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The only team we've beaten at home since November is Stranraer. It's down to tactics, not players that got us to second.

It's disappointing but I wouldn't read too much into today's result or the fact that it came on the back of a similar scoreline against Celtic. Against Celtic we got the backlash of them having lost their unbeaten run and today I think the fans' focus on the final next week was also reflected in some of the players who didn't seem to have the usual drive and determination. But despite that in most aspects of the game we matched Utd in the first half and were 3 down because of uncharacteristic blunders from players who are usually among are most dependable. We were down to 10 men for all the 2nd half and then down to 9 for the last 20 minutes and yet were never over-run. Utd never looked particularly threatening except when they scored. First half blunders aside, I've seen us play worse and win. The scoreline was highly flattering to Utd and it was just a day when nothing went right for us. Folk seem to have very short memories. Just a couple of weeks ago we absolutely blew County apart with a performance that had everyone drooling and which, despite the scorelines, was way more dominant than Utd were over us today. These were the same players and the same manager. Fact is, we have a decent team which is capable of playing very well but which maybe lacks the extra dimension to adapt when the game plan goes to pot. We'll bounce back and have further excellent victories this season. I do, however share concerns about the 4-4-2. I think it stifles the fluidity of the team and there seems to be a bit of uncertainty about who should be doing what. At times today, Vincent in particular was often in the same place as Foran,Watkins or Tansey and I lost count of the times someone behind me shouted "one of you!". Apart from getting in each others' way, the converging on each other reduced the outlets for passing the ball. This makes Wednesday's match against Hibernian particularly important. It, more than Sunday's final, will show what the players and the management team are made of. We are still in with a very good opportunity to clinch 3rd or even 2nd in the league and that should be our priority. Given respective league positions and Hibs current form, we should beat them. And if we beat them, we confirm our top 6 place which for me, would represent the target of making this a decent season. A win would keep us very much in the league race as well as give us a confidence boost for the final. A dismal performance in front of a dismal crowd could well be the signal to a bit of an anticlimax to the season. Wednesday is almost a "must win" game and just as we need the team to play well, the team needs the support behind them. TBH I am expecting a crowd well below 3,000 for Wednesday night but hopefully I will be proved wrong. Come on ICT fans, get behind your team and come out in force to support the lads on Wednesday! Sending Terry Butcher down the road to Edinburgh in no mood for fish and chips en route would be a nice little bonus.

For all those on here fawning over the 40,000 tickets Aberdeen have sold, I ask you one question. Where were the other 28500 at todays home quarter final of the bigger Scottish Cup. If we took just 3000 fans I wouldn't care as those fans would be there to support the team and not attending for the sake of seeing a team with a passing interest in winning a trophy for the first time this century. When I take my place in Parkhead I will be watching the 11 players who represent my club and therefore me and don't care if I was the only one with my ICT colours on. I can't believe a true Caley Jags fan would start this thread let alone some of the truly negative and unrealistic expectations. We are what we are and I for one am very proud of this. #togetherNESS

I like the positive thinking vibe but lets start with some positive thinking about a really important league game on Wednesday. At the end of the day, whether we deserve to be at the top table of Scottish football will be judged on where we finish in the league and not on whether we happened to win the lesser of the two cup competitions. Hope you're really buzzing for all of next week and not just Sunday! :ictscarf:

It was a depressing result but don't let that get in the way of the facts. There are still 12 league games left. We have games in hand. One of those is on Wednesday night at home to Hibs which we should win. That would put us 3 points above utd with same games played and 4 behind out of form Motherwell with a game in hand. Our other rearranged game is away to Motherwell so a win there would bring us within 1 point of them and still with a game in hand. We would be just 4 points behind Aberdeen on the same number of games. If we win our games in hand we will be in poll position for 3rd spot and within touching distance of 2nd. We are still very much in the race but lose these games in hand and top 3 will be tough. This is why Wednesday night is such a huge game. I really don't know why everyone is talking about our season being as good as over when we still have every chance of finishing higher than we ever have before.

