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No doubt about it, we are missing the physical presence of Draper and Tansey, At the moment none of our midfielders have any pace., Either that or they can't be assed tracking back!

Not sure why you single Vigurs out but Polworth is also poor at protecting defence as well. Vigurs more likely to create than Polworth too in my opinion.

Warren is finished. He cannot defend when the ball is below his head. Every attacking player in Scottish football now knows that if they run at him they will either go past him or win a free kick. It happened throughout last season and sadly, it's continuing at this level.

Robertson out .......NO....that will not be the answer, money that would be required for his discharge would be better spent on new proven signings.....If they will come to us be it loan or otherwise. I have watched all our home games this season and the strange thing is that there have been good and bad performances individually from all who have played,. Howeverlack of cohesion, apparent lack of fitness, lack of consistency stand out. We have made almost countless opportunities up front The inability to put the ball in the net or in some instances even to shoot is letting us down so badly. Also apparent is the indecisiveness in defence the slow reactions at set pieces and general lack of commitment.............get these things sorted and we will start climbing the league and put fear into the Clubs above us I agree with a lot of what tm4tj has said above and what jingsmonty seems to have seconded, I would however include Seedorf and Calder amidst his could be good guys. The whole squad however are not showing the fight and determination that our squad had under Butcher and Hughes, whatever happened to the late winners the added time flurries that panicked other Teams ? We need that back desperately., that and teamsmanship, We also need a leader on the field., another Foran but without the indiscipline............If it is the dressingroom that is the liability then get to the root of things. Above all we as supporters must give encouragement. Throughout our history there 'have been those for one reason or another who have ganged up on the manager, calling for his removal and blame being thrust upon him. let's really get behind the Team on Saturday and bring the hammer doon on the Doonhammers.

I take your point Charles, however within the squad, i would hazard a guess that only Mulreany could use his muscle fibres as an excuse for a lack of stamina. Even before the sending off, the Dumbarton players were seeing out the game comfortably whilst our bunch were blowing out their hoops. No excuses for that. Hard work and application required during the week and training intensity needs to be upped several levels.

.......Shop!!!

Sounds great I was always puzzled by Caley having for so long a portakabin.

Caley 100 your second assumption is correct, I have said that Vigurs is a luxury on another post, especially in this division. Our midfield thinks that defending is someone else's job.

As a former player well into my 30s I think it is a given that you have to be fit enough to be able to play for a full 90 minutes and more including being able to sprint in the last few minutes of a match. If you are blessed with fast twitch muscle it is a great advantage but that starts to go when you are in your early 30s though I know a number of former players who can still shift in their 40s. The other aspect is to react quickly to developing situations and not be lazy in that reaction as this can give you a second advantage, Dalgleish who was never quick and Durrant after his injury exemplified this ability to think more quickly than the top class players around them. I used to be a supporter of Vigurs and thought he provided much needed guile to a pedestrian team under Brewster. In those days he was a very mobile midfielder trying to impress. Today he is a luxury player who doesn't put in nearly enough work for the team and relies on his few inspirational moments to get picked, that is not what a team struggling in the championship needs, we need 11 workers including a midfield general a good winger a good finisher and a commanding centre back, think back to the Patterson years for what a decent championship team should look like.

Didn't realise that @TopSixand @ictchris were up in Inverness just now.

Maybe so but the main thing is that it has been done now. We had, for many years, a Premiership team but have never had anything approaching a Premiership infrastructure. Good to see a bit of progress off the pitch. A lot more to be done but this represents a good start.

This looks great, well done to everyone who made it happen. If only the team could be transformed so quickly!

I am afraid we are probably Type 7 at the moment

It tells us that since 2015, we have steadily reduced creativity (loss of Christie, Mckay, Watkins, Williams etc) and subsequently had less shots on target while at this time allowing the opposition more opportunities which can be linked with key defensive injuries and decline starting with the loss of Shinne. In summary we don't create and score enough goals and our defence allows too many opposition chances cos its in decline and this has been the pattern over several seasons. No new revelations in those stats - its clear to see on the park each week and at the squad we have created.

Charles Bannerman significantly prolongs an interesting and applicable Dougal post

I now have no idea

Robertson has been thrown in at the deep end here. He has been handed down the remains of our squad from a poor season under Foran. He has little or no budget and yet we expect him to work miracles. That's not going to happen. Granted some of the signings are poor. But what did you really expect. If you pay peanuts you get monkeys. None of these signings would have been good enough to sustain us in the top division. Let's be clear here, we/I am talking about Donaldson, Elsdon, Chalmers, Oakley, Susan, Cooper. There's probably more, but off the top of my head, that's the ones who stand out. Ridgers has been getting a lot of stick, and rightly so, but a lot of his problems are the guys immediately in front of him. Robbo has to play guys who are no longer at the top of their game and who are merely going through the motions. David Raven and Gary Warren have seen better days, Brad Mckay is a permanent bombscare. Tremarco has been hindered by injuries and is exempt. Jake Mulraney has been hugely disappointing and it all points to an attitude issue. Liam Polworth is finally showing some form if played in the right place and Iain Vigurs is a bit of a luxury that has plenty of class but little determination or leadership. Baird is unlikely to be a top striker, as has been proven over the years although he could be a useful foil. For me only Trafford, Polworth, Tremarco and Bell are worth using. Owain Fon Williams if he can get his head in the right place, the same goes for Vigurs. The rest are deluded. So, blame Robbo if you believe that's where the problem lies. I believe it is much deeper rooted than that and if the board will not back him with a few bob, then he might as well walk away before his CV is tarnished by these guys loitering without intent and masquerading as footballers. I won't be sticking any knives into Robbo just yet, but without some backing then he will eventually go the same way as McIntyre, Foran, Houston..........

