RiG

I honestly don't think that postings on here in any way affect the attendance significantly. That said the crowd was very poor and our lowest for a league game against Killie taking place on a Saturday. We've had lower crowds but they were on a Sunday with a 12:30 (or thereabouts kick off) and a Wednesday night. Games against Killie used to draw around 4,000 fans to the games but, like other matches against the same sides every week, the interest has waned.

Out of the central midfielders playing on Saturday I'd say Vigurs had a better game than Tansey or Draper (and Polworth).

I thought Alan Archibald was their main target? Dundee fans seem to be tiring of Hartley. Someone claiming on P & B () that He will be gone if they fail to defeat Partick. Hughes for Dundee?

I was reading a couple of pieces on the excellent, albeit somewhat dry, TheInsideChannel website. http://theinsidechannel.com/a-guide-to-mauricio-pochettinos-tactics-at-totteham-hotspur/ http://theinsidechannel.com/guide-pressing-soccer-tactics/ Worth a wee read.

I see Nick Walsh has rated his own performance in the poll.

I think a draw over the piece was fair. Killie had some good chances in the first half to be out of sight. Coulibaly probably should have had a hat trick. After his penalty, following a clumsy challenge from McKay, he somehow managed to shot straight at OFW from only a few yards out and was then denied by a block by Josh Meekings balls. Tansey and Polworth had a couple of long range efforts but we really struggled to create anything of note in the first half. Second half we were slightly better as Killie sat in a lot more and looked to hit on the counter. They were really well organised defensively and we found it very hard to open them up. When Killie did threaten we often struggled to clear our lines and on at least two occasions when trying to pass it out from defence played the ball straight back to Kilmarnock. Mulraney was getting caught on the ball with the worst mistake coming when he gave away possession and the ball was crossed for Coulibaly who headed over. Doran and King came on and this gave us a bit more width but again they were deployed in a way that saw them continuously cutting in on their stronger foot and driving into the middle of the pitch where Killie were at their strongest and easily repelled the attacks simply just by crowding out the Inverness players. Doran scuffed one effort past the post and curled another shot over the bar whilst Doumbouya found a cross ball just out of his reach to direct a header goalwards. Fortunately Doumbouya was on hand to scramble home a truly terrible equaliser when a Tremarco cross from the left was headed back across goal, Killie couldn't clear and Doumbouya somehow squeezed the ball between MacDonald and a Killie defender. I'm still puzzled as to why Foran persists with Polworth playing on the right, or left as he did for a fair bit of yesterdays game. He showed against Dundee how tidy a player he is when played centrally and we have a number of players who can play in a more natural wide position now so why continue to force what seems to be a round peg into a square shaped hole. Mulraney started well but faded badly and was culpable for some very poor defensive play giving the ball away in dangerous situations which earned the rebuke of his team mates. Tansey again was below par but we don't really have many options to replace someone like him in the side. Vigurs was a bit better than recent games bit again was no better than okay. Still a real lack of quality up front as well. I'd like to see Fisher start midweek against Motherwell. Overall a point is better than nothing but I can't help but feel that we had something of a winning formula a couple of weeks back when we took Dundee apart and then for some reason we've changed that set up. I know you can't play the exact same way every week against different teams but there seemed to be little reason to change things. Particularly when it's the same issues every week that seem to give us problems.

OFW McKay (Mckay) Warren Meekings Tremarco Tansey Polworth Doran Draper Mulraney Fisher Obviously depends on injuries. Any word on Meekings?

Yup, you have to give credit to Rangers for the way they played. I don't like saying that but they did really well in the first half. We were bamboozled at points with their very neat and rapid interplay. Holt, McKay and Krancjar looked pretty good. Still think that we'll have a better time of things against Killie this weekend.

Earlier in the game Rangers were passing straight through us exploiting gaps in the midfield and between our defence and Tansey, Vigurs etc in the middle of the pitch. It made much more sense to sit off them a little bit more and try and plug the gaps in middle of the pitch that they were finding so easily and make it harder for them to play through us. If you start asking the players to press the opponents then that by default creates space for the opposition and Rangers looked very useful at exploiting that space on Friday. Fisher came on at a totally different point in the game where we had to go and take more risks and press much higher up the pitch. It did get some results but at times we also found ourselves susceptible to a Rangers counter attack as well. It would have been a very risky approach to adopt at a point of the game when Rangers were well on top.

