RiG

Hamilton have now beaten the top three teams in the league from last season without conceding a goal. Pretty incredible feat.

Aye. What he said.

Engineering works have been taking place the last couple of weekends. I think they have another couple of weeks to go as well.

Aberdeen suffering from failing to sign a left back and a decent partner for Reynolds.

Just a couple of days to go before this game and no thread? Is interest in ICT really that low at the minute? Can't say I'm expecting too many changes from the starting XI of the last few weeks: Brill Raven Warren Meekings Shinnie Draper Tansey Watkins Christie Doran Mckay In the league we have won 8 of the 21 matches between the sides in Paisley. Saints have only won five of those matches. The rest, shockingly, were draws. Last season we only travelled there once IIRC and were hammered for most of the first half and were lucky not to be behind at half time as the Buddies looked very impressive that day despite their recent poor form. Now we go into the game in much the same situation - we've been on a decent run of form whilst Saint Mirren have largely struggled especially at home where they have not gained a single point from their first four games with perhaps too much reliance placed on the form of Steven Thompson who has missed all, or at least a fair chunk, of this season through injury. However recent results have been better defeating Saint Johnstone in Perth and rallying from two goals down to draw with Aberdeen at Pittodrie. Some signs that they might be starting to click so we can't take anything for granted here. I'll be there - anyone else?

This the 11th (?) Highland Derby in around two years. I completely disagree with an earlier comment about the novelty factor not being an issue. I think it's one of the major reasons that the crowds have fallen away so dramatically. Eleven games in two years against your biggest rivals is beyond saturation point for a lot of fans who may have an interest in attending these matches - they've become too common for most to be able to sustain their interest in them.

Didn't Fridays Courier carry a snippet then saying we were signing the guy?

Where has this rumour (RC fans not going...) come from?

Agree with the comments on the low attendance. I think if we get to 5,000 we'll have done well. Given how frequently these games have arisen in the last couple of years it's hardly surprising that interest has started to wane.

I hope we sign Ibrahima Bakayoko and Kennedy Bakircioglu.

Didn't we come from behind to beat Dundee United in the League Cup last season?

First Highland Derby of the season on Sunday at 12:45 and there's no thread yet! ICT are unbeaten at home, Ross County haven't won away from Dingwall in the league. Despite a strong start to the season ICT have wobbled in the last couple of weeks and still look susceptible to making errors at the back when placed under pressure. Aberdeen made it quite an uncomfortable afternoon for us on Saturday and County will no doubt look to do the same. Our team is perhaps more settled than Ross County's at this minute and we are certainly favourites but the game at New Year showed that there is substance in the cliché that form goes out the window in a derby match. Interesting stat, ICT have yet to win a game under John Hughes after conceding the first goal. I can't see our starting XI changing unless we have any injuries: Brill Raven Warren Meekings Shinnie Draper Tansey Watkins Christie Doran Mckay Looking forward to it

Hopefully we'll be grilling some venison that day.

Completely unforgettable first half. Second half we seemed to inject a bit of urgency into our game. You don't normally see us counter attack as quick as we did for Doran's goal today but it was a refreshing hark back to older ICT sides. Really rapid attack down the left hand side and his pin point cross found Watkins about 8 yards out who took a touch and poked it underneath the body of Mannus who rushed out to close him down. Second goal was a bit of a cock up from a Saint Johnstone point of view. Bit of a tussle in the Saints right back area, I was a bit surprised when no foul was given to be honest, and the ball quickly found its way to Christie at the right edge of the box and he whipped a shot in beyond Mannus. At this point we were cruising. Thereafter we slowed the pace of the game right down and struggled to retain possession allowing Saints right back into things. I didn't see the goal as I was too busy looking at my feet. Last few minutes were somewhat panicky as we struggled to deal with crosses and there were some fairly hurried clearances from our defenders desperate to scramble the ball away to briefly relieve the pressure. Overall I think we deserved the win but it should have been more comfortable than it was. We allowed Saints back into things by taking our foot off the pedal and becoming somewhat negative when we had the ball. Mckay continues to cut an isolated figure up front. At least three times today he made an excellent run off the last man only for his team mates to play the ball to the other side of him and the chance was gone. It looked like he was getting a bit frustrated to say the least. Something just isn't clicking between Mckay and the rest of the team when it comes to bringing him into play.

Billy Dodds as AM as well.

Indeed. I suspect McIntyre had let QotS know that, if he had the chance, he would want to move on if a team above them in the league structure came calling and some kind of clause was put. Likewise, QotS might have included something to forgo any compensation if they weren't meeting pre set targets and McIntyre could be sacked with no compensation paid. It's all unknown though and I suspect we won't ever know. Perhaps County paid another charity donation to the QotS youth set up?

