Leaderboard

Great result, should give the players a big boost, Cox, Russell, Hogg were the stand outs. Dont know how Young Nick is getting plaudits he was really off the pace and the game passed him by mostly apart from one run where he managed to set up Cox?. anyway i'll put it down to lack of match fitness. Foran did well and fought for the cause but not MOM. Young Macdonald did well, came on scored, nealy got another and nearly got booked!

You are, as usual substantially right aged immortal. There was a false dawn, there was a period where results were better than our ability merited, especially when the depth of our squad was shown to be shallow as when the injuries kicked in. But the men in charge have to share some culpability in that we have been shown to be tactically naive at times. Tuesday was a case in point. United brought on Bauben, which meant that Cox had to face up to him and Gomis in midfield. He had played Gomis well to that point, but with the two of them it took Utd. 4 mins to score. Cox was overrun, and TB's response - bring on Alex MacDonald. He's a fine player in the making but he ain't no holding midfielder which we needed at that time. There was one sitting on the bench, who I hope was (justifiably) frustrated. There have been other instances this year of substitutions that were too late, playing people out of position etc. But you know what? It's OK. we are 7th right now, we're in the QF of the cup. we won't go down barring a bigger collapse than a chilean mineshaft. They have got far more right than wrong but they ain't perfect. I'm still a fan.

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

Moving away from this shameless piece of soliciting by the kilted headshrinker for a moment, Terry Butcher's post-match comments, reported in the Sunday Herald today, were interesting: 'What came out of that meeting was that everybody wanted to work hard for each other. There are one or two who are not the best of pals, as you would expect, but they put that aside and work really hard. We haven't got any problems in the camp, but there was a real collective spirit.' Obviously on one level he's absolutely correct: you don't expect to be close friends with everyone you work with. However, before now, the message that has consistently come out of TCS in the Butcher era has been about the unity, team spirit and lack of egos in the squad. This is the first time there has been even a hint of discord - and the subtext of the phrase 'but they put that aside' is clearly that some sort of disagreement or resentment between some players, or players and management, has developed. It'll be interesting to see if the midweek meeting, and yesterday's result, really has resolved any problems there have been. On a completely prurient level, I'd like to know who he was referring to.

I think if you could have chosen which 3 players you would want to score it would be the 3 who got goals yesterday. I've been very impressed with Sutherland this year but he was really needing a goal. Scoring will do his confidence no end of good and also for young Macdonald. Foran has missed one or two recently and whilst many have praised Pernis for his save from Foran last week, in truth Foran had acres of space at the near post and should have simply tucked it away there rather less spectacularly than trying to power it across goal into the far corner. Whilst Rooney did not score, the other 3 scoring was good for him. For too long he has been the lone striker and the weight of expectation has fallen from him. His place is not under threat and knowing there are others in the team who are scoring helps to take some of the pressure to score off him. This performance is just what was required before the Celtic game. A good performance there should help confidence to be transferred to the rest of the league season

I wouldn't be erecting a statue to any particular individual. However, it's always bothered me that, as a club, we seem to shy away from everything pre-1994 so a pair of statues depicting the Eagle and the Thistle in recognition of the clubs roots and the work done by everyone to get us where we are would be most appropriate, IMO.

Jock McDonald.

Disagree. I thought Brines was mince. He wasn't as bad as others we have had recently but some of his decision making was very questionable.

I'll be in Los Cristianos, having a few in Goodfellas Bar with my Man City supporting owner pals. They always find a station for me to watch ICT games and the last time I saw a Celtic cup tie there Denzil scored the winner. Hope this is an omen, especially with my 35/1 Billy Hill ticket still running!!

What a surprising turn of events - belies my well formulated Dougal personality profile - first a compliment and now sound advice. I have asked fer this one - it should serve to raise some banter with the opposition hordes: And they have it in XXXXL

Fantastic turn around from Tuesday night and great too see Shane get off the mark, such a great strike too, hopefully thats one of many. And Alex McDonald getting his 1st goal too. Thought Butch got the tactics spot on today with Hogg and Tokely playing centre half, back four seemed much more solid and Duncan covered so much in midfield today and imo justified his cause for a starting place. Richie Foran, take a bow, played out of his skin today and by the looks of it was back to his best today. Motherwell for me looked sluggish, even when they were dominating in the 1st half, was very suprised to see Humphrey not starting, given Munro was at left back. By the time he was on it was all but over really was also funny watching the not so inspiring Francis Jeffers get bustled about by our backline, he never looked like scoring. Great to see us get back to winning ways and very pleasing to see us end a difficult week on a high.

