The Mantis

I agree with Hairy Chipper

If we're dragging bottom, how do you define what our feeder club are doing?

I think that's a very loose translation of what I said Chris :015: :015: :015:

Wondered about that myself. The players never seemed to complain though.

That must be the most timid, gutless performance I've ever seen from an Inverness side, whether it's ICT or any of the pre-merger partners. Even at one goal up (and we should have been at least 2 down by that time) the players never showed any belief. It was one of those games you felt could be about 5-1 in the end. I felt CC was happy as long as it stayed 1-1 but there was too much of the game left for that. A few random thoughts (somebody else can do the smileymometers): Dougal was very fussy, even to the extent of giving us a soft penalty near the end. Felt he was a homer in the first 20 mins, but then he seemed to even it out a bit. Caff was OK by div 1 standards we remember him by, but looked a bit nervy, and understandably not match fit, but we've become used to Dods and the other three being rock solid. The defending was sloppy at all three goals. First half we were ripped apart down our left, lost count of the number of crosses from the byeline. Utd had good movement and were all over the park when they got possession, or rather when we gifted it to them. They look a top 6 side without question under Levein. We looked very ponderous and took too many passes to get nowhere. To use a well worn cliche, we had no width. Russell Duncan was missed as much as Dods. That's my opinion. McBain, Rankin and Black can't all play at once. Too lightweight in midfield. I would drop Roy and one of the others, not sure which- Black wins the ball but Rankin can create. I understand Richie Hart was injured today but I would give him a go. Barry- looks knackered these days. Get wee Zander on at half time. Bayne- sorry, but all the effort doesn't make up for lack of talent. If anything, could have played alongside Granty today instead of Caff. He did a lot of defending anyway. Dennis must play. We were a different side when he got his 15 minutes and he looked hungry. He actually replaced Barry though, no number 17 board this week. He won the penalty due to United panicking at his close skills, as opposed to Bayne, who can control it further than I can pass it. He won another free kick 30 yards out, and he had a run down the right wing which was as good as we got all day. I felt sorry for Dargo. He was back foraging for the ball in his own half as he got no service. Can't blame him if he wants another club, he's a mercenary with no ties/obligations to Inverness apart from us resurrecting his career. Also we had a poor support this week (so did Utd, crowd looked very poor). Apart from the usual couple of dozen guys trying to get it going all game (and the usual couple of dozen stewards trying to stop them) we didn't really manage to make much noise and the players never gave us much to warm us up either.

I actually agree with you Sandy (the bit about dragging bottom anyway). I don't know if you were there today but I feckin was and it's hard to take. I still have to step back and say- surely CC has Parkie to guide him, and also how did we gather most of our 20 points before becoming pish? I don't see any time in history when a team has had a bad patch lasting a whole season (unless they were totally pish and just not good enough, like St Mirren a couple of years back). The heads are certainly down at the moment though. I'll start worrying if we lose the next 2, Killie, then more important, Dunfermline.

Maybe I'm a pedantic *******, correction I am a pedantic *******, or maybe we're just speaking two feckin different languages all this time :023:

Aye but if somebody took £4 off you to watch the Jeggies he must have seen you coming. Two quid if I mind right, maybe three just before the merger. Even this was only a fiver

I know you're only joshing old chap, either that or you've never been to Cowdenbeath :006: Or even the Recs or Cliftonhill. Ibrox to me is a far better stadium than Parkheid which is built on the cheap. But both are full of the great unwashed. Tynecastle is a better place to be in on a matchday. Easter Road's no bad either.

Nae wonder the Jaggies had feck all fans. Even Caley Thistle only charged £4 in div 3 :015: :015: :015: :015: :015:

Aye, not as welcoming as the team though.... :020:

I'll feckin jump on you the next time I see you

Here's a photo from the game, good quality pics from the guy. Stand looks pretty full clicky

Aye great wee report.... Find it hard to believe the crowd though. Top of the table an' all, they usually have a hardcore of a few hundred. Maybe the mistake was syndicated.

You know how these things get exaggerated though. All it needs is the reporter coming up to him in the bar and saying 'were you disappointed to be subbed', Craig to say, 'Aye I was a bit pissed off, thought he should have left me on and taken Bayners off' and bingo, there's your story. I suppose the best thing is a 'no comment' but you can understand his frustration, I was gobsmacked myself when they held up the board on Saturday.

If you think we've got problems, try this

There was an incident just before that, can't remember what (maybe it was Skippy diving, my ageing braincells are letting me down). Seemed like that got Rossco steamed up. I shuddered when I saw it, I think he was lucky it was a home game or the ref would have pandered to the fans and sent him off. I think the tackle on Chris Kerr at St Midden was less serious than that.