Don't really get this desire that some fans have of the main forward chasing after the ball when it goes back to the keeper and across the back line. Given how easily Rangers were passing the ball by us and carving us apart in the first half having Doumbouya charge out of position to try and get near the ball would only expose those behind him. Far better to keep the shape of the side than run about like headless chickens. If Doumbouya goes thundering in then that leaves a lot of space in behind him (something which Rangers seemed quite good at exploiting) which would likely require another player to come out of position to cover. Fair enough when you are chasing the game towards the end of the match.

Massively disappointed with ICT last night. Didn't think much of Rangers who, whilst dominating most of the first half, didn't look overly threatening for much of the game. That said, we offered so little in the final third that it's hard to say we really deserved more than what we got. Doumbouya, Fisher and Boden are all much of a muchness. I'd trade all three for one month of having Billy Mckay back at the club. The misses from Doumbouya and Fisher were awful and I thought the former had a poor game overall seldom winning the ball in the air and struggling to hold the ball up when it was played to him. Given the weakness in the centre of the Rangers defence I was disappointed we never tried to test that more. We seemed to have more success stretching the Rangers defence when Doran and Mulraney came on and we played with proper wide players. As discussed above and at length in the previous ICT match threads I really don/t understand why Foran plays Polworth out on the flanks given his propensity to come infield and leave his defender exposed. We saw this last season when Horner got roasted against Dundee United and it still seems to happen now. He looked much more assured in the middle against Dundee when Mulraney started on the flank but then against Hamilton his influence on the game was significantly curtailed to accommodate the returning Vigurs who hasn't had a good game since the hat trick against the Pars in the League Cup. Hopefully next week we'll see Mulraney and Doran in the side as King was again poor despite a decent start. Rangers looked decent in the first half, very slick passing and really quick when attacking. They seemed to have a lot of space to go at us especially in the middle of the pitch where Vigurs and Tansey were often absent. Cracking strike by Miller. missed it at the time due to some fat Rangers fans being chucked out of the home end for starting on ICT fans - classic - but having seen the highlights it was a smashing hit. I thought Fon Williams did okay for most of the game. Cracking save to stop Rangers going two up and he didn't seem overly troubled in the second half. Tremarco and mckay had good games I thought and the aforementioned Doran looked lively when he came on and he seemed to kick start a wave of attacks for ICT in the second half. Just a shame his final pass or shot was the wrong decision almost every time! Cringing at the ICT fans who took along an Ireland flag tot he game to wind up the Rangers support. It seemed to work as one of the fans in the West 'Stand' tried to vault over the barriers and fight the fans with the flag. I guess they could say it was for Foran but the "Up the RA" chant was pathetic and quickly shouted down by other fans in the immediate vicinity which was good.

I know one person who got the away top (@Nod). He might be able to enlighten us as to how he did that According to their website you can still get it: https://www.jdsports.co.uk/product/white-carbrini-inverness-ct-201617-away-shirt-pre-order/210529/ I did chuckle at the following text Hopefully this will be the last season we need to deal with JD / Cabrini.

The area for development is further east of the TCS. Have a look at pages 34 - 41 of the Inner Moray Firth Development Plan. http://www.highland.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/15008/adopted_inner_moray_firth_local_development_plan.pdf TCS is unlikely to be affected by any development in the area other than additional traffic but how much traffic the types of development currently zoned for that area would generate on a typical weekend would probably be insignificant.

Saw Grant Russell tweeting about this earlier. Filled in.

Where do we play this guy? After last weeks game against Dundee where he turned in an excellent performance playing first alongside Tansey in the middle and then further forward supporting Doumbouya it was somewhat disappointing to see him shunted out to the flanks against Hamilton on Saturday to accommodate Vigurs and as a result he didn't really influence the game. I'd like to see King and Mulraney or Doran on the flanks with either Draper or Polworth being the striker and the other alongside Tansey. As talented a player as I think Vigurs is I don't think he should be in the team ahead of Tansey, Draper or Polworth. I know there will be some games where playing someone like Mulraney might not be Foran's first choice as he might be defensively suspect and Polworth might give you a little bit more cover but I think he can really influence a game but to do that, especially against the likes of Hamilton, Dundee etc. he should be played in the middle.

