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This is what I heard being shouted before half time yesterday at the match from a so called ICT fan in the North Stand. This was shouted during a quiet spell when people on and off the pitch could clearly hear him. This negative rhetoric does nothing to help our teams performance but undermines morale and the confidence of the players. At the same time it gives a lift to the opposition, which is not really what you want! Yesterday's game might have been poor, however not our worst home home performance against Motherwell, I was at the match in Nov 2012 when we got thumped 5 goals to 1 by them. Gutted - you bet I was but still did not find it necessary to add to the players despondency by taunting them or booing them off the pitch which happened yesterday. Caley Thistle - simply unbelievable............ Scottish Cup winners, 3rd in the League AND European Football. This makes me proud and very happy to support my local team through the highs and lows. Remember yesterday was only 1 game in a whole season, both Mutombo and Williams having a good game, Mutombo with his pace and clever footwork and Williams for keeping us in the game. To the man who shouted the above words and others like him, maybe you should find another team to support - in fact there is a team just over the bridge which might suit you more!!! Let's get behind the lads!

As usual, some over reaction to a poor performance and defeat. Some posters do genuinely seem to think we have a divine right to win every game but hey ho. Obviously not a great performance yesterday and playing players out of position does not help but with the injuries we have, not sure what else we could have done. I actually thought Raven was okay on the left and was getting forward but when he went to right back and Williams to left back, much better balance in the team and we had some much needed width. Thought Devine had a good game as well for us, possibly one of his best?. Fully understand however why Hughes started with Williams in midfield to give us some attacking options. It didn't help losing an early goal which was the result of two bad passes, one to tansy and then his pass. Nothing at all to do with the passing game. Our possession was okay but we need to speed it up and have runners coming from midfield. Our midfield was way to deep yesterday and someone needs to tell Ryan that he should not be dropping so deep to get the ball, that is not his job. As many have said, we do need a striker and that is a major disappointment that we have still not found one of a suitable stature. Lopez does not look like a natural finisher and while Mutumbo showed good willingness and skill, only time will tell if he can score. On the subject of finance and why we didn't sign strikers like other clubs, I don't think the cup run generated huge amounts of cash as some fans seem to think it did. I know St. Johnstone and Dundee Utd were not happy at the amount of cash they received from the previous cup final. Until we get a rich benefactor to stump up cash or get more fans through the door, we will struggle for money. Some fans have quoted Dundee as an example but I guarantee they will have a bigger average gate than us. Looks likes we are in for a rocky few weeks with the injuries but lets recognise the difficulties we have currently and triumph in adversity which we have done many times before.

Suggested alternatives - Caley you are disappointing - Thistle you are sh!te

Sounds like a guy we were sitting near at the Astra game in Romania and just repeatedly shouted the same thing during the second half when we only needed 1 goal to put us to extra time. If it is the same person then he didn't look like he's kicked a football before in his life!! He also came out with some other classic encouraging quotes, such as "do something with the ball" and "Lopez you're a waste of a shirt" "Do something with the ball" If you don't know what should be done with the ball and you have a better view of the whole pitch, then how the **** do you expect "something" to be done with the ball by the player that is being pressurised by the opposition and has limited time to make their decision? Not every pass can be a world cup pass ... if football was that easy it would be a basketball score every game! "Lopez you're a waste of a shirt" I've only seen the guy in video clips and the game out in Romania but it is embarrassing that a new signing is getting absolutely no help from his fans. He was pretty dismal in the first half in Romania but in the second half he looked as though he could have something to offer the club when he was dropping deeper. Even if he does turn out to be a donkey do you actually think that telling a player he is having a shocker is going to help him?? Or worse, telling him that he isn't good enough for this level when he might be having the same doubts himself is going to help in anyway?? I'm not a happy clapper by any means and could write a very long list of the things I think the club could be doing better on all fronts ... but honestly what do some fans expect?? Everyone gets frustrated.. especially when it's not going our way but surely Yogi has bought himself half a season at the very least before fans start turning on him. He won us a Scottish Cup FFS!! His methods have been proven successful so any argument about style of play is way off the mark... but he is now having to deal with losing 5 first team players and a barrel load of injuries so I definitely think the board need to give him a hand and get a couple of landmark signings. To this day the largest transfer fee we have ever paid for a player is £25k for Barrowman (I think) .. we now NEED some investment. End of the day if a fan pays money for a ticket it's their right to express their opinion but I would prefer to think that we have enough educated fans to weed out the others.

