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Worrying that Robbo's post match comments talk about filling the team with Youth players....when it's blatantly obvious that what's needed are a few more players with a bit of experience and composure. Leaving aside the fact that most of the players he's moved on since getting here have been those with experience and composure, we do have players like Calder and Doran who should be on from the start and who would be more likely to provide what's needed. Just for clarity, I have nothing against playing youngsters, they just don't offer a solution to the problem that has been identified.

Just for comparison: season 2009-10, first 3 games. Dunfermline 0 ICT 1 ICT 0 Ayr 0 Dundee 2 ICT 2 5 points. This season, first 3 games. Falkirk 0 ICT 1 ICT 0 Ayr 0 ICT 2 Alloa 2. 5 points.

Surely the manager gives instructions as to who will take penalties and this will include a fall back position for when the allotted penalty taker has gone off. When a kick is awarded that player should immediately step up to take the responsibility. There should never be a situation where nobody seems to want to take it or where players are arguing over the ball. Any issues with that and the captain on the park should step in and sort it out.

That's a bit harsh on pub leagues

Shambles pure & simple and nothing coming from dugout to suggest any difference i turned to the person next to me after 5 minutes and said we are not keeping a clean sheet today but all this missed chances is getting silly now and sorry i love Carl and his passion but i am not seeing any leadership from him and then the shambles when awarded the second penalty is pathetic the captain should know who the penalty taker will be if we get one. Only Calder when he came on (thats another story why's he not starting) made a difference. Sorry Robbo enough why yesterday was Welsh taken off when he was decent but Polworth & Chalmers stayed on it seems they play 90 minutes no matter what He is saying on BBC website time for changes eh? he tried that and slated them try looking in the mirror Pal there was no reaction from the dugout the whole game yesterday they are like 3 Stooges .

Lazy copy and paste from P & B. We were really poor yet again. Far too narrow for most of the pitch with an alarming reluctance to take opposition players on until Calder came on in the second half. This coincided with our best period of the game where Parry was under real pressure from a number of crossed balls and he was made to pull off some smart saves from close range. Opening goal was pretty straightforward as Mckay strode in to meet a Polworth corner and channelled his inner Laporte and battered a header into the net. The Alloa equaliser came from what looked like a pretty debatable free kick. Zanatta drove between two ICT players an then threw himself to the ground. Nice cross sent to the back post and it looked like it ended up in the net thanks to a deflection off Donaldson or Oakley. Second half kicked off with some absolute madness from Karadachki. After wrestling with Oakley and conceding a free kick he then spent the few seconds leading up to the free kick grappling with Donaldson before dragging him to the ground and conceding the penalty. Welsh stepped up to send the keeper the wrong. Calder then won a penalty after he went down in the area. Looked a bit soft to me. He just seemed to run past the Alloa defender and then fell over. No ICT player seemed to really want to take the penalty, Welsh was off the pitch at this point having been subbed, so Donaldson stepped up and rattled the bar. Parry then, as mentioned, pulled off a number of good saves to deny Doran and White and ICT were made to rue their wastefulness when Rooney channelled his inner Ross Tokely and decided to hack at some Alloa attacker multiple times before bundling him over in the box for the third penalty of the day which was dispatched by Flannigan. Zanatta could have won it for the visitors but his tame shot was right at Ridgers. All too familiar a tale for ICT fans. Dominate the game in terms of possession but tend not to create much and when we do we are wasteful in taking those chances. Very little width for most of the game until Calder came on and gave Tremarco someone to link with ahead of him instead of having to turn back inside all the time. Welsh had a decent game and we definitely lost a bit of composure in midfield when he went off (presumably due to fitness issues). Donaldson, penalty miss aside, was good at the back but the rest of the squad is quite poor. Austin, Oakley and White all continue to work hard up front but none of them look like they will be particularly prolific for us this season. Rooney was really poor. Defensively naive and poor bringing the ball out from the back.

At least our supporters aren't over reacting to yesterdays result.

I would make Polworth captain. He has the passion and fire in him to do the job! Not that Tremarco doesn't. I just think it would do Liam the world of good?

I am at a loss to understand why we had a centre half taking our penalty today. Surely any striker would be desperate to take them and could possibly add around ten goals to his goal tally for the season??

To me that just confirms a lack of confidence in the team through either not practising enough or the manager having no faith in you to take it usually strikers want to take them to get their goal tally up cant imagine many of our players will be in double figures come end of season

We have Rooney this year too.

I think that Mantis was making the comparison with the 2009-2010 becos of what happened by the end. ?

When I was (actively) working in financial services we had to include the statutory line "Past Performance Is Not Indicative Of Future Results" in all investment reports/recommendations...and it very much applies when talking about football as well. Maybe clubs should start printing it on tickets! Even if we accept that there is some merit in looking back (for the purposes of analysis) then echoing last seasons league performance isn't going to return the desired improvement in end result this season.

I find it hard to believe that anyone who is a professional footballer can't learn to or want to take penalty. They all kick balls for a living for goodness sake and is it such a hard thing to do?!

