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Funny how County fans were celebrating news of Saints' goals - which pushed County down a league place and cost them about £80,000 in league prize money!

An inquest into the second half of the season is indeed required. I don't subscribe to the view that this has been a great season irrespective of what has happened in recent weeks or months. While it is true that we have achieved our highest ever league position and that the vast majority of us would have been content with that at the begining of the season, the fact is, considering the position we had put ourselves in at the turn of the year, the season must be considered a disappointing anticlimax. At the winter shut down we were well placed for either second or third in the league, in the semi final of the League Cup and still in the Scottish Cup with a reasonably favourable draw against a Killie side who were hardly setting the heather on fire. Since then we went out of the League Cup, despite taking the lead, to a Hearts side who were in the course of imploding both on and off the pitch and who showed just how mediocre they were by losing in the final to a side who were battling relegation until the third last game of the season. We tamely lost to Kilmarnock in the Scottish Cup. In the league since the split, we have been woeful. We capitulated in the second half at Parkhead. We were always second best against St Johnstone even before being reduced to ten men, we very nearly throw away a three goal lead against Motherwell and were only saved by Ojamaa's sending off. Last week we contrived to lose in the last minute against a Dundee United side who could hardly muster a e recognised defender despite taking the lead and dominating possession. A United side, I may add, that didn't gain a single other point post split. Today, we were almost always second best, A Ross County side even more ravaged by injury than we were by injury and suspension looked like the side chasing European glory while our lot looked like they were the ones who had little to play for. I do genuinely believe that we have assembled a very competent group of fairly young players and am pleased that we are retaining the bulk of the squad for the next campaign but there is something missing. We lack mettle (bottle if you like) I don't know where you get that from but we desperately need to find it otherwise our otherwise committed and talented players are always likely to stumble whenever they have sight of the finishing post.

Whilst there will be a lot of disappointment and criticism about the performance and result today, it was always going to be a "big ask" to get an away win against a good team, on a dodgy pitch, without 3 of our key midfielders. The damage was really done in previous games - Raven getting sent off after 10 minutes in Perth to gift them a win, and then us throwing it away against Dundee Utd last weekend. We were 1-0 up at the start of the 2nd half, at home against the worst team in the top 6, who had nothing to play for, and were fielding a load of youngsters, and their top scorer in defence. That was the real chance that we blew. If you go into the split in 3rd place then lose 4 of your 5 post-split games, you can't expect to retain 3rd place. Ultimately we didn't deserve Europe. Close but not quite enough. Still a great season though, onwards and upwards. And we'll get to do a proper pre-season without the distraction of European fixtures!

It's all very well putting a positive spin on our 'great season', but truth be told we should have been miles clear of St Johnstone by this stage. Looking back at all the games we dominated, all the sitters we missed, all the sloppy late goals we've conceded. We will never have a better chance to qualify for Europe, it was there on a plate for us and we totally blew it, allowing a much weaker team to trundle over the line ahead of us.

Yes, it's very disappointing to miss out on Europe this season, but just remember out expectations before the start of the season were to avoid relegation and/or finish above Ross County! We've done both! Brilliant season. Look on the bright side everyone!

This move does surprise me. If it was the club's choice it does'nt make sense. If it was Hogg's choice then he is letting the club down fer the manner in which they have stuck by him for so long. I have been told that it was a club decision so I hope that the actual situation is clarified as soon as possible.

