Stevie

Please accept my humble apologies for wanting the club to do better... Well Jay, I've explained my thoughts regarding some of our posters unrealistic expectations, could you expand where you feel I'm wrong ?

You're right Harry, that's a shocker of a couple of months fixtures that they've got. I'm convinced there going back where they came from

Thats not entirely true though, before the weekend we were only 1 point of bottom and even now we are just 3. The main thing is though, the supporters put a lot of time and money into the club and it gets really frustrating if you travel long distances to a home game where you play a 4-5-1 and look to break on the counter, rather than taking the game to the opposition - especially when its a team you feel you should be getting a result against. Anyway bring on Falkirk tomorrow night I know what your saying Iain but that seems to be the general way now, practicaly evey team is doin the 4-5-1 thing at least Brew is keepin up with times. Football generally is much less exciting than it used to be. Regards the relegation issue , personally I've never felt that we've been in serious trouble yet, too early.

I saw Byrne play for Dunfermline a few years ago at Tynecastle and he was superb, the Hearts fans around me were raving about him. Similarly to others though I 've seen him have a few shockers for the Dons. The ability is there though.

I've not posted much of late basically because of the ridiculous level of abuse aimed at Brewster and to a lesser extent the players. Okay it's easier to post this after the superb victory in Leith but honestly what do some folk expect ? I remember a couple of years ago there was a thread which caused a fair amount of varying opinion, it was along the lines of "are we punching above our weight" If you look at the facts, we barely can manage 3000 home fans at any game, so tell me how can ICT be expected to basically do any better than they're doing just now ? Of the top of my head only one club has performed in the league any better than ICT attendances that being Livingston 6 or 7 years ago and they were way over their heads in gaining such a lofty position, ended up in a right old mess. That Inverness have never seriously been in relegation trouble is actually astonishing. The current team and manager look to be continuing in this vein. The present league is , the o.f. apart as tight as a drum, inconsistancy rules a couple of home wins in the next few days could see us climb dramatically. Look at some of the moaning re Brewster, Playing Imrie and Cowie on the wrong flanks (it's on another thread I know) it works though, plenty others do it eg Celtic with McGeady & Nakamura, He also took a fair bit of abuse last season regarding Wyness, now like everyone else Wyness to me was a hero, but lets be honest, it was right to let him go. In general I wish folk would enjoy our current status more, law of averages says it can't go on for ever. Enjoy

Personally I feel our formation should depend on who we're playing, not where we're playing. Against the likes of Celtic, I think we've got to go 4-5-1 home or away otherwise there's the possibility of getting overrun. When it comes to the likes of Saturday against Motherwell, I think we should be going 4-4-2, similar quality of team, you've got to go for it at home, I know folk say 4-5-1 can quickly turn into 4-3-3 and it isn't as negative as it looks blah...blah. Load of bull, it's negative, boring, dull crap. My two would be Rooney and Barrowman. I think Adam Rooney must be getting a wee bit frustrated at his lack of opportunities

Think you're right Alex, especially re-Bayne. I thought Wood did okay but Bayne was a good experienced Target man. Still can't understand why Rooney is used so sparingly.

No Scotty, I know you're statement wasn't slagging the players. I'd just been thinking earlier that I'd been expecting great things of Rooney just after his signing, but he's no' really getting much of a run yet, early days I suppose.

In fairness Scotty, Rooney isn't getting much of a chance. I really feel Brew should be starting Rooney more, with either Garry Wood or Barrowman.

Aye it's a bug ger when you see Hibs winning with an offside goal and ICT getting denied a goal and therefore possible draw !

Only Stirling Albion game I can recall was @ Stirling a couple of years ago, 6-0 to ICT in the Scottish

It's pretty obvious but I'll say my bit anyway, Confidence plays a huge part in the performance of a footballer. If a player is getting a rough time off his own, there is virtually no chance of getting a decent game out of him. Whereas if he's getting SUPPORTED by his own clubs fans, then different story.

Och away man ! That's what you, I, and every other fan is ultimately striving for.

