Leaderboard

Great to see Hughes abandon his non threatening negative tippy tappy philosophy and go right for the jugular again against County. There's nothing wrong with being direct and playing long balls so long as there is some kind of aim in mind when they are played (not like the garbage hoofball under Brewster). I'm not a fan of Meekings at RB but I was pleased to see how often both he and Tremarco on the left were getting forward offering great support down the flanks and giving us a wee bit more width when the centre of the pitch got clogged up. Devine and Warren were solid at the back. I'm still not a fan of Devine but credit where it is due, I felt our defence handled the County attack with ease save for the couple of chances in the first few minutes and when Irvine broke through and should have scored. Tansey and Vigurs stamped their authority on the midfield, Vigurs maybe a little bit too much if you believe the County fans. Apparently he had a shocking challenge on Irvine but from where I was I couldn't see it and it's not been included with any of the highlights. Draper and Polworth were superb at getting forward to support (Liam) Hughes and Storey who caused the County defence all sorts of problems. Incredible to think that Polworth was a bit of a 'meh' player for us until this season. Aside from a wee drop off in form over Dec / Jan I think he's been a revelation this year. There's some great photos of him celebrating his goal in front of some utterly seething Ross County fans Despite what a couple of folk have said I thought Liam Hughes did fine. He was a real nuisance up front and won a lot of the high balls up to him and with excellent support from Storey buzzing around him and the likes of Draper and Polworth charging on from midfield he was getting the support he so sadly lacked at Saint Johnstone. He's a bit of an awkward player no doubt but he's been so isolated recently and it was good to see him get a bit of help from his team mates. The goals were all very well taken. Wonderful counter attack for the first, bit of route one for the second but again a nice finish (with another quality celebration) and as for Storeys strike - what can you say? We don't get handballs given against us so I don't know why the County players even bothered trying to claim for it. A cracking strike. Hopefully Hughes maintains this style of play. Folk slagged off Butcher for his long ball approach but I really don't think it was as bad as that. Sure it was direct but we created so many attacking chances from it and it's clearly a strength for us and we saw that on Saturday. We don't have the players to play the tiki taka stuff that Yogi likes so why force it on the team when they aren't capable of it? Play to our strengths and win more games. I know what I'd rather have and it's those kind of 3 - 0 wins every week going direct rather than toothless attacking displays characterised with boring sideways passing. It's a no brainer.

They would have been daft not to go for those. Vincent I'm not too fussed about. Too injury prone over the last 3 seasons although I am worried that, despite these problems, we at least knew he was a good player and I don't feel that Hughes is able to adequately replace players we have lost. Some of his signings have been dreadful. Williams I am more disappointed about. He's not an excellent player but he's decent enough. Versatile as well and that has helped us out a lot this season. Probably better as a left back than a midfielder as his crossing is surprisingly poor. Again, I've little confidence in Hughes in the transfer market to replace him. We obviously wanted to keep him so I'm puzzled by why we never offered the guy a deal until Dundee did. Pretty poor from us. Hopefully we learn from this and offer contracts to players much earlier than we generally seem to do. Also, if we stay up, the board will need to support Hughes in the summer to replace the players we've lost. I'm not expecting silly money to be banded about but we've lost a fair amount of the players from our most successful seasons and they've never properly been replaced with some sticky plaster loan or short term signings used to paper over the cracks. This summer could be a very important one for ICT.

Polworth Ross County fans The woman at the bottom right clapping

That is the most ridiculous post on this thread. Say what you like about the Butcher regime but one thing they did do was recruit very well and secure talented players on contracts of reasonable duration usually in pretty good time. We won the cup last season and qualified for Europe with a squad almost entirely recruited and secured under the previous regime. It's a real concern that so many of those players have now left or are not being secured for the future especially as the replacements brought in so far on a very similar budget are much more miss than hit. Concerning times.

