but had to battle to get their point. Last week the big Glasgow derby ended in defeat as newly promoted Queens Park stunned the visitors faithful with a 3-2 win. Makes Inverness' opening day draw with Queens feel like a point gained instead of a point lost. Our second game was a predictable no scoring draw at Arbroath and last Saturday brought our first win of the campaign by 4-1 over Cove Rangers. Austin Samuels the one responsible for most of that with a couple of goals along with Aaron Doran and Nathan Shaw who opened his account at the Caledonian Stadium.

Latest Team News

Alas, Sutherland and Walsh are out long term with Sean Welsh and Max Ram also in recovery mode. Wallace Duffy and David Carson missed out last week which left us a bit lop sided at the back. To compound that, left sided defender Lewis Nicolson has gone on loan to Elgin City until January. Austin Samuels' performance last week earned him a 'place' in the team of the week.

Eric's Partick probe

Exodus from Firhill: Mason McCready goalkeeper on loan to Dalbeattie Star. The following players had their loans terminated by parent club Rangers FC, Andy Firth goalkeeper, Lewis Mayo centre back and centre forward Juan Alegria. Loan player right winger Kyle McCallister back to St Mirren and forward Alex Jakubiak returned to Dundee FC. Three players have gone on free transfers to Queen of the South, backs Ciaran McKenna and Stephen Hendrie also right-winger Connor Murray Moving on from Firhill on free transfers are Steven Bell centre back to Kelty Hearts, Shea Gordon a midfield player now at Larne FC and forward Ross MacIver to Alloa. Zak Rudden confirmed signed for Dundee after being on loan there for the second half of last season.

Another couple of players have left, Ricky Foster is off to Detroit City and midfielder Robbie Crawford has just joined Morton this afternoon.

New faces at Firhill that have arrived on a free transfer basis.

David Mitchell goalkeeper from Hibernian: Harry Milne left back from Cove Rangers: Jack McMillan right back from Livingston FC

Another right back in Aaron Muirhead from Ayr United: Aiden Fitzpatrick from Queen of the South plays on the right of midfield.

Steven Lawless right winger previously at Dunfermline Athletic: A couple of centre forwards added to the squad are Danny Mullen from Dundee FC and Anton Dowds ex Falkirk.

Loan players in include Lee Hodson a right back from Kilmarnock, and no surprised to find a couple of Loan ins from Rangers FC in Cole McKinnon in midfield and forward player Tony Weston.

Thanks Eric, Partick Thistle keeping you on your toes I see

 

 

View full article

 

Lies, damn lies and statistics!

As others have said, young Lewis thrown to the wolves. McCall must have been rubbing his hands when he saw our lineup.
By the same token, our midfielders like Allardice, Doran and Roddy have to step up to the plate in a fixture like this. Docherty, Bannigan and McKinnon won’t even need a shower after that. The only players to come out of it with any credit are Samuels, Ridgers and Billy.

Look on the bright side- no one’s going to be looking to sign any of our players this transfer window.

Shaw, Boyd and Oakley contributed a lot more than the players they replaced.

Well, that was the worst performance from ICT for some time. We had no energy, no quality to our play and as usual no plan B from Dodds. Take nothing away from Partick, they were good all over the park, but we didn't help ourselves with the tactics and terrible passing. As soon as I saw Hyde was playing, and was up against Tiffony, I thought we were in trouble. For Dodds to give him that task was a disaster waiting to happen for the young player. We needed to win the midfield and if that meant sacrificing a forward player, so be it. It was the wrong formation, the wrong lineup and the wrong tactics. I really hope Dodds learns something from this, or it's going to be a long hard season. 

I’m trying to remember the last time none of our players remotely celebrated us scoring a goal?

Only positive - we're home already, the Inverness folk have hours to go still.

 

Oh, another positive: we won second-half injury time...

Match reporter in crime scene and unable to provide feedback 

A frankly embarrassing performance from start to finish and yet another poor starting selection call from Dodds. Personally I don't think we've done great business this Summer and we've certainly lost a fair bit of quality. I hope I'm wrong but I don't see us strengthening further and based on tonight's capitulation I fear a tough season ahead. Was gone by the time their fourth was scored, something I have very rarely done over the years but enough was enough. A truly lamentable night in Maryhill.

Our heaviest defeat in the league for quite a while and yet I've put central defender Zak Delaney as my MOTM.  Mark Ridgers was not at fault for any of the goals either, although the same can't be said for the usually reliable Robbie Deas.  Let's hope that was just a one-off, bad day for Robbie and his lack of concentration wasn't because his mind was distracted by an imminent move. Billy put in a decent shift and Austin Samuels grafted hard trying to do the midfielders' work for them but the rest were poor.  A good delivery from a corner leading to a superb headed goal from George Oakley at the death was a belated reminder of what we are capable of. 

The club’s report.

it says there were 231 away fans: credit to all of you!

https://ictfc.com/match-report-partick-thistle-4-1-ictfc-19-08-2022

The morning after the night before and yes It really happened.We were poor all over and only Ridgers,Billy and Samuel's can hold their heads up.I think the mid field must have been on witness protection because they were not at Firhill. Two minutes in and all could see Tiffoney as expected was the danger man.What did we do,we put the least experienced player on him and never changed until second half when it was all over.We have this amazing ability to be the masters of our own downfall.Well done to the travelling support you did your part,but alas ICT got gubbed in front of live TV because of poor tactics and team selection.Maybe the wake up call needed.

