dead_ball_specialist

Are you on a wind up? I'm going to try that combo out. :tic01:

Watt is the kind of powerful defender we've been crying out for since Dods left. :tic01:

It's supposed to be a free country isn't it? Ritchie hasn't harmed anybody here. His personal life is his own. The only way it should affect his contract is if the gaffer feels it's affecting his performance on the park. I don't buy into any of the 'role model' arguments. When I was a kid I wouldn't have been swayed to take A class drugs just because I read in the Courier that a Caley player did. :017:. And there are other ICT players who aren't exactly role models - and whose allged mideeds weren't so victimless. Coke is quite a mainstream drug in Inverness now. I know people from all walks of life who use it. You see people taking it or asking for it in pubs and clubs every weekend. While we aren't exactly Leith, Inverness does have a problem with increasing drug use and abuse. I don't think it'd be fair to scapegoat Ritchie Hart. He wasn't dealing the stuff, he was using it. How would any of you feel about losing your job just because you were caught taking a recreational substance at Rock Ness? There were ALOT of people doing the same thing. I would also be suprised if he's the only ICT player to have ever dabbled. I say he deserves a chance to redeem himself. I've always considered him to be one of our better players. A bit of a poser, and perhaps not the most well liked off the park - but still someone who can do a job for us, and perhaps someone who can use this experience to do some good by using his public platform to proclaim the error of his former ways, and set an example by going on to achieve success now that he's 'clean'.

Fraser was 100% responsible for both goals. How many times will Colin Nish score with a header from OUTSIDE the box, that bounces twice before it even reaches the line??? Why do some people attribute everything to 'confidence'? MF has been a full-time footballer for years, he has a full-time personal coach, but he still lacks basic skills (handling technique, positioning, accurate distribution, judging crosses and long balls). I haven't seen any improvement in his game since he was handed the gloves. Either he isn't working hard enough or he isn't good enough.

You just have to laugh. Like ICTchris said, the litany of ludicriousness grows ever longer. If it means so much to them to 'play the right way', why did they appoint **** Campbell in the first place? The word is he just got a ?50,000 pay off. How can they afford to waste so much money? It's criminal. Perhaps Counties tuchtor fanbase simply couldn't bare having a Campbell in charge?

Every single County manager since Bobby Wilson has been mince apart from Robbo. I wonder which dud they'll approach next... Billy Stark, Maurice Malpas, Tom Hendrie, Jim Leishman perhaps? I wouldn't put ANYthing past those numpties in the Stags boardroom. They should go for a manager who's working his way up this time, not one working his way down!

:clapping03: I enjoyed playing in those leagues not so long ago, even got a run out in a final at TCS! There must be thousands of Invernessians who've played in the Street league over the years, including a few ICT players (Charlie Christie is one example). I think he deserves a minutes silence.

A very good performance, agree with most of the comments here. But yet another OG (almost half of the goals we've conceded this season have been OGs or needless penalties!) and some more awful distribution from Fraser. He really needs to work on his kicking. Malkowski can't be far away from getting the jersey. That apart, McGuire and Munro were solid and commanding - McBain and Tokely made amazing lung busting runs up the park throughout - even in injury time! (I've never seen McBain outpace anyone like he did today - even when he was a youngster at County!) Bazza looked like he'd turned back the clock, Cowie was always 3 steps ahead of his opponent. Blackie got on the scoresheet and didn't get booked, Duncan scored a screamer and worked his socks off, Wyness looked better than ever, and Niculae got stuck in.

My only criticism of Niculae would be that he almost always seems to flick or pass the ball to another attacking player rather than do something with it himself.

He's got an amazing engine, and he's looked impressive going forward, but his defensive game is still a little rough around the edges. Driver took the p*ss out of him last week.

