RiG

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.

What is a recognised keeper?

The Daily Record has something that says SPFL (?) rules state that every team must field a 'recognised' keeper (whatever that is). Allegedly without their first choice and recognised backup I suspect that this tipped the scales in favour of calling the game off. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/hearts-ask-spfl-inverness-game-7688155#MwTETt6TKRObP4HP.97

According to Wiki they have something like 31 players in their first team. Up to 12 are meant to be suffering from this bug so they still have 19 players to pick from plus whatever they have in their development / u20s. Bit of a joke really.

http://www.heartsfc.co.uk/news/5089 Official request to postpone the game submitted by Hearts.

I'm preparing to send Ann Budge an invoice for my £1 Megabus ticket.

Another midfielder.