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I'll settle for 8th, anything else is a bonus.

I would suggest not “ideally” but CRUCIALLY a relegation playoff is to be avoided because there’s always an element of lottery there. My ideal final placing would be fifth, which itself is very probably beyond the club, with a promotion playoff place neither conceivable nor desirable. On the other had I would be prepared to settle for goal difference above most probably Annan (although I really wouldn’t welcome the squeaky bum experience that would bring). With six games left, an advantage of just three points plus goal difference is still pretty thin, with the six pointer defeat by Annan the biggest single factor. In theory, up to 16 points from these last six games could still be required but in practice it will be a lot less than that and since Scott Kellacher took over, Annan have been pulled in pretty consistently. In fact here are some statistics for that period since 26 October: ICT have pulled Annan in by 16 points across 20 games, converting a 13 point deficit into a 3 point advantage; there is no run of six games across which Annan have scored more points than ICT and (game to gsme rather than date to date) on only 3 of these 20 occasions have Annan scored more points than ICT. Now of course what is effectively a four point advantage can be fragile, but it also needs at least two occasions in the last six for Annan to do better than ICT for Annan to go eighth. This is of course possible but would require an unprecedented change in results trend over the last six games compared with the preceding 20.

I'll settle for our goal difference to save us

The chat with Bryan Jackson is available here (other podcast players are available):

The first public mention of Administration came at the fans’ meeting in the Social Club last May, from Alan MacKenzie who is a financial lawyer and a former club Vice Chairman. More recently, he was behind last week’s meeting that seems (we hope!) to have concentrated several minds in the direction of a solution. I think that the reality is that Administration should probably have come rather earlier than it did and the overwhelming evidence for that suggestion is the absolutely desperate state the club eventually got into - so desperate that a buyer has, predictably, been difficult to find. There were clear signs as long ago as 2018-19 in the form of the need to raise £1M in share capital, that the club’s finances were in a desperate state, and since then there has been an astonishing catalogue of financial profligacy and consequent deepening debt, including Morrison’s secured £1.6M, that finally rendered the club the complete basket case it currently is. Much of the problem is that the club’s finances were allowed to sink into the mire for far too long - on the strength of the naive assumption that red herrings and white elephants such as concert companies, battery farms and park and rides would straightforwardly emerge as panaceas.

So with 6 games to go, automatic relegation off the agenda, an unlikely promotion play-off place almost certainly unlikely, but ideally a relegation play-off to be avoided…what are people’s predictions for the last six games against these teams [with our records against them this season] Queen of the South [a] WLW Cove Rangers [a] DLL Kelty Hearts [h] DDW Stenhousemuir [a] DWW Arbroath [h] LLL [also L in League Cup!] Montrose [a] DWD Tricky eh? I’m going LWDLWD …will that keep us safe? Surprisingly I’m going for the win against a promoted [?] Arbroath almost entirely on the basis that I’ve booked my flights up to watch the last [scheduled] home match of the season having just arrived back from India [bringing luck and fab weather]

Interesting E4C. Every game is meaningful. And whilst any Annan victory now brings those teams above us closer, for me we have to focus on staying above Annan. I don’t know when Musa is back but I feel we will need his presence to help get there. Nothing against Aiden in goals for us against Alloa, just he is ‘green’, smallish and slight of frame, and expect teams I fear would exploit these facts. Remi Savage is out for at least one game, so that influences my prediction. Annan have an equally tough last six matches. So for what is worth: We stay up with a game to spare but it’s a fraught first four remaining matches. LDDLWD bc

I am referring to the first public reference to administration as the best available option… not to Ross Morrison using it as some kind of vague threat to coerce people into accepting a harebrained wheeze dreamt up by some or all of himself, Gardiner and Ferguson.

On the bench last night when Gambia lost 1-0 to the Ivory Coast who have a few Scottish based players - did they come home on the same plane?

Alan Savage came straight out after the meeting and spoke to the press asking for anyone interested in joining his consortium to come forward. That doesn't suggest anyone else around the table was enthusiastic about doing so. I definitely don't have any inside track. I try and look at the information available and see how it fits together. That normally involves ignoring everything other than direct citations in the press etc. as it can often muddy the waters. I get why everyone is praising Alan Savage as the saviour but there's still, in my mind, a big question as to whether his pushing for administration was the cause of talks breaking down last August or the result of it. It concerns me that may have been his first act of brinkmanship in all of this. We were promised transparency but things are still very far from clear.

