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The long ball has never worked for ICT and probably never will. It's a boring and unimaginative style of play that should never be played by this club.

I dont mind if the title is ammended to say Rangers and appease the displeasure of the Hanoverian Monarch otherwise known as Dougal - who I suspect is also getting on the bandwagon and taking legal action against the media who actually coined the knickname in the first instance after the Union jack waving bigots ran amok in Newcastle. It has always been part of my culture to refer to the Old Filth as the Huns and the Tims - evidently a faux pas in modern day society. Even the fans of Ross County are offended by old names used in satirical banter. Whats next - The Jam Tarts, The Bully Wee !!

The first half was our worst performance since Brewster was manager, absolutely awful stuff. We looked disorganised at the back, our midfield were non existant and up front we weren't doing anything. Hogg and Rosscoe just weren't gelling at all in the middle and kept losing the ball in the air. Barrowman and Kirk were all over them, pulling them out of position and giving them questions they couldn't answer. Very poor picking up for the first two Pars goals. In the middle of the park in the first 45 we were ineffectual - Tansey was quiet and Jones looked off the pace. Jones seems like he could be a player but didn't work hard enough. Such a big guy could be a real asset if he had more of an engine but he just didn't get involved enough. He hit a couple of decent passes so we'll hope that he comes to assert himself more as he becomes established. Up front Foran and Tade were dealing with high balls that they couldn't do anything with, Tade especially didn't seem to know what he was doing while Foran at least did some good work dropping deeper. Second half we seemed to push ourselves into the game more through force of effort than any real improvement, although Tansey began to take more of a hold of things and play some good passes. He showed great feet and composure to work himself space for the first goal, although his shot was deflected over Gallagher. Once again, terrible marking at the back did for us minutes later with Tokely abandoning his man to allow him a free header. Very, very poor stuff. We continued to make more headway than in the first half but without doing much of quality. Doran was on a off day, he didn't look confident and hit poor crosses and lost the ball on several occasions. The one time he did manage to get a ball over, Foran flicked it in only for Tade, standing in an offside position, to tap it in from a few inches out. The ball was clearly going in, if Tade had stood still it would have been a goal. Absolutely mind boggling that a professional player would do that. Foran gave him a few choice words about it. The Pars still did for us with some decent passing and took advantage of our terrible, indecisive back line on a couple of occasions but Esson produced a good stop when Cardle (I think) had a shot at goal. We brought Nick Ross on for Doran and he made a big difference in our game, he used the ball well and provided us with real impetous in the middle. We got back on terms when Jones pinged one from 25 yards that Gallagher fumbled and Hayes knocked in. Gallagher had done that a couple of minutes before, great awareness from Hayes to pull that one out. We took the lead when Foran's header across goal was bundled in by Tansey, showing great bravery in sticking his head in where it hurts. Most of our fans couldn't believe we were ahead and, to be honest, the Pars got what they deserved when Hardie stuck a brilliant, unstoppable free kick in the top corner after Hogg hauled a player down thirty yards out. Disappointing to lose an injury time goal for the second week running though. Overall, I can't be too gutted about that as we got a point from a game that we easily could have lost convincingly. There are probably more positives for us than the Well game - good spirit, three goals and good showings from Forna, Tansey, Ross and Esson - but also big, big worries at the back. We just looked disorganised, with poor marking and nervousness characterising everything we did. The fact that we had experienced guys like Tokely and Hogg in there is also worrying. Hopefully we can sort out the defence as we get more settled. We had to make two changes to our back line during the 90 minutes and this was the third different defensive line up in three games, which can't help organisationally. I am worried about goals coming from up front as Foran isn't going to be prolific at this level and Tade certainly isn't going to score lots of goals, until he learns the offside rule at least! On a positive note, glad to see the Pars back in the SPL. Decent ground, good fans, nice wee town and a steak bridie. I also like that you are playing proper black and white stripes again after those ***** Yankees style tops for the last few years.

there is speculation down here that terry butcher would take over as manager at rangers if the mcCoist regime fails

As that famous City urban myth goes - most probably the Bell End....

I presume he is desperate to score his first goal for the club so was too eager. The guy is a worker and is new to the Spl - he needs support like anyone else.

Is this because Graham Bayne always scored against Rangers? Personally I always liked Bayne and was disappointed when he left as I felt he always seemed to guarantee a stable half dozen goals a season as well as plenty effort and trouble for the defenders. And he won alot of aerial balls (even if some of them were directionally wayward) which was useful to the overallgoal of the team. From what I saw today on ALBA's rerun, Tade seems to hustle and bustle defenders all day long. It takes 2 of them to stop him barging through. He will give defenders no end of trouble with his work rate pace and strengh. However he is quite clumsy al la Heskey and he still often ends up losing possession in the end. He needs to learn to be more economical in the SPL. Make sure than in the end he either gains or retains possession more often. In turn his team mates have to help out by giving him the right options. I'd like to see Sutherland used more from the start. And look forward to seeing McKay in action, but I still have no reason as of yet to doubt Tade, or what he can offer the team. Yes, he isn't perfect. We cant expect that. Rooney was often a wasteful finsisher but made up for it by always getting on the end of chances and never stopping. Dougal, to say that just because Barrowman failed from lower division status means we should never touch lower division players is ludicrous. Don Cowie? Graham Bayne? John Rankin? Thats just us. There are players all over who start at a lower division who work their way up. Yes it's hit and miss and even moreso on free transfers but thats our market. Why always the pessimist?