That's what these lads do sadly. I wasn't party to the whole thing but we've had plenty of problems with these neds in the past. Needless to say they weren't so keen to get fired in about some of the older / larger ICT fans who responded to their taunts. The police didn't seem too bothered about them either although I did get a telling off for telling the neds to f'ck off. As for the game it was incredibly forgettable save for the goal by Polworth which seemed to be our first really 'direct' piece of play. A real comedown after some inspiring performances of late.

I see the game v Rangers has now been moved to a 12:30 KO on the Saturday.

Tifosi. Basically is anyone interested in getting some kind of display arranged for Rangers?

Out of the six fixtures originally scheduled for 15:00 on 24th December four have now been changed.

Out where my folks stay there is a Saturday morning football club and you definitely see more and more kids with ICT strips on. Great to see!

The crowd for that game was higher than usual given the significance of it. Crowds will often spike when there is more at stake like our final game of the season against Falkirk when about 7,000 folk came along. The earlier league game attracted just over 3,000. I remember we had a large crowd for a more run of the mill game against Hibs over the Christmas period one season (possibly 05-06) which was quite unusual. Sadly, as you say, the novelty has long worn off for a lot of folk. We used to get about 4,000 - 4,500 against Killie now if we get over 3,000 we're probably doing well. The days of Inverness having 3 - 4 football clubs is mostly before my time so I can only really base my experience on ICT but when Saturday comes along the place just doesn't feel like there is a football match on that day. I'm not expecting banners and scarves flying all over the place like in the lead up to the Scottish Cup Final but whenever I'm walking around Inverness on a home match day there seems to be a distinct lack of 'presence' of any ICT fans, strips, scarves etc. In places like Aberdeen and Edinburgh you almost always see folk out and about on game days with club colours. Just doesn't seem to be the same in Inverness. Maybe it's an age thing with the club I don't know. You could well be on to something in saying that the club just doesn't energise folk sufficiently. Certainly seems that way but I'm not too sure what else they can do. Cutting ticket prices has been discussed before but halving the prices won't necessarily lead to a doubling of crowds to make it worth it. Does seem that we have lost a good number of fans over the years looking at those average crowd figures.

The ever informative poster HibeeJibee on P & B has posted the average crowds for ICT over the seasons (direct C n P): 1994-95 ... 1,276 ... (tier 4) 1995-96 ... 1,579 ... (tier 4) 1996-97 ... 2,495 ... (tier 4 - promoted) 1997-98 ... 1,762 ... (tier 3) 1998-99 ... 2,168 ... (tier 3 - promoted) 1999-00 ... 2,282 ... (tier 2) 2000-01 ... 2,133 ... (tier 2) 2001-02 ... 2,046 ... (tier 2) 2002-03 ... 2,182 ... (tier 2) 2003-04 ... 2,375 ... (tier 2 - promoted) 2004-05 ... 4,067 2005-06 ... 5,061 2006-07 ... 4,879 2007-08 ... 4,753 2008-09 ... 4,457 ... (relegated) 2009-10 ... 3,509 ... (tier 2 - promoted) 2010-11 ... 4,526 2011-12 ... 4,023 2012-13 ... 4,038 2013-14 ... 3,558 2014-15 ... 3,733 2015-16 ... 3,754 2016-17 ... 3,970 so far

Which position for Polworth is Perf referring to? Alongside Tansey or further forward behind the striker? FWIW I thought he was smashing in both. Much better than playing him wide on the right where he had a propensity to drift inside for a lot of the game.

Yeah yesterdays crowd was a real shame especially after the impressive performances of late. Is it all down to cost? I don't think so. The appeal of these games has worn off and there is always something else that a lot of would be attendees would rather be doing than going to the ground to watch a game (that's their prerogative of course). Look at the Celtic game the other week. The North Stand didn't seem any busier than usual really. I think for a lot of folk in Inverness they simply don't have the disposable income after paying for things like rent, mortgages etc to be able to afford to go to every game. Wages can't be that high in the city given the main employers. Really hope we see crowds coming back. The players certainly deserve more folk to be coming along to see them but sadly going to see ICT isn't a priority for most of the city as the club, for whatever reason, just don't have a strong place in their hearts. Inverness just isn't a football place. it's not like say Aberdeen or Edinburgh where you know there's a game on when Aberdeen or Hearts or Hibs play. If you were in Inverness when we play at home you'd barely know there was a game on. Sadly I just don't see it ever changing.

Mckay with another impressive performance yesterday to get it right up me again. Long may it continue!