RiG

What the hell is Tokely playing at?

That's a brilliant finish from Samaras but horrible defending from our point of view.

Looks to be a fair few empty seats in the North Stand.

I think we should consufe Celtic and shoot towards the Main Stand. Some of their players look pretty daft so this can only work to our advantage.

Aye all of those 20,000 fans were Ross County supporters!

To be honest I would have taken a point before that game yesterday but by the end of the match I was disappointed that we couldn't nick all three points. Oddly though, the BBC shows Saint Mirren had more shots on target than we did. The Buddies certainly had the better of the first half, just, but we were certainly the team on top in the second. The only change for ICT was Tokely coming in for the injured Williams at the back. As I say Saint Mirren had the better chances of the first half with efforts from Thomson, Thompson and McGowan all easily counted as decent opportunities to open the scoring. Thomson from yards out sent a free header right down the throat of Esson, Thompson flicked a looping header towards goal but Esson scrambled to tip it away and then McGowan fired in a fierce drive that deflected wide for a corner. ICTs best chance fell to Kenny Gillet who spun in the box and dragged his effort wide. The opening period of the second half was in complete contrast to the whole of the first. ICT were rampant as three or four great chances were passed up. Almost straight from kick off Tade drove at the Saint Mirren right back and headed towards goal and attempted a cut back but no one was there to capitalise on the Frenchmans pull back. Foran then went down the ICT right and floated a ball to the back post which was just missed by Ross and then Hayes, following on from his magnificent performance against Hearts last week, turned the St Mirren right back inside out and crossed to the back post but Tade, despite a desperate lunge, was unable to finish the move off. ICTs fourth chance of a roller coaster opening to the second half fell to Tansey but his side footed effort sailed over the bar. Saints had a couple of good chances when Carey rifled in a free kick just wide of Essons left hand post and poor play by Protcor let in McGowan but his deflected effort was handled well by Esson. Tokely, by now being booed by the Saint Mirren support, nearly scored with two headers but the first was right at Samson and the second was hacked off the line. Debutant Gnapa smashed the foot of the post with Samson stranded as ICT again started to exert some dominance on the game and Ross somehow ballooned the ball over from only a couple of yards out as the game edged towards its conclusion. By the end of 90 minutes we can maybe count ourselves as unfortunate not to have won the match but our first half performance was pretty poor especially compared to the previous weeks effort against Hearts. Still, we were much improved in the second half and kept another clean sheet whilst pulling a wee bit further away from the bottom of the league. Standouts for ICT were Gillet and Meekings. Gillet in particular was excellent as he handled the threat of Imrie well and covered almost every inch of grass down the left hand side as he got forward whenever he could to support our attacks. A well deserved MotM. Poor crowd again yesterday. Just over 3,000. Very concerning as that is a good bit down on previous years average attendances whilst in the SPL.

Bit of negative viewpoint. No reason why Saint Johnstone can't play St. Mirren in the morning then us in the afternoon.

Can we not just call him Claude Smith?

As others have said a number of signings we have made are those that are unwanted by other clubs. I'm trying to remember the last time we tried to sign someone who was wanted by another team. Jim Hamilton springs to mind as one. He turned out well for the team that ended up beating us to him.

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/east-central/295007-high-school-pupils-posted-racist-comments-about-their-teacher-on-facebook/#stv_clicktracker_source=posts_also_read I know that isn't to do with football but there seems to be an awful lot of incidents in Fife involving racial abuse at the minute.

Why don't we mix things up a bit? ICT fans in the South stand and Celtic fans in the North Stand?

So Cox appears to be off to Swindon and, according to Twitter, we have signed Sam Winall from Wolves on loan until the end of the season.

Surprised no one has mentioned Paul Bradshaw at CB yet.

Based on what he has said on Twitter it's with Dougie Imrie for a man date :love02:

Personally I don't see any reason why we can't think about overhauling Celtic at the top.

