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Whilst I can't really be bothered to wade into this 'happy clapper' vs 'negative realist' love in (is there any actual point being made in amonst the personal rubbish), can I just point out a couple of minor things 1. We have pretty much the lowest budget in the SPL. Dunfermline have six players earning in excess of £2k per week and Hibs will probably have even more. How many players do we have earning over £1.5k? Perhpas this may be why we struggle to attract the next Messi 2. How long does it take for the fact that Steven-MacKay turned down a contract offer to register against Butcher turning him away? 3. The problem of poor entertainment is Scottish Football wide and not unique to the TCS. Football in this country needs to change, but how does picking individual players to be ritually slagged off on this forum help? 4. Thankfully every First Division manager has noted how the football from County is slick and entertaining. My County supporting pals class it in their words as 'grim but effective'. They are also about to lose possibly their most skillful player to Dundee Utd

A bit of perspective is required. Yes, it was poor and the points regarding the overall lack of quality are accurate. Unfortunately we are in the business of looking for free signings and paying low wages - this does not add up to the ability to simply make simple changes. In terms of Butcher, the biggest problem that he seemed lost as to how to change things in the second half. That said, we simply do not have any 'impact' players on the bench who can fundimentally change the type of game we play (the two who could are both currently injured). The defense as a whole were pretty solid. TJ as expected after being out for 6 months ran out of steam after an hour, however he is one of the few players who doesn't panic when people come near him and can pass to within 20m of a team mate (when they are only 20m away!). Tansey - I'm afraid he is one of the most 'ordinary' players I have ever seen for a while. Never has a poor game, but then rarely seems to have a good game. Came hear as a 'goal scoring' midfielder you will recall The main difference last night can be summarised as the difference between top six and bottom six teams (we are clearly the latter at the moment). We have two gold plated chances and can't even shoot without tripping over the ball. They get a sniff from a penalty and win the game. Unless we get a serious amount of money from somewhere (which we won't) we have to look to build a team over a few seasons and hopefully develop our own players to augment this. This is year 1 of the development and there are some changes to be made over the summer, however to maintain perspective, we were not played off the park and we did in fact have clear chances in the first half to win the game.

Seems a high amount for a 25% share in a 'business' which does make a profit, has limited tangible assets (including no property) and a negative outlook in terms of income generation over the next five years.

You are missing the point. Proctor is the current choice for the 'which player should we slag off' competition. Some of what is being written about him is a bit of overkill. He is a good player who unfortunately suffers from inconsistency particularly when he losses confidence in a game.

I would have to look into the specific details behind the administration, however in most circumstances 'football' creditors are viewed as Secured Creditors under the terms of the Administration procedure and it may be that the gate money is in effect at the head of the que for payment by the club (i.e. has to be paid in full in advance of any reduced payments under CVAs, etc). This may be academic in the sense that the Rangers trading company gets subsequently liquidated and available monies for any creditors may be limited. In this case Rangers will need re-electred to the SPL and I'm sure part of this process will be to settle outstanding amounts due to other SPL football clubs.

It never fails to amaze me that whilst the positive's in terms of performances and points have increased over the past six weeks it still is insufficient to stop certain 'fans' taking the opportunity to lay into players for no good reason. Gillet has Imrie in his pocket for most of the game (until he switched to the other side) yet apparently he is 'hopeless' Nick Ross, aside from his shooting, was one of the better players on the day perhaps, but apparently he is 'Dross'. It is fine for people to excert their right to free speach and opinion, however perhaps a bit of perspective would not go amiss??

Realistically we are unlikley to keep Hayes. Tuffey will move on for a game if we keep Esson Tokely's wife has just taken a job in Aberdeen - will he be off to Peterhead?

The concept appears fundimentally flawed on the basis that we are likley to be able to fill most if not all of the North stand for this game (if we get through of course). The inability to get decent crowds for cup games is something which has grown over the past few years (including in England where there are very few capacity games in cup matches). I was not surprised at the low turnout for the Dunfermline game and to be honest I suspect the attendance would not have been much higher even if we only charged a £1 to get in.

Apparently the club shop were telling people first thing this morning that there was no plans for a pitch inspection, yet here we are with a pitch inspection and no game on??? Upgraded drainage appears to have worked a treat then.

End of season or in January

Unfortunately we, the punters, are paying anything but peanuts. The standard of catering at football matches is limited to say the least. In the 'Biscuit Tin' in Wellington (NZ) the offerings include fish and chips, burgers actually made of beef instead of ground 'meat like object' as well as the usual hot dogs, etc. The cost is a bit more (the cost of living in NZ is higher in general anyway at the moment with the exchange rate, etc), however I know I would pay a bit more for real quality.