Bad result? It's the worst home result in our history! And we're lucky it wasn't more than 5-0. United were playing-out time for the last half-hour. I definitely think there was one eye on the League Cup Final. Many fans have been just as 'guilty'. Too much nonsense about flags and songs and using the Scottish Cup quarter-final as a 'rehearsal' (!!), not to mention calls for players to 'visit schools and Tesco' in the week of a huge game! Dundee United will have been aware of this naivety.

While it would be great if we got 10000 plus fans going, it is what it is and the carping from some posters on this thread could potentially turn some non regular fans off. It seems to be that some fans would rather denigrate those who may want to come along for the final rather than welcome them. While there may be lots of reasons for fans not turning out to support ICT but some of the negative comments on ICT on this forum just do not help.

I wouldn't have revived this thread myself just yet but I can understand why it has been done but I don't think winning the League Cup will alter the legitimacy of discussing the manager's position. Anyone can win a one off game and ourselves and Partick Thistle have shown that the Dons have their off days and are far from invincible. I sincerely hope we return from Glasgow next week with the silverware but that will tell us little about Hughes's managerial capabilities. All he has had to do so far is to 'mastermind' a win over a poor and demoralised Hearts youth team and we came within 20 seconds and a Nick Ross goal of blowing that. The true measure of Hughes as a manager is the league and the Scottish Cup. In the league it looks as though we will hold on to get into the top six but that's from a position of being clear in second place. In the cup we scraped past Stranraer only to be humiliated as soon as we played the first top tier team we had to play. The Jury has to be still out but the omens are not good and it will take a lot more than a single victory on Sunday, however significant a game it may be, in order to alter that.

The chips are down, fans outnumbered, referee`s always against us, bad run of 2 heavy defeats, a game 4 days before the final while the opposition rest up. Why I think it all points to an Inverness cup final victory

Of course i agree I believe that we can still catch Motherwell so Wednesday is more than just a confidence booster for Sunday. It will also make sure we are Top six which is a great achievement two seasons in a row.

Possibly the worst ever performance I have seen from a Caley Thistle team. We couldn't pass, we couldn't retain the ball, we couldn't shoot or create. We lacked any fight and we lacked passion. The home support was dire which may have had an effect on the team too. Was it the managers fault or an off day? We've shipped 10 goals in two games and we're up against Hayes, Robson and Rooney next week. Should I be worried? Hell yeh!

Looking at the positives, its good to see grant munro back at TCS. Serious now the players have got us to exactly where we are. Which is on the brink of securing a top six finish with half a dozen games to go. Reaching the scottish cup qfs and a league cup final. Its not been a good day but its been a good season. A message to the players make sure u rest ur mind as well as ur body.

From the mouth of my wife..........."the referee was bad but that performance makes me embarassed to be a Caley Thistle supporter" I said last week that, regardless of who we were playing, we need to perform. I say now, and I hope there are players and coaches reading this, this team needs a damn good shake. Perform well and get beat is acceptable. Perform bad and get hammered is not. This is the same squad of players who were doing brilliant for the first half of the season. Whats changed now? The manager? The style of play? The tactics?

I honestly think as well, that if we get utterly embarrassed next week and get beat by four goals plus, Yogi's position will be untenable. He can talk about progress all he likes, but we're not seeing it. For a man who said when he came in that he wasn't going to change much, things have changed. Results and performances seemed to have slipped big style. A gubbing next week and the pressure will be on - on both Hughes, and those who hired him.

Brill has a couple of games when his performance is not great and suddenly we drop him - get real. Dropping him would not help his confidence and to suddenly bring Esson back for a couple of key games would put huge pressure on him. If he made any crucial mistakes we would then have 2 keepers with their confidence shot. If Brill is shakey in the next 4 or 5 games then fair enough but given his performance over the course of the season it would be madness to drop him now. If Brill is going to be dropped for a couple of below par performances then who else is for the chop for the final, Mckay?

