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...and make sure we all play our part in giving the team the best support possible in the week ahead (and beyond). This is what our club is about... This is what our team is about... This is what the ICT fans are about... TOGETHER WE BELIEVE - TOGETHER WE ACHIEVE

Hi all, Aberdeen supporter here in peace. Have been browsing your forum in the build up to the big game on Sunday. And have been keeping an eye on the results for obvious reasons. A couple of points though as to why I signed up. Firstly, I think it's an excellent sight seeing 2 non-old firm teams in a final. Especially given the resources Celtic have over the rest of us, it pleases me greatly. Secondly, Easy for me to say I guess, but I wouldn't read too much into your last couple of results, a final as you will know is a big occasion and a one off game. Anything can happen. Thirdly, I have been a bit disappointed that a few posters on here are under the impression we feel all we need to do is turn up and win the final. Granted, every set of support will have the odd idiot who will make claims such as the one I just mentioned, but I'd like to point out the majority of us are well aware that this is going to be a very tight game. It really could go either way, we both have players that on their day, will hurt opposition. We need Hayes, Rooney, McGinn and Pawlett to be at their very best whilst keeping tight at the back, whereas, If Doran, Ross & McKay play to their maximum, we will have plenty to worry about. Add to that, I'm a huge fan of Greg Tansey, and from what I can gather, he's been one of the better players since re-signing recently. No-one is just going to turn up and win this final gents(and ladies?) And I for one, am pretty nervous. However, I sincerely hope that the best team wins the cup on the day, and whilst I hope it is ourselves, if not, then ICT will get my congratulations. Anyway, all the best guys, seriously. See you on Sunday :)

To the Caley Thistle faithful, I have a Celtic bar 2 mins walk from the stadium. I am looking to make my bar the official home for your good natured fans come the big day. I will open all day long just for Caley thistle fans, good music and a large selection of drinks. We are called 'Paradise Bar' and are located at 65 tollcross road, Glasgow. Good luck and enjoy the day!

So you reckon we can score 5?

On the basis of the last two weekends, just behind Dean Brill.

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 )

Hope your feeling better for Sunday.

STV are looking for ICT supporters to come down to the Caley Club wearing their colours, scarfs and so on this Friday at 5.30pm for an hour. Promo piece for the final. They are on air at 6pm live I believe, so even if you can make it by then come along, bring the kids etc...

On the basis of the last two weekends, just behind Dean Brill.

Time to regroup but also to rethink. In many ways the players OWE the fans who did turn up yesterday. I am looking forward to my compensation and a very sore throat.

Here Here!!!! This is the biggest week in our history and we should all enjoy it whatever happens IMO Lets get right behind our team and cement top 6 and bring the cup home!!!!

People seem to forget that prior to the Celtic game we'd went 6 games unbeaten (albeit one cup replay) had 4 clean sheets on the bounce, had lost 1 in 9, with 5 wins and 3 draws. The Celtic game was no shame. Its happened to many a team at Celtic Park this season and it will probably happen again. Hitting the panic button a little early folks. But we really need to put in a proper shift against Hibs. Another performance like today will really not do. I'd happily take a 0-0 bore draw after that.

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.

Always expect the unexpected from ICT! Would be good to get a solid win against Hibs mid week which would all but guarantee a Top six place and provide the players and Hughes with some confidence moving forward to the final.

I was one of the fans that was crying out for Butcher to make it a 4-4-2 formation because of the players we had at our disposal and they weren't getting used. Things were made harder for Yogi admittedly with the departure of Toby Agdestein and Curtis Allen but we haven't replaced them which has left us in the lurch of strikers and this is part of the consequences. During the Butcher reign I thought Billy Mckay kept getting isolated up front on his own a fair bit and credit to Yogi for seeing that and amending it but for me Richie Foran up front with Billy Mckay isn't the answer and unfortunately Yogi got the tactics wrong today which is seeing him get stick. Richie Foran's best postition is holding the midfield, fighting for every ball and driving the team forward and we missed that today.

