dead_ball_specialist

Can you please expand upon the 'key skills' that the romani gypsie community brings to our shores. (I have mis-spelled gypsie as for some reason the correct spelling is classed as a swear word on this forum, and blanked out)

1) Paterson - Amazing eye for talent, great football, great entertainment, great success. Left when we were top of division 1. Couldn't have asked for more. 2) Robertson - Carried on from the above but not quite as entertaining. 3) Brewster - Made some decent signings, improved fitness levels and professionalism, some spells of good football and success, but lost the plot in his final season. 4) Christie - Poor record in the transfer market, long ball football, blew a great chance to reach a cup final against a crappy Partick Thistle, bottled under pressure, left us rock bottom with zero points, below gretna. 5) Baltacha - Apparently he didn't have much to work with player-wise, but his philosophy of football was guff. Too early to place Butcher.

Would have to go for... Our best ever defender, Ian McArthur Our best ever midfielder, Barry Wilson and our best ever striker, Paul Ritchie

He isn't quite the 'bomb scare' that some of his more excitable detractors like to make out. In fact he's probably the most composed defender under pressure that we've got, and certainly the hardest to beat. How often do you see attackers skin Lionel? Hardly ever, he is a far better tackler than Bambi, Hastings, Murno and Tokely, he never shirks a challenge and more often than not he wins the ball. On top of that, his distribution from the back is a class above the mindless hoofing that we are used to.

He had his chance in an ICT shirt, and while he showed some brief moments of skill he never really lived up to his 'former Scotland international' billing. Overall his contribution was pretty underwhelming. I would go as far as to say that if he'd never arrived at all, and Russel Duncan had played in his place for the post split run-in, we probably wouldn't have gone down.

Don't believe the hype. He'll get Pwned by Federer or Nadal, and then bore us to death in the post match interview with his monotone fake american accent.

How long will a former England Captain be willing to take orders from a former Highland league player?

If he was a biggot would he have signed Richie Foran? Can't argue with anything else the guy says though. Terrible team selections, shocking football, and releasing quality players for no apparent reason. Sounds about right. :D It wouldn't suprise me if Butcher finds himself struggling in a "Is Butcher worse than Brewster?" opinion poll towards the end of next season.

As an experienced wine connoisseur, which brand would you recommend to the novice? Next time I go for a night out in the den I want to be able to impress the posh birds.

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!

Zander Sutherland had more talent in his little finger than Dougie Imrie has in his whole body.

After 10 pints of Stella I still don't find Susan Boyle attractive. B)

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.

If we're having to make cutbacks and streamline our squad, surely a 'goalkeeping coach' is a luxury we can't afford.

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.

"Rooney and Barrowman I think will rip up the 1st division next season" :huh:

Keep... Esson Tokely, Pavels, Munro, Duff, Lionel Duncan, Kerr, Proctor, Vigurs, Sutherland Morais, Eric, Foran, Wood Out... Fraser, Hastings, McGuire, Byrne Imrie, McBain, Black Rooney, Barrowman

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?