I'm sure we paid around £65k for John Rankin.

What drives me mental are people who just don't seem to understand tactics at all. Hughes seems to like to have a short option for corners, as it means the opposition have to bring another man out of their box as well. This is always met "GET IN THE BOX! GET IN THE BOX!". Even worse was some of the shouts towards Esson and Brill last season. I remember on one occasion Esson was out at the edge of the D talking to his centre-backs when there was a break in play. Some dunderhead behind me screamed "GET ON YOUR LINE ESSON!" Absolute head in hands stuff. You actually have to wonder if some of these people know what they're watching.

The main positives are that we have fared well in a history making experience in top class European football against a relatively established European team. The whole adventure was relished. And in case anyone has not noticed we are only ONE game in to the current league season. It looks like expectations have gone through the roof. Let's face it - life will go back to normal for ICT supporters - given the current situation it may even go into a wee bit of a dive. It is at times like this that we need to cherish the good times but support rather than chastise. I would hope that our signing / loan situation has not come to a halt. If it does I also think that questions should be asked about the financial management and status of the club. Every time that we have gone into a slump in the last few seasons - usually in December - the doom merchant vultures circle the Longman. Me - I may well join the criticism if things are not turned round but that is 4-6 games away and is doable - and if it ain't fixed then I will get out the ceremonial knives.

Pretty harsh sharing that halfway through 1st game of season. Everyone is forgetting that it was only a 1-0 defeat. We weren't hammered just had a poor game against a team who pressed at right times and sat in a lot.

I see the multi quote function is working well

It's taken me until now to recover from that car-crash and comment on yesterday's game... Put simply, that is as bad a performance as I have ever seen from ICT. Yes, we're ravaged by injuries, but that has only served to show us all what we already knew: we have a very thin squad and need more strength in depth! Our recruitment this year has been nothing short of a shambles and yesterday was the result. No depth, no strikers, no shape, no energy, no pace. On the new boys: his is the first time I've seen Lopez and I was totally unimpressed. He carries no aerial threat, no pace and no ability to anticipate (striker's instinct). He's is passable at linking play in a number 10 role, but not a number 9. Mutombo looked quite sparky when he came on and was instrumental in our only chance from open play, but without a target in the box, most of his good work came to nought. I didn't see enough of Wedderburn to make a judgement - Yogi was unfortunate to have hooked him for tactical reasons before Warren was injured. Fon Williams made several excellent saves, including the penalty. After a bit of a shaky start, it looks like he's a good addition. I know he's not all that new, but Horner looked distinctly average. What else did we learn? 1. Raven is no left back. This experiment should not be repeated. Williams did OK hen he went to left back and that appears to be our only option now. 2. Meekings is not a right back. The Warren-Meekings partnership in the heart of defence is our backbone and losing Warren is going to hurt. 2. We can't play 4-4-2 because....we don't have a single striker, never mind 2! As Craig Levein found out in Czech Republic, 4-6-0 just doesn't work. 3. Right now, we need to banish thoughts of top 6 and concentrate on the usual - avoiding relegation. Where to from here? Yogi needs to work his socks off in the transfer market. We need at least 2 strikers and (now) several defenders. I think we've missed the boat to a large extent - loans might be the way forward? I can only see one formation with any merit at the moment, with 2 holding midfielders protecting a new central defensive partnership: Fon Williams Raven Devine Wedderburn (Meekings) Williams Draper Tansey Mutombo Christie (Roberts, Doran) ???? My granny? (Ferguson, Sutherland?) Time to scrap for every point and get some of these injured guys back. Very worrying.