You had some time on your hands today Oh Wise One??

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:

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.

Terry and Mo have done wonders for ICT in many ways but they also appear to be "protected species" in terms of criticism. Shure they have had their problems in regard to injuries, suspensions etc and probably more than most teams with a similar budget etc - especially in regard to important players BUT: Some of their tactical, positional and selection changes have been very reactive - often in respect of a game to game mentality. I am very surprised that they have not especially settled on the first choice back four, sticking by it, keeping the main men in the same position if available, using the individuals in reserve to fill in particular positions and being frankly brutal and consistent in this respect. Playing individuals "out of position" does nothing for those players either or the ones they depose. And blind faith in certain individuals - which clearly frustrates the fans must have an effect on the players. Their also appears to be a game to game "blame" mentality adopted by fans I am afraid that central midfield is very much the same scenario. It simply doesnt help the team, individuals, morale and confidence not knowing if you are playing from week to week, not knowing what position that you are playing in or what tactics and formation that the team are going to adopt. Only Esson, Hayes, Foran and Rooney appear to have been exempted plus for long periods it has tended to apply to Shinnie and Ross - and are those players the ones who have also performed more consistently ? Do Terry and MO actually know what their best X1 is ? This is not a Terry and Mo out call but they have to shoulder a lot of the blame for the last few months. They won the SFL by sticking to the same game plan - why not start it off again in the SPL - starting now. If they had faith in the system and the players that started last nite they should have the conviction - and the B88lixcks to adhere to it. and before I get lamblasted have a look again at the Best x1 thread as last nights selection was NOT that far away from what many of the armchair pundits selected. Getting Top 6 is now a bonus but continuity and improvement is all I am asking for - plus a win against the Old Filth and a day out at Hampden. My advice to Tel is to pick his teams like he picks his red wine.

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.

Having either Gillet or Shinnie back would help in the LB position Munro is getting slated for. Presumably Golly's just not got it anymore for Munro to have to get back there. Can't blame Butcher for that. How many players can we have for one position? We don't have a top six central midfielder. They're difficult to find. Duncan, Cox, Duff, Ross, Sanchez, Blumanshtein - all bottom six/SFL1, in my opinion (some hope for Ross mind you). Butcher's fault? I don't see how. I'm sure he'd love one. It's been the missing piece of the jigsaw since Black left, but where could we find a ready made replacement for no fee and low wages? Get one in and it's a game changer. Tactics. Well, I think there might be something in there. 4-2-3-1 was so successful away from home because it's a counter-attacking style. That's also what made it so bad at home, when we were more likely to attack/dominate. I'd be in favour of having a home and away system. It seems we pretty much have one system for all, then change that wholesale for another. I don't agree that Butcher was dismissed from Coventry for the long-ball. I think it was more political, with Ron Atkinson (a big cheese then) giving his interest. The club then invested a lot of money (Butcher IIRC made a profit) for not a lot of results. Sure, they played a more attacking style but spent the money on players that could do that, plus ended up no better off (in fact, worse off). At the end up, if we finish one better than any of Rangers, Celtic, Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen, Dundee Utd or Motherwell, then ICT have far exceeded my expectations for this season. I see Killie (flying high I know), St Mirren, St J and Accies as our mini-league. Finishing anywhere in the top 3 of that is a good season for a newly promoted club.

Long time no posting... Any how does anyone know what the Blackpool Fc fans fourm is called?

Tokely was great today and there is no chance he would be left out! Also Ross was prob the best player on the park today as well so if all the regular midfielders are fit then one out of Hayes, Cox, Duncan, Ross or Dorran will have to miss out. Tough choice who that would be.

Hope Tuffey didn't hurt his back picking the ball out of the net all that times

I'm watching the Barcelona game on <removed> just now . Cracking stream .

have you ever had a line up or are you a Ladbrokes branch manager feeding us sh1t info ?