Upper tier definitely, even though the stewards are actually barstewards and every pound is grudged. Also we are invited again to the Andy Penman suite at Dens Park. Shame Brew has gone but bring it on!

And there's more...... It looks like we're about to achieve 4 consecutive years in the SPL. The club is 12 years old FFS. We're arguably the wee-est club ever to play in the SPL. Yet we try to compete with the likes of Celtic, who get as many through the gate in one game as we get in a season. We've never been thumped 6-1 like Well last week, or 5-1 like the Pars yesterday. Teams who have failed to outlast our stay in the SPL in recent years include P*rt*ck, Falkirk, St Johnstone and St Mirren. Also relegated recently were Livi and Dundee, and both Dunfermline and DUFC have flirted with relegation for the last 3 seasons. Most, possibly all, of these 8 can justifiably claim to be 'bigger' clubs than ICT. Some people need a reality check. When we played Hibs the other week, only Brown and Dargo would be likely to get in the Hibs squad (I'd probably include Granty but maybe I'm biased). Yet we've consistently beaten them home and away. For a young club with such a small fan base 7th is a feckin miracle for us. As Charlie says, by all means if we get to March and we're in a strong position then we can push for top six. Bear in mind, most years five places will already be filled by Hearts, Hibs, Rangers, Celtic, Aberdeen, all clubs with 5-figure attendances, leaving us to scrap with the others such as Killie for that last place. I realise to hold opinions like these is like a red rag to some feckers like the Mr Angrys of the forum but tough sheit/shecht/sharn/keech :015: :015: :015: :015:

Well summed up Wyness and CaleyD. I think also that Bonzo makes a lot of good points, but they're made in such a patronising manner at times that I sometimes think it's Cyril the Squirrel in disguise :010: :010: :010: :010: He'd also rival a Tim for paranoia. We all disagree from time to time but he thinks he alone gets shot down. Now I had a 350 mile round trip yesterday in wind, rain, dark etc to watch what turned out to be a load of shecht, and at 9am yesterday I was seriously wondering whether to set off, but that's life. Charlie's been about 9 months in the job. He's learning. He's a better boss than Brewster IMO (Brew's value to us was as a player), and we're in no real danger of going down. Maybe Bonzo would elaborate on when we're due to go down the pan- is it this season, or next, or when? And does he ever watch the team away? Motherwell fans were just as animated when we went and did to them what they did to us yesterday (but to the tune of 4-1). Many people have said that away teams is what the SPL is all about these days. Keep the home fans quiet, then get them on the team's back, then nick the points.

Feck me Johnboy, forgot all about it, next week at Tannadice or the next again v Killie, that was my first trip up since Dunfermline game.

Just a wee innocent query Bonzo- have you been watching away games, or just home? However after the end of the 8 game unbeaten run I remember thinking we had been riding our luck a while and hadn't been playing that well. Today I have to agree with Charlie that hardly anybody performed at all, whatever you thought of the tactics, he's not to blame for giving the ball away as often as we did. But I was a bit disappointed to see Dargo/Bayne starting after Wyness got a shot last week. I'm like a lot of others, I think we get nowt out of Dargo with Bayne as partner. I felt sorry for the wee man being subbed when Dargo/Rory or Dargo/Wyness might have worked. I take it Hart for Duncan was a gamble to take the 3 points, as we all expected Barry to go off, even if Russell's passing was gash. And I was never a big Rankin fan but I thought we missed him- whatever creativity we've had recently was often down to him. I wanted Roy dropped since about a month ago to accommodate Rankin, but to be fair Roy was OK today. We really need another Barry Wilson, pronto. I'm still in the camp that says we have the fewest resources, mostly first division players, etc etc, and the guys have been punching above their weight. We're as good as Motherwell but they got a break this week. These guys will be hurting and desperate to get on with it next week at Tannadeechay. So am I.

Never saw you in the Innes today Pie, where did you have the pre-match swally? I thought 'penalty' straight away when I saw it, but then I was in the North Stand, about 6 rows up, blind as a bat and mann4thejob had pulled my jaiket up over my heid claiming it was an anorak :010:

Somebody had a DVD recently with highlights of that game. Fecked if I can remember who it was :015: :015: :015: :015:

Feck me, what a fuss ower a joke... Here's one that was doing the rounds about 1990 or so... They have a photo of a well-known Rangers player as a baby. "OK, for 5 points, can you guess who it is?" Wee Shuggie: "Is it John Greig?" "No. We'll age him a bit for 3 points" Wee Shuggie: "Is it Ally McCoist?" "No. We'll age him a bit more for 2 points" Wee Shuggie: "Is it Davie Cooper?" "No, sorry! For ONE point, here he is as he looks today" Wee Shuggie: "Aw feck me, it's Mark Walters!"