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I was in the pub last weekend discussing the concerns over recent performances and whether Terry had any fault in it. I can remember Harry Truman said "It's what you learn after you know it all that counts." and then Carl Bach pondered and added "According to my principles, every master has his true and certain value. Praise and criticism cannot change any of that. Only the work itself praises and criticizes the master, and therefore I leave to everyone his own value." I suspect he was in his usual existential spliff mode but Leslie Fiedler rather poignantly added that "All good criticism should be judged the way art is. You shouldn't read it the way you read history or science". Then Paula Abdul, evidently being on the pisshh all day, slurred out "Constructive criticism is about finding something good and positive to soften the blow to the real critique of what really went on." On the road back to the Govan Hilton with some prawn crackers wee Lao Tzu put his arms around my shoulders and said "Theses clackers are rubbery but you tell yer friend Telly from mee that a good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader, a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves. I think I then went on Face Book and contacted TelBoy.

I'll be there cheering on ICT, unless I'm in Raigmore maternity ward cheering on the wife!

Blimey, what a turnaround from Tuesday night. To be honest, at 1-0 I thought Motherwell looked much more likely to score...but the second goal just knocked the stuffing out of them. We look so much better with Tokely in the centre of defence, Duff at full back and Duncan in midfield, we really do. Stonking finish by Sutherland for the first goal, nearly took the net off! Lovely breakaway for the second which Foran finished, and Cox missed a great chance before MacDonald came off the bench and scored with his first touch. And to cap it all, a nice sunny day Can't believe Foran got man of the match though; Tokely and Hogg were excellent, Sutherland put in a good shift, and for me the stand out man was Lee Cox, who buzzed all over the pitch for the full 90mins. Motherwell beat Celtic, we humped Motherwell, so that should make next week's cup game a cinch :biggrin:

Ginger Jaggy has been checking out this fixture for us. The odds appear to be stacked against us, but that's when we are most dangerous................well, let's hope so.

ESSON DUFF HOGG GRANTY GILLET / SHINNIE HAYES ROSS DUNCAN DORAN ROONEY FORAN Fields of Athenry The Longman Dump - the Lyrics By a lonely weegie wall I heard a young Tim crying "Caley they are taking Barnes away For they stuffed us three to one. Wilson, Mann, Sheerin - well done." Now a Sun headline lies waiting in the tray. Chorus So come here the noise of Sneckie Boys As once more we take the Mighty Cellic on. Hart (Hayes) flew down the wing A Wyness (Rooney) goal was a shure thing As the Caley went (go) ballistic once again. After a Quarter Final draw I again heard that young Tim calling "Henrik will score at least three" But we rose again we took them down Despite their Famine and their Crown Now they must treat the Sneck with dignity. Chorus By a lonely Marina wall I watched the last star falling As HMS Sneck sailed out against the sky But she'll wait and in hope I pray She will return on a Sunday And it will be allowed by the the Wee Free Presbetry Chorus

Was it a long night for you IHE ? here's some medication

The quality of match officials has been on the decline for years....despite them being paid more now than they ever have!!! It's easy to throw technology out there as the answer, but so many errors are being made over the course of a game these days that matches would end up running for hours on end with all the stops to check videos or whatever. Sadly, as with many aspects of the game, the problem has been allowed to get so bad that it's going to be tough to fix....and to fix it, the SFA would need to admit there's an issue in the first place. I think a grade 1 ref gets about ?800 for an SPL match these days....an amount that is seldom reflected in their performance on the park. Many of our players are on less than that, and the "oh but they come under a lot of scrutiny because of TV these days" is not an acceptable excuse for them having a bad game. They certainly wouldn't be around for long if the were consistently under performing, so why should it be any different for the referees? Maybe if they worked more than a handful of hours a week for their money and spent more time on personal development and reviewing match videos to identify instances of cheating by players (which then get punished) then things would start to improve.

Was it about your growth hormone ?

Feck me Scarlet - " AlL I hope is that the niggly comments on here don't infect the players because the team does not need that if it wants to get up off the floor." CALEY Thistle players have given assurances they are determined to rediscover their passion and spirit after manager Terry Butcher held crunch talks with the squad. The 45-minute group forum was the first time Butcher had given his men a chance to speak frankly about where the campaign has gone wrong in light of the side dropping out of the SPL top six earlier this week. Following the 2-0 loss at home to Dundee United on Tuesday night, the Inverness manager cancelled the players' day off on Wednesday in favour of extra training. He also gave them a chance to voice their opinions on the recent form and the season as a whole. "It was looking at everything," Butcher said. "We talked about what happened at the start of the season and what has happened in the last few months. "It was them that chatted to us more than us to them, which was really good. "We threw it open to them and they came back with some very forthright honest views and opinions and it cleared the air. "It made us really refocus on what we have to do and get back to what we do best and I'm very pleased about that. "I think sometimes you need a bit of feedback and need to let the players have their say because we are all in this together." Butcher usually holds shorter review meetings with the squad every couple of weeks, allowing them to express their views but not in such an manner. "This time it was deliberately thrown open to everybody and I haven't done it before like this but we felt it was the right thing to do," explained Butcher, who normally carries out wider assessments with assistant manager Maurice Malpas rather than the squad. "If you have been in this game as long as Maurice and I have been you know there are times during the season where you reach a stage like this and think where are we going to go now? It's not a crossroads, but it's like putting the season on pause, assessing it to see where we are before we hit the play button again, then we're off. "They needed a bit of reassurance and we needed a bit of reassurance that we are on the right track and that we are doing things how we want to do them, but I think there is a real collective unit even more so now to be strong for each other and there was a real reassessment of their spirit and how we can move on. Do ya think my psychic powers have worked or was it this thread ? RESPECT

