RiG

Jim Spence tweeting that the second inspection will take place at 11:15. There's an area of the pitch with no grass that is causing concern.

Second inspection at 11:30.

Are people liking that post because they agree with the sentiment or because I might have to jump off a cliff!?

I'd jump off a cliff if Aberdeen won the title. This place was bad enough when they won the League Cup.

I don't want Aberdeen to win the title. I want us to win it.

Superb result considering the circumstances and also the weather which was truly horrendous in parts. One Dean Brill kick looked like it had some real distance on it only to be held up in the air being sent back towards the ICT goal. Awful conditions to play football in. Most of the efforts in the first half were from distance. Tansey and Eremenko both coming close with decent efforts on goal. I think the shot from Eremenko which Meekings or Warren headed over was going to be easily saved by Brill but the header made things a bit more awkward. Tansey was able to lift a lovely ball over the top of the Killie defence which caught the wind and just took it away from Mckay. Mckay also did well to get in on goal but from a tight angle he was only able to find the side netting. Eremenko also tried his luck from a free kick as both sides seemed to be keen to test out the keepers from distance in the difficult conditions. The game really sparked into life in the second half when Magennies went down under a challenge by Raven. At the time I thought it was a dive as Magennis seemed to thrown himself over quite easily but having seen the highlights that assertion looks pretty harsh. Whilst you still don't get a good angle to see if Raven has been harshly treated I think given the lack of protests from ICT players, and Raven specifically, it would appear that the officials got it right. Eremenko smashed the resultant spot kick to the right of Brill who was very close to keeping it out. After this I fully expected Kilmarnock to see things out. They hadn't looked overly impressive in the game to that point but neither had we and with the extra man I was fully expecting us to be chasing shadows. I was dumbstruck at how negative Kilmarnock seemed to become in this situation. Instead of trying to knock the ball about and pull us out of position there were a lot of aimless punts up the pitch which were, for the most part, easy for Warren and Meekings to deal with. Miller was a complete non entity and Magennis somehow contrived to miss an open goal with a header from a few yards out after some good work by Killie at a corner. Not long after this we scored out equaliser. A hopeful ball from Ross in midfield was looped up over the Kilmarnock defence and Mckay was onto it in a flash. He calmly lobbed on Killie defender, got the ball under control and bundled it beyond Samson to bring Inverness level. From here on in we dominated and there was only going to be one winner especially when Alan Johnston inexplicably took Eremenko off to an incredible reaction. Now there weren't many fans at that game but the booing that accompanied that substitution was as loud as I've heard around many Scottish grounds with significantly more fans within the stadium than were there yesterday. With Eremnko off Killie struggled to maintain possession of the ball and find a team mate and resorted to even more desperate punts up the park. Tansey and Doran were next to threaten for ICT and Samon did well to deal with a long range effort from Tansey which was turned round the post for a corner. Before long ICT took a deserved lead when Mckay chased down a Killie player inside the Inverness half. Despite clear shouts of "Man on!" from pretty much every person there with a leaning towards Kilmarnock Mckay was able to collect the ball and head goal wards unchallenged for about 40 yards before he fed Ross who returned the ball to Mckay and he coolly dispatched his shot into the goal beyond Samson to a chorus of boos that would rival anything from Saint Mirren so far this season. Maybe we got a bit lucky as it looked like two Killie players clattered each other and then had a wee lie down when Mckay shot but we'll take it. I can see why a lot of Killie fans are frustrated. That game should have been yours after the sending off an penalty but for some reason Kilmarnock became very negative and struggled to make their man advantage count. Credit to Hughes and the players for remaining disciplined and hitting so effectively on the counter. Mckay was absolutely magnificent. His hold up play was a joy to watch and his goals were well taken. Nick Ross also did well supporting the attack and he grabbed two assists yesterday. With Watkins out just now he's certainly impressing.

My mistake, with Goodwin laid flat out after the goal I thought it was him. Quite frankly skinning Tesselar just doesn't seen quite as fun. From the highlights clip it appears it is actually McLean who Raven skins. But frankly, who cares who it was! It was a great goal and worth the admission money on its own. Watched Sportscene yesterday and you're right it is McLean.

Lots of interest in this one(!) Aside from a thorough pumping of Ross County we have laboured in recent games. Hopefully we will have Watkins back in the starting XI along with Draper to partner Tansey in midfield. I would expect to see us / like to see us line up as follows: Brill Raven Warren Meekings Shinnie Draper Tansey Watkins Christie Doran Mckay That's pretty much our strongest XI although Hughes may want to minimise changes to the side given they have won their last two games so I wouldn't be overly surprised to see Tremarco continue at LB and Shinnie maintain his place in midfield. Watkins apparently has had a dead leg which kept him out of the game against Saint Mirren.

Juanjo. That is all.

Exactly. Players may not always feature in the firxt XI but they will be learning new things all the time and, as you mention, might end up coming back a better player because of it.