Dougal He's had one good game and one not so good. He didn't lose the game "single handedly" as you put it. This was a much better site without you, please go troll somewhere else.

I would prefer to see less goals against us, especially injury time ones.

What I was alluding to was the distinct absence of the hoof in the pre season friendlies and the evident focus on playing the ball on the ground - out of defence - and trying to find midfielders in space. The main component of that from the back was via Aldred but even Rossoce was thinking in that sense. Even the emphasis was on Esson looking to throw the ball out rather than hoof it too. I simply though that yesterday we had two central defenders - one not fully fit and not certainly match pace adapted and the other on his weak peg most of the time. The swopping of Permayr and the introduction of Proctor didnt help either and I suspect that the hoof was not a tactic. You could sense that Tansey and Foran were livid with the service. Of course the hoof can be effective but we have ball players who can mix it between the hoof and the pass. We simply do not have the strikers to match the hoof tactic.

So, while long ball has worked for other teams it "should never be played by this club". Why not? Mixu is a pragmatist. When he was at Hibs, they accused him of playing long ball. At Kilmarnock, i believe he made the decision to play the most effective football possible with the tools he had at his disposal rather than on any ideological commitment to passing or attacking football. It was a unique situation in SPL history because Killie had a unique player in their team in the form Alexei Eremenko Jnr, a player who was reputed to earn more money than any other player in the league. Mixu played everything through him and earned a lot more than praise than points. Ren, i'm not a big fan of the hoof either, i'm just looking at our squad and thinking about how the hell we're going to stay in this league.

Should we stop playing long balls altogether? Perhaps ban all passes longer than 20 yards? There's not point in being dogmatic about this. We got a point that we barely deserved yesterday by resorting to direct football and we'll need to do a lot more of that if we plan on staying in this division. Tell me Ren - would you prefer to go down playing tiki-taka?

Blimey, looks like the Tottenham fans are pretty darn unhappy with this draw.

There may have been some sarcasm in there but if you look closely at my posts I feel for Proctor mainly. He is a really nice lad and he has been a good servant to the club. My concern is that he has been played mainly out of position and has continued to be played when he has clearly lost his confidence, has made some crucial goal lsing errors and simply needs to be rested - put back in as a squad player and hopefully used more as a midfield replacement. I feel that the club has to assume a lot of the responsibility for his loss of form and confidence.

Esson Peirmayr - Hogg - Aldred - G.Shinnie Jones Hayes - Ross - Tansey - Doran Foran As I said on the tactics board, I think we've got a good attacking midfield that would allow us to play a very effective 4-1-4-1. Tokely/Hogg/Aldred - well, we're still seeing the right combination. We'll try this combination and see how it goes but Tokely definitely on the bench, ready to come on.

Maribor vs Mordor!!!!

Thought not. I rated him last week yes, but if you'll read my other posts you'll see I described his performance yesterday as a donkey. Make of that what you will.

IHE--what if Dougall believes what he wrote and that is actually his opinion? Surely he has the right to speak it bravely on here in public without us all tearing this young man to pieces every time he appears on here to express his viewpoint? ...give him a break, for goodness sake. Sometimes I wonder if I am listening to a pack of wolves surrounding a vulnerable victim, not fans of ICT willing to listen and understand that you and I, just like him, have to learn whats what over time. If you disagree with him, or me,then speak your piece so we can listen and learn from your views but please do it civilly and respect his right and my right to express what we think without vicious rancour erupting at the drop of a flipping hat. He's a human being and a fan so ease up on him and send him a PM if you are so upset by what he writes and have a personal exchange in private. In this instance there may even be a grain of truth in what Dougall says about Terry because , frankly, old habits die hard and Terry is indeed from the old school. Who are we to claim Dougall is stupid or wrong and none of us know Terry B so well that we can claim anything about whathe thinks is best for this team. Not me, for sure--- and I am 73 ---- Remember..."Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings comes forth words of wisdom."

Maybe one of the mods could please change the offensive word used by the OP in the title thread We don't need this old filth tit for tat point scoring terminology on this site Cheers dougal

I wasn't at the game yesterday but saw the game on the garlic channel From what I saw I now have real concerns about this signing Is this guy a striker? It's not clear by yesterdays performance where or what position he was supposed to be deployed as!! You only have to read the views on pie and bovril from other clubs supporters to suss out that this guy isn't an Spl standard player Discuss dougal

If I was Terry i'd fine him a weeks wages for his part in the disallowed goal debcale, he single handedly lost the club two points yesterday :irritated: I thought the club had learnt their lesson by signing lower league strikers(Barrowman) but it appears sadly not dougal