You have to start with your strongest eleven, and if Carson and Duffy were on the bench, then they should have started. It would be better to try and get a foot I'm the game first, and if those players could only give Dodds half a game, it's better to try and get some traction in the game, than having to try and rescue it when we are two goals down. This was a game when our midfield were posted missing. It really shows how much Welsh was missed from this game. I am always in the opinion that you have to win the midfield to have any chance to win the game, and we came up short there. We could have had Carson on at right back, put Hyde in midfield and had another midfielder in there and sacrificed a forward player. I know it's all iffs and buts, but to keep Hyde at right back against Tiffony was criminal from Dodds, Hyde had a couple of dodgy moments against Cove, so everyone apart from Dodds thought it was a disaster waiting to happen after 30 seconds of the game. I really hope Dodds learns from this result, as do the players, as they must know that they were left hopelessly shown up with this performance. Let's hope they come out with fire in their bellies in our next game against Morton. 

That went well didn't it, expected a bit more after last weeks win and performance. But chastening as it is, maybe the best time to get done like that.

We started slow and poor Lewis Hyde had a tough start against Tiffoney, and we couldn't control the midfield at all, but we are definitely missing Welsh [what is his injury, is it a consequence of 6 tough play-off games]. But after we went a goal down we seemed to be getting a measure of control back [or Partick were taking a breather] until Deas' uncharacteristic lapse for their 2nd goal [he completely failed to spot the run for the 1st goal; as well although so did Doran]. That nearly killed the game off, but the penalty certainly did.

The first lesson for me was we need to get a proper right back into the club, Carson has had good games there in the past, although a tad unlucky over the penalty, but he needs to be in right midfield....having looked at the 4th goal again, he seemed to have to cover two players, but even with the help of Samuels their player got in a great cross which Delaney maybe should have cut out [although it was a perfect cross, so would even Devine or Broadfoot from last season cut that out]

2nd lesson, Midfield-wise we are short there in terms of experience ball winners, without Welsh or Carson there, the young guys like Hyde or Macgregor need to step up fast.

3rd lesson, was this a match that needed Oakley up front to hold the ball up, and thus bring Samuels into play. Our tactic seemed often to lob the ball forward relying too much on McKay and Samuel to outwit or outpace their defence. We did also seem to want to play the ball along the ground too at times [credit there] but didn't complete the pass enough times in dangerous areas

Positives [on a bad night at the office]....Samuels, showing he can apply himself all match long to support defence and attack, not yet the finished article, but definitely a plus for us. Billy M, still going strong and still a threat [on another day he might have scored that chance]. Shaw, really impressed me, he looks like he could be the replacement for Sutherland on the wing. I saw enough of Delaney to think he will be decent, seems pretty strong, but needs game time to develop the anticipation to be ahead of the attacker recieving the ball. Oakley scoring, yes it was only a consolation, but it's always good to see someone on the score sheet. [You can tell why I've also supported Palace for so long, always find hope!]

Both MacGregor & Daniel M need game time, we know what they are capable of, Doran perhaps needs to start from the bench. I thought Harper did OK in a difficult match. Allardice started OK but he was outnumbered in the middle.

Overall frustrating, somewhat ruins the weekend, but not going the base my opinions on one poor game, Ive seen it too often, especially at ICT, when it gets put right over time.

Edited August 20, 20223 yr by Eagle4Caley
correction re Robbie Deas

1 hour ago, Robert said:

The club’s report.

it says there were 231 away fans: credit to all of you!

https://ictfc.com/match-report-partick-thistle-4-1-ictfc-19-08-2022

It felt more than that, as we were squeezed into a tiny oxter of the stand.

I can't beleive we were so bad last night. One or two players maybe did OK but the rest were awful. The players must take responsibility but Dodds has to take most of the blame. Yes we got a good result last week but selection and tactics need to be decided game to game. To play Hyde against Tiffoney was ridiculous. Surely Dodds would realise Hyde would struggle against one of the best wingers in the league. If he didn't he should of done after a couple minutes when Hyde had been beaten easily on two occasions. To not have a natural right back still is unbelievable. Carson needs to be moved back to midfield and a proper right back has to come in.

Edited August 20, 20223 yr by SteveA

Watched the game again this morning. Midfield getting a lot of stick here but it starts from the defence. The number of inaccurate passes out of defence was ridiculous. The number of times the commentator says ‘a slack ball from ****’ was incredible. Does it mean the midfield weren’t in space or the passing was sloppy? Not sure, but it put huge pressure which then resulted in lofted hoof balls. Wrong defence selected and that’s where the issues start. Welsh definitely a huge miss but the defence needs a look at quickly 

14 minutes ago, FrontRow said:

Does it mean the midfield weren’t in space

There was certainly one point during the first half when I noticed that we simply had two lines of players across the pitch - 5 in defence and 5 up front.   Nobody between them except quite a few Partick players.

On a positive,we experience a horror show a few times over the season.Now we have had the first one,let's learn lessons get the team selection and tactics right and when plan A is not working have a plan B.Lets put it all right next week and all will be forgotten. Finally don't put our young up and coming players against the best in the league and expect them to do well.It will just destroy their confidence when it doesn't work.No team in this league is a pushover so we have to go into every game focused and well versed.

To be fair to Dodds, he initially was loyal to those who convincingly beat Cove last week.  We have started the season well but clearly next Saturday it will be no more Mr Niceguy and a warning not to underestimate the opposition.

 

1 hour ago, FrontRow said:

Watched the game again this morning.

😮

CTO report 

 

18 hours ago, Yngwie said:

Shaw, Boyd and Oakley contributed a lot more than the players they replaced.

Very surprised at this comment. Boyd offered nothing from my POV apart from continuously trying to cut back onto his right foot when he got close to the box and dribble into an opposition player, Shaw was okay and apart from the goal I thought Oakley did nothing apart from give the ball away. I think that with every single change we made we got even worse. It was an utterly lamentable performance. Literally nothing positive to take away from the game.

Edited August 20, 20223 yr by RiG
Fat fingers.

Shaw or Shaw?