Just as a practice for the season ahead, and to break away from the other goings on, I thought I'd start a team thread. So, because the opposition is decent and a good tester before the Aberdeen game, I'd like to see it being looked at as a proper game and not one with a dozen changes during it.

And my team would be

                                                                      Fraser

                                                    Rossco, Munro, Hastings, Zadi

                                                      Cowie, Duncan, Black, Imrie

                                                                Rory, Barrowman

Bench: Esson, Kerr, McGuire, Wilson, McBain, Sutherland, Wood

who is bannerman?

who is bannerman?

Just testing your powers of observation :001:

anyway i wld have the same team except form instead of hastings i wld have proctor or mcguire

Fraser,

Tokely, McGuire, Munro, Zadi

Zander, Cowie, Black, Vigurs

  Barrowman, Imrie

subs. Esson

Duff, Hastings

Wilson, Duncan

Wood, he who must not be named

McBain, Kerr

Wouldnt have Munro & Hastings in the middle, both left footers and left sided players see!    not only that Hastings is gash in the middle (despite what he does for Canada) which leaves ( unfortunatley) Mcguire or Proctor, neither of whom fill me with any kind of confidence.

I am still praying that the management wake up from their slumbers and realise that we NEED a decent, experienced central defender.

Would also not have Rory on from the start, but thats just me...

I'd give Esson at least a half.

i think rory may have earned a start v burnley with his hat trick against helforge. If he does well again he may well start v the dons,opening day

Yes--looks like it. Maybe it's the time to give Rory his big chance anyway. Especially in a friendly since if he does nothing of moment then at least he had been given a chance to shine before the serious games start.

Actual team for the game from Burnley website report.

Inverness CT: Fraser, Tokely, Hastings, McGuire (Duff 64), Munro, Duncan, Cowie, Black, Rooney (McAllister 79), Barrowman, McBain (Imrie 64).

Subs: Proctor, Djebi-Zadi, Wilson, Vigurs, Wood, Esson.

No coincidence we started playing better when Mcbain and McGuire went off for Imrie and Duff. Hope to see the team that finsihed start next week.

Edited August 2, 200817 yr by James

Actual team for the game from Burnley website report.

Inverness CT: Fraser, Tokely, Hastings, McGuire (Duff 64), Munro, Duncan, Cowie, Black, Rooney (McAllister 79), Barrowman, McBain (Imrie 64).

Subs: Proctor, Djebi-Zadi, Wilson, Vigurs, Wood, Esson.

No coincidence we started playing better when Mcbain and McGuire went off for Imrie and Duff. Hope to see the team that finsihed start next week.

Does that mean we have definitely signed Rooney on loan then????

Does that mean we have definitely signed Rooney on loan then????

Looks like it! Good signing I'd say, even though I haven't personally seen him play, the reports have been good!

Bit worrying that Brewster continues to play McGuire and that we leak goals! Then as soon as Imrie and Duff come on the game turns around. Right now for us not at the game, we know what needs to be done... Brewsters there so get a clue Brew!!

Looks like it! Good signing I'd say, even though I haven't personally seen him play, the reports have been good!

Bit worrying that Brewster continues to play McGuire and that we leak goals! Then as soon as Imrie and Duff come on the game turns around. Right now for us not at the game, we know what needs to be done... Brewsters there so get a clue Brew!!

Burnley made 9 subs in total the majority of which were made around the same time as McGuire was removed so not too much can be read into the timing of the game changing today.

We only started playing when Burnley started making a load of subs. I missed first 15 min due to arses on road but I thought we were crap in first hour barely having an attempt on goal. there 2 goals were down to mistakes in our defense. We looked a lot better when they changed their team around, 2 offside efforts and 1 off the post from Barrowman as well as his goal.

Chris Eagles is Ronaldo in disguise. looks like, tanned like, arrogant, even walks like Ronaldo

Actual team for the game from Burnley website report.

Inverness CT: Fraser, Tokely, Hastings, McGuire (Duff 64), Munro, Duncan, Cowie, Black, Rooney (McAllister 79), Barrowman, McBain (Imrie 64).

Subs: Proctor, Djebi-Zadi, Wilson, Vigurs, Wood, Esson.

No coincidence we started playing better when Mcbain and McGuire went off for Imrie and Duff. Hope to see the team that finsihed start next week.