Hugely unexpected but also unexpected win yesterday. The conditions were abysmal for most of the game and I feared the worst when the announcer told people to hold on to their ticket stubs in case the game was called off! Overall I was very disappointed with Hearts who offered very little in the final third of the pitch. The seemed reasonable enough at the back but how that team scored five goals last week is beyond me. In the first half we were able to limit them to a very tame effort from Templeton as well as that thunderous strike from Hammil which smashed off the crossbar. We on the other hand were creating a good number of chances which went begging thanks in part to poor finishing and solid keeping from Kello. Hayes in particular was a menace as he tore the Hearts left side to pieces throughout the opening 20 minutes. Barr probably should have been sent off after rugby tackling Hayes, which resulted in a yellow card, then following it up with a scything tackle on the same player on the touchline which, for some reason, went unpunished. Foran, Hayes, Sutherland and Tade all threatened to open the scoring but Kello was equal to their efforts or they squirmed wide of target. In the second half we found ourselves playing into the wind and I expected to see Hearts threaten more but whilst they enjoyed a wee bit more of the ball than they did in the first half we still created the better openings. Tansey and Hayes were the main creative forces for us and it was from a smart and direct run from Hayes that saw us opening the scoring. He drove right at the Hearts right back before standing a ball up into the box and Sutherland arrived to header down underneath the diving Kello. A fully deserved lead for ICT. The poor weather almost saw Kello caught out twice as cross cum hopeful shots looped over him and one, from Sutherland, struck the bar. The Hammil handball penalty appeal was an interesting one. At first he chests it back to Kello but then, as he falls over, the ball hits his arm. The referee needs to decide if, amongst other things, it was deliberate. It was a very difficult one to call but I was certainly appealing for it at the game. Hearts best effort, up to this point, had come from an Ian Black free kick. As the majority of players headed towards the back post Black fired a shot in towards the near post nearly catching Esson off guard but he did well to hold on in difficult conditions. By this time Suso Santan had come on meaning Hearts had two very pacey wingers on either side but both Meekings and Gillet, the latter in particular, snuffed out the threat of the Hearts wide men. Skacel lashed a shot over the bar and there was the Templeton penalty shout which, from my view, looked like he had slipped before there was any contact from Meekings anyway, but ICT were able to hold on to grab the three points. Looking at ICT specifically Hayes, Tansey and Gillet were absolutely outstanding. Hayes direct running caused Hearts problems all day as they didn't know how to stop him aside from employing Real Madrid style tactics to stop Messi i.e. kick the shit out of him. Tansey covered almost every inch of grass as he helped shield the defence and then was at the other end of the pitch helping to set up chances for his team mates. Gillet, having moved back to LB from CB, dealt well with the pacey and tricky Santana when he came on having previously nullified any Hearts attacks coming down his side. Foran again did well in his new midfield role and it was good to see Sutherland get a game although he took a wee while to come into things. The new lad Williams at the back was composed, solid in the tackle and distributed the ball well and Meekings continues to show excellent potential with another assured display. In fact, considering it was yet another back line for us they were remarkably solid throughout the game. Overall a very impressive ICT performance coupled with a pretty poor Hearts display. Hopefully we can keep this run going against St. Mirren next week.

I see the County game has been called off due to a waterlogged pitch. Is there any chance of our game suffering the same fate?

You've signed a pre contract with who?

I don't think that would happen to be honest. Man City don't want him to go out on loan and want a permanent deal.

Definitely. I haven't seen it yet but I have heard it was pretty bad and was deserving of a red as well.

Isn't the attendance money from Cup games split between the two teams? If so allowing more Celtic fans in would only benefit them financially and, you would assume, mentally.

I am on the appeal panel For what it's worth I thought it was a red card as you could argue the challenge can be counted as serious foul play based on the description given in the laws of the game. For me it would be classed under any of the categories which cover serious foul play. These are "using excessive force or brutality against an opponent when challenging for the ball when it is in play", "endangering the safety of the opponent" or "lunging at an opponent in challenging for the ball from the front, from the side or from behind using one or both legs, with excessive force and endangering the safety of an opponent". If a challenge comes under either of the above then it is a red card. The fact that nani jumped out the way, the ball was played or no injury was received do not mitigate the challenge.

This is the same BBC who said that Ayr United beat Ayr United on Saturday!