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Three must win games and not a single performance in any of them that suggested that team had a must win attitude. We were poor against Partick, shocking against Hamilton and marginally better against Dundee with the second half showing a degree of fight but there is little point putting that effort in when you are already two goals down. Fact is we needed that second half performance as a minimum last Saturday and for the two games that followed. We now find ourselves with some exceptionally difficult pre split games to face up to, hope we can get something from them and also that teams above us don't pull away too much. Partick, Hamilton and Dundee were games were we could have bought ourselves some valuable points to put us ahead of other sides going into our tough run. On the positive side I thought Billy King had his best game for us all season. He's often had one good half and one subdued half but I thought he really impressed. He took a fair leathering off the Dundee players. Tremarco was also good and Mckay was a class above. Yes both his penalties were very weak but his hold up play was superb and he did well to make something out of those thumping long balls we insist on the playing. An absolutely awful crowd. Take out the Dundee fans and how many home supporters were there? 2,200 maybe? Looked like you could have put everyone in the North Stand. A real shame that at a time when the club needs all the support it can get people aren't getting along to games to get behind the team. Going off topic for a second... As for John Hughes I doubt he cares to be honest. He stopped caring for ICT when he started slagging off the club in the public domain. He worked his ticket very well and comes out of it all looking like he has been harshly treated when he fact he was thoroughly unprofessional in airing dirty laundry in public (as was KC). You could even argue that part of our downturn was sown by Hughes himself. Under Butcher we lost good players but tended to bring new ones in to replace them. Yes sometimes it was very hit and miss but for the most part the recruitment, however it worked, under Butcher typically replaced players we lost. This stopped under Hughes. When the likes of Billy Mckay left it took months for a replacement to be found. The wrong areas of the team were strengthened with bang average players whilst other parts (attack and defence) were ignored. The 'recycling' of players ground to a halt under Hughes as he filled the team with midfielders and it become incredibly unbalanced. His first full season with us was fantastic and he proved a lot of doubters, including myself, wrong however his second full season was typical Hughes as he has been with other clubs. Steadfastly refusing to adapt his style when he had been found out, poor recruitment, publicly whoring our best player to Celtic, high fiving Celtic fans and ignoring ICT fans at games, mind numbingly dull football especially at home, demands for more money then a public falling out with the board and some players (much like he had done at Falkirk by all accounts), the list goes on. His time was up and he knew it. By the end there was no longer any 'promising set up'. The stability that we had seen from ICT over a number of years was slowly ebbing away and we now find ourselves in an incredible mess. I am not saying Hughes is solely to blame. Kenny Cameron and the board should shoulder a fair chunk of responsibility as well as Foran. As mentioned on other threads Foran has also demonstrated poor tactical awareness and bizarre team selections throughout this season which have contributed to where we now find ourselves. At the end of the day I don't believe it is one person who is responsible for this mess. It's a collective effort but there's no point fawning over Hughes or Butcher or anyone else. They've gone. Deal with it. What matters now is we get behind the team and support them to get over the line and stay in this league and hopefully kick on from there.

Have a look at our injury list after we played Astra, half a team was missing yet JH still got results. I'm not surprised he was pushing for more funds we had lost Shinnie and Watkins and he wanted the momentum he had built to continue, how can you blame someone for having that ambition, I don't buy the line "working your ticket" I don't believe Hughes wanted to leave the club but the board thought they could pull a master stroke and sack Hughes, what a joke that turned out to be. The home display against Astra minus our two best players was the most controlled match I have seen from an ICT team and I've been watching them since Patterson's time, only a goalkeeping mistake and the loss of Watkins cost us that night. We have thrown away his legacy, the team is a shambles, as proven by two points from Partick, Hamilton and Dundee two of those at home.You can soften reality any way you like but the bottom line is this shambles of a season lies at the board's door,not JH's and not RF's. As I've already said, we have thrown away two and a half years of work which was instilled into the team system that gave them an element of control in games even when we had average players/reserves filling the jerseys, what a waste.

Ryan Calder Essen, David Hastings Raven, Gary Warren-Mann, Brad Tokely McKay, Carl Golabek Tremarco, Greg Christie Tansey, Ross McCulloch Draper, Iain Sheerin Vigurs, Billy Wilson King Billy Wyness Mckay Henry Teasdale Anier Subs confirmed - Aaron Bavidge Doran, Larnell Glancy Cole and Scott Byers Boden Manager Richie Ronaldo Foran ns

So we shouldn't post rumours at all then? Should we just keep quiet when he hear or think anything that doesn't fit with the happy clapper rhetoric? You're free to ignore if you want but that doesn't make it go away or mean isn't true.