The way I look on it is that, in a situation where attendances might have evaporated on relegation, current League One numbers aren’t all that far below what they were historically across the several years since 1999 when the club was in the Championship. On dropping into League One, they seem to have held up fairly well and remain way above the going rate for this league …. but for how much longer? And as Robert points out, all of that is against a big reduction in away support between Championship and League One.

I am going to say they might have fallen into two camps ... The 'Makwana' camp where the idea/ambition of owning a football club was larger than the capability or bank balance to actually do so and rejected by BDO as a non-starter. The Realistic camp who may have had the funds but pulled back when they saw what a cluster**** our situation was. Former directors owed large sums, fractured shareholder base with many small and large shareholdings, loans with security needing to be paid back, questions over land access or ownership of leases. Many people would just pass (very) quickly by at that point. That leaves us with where we are now ... no external buyers or billionaire rescuers, but a potential consortium of local people who have all done things for ICT over the last 30 years. We (or they) can have a pissing contest to see who did it best, and we will all come up with different answers. Alternatively, we can hope that for once, all (or most) of these people will work for the good of ICT to get us back on an even keel. I would love to see Sutherland, Savage and Mcgillivary put their varying business experiences together for ICT. One drove our formation, another instilled financial stability and fiscal responsibility, and the third brought some flair first time around and without doubt prevented us from already being out of existence more recently. ... as they say, "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts" and that seems to fit well here.

We have to take account of the size of the away support too. In League 1 you can count them easily in the South Stand, whereas in League 1 last season we had teams like Dundee United and Dunfermline who would fill it significantly. That can change the attendance by 1500 on its own.

I've seen worse strikes. PJ made a decent save and reacted brilliantly to save the loose ball. Unfortunately for Billy it's just not happening at the moment. He went close with a lob in the first half which dipped just a couple of feet over the bar. He was also involved twice in the build up to Alfie Stewarts goal.

Mckay, for most of his first spell with us, seemed to strike penalties to his left rather than down the middle but looking at the video below it seems he went pretty much everywhere when taking penalties.

While it's disappointing not to win and essentially rule us out the Play off spot and virtually secure survival I hope we continue to keep looking up the table and finish as high as possible. Could certainly aim for 6th or 7th. Even push for 5th (though unlikely in 6 games). This season was all about survival after going into admin and the point deduction. (We'd have been title challengers until recently without it so form has been solid) and that's so nearly within reach. Let's get it done.

Bored after watching the Greece game. Here is Alloa TV coverage of yesterday’s game. Have to say that this is the best/ clearest camera work by the away team I have seen this year. Commentator pretty unbiased also.

Starting line up today. An away draw today. With the other results today the ICT women are in the top six for the split, well done!

I wasn’t able to be at the game yesterday so I’ve just seen the goals on here just now. I can’t comment on the penalty or his overall game, but Mckay’s pick out of Stewart in space led to our goal.

Obviously not wanting to open old wounds. But last season in the championship billy missed a pen at home to Dunfermline in a midweek game that ended 0-0. He scores, we win and we would have finished 7th a solitary point behind 5th and 6th. STATS EH. no criticism from me, he is our all time top scorer. he is obviously scoring in training or the manager would be doing his job and allocating pens to someone else. correct me if I am wrong, think I was once, I can only remember messi playing at the very top of world football against the best goalkeepers in the world not Scottish league one standard. Stats eh. apples and oranges.

Feeling so disappointed like people have already said I thought Gilmore was going to take pen then Billy wanted it, I had a bad feeling. Ref and nearside linesman were shocking and we will miss Remi next week, was a harsh red card. Was really impressed with stand in keeper today, I guess it's a point gained after what could have been a defeat at the end if offside hadn't been given, thank goodness for a decent linesman! After all that happened in the last week off field at least we got something from the game but should be doing better.

Gutted for the team, and the rest of us as well. That was a draw that felt like a loss.

He’s our 9th top scorer this season with 2 goals from 37 appearances as a striker. He still has a good footballing brain and brings something to the team, but it sure ain’t goals.

Such a disappointing home result (again) when we were pretty dominant (again) and created a huge number of chances (again) and Billy missed when it was easier to score (again) and we saw how much we rely on Bavidge for goals (again).