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Tell us, who was it that was trying to get rid of players like Raven and Tremarco? Who was it that didn't offer Brill a new deal? Which manager wasn't giving Nick Ross game time and forced him into seeking it elsewhere? Since you are so up to speed on all things John Hughes.....tell us, how many players did he sign, how many appearances (on average) did these players make and how many are still at the club? Value for money? When the manager needed support (due to injuries etc) the board backed him to such an extent he had the largest squad and largest budget of any manager at ICTFC. Despite that he failed to do what he said he could/would and you think he should have been given even more? Feel free to add me to the list of people who think you're delusional.

Everything I have commented on is in regards to information that is in the public domain. You can go all Donald Trump, Fake News, Haters Gonna Hate on people if you like; but the truth of the matter is that the verifiable facts as presented by myself and others entirely disprove your theories. As the saying goes.....you are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts. FWiW.....I think you'll be hard pushed to find someone who backed Yogi more than I did from the moment he arrived at the club....often in the face of great criticism and accusations that I was merely trumpeting the party line.

Am I not entitled to express my view without you being offensive in reply? Whether Hughes wanted money for recruitment or for retaining existing players, the fact is he was using the media to pressure the Board for money which he knew the club could not afford. For some reason, you seem to think that is appropriate behaviour from a manager. I accept you did not say anything about money for recruiting. But why didn't you? Are you seriously trying to tell us that Hughes was not looking to recruit new players? If he wasn't looking for money to recruit new players then he should have been! Indeed, I am sure that he was. I may not be Hughes' greatest fan but I will at least credit him with enough savvy to recognise that no club, rich or poor, can exist without bringing in new players on a regular basis. As for retaining existing players, I am not sure what you expect of the club. You must be aware that that when players develop well here they will get offers from richer clubs which are way beyond the means of our club to match. Our best players will always move on to more lucrative deals elsewhere and therefore a key role of the manager is to attract new players to the club who have the potential to develop in the particular environment and ethos of this club. The thing about Hughes though, was that he just wasn't as good at that part of the job than some of his predecessors had been.

*bump Ladies and Gents, today was a great result against Hearts. There have been many times in our history where a draw against one of Scotlands biggest clubs would have been headline news, so let's celebrate that achievement. Let the great result today reinforce the belief in Ritchie and the lads. We have games against The Rangers and Celtic where we have no expectation at all and we already have one point in that bag more than anyone gave us credit for. Hamilton have: Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts, The Rangers, St Johnstone in their next five games. I absolutely believe we can make up the two points difference to overtake Hamilton in at least these five games!

Obviously the pre-Christmas update didn't happen, but the club took a huge step forwards in regards to developing it's online offerings with the installation of a high speed line at the stadium during the past week.....and we'll be working hard over the next few days to try and get ourselves in a position to launch live streaming with the Rangers game on Friday night for overseas fans, with an on-demand option being made available for UK viewers after the hold back period. We'll be doing some testing Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday evening so keep your eyes peeled on here for information on how you can help with that by patching in to streams and giving us feedback on how it functions etc. We have made a start on the second part mentioned in my last post above by adding 2 new volunteers to the Media Team. Liam and Sean have been with us for a couple of weeks now and are quickly coming up to speed....in fact I can say with some confidence that they have already passed the point of being time consuming (through the need to be trained etc) and are now productive members of the team. As well as assisting on match days with the first team, they will also be covering development matches as and when available. Priority will be on our home games to start with, but that will extend to away games more and more as we build on their skill set and ability to function independently....it all just takes a little bit of time.

I'm under no illusions that some people cannot make every game. If I were one of them though, I would temper my opinions accordingly and certainly wouldn't arrogantly question the level of support of those who attend far more matches if it did not suit my own agenda.

After consistent errors of judgement, credit should be given to Foran for his team selection and formation played against Hearts. He now needs to back that up with pretty much the same tactics for the rest of the season, rewarding those who show the necessary commitment. IMO, what he does with Vigurs will be critical for our survival - the BBC report indicated that our midfield was energetic yesterday. Energy is what has been lacking and I don't think it is coincidental that we looked more energetic without Vigurs. Stick with the formula that works!

