RiG

About to start another 4 hour journey up from Edinburgh. HWFG!

Graeme Shinnie acting like he has a gun pointing at him just out of shot as he's forced to read that good luck message.

Anyone travelling to using public transport might want to check the "temporary" timetable from Scotrail as you may not be able to get back home after the game due to a number of train services being cancelled.

*screams into the void*

The statement would have been better ended with something along those lines rather than a few lines of drivel that could easily have included a few Great Britain flag emojis as part of it.

The SFA turned it down. The SPL ceased to exist almost a decade ago. The end of the statement is utterly embarrassing. I appreciate emotions are running high but the final few lines are absolute drivel.

A wee Saint Johnstone Preview podcast for you all featuring Robbie Deas, Paul Cherry and Ross Tokely. We also get the inside scoop on Saint Johnstone and how the games on Friday and Monday might go. Enjoy!

Kelty are doing okay though... Hughes is a charlatan of a manager though. Fantastic if your manager has been poached for doing a good job but trying to save a team from relegation he is utterly hopeless. I had a look over his signing record at ICT and I'd say it's at least 95% garbage. He just cannot identify the right players to save a side that is fighting to beat the drop. Dunfermline fans have been bemoaning his pass - pass - pass - HOOF style for months now. As much as they had a bad start under Grant the Pars were a mere 3 points from safety when Hughes took over. He had ample time and budget to turn things around. It's said that the Dunfermline board provide him with advances on money earmarked for next season to try and save them. Yet again he pisses the extra cash he receives up a wall or rather on a boatload of central midfielders.

The first half was pretty grim viewing from an ICT perspective. Arbroath were well on top and completely stifled our midfield. Their pressing was relentless but, as we saw against Killie, they eventually run out of steam. By the hour mark they had 9 men behind the ball sitting in protecting their lead draw. In the first half our best chance fell to Chalmers with that thunderous effort off the bar but Arbroath definitely had the better opportunities as we looked very weak defensively. (Jack) Hamilton and Nicky Low had the best chances for the away side. Second half was a different story. As Arbroath tired we grew into the game. We weren't having to play panicked long balls forward and had more time on the ball to pick a pass which obviously suited us a lot more. Chalmers and Samuels had the best chances with the former flashing an effort just beyond the post and the latter denied by a good save from Gaston although I can't help but feel if he had connected with the shot more sweetly it would have gone in. I felt we were quite conservative with our approach to the game. Deas, marauding down the left at Firhill last week, seldom got beyond Chalmers on the left (in the first half) although he did have a marauding run in the second period. Carson got forward bit more as the game went on but without support from the full backs we seemed to be awfully narrow. Sutherland was a non entity for most of this one after his recent good form and Mckay had very little service to work with so it was no real surprise to see him come off though I do feel that Dodds pulled the trigger with the subs too early as Arbroath were running out of steam and I felt more gaps were appearing for someone like Mckay to take advantage of. Low was very good for Arbroath, pulling the strings at the base of their midfield but he also ran out of puff and when he went off we dominated the middle of the pitch. Even so, some of our passing was still out of sorts and some our set piece delivery was abysmal. You'd imagine Arbroath, backed by around double the number of ICT supporters that turned up last night (that's a sad indictment of support for this team in Inverness) will be all over us from the start on Friday. However, if we can keep them contained then perhaps we can sneak a goal later on if, as last night, they start to fade into the second half. That said, Arbroath have outscored their opponents 3:1 in the second half of games at Gayfield and have bagged a ridiculous 9 goals in the last 15 minutes of games there. So perhaps we can't rely too much on them tiring as they did last night as the game goes on... Finally, shout out to Tam O'Brien and has laughable attempts to try and get McAlear sent off for, erm, standing next to him. The way he feigned contact and started rolling around ont he ground was a pathetic sight from one of the best players in the league this season.

Ally Ridgers > Mark Ridgers

Regionalisation being canned is great. We've faced the same 3 teams (Hearts, Raith and Cove) in 3 out of the last 4 seasons.

Oooooft!

Mckay and Chalmers, especially the latter, looked absolutely burst. He had also been booked and, I think, he had another foul afterwards which had the Partick players clamouring for a second yellow so perhaps this was also in Dodds' mind. Billy had been doing a power of running and was getting little change out of Akinola and Holt so a good chance to bring on fresh legs and try and keep the pressure on Partick IMO.