The problem I have with Foran is his not learning from mistakes. He's inexperienced, so mistakes were inevitable, but sticking with untried formulas and with failing players has really hurt us this season. Form teams have a really strong spine, but ours has been flimsy all season, from back to front! Keeper, central defenders, holding midfielders and strikers have not performed consistently enough and have often been played out of position time and again. I couldn't make the game on Saturday, but watched some of it on Alba. Billy certainly gives us some bite up front and the fightback was heartening BUT our defence is a teabag! Averaging 2 goals a game in our net is certainly relegation form and RF hasn't found the formula to solve the problem. I'm not sure 4-4-2 is a great way to go to crack that nut: Our apparently powder-puff central defence needs all the protection it can get - the thought of Sinclair, Roberts and Armstrong playing between the lines in a 4-4-2 terrifies me. Let's see what Richie does next week. Summing up, we are where we are on merit (or lack of it). Much of the blame is on Richie but too many players have not turned up consustently this season. Tremarco and Draper (before injury) get good marks, with Doran improving, but that's about it. The problem is that we're going to have to do better than other teams against the top 5 AND more than hold our own against those around us...a tall order on current form, notwithstanding a spirited comeback on Saturday. It is do-able, but already needs another one or 2 teams to have a shambolic run over the next 10 games or so to give us a break. Testing times.

Is it just me or does anyone else not rate Billy Mckay as a penalty kick taker? I know Tansey has missed one or two this season, but overall I'd bet his record is a lot better than Billy's. Both of Billy's penalties yesterday could have been saved, and I seem to remember when he was here before, although he scored a few, many of them , like yesterday, were not exactly well struck. I'd far prefer to see Tansey take any future ones.

It must be part of the reason why CTO doesn't seem anywhere near as busy as it used to be. Anything critical posted, no-matter how accurate is immediately shot down by the Together We Believe... mob. Sad!

Just when the team gets a bit of a spark the doom and gloom merchants appear. Onwards and upwards eh.

just sayin....

Yeah, having more shots on target and not winning the game definitely sounds like an improvement to me. That 3 - 1 win over Dundee was the last time we won a game at home in the league. I have no idea how you can cite one above average second half performance as an example that things have 'vastly improved'. In the seventeen games that followed we have taken 10 points from an available 51. That is atrocious.

I think supporters of Hughes tend to overstate the problems caused by injuries last season. This is probably both because he complained about it so much and because the previous cup winning year was so remarkably injury free in comparison. If you look at our key defenders, Warren was out early in the season with a leg break but came back much sooner than I expected and was ever present after that. Meekings had a period out (as he has this year) but the big difference between this year and last is that this year we have McNaughton out for most of the season whereas last season Danny Devine had the most starts of any of our outfield players. Devine actually played very well to the extent that Hughes preferred him in the centre to Meekings. On Warren's return, Hughes therefore had options between Meekings and Raven at right back and also between Tremarco and Williams on the left. Those options look a good deal stronger than is available to Foran just now. Elsewhere in the side OFW was provided as cover for Brill's injury and then kept his place when Brill returned to fitness. Foran himself was always listed as long term injured but frankly he was never going to return as anything more than a fringe player. The joker in the pack was Roberts who seemed to go from one injury to the next without kicking a ball. He looked as though he might have been a decent signing but we never saw enough of him to find out. The big miss was Doran who has also missed quite a chunk of this season as well. Others who were injured were the likes of Fisher, Sho-Silva, & Ferguson who were hardly going to be game changers had they been fit. Hughes had the central midfield options of Draper, Tansey, Polworth and Vigurs available to him virtually all season along with Storey and Willams. On balance therefore, I don't think there is really much difference in the overall injury situation between last year and this. Had Hughes still been here, his record suggests he would not have signed such attack minded players as King, Cole, Anier Mulraney and Mckay. We may be bottom but I am still looking forward to the rest of the season. I wasn't saying that this time last year.

Sounds like it's time for snorbens_caleyman to take a hefty share too, it might be down to 30% if the spirit has been evaporating.

Whilst the club are currently shaking their head at the lunacy of JH sitting on his erse while still paying his wages. You place Yogi up on a pedestal, but it appears to have been his decision to engineer his departure. Anyway, you make a moot point. It's irrelevant. We are where we are. and I'll bet you were amongst the boo-ers too!

I'm superfan no.2. Other than that, no role in the club. all I'm doing is posting snippets of what I've heard, what I've conjectured from social media postings, coupled with my own opinions. Note my use of vocabulary- "think" "allegedly" for example.... lots of people post on here from "sources within the club" to the extent that they'd have you believe someone in a privileged position within the club is spilling a lot of p&c information. I don't do that, if that's what you're getting at!

