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waits for IHE to appear .......

Good away tie easy to get to so should get a big away support.

Really disappointing result and performance. Foran is kidding himself if he thinks that was our best performance of the season though I suspect he is deflecting attention from the players. Whilst we did knock the ball about pretty well, especially in the first half, all to often our final ball was lacking or Dundee snuffed out any threat. The likes of King and Doran far to often failed to send in a really good cross for Doumbouya to attack and most of our efforts on goal were long range strikes that were always sent flying well over the bar and seldom troubled Bain. Good goal from Wighton to open the scoring driving right at Warren and slotting the ball beyond Fon Williams in the style of Thierry Henry. Dundee also had a penalty claim when Draper tangled with McGowan but it was difficult to see what happened from the other end of the ground. Just before half time there was a bit of a scramble in the Dundee box after a Tansey corner wasn't cleared and despite a number of sclaffed efforts towards goal no ICT player was able to turn it into the net. Second half was much of the same. ICT tended to dominate possession but Dundee created better chances. The second goal largely killed the game off. Free kick on the ICT left was whipped in by Hately, Doumbouya missed the ball and Gadzhalov powered the ball into the net. Whilst we did get a goal back when Tremarco somehow found the net after Bain appeared to cock up his attempted save bagging an equaliser probably wouldn't have been deserved. Dundee were much better than when we cuffed them earlier in the season whereas we seem to have gone backwards somewhat. Despite playing with 'proper' wide men in Doran and King we didn't really get much joy down the left or right flanks and Doran seemed to spend most of his time cutting in from the right and sitting inside leaving Draper to play on the right for large parts of the first half which seemed a bit odd. Vigurs went off injured which might go some way to explain his complete lack of effort when trying to defend Dundee attacks in the second half. Another injury is not really what we need with Polworth and Mackay out but hopefully the former is back soon especially with Raven out and Horner now suspended. We're starting to look a wee bit thin, low on confidence and pretty toothless up front. Some massive games coming up now against Saint Johnstone, Hamilton and Killie. I think we really need at least two wins from that lot. Going to be a tight old season this one.

Amidst all the doom and gloom, Tansey/Storey rumours, worst defence/shyte attack, etc etc, nobody seems to have noticed that Round 4 of the famous old tournament is drawn in about half an hour. ICT is ball 20 and ties are due to be played on 21st January.

It is interesting to see Hartley's response to being rooted at the foot of the table: Shore up the defence and make yourselves hard to beat. It paid dividends against us, where Dundee played 5 at the back and let us play in front of them. We have the defenders, but not the defence at the moment. Personally, I'd put Draper back alongside Tansey - winning ball is his biggest strength.

Hello Staigo Boys - Remember me ? That is a must do. It is one of my bucket lists

IHE won't go in case he gets battered by a mob of pensioners with long memories from highland league days.

The option wasn't on the list....but I think we have the worst defensive record because we've conceded more goals than anyone else!

Oh to be able to pin point the weaknesses and at the same time provide the answers ! Tick lists are all very well but it can be a combination of all things or from less to none of them. We have an excellent goal keeper and he has made some wonderful saves and stops the one criticism I have of him is that he does not seem to have the ability to ' Boss the box ' an attribute that Dean Brill had, when he played for us, which contributed largely to him keeping so many clean sheets. It is the Keepers area and if he can not do that then it is up to the Captain to ensure that all holes in the defence are adequately filled. Even then there can be leaks so lack of cohesiveness can not be entirely to blame. Attacking football is our style of play so a high line in midfield has to be maintained, offside traps are necessary but susceptible to the quality of refereeing and line duty that we experience. Playing the whistle and not anticipating fouls being given can be another problem, which is down to the Captain to ensure that players are alert to this. That is my take for what it is worth!