Welcome to our forum Dons fan. Good opening post. Come next sunday i want to read about a good, hard fought, game with good refereeing, hard working players and no cheating from Pawlett. No controversy to talk about afterwards and definately no sending offs. Oh! and a result that reflects that the better team won.

A gubbing against a poor Hibs side managed by Butcher would be the starter IMO. A must win game on Wednesday now.

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.

You can listen to the new Official ICTFC League Cup Final Song by CLICKING HERE

I couldn't even get a minute into it without vomiting. Nay offence like

Our own Showaddyadie playing with Toby Michaels...............brilliant Fruitbat

So tell me DonInPeace, are you a real Dons fan or one of the 30,000 gloryhunters?

Fine establishment and a dark sitting room do not equate.

You've just given them the answer to the question

Is this not the way we always played? Absorb pressure, let the opposition hold a high line and then one ball out of defence could create a potential goal. This is why McKay was so successful where he found himself in a forward position with one defender and keeper to beat. Now the whole defence is around him when he receives the ball and scoring is a bit more difficult. At the moment we are the ones holding a high line and we are the ones getting caught. I feel it is rethink time for Sunday.

Kick them out of the competition now.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11781/9206234/greg-tansey-and-marley-watkins-set-to-play-for-inverness-caley-against-aberdeen Given the above, there's no way it is worth risking an appeal: the players would be dead against it and, throw in the cost and the chances and I'm sure they'll be left. Short again in midfield for Hibs, though!

Bus 7 is going to use this pub as we have children, where is best place to park the bus?

the best way to surprise Hibs might be a 4-4-2 as nobody will think Yogi is daft enough to try it a 3rd time

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

Rubbish. I'd be delighted if he proved me wrong. He hasn't and his football management history doesn't leave a lot to look forward to. Could have said the same with Brewster but I thibnk we should have got shot of him sooner. Not by me. But then, he took over a club almost certain to be relegated with a high turnover of staff. Not a 2nd placed team that can only beat Stranraer at home. Generally yes. But bolting the stable door after the horse has bolted led Aberdeen to years of relegation battles and bottom-six standings. Got to be balanced.

The only point I would make on this is that a lot of "fans" did not want Hughes in the first place so are just itching to find things to show him in a bad light and be sacked. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but the attitude that some posters on this thread have that Hughes needs to be sacked now, or at least if we don't deliver some good performances, very soon. Where would that leave, us, trying to find a new manager again, destabilising the club for several months and no guarantee we will be any better off with a new manager. The same nonsense was spouted about Butcher when we had a bad run under him ( I think at the start of our Championship winning season in Div1) and look what happened. Hughes may not be the manager some/many wanted but to talk of sacking him at the moment is premature in the extreme. That is not a happy clapper speaking, just reality. If this club starts to go down the lines of other clubs and firing managers afyer months in the job, we will suffer in the long term.

That's great to hear, I think that people would be happy to go there especially if you can take kids. It depends on the police arrangements, but I'll see if a couple of buses can drop off near you too. I'm on the train but hopefully I be able to grab a pint.

It's Scottish Football. That's not likely.

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!

Collum's a ref.............. C'mon I bought a tickets for the Willie Collum show today did you guys not.???

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.

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.

Well my observation is .... if we drop Dean we should also drop the others that performed below what we expect, so next week .... I feel Mr Shinnie will be very lonely!

In your opinion how many successive 5-0 thrashings does it take before a reaction becomes proportionate ? An over reaction might be calling for the manager's head. As far as I can see nobody's doing that..........yet.