Charlie Christie may be an ICT legend and an admirable bloke in all kinds of ways, but he wasn't a very good manager. Just 3 weeks of Brewster and it's night and day. Fitness, spirit, tactics, technical quality of football etc have all improved exponentially. Same players, different manager. Also, the fact that Brewster was able to bring in a decent center half and goalkeeper within days of being appointed (something Charlie failed to achieve in over a year) speaks volumes. Heard a rumour today that Brewster has taken all of the players out of Bannatynes and moved them to Fitness First - apparently because they were spending too much time lazing in the Bannatynes luxury saunas and swimming pool. :029: Seems like they were just left to get on with it under the previous regime. No wonder our standards dropped! Charlie was thrown into the job without the credentials. He (in my opinion) was equivalent to a good Highland League manager. It's still early days but Brewster seems to have raised the bar pretty high. What odds would we get for a top 6 finish?

Not sure how anyone can say that Morgan had a poor game, I thought he was one of our oustanding players. He always looked sturdy on the ball, and caused them problems when he carried it up the line, he also put in some quality crosses, and almost scored a classic goal at the end - a dipping volley that just went over the bar. Malkowski also impressed me, his distribution was top class - he started at least a dozen moves with inch perfect long throws. He has a good football brain. There was one shot he took 2 attempts to catch - but he was always in control. We were so superiour to Gretna it could easily have been 5-0 at half time, although we did have a poor spell at the start of the second half when we let them back into it, perhaps this was inevitable - you can't play with the intesity we did early on for 90 minutes. From tonights display we should have nothing to fear this season. Arbroath gave us a sterner test in the last round than Gretna managed tonight.

Burleys side were dull and one dimensional. They left TCS with a very lucky 1-0 win. I don't remember them really causing us any problems at the back - Skacels goal came from a lucky break. In contrast, there were spells yesterday when they were playing us off the park. And you should also take into account that ICT are a stronger side now than we were back then.

I disagree. You need to be working the ref for 90 minutes - just look at Man Utd. If you make a meal out of every decision that goes against you, eventually he'll feel pressure to even things out. If someones going to have to take a booking or a suspention every now and then, it might as well be Russel.

He had a decent game yesterday, but don't go overboard. Johnboy, how was it 'pathetic' to call for the reserve keeper to be given a chance when the first team keeper was playing poorly? Sorry to be pedantic, but isn't shouting "leave it" a foul?

Surely banning a youngster for life will cost the club thousands of pounds that he'd pay in gate money over his lifetime. :33:

Don't agree with those who say we made Hearts look average. That was the strongest Hearts team I've ever seen up here, even better than when Burley was in charge IMHO. They played some excellent stuff. We were fortunate that their manager (whoever that actually is!) decided to take their best player off at half time (Driver) who'd been running Tokely ragged. As soon as he went off for the over-rated Stewart, Tokely was able to run up and down the wing as he pleased. For the first time in ages we actually looked like the stronger / fitter team! If the game had lasted another 20 minutes we could have won 4 or 5-1. Brewster has obviously kicked some *** behind the scenes.

Don't agree with that at all. I've seen him skin more than his fair share of SPL defenders, he's had some of his best games against the bigger clubs. He's only just come back from a long term injury, give him a chance! It's always paid dividends when we've been patient with him in the past.