Especially coming from a poster who doesn't attend matches.

Spot on DD. The evidence is not there that Yogi would have had the ability to recruit wisely even if a bigger budget had become available. He was a decent coach but his recruitment strategy was never as good as Terry Butchers. His time was simply up. I saw his man management at first hand when he totally blanked a player at my table at sponsors night. That was in front of everyone and it then transpired that he hsd not spoken to said player in months!! I will forever be grateful for the glory days under Hughes but he knows that he also was lucky in landing our job with such a talented bunch of players. As for the board well they were never going to give into his ever increasing demands and thats even if we had the ability to borrow money which I doubt. If they are at fault there is maybe an argument that was in not withdrawing the offer of an extended deal when he started playing games in the press before finally signing it. This is of course only my opinion and others are entitled to theirs.

It should give us more than hope as Rangers are definitely beatable and we need to go for it on Friday. If we can get the three points, what a lift that would be and we could be off the bottom of the league as well.

Every game.

The use of inverted commas around 'support' is a particularly classy touch here.

What contradictory sentences! If Hughes' success would be the club's success why on earth would the club deliberately try to thwart his ambition? I am sure the Board's ambition is no less that Hughes', it is just that they behaved far more responsibly. Kingsmills is quite right when he says it was wrong of Hughes to try to pressure the Board by going public with his demand for funds beyond which he already knew the club could afford. If the Board had bowed to Hughes' irresponsible media campaign and if Hughes had managed to bring success to himself and the club as a result,then you can be assured that he would have moved on and left the club to deal with the resultant debt. The club's success may have been Hughes' success but the club's overdraft would not have been Hughes' overdraft. Of course, there is also no guarantee that had the Board borrowed money to fund his demands that Hughes would have been able to recruit players to deliver success in any case. Don't forget, that despite being given a bigger budget than his predecessor, he left the club with a significantly weaker squad than he inherited. Hughes' actions had made his position untenable and he simply had to go.

The performance yesterday was full of energy and after witnessing the shambolic display at Hamilton it was hard to think that this was the same set of players. It is hard to identify any players that stood out as every one gave 100%. The defence was solid and although Hearts had a high number of shots on goal they were speculative and easily dealt with. I liked the look of Laing considering he only arrived this week as he looks mobile and slotted in well. We flooded the midfield and crowded out Hearts whenever they had possession with Draper and Tansey showing their experience. Cole was full of industry and Mckay kept the Hearts defence busy chasing down constantly. I think that the team that Hearts selected was in our favour as they had no wide players until Walker came on and once he did our defence started to creak a bit. The pitch is abysmal and the likes of Mulraney and Cole struggled to keep control of the ball when it was bobbling all over the place. Definitely a point gained yesterday but Rangers and Celtic will be a different proposition as they have wide players that can do a lot of damage. We will need to keep the same levels of energy and commitment and probably play a similar formation if we are to get anything from these games. I left Tynecastle feeling more optimistic than when I left New Douglas Park but that wouldn't have been hard.

I only watched the extended Alba highlights. Yes, Draper does play hard, but I actually think he is a bit of a 'marked man' with refs these days. There was not much in the penalty, no push that I saw, just a tangle of legs which can happen with two players running closely together. He must have been gutted, the penalty incident coming so soon after he hit the post with a good header. For all his 'trouble' with referees, I fear we would have been even further adrift of the field this season without him. At least he always shows passion and gives 100%

Well done lads.The fightback has begun!

I happen to think there was a basic misunderstanding between JH and the board. The board made extra money available during JH's last season to cover for the players that went out and the injury list at the start of the season after the two Astra games. When they said the budget would not be reduced, they meant the basic budget without the emergency signings JH I think interpreted the budget as being the basic plus the cost of those signings. This is why both could make the claim the board (the budget has been maintained) and JH (the budget has been cut) both statements were actually true depending on your understanding or misunderstanding of what the basic budget was. I don't go with the line that he engineered his way out I think he genuinely enjoyed his job and from my previous experience of him and his reputation he was always regarded as a straight hitter by all the people he worked with, I know the Falkirk people held him in very high regard.Yes he tried to put pressure on the board by speaking to the press which was his only lever. From my perspective the board lost the rag and sacked him. His legacy I think is being unfairly trashed by some on the forum, we played the best football since Steve Patterson's days finished 3rd in the league won the SC and played in Europe. I don't expect to see any of that repeated in my lifetime.