Some interesting posts and some not so interesting. The 4 4 2 formation does not seem to be working but that was not what cost us the first 3 goals. First two were poor defending, third soft and debateable penalty. Fourth a breakaway goal that Raven and Brill could/should have done better with. Poor performance from many players but is this down to John Hughes?. I don't think so but that is just my opinion. Until the first goal, game fairly even but losing two poor goals then the penalty, then the sending off just killed the game. I actually thought we played better in the second half as Warren and Meekings seemed to improve but that could not be hard after the first half. Some serious choices need to be made for the final now. I would seriously consider playing Esson against Hibs to see how he plays as I think Brill has gone off the boil. Hard as it may be, I think we seriously have to consider playing Esson. Vincent poor as well today, didn't look fit and don't think he has justified a place in the starting 11. While Raven generally going going forward, he was shown up defensively today but what cover have we got for him?. Foran also poor and showed little influence today so maybe a hard decision to take with him as well. While we did not deserve to win today, giving United 2 goals of a start and a dodgy penalty basically took the game out of our reach against a United team who did not have to work hard for their victory and were by no means 5 goals better than us as some posters would appear to believe. Finally onto the referee. I actually said to someone, jokingly, before the game when I discovered Collum was the ref that we would be playing against 12 men today. Well while he did not cost us the game, he certainly spoilt it as a spectacle. Both red cards were ridiculous, Tansey's at best was a yellow and Watkins was a foul only at best. Collum just could not wait to get the red cards out and if this continues, most games will end up with less than 11 men each week. What really irks me about Collum is his inconsistency where he will award fouls for certain tackles then let exactly the same thing go. Today, none of these went in our favour. We have been on the bad end of some refereeing performances but todays was one of the worst. The stand side linesman was just as bad getting decisions wrong or simply having the ref make the decion for him. Roll on next Sunday where I am sure we will get a better performance. Aberdeen are by no means unbeatable so here's hoping the right ICT team turn up!

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.

If you're suggesting that Brill might have been intimidated by a large noisy group of opposition fans, that doesn't auger well for next Sunday.

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

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

No

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.

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 have a pub 2 minutes walk from the stadium where the buses can park outside. It is called paradise bar and has both a bar and a lounge where children are more than welcome. We would love to host you. Where are at 65 tollcross road, maybe 400m from the stadium.

The Board wanted someone with experience and got a manager who has experience. He is also older and wiser than the youngsters that are now being allowed to get a chance in the first team. What's the average age of the team? Are they all seasoned professionals who might be by now in their careers also rigid and inflexible in their thinking about how the team should play? No! Our boys need encouragement, to be worked very hard to separate the wheat from the chaffe and to have someone to look up to as a role model who is clean-cut and dresses well, as any Manager of Caley Thistle should do, speaks enthusiastically in a very positive vein about them, the team's future etc. In short, POSITIVITY on all fronts. and I would follow a guy like that. He also represents the club up front to the public and visitors alike and creates a good image in this respect, I am sure, in his role as the club's prime representative. Is the alternative, a person who looks like an scruff, going to impress? This is a very important quality, chums, because the Manager is the senior extension of the Board of Directors and should reflect their values to the outside world. Stability, experience and wisdom are offered by J Hughes who actually is often quite eloquent in his speeches and apparently is a good motivator.So....? God was not available at this time for the job so he sent us a candidate with POTENTIAL who generally met the varied criteria which probably reflected the unanimous views and requirements of the Board Members. So IMHO any reasonable fan would be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt --unless you are a member of Naysayers United when apparently your agenda may be more suited to negative back- biting and destructive comments aimed at undermining the new manager's ability to get the best out of the team and with his demise would come a convenient reason to justify your negativity. David Moyes has experience and by Alex Ferguson's reckoning he was the top choice for the position of Manager of Manchester United in a situation where there were many other excellent managers available to choose from. Yet he has struggled mightily in his new position and, like John Hughes, will need time in order to be successful. Even Ferguson himself needed 5 years to establish himself and is recently on record as condemning the knee-jerk reaction of the current Owners of the teams in the Premier league who fire new Managers at the drop of a hat when immediate glory eludes their grasp. As for Richie-who says he is to be the next Manager? A lot of water will probably have to run under the bridge before he retires and nothing in life is certain. As Rabbie Burns said..."the best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agley..". Dead right on that one Rabbie, as I know from my own personal experience. But from bad mistakes big lessons can be learned and that's how we grow in strength and, hopefully, wisdom. Richie, as far as we know, does not at his time have any significant Management experience. So why would he be considered to be the next managerial Messiah, at this stage of his carerer, for our team. He may turn out to be fantastic as a Manager but right now he is just another very good player. So, IMHO, the best bet for ICT at this time is to back John Hughes to the hilt...totally.