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Oh and - LOL - was I wrong about Butcher ? - and - LOL - who were the ones to try and bitterly defend him till the end ? And now I come up with my first real complaint about Yogi - justified and clearly presented IMHO and - well with a more subdued defence really.

BBC match report says it should have been a penalty. "Pictures revealed that Reguero had indeed clipped Watkins and he struggled to retain his balance before tumbling." Footage will confirm it and also confirm that County goal was a clear hand ball...assuming we get more than 30 seconds on Sportscene. Sportscene show ICT highlights?

BBC match report says it should have been a penalty. "Pictures revealed that Reguero had indeed clipped Watkins and he struggled to retain his balance before tumbling." Footage will confirm it and also confirm that County goal was a clear hand ball...assuming we get more than 30 seconds on Sportscene.

Perhaps someone else had a hand in County's goal and I don't think it was Ryan or Gary

He is infectious but watch again. There was a distinct lack of conviction in what he said. He stammers quite a lot and that is not the norm - that is the diction of somebody who is not really believing what he is saying. Wjgan only made an approach 2-3 dyas ago - ah feckin ha - ? not expected ? And he totally waffles about replacing Billy. "We are looking to get one two in" but we aint got a clue who ? Of course we will support and get together but "keeping clean sheets" and "giving another 5% each" is feckin nonsense. And then he stammers more and Auldie does not push. Great closure with the "All Together Now" - but at the end of the day WE FECKED UP and we need a break and a bit of luck with a replacement. "I am intrigued" is BULLSHITT it is more a case of "WE FECKED UP". And in conclusion I hope Yogi / WE get a lucky break.

As Yogi has said....just because we haven't asked any other players to play the advanced striker role this season doesn't mean we don't have any other strikers in the squad. Personally, if we had got to where we are this season on the back of 20+ goals from Mckay then I may be a little apprehensive, but we've got goals coming from guys all over the pitch and no reason that should dry up. Also keep in mind that if Mckay was still here then it's feasible you could be looking at a bench which contained Watkins, Doran, Christie & Vincent....all guys who pose an attacking threat and could easily play the advanced striker role.

Summer football would be perfect for the all-seated stadia in Scotland. Or, alternatively, we could get rid of this stupid all-seated rule, get rid of the North and South stands and replace them with compact, covered terraces. I far preferred the terraces to what we have now.

Of course Yogi is not alone but he is the figurehead who has to shoulder the responsibility. We did not need a public statement. We should have been preparing a contingency plan behind doors and implementing in the event of any need. Sitting patiently on the sidelines is not an effective response. When did constructive criticism ever do any harm ? Mistakes appear to have been made but without any suggestion that they have. Knee jerk reactions can sometimes avoid knee joint dislocations. This faux-pas could be mended and could be looked at as a blip in retrospect. My concern is that it could cause a derailment of a potentially joyous journey. I note that very few have joined in the debate. I shall conclude at this juncture and look forward to a repaired and positive response when I journey to Partick next week.

Intelligent and honest contributor.

Oh...should have read a bit further, it was there already! Personalise it now as usual - LOL - The reference was to co-dependents not to happy clappers. At least Yogi shows emotion.

Why bother? Any disagreement will clearly be met with "I was waiting for the happy clappers" type response. LOL - another lame response. SP evidently disagrees and I can see where he is coming from. I just can't understand why some people appear to feel that he is beyond criticism. He is human and makes mistakes and he can't hide it like previous examples of narcissist and mercenary. I am sure that he is hurting.

SP - I have backed him to the hilt and really liked him. I am sure that he is hurting and the interview clearly shows that. I know that I will continue admire his honesty and committment and of course I will support him from here on in. But to use one of your words I am angered and frustrated that he has chosen such a CRUCIAL time of this very promising season to make his first big faux-pas. Let's hope that this week will herald an arrival and it is on to Partick in pursuit of another Cup Final.

I understand your feelings IHE and I think that you are not entirely wrong about the club's attitude but it's a question, IMHO, that the club is faced with the idiom..."you are damned if you do and damned if you don't". As for John apparently being unusually uncomfortable, my opinion is that his attitude reflected more about his disappointment at Billy's leaving and the disruption in his plans and what he had hoped would be a very good outcome at the end of the season as a result of his intense planning and work. At the same time he now has to factor in the Shinnie situation so what can he do about that ?He can't include Billy in his plans really but he can't exclude him either. And what happens if that scenario changes and Shinnie does not actually go to Aberdeen? That's more tension and uncertainty in his mind as to what to do in the way of transfers. So you can hardly blame him for being somewhat nervous especially since it is not his fault that his good work leading up to these players becoming as good as they are is cruelly turned against him in a sense and giving him a lot to think about? Time to back him unequivocally IMHO. And see if he can work some more magic. What other course is there to take at this quoite crucial point in the season. Cheers

Handball looks a cert!