Bit of a stange day and rather mixed emotions. I am not as down as last week and I suppose, at the end of the day, that means a place in Europe would have been the icing on the cake but finishing above County was what really mattered to me. OK. I know, that's a pretty negative attidude - but I'm a fan of my team and the bragging rights over the local rivals are the number one priority. I was baffled by the team selection. It was a real blow to lose OTJ to injury on top of Foran and Draper to suspension and I was astonished that in the circumstances neither Ross or Sutherland started. County were always going to close us down quickly and Pepper in particular really struggled. I have been feeling a bit sorry for him as he made some promising contributions as a sub early in the season but has hardly had a look in since. To then throw him in the deep end in such a high pressure match without the support of the more experienced players was a big ask and I'm afraid he was not up to it today. For me, the match was set up for Sutherland. Because of the size and state of the pitch and County's pressing game, often the only option was the old hoof up the park which gave poor Billy no chance again. We needed Sutherland's bigger physical prescence up front. He was, as usual, played wide when he came on but neverthesless, we certainly looked a bit more of a threat when he belatedly came on. Also, it looked as though G Shinnie had been told to stay back - surely it would have been better to have him in midfield with Taylor dropping to left back. But credit to County. They were far the better side on the day and they will feel they deserved to win by a bigger margin. Biggest plus point today (not that there were many) was the crowd. A really good atmosphere and just great to see so many stay for so long and make so much noise after the game. It was a great send off for the team and competely overshadowed the appreciation the County players got (and make no mistake, they have had a superb season). I left the ground some 15 to 20 minutes after the final whistle and could still hear the Inverness supporters in the ground as I crossed the Railway Bridge. Well done, lads, brilliant stuff!

Maybe so, but how much more have we gained by finishing 4th rather than 11th!?

I think it is fair to say that our pursuit of European glory was more Bonnie Tyler than Bucks Fizz.

What utter rubbish. I could count at least four occasions when ICT players were haranguing their colleagues because passes or shots didn'y come off. There might have been a lack of quality in the important parts of the team or in crucial arteas of the pitch but there was no ICT player who either "bottled it" or didn't care and was a "passenger". Cheap post.

The fact of the matter is, we were beaten by the better team. County looked far sharper, far more creative and far more dangerous going forward. We only had one good chance and even then we wouldn't have deserved to win or even draw. The two defenders in midfield system didn't work and playing Pepper for the first time in months over Ross was bizarre and also didn't work. County were better all over the park and the desperate hoof balls towards McKay was dead easy for Boyd to deal with. Andrew Shinnie wasn't at his best while the aforementioned McKay wasn't in the game. I've said it before and I'll say it again; Doran is not and never will be a left sided player. Never. On our form in 2013 and on today's performance we've been nowhere near as good as we should have been. To be second for so long and then third, before failing Europe altogether is very galling indeed, but on the whole we have no-one to blame but ourselves. In saying that, the ending with Butcher was class and the fans chanting made it sound like we made it. Sadly though, we really should have done better. Life goes on.

Gutted Just wasn't us the day. Long balls going out of play. Cant make a good pass to save ourselfs. Missed 4 key players but surely we should have cover for something like this happening. Pepper just seemed lost in the squad. Taylor and Danny did there best in midfield but i think they can stick in defence. Even looking at the bench the day it wasn't strong. Top six finish, 4th place, Only lost once to the gypos, Great games 4-4 Dundee United, 4-3 Motherwell, 3-3 gypos Bring on season 2013/14

Not sure to make of Terry's interview. For once I wish he was angrier, its almost as if he was already resigned to our fate and didn't really believe we could it.

Just like the semi final against Hearts, bottled it on the big occasion

The scoreline I can take. The performance I cannot. The players at this point don't seem to understand the magnitude of the opportunity in front of them. For a club of our size this doesn't happen every season, it could be years until we might get another chance.

Please don't encourage these silly people. We will all now suffer more searches than normal and nobody is impressed by this childish behaviour. Let's just take a few beach balls and have a fun day out. Flares/smoke bombs are not clever and they are not funny.