We can't shrug this off - 10 goals in 2 games FFS !!! And we were lucky to get away with 5-0 both times. Any manager in another league would be facing the sack. Yogi's tactics have been dire these past two games - once again Richie is completely ineffective up front, and the opposition sweep through the midfield. Having said that, Yogi can't be blamed for the first two goals. And the ground staff - how can they produce a pitch like that, when they've had plenty of time to prepare a decent surface? It's all very well saying everyone pitches in, everyone gets along, we're all great guys etc. - but we've produced a surface we can't play on... And the referee! He wasn't fit to ref a park game - that second red was laughable. The Scottish FA have really got to take a look at themselves if they are producing refs of that standard for the top flight. Let's get back to the tight 451 passing football that has got us so far - with an organised defence, solid midfield, pacy wings, and Billy up front. Tamping....!!!!

Really? Hmmmm As for those moaning about the crowd but didn't come themselves well words fail me!

Today was well and truly awful - no excuses. Why have we changed from our favoured 4-2-3-1 to a 4-4-2 which have seen us conceed 10 goals in 2 games FFS. John Hughes as a player was a CB if he played the way Meekings did today he wouldn't have got anywhere near the Celtic team. We had a good chance of another big day out at Ibrox and today we got what we deserved - a hammering. There was no direction from the touchline today which was especially disappointing. I really like John Hughes as a person but his managerial career at ICT is starting to get a bit concerning. IF and a big IF we come away with no wins in the last 2 games this time next week then I would be sorry to do this but questions would need to be asked on the management team. If Terry Butcher was the manager today firstly I am sure our defending wouldn't be as shoddy and if the same result happend he would have got torn into the players. I haven't seen Yogi's post match interview with BBC but what has been posted online doesn't make good reading. Don't get me wrong, the players tried today and I thought Graeme Shinnie was the best out of a bad lot today but there was too many disappointing factors. The communication in the second goal for Dundee United between Dean Brill and Josh Meekings was pathetic and Cifti couldn't of had an easier goal if he tried. Up front today was poor and Billy Mckay's lack of goals is starting to get worrying. Ross County must be really poor if we can beat them in the style that we did and just makes me wonder why we can't keep the consistency? Yogi identified vs Celtic what when wrong, did they correct that mistakes - no. The referee had a really poor game and I just thought he couldn't get the red card out quick enough for the Greg Tansey tackle. Both Watkins and Tansey's red card was a yellow card at best. In saying that regardless of the referee's performance, 11 vs 11 would still got hammered. Credit to Dundee United fans today, absolute superb crowd for a half 12 on a Sunday!

This thread will make for interesting one week tonight.

Fatigue definitely setting in after our recent fixture congestion. It'd be madness to play a full team on Wednesday. Give Polworth, Williams, Christie, Greenhaugh, Pepper, Cooper etc a run out. Our first teamers will be freshened up, our fringe players get the boost from a run out. Win win. The cup final is 1,000 times more important than a regular league fixture.

Also, where was the home support? Disgraceful turn out from the supporters!!! Half if not more of the attendance where utd fans. Not good enough

Double? Mathematically we can still do the treble - just lol.

Oh dear, another horror show from Brill today on top of fumbling one at Parkhead through his fingers. He looked culpable for the first two and he also looked edgy from the start in front of the vociferous United support. Now don't get me wrong, he has generally done very well for us this season............but, is it time for Esson to return?