We need to get a sense of perspective. Yes, relegation, although a distinct possibility is far from inevitable and, if we can show the same sort of spirit as for most of the Dundee game we stand a reasonable chance of staying up. However, even if we do go down, although there will be very significant financial implications, we have been prudently run and will not face the prospect of administration nor are we likely to have to go part time although the wage bill will have to be trimmed and, sadly, some good people behind the scenes will probably lose their jobs. Relegation, if it happens, will be a huge blow but it won't be a fatal one especially if the fans stick by the team in the Championship but, right now, the task is for everyone to pull together and turn this around so that we don't face that prospect.

Opponents managed by Rodgered Barnes !

We are on the worst run in our clubs history, we are bottom of the table and are six points away from safety. Our next three league matches are against Hearts, Rangers and Celtic, all games we will be heavily favoured to lose. Assume that we get through those games with the same gap, we'll need to make up six points on someone in the last eleven games. Can anyone honestly say that we are capable of doing that? We have been abysmal this season, of all the regular players who would anyone say has had a good season? Tremarco, perhaps? Other than him I can't think of anyone who has performed to the levels required. We have a goalkeeper who constantly makes mistakes that cost us goals and matches, a defence who constantly present the ball to the opposition, a midfield who can't use the ball to attack or cover the ground to defend, attackers who can't score or create chances, notwithstanding the last-minute loan signing on deadline day. On top of this we have a manager who makes constant changes to no effect, doesn't appear to have a plan, doesn't seem able to organise the team properly and can't get a win. If we hadn't appointed Foran and had recruited someone externally who had this record fans would be far less forgiving. Foran is a legend as a player but we are in serious danger of being relegated and falling down the Dunfermline / St Miren shaped hole of lower league obscurity. The hope has to be that we make a huge improvement in the next ten games or so because if we continue to play the way we have this season we are going down, it's a certainty.

Trudged away from New Douglas Park on Tuesday night totally disheartened.. but I feel that in second half yesterday we got our Caley Thistle back. They showed the effort and passion that has been lacking for a while now. They found it again yesterday and hopefully we now start our relentless fight back into top ten. That will do me this season - top six next season. So YES the buzz is back.

We are still only 6 points off a top six slot(incredibly)- other teams also have still to play Celtic Hearts and Rangers so plenty to play for

This is rumour and hearsay cannot be a good reliable source if he / she passed on privileged information to you and do you have evidence to support your claims ?

The BBC as a public sector broadcaster funded by a compulsory levy should be paying a much fairer price for Scottish football approaching a tenth of what they pay for the English league given that they derive approaching a tenth of their revenue from Scotland. That said, we are not the Rangers and will not be imposing any petty minded ban on journalists. I, for one, will not be signing your petition.

I would chuck those stats in the bin tbh. No offence meant but Rangers and underperforming bigger clubs have given a false reading over the last few seasons maybe it would be far lower otherwise. Every game now is a give it your all match. Hopefully that will bring a good few points our way.

However if you like stats, According to the BBC, we had 13 shots with 10 on target on Saturday. Go back to our 2-1 Dundee defeat and it was 20 shots and only 3 on target. Only one shot on goal every 30 minutes. That tells me things are vastly improving

Can't believe the number of happy clappers on this thread, I watched two pretty poor teams, we lost two goals a decent amateur side would be ashamed of and Dundee should have put us away just after half time they missed two gilt edged opportunities, it says it all I'm afraid about Scotland's top flight. Based on that performance, despite the fightback we are going down, we have no shape, no style, our defending is laughable, passes into feet don't stick, the first touch of most players is appalling, players in space play chest high passes and our forward play is based on hopeful balls played in the general direction of the forwards. I can't believe a team which looked so organised for the last two seasons could degenerate so quickly but it has. JH must be aghast watching what passes for an ICT team. To all those who lobbied for RF to replace JH I hope you are enjoying what you are watching, sometimes, you should be careful what you wish for. The fact is, despite a horrendous injury list last season JH picked up results when we had no right to expect them, that's what twenty years management experience brings. The decision by the board to get rid of an experienced manager and appoint a complete rookie on a four year contract will go down as one of the greatest ever blunders in football. All the hubris of the summer has now evaporated, go back and watch the interview with Kenny Cameron and RF and laugh out loud. Feel free to red dot me as much as you want I couldn't care less, I am angry at how a promising set up and style of play for the club was tossed in the garbage after two and a half years of hard work to be replaced by this rubbish.Were I JH I would be shaking my head at the sheer lunacy of it.

Renegade do you really want to be posting things like no one is speaking to player X and he's now going else where as no one likes him.

What are your roles within the club you two?