RiG

Not much to add from what AM has said. We were much more positive in an attacking sense. Gone was the lethargic sideways passing replaced by direct attacking play initiated by rapid closing down of Partick players when they had the ball. Draper, Polworth and Roberts were really impressive in terms of their work rate to close down opposing players. We don't get that with Vigurs and whilst he is no doubt a talented player I feel he lacks the same level of determination to clamp down on opposition players with the same effectiveness as the players mentioned above. Mutumbo had his best game for us in what I would say is his best position (just behind a striker although we didn't play with one again as Storey was deployed on the right hand side of the pitch but it worked). Some of his flicks and tricks don't come off but he is very good at playing cute little passes in behind the last man for a team mate to run on to. I'm not his biggest fan but he was very impressive. Tremarco and Meekings also got further forward than I have seen them do in a long time. It was almost a return to the gung ho days of Paterson as more often than not our defence typically ended up being Devine, Warren and Tansey just in front of them such was the relentless attacking down the flanks from out full backs. Partick, as AM said, gave up really quite quickly which was surprising. That said we shouldn't take anything away from ICT as we were really quite good. It's just a shame that we've emphasised so much on possession for possessions sake instead of actually trying to attack other teams like we did on Saturday. Hoping for a continuation on Friday night against what will surely be a dispirited Dundee United side.

Well that's my week ruined

Why do we seldom get told that players are injured? Seems a pretty standard thing for a club to report on.

Andrew Shinnie and Billy Mckay...

Agree with that. It's an absolute "Sit down" statement from the board to Hughes and his recent comments.

Fair enough. Football fans are mostly idiots (and I include myself in that sweeping generalisation as well). ICT fans will moan if we pass the ball along the back screaming for the players to get it forward at which point, when the ball is launched forward, the same fans will rage about, erm, launching the ball forward. Just ignore them and get behind the team.

One for the conspiracy theorists amongst us - has that statement been put out in response to some of the recent comments from Hughes about lack of money? Interesting to note that Hughes is allegedly working with the highest playing budget of any ICT manager yet he's still moaning about a lack of funds.

I see Roberts was playing for the reserves / development team yet he still oddly misses out on match days. What's going on with him?

I've never heard of anything so ridiculous. Put off attending a football game by what someone says on a football forum? Get a grip.

Equally, maybe the board are getting a bit tired of his negative comments in the press about the club. Can't say I'd be too chuffed if one of my employees was running the company down. Just a thought.

Just for context, although it is going a wee bit OT, Hughes says that "the first thing" he wants to do is "tie up Greg" (oo er) as he is pivotal to the way ICT play and although he has a year left of his contract Hughes wants to tie him up and "committed to the club." He continues "after Greg we're probably looking at Aaron.....another who excites me at the top end of the pitch." For Raven Hughes says that "No decision has been made.....we're sitting waiting to see where we are going to finish.....it seems very unlikely he will get something......I want to invest in the top end of the field.....someone has to be sacrificed......I'm not saying it's David but it might have to be."

Hughes is quoted in the P & J as saying that Doran is his main priority once he has sorted out a new deal for Tansey. I've no idea what kind of wage Raven might be on but I can't imagine it would be one of the highest at the club. I'm pretty flummoxed by this bizarre episode. If money is tight and we can only afford to retain a certain number of defenders whilst strengthening the forward line (fair enough on the surface actually) surely you keep your best defenders which to pretty much everyone on here would be Tremarco, Warren, Meekings and Raven but Hughes seems to prefer playing Devine at CB and Meekings at RB thus squeezing out Raven. Very odd. Of course there is the real possibility that the whole wages thing is just a cover story for the fact that Hughes just doesn't like the guy. As others have said there are slight similarities to Tokely and Munro leaving but I would say that they were a bit more past it than Raven but for the most part Butcher was better at sourcing replacements. With Hughes I just don't trust his ability to source out adequate replacements for when we lost players. As Renegade (I think) mentioned, given the difficulty we have in getting players to come up here we find ourselves with a dependable, competent right back, who wants to stay, is part of our best defensive line up and is unlikely to command a high wage yet we are looking likely to release him. Mind boggling.

Why should BW or anyone try and paint a rosy picture of something when it isn't? Are you honestly suggesting that he should always talk about how great the game is when it, erm, isn't? Yes on paper a point against Hearts or whoever was 3rd in the league is generally a good thing but based on what I've read in the press and on social media the majority of people thought it was a very dull game with little of note created to get excited about. The majority of home games this season have been tepid affairs with perhaps only the 2 - 1 win over Aberdeen standing out as an example of a really good ICT performance. Can you honestly say that you've been excited by some of the performances from ICT at home this season?

Falkirk and Hibs fans often said Yogi was reluctant to change from his philosophy of tippy tappy football yet when he was, the recent pumping of County being a good example, we have often reaped the rewards of being a fast direct attacking team.

I'm not there but based on Twitter it doesn't sound like there is much he can really get excited about.

Gavin Gunning has been released by 'mutual consent'

He wouldn't have gotten a yellow card for the handball in that clip as it didn't break up an attack or deny a goal scoring chance (possible red for that). It would just be a free kick to ICT. But leaving / entering the pitch without officials permission should be a yellow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZoslY67Egc&feature=youtu.be Skip to 07:00

Good post HtG. Agree with pretty much all of that. Best bit of the game though was easily when Gunning picked the ball up as it came to him during the game, walked over to the side of the pitch with the players and referee all looking bemused, went off the pitch, threw the ball away, then walked back onto the pitch before sitting down and asking for treatment The most bizarre thing I've seen in a long time at a game. He then walked off applauding the United fans who were falling over each other to give him abuse for another abysmal performance and just generally being a bell end.

I'm pretty sure we have a bigger budget than the likes of Stirling and Montrose TBF[/pedant].

I've said before I think we might see previously established first teamers like Doran and Raven moved on in the summer.

Some folk have been guessing at the six players on Twitter. Inclined to go with Devine, Roberts, OFW, Doran, Polworth and maybe Tansey to ward off any interest from Aberdeen in the summer? EDIT: Good move by the way to publicly announce our signing targets.

This is an important point. We have the second worst record of the bottom six teams against sides in the bottom half of the league. Only Kilmarnock have fared worse.

Can't help but feel a lot of these late goals are the result of our pedestrian football which can often see us chasing the game towards the end to either nick a draw or sitting back defending a lead. Nearly 40% of the goals we concede are in the last 15 minutes of a game.

That's what I was thinking Surely Hearts must have more than 3 'recognised goalkeepers'? I think they should be relegated TBH.