No sign of Guy Kerr then? Another good player who will likely be away then

No sign of Guy Kerr then? Another good player who will likely be away then

Maybe just a case of keeping numbers down and no reflection on Kerr or maybe he's injured. I wouldn't read too much into it at the minute.

As for todays game I dont know how they played so cant comment on that but I do think that to only lose by one goal against a championship team is not a bad result. I'll be a lot more concerned if thats the score next week.

Maybe just a case of keeping numbers down and no reflection on Kerr or maybe he's injured. I wouldn't read too much into it at the minute.

As for todays game I dont know how they played so cant comment on that but I do think that to only lose by one goal against a championship team is not a bad result. I'll be a lot more concerned if thats the score next week.

As you say it's a decent result againt a team looking for promotion to the EPL. They've also spent ?4 million or so so to compete with them is a positive. Still not happy about the defensive mistakes when Mcguire is inthe team, whether or not he is personally responsible we do make more collectively when he plays.

If we play like that every week then we are going down!

That was my first game for over a year so don't have much to compare it too but there was very little encouragement for the new season.

We spent the first half just punting the ball aimlessly up the park to no-one and barely attempted to get the ball down and pass it. Munro has clearly forgotten what a pass is as I don't think he managed one all day, and Tokely was at fault for both of the goals as he needlessly gave the ball away. The other thing of note was the complete lack of pace in the team, with no-one capable of running very fast which meant that it took ages to go anywhere when we eventually got the ball.

I know that the Championship is way above SPL standard but it was obvious that they could have scored a load more if they wanted to and we only came into the game once they made loads of subs and basically gave up.

boys listen! it wesnae that bad! sh*t;first half, we raleyed in the second half and controled it!

I've got to say that I thought ICT were appalling in the first half, easily the worst side Burnley have played in pre season. If we had taken some gilt edged chances, it could have been 5 or 6 at half time.

However, in the 2nd half there was a tremendous improvement. Yes we made 9 substitutions, but we brought on first team squad players, not kids. Caley closed us down more (in the first half, our players had so much time to pass the ball it was incredible), and tried to get more players into our half. Although it must be said that, apart from the goal, which was down to a terrible piece of defending by Steven Caldwell, and a shot that hit the outside of the post, neither Diego Penny or Brian Jensen were really troubled.

I've no idea of the strength of the SPL, but if you play like you did in the first half, I'm afraid that relegation looms. However, if the second half performance is typical then you should be OK, providing you can get somebody to create a goalscoring threat.

All the best for the coming season.

Thanks Clasretfan, a goalscoring threat is going to be our real problem this season together with the absence of a commanding cental defender.

Edited August 3, 200817 yr by Kingsmills

Had an excellent alcohol feuled weekend in Lancashire....

I think we have enough to avoid relegation but I'm not sure whether we'll improve on last season without a couple more signings.

First half was dire and we were lucky to only let in 2. First goal was entirly Rossco's fault, Burnley's left winger cut inside onto his right foot, skipped over Tokely's meagre attempt of a challenge and curled the ball past Ikey with an excellent finish.

2nd goal was a catalogue of errors, first of all Tokely lost out on a 50-50 with the left winger who must have weighed as much as Kate Moss.... Elliot then managed to cross the ball, which was intercepted by Hastings at the back post who should have then cleared the ball but instead tried to control it giving Blake from Burnley the chance to tackle and cut back the ball for Eagles' debutant goal. A complete mess, I don't think I've ever seen an ICT defence in such diseray.... embarrassing!!

Burnley had more chances than I'd like to count in the first half....

Second half and Brew must have ripped through the team because we started off with much more intent. McBain & Cowie switched flanks creating more oppertunities for Barrowman & Rooney. We were putting a lot of pressure on Burnley but no clear chances until Caldwell struggled to clear the ball, Barrowman used his strength to get infront of him and slotted the ball in the top right corner... great finish when other forwards might have gone for power. We were starting to have more luck playing direct with both Rooney & Barrowman giving the Burnley centre halves a good physical battle, the ball broke to Barrowman outside the box which he directed towards the top corner but it hit off the wrong side of the post. We had a couple of half chances after but nothing worth writing about

Negatives:

The first half

Tokely didn't look as though he could be @rsed

Hastings wasn't much better although he did improve in the second half

McBain is not a left winger, he looks far more comfortable in the centre of the park... he gets a nose bleed when he is relied on to create something

Black took far too long on the ball, Burnley sused that he was going to take an extra touch each time and he lost the ball on far too many occasions

Duncan's passing hasn't got any better

Positives:

Second half

I'm convinced Barrowman will score goals, he has excellent composure infront of goal but for a big lad he seems to go down a bit easy

Jamie Duff... the defence looked much more solid when he came on to replace McGuire, don't think he missed a tackle and had to mark Akinbiyi when he came on who has given a lot of Premiership defenders a horried time in the past

Rooney seems to be a decent player but was quiet for a lot of the game, he had a couple of nice touches and I think he has a few goals to contribute to the team this season

Munro, Cowie & Fraser gave decent performances

Edited August 3, 200817 yr by Harry Chibber

Had an excellent alcohol feuled weekend in Lancashire....