Right so I am annoyed as many people are after today's debarcle which has been piled on top of last weeks drubbing as well. But and Im sure i will get shot down by many on here with emotions still running high but lets have a week of positive thinking and genuine excitement ahead of the biggest day in our clubs history and for us as supporters of the club. Whatever you think of Hughes and our last two games go and vent on another topic but i want to create some good feeling as I am absolutely buzzing for next week. Today has taken the gloss off but come the end of the week Im going to be on cloud nine. We have been good until the last two matches so there is no reason why, especially with it being a final that we cannot get a performance that deserves to win a national cup final. So Comon everybody lets get behind the boys and show that we deserve to belong at the top table of Scottish football

We've known for ages now that Warren will miss the final and thus Devine will need game time. Why didn't he start today? Ok, today's game was important, so starting with our main back two was fair enough, but why not put Devine on at half time? We had nothing really to lose at that point, the game was over, so surely we'd have more to gain in giving Meekings and Devine some proper game time together. Why didn't Nick Ross get some game time? One would presume that it's more likely he'll play in the final than Polworth or Williams and where was the sense in throwing Ryan Christie on with so little time remaining? I can understand giving him some game time, but why not give him 15-20 minutes at least? And what was the deal with that formation? 4-4-2 was a disaster last week and Hughes should have known that playing such a system, particularly with no ball winner like Draper in there, would result in Dundee United passing through us dead easy. 4-2-3-1 was the system the players were brought in to play and were used to fill particular roles. It should be no surprise that a big change has seen a downward slump. And where's the logic in these people attempting to defend Hughes by saying "people wanted to switch to 4-4-2, you can't complain now"? What nonsense. The problem with Butcher and Hughes was there was no Plan B. 4-2-3-1 should be the system used when it is analysed that it is the best system to use in regards to the players available and players and system of the opposition. If it is deemed unsuitable, then 4-4-2 should be used as a Plan B, unless another system is created and deemed more suitable. Hughes and the gang, got everything wrong today. Nothing was learned from last week.

I think our poor performance has taken away attention from something which I think needs some comment. Watkins' red card was clearly harsh as he won the ball and didn't even make contact with Paton. Paton over-reacted and undoubtedly his behaviour influenced the decision to send Watkins off. Given that Utd were already 5 up and Paton was the person who injured Mckay in a similar challenge earlier in the game (when the referee didn't even award a foul), I have to say, I am not impressed. I trust that Watkins' card will be successfully appealed as Ciftci's was in the League Cup clash earlier in the year. Otherwise it gives the message that we are at a bit of a handicap when their players are apparently allowed to grab our players by the throat but our players are not allowed win 50:50 balls fair and square. I know the referees have a difficult job to do but we need a bit of consistency and we need the authorities to stamp out the play acting whether by instruction to referees or by taking effective retrospective action based on TV evidence.

Let's look on the bright side; a defeat today eases our fixture congestion and we won't now suffer the ignomy of being beaten by a League 1 side in the semi-final

Maybe just picked the wrong night to post DIP After todays result there are a lot of upset fans but I too hope for a cracking non OF final with the best team winning, Hoping for ICT but like most after two back to back 5-0 defeats Im a wee bit concerned but hopefully we can get back to winning ways on Wednesday , Anyway enjoy the game next week (but not too much )

I'm struggling with that one today. If it could have gone wrong, it did. The second goal was an illustration of our whole day. Meekings missed the header, Brill panicked and after that there was no way back. United, I hate to say, were ruthless and after going to nine men we were completely lost. What do you do? Blame Hughes? I recall people on here screaming for butcher to go to 442 as a plan b, now that it's done we want back to 4411. Hughes couldn't legislate for poor defending and comedic refereeing any more than butcher could have. What really disappointed was the crowd. Surely we can do better and I hope to goodness we do next week.

Shocking display all round today and agree with most previous comments. Devine has to play on weds as well as Polworth, Christie, Tremarco & Esson. We can't rest everyone as that would be ridiculous, but some of these guys need to refocus and get the hunger back, to many today had an eye on final I feel. What an achievement though a team that has lost 10 goals in 2 games, then goes on to lift the cup, big day for the underdogs, woof, woof

Wow. You actually needed to edit that?! Top class input though. Really in-depth.