Bell, making a step up you can account for at the moment. Tremarco back after a long injury as well. The rest, that was embarrassing. Polly and Trafford were running on empty, is was obvious. There is something far wrong that full time footballers can't last 90 minutes, especially against Dumbarton and after a first half were we had the majority of the ball and playing with lite intensity with it.

What's it like working for Orion?

What is it like working for Tullochs ?

A concern that, as the game wore on, the part time players of Dumbarton looked fitter and with more stamina than ours.

RIG - That actually makes us look a lot better than we were. Confirms that Warren dived though.

Just like Brewster's second term...

From Dumbarton fans on Pie & Bovril After 1st half: "We lose the first goal and the heads go down. We're sitting back and inviting them to attack us. Which they're doing half heartedly.""Caley Thistle aren't helping. They seem content to play at a pedestrian pace, secure on the knowledge that we pose absolutely no risk. This is as insipid and dull as football gets." After full-time: "Inverness dominated the 1st half and should have been 2 or 3 up ... You could see though how devoid of confidence Inverness are. As soon as we equalised they fell apart."

Photo of Laurence in his hey day. There is a link to the thread as the horses were all fed Black puddings.

Hopefully the only hat trick he gets is his 3rd consecutive relegation.

Have had a few days to calm down and think about where we are and feel we are being pretty unfair in our criticism of some of our players. I was desperately trying to look for hope but instead found despair as I worked through the numbers I thought might show growth and improvement. The current position is not just the goalkeepers fault. There is ratio which has been used to review Liverpool and Jurgen Klopps style in an interesting way so thought I would share to provoke any ideas from everyone her . Link below for context. https://basstunedtored.com/2015/10/09/jurgen-klopp-dortmund-stats-analysis/ For inverness the same analysis shows the table below. 2015 2016 2017 2018 Shots on target INV 4.6 3.8 4.6 3.1 Shots on target OPP 3.1 3.8 4.9 4.4 Shots on target % 59.6% 50.3% 48.5% 41.5% This indicates that we are allowing 1.5 shots on target per game more than we can create. All sorts of things contribute to this but it is a wider defensive issue than just the goalkeeper failing to stop the goals. Its about stopping the clear chances by the whole team and having the confidence to make that final challenge run that extra yard and TRUST your colleagues to mark their man. The other scary fact is we are creating less clear shots on goal in a lower division than last year. I expected that to be higher but shows how toothless we are. Interesting to see how everyone feels on this or is it so obvious that doesn’t deserve comment.

DD I think you have selective memory, after the initial teething problems with our new style in the early games under JH I rarely recall us giving the ball away in the back four and due to our style of play which you refer to as keeping possession it required the entire opposition to defend their patch thereby preventing breakaway goals against us. A strikers first priority is to hit the target and yes, most go for the corners and can and do miss but a well drilled shot which is saved or hits a defender or woodwork can still offer opportunities to those following up. Further, shots which are mistimed, toe poked or deflected will more often than not end up in the net, even those with a lack of pace, a brilliant exponent of the toe poke in mid stride was willie pettigrew, keepers could never set themselves for the shot because there was no back lift. Fact is, most goals are scored inside the penalty spot and unless you can get the ball into that area frequently enough you are not going to score enough goals.

I was told today that John Hughes has already been interviewed for the job might just be a rumour unless of course Roy Macgregor thinks he can win them the Scottish Cup.

I don't think you can draw any sensible conclusions from these figures. They really need to be looked at as part of a wider data set and in terms of the way a team is set up to play. Shots on target is not a reflection of chances created. All attempts on goal is a better measure but even then there are frequent times when chances are created but a player simply fails to shoot and either passes the ball or tries to create a more clear cut chance. Some shots at goal are simply speculative and don't reflect a meaningful chance. Also, if a player usually shoots at the middle of the goal. most of his attempts will be on target but he will rarely score. If he aims for the corners he'll be off target more often than not but he will score more. I don't think anyone here would disagree with the fact that our opponents are getting more scoring chances recently. Even folk like me who were delighted to see the back of Hughes acknowledge that we were much more organised at the back under his time here. But having said that, there were times that Hughes' fixation with possession led to us losing possession in our back line and presenting a very clear cut chance for opponents. I really don't see that these stats tell us anything more than a quick look at the figures for goals scored and conceded.