Cheers Renegade - that's what I was reading earlier. There is no direct quote from Raven saying he hasn't been offered a deal (hence the reportedly comment earlier) but that seems to be the angle put on the story by the BBC. However, what he has been quoted as saying is encouraging.

Raven is reportedly saying that he hasn't been offered a deal yet.

If his agent engineers a move to another club where Watkins gets paid more than he would do at ICT then I would say he has done a decent job. That's what they are there for - to get the best deals for their clients.

:laugh:

Hope a good crowd comes along to this one. Looks like I'll be missing the game sadly so someone will have to shout at whoever the referee might be.

Nikcy Low is average at best though I am mindful I said something similar about Flood and he turned into a great player for Aberdeen albeit slightly off form this season. Higgenbotham would be a superb addition to the team. I think he's a smashing player although perhaps not always on good form. I wouldn't say no if we had the chance to sign him up.

Pretty sure it was Tesselaar. Certainly wasn't Goodwin. He came across to block the cross from Raven. Incidentally, gave Goodwin a bit of banter in the second half and he turned round, laughed and gave a wee thumbs up. Took it well. I almost find myself liking the guy after that

Whilst I don't expect to see Shinnie at ICT beyond January, though I would love to be wrong, I think the line up today is more a reflection on Hughes not wanting to change a team that's just come off a thoroughly convincing victory the week before. We've seen it before with Hughes that he won't tinker unless it is really required hence why Shinnie persevered for so long at RB last season before we started to stumble and then the set up was amended. Today was much the same.

A game that was very low on quality and when some good play broke out it led to the only goal of the game. Saints seemed content to sit quite deep and hit us on the counter. Nothing wrong with that of course but from an ICT perspective it was somewhat disappointing how difficult we found the Buddies to break down. We really struggled to get anything clicking in the final third of the pitch. Nick Ross was in for the injured Watkins and he didn't really display much today to suggest that he should be starting in this side any time soon. Saints had more opportunities to grab the opener with a number of long range efforts. I think it was McLean who had every single shot from distance as well His best effort from distance beat Brill but not the crossbar and the ball bounced over. Mckay however had the best chance of the first half for both sides when he collected a short pass back and scurried towards goal. Instead of quickly dispatching a shot he dallied and Ridgers rushed out to block his tame effort. The second half was more of the same until the only goal arrived about 10 minutes from the end. Tansey picked out Raven advancing down the right flank and floated a ball in his direction. Raven controlled the pass and moved beyond his man in one quick movement which left Tesselaar on his backside before he drilled a low ball across the box and Mckay expertly flicked the ball in with a clever back heel. After that ICT nearly added a second when Tansey rifled in a free kick which Ridgers pushed over. I don't think I can really say it was a deserved win because I thought we were very poor. Aside from the County match we've limped through this festive programme with some unimpressive performances. Perhaps our small squad is starting to burn out a wee bit. The January transfer window will be interesting with players likely to decide their futures one way or another in the next few weeks. Shinnie may not even be here by the Killie game. We shall see.

Spotted a number of ICT players at Clach today - Mckay, Devine, Doran and Tansey amongst them. Wee bit worried that the likes of Mckay and Tansey might be signing deals with the Lilywhites

Indeed. The ticket prices will have changed but the one thing that will have remained consistent is that Ewan Murray will always remain a complete melt.

Oddly enough I'm kind of pleased. I just don't want him to go to Aberdeen!

Some Twitter chat about Birmingham having a bid accepted for Shinnie and he is likely to be away soonish. Source seems to be Ewan Murray. Think of that what you will.

Lazy cut and paste from a similar topic of your five favourite footballing moments of 2014. Two aren't strictly ICT but there are (tenuous) links to us so they can stay in for all I care! 1) ICT 2 - 2 Hearts (ICT win 4 - 2 on penalties) League Cup Semi Final Down to nine men, going into injury time and trailing 2 - 1. Up steps Nick Ross to fire home the equaliser and send the game into extra time. A great Dean Brill save from Hamillin the penalty spot and ICT eventually, against all the odds, win the shoot out and are off to their first major final ever. Let's ignore the final though :( http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25900500 2) Ross County 0 - 3 ICT An absolute pumping of Ross County at a venue where we hadn't won in 10 years (although mos of those years we were in separate divisions). I like the Staggies fan at around 4:50 who makes to throw a bottle at Watkins but thinks better of it and backs down. 3) Terry Butcher joining Hibs I was disappointed to see him go to Hibs but in a fabulous bout of schadenfreude ICT fans were able to see Butcher fail spectacularly and take Hibs into the SFL1 after a laughable run of results. I suspect he won't regret the move but sometimes I do wonder what we might have achieved that season had he stayed with us. Still 4) My favourite ICT goal of 2014 this Aaron Doran strike v Ross County in another derby win in Dingwall 5) Jamie Hamill v Derek Adams. Nothing more needs to be said here

I was going to say the same albeit the numbers I found said both pitches were 75 yards wide...