Sat 01 Aug 2015 Highland League A Greig (2) - (Brora 11 Rothes 0) D Gillespie - (Brora 11 Rothes 0) Z Sutherland - (Brora 11 Rothes 0) M Bavidge (2) - (Inverurie 4 Formantine 3) I Vigurs - (Inverurie 4 Formantine 3) G Wood - (Inverurie 4 Formantine 3)

I must say I'm not happy with that especially after not having a recognised fit striker. Having just watched all the Premiership highlights on Sportscene we seem to be the only club that hasn't recruited any strikers. Our lack of attempts on target yesterday was a damning statistic. Okay we have new players who are attacking midfielders (Lopez, Roberts and Mbuyi-Mutombo) potentially capable of scoring but it is very worrying that we have never replaced Billy McKay. The loss of Gary Warren for most of the season is also a big blow for our defence along with all the pre-season injuries. While I hope I am proved wrong I really fear that even after one match we could be at the wrong end of the table for most of the season.

The biggest worry is we've known since last December we need a striker with Mackay going. Watkins was a good stop gap, so why sign all these midfielders and no sign of a striker?!?!

To be fair Fon Williams did have a good game yesterday. Between a choice of continuing with Esson though and bringing a striker who can finish or bring in a third keeper, I know what I would choose.

Here's an idea. Why don't all ICT fans march to the club shop first thing on Monday morning and buy the new kits so the club can loads of money to sign more players? Oh wait........it's not on sale yet....or in the club shop. Ah well, just as the club got its priorities in order. I mean, with a new striker so badly needed, surely they wouldn't do something mental like sign a third keeper. Uh oh.....

Three trialists? Wedderburn, Roberts, Fon Williams, Mbuyi-Mutombo, Lopez. It is frustrating that we don't have the budget of Dundee, or even County, but that's evidently the board's judgement. If Yogi had gone to the board after we won the cup, asked for a couple of quality signings, and was told no, then that's certainly frustrating. But it's reality. Last season can't have brought in enough to materially alter our balance sheet so given the club's finances aren't drastically changing and our attendences aren't likely to go up, I can understand why there isn't deemed to be enough extra cash to make a significant one off investment. Don't we typically run at a very slight loss? I don't think it's the decision I'd make; I'd much rather see a couple of quality players have come in. But it's too early for me to say they haven't (you never know), and I think it would do Yogi a disservice to assume he doesn't understand the squad's weaknesses. As for yesterday, I thought the three defence minded central midfielder thing shouldn't persist while we've got full backs who can't give us the width we then need. I hope Lopez is just taking the customary time to settle in (Wyness, Dargo etc), Mbuyi-Mutombo was encouraging and I was pleased to see Polworth getting on and trying to pick a pass that wasn't sideways. Gutted for Gary Warren, really hope his recovery isn't going to go a bit Richie.

The most concerning thing for me is that I don't think I've seen any quotes from Yogi recently saying that he actually needs a striker - he just talks about needing to be more "cutting" in the final third. His quote about Mutombo "He can play in all positions across the front, either on the wing, behind the first striker or as that first striker". He's presumably not been played as a striker much - if he has then his goal record is woeful and in any case 4 goals in his last 80 games is not exactly encouraging for an attacking midfielder. Maybe Hughes sees him as more of a striker than his previous managers but if this is the case (based on watching him just 2 or 3 times then it seems a pretty desperate gamble. Lopez has had a reasonable strike rate in his career but for the last 5 years has only played 20 games a season. For him to make a significant contribution he'll need to play more than he's played for years and play a lot better than he has in the last 3 games. I can only hope that Yogi's just playing his cards close to his chest and is quietly working on finding a striker. Yesterday's injuries won't help in the search for a striker as he'll now also have to concentrate on shoring up the defence. It is also a worry that, with the limited options currently available to him, Yogi seems intent on playing so many players out of position. I know that it's easy to be critical from the sidelines but the last time I felt so strongly that a manager had things wrong when Levein stuck resolutely with his 4-6-0 in Prague despite the fact that Scotland were every bit as good as the Czechs. I know his job can't be easy but sometimes a manager needs to look up as well and take note of what everyone around him is saying.

