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"Mother Teresa never joined in anti-war demonstrations. She only joined in peace demonstrations" Terry Butcher, August 2011 So let's have a thread on what's great about Terry Butcher and what he's brought to this club, instead of what's bad about Butcher. We have the lowest budget in the league, sit 1 point off safety, but we have the ex-England Captain, Terry Butcher as manager. How far has this club come that we have someone who's image is so iconic in British if not world football. He ain't perfect, he's made mistake, quite a few since the summer in fact, but I for one am glad he's our manager. Sam Allardyce was relegated twice with Bolton, and won promotion twice with the same club. Terry Butcher has increased our image in British football. He has brought us '2010 with Terry and Mo'. The amazing away run that will never IMO be beaten by an ICT manager in our history. Let's give him a chance for the rest of the season. Let's get 100% behind the team. We the support, along with the players, and back room staff are the club. We all have our disagreements but we all have the best interests in our heart. The team, the club, ourselves, need us now!

I agree with CapitalCaley.

Ahhhh yes, that O J Simpson was very dignified.

As usual some interesting posts and some deranged if not delusional ones at times (perhaps our learned friend IHE could comment on that!). I did think of posting after the game but then decided to have a longer think about what I was going to say. While the team was poor yesterday, and against St Johnstone the previous week, it should not be forgotten, although everyone seems to have, that this was the same team that comfortably beet Kilmarnock, St Mirren (2 of the best teams so far this season according to the media) comfortably and should have beaten Hearts (the third best team in Scotland?). Clearly something has happended in the last two games and the team looked short of confidence on Saturday but why the team has changed so much in two games, I haven't a clue. Posters can go on about various things, and the constant carping about Munro and Duncan is becoming tedious, but the above is the only solid fact about what has happened. If someone could tell me why things have suddenly changed over the last two ganes (over to you TB), I would be grateful, but whatever the reason, changes do need to be made to the team this week to shale them up if nothing else. TB needs to remember that it was shaking up the team against Ayr in the SFL, and getting a result, kick started our season and something like that needs to happen now. I still think someong will get a hammering from us soon and hope it is Saturday.

I think that football as a whole has progressed a lot over the last decade or so in terms of attention to conditioning, nutrition etc and Craig Brewster certainly was at the forefront of that movement and I also had a few good discussions with Charlie Christie on the subject. Getting the balance in football between the necessary fitness to last a 90 (120) minute game with random episodes of high intensity throughout whilst also maintaining the necessary skills and technical abilities is a huge task and different formats seem to work for different managers and teams. On the other hand I wonder if football players in general are regarded enough as individuals as opposed to being part of a group undergoing a "one size fits all" training strategy? Certainly as an athletics coach with 35 years experience at all levels from primary schools up to Commonwealth Games and other major international champoinships, I don't envy football managers and coaches what is a very difficult task to balance. I noted with interest the section of Capital Caley's post which I have quoted above. The extreme, almost Messianic fervour with which the "no static stretching" bandwagon was driven through sport a few years ago was intriguing and it was interesting to see the sheer intolerance accorded to anything other than complete agreement with this latest Holy Grail which was going to be the final saviour of sport. As with all its predecessor Holy Grails, this has not turned out to be the case any more than education's current Holy Grail, the Curriculum for Excellenece is going to be a final answer there. Basically this is someone's latest career enhancing bandwagon and the case has, as so often happens, been over stated. I think the case against static stetching did have some merits with regard to LONG static stretches which understandably can fatigue muscle but I really don't see anything wrong at all with repeated shorter (5-10 sec) static stretches. Also, if this Holy Grail really had genuine Canine Testicle status, I would have thought that its implementation would have caused an instant drop in injury levels and increase in performance levels throughout sport - which I am not aware of having happened. I used the static stretching as an example - i'm sure this is not the main problem, if a problem at all at ICT. However, you are right in terms of the length. There is plenty of evidence indicating that a dynamic warm up with static stretches <10 seconds is benefical and >10 seconds is detrimental to performance factors. Football has improved a bit in it's methods employed but not anywhere near the rate of other sports IMHO. There are however, football managers who really want to engage in science. From what i've heard, Craig Brewster is one of them - but maybe not the best example considering his record! John Collins, Paul Le Guen as well. I also think that European football seems ahead in terms of science. I have noticed in the past that managers who have a keen interest in science are either main land European (example Le Guen) or have played in main land Europe (example Brewster). This may just be a coincidence though.

Get a grip!

I know the Juanjo incident is way in the past now and i'm sure he's even got over it but it seems that Lennon hasn't. He has a new book out (yes, he can spell!!!) 'Man and Bhoy'. It's such a good book that the Daily Record were giving it away for free a couple of weeks ago. I had no intention of reading it as it does not interest me, however I flicked the pages to the index section to see where ICT are mentioned. Twice, we are mentioned, first of all regarding the 1-0 cup defeat of Celtic when Robbo was in charge and then nearly a whole page on the Juanjo incident. Obviously for copyright reasons I cannot go into detail word for word and there is no external link, so I will keep it as non-plagiarised as possible. He mentions Juanjo 'poking his head into his face'. The TV cameras did not see it. Fourth official Alan Freeland saw it and the referee rightly sent off Juanjo. 'Juanjo said he didn't touch me - well he would say that wouldn't he?'. He finishes this segment of the book off complaining that the SFA let Juanjo off and 'imagine what would have happened if it was the other way around?' I've never had any issues with Lennon, other than the Juanjo incident and I have said for the last few years now, that it is forgotten. I know many fellow ICT fans still often bring it up during conversations about Lennon. However, Juanjo was proven innocent and there is no need for Lennon to lie like this in his book. Maybe it stirs things up by me mentioning this topic on here, but as a support we have to stick up for any of our ex players - especially good professionals like Juanjo who is having his name dragged through the gutter again. Many Celtic fans that have read this book and weren't there / didn't see the footbage / were too young will now forever associate Juanjo as a thug. We all know the truth though. He is a skilfull player, who Lennon could not cope with that day and had to cheat to win the match.

He still gets my backing for now, however I couldn't give a **** that he's the ex-england captain. Good players don't necessarily mean they will be good at coaching. In Butcher's case his overall managerial record is pretty poor, however we could'nt attract anyone better.

It's not unfair, just an opinion. And I don't think his managerial record is poor. Thought he was excellent with Motherwell and Coventry. Ok, with Sunderland. Not much chance with Sydney and Brentford. Didn't have time to develop his squad there. Many people here were all for sacking him before Xmas in SFL1. A manager needs time. He's done well when given that.

Has the team improved this season? No, gone backwards. I say Butcher & Malpas for the sack. A relegation battle is hardly exciting. It will be between us & Dunfermline. Horrible feeling that we will go down. Now is the time to change management before too late. Sack Butcher and we may just survive.