I don't understand why near the end of March we are sitting with so few players tied up to contracts past the end of this season. I'm sure I am repeating most of what has been said, so I apologise, but I haven't read through the thread properly, there's a fundamental problem somewhere at the club when it comes to matters involving players and contracts and it's not one which has suddenly appeared as this has been happening for years now. It's even more alarming when you consider how difficult we seem to find recruiting or at least recruiting decent players that can offer something at first team level. I'm becoming more and more disillusioned with our recruitment policy and contractual policy and the way this season is going I don't see it getting any better, lets be honest JH's recruitment hasn't exactly set the heather on fire has it?

I don't know who wrote that Scotsman article in this thread, but this idea that we built Williams into a left back is untrue. Apparently that was predominantly his position prior to him signing for us. No talk either on offering Jordan Roberts a new deal - not to the mention the fact that he seems to have fallen out of the team all of a sudden, despite playing quite well. I'd like to see him signed up long term actually as he looks to me like he could be a right good player for us.

Maybe but imho the calibre of player coming in nowadays is nowhere near the same standard as those departing?

It's the players choice to leave but Williams was certainly offered a contract, don't know about Vincent so obviously either went for more money or fancied a change. Not sure what the club could do about that. While Lopez was not a great signing, disagree about Wedderburn and way to early to make comments like this about Hughes. Some fans need to take a reality check at times over what the club can and cannot do. Power is in the players hands now.

That's not what the Dee's fans down here are saying -£3000 per week which I believe will be double what we can offer

Would have been happy had Williams stayed. As for Vincent, he is a quality player but the club just cannot afford to have a player who misses large parts of the each season through injury. It will be interesting to see how often he is injury free for Dundee.

Sadly its inevitable that a provincial club like ours with such a small fanbase and remote location (in relative terms) will struggle to recruit and in the event of success, certainly like we have retain players or a higehr calibre. The loss historically of our better players has happened for years, Robson, Cowie, A.Shinnie etc, more recently G.Shinnie, Mackay, Watkins, Ofere. While its disappointing not to keep players but its a fact they may get offers better than we can provide, whether salary, environment, location etc. We should be delighted to have key players like Tansey, Draper, Meekings, Warren signed up as I believe all are outstanding talents at our club and demonstrated to be SPFL quality or better so could have left to go elsewhere. We may be back to a summer or rebuilding but thats the price of success - look at Southampton after their good season when almost a full team left, expect the same with Suprs or Leicester this year - closer to home look at DUtd, Hibs,Hamilton all teams who did well and built some success only to loose the heart of their squads. Unfortunately for us we dont seem to be good at getting transfer fee's but when there are better or more appealing offers the club can only do so much. Like any business we have a wage structure, budgets and limits on what we can do - just like any walk of life someone will leave if offered something they percieve better for whatever reason.

Aye. Let's get rid of someone who, on his day, is one of the best wingers in the league and one of the most reliable and solid full backs we've ever had who also claims to want a new deal. Good thinking.

Wedderburn's been a bit of a mixed bag so far. There's been games where he's been rather ineffective and others where he's been the best player on the park. The Astra away tie for example he was excellent. I'd offer him another year as I do feel there's something about him.

This summer will be huge for us, I don't have too much confidence. Ravens situation staggers me, we have a player that is desperate to sign on, he is a well known reliable player for us and has been for years yet it sounds like he is not wanted. Why risk that only to get a complete unknown, untried and untested player in in his place? I'm not surprised Vincent and Williams have decided to move on and certainly not for 3 year deals but I'm disappointed at losing Danny Williams.

Going by St J twitter not much in it between teams and few chances. Seems draw a fair result

Agree with RiG regarding our re-active rather than pro-active activity here. Assuming that everything we read is true (BIG assumption), it appears that we only offered these guys contract once Dundee were in the frame. We have known the situation since the day they signed their contracts with us, so why wait to be gazumped before offering decent players contracts? Yes, there's a bit of a risk if a player picks up an injury in the meantime (e.g. Richie Foran), but our budget means that we simply can't compete with any of our rivals if it comes to a shoot-out. The only edge you have as the club in current possiession is the ability to act before the last 6 months and get players you want tied up. I don't get our retention policy and I have no doubt that the others that are out of contract and worth keeping will also receive better offers. 6 players confirmed for next season at this stage is not good enough IMO.