Blimey my concern for the defence has come much sooner than I expected with Warren getting injured and out seemingly for some time, and Meekings having a bad enough knock to be subbed for the second half with Warren already off Injuries are already at crisis level with Doran out (how come?) Foran starting to look an unlikely contributor, no sign of Roberts, and Tremarco out (for how long?)...to start the first game of the season with a subs bench short of numbers is very worrying Of the new guys, Lopez does not appear to be giving much cause for optimism, Wedderburn off very early yesterday (for tactical reasons?) but heard some decent reports. Mutumbo only on for an hour so too early to judge although it sounds like he was an improvement This looks like a season where we are going to be caught out for having a threadbare squad, and a failure to invest in true strikers with any quality about them...if ever a large influx in the playing squad were needed it is now, but I think this is unlikely to happen.....it occurs to me that with the difference in TV money between SPL and championship not that great, it doesn't justify the cost of transfers and wages when the budget to run the club on is so small It is of course way too early to write a season off, but there is something about Blackpool's situation last season that seems reminiscent here... a relegation scrape I think it is then!

Couldn't really have had a worse start, 2 of our main players injured, a loss at home and a shocking performance! That made the Astra games look like they happened years ago!! Fair enough we're down a few players due to injury but to still not have a striker, winger or left back at this stage is pathetic! Everyone else that wanted to recruit has recruited...even county so there is no excuses! It could well be a long season after that performance but maybe it's what they needed to bring them back down to earth and Scottish football! But those who are saying Hughes out are clearly pathetic and idiotic...supporting your club means supporting your players and management, no matter how hard it gets!!!

Goodness, gracious me. What the hell was that? First, the caveats: any team in this league bar Celtic and Aberdeen struggles with a few players out - today we missed Brill, Tremarco, Vincent, Foran, Doran and Roberts (some of whom may have started, and some of whom may not have). Then we lose Warren and Meekings to injury. But still, we could have easily lost that four- or five-nil. Owain Fon Williams was outstanding (he even made a wonderful save for their goal, but Fletcher got to the rebound first), and it was just as well. Motherwell missed several other chances. We on the other hand, managed three shots on goal and none on target (according to the BBC). The three shots were a Tansey free kick deflected well wide, a Tansey shot from distance that went miles high and wide, and a Lopez shot from distance that was closer to the corner flag than the goal. And it's not as though we were fizzing crosses across the face of goal or anything. Their keeper could have spent the match leaning on his post and reading the newspaper. I know we were short of players, but the tactics were terrible. Raven (when played out of position) and Meekings offer no attacking width. There is no point to playing both Wedderburn and Draper, they are so similar in style that they are practically two cheeks of the same fat backside. Williams needed to be at left-back from the off, just to give us a bit of width. Raven was also dreadfully exposed by Marvin Johnson's pace. Johnson and Chalmers kept getting into the space left by our full-backs when they bombed forward...with our twin defensive midfielders nowhere to be seen when they should have been covering. We were a shambles from the off - Warren's panicky hack on McDonald in the first minute set the tone. I know folk will bemoan our passing around at the back but Tansey's blunder was not because he was under pressure - he simply played a lazy, blind sideways pass. What he was doing that deep at that point (and many others in the first half), when we already had two defensive midfielders, was beyond me. Subbing Wedderburn and bringing on Mutombo was a desperate move, but the right one. Mutombo had several good touches, though whether he has some substance, or is just a Fancy Dan, remains to be seen. He at least went looking for the ball, which is more than can be said for Lopez. The Spaniard must have touched the ball about ten times...and nearly every time it just bounced off him. He didn't get much service, but nor did he compete with the Motherwell defenders or make an active effort to offer himself for a pass. He's had three starts now and if this is as fit as he's going to get, then god help us. I felt sorry for Ryan Christie, who kept getting caught in possession because no-one in front of him was ever looking for a pass. He got more and more frustrated as the game went on, and made more and more mistakes. It was a sign of the way our day was going that we lost both Warren and Meekings, which left us with a threadbare back four. Devine was alright to be fair; it must be said that Polworth was decent enough in the second half but just offered more of the sideways passing. Horner wasn't much cop, but then we had no other options, really. So, in conclusion, that was terrible - maybe even worse than any performance in the whole of last season. But surely once our injuries are cleared we'll be fine...right?

In fairness to whoever, they were exactly that yesterday.