I think we have enough to avoid relegation but I'm not sure whether we'll improve on last season without a couple more signings.

First half was dire and we were lucky to only let in 2. First goal was entirly Rossco's fault, Burnley's left winger cut inside onto his right foot, skipped over Tokely's meagre attempt of a challenge and curled the ball past Ikey with an excellent finish.

2nd goal was a catalogue of errors, first of all Tokely lost out on a 50-50 with the left winger who must have weighed as much as Kate Moss.... Elliot then managed to cross the ball, which was intercepted by Hastings at the back post who should have then cleared the ball but instead tried to control it giving Blake from Burnley the chance to tackle and cut back the ball for Eagles' debutant goal. A complete mess, I don't think I've ever seen an ICT defence in such diseray.... embarrassing!!

Burnley had more chances than I'd like to count in the first half....

Second half and Brew must have ripped through the team because we started off with much more intent. McBain & Cowie switched flanks creating more oppertunities for Barrowman & Rooney. We were putting a lot of pressure on Burnley but no clear chances until Caldwell struggled to clear the ball, Barrowman used his strength to get infront of him and slotted the ball in the top right corner... great finish when other forwards might have gone for power. We were starting to have more luck playing direct with both Rooney & Barrowman giving the Burnley centre halves a good physical battle, the ball broke to Barrowman outside the box which he directed towards the top corner but it hit off the wrong side of the post. We had a couple of half chances after but nothing worth writing about

Negatives:

The first half

Tokely didn't look as though he could be @rsed

Hastings wasn't much better although he did improve in the second half

McBain is not a left winger, he looks far more comfortable in the centre of the park... he gets a nose bleed when he is relied on to create something

Black took far too long on the ball, Burnley sused that he was going to take an extra touch each time and he lost the ball on far too many occasions

Duncan's passing hasn't got any better

Positives:

Second half

I'm convinced Barrowman will score goals, he has excellent composure infront of goal but for a big lad he seems to go down a bit easy

Jamie Duff... the defence looked much more solid when he came on to replace McGuire, don't think he missed a tackle and had to mark Akinbiyi when he came on who has given a lot of Premiership defenders a horried time in the past

Rooney seems to be a decent player but was quiet for a lot of the game, he had a couple of nice touches and I think he has a few goals to contribute to the team this season

Munro, Cowie & Fraser gave decent performances

Thanks for so much info and analysis, Harry. One question:

Were we opting for the long ball again during the first half? ExiledICT's post suggested this and my heart sank when I read it. Given that nearly all our quality lies in midfield, I think we will go down if we start this p*sh again this season.

Thanks for so much info and analysis, Harry. One question:

Were we opting for the long ball again during the first half? ExiledICT's post suggested this and my heart sank when I read it. Given that nearly all our quality lies in midfield, I think we will go down if we start this p*sh again this season.

Was hard to tell because we were defending for the most of the first half, second half we were playing direct football because we were trying to get the equaliser...

Black & Duncan were struggling to pass the ball 10yrds so didn't really leave any other option than hit the ball long

Was hard to tell because we were defending for the most of the first half, second half we were playing direct football because we were trying to get the equaliser...

Black & Duncan were struggling to pass the ball 10yrds so didn't really leave any other option than hit the ball long

Ta. Same old, same old from Russell on the passing front, then? Not encouraging about Black, though. At least he didn't lamp anyone. Or did he?

Ta. Same old, same old from Russell on the passing front, then? Not encouraging about Black, though. At least he didn't lamp anyone. Or did he?

He was getting frustrated at one point and went in for a bad challenge, which would have probably been a yellow card if it wasn't a friendly. It wasn't all bad though he had a shot towards the end of the match that just sailed over the bar.... Black is without doubt one of our most talented players but he was just taking far too long on the ball and got caught out on far too many occasions