All sounds depressingly familiar : too often we are on top and fail to finish teams off. Two league games in row where we had a one man advantage at home and failed to finish off the job (including missed penalty!). We should have 9 points and not 5. Blindingly obvious that our main problems are up front (not to excuse defensive blunders). With all teams taking points off each other, even at this early stage of the season, there is no stand out team (same last season with the exception of St Mirren), so get our act together and there is no reason we can't win the league (wishful thinking perhaps).

Haven't read all the previous posts but that was another 2 points thrown away yesterday. Created and missed numerous chances, although to be fair the Alloa keeper made some good saves as well and were horrendously poor defensively at times. In the first half, Rooney and Mckay were terrible and all Alloa's attacking threat seemed to come down that side although, as Rig states, the free kick awarded for Alloa's first goal was a joke. Second half McKay improved but Rooney did not and ultimately cost us 3 points. Welsh looks a good signing and can only assume he was taken off as he was tiring but he was missed. Don't know what has to happen for Polworth to be subbed as he was poor yesterday and just doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes. He takes the wrong option/delays his final ball so many times yet still doesn't twig why it goes wrong. Chalmers marginally better than Polworth but either could have been substituted and we would have been a better team. As for Rooney, he simply isn't good enough on the evidence I have seen, albeit only 3 games. He cannot defend, ball watches, is average going forward and his challenge for Alloa's penalty was shocking. Everybody in the ground could see he only had to keep the player wide, as he was never going to score from there so the challenge was stupid in the extreme, To me, he also looks a bit unfit and struggles later in games. What is more worrying for me is that the team, as a whole acks discipline. There are times when we have virtually no cover at the back when attacking as everyone goes forward, the midfield all seem to play too far up the pitch at the same time, all of which leaves us vulnerable to swift counter attacks which has happened in the 3 games I have seen so far. A lot of work to be done on the training ground and certain players need to be dropped to give them a wake up call. Oh and Calder has to start the next game given his recent sub performances.

Where’s Blair when you need him

Agree with most of above however next week I would make 3 to the team that started yesterday Drop Rooney,Polworth and Austin Starting positions for McCart ,Calder and White McCart into centre back and move Brad to right back Calder wide on left and Walsh wide on right with White and Oakley up top This gives the team more balance and I’m sure we will get a result at Dunfermline It’s not really as bad a start as some of us are saying, just a bit frustrating knowing it could have been better . However we are one of only 3 teams unbeaten in the league so far which is an improvement on last seasons start.

It's all the fault of Brian Rice ?

It is always harder to play against 10 men; We were drawn into being over confident when we perished the opening 3 fixtures; We have finally unearthed a penalty taker; we remain unbeaten in the league; we are making chances; we have a better squad and changes are easier to consider or make; we are a better team away from home; looking like a league where many are capable of beating each other and there will be no runaway leaders - "Always look on the bright side of life"

I hate to say it but I also think we are lacking leadership on the park. As captain Carlos isn't rallying the team. We had much more bite from Gary Warren in that respect and when he wasn't playing Ian Vigurs could whip up the rest of the team. The only one that looks like he can do this is Coll Donaldson.

Thats just not true mate White went to get the ball and Donaldson would not give it to him,thought at the time it was a liberty that he didnt give the striker the ball and then proceeded to miss the pen. Need to get it sorted soon who the pen takers are.

You are so cynical and defeatist. Nothing the club does is good enough for you.

Poor result. pretty similar to the Dunfermline game. We started poorly, even when we were 1-0 up we weren't playing particularly well. When we were 2-1 up we still weren't looking comfortable. It when was Calder came on and provided width (similar to the Dunfermline game when Doran came on) that we started to look a lot better. Polworth was moved into a central position and rather than have one wide creative player in Walsh being easily marked we now had 2 wide players on the pitch that allowed us to be a threat down both wings rather than trying to play on one side of the pitch. The second penalty was disappointing, fair play for Donaldson for trying but as others have already said, a striker should be wanting to take penalties and increase their goal tally, are they not hungry for 3 points every game and a golden boot come the end of the season? Disappointing to only have 5 points from our first 3 games when we could have had 9.

Poor Coll. Looked very uncomfortable stepping up but appeared the only one with the balls to do so. Very disappointing all round.

How are we going to survive if we can't even beat teams reduced to ten men for most of the match.

The cup run last year flattered Roberston in which was a pretty below average season . Finishing half way down the table which included 2 part time teams has to be improved on this year.