He's resigned from QotS to take charge so no fee I guess.

EDIT: Where have those Heskey posts gone? I'm sure I wasn't laughing at Renegade

I'd like to think so. The way they are at the moment I think we might be able to avenge the 5 - 1 humping we got many years back. Might have brought a few extras along.

While I appreciate this impacts on supporters who travel from the central belt, surely there should be enough home supporters to not dent the crowd a huge deal or the atmosphere. When game was on a Friday night, it didn't impact on crowd or atmosphere and final Sunday game two years ago at Dingwall did not impact hugely on the crowd. The endless negative postings on this feed through to people who read this and have an impact on the crowd. Sure it would have been better to be on a Saturday but so say this will kill crown and atmosphere seems a bot OTT. Perhaps not the two best fixtures to focus on. The Friday match was the first SPL Highland Derby so had something of a stigma attached to it. The final Sunday game a couple of seasons ago could have seen us go itno Europe and County were in the top six at the first time of asking. You need only look at more recent Derby crowds to see that, whilst the game is still a big draw, it's not as attractive as it once was especially with about 10 games between the sides in the last two seasons.

Looking forward to the future when all player transfers are conducted through Twitter. "Hey @ICTFC, can we have Mckay for £250k? R/T for yes, Fav for no."

Rangers currently drawing 1 - 1 with Queens Park.

Smashing result for us today. Celtic reserves or not I don't care. We've played their supposed B sides before and been well and truly smashed and I was expecting more of the same today truth be told. These games are freebies really and you don't expect to get much from them but in the end I thought we were well worth the three points today. Our defence coped well with Celtic's attacks and when they did get through Brill was able to keep them at bay with some smart saves from Ambrose, Griffiths and also the help of the bar. Our midfield two of Tansey and Draper dominated midfield the latter spending most of the game bench pressing the Celtic players into submission. Williams again had a very good game on the left, Christie was a bit quiet compared to recent weeks but Watkins turned in a stunning display and Mckay worked his damnedest but ultimately got no personal reward however his pressure inadvertently let to the goal. I didn't think we played as we did against Motherwell last week for the entire 90 minutes today but that was probably going to be a tall order. To begin with we continued to pass, move and receive well continuing the good work from Fir Park. As the first half wore on Celtic came into things a lot more and we seemed to pass and, erm, stand still. Players weren't offering themselves for the ball as they had been doing and this seemed to coincide with the momentum of the game switching. Watkins, who had been tormenting the Celtic left flank was suddenly redundant on the right side of the pitch and couldn't get involved for a time. Ambrose coolly placed a side footed lob towards goal but Brill was alert to tip it over. Celtic then had a fantastic flowing exchange of passes that carved our defence apart and let Commons or Pukki (I think) in but fortunately they couldn't find the back of the net. Briton had that wicked shot crash off the bar after he easily spun away from his marker. It was a cracking effort but just before this we looked like we had a clear penalty turned down by Madden. We started the second half well and started to press Celtic a lot more than the latter parts of the first half. Whilst we still played some of the Hughes style short passing game we also weren't afraid to go direct when we got a chance which was pleasing. However Celtic probably had the first good chance of the half when ICT conceded possession in the Celtic half and the ball was worked to Griffiths who thumped a low drive at Brill who held on to it well. Whilst it was a routine save I was concerned it might slip through his grasp. When we took the lead it was no surprise it came down the right as Watkins had started to influence the game again down that side. His direct run led to a dangerous ball being fired across goal. Mckay and Zaluska both went for it and, I'm not quite sure what happened, but it looked liked it bounced off them both and then into the net off O'Connell who was racing back to help out. After that we started to sit much deeper and conceded possession to Celtic whilst we were content to hit on the break. Celtic struggled to break us down and we should have increased our lead after some shambolic defending from Celtic allowed the ball to drop at the feet of Christie but his placed effort curled wide of the goal. Whilst the rest of the game was largely Celtic probing trying to find a way through we had the best chance of the final few moments when Williams led a counter and crossed to find Nick Ross but, having waited for Zaluska to go down, his shot to the keepers left was at a nice height for Zaluska to desperately stick up his hand to palm it wide. A fantastic result but I do hope we are more clinical in the weeks ahead and that we also get some chances for Mckay to convert. He seems to ploughing a lone furrow right now and our attack could be doing a bit more for him i feel. The defence however looks rock solid and Raven, a player who I wouldn't mind us trying to replace if we can get someone better in, showed some fantastic touches today. Not as good as my MotM Watkins though who royally roasted a Celtic player on the touchline with a Cruyff turn. Looking forward to the visit of Killie next week.

Good effort Mark.