Sutherland played on the right wing and Walsh, whilst he was on, operated behind Mckay. After he went off McAlear played as the 10 with Hyde alongside Welsh. We only went 442 when Samuels came on. We started really brightly but the Walsh injury seemed to knock us off our stride and we resorted to the typical hoofball that led to us going 11 games without a win. We probably edged possession without doing too much with it and always looked shaky at the back for long periods of time. Only when Samuels came on and we attacked the Thistle full backs did things seemingly turn back in our favour. Deas seemed to be getting forward a lot more than usual and even Carson seemed to be overlapping Sutherland a lot more in the first half. We really had Thistle pinned back. But with Walsh going off McAlear didn't offer much when pressed further forward and Akinola ate up every high ball battered towards Mckay before we actually tried to stretch the play by using our wide men / full backs on the flanks. Sutherland was very good again and took his chance well before that peach of a cross for the winner. Holt and Akinola seemed to be playing really high up and left a lot of space between them and Sneddon which I guess is why Samuels was sent on. I am not convinced about him but if you want anything from the guy he needs space to run into and last night was that kind of game to be effective. Deas was absolutely superb and Carson, despite his incredible brain fart that should have cost us a goal, handled Tiffoney well. If Partick couldn't get the ball to him there seemed to be little else they had in their locker. Whilst I am delighted to come back and get the win the tie is far from over and we need to perform like we did in the first 15 minutes for the full 90 on Friday if we want to go through.

There's a wall outside one of the entrances to the main stand which has some named bricks with former fans. Not exactly a memorial wall but serves as a similar function to some supporters I guess.

That's what happens when jovial prankster @RedCard isn't on the pod.

Good evening! We've got a wee preview of the Partick Thistle game on Tuesday, Partick supporter Marc Wallace gives us his thoughts on the game, we predict the line up and cast our eyes back over recent matches! We'd love it if you gave it a listen so feel free to do so on Spotify, Apple, Google and basically anywhere that does podcasts - cheers!

Accies are the only side we haven't won a single game against in the league this season. A good example perhaps of why we ended up being so far off the pace in the race for the title.

We could play Scott Kellacher, Barry Wilson or one of the 80 year old stewards we employ for all I care about this line up. Avoiding injuries to our regular starters is the only thing we should be looking to get from this match.

Defensively solid for the most part but we didn't create too much of note and when we did we were wasteful. Hard to see how we have enough quality to go up over the course of the next 6 games (in the playoffs). That said Arbroath look to be running on fumes and we've turned up against Partick Thistle and Raith Rovers so maybe we could sneak through but performances like today don't give me too much confidence. Duffy did well at CB and it was good to see Roddy get the full 90 minutes after being out for so long. But too many others were just okay and no more. We need to perform a lot better if we want to have any chance of promotion.

They were blowing out of their arses after an hour last night before they completely collapsed. Gaston was making saves in slow motion. Not sure how well set up they are for two games a week for three weeks in the playoffs when they already look to be running on empty.

I think that would be quite a big turnover of players. We've tended to do best when the turnover in the summer is kept to a minimum and most of the arrivals are just to pad out the squad. That said, I do think that we will see Deas depart and possibly MacGregor (though his time out with an injury has curtailed his production and there is less talk about him as a result which might be to our benefit). Doran has looked much more useful as a 10 so I'd be inclined to hold onto him for another season but I do see Broadfoot retiring. I'd be wary about relying on youth players too much. We'd need them to be firing on all cylinders from the word go and I am not sure many of them are ready yet. Harper, who had looked promising in the odd cup match, has looked poor on too many occasions for me to see him as a first choice and I feel that would be applicable to a lot of the youth players you'd like to see step up. No issue with seeing some more of them coming through but we need to strike a balance between that and having players featuring who are doing stuff for us right away. McAlear will likely get released by Norwich but I can see other sides in for him and if we don't get promoted then we would likely lose out to a team like Killie (if they go up), Saint Mirren or Saint Johnstone type (i.e. bottom half of the Premiership). Wouldn't mind seeing Chalmers back though. There's a lot to be said for these kinds of players maybe "sacrificing" a year or two of their careers to get regular football with us then going onto something bigger and better.

Who would you get rid of and who would you keep?

Carson was at right back. He was mostly fine there but, like you, I feel he should be in midfield. At the very least we should have an actual RB in the squad to give us an option there. Right now we've got a CM or a CB both filling in at RB and it's just stupid. Why we haven't signed a RB since Rooney left is beyond me.

So who are the good players you would sell and who are the rubbish players you would *checks notes* keep...?