Wow, where do you start with that display? I thought we started well, but we do that in a lot of matches, and when we don't capitalise and score in that time, it always comes back to bite us in the end. I thought we should have started with two wide men, there was an unbalance in the team. Tremarco and Walsh were bombing down the left and only Rooney on the right, and he was exposed on numerous occasions. I have said it before on here, is Rooney any better than Seedorf? I don't think so, and giving away that penalty was just criminal. If Robertson is going to play Polworth (how he stayed on the whole game baffles me, does he have some hold over Robertson?) Welsh (who was our best in the centre of the park)and Chalmers ( who was anonymous most of the game), in the middle of the park, he needs to sacrifice a forward for a wide player. And as for the forwards, I just don't think that Austin and Oakley look like a pairing that will get us a lot of goals in a season. Why are they not fighting to get the ball and take the penalty, after Robertson had taken off the player who scored the first one. Most strikers love getting their name on the score sheet, but ours seem to hide when we are looking for someone to step forward. And as for White, did he touch the ball? I have come to the conclusion now that Ribertson has no idea how to play against 10 men, at times i thought that Alloa had the numerical advantage, we were our predicable and ponderous style, slow build up and waiting till the opposition is in place and try to play through them. It doesn't work Robertson!!!. We need pace, two wide men, control the midfield and close teams down. We have now played the two teams that were promoted last season, they both went down to 10 men and on both occasions we couldn't beat them. I think the best we can look forward to now is a mid table finish, and we can't even look forward to winning the Irn Bru cup this season because of Robertsons stupidity.

2-1 up against 10 men then Walsh loses the ball on the touchline and, instead of chasing and attempting to win the ball back, he stops and his opponent is allowed to run almost the length of the park, win a penalty and the points are thrown away! Alloa then blow their best chance of the game when they really should've scored and won all three points! It's completely idiotic how we contrived to fail to win that game! The substitutions, apart from Calder who looked like the only footballer on the park during the short time he was on it, were baffling! ??????????????

Looking forward to this

Where on earth do you start with an omnishambles like that?! It's easy to forget that in the three minutes before Alloa equalized their keeper made three really great saves - though, as was the theme of the day, the latter two should have been goals. And the only reason that we didn't get the three points was a complete and utter brain fart from our right-back (which I'll get to shortly). But that was just an extraordinary watch. We started like the clappers, but after getting one up we eased off, giving the impression that we thought we could score whenever we liked. When Alloa got their fortuitous leveller, we panicked and we were lousy up till half time. Having been handed the game on a plate by Karadachki's minute of madness we then reverted back to 'score anytime we like' mode - to the point that Donaldson was so casual with his penalty that you'd have thought it was pre-season. Yet when they got it back to 2-2 we went to pieces and they actually had the best chance to win it after that. Even though we were on top, we didn't play well for long spells. Our dip in the first half coincided with the decision to switch Walsh and Polworth, which was weird as Walsh had their right-back on toast. Yet Robbo stuck with that shape until well into the second period. Oakley and Austin continue to struggle as a partnership; I thought Austin looked dangerous today but Oakley was having one of those 'control it further than I can pass it' days. Taking off Austin, our quickest striker, for White, our slowest, was bizarre given we were ahead and playing on the counter. The other changes did counteract this a bit with Calder doing well down the left (though I thought the pen he won was soft as hell) and Doran causing havoc in the middle. However taking Welsh off (I assume due to lack of fitness) robbed us of some vital experience and nous that we could have done with. But then Rooney happened. Only he will know what he was thinking - he had several goes at fouling the guy outside the box before finally deciding to shove him at the back when he was heading for the byline and in a cul-de-sac. It's one of the stupidest things I've ever seen a professional footballer do. And it cost us two points. There's not a lot of positives to take from this one. At least subsequent results have shown Ayr are a better team than we thought they were and our 0-0 wasn't quite as calamitous as it seemed. But this was one almighty kick in the teeth. It'll be interesting to see how we respond at East End Park, but I'm not confident it'll be in the right way.

Im thankful we didnt lose but really if we are drawing to Ayr and Alloa at home I can see this being a very long painful season. We can try and paint this as an unbeaten start but really we are setting ourselves up for hard work at the end or a mid table finish and the usual "maybe next year." Atleast County lost though...

A central defender should never have been taking a penalty. If the attacking players aren't fighting for the ball to get a goal then they have no business being on the pitch. 2 points thrown away again.

People are so unnecessarily and negatively snippy about a new signing. The kid is at Culloden Academy, so in my book he is a local. Support the young lad instead of droning on as if you are all lawyers and are determined to stereotype him as a 'foreigner. What is this, ukip corner?

Edinburgh City @ 4.75 please...

Raith were doomed before JH joined them I think he only had about 10 games to turn things around, everyone bangs about Raith but it hardly compares to a squad that you have worked with and built. The grave mistake as you put it was appointing Foran who had never managed at ANY level. JH even said after he left that RF was "no coach" and he was proved right in that in spades. If you can't see the difference between the football played under Hughes with the football played under Butcher then I can't help you.

As I said on another thread White wanted the ball but Donaldson wouldn’t give it to him so it was an arrrogant decision for big Coll to take the penalty when a striker wanted to take it.

We are gonna fckin hammer Alloa put your mortgage on a convincing home win they've the most annoying songs oooh aaah Alloa been the worst!

Did you climb under that rock at the beginning of the season after when our decline began and JH could do nothing to arrest it and recruited dud after dud despite having the highest budget in our history at his disposal?