Definite penalty. You only have to play rugby to know the effect of an ankle tap - it upsets the balance for the second and third stride. Credit to Watkins for trying to stay on his feet and finish it off. He's not going to dive when he's seen what happened to Graham.

Reminder to turn that bloody fridge off

BBC match report says it should have been a penalty. "Pictures revealed that Reguero had indeed clipped Watkins and he struggled to retain his balance before tumbling." No question he was clipped, but no ref is going to give a pen for the way he went down. Not a criticism of Watkins, but he took two paces before going down. Feel the contact, go to ground - no argument. Fair play to Watkins if he tried to keep playing, but plenty would have played for the contact and won the pen. No criticism - just was never going to be given as it happened. Pretty sure the penalty should be award for the offence, not based on style marks for how the victim goes down...or have I got that wrong?

There has and always will be a lack of available resources at ICT. That has hampered every manager in the past and probably the future so that is that. He is usually a very honest and straight talking individual and says it as it is. I have significant admiration of that. But this was an uneasy interview. The length of it only served to highlight the falseness. If anything that is one thing that Butcher excelled in. And my frustration is that it did not happen quickly. It may have ended up unexpectedly but good managers make plans in the event of a potential problem. WE did not. There should have been a fairly structured contingency plan in place. And come on SP - you do not need to be an expert in body language to see how unusually uncomfortable Yogi was during the interview. As I have alluded to before he is high up in my admiration but he and others have clearly been too lax in this specific booboo. Let's all hope that it is an unusual and unfortunate blip and that we can still salvage what was looking like an excellent season. But adhering to the squad that we have, shuffling and not finding some kind of direct replacement fer Billy will not suffice.

IHE, don't you think that with the lack of available resources at the club for transfer fees for GOOD players, who also have to have a record of sufficient flexibility so that they can fi in to Mr. Hughes' scheme, then your commentary against his explanations is a tad harsh. Also, this has all happened very quickly for everybody to really grasp the significance of it and the club can't be expected to buy in players on the supposition that any player, no matter how good or allegedly relentlessly-sought- after , will automatically be transferred on any specific day? So John's hands are tied until he knows the circumstances that he is actually faced-with. It all boils down to money-- surprise, surprise. Isn't that right Oddquine? At least, to be fair, that's my uninformed insight.

BBC match report says it should have been a penalty. "Pictures revealed that Reguero had indeed clipped Watkins and he struggled to retain his balance before tumbling."

Terrible pitch, terrible referee, terrible performance. It was never going to be easy against County in these kind of conditions. The long ball approach made sense. We didn't execute it well at all though. Too many completely aimless punts which didn't fall within 30 yards of a blue shirt. When we played long balls in the past we were much better at 'ring fencing' the target (MNF reference) and winning second balls. Today we basically just kept giving possession back to County. For the majority of the second half there was no impetus to get forward, and we seemed happy to sit on our lead, a dangerous game. In previous outings we managed to see out narrow leads by hogging possession. That was never going to work today. On a side not, every time a County player was fouled they feigned serious injury, and every time without fail that gullible clown Beaton flashed a card. Not impressed. Nor by the antics of McIntyre and Dods on the touchline, pair of absolute numpties.

Pretty underwhelming stuff, why did we let Ross County dictate 2nd half never really put them under any pressure , sat too deep. Needed a 2nd goal but lacked any conviction going forward and seemed happy to sit at 1 nil. Tremarco did miss his tackle but seemed a straight forward catch for Esson ,he fecked it up. Unsure why Tansey pushed wide right and Nick Ross pushed wide left with Shinnie playing in central midfield .....Strange

County were set up to stop us playing, and that, combined with the awful weather and a rotten pitch, made life difficult for us. Given that we had little choice but to play long ball, I'm not sure we had a better option up front than Watkins, though playing Williams up with him was a strange move. Tansey and Ross were passengers and both should have been hooked much earlier. Watkins' goal was tremendous, about the only piece of quality from us in the first half. We did have our chances to put it to bed after the break though. From what I could see, the equalizer was a result of a ****-up from Esson, who should have had an easy take of a cross; he seemed to drop it and the ball hit Warren and went in. Esson's kicking was atrocious today, and he wasn't even trying to pass it out of defence like Brill usually does. I thought the back four generally did fine today, as did Draper and Shinnie in front of them, but in hindsight we really needed either Tansey or Ross in a more central role with Williams wide; our full-backs were very exposed, especially in the second half. I'd have taken a point before kickoff Frankly, it's a miracle that a football match came close to breaking out, given the conditions.

How times have changed. This time last season you'd have gone into meltdown for not winning and be calling for Hughes to be sacked!

Our usual slick passing game spoiled by our own pitch today. Roll on the new 4G surface. I thought Marley did well for first 60 mins but we dropped back so far after that point that Ross and Williams offered little support. County's misfits/loanees somehow managed to get it together and grab a point. Motm Tremarco's mis-tackle on half way led to their goal. We weren't helped be another inept performance from ref Beaton either.

Disappointed to leave the game today with only a point. Felt after scoring the first goal (fantastic goal too) we sat back and tried to protect the one nill advantage. I thought Marley Watkins had a reasonable shift up front but I do have to question where he was positioned because sometimes I felt he was sitting too deep and then he was out on the wings. I do share the feelings of other posters where we need a striker as at times I did felt we lacked a bit of bite up front. I was actually quite surprised by Ross County today, I felt they had a lot of the ball and defensively they were pretty tight today - fair play to them. Got to win next weekend at Partick.

That was poor fare today. Pitch was shocking, shape didn't really work - get Shinnie back to full back and Tansey in the heart of midfield. Esson looked nervy and his kicking was erratic. Brill's absence was probably the biggest impact: No playing it out through the full-backs.Marley did quite well, but it's not his best position. Tremarco (I think) made a poor decision, dived in and allowed their winger to whip in a good ball for their goal. Not sure Warren could do much about it. Way off the standard of our play over the past few weeks, but maybe the pitch dictated that kind of football. County were poor going forward and are in trouble. Points dropped.

The pitch worked against us today - not good for our style of football

yeah, but it didnt cover ICT when we were the away team in Dingwall .... bizarre Got to say that Auldy boy and Mike Noble are far better commentators. Today's ones are banging on about lack of atmosphere, but listening to this commentary I am about to go an put on a Smiths album to cheer myself up !!!!

Currently the weather is fine as we approach the last derby game for some time.........................

31 January 2015 Blackpool have announced that they have signed 24-year-old defender Tom Aldred on loan from Accrington Stanley on an emergency loan. He could make his debut again Brighton this afternoon.

It would appear that you are all missing the point. We do NOT have any out and out centre forward types in the squad. We should have been planning for an immediate straight replacement fer Wee Billy not looking at playing other players out of position. Shure Marley can fill the gap (and filling the gap is what it should be) but that would lose and waste his prowess out wide. Christie is too lightweight and Ferguson is too raw. Fortunately we have probably got enuff in the tank to beat the caravan dwellers but it is further on in the season that worries me. This feels like a wee bit of over confidence in retaining Billy crept in and then Wigun, funded by a couple of transfers out, pounced with a doubling wages and extended contract proposal. I have been a great admirer of our management regime but this was amateur. I also evidently sincerely hope that Yogi pulls one out of the bag but that is now resting in the land of Luck and not in the Land of Anticipation and readiness as it should have been.

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I 'rank' inbetween Formartine and Deveronvale!!

Going to continue the 'lets talk p1sh' theme by asking what Barrowboy is doing these days?

Former Jaggies might dispute that! But do you think this Billy may also come back to Inverness? Always the chance he'll come back once he's past his best, like the other Billy did! He was still pretty good though! And former Jaggies will just have to get used to the fact that their team's shortened name is "Caley"

The seer needs to get his stone serviced as it's clearly malfunctioning.

Rory McAllister's goal scoring record is second to none. He won an SPFL player of the month award last season, the first player outside the Premiership to win the award. He was also voted League 2 player of the season. The only reason he isn't paying full time football at a higher level already is because he chose a different career. An unorthodox choice perhaps, but understandable. I would welcome him back.

Raven not offered anything yet according to Courier. wants to sign up, doesnt want to move. get the contract on the table !

I had a dream

He probably does want to sign on, just for the right amount.

Excellent interview. I like his "man the barricades mentality" and I'm sure he'll get the right response from the players. I was still hoping that Billy would be here on Sat so that we could give him a good send off, but sounds like there's no chance of that, so let's move on. Not sure who he has in mind for up front on Saturday, But that means he's keeping County guessing too! Would be great if he gets his target by then, but if not, we've got the players to win the game, so let's do it......in style!

Really good interview. Very honest assessment of things. Not a good week but really excited for Sat now! Let's absolutely gub the manky mob and show there is life after Billy!

250K given all the factors I think would have been a good deal. Even at that it would be a cracking bargain for Wigan.

That's a bit f**keen personal is it not?!