I never thought this would happen however I have to agree with Renegade. His performances have been in general poor and he seems on occasions to want to do everthing himself...............and ends up doing nothing. Not sure what motivational skills he has off-field, however there is little obvious leadership on it. This is not a case of trying to slag him off, however he is not justifying being picked at the moment other than the fact that we lack experienced players on the park at the moment.

What a shower of bottlers. When the second goal goes in everyone sits in the stands and waits to see the collapse. This is little to do with the defense and much to do with the midfield. 1st goal - Our two central midfielders decide to run into each other and leave the defense exposed 2nd goal - Johny Hayes decides to play at being right back and tells Davis to stay forward and then can't be bothered to actually do the job of the right back - man of the match..........really!! 3rd goal - defnse left exposed once more. We can pretend that we are going to click at some point and move away from danger, however on this display this is unlikely. Reminds me of the season when we got relegated. we effectively get ourselves safe with a single point needed from the last few games and then bottle it Yes, this is immediately after the game and I am raw but the facts speak for themselves at the moment!

Good Idea! You can start it off by popping in a couple of million and we can start a thread to work out how to spend it

The missing easy chances is indicative of the pressure which Foran and Tade are feeling in terms of having to score. This is not helped by our shipping goals at the moment which means we need to get goals in the back of the net. Anyway, Tade is simply following on from where Wilson Robertson (younger fans will be saying 'Who') left off in terms of one on ones

It is probably my failing, however I do not understand your logic. The whole point of the changes made since last season is to look at moving the club forward over the coming years. Whether we end up higher or lower this season is in many ways academic as long as there is progress being made by what is an exceptionally young team with a view to improved positions over the coming season. The injuries which have happened have had a significant adverse effect in that a different team is having to play each week. This is not helpful for getting players to gel with the rest of the team. I still look back to the fact that we were good for the early and end parts of last season and had relegation form for the middle two quarters. This gave a big hint that some changes were needed and the Manager has broadly turned to younger untried players (at SPl level), but whom offer greater potential than some of the players last season. If we had money to spend then we could buy in the finished article. We simply don't and as a result a number of the players are brought in on the basis that they will develop over time (think back as to how many people thought Tokely, Duncan & co would be able to hack it at SPL level when we first got promoted?). It would of course be nice if they could 'click' next week before we drop too far off the pace

No comment required, you jinx. As I heard some peeple stating yesterday - "Yon Johndo is prophetic". No, you misheard. They were actually saying "Yon Johndo is pathetic"

Jesus, overreaction or what??? Overall many positives from a team who are still to learn how to play with each other. Positives - Tudor Jones and Piermayr both look cracking captures with Tansey also contributing in spells. We created a number of chances Negatives - Lack of composure in front of goal (match fitness should hopefully change this), Aldred is sound in the air but needs more agression when the ball is on the ground - at this level you simply cannot back off from a distance as a centre half (Hogg should be fit enough for next week though), Hayes still getting caught in possession in bad areas (suppose this is the curse of attacking players) and Officials (four sound penalty claims and a linesman who could not see a ball a yard over the line - even the referee 25 yards out could see this). Otherwise frustrating to lose a game like this. I think the shot was even going wide till Esson got an unluckly glove on it.

One year deal confirmed on official site Linky

Do we not already have a 'new' right back signed (subject to International approval) as well as a striker (subject to fitness following injury)? What is with the sudden constant slagging of Proctor? A couple of poor early season games suddenly deletes the fact that he has been pretty solid in previous seasons (aside from his short spell as centre half under Brewster)? The team both tactically and match fitness wise will take a few weeks to gell. This is the same for a lot of teams and I recall Pele always used to say that knee jerk reactions for the first few games may be misleading. I also seem to recall we started on fire in the first quarter last year before showing relegation form for the November to March period.

Reading Levein's comments today shows what a lot of rubbish is being spoken in this debate. Playing the best is what matters apparently! Why then is a team which is playing in a league with only 2 good teams and a lot of average ones is being suggested by many as the best team ever? Why are England not the best team in the world when they probably have the strongest league? Why were Scotland not world beaters when we had a league of only 10. And indeed why did everyone get fed up of it and want to change it to try and stop the falling standard.

In your opinion, who is ICT's most Underated player of all time? As a converse thread to that started by SMEE, who is the most underated player of all time. I will kick off by selecting Russell, who up until the last 12 months was slated by many in spite of being a key player.

but we do have to pay their wages.... Recon Butch will sign young English boys. Hang on, did anyone see something fly over my head

Is this topic not overstating the situation? We are losing 2 players (Grant and Russell) who can be considered as part of the current established first team. Golly and Roy are both on the fringe (mainly due to age), Hogg only ever came up here for a few months of football, and the remaining players are all fringe players (for varying reasons).

The highlights confirm that this must have been an invisible punch. It appears all Russell did was bump his body into Mair. As previously stated, a yellow card. I suspect an appeal would be successful.