My biggest gripe at the minute, and it drives me insane at times, are the spineless linesmen / assistant referees who seem utterly incapable of making a decision by themselves and instead rely on the referee to make a call before going along with it. The most recent example that I remember was the home game against Saint Johnstone where the ball went out of play off a Saints player and the linesman gave a corner. Upon seeing that the referee had given a goal kick he changed his mind and flagged for a goal kick as well! If these guys aren't brave enough to make their own call and stand by it, especially when they are closest to the incident, then they should piss off and stop wasting our time.

As said already, we don't have many options for some of the positions that need filled due to injuries. Having Hayes out has hurt as badly as far as creativity is concerned but credit to Butcher for managing to bring in a player to the standard of Doran. Width is definitely something we lack, we have plenty players that can cover the wide roles - Foran, Ross, Blumenstein but i don't think that any of them are as effective out wide as they are in the centre (infact i dunno if blumenstein is effective in any position). So we've had the problem of playing with an injury hit squad and an imbalance of cover for certain positions and this has left us playing very badly. Butcher did an amazing job last season with mostly this squad. The last thing you would do after that run would be having a clear out, so we have been left with plenty of players that helped bring us success though aren't up to spl top 6 standard. I think Butcher will have a busy summer getting rid of players that are past it to free up wages for hopefully some good new faces though he's always gonna struggle to bring in the quality we all want to take us further. On top of that he'll be trying to hang on to our best players. Terry and Mo are definitely capable of taking us further and bringing us more success, its always going to be a struggle for anyone with our resources but he has the contacts and when we have the right players fit we play good, winning, attractive football with a decent balance of attack AND defence. And like i said with a wee clear out and some new faces (definitely a couple of natural wingers) we will be capable of playing our best most weeks.

I actually happen to think that the OP makes a valid point. The long ball is garbage and I do happen to think that it is a trait that Butcher does seem to favour. At Coventry, Butcher was fired with a FA Cup Replay still to play, and due apparently to Butcher's fondness of the long ball, it was an easier decision to boot him. Sydney FC was much the same thing. Gone were the sharp brown suits, passing-based football and A League title of Pierre Littbarski, and in was the training suited, punt-it-up-park football of Terry Butcher. The Sydney trophy cabinet was also noticeably empty that season. Like many others on this forum, I've been to more games in my life than I can think of and I will categorically say that ICT are unquestionably a better side when the ball is on the deck. Look at the facts. ICT are an attacking side, who have always benefited from using the width of the pitch to get the ball wide. It's no coincidence that ICT's greatest ever manager - Steve Paterson - made his success using ultra-attacking football. It's also no coincidence that ICT's worst two managers, Sergie Baltacha and Craig Brewster, failed with ICT, while using a defensive, long ball system in the process. It's also interesting to note that season, Terry Butcher's ICT only began their road to success, when a more attacking approach was taken. When ICT defend they lose, when they attack, they win. ICT should aim to attack - that's a fact.

This thread just sums up SOME of the posters on this forum...absolutely pathetic.

i dont get it !! Caley are secure in the SPL now and there are still moans .A year without defeat away from home BUT thats not good enough for some. Its been a hard couple of seasons

I posted this on the United post maybe it should be here http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/14515/What_s_gone_wrong_with_Caley_Thistle_.html Back to being underdogs again we usually seem to do well with that mentality. Come on the Caley.

So where does the "we" come from ? And it is ICT not ITC Lawrence. Were you at Tannadice ? Were you at Ibrox ? Were you at Parkhead ? Were you at Rugby Park ? No - we were. What fecker asked you to visit ? Must have been a whining, disloyal sweetie rustler - go and watch the Old firm if ya want to glory hunt in Scotland.

To the folk who dished out the red dots for my last comments, would it not make for more constructive debate if you were to actually say where you think I am wrong?

I'm bitterly dissapointed not because of the result as United were the better team but it was the way we lost, I lost count how many hoof up the parks were played tonight by Tokely and Munro There was very little football played on the deck, there was no passion and to be honest very little if any entertainment Our home performances have been nothing short of an embarrassment this season and I now really have doubts about our management duo and the tactics they seem to be deploying I am in no way calling for their heads(not yet anyway) in this thread but I believe its about time they tried something new tactic wise because if they don't they are going to see dramatic reductions in attendance at the Caledonian Stadium for the remainder of the season I shudder to think where we would be if we hadn't had such a good start and picked up all the points we got on the road C'mon Terry & Mo i'm afraid what we are having to endure from November time isn't good enough dougal

Foran was outstanding I thought, and my MOTM by a mile....followed by Nick Ross. Strange game. First half was dire I thought, and Motherwell were the better team in my opinion. They played some neat passing movements, but never really looked threatening. Second half was a lot better, and we caught them on the break time after time. Still too much lumping it anywhere for my liking, Duff being the worst culprit for this. In fact, I'm not sure Duff should be anywhere near the team, he seems to want to take an extra touch everytime, before ballooning out of play for the umpteemth time. Much needed win though, thats the main thing. Is Hayes injured again??