Are you joking??? I'm not - as some suggest - scapegoating Fraser for our recent turmoil. Our defending in general has been mince, and as Brewster says defending starts with the strikers. But a balance has to be struck between collective and individual responsibility. Donnati shouldn't have gotten the chance to shoot - Tokely sold himself completely - but he shouldn't have been able to pass the ball low into the net from an actute angle - the goalie has to do better - surely? He didn't even touch the ball. Venegoors second goal also should have been saved. A very predictable, completely undisguised downward header from an acute angle - Fraser ended up actually diving AWAY from the ball. If he'd just stayed on his feet it'd have been a simple catch. McGuired was obvioulsy to blame for the fifth, but Frasers positioning was all wrong. He was almost standing beyond his front post when the cross was played - how is he going to save ANY effort on goal from that position? He isn't. This isn't just a one off, Fraser has conceded other soft goals this season, Dundee Utd was another shocker. I'm not arguing that we should punt him - just that his performances have been very poor, certainly not good enough for the SPL, and nobody should be guaranteed a first team spot regardless of how they play. I don't know much about Malkowski - but you can't write him off just because of one error against us a couple of seasons ago, as some seem to have done. Brewster has obviously seen something in him otherwise he wouldn't have brought him here. Surely he deserves a chance to show what he can do. Plus a spell on the sidelines; having to work to earn his place back - might do Fraser some good. He basically had the jersey handed to him when Brown left and the only competition he's faced is from a guy who was playing for Clach a few months ago. He hasn't exactly grasped the chance with both hands (no pun intended) Brewster should lay down a mark with this one. If Fraser is as good as his fans on this forum think he is, he should be good enough to fight his way back into the team.

Saturdays performance was the last straw, Donnatis goal was an absolute joke. Some of the others were also pretty soft. The back four has been ropey since Dodds left, Frasers dodgey positioning, lack of command of his penalty box, and inability to save bread and butter efforts on goal has compounded the situation. He's even worse than Les Fridge. The Polish boy was brought in to provide competition for the jersey, he deserves a chance - even Ally Ridgers (a much better shot stopper) is worth a shout despite his inexperience.

Elgin only won because Zander Sutherland was playing.

If Christie hadn't walked he would have been pushed. The gutless, clueless 3-0 home defeat against Dundee Utd would have been the final straw. The fans would have chucked him into the Moray Firth and he'd have been eaten alive by the dolphins. :tic01:

If we play the same way we did against Hibs and Celtic (possibly defending a bit better - perhaps dropping Fraser) there's nothing to fear from any of those teams. Hearts beat an undestrength Rangers side with one eye on Europe - big deal, that result apart they've been nothing special. I'd expect us to pick up AT LEAST a point in this one. Prediction ICT 1 Hearts 0 Falkirk without Stoaks aren't exactly a force to be reckoned with, if we take the game to them - like we used to play under Brewster - I can see us putting 4 or 5 past them. ICT 4 Falkirk 2 Killie away is a tricky one. But we've shown in the past that we can hold our own against them down there. I'd like to see us have a go. It's usually quite an open game when we meet, so we have a decent chance. Killie 1 ICT 2 Aberdeen at home is probably the hardest fixture. We tend to find it difficult to score against them, but now they've lost Anderson it could be a different story. Brew will know their strengths and weaknesses so that'll give us an edge. And we're due a bit of luck against them! ICT 2 Aberdeen 1 Gretna away is the 6 pointer. I saw them at Victoria Park at the end of last season and they were awful. Technically we are a better team than them, but this one will be scrappy. Davie Irons is a bit of a tube so I expect they'll go into this one with a 'get stuck right intae them' head on. You can tell from his interviews that he thinks he and his team are much better than they actually are. They remind me of Tom Hendries St Mirren. They'll try to go toe to toe with us and probably play an attacking game - our classic counter attacking strategy should be just the ticket for this one. Gretna 0 ICT 5 15 points is a realistic possibility.

This thread is moronic. Charlie Christie was not up to the job, end of story. Brewster took us forwards just as Pele and Robbo had before him, Christie took us backwards - fitness, organization, work rate, tactics, fighting spirit, flair etc all rotted away the longer he was in charge. At the very least I expect Brewster to get us back up to the level we were at before he left - challenging for the top 6.

Rubbish, he was playing that role during the Christie era and he was absolutely coasting. Against Arbroath on Tuesday Brew was going mental at him from the sidelines trying to get him to push up. He had his best game in ages, the same goes for Blackie - it's been months since either of them covered so much ground over 90 minutes. Russeldinho CAN play when he has to. The bread and butter 'hole' role, sitting back and always playing a negative pass just won't cut it under the new gaffer. Pass and move, pass and move, thats the Brewster groove.