What a creepy looking crew of plonkers

TEAMS| @ICTFC Brill, Stark, Howarth, J Brown, Gilchrist, MacLennan, MacArthur, C Brown, Macrae, Sutherland, Rennie

I may be wrong but I kinda remember that someone registerd Caledonian before ICT could? May have dreamt that tho.....lol

They don't make the club look a joke but they do make themselves look pathetic, immature and ridiculous. They have had enough warnings and personally, once the CCTV footage is reviewed, I hope that a few of them receive a knock on their doors. Vandalism and offensive behaviour would not be tolerated on the High Street or the Eastgate Centre, It shouldn't be tolerated in a football ground.

Absolutely delighted on Saturday and it hasn't worn off yet! We totally dumped on their party and their was no better way to do it. It must have been the worst trophy celebration ever. Anyway back to the game. What a performance from the boys, after Fon Williams early save and Irvine hitting the post we dominated! They barely looked like scoring where as we could've had 4 or 5. Glad to see polworth and storey back in the team, both had good games, both scored and what a goal storeys was. One disappointment was Liam Hughes...I'm sorry but he's sh*te. Everyone else was great! I must admit I'd rather see meekings at CB but Devine hasn't had a shocking season so I wasn't all that shocked to see him stay there! What a difference Tansey makes to the team and draper looked better with his partner back in the team! Was glad to see Ryan Williams get a run and he looked decent but still think the money on him and Hughes could've gone on a goal scorer! The only other disappointment of the day was some of the muppets that attended! They don't realise how much they ruin it for others. I was in the signing section and it was decent crack, (despite being stuck behind one or two bigger guys) signing and bouncing but again those boys letting off smoke bombs, starting on stewards, standing on chairs, shouting abuse at police (who were only doing their job) and abusing others was totally un-needed and stupid! And serves them right if they get punished! So I'm sorry if any of them are on here, but you's are idiots and make the club look like a joke.

Can anyone tell me has Yogi stopped celebrating yet !

It always promised to be an explosive occasion, but the crowd is hushed when Liam Polworth realises he has just stepped on a land mine.

The "Union and the Crown" sounds like a Sevco ditty. But can we put this into Nonsense (not good enuff fer General Nonsense). Lets all wait till Bannerman writes a fairy tale about it all. I also presume that DNA stands fer Definitely Not Applicable.

Exactly, Wedderburn has the turning circle of an articulated tank ffs, he's dreadful. And even if we haven't seen much of Hughes what we've seen is utter ****

You disagree about Wedderburn? Have you ever seen him play? Do you also realised that 6 touches is too many for a professional footballer to take to get the ball under control.

After last season I was actually expecting Esson to be the 1st choice keeper and I would say last season was the best of his entire career. -1? Scottish Cup, 3rd in the League. Can't recall Esson or ICT bettering that.

Don't criticise any players on here you will have the red dot brigade after you, Wedderburn is easily one of the worst players i have seen play for us and i have no idea what hughes saw in him to sign him

Whilst I can see where people disagree my opinion, I'm not meaning guys who have great value in our team i.e: Meekings, Warren, Draper, Tansey, Tremarco, Foran My opinion is based on players like Dean Brill, Danny Devine, Aaron Doran and David Raven. Just think we as a club needs freshening up rather than relying on the same old faces. There are great gems out there like Miles Storey and Owain Fon Williams. In my opinion the newer guys need time to gel as a squad and again that's down to management to sort that out sooner rather than later.

Seriously? Something has to be done about this clubs shocking contract policy. If we keep on letting our players leave for nothing or next to nothing and signing utter pish like Lopez, Wedderburn and Hughes we're going to end up in the championship in no time.

The team needs a bit of freshening up, so wouldn't be all that sad if more players from the Butcher era vacate our club.