I'll take a chance and start this thread before the Killie game, but honestly I can't believe the critisicm this guy is takin just now. We're sitting 7th (okay it's early days) and in the league cup Q-F's, I admit Brew has made a couple of team selections that I wouldn't. Basically the way I see it is, Brewster has actually improved the squad with the signings of Rooney (a great addition), Imrie ( a more potent player than Rankin) Esson (an excellent back-up for Fraser) and Barrowman. To my mind he has dealt with youngsters Garry Wood, Ian Vigurs and Duff in the correct manner and they too have become superb additions to our squad. Quiet honestly I don't know where folk expect ICT to be, but 7th is , in my book , highly respectable. How much would the likes of Dundee, Morton, Q.O.S. St. Johnstone etc. like to be in our position ! Craig Brewster proved himself in his 1st stint at Inverness, and in my opinion he's doing fine 2nd time around ! I feel the club , for it's size , is in a very healthy state, and I've got absolutely no fears about relegation. As far as I'm concerned Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Craig Brewster are doing just fine !

There is no question, Imrie had a great game against Morton tonight, okay it could said Morton are 1st division but IMO he was head and shoulders above the rest tonight. I still think he'll prove to be a very good SPL player

Aye I'd pretty much agree with your comments A.M. but I wouldn't worry too much about the fact Morton are a struggling 1st division side, it accounts for nothing, this tie had perfect giant killing possibilities for them. A good job well done.

Just back from the game, Dougie Imrie was superb, unforunately I had to leave before his goal (i'd have missed my boat) I don't see how people could criticise Brewster over this game, the side lined up well 4-4-2 well balanced, the only thing was Garry Wood & Rory don't gel, Wood's the better player no doubt in my mind, huge difference when he paired with Rooney. Russeldinho had an off night as did Cowie. Vigurs was very good when he came on. I thought though that generally the team did their job well tonight in what was a very tricky tie.

Hmm, a fair amount of sarcastic comments regardin Duncan's re-signing. Okay like the club, Russell isn't going through a particularly great spell, but a wee look at the bigger picture will tell us that he's consistantly been a stalwart through much of the history of our young club. I'm delighted he's put pen to paper. He's one of the boys that has got this club to the position it is now.

So should we not have bought Cowie ? he was a member of a Ross Co. side relegated from the First Division !

We had this last season too though ! Remember last autumn when Johnny Rankin scored two long range goals against Falkirk, well the following 9 games produced no wins, 4 draws and 5 losses, a mere 4 points out of 27 ! Charlie Christie was getting it big time from a fair amount of posters, check out the site history from that spell ! To be honest with you, as I've said, I'm not happy with the wage thing regarding Niculae, and I don't feel the team is as good as it was (we're missing Rankin &Dods) but I really think folk are over reacting to little more than a bad spell

Very interesting stuff IHE, you may well be right I don't know. My take on the situation is more....boring. I was a great CC sympathiser as my site history will confirm, I spent a lot of last season arguing on here, fighting his case, and I was very sorry to see him go. I don't think the signing of Niculae has been good for the club, I'm sure he's a nice guy, he's certainly a good footballer, but he, to my mind, is not what the club is about. Brewster has though, undoubtably, done well. To win 5 games on the trot is a fantastic achievement in the SPL, it actually developed into 7WINS IN 9 SPL GAMES ! That's impressive stuff. To be 2 goals down to Celtic and beat them 3-2 is a truly great achievement for Inverness, I mean this is a Celtic team that flirt with the elite of Europe. I really believe that the present run is little more than a bad spell, inconsistency rules in the SPL. We're actually only a point poorer off than we were at the same stage last year. My only real concerns are of the wage structure, I don't think the Niculae signing has been good for the club at all.

Yes, this has been mentioned last week by Govan Jaggie. It's hard to believe though that the club wouldn't have worked out a bonus scheme for reaching the top six that would make that the more appealing target for the players

SPL clubs (O.F.) apart seem to all be very inconsistant, so hopefully the law of averages says we should be coming out of our bad spell and headin for a good run, just in time for a charge on a top 6 spot :022:

Come on IHE you're the man who's usually " reliably informed " and you're normally fairly good with the intuition. What's your take on the situation ? I'm not incidently, disagreeing with you, merely interested in your opinion. Do you think it's the "Niculae factor", Brewster's management (although your thread was started in the CC reign), or more of a problem steming from the Boardroom ?

Rory McAllister was born on 13th may 1987, so he's 20 :blah01: