dead_ball_specialist

Wow, we've totally gone back to the future. If we end up struggling in the SFL (still not conviced by Butcher / Malpas) then we should deffo bring Steve Paterson back. Happy days!

I also heard he was on 2 grand a week from a reliable source. Incredible isn't it? How on earth was this allowed to happen? Fair play to AB for holding out for the best package he could get for himself and his family, but what were the club thinking? After all the controversy and bad feeling over Marius Niculae (an international class player) 'breaking the wage structure' and going against the ICT way, and all the quotes from the board about not allowing this to happen again, we go and do it again the very next season with an unproven second division player.

The perfect lineup to take us to the second division.

Brewster ultimately failed as ICT manager, but he got alot of things right. He brought a higer standard of professionalism to the club than had previously been the case. Unfortunatly, some of the players decided that he was pushing them a little too hard and stopped giving 100% on the pitch to get him sacked. He gave youngsters a chance. Sutherland, Vigurs, Wood and Duff were all promoted to the first team squad and were progressing well (until Butcher arrived :015:) He had a decent record in the transfer market but he was guilty of releasing key players (Wilson, Hart, Wyness) before replacements had arrived. If Mihadjuks, Morais, and Gathuessi had arrived at TCS at the start of last season (rather than half way through) I suspect we would have had a much more successful season and Brewster would still be in charge. Butcher and his results got the benefit of these players (as well as being given the funds to bring in Foran, Kerr and Odhiambo) not to mention the 'bounce' that almost any new manager gets when players initially try much harder. And even Brewster's harshest critics would have to concede that he had some shocking luck. We lost plenty of games where we'd performed well and deserved so much more (the 1-0 home defeat to hamilton and the 2-1 home defeat to st mirren being 2 good examples). We probably played worse a few times under Butcher and won (Ibrox, the 2-1 at home to st mirren, the 1-0 at home to killie). At the end of the day, when you take all of these things into account, I don't think there's necessarily that big a difference between Brewster and Butcher. Only time will tell, but the early signs on the pitch (after the 'bounce' wore off) were not good. And off the pitch, the decision not to offer contracts to Vigurs or Mihadjuks raises even more questions about Butcher's judgment. It's too soon to say whether TB is going to be a better manager than CB IMHO.

So the board have announced a 'straight back up' policy. As opposed to what exactly? A 'stay down' policy? This just sounds like daft spin.

Wow, I had my doubts about Butcher before, but looking at who he has and hasn't offered contracts to I think we could be up sh*t creak. For all his personality flaws and tactical ineptitude at least Brewster had a decent record in the transfer market, and showed willingness to give youth a chance. Pavels Mihadjuks is the best defender we've had at the club since Darren Dods, to not even offer him a new contract absolutly beggars belief. Vigurs, Wood and Sutherland all performed well when given the opportunity and could have come of age in the first division IMHO. I was looking forward to the prospect of our younger players coming into the fold in the SFL, and perhaps some entertaining football for a change. What a shame.

No more SPL referees.

The 'Butcher bounce' was mainly a result of the players actually trying for a change (rather than just going through the motions as they did to get Brew sacked for 'working them too hard') Charlie Christie had a similar bounce, as did Brewster at the beginning of both of his spells. Butcher has had better players available to him than Brewster (Pavels, Morais signed by brew just before he left, Eric, Foran, Kerr being brought in just after) and a fair portion of good luck (our wins against Rangers and St Mirren were on the jammy side, in stark contrast to a fair few defeats and draws under Brew where we had been the better side) Several of Butcher's decisions have been questionable. Dropping Esson for Fraser, relegating Pavels to the bench, playing Tokely at centre half (thus nullifying our attacking threat down the right), playing Kerr ahead of Duncan, playing McBain on the wing, refusing to drop either Proctor or Imrie, banishing Vigurs to the reserves. And let's be honest, under Butcher we've played by far the worst football in the clubs history. It's been bloody awful. Once the 'bounce' wore off our results have been no better than Brewsters, our last 6 games against the worst teams in the divisions have proudced.. L,D,W,D,L,L Aberdeen 1 0 ICT ICT 1 1 Hamilton St Mirren 1 2 ICT ICT 1 1 Hamilton Motherwell 2 2 ICT (motherwell had nothing to play for) Kilmarnock 1 0 ICT ICT 0 1 Falkirk Things are not as black and white as some would like to think. Laying all of the blame for ICTs relegation at the feet of one man is ridiculous.

What a shocker out there today. Especially considering this was our 'cup final'. Dougie Imrie GTF. Seriously, what a shockingly terrible player. His howler in the last minute sums him up, free at the edge of the box, time and space to pick his spot, men over waiting for a tap in, he tries to swerve the ball into the top corner and puts it in the stand, what a clown. He contributed sweet FA to our cause today. Richie Foran misses 2 sitters in the opening minutes that would have seen us all but safe, and spends the majority of the second half strolling around without a care in the world, he didn't chase anything, lost every challenge he went in for and proceeded to gift possession back to Falkirk every time he got the ball. Kerr was little better, the game just passed him by. They can b*gger off to Dundee as far as I'm concerned. WTF was Butcher thinking with his subsitutions? How on earth did Imrie and Foran stay on the park for 90 minutes? Why were Morais and Black, arguably our 2 best players hooked? We were awful today and got what we deserved. When we went down to 10 men we were content to camp deep in our own half and allow falkirk to work the ball down the wings under no pressure whatsoever and float balls into the danger zone. Was anyone in the stadium suprised when they scored? We were never going to hold out for an hour playing like that, it would have taken a miracle for the ball not to end up in our net, especially as we had Fraser between the sticks (why????) and no Tokely. Brewster cannot be scapegoated for all our shortcomings this season. We had plenty of chances to secure our place in the SPL after the split, and we absolutly blew it.

I disagree, the players should shoulder the blame for where we've ended up. They underperformed under Brewster to get him the sack, and ultimately that's what relegated us.

Dennis Wyness and Barry Wilson would both have done a better job than Rooney and Barrowman this season. I suspect if they hadn't been released we wouldn't be in this mess. That's the frustrating part. Gary Wood is the only striker that gets pass marks this season IMHO. I'm suprised that Butcher isn't selecting him considering his preference for physical, hard working players. One particular performance comes to mind, at home against aberdeen earlier in the season where he took them on virtually all by himself. Why look elsewhere for a big, bustling striker when we already have him?

Sounds about right, we should play to score goals and win. We are a better team than falkirk and if we play our best football we will get the result we need.

Gazza against us in the Scottish cup. Imagine how good he could have been if he wasn't a total degenerate?

He had a poor game today, but he was no poorer than Munro, Proctor, McBain, Black or Morais. And you also have to consider the fact that he was marking Hamilton's best attacking player. Most of their attacks were concentrated through Asamoah on the right flank and for the most part Lionel handled the pressure exerted on him pretty well. He was guilty of trying to play too much football at the back at times, but I also agree with the previous comment that some of our better attacking moves came from Lionel carrying the ball from the back. Is anybody seriously arguing that we should re-introduce Hastings into our back 4 at this stage of the season? If Lionel is a 'bomb scare' waiting to happen, then Hastings is a thermonuclear warhead which has already happened.

A pretty dire game of football at TCS today, the juveniles at half time played more entertaining football than the seniors. But looking at the bigger picture, judging the performance relative to other games against Hamilton this season, that's the best we've played, so at least we seem to be going in the right direction. .

I wonder if Blackie is aware of the financial situation at tynecastle... http://community.caleythistleonline.com/in...974&hl=debt

-------------------------Esson---------------------------- -Proctor--------Pavels--------Munro--------McBain-- -------------------------Black------------------------------ --Tokely-------------------------------------Djebi-Zadi-- ------------------------Morais------------------------- -------Barrowman----------------------Foran----------- Hamilton are a bunch of thugs who'll park their team bus in front of goal, hit us on the break, and try to negate any attempts we make to play good football. Stick the big men up and batter them, that's how we salvaged a point against them last time out, that's how we should start this time out.

Brian Kerr used to have a reputation as someone who wasn't afraid to put the boot in, haven't seen that side of him in an ICT shirt yet though.

I never had any doubts that Grant Munro would come good.

No need to change our formation or tactics, in big games like this we should just keep it simple and play to our strengths rather than trying anything fancy (a la Brewster). And for chr1st sake, play with a bit of energy and ambition. No repeat of the lethargic debacle against Falkirk where only one team turned up with the intention of having a go and winning the game.

I would like to see him played up front more often.

I wonder if they'll use this for the 'what happened next' round on question of sport.

Rooney?? I just don't get why some posters always pick him. When's the last time he had a good game? Imrie's off the boil, Munro is in the middle of the worst run of form of his career, and Kerr still doesn't look fully fit so I'd go for... -----------------------Esson---------------------- Tokely-------Pavels--------Duff-----Djebi-Zadi ----------------------Duncan--------------------- Proctor------------------------------------McBain ----------------------Black------------------------ ----------Foran---------------Morais--------------

A pretty poor performance today, but we were playing the dirtiest, most negative team in the country I suppose. At least we got a better result than we have previously against the Accies this season, and if it hadn't been for Morais and Imrie missing a couple of absolute sitters we would probably have won the game. I don't think it'd be an exadaduration to say that Hamilton were a disgrace to scottish football today. Their cynical fouling, dangerous late challenges, diving, injury feigning and time wasting were the worst I've ever seen at any level of football and I sincerely hope they're relegated.

---------------------Calder----------------------- McArthur-------Mann-----Dods-------Sheerin --------------------McBain---------------------- Wilson----------------------------------Robson --------------------Brewster-------------------- ------------Ritchie------------Wyness----------