And that was a rubbish performance and only after we'd failed to beat them in the first game, despite them being part time and full of postmen and shoe shop owners!

Agree with everything that has been said in the previous posts. I hope that Hughes has all the staff back in Tonight for a crisis meeting. That' s what would happen in any other business. These guys earn huge money compared to most, not much compared to some, but they showed very little today. Well done to all of us who paid a tenner today to suffer that. Esson, christie, polworth must start on Wednesday, after all they are part of the squad so there should be no fears about playing them. You never know one of them could put in a great performance and become part of the Final starting line up. Finally, why was the pitch not watered today, the poor bounces were the same for both teams but we just couldn't cope.

Someone been in the Innes for too long? Would be harsh to drop him IMHO.

I too like Yogi as a man. He's approachable and affable even if he does speak almost entirely in cliches but it's not just his developing record here that's a concern but his managerial record in general. There's nothing on his CV that suggested he was the man to take us forward. If you look at the 'New Manager Thread' despite over 100 names being suggested he was not touted once until he was produced out of thin air by the board. Whatever happens, having been appointed, he deserves to be given next season to prove us sceptics wrong but I am seeing very little to indicate that that might be the case. Quite the reverse. We have a very good squad of players who have not become poor overnight but I am not convinced that they are being well coached and manage. Being a nice guy who makes time to interact with the fans and attend supporters meetings will only take you so far.

Stick with him. 17 clean sheets, confidence just got smashed early on that lead to a terrible display.

I thought both red cards were harsh. To me it looked as if Tansey was trying to pull out of the tackle at the last second. As someone else said, his studs were not up at the point of impact. Not that either decision affected today's outcome.

The mid week game against Hibs is a chance for both management and players to redeem themselves from that miserable performance.

the management team did nothing wrong today, it's the players responsibility to be up for such an important game

An awful lot of things went wrong today, but that aside, Utd just looked like they wanted it more. Perhaps that shouldn't be a surprise as it was the biggest game of their season, but seemed a bit of an unwelcome distraction for us.

I couldn't go today either (thank goodness) but Which ever way you paint it a home crowd of 1,500 outnumbered by away supporters when admission was only a tenner is a very poor show indeed and worthy of comment.

Forgot to factor in the Aussie refuseniks. At least 12 of the 10 will boycott the game because of the merger.

Both management and players take responsibility for wins and losses, but the players take tactical orders from the manager. In two games now we have played 4-4-2 and lost 5-0 in each game. Coincidence, maybe, linked maybe. I'm not sure the Hughes/latapy paring us right for ICT. The players are as skill full and commuted as they ever have been, so what's changed. Obvious really.

Agree - United nothing special in first half. They just needed to pick up what ICT gave them. Needs to be serious work done before next Sunday, in fact, before midweek.

I don't know what I just watched. Every touch was off, every pass misplaced, tackles mistimed, defense was disorganised. Just an utter shambles. United didn't actually do much in the first half but we handed them three goals with mistakes and bad decisions. NOt sure where Foran was supposed to be playing but he needs to be deeper IMO. Against good teams we can't play the way Hughes is trying - it's one thing to beat County and Stranraer but we need to be smarter against an in-form United.

Even for me that was a pretty good score on the old wum scale... For various reasons I wasn't able to get the full size ones laid out to get them photographed....those are just miniature samples.

You stay the feck away from it....Jonah! OK, bit harsh picking on me, but I will avoid eastgate today! You may be Jonah by name....but Gringo is Jonah by nature!!!

Without wishing to offend, the 7000(ish) ticket sales reported on radio yesterday is disappointing. Ticket sales for Cup Finals displays a Club's potential, and 7000 from a city the size of Inverness whose Club has consolidated its place in the top flight and competing in its first national Cup Final is rather pitiful imho - even taking into account the location and kick-off time. What kind of message to the Board, current/potential sponsors ???? I reckon Elgin City would take more.

This is my dog ' Rod ' named after a fellow ICT fan.