Very sad comments and quite insulting to the fans. One of the things that has made this season so exciting is that we have been chasing a prize until the very end. To turn round afterwards and say that we didn't much fancy the prize anyway makes the whole thing feel a little empty. I also find some of the projections of financial burden a little far-fetched. The idea that we would need a bigger squad is just silly. We were looking at probably 2, at best 4 extra games - no more than you face in a good season in one of the cups. As for the costs of travel etc., I don't know the details but there are many clubs smaller than ours competing in the competition and they seem to cope. It's been a great season but there can be greater seasons. Talk to any fan from the numerous small Scottish clubs that have represented this country in Europe and they'll tell you it was one of the proudest moments of their lives, not to mention the fun some of them had following their team abroad. If we don't aspire to that then what are we doing?

Team Pld Draw-when-Winning Lose-when-Winning Points-Lost 1 Motherwell (2) 38 3 0 6 2 St Johnstone (3) 38 5 0 10 3 Aberdeen (8) 38 3 2 12 4 Dundee (12) 38 6 1 15 5 Heart of Midlothian (10) 38 6 1 15 6 Hibernian (7) 38 3 3 15 7 Kilmarnock (9) 38 5 2 16 8 St Mirren (11) 38 5 2 16 9 Ross County (5) 38 3 4 18 10 Dundee United (6) 38 7 2 20 11 Inverness C T (4) 38 7 2 20 12 Celtic (1) 38 6 3 21 second worst for dropped points but tighter than i thought itd be. notice both saints and motherwell top the table Team Pld Win-when-Losing Draw-when-Losing Points-Gained 1 Motherwell (2) 38 5 5 20 2 Dundee United (6) 38 3 6 15 3 Hibernian (7) 38 2 7 13 4 Ross County (5) 38 2 7 13 5 St Mirren (11) 38 2 7 13 6 Celtic (1) 38 3 1 10 7 Aberdeen (8) 38 1 6 9 8 Inverness C T (4) 38 1 6 9 9 St Johnstone (3) 38 1 6 9 10 Heart of Midlothian (10) 38 1 3 6 11 Dundee (12) 38 1 1 4 12 Kilmarnock (9) 38 0 4 4 motherwell top of points gained from behind, impressive, good management with the ability to make changes

Ah well, no in-betweens, we are either great (v Motherwell) or mince (last two games) it appears... What's with Roy McGregor on telly and the tiny wee dark glasses - bit pervy Did my eyes deceive me or did DA actually start to applaud ICT fans at the end? Great support today, the fans did the team proud (prefer it the other way round)

Can we get away from the "you're being negative if you're disappointed" line? It's not wrong to be feeling we could have done better in the latter part of the season. There are some valid points in the posts above regarding performances in some key games. We have found some good players who can on their day be very good but there is room for improvement on basic aspects and without spending money: we must work on improving corners and especially freekicks (the last four have all gone straight into the wall) we must stop lobbing high balls to wee forwards (obvious I know but we still do it) a striker like Billy needs the ball coming in from wide and to his feet and when we do that he gets goals we must have a plan B when games aren't going our way - in some of the games mentioned above, we haven't I don't think it's choking that's a problem as the guys can battle as we've seen in several come from behind games, but we are very vulnerable when teams play us close in midfield (Hearts semi-final) like County did today (admittedly much easier for them today as we had such a makeshift group). Any team needs a decent amount of possession in the middle of the park to have a chance, therefore I think a priority should be a strong combative midfield tackler to get in opponents faces and dig the ball out - Fergie's (and Pele's) teams always had one. Ross Draper can put in a good shift but we don't get the best out of Richie in that role. None of the above is negative just personal observations from a viewpoint of improving. For me a good season. I agree some of the leagues 'bigger' teams have been pretty poor of late and there's been some disappointing results after the turn of the year, but a good season that can be built on (2013/14 season ticket tucked away and ready)

I don't think so, Terry was telling it as it is. Listen we were beaten and lost out on Europe - so be it. It's been a great season regardless of today. End of last season, if you told me we would finish fourth in the league I would have thought you're on something. As Terry said in the pre match interview, we've made a lot of firsts and broken records this season. For me Europe was just an added bonus. We fell short today, like we did at the Semi final but we just have to pick ourselves up and have a go next season.

I thought we improved in the second half but overall County probably deserved the win. Doran put in a great shift as did Raven. Dissapointed but still happy with the season in general. We fell short at the last hurdle but thank you Terry, the rest of the management team and all the players for our best ever season! Roll on the next one!!! I must say thank you to County for allowing the Highland Marchers on to the pitch. We were in the Jail End pre match. Surreal experience but great banter. Thanks to the County fans who made us welcome and the great reception we got from the ICT fans. I cannot wait for the next Highland Derby. The greatest derby in Scotland!

He wouldn't be saying that had we done it.

Overall delighted with the season. Some great performances and some we will want to forget. Considering we had lots of a new faces at the start of the season, 4th is amazing. Anyone who can't acknowledge this needs to wake up and smell the coffee!! For the size of the club it's Been great and we need to remember that we will get carried away when we do anything better than expected, but If we don't get to that next post (e.g. Europe today) it's amazing that we were even close! Looking forward to the pre season and see who we will sign and can't wait for the return of butchers boys in August!

With St Johnstone last year coming out and saying they would be at a loss financially entering europe I can understand where Terry is coming from. I can't see the funds for next season being any higher than this years one.

This makes my blood boil. This ICT team has improved immeasurably this year and has eclipsed teams like Aberdeen and dundee United and It's because the other teams are poor? really? We have improved because we brought in better players, played better football and beat teams that were previously able to match us simply because we had got better in a league where the football has been of a better standard than many previous years. And if you could tell me what this "souness revolution" was, I'd be happy.

I'm so proud to be saying I'm a jaggie tonight. Although we lost to our near neighbours and didn't play well atall IMO, I still think everyone should understand that, yes we were in a great position for Europe and probably won't get that close again, but at the start of the season, we all thought that the team wasn't good enough and were going to be in a relegation battle. But as Terry said on the radio, if u were to say that we were going to score 64 goals this season and finish 4th we would of snapped your hand of for it. It has been an incredible achievement this season, I'm gutted that St Johnstone got that final place considering that we had been there since November time, but at the end of the day they had more points than us. We should off secured it last week against a DU team who got abosoulutly dubbed by Celtic but hey ho, Top Six is what we've all been waiting for for the last 9 years, and we have finished ahead of County! Wonderful season just guttering today but proud to support Caley tonight :D

Terry might know something about that...

Ironically, our season was an absolute dream until Terry did what we all wanted and turned down Barnsley! 2nd in the league, League Cup semi coming up, and still in the Scottish Cup. If Terry had gone, would the incoming manager have failed on all 3 fronts? We'll never know.

good season not a great match but our away support was fantastic 70% stayed a sung until we got thrown out and terrys wee speech at the team bus "we will be back" made it worth the trip I will upload a video of our support going mental in an empty golbal warming stadium when I get home @ 6ish

What we have achieved this season is nothing short of magic. We are a small town, City, team and this season has been our best ever in our short history, we have come a long way in a short time. We don't have the finances of any of the teams we have finished above but we still finished above them. We have comprehensively stuck it to our closest rivals for years and again this season have lost only one game in six to them. That one on a midden of a pitch with a much reduced player pool. I have a hard time understanding the negative comments. i understand that we are a little disappointed with today's result but nothing can, in my mind, take away from our best season ever. Can we not just thank the team for how well they have done and stop the negative comments. Well done the team and thanks to you all for all your efforts.

To be honest we lost our Euro trip last week! I'm still very happy with our season and thanks to Butch, Malps & Marsella! They put together a great team! We should be all proud!

He was injured. He was on the pitch at full time with crutches

I Remember how much we have improved and don't think an inquest is required, it was good season by Terry and his team. I was unhappy with today's result but not with our season. Finishing in the top six for the first time is a huge plus, remember how often we have just missed that. Most importantly we still have 'them' in our shadow. It also leaves us with the core of a descent team and a realistic goal of a European place next time up. Knowing our management team as we do I am full of confidence for the future. Overall then our best season yet and something left to aim for next season.

Pity every time we are on TV we seem to play terrible okay today we have lost an entire midfield due to suspension and injury, but you would still expect better that what we were in the 1st half we just could not pass a ball and we were second to every ball, slightly better performance in 2nd half. But missing out in Europe does not just come down to this game we have only won 1 game out of 5 since the split so there tells a story an by all accounts we should have wrapped it up last week. Unfortunately living in Spain I do not see many games however what I see is usually rubbish which we obviously have not been all season I think the only good game I saw was The 4-1 win at Dundee and the Cup game against County. However if you had offered me 4th place at the start of the season I would have taken it - so well done to the team Hopefully we can find good replacements for Shinnie and Reguero with another experieced forward and midfielder we could do okay next season

Well, how disappoining was that? We could have been out there all day and not scored. Someone on here suggested Fraser's injury would be good for us. Well, County could have played without a keeper at all for all the work Gallacher had to do. No midfield at all. Easy to say we missed Draper, Tudor-Jones, Foran etc but we surely could have been more competitive than we were, even without the stars. A great pity that a really good season has been marred by poor performances at crucial times, ie League Cup semi, and both last week and this week. Have we got the bottle for it when the chips are down? Oh well, I'll just go off and take solice in a wee dram. No doubt in a few weeks time when next season is just around the corner the pain of the last two weeks will have eased and I'll become optimistic once more.

We only lost 10 games this season, but it was just 6 from our first 33, then 4 from the last 5.

Did Adams really say "the beach balls are burst today" on the radio???

I can answer this now. At the start of the season the aim was to finish ahead of County. That we we would still be SPL. That's been achieved. However, these expectations rightly changed in January with how the league was shaping out. The disappointment I feel due our mass compilation is huge. I am sorry from January onwards I can not look upon it as being a success. Four defeats from 5 after the split wasn't good enough. It has been an exciting season and overall 4th would never been expected last August but my end of season feeling is disappointment.

We also can't argue too much about the Euro spot going to a team that we failed to beat in 4 attempts.

For our club 4th is a good finish in any season but following our position at the split to only finish a point above County and to have so many chances to secure a European slot it is mighty disappointing. Good luck to St.Johnstone though in Europe. Top half looks pretty pleasing from a Northern perspective. Out of curiosity what is the prize money for the various places i.e. how much money did today's results cost us?

We've picked a great time to put in our worst performance of the season! Oh to have Foran today.

He's a better keeper than Fraser in my opinion. At least Gallagher wont be as match sharp perhaps...

You can all be this today...............

Unfortunately Gallagher is a decent keeper

I am reliably informed that today's game will be sponsored by the GTWB Corporation.

Seen as you've not been there in ages this is what it looks like (in case you miss it)...

Ross County's pitch problems might yet have very far reaching consequences If the game is postponed then it will presumably be played midweek. It is begining to look as though the date of Hearts insolvency event will be Monday when court proceedings are due in Lithuania. If Hearts are deemed to have become insolvent during the course of this playing season the likely points deduction will be made immediately rather than from the start of next season meaning that Hearts would be relegated. If that is the case, I doubt if the County groundsman will be drinking in Gorgie any time soon.

ICT not only paid Chris (Hogg's) wages during the period of injury recovery but in all certainty paid for the high-priced London Specialist (unless an insurance policy paid for it of course) who examined the injury and did the also very- high- priced operation on his knee. To have had that kind of support from the club for that kind of dreadful injury for so long, and his career saved, was massive and ICT fully met their commitments in my opinion to Christopher. So, unless they were certain that his injury had completely healed and did not present a possible future liability again (that is a long shot IMHO) then perhaps the club also felt that there was too much of a financial liability risk for the future. In any event, he has recovered and doing well so we wish him the very best of luck in the hope that he can maintain fitness and stability in that knee for a bright future.

Seems to be staying, according to The Herald