Based on the poll about management we should definitely be keeping our shoes on. We as a majority are backing the manager and let that sound loud and clear. We are not at crisis point yet and we are all trying to live on a small budget to be sustainable. Keep believing, imagine ourselves pulling out of this situation and how daft you might feel calling for the managers head having escaped relegation. No team EVER escaped relegation by negativity, so keep the head up and dont forget that. Any business that survives adversity visualised itself in that position of better times. Think of the euphoria of winning the playoff. Positive and passionate grit is a very dangerous weapon indeed, so lets use it when we are given the chance.

Can I just say how much I hate these happy clappy memes some people come up with.

Im actually feeling a bit more upbeat today and believe we can turn this around. Richie has now joined the rest of us in realising we are in a fight. No more top 6 mentions. Lets hope everyone can pick themselves up, roll up their sleeves and work hard to get us out of this mess!

Unbelievable, I am supposed to accept your word that you are right, that you know the ins and outs and that my thoughts and theories amongst others are delusional. Do your egotistical views Charles, for which you are a master at, hold no bounds ? Surely having been shot down in flames so many times in so many threads it is time you realised that you are not the be all and end all of subject matters, that you can be and often are wrong in your assumptions, generalisations and opinions. Time for a bit of modesty young man and time to listen to the other fellas' points of view.

Hear Hear, glad you read things the way I do, I will add to that, that the board had already set their minds on Richie as J H;s successor and took the opportunity to make things difficult for the man, they played on the fact that a proportion of the 'support' saw John's style as being negative football, to some extent it was but John was looking to build on that and was frustrated that he couldn't get the money to 'keep the players he had earmarked for the Club's future success. Remember the Club's success would be his success so no wonder he spoke out when he realised this was slipping away through lack of the board's backing. Any manager worth his salt would decry anyone who would deliberately try to thwart his ambition. John also knew from the outset of his stay with us that Richie was the manager incumbent and said so on numerous occasions. He knew too that he was fighting a losing battle to better his career at the Cluib and that I believe is why we lost our most successful ever manager. Now Richie is in post and I have backed him from the start, He can still keep us up he may even close us in on top six, regardless of some of the opinions on here. I hope so anyway for the Club's sake. Today's point is so important it is a first step to confidence enhancement. Small steps can lead to a very long jump.

JH was the author of his own downfall at ICT. Managers will invariably push their chairmen for more money but that should have been kept in house. The moment he went bleating to his friends in the media he was acting entirely in his own interests and against those of the club. Richie has obvious shortfalls in his ability as a coach, at least for now, but there is no doubting that he has more class in that respect than Yogi.

Doofers Dad might have known you would put your bent pennyworth in There is nothing contradictory in these sentences, you obviously just don't read things properly! Where have I said anything about money for recruiting?? John wanted money to retain the players that were being given away so consistently by the Club and to ensure that we did not lose any more of our stars. old caley girl I new nothing of this blanking of players you speak of, a nasty trait I agree and one I would not have expected from him. What reason /s did he have for doing this??

CaleyD unlike you, of great privileged information, I cannot answer all your questions, suffice it to say that in most cases discussion with the Board would have been appropriate before action was taken, if not, then the Board is guilty of poor management and control. That is my opinion. I am not in any way up to speed on all things John Hughes, merely a supporter of ICT who detests injustice. The man did, in the main, do us proud and gets very little appreciation from many on this forum especially those who did not want him as manager in the first place. I take his side for what h did for us and for what might have been if he had stayed longer.

forget the doom and gloom. were only about 6 points away from top 6 ,big games coming up so lets roar OUR boys on to victories come on caley jags lets fight for it.I honestly think weve been cheated by bad refereeing decisions from a few points.