RiG

Couple of thoughts after the larger than usual crowds from the last couple of games: Subject to any GDPR type issues the club should be pinging out emails to everyone who bought tickets for the game on Friday to encourage them to get a season ticket for the next campaign. Perhaps a survey of attitudes towards the club to find out why they might not have attended prior to Friday to see if cost, time or some other barrier exists to prevent people from attending more regularly; and This will be the last season for match day streaming to UK residents I believe as COVID starts to fade away so what will happen to ICTTV and will we see more supporters down the stadium on a typical Saturday instead of watching it on a laptop / TV / phone on the toilet?

Rooney was largely muted in his celebrations on Friday but let himself go a lot more on Monday. I've no issue with that in the slightest. Whilst it's a bit like seeing your ex with a new partner you have to deal with it and get on with things. There was however a bizarre moment where he came over to the ICT supporters after the game almost to apologise or wish us well or something (perhaps encouraged by a couple of fans in the crowd) but a lot of folk weren't happy with this and, after a lot of abuse, Rooney was ultimately ushered away by a Saint Johnstone club official.

I was saying to a few folk last night I was torn about wanting to go up. Obviously for the better exposure, ability to attract or retain more / better players, bigger crowds and the clear financial benefits you want us to go up. But on the flip side you have rubbish kick off times, multiple midweek rounds of fixtures and shockingly expensive tickets amongst other things. Whilst I am disappointed at not going up there is a (very) small part of me that is at ease with the thought of 3 pm games most Saturdays and arguably better away days than some of the matches in the Premiership. Probably not a view that will be shared by many, especially not the bean counters at the club, but I'm trying to seek out something positive from last night!

I can easily see McAlear popping up OTB...

Devine is meant to be signing a new deal with us. McAlear hasn't ruled out returning to Inverness but I'd be stunned if that did come true. Welsh, Sutherland and Duffy would be worth new deals. I expect Deas to leave in the summer and wouldn't be shocked if Carson also returned south. Not that I want either of those guys to leave but Deas has been superb for us for a while and has been attracting attention from top tier clubs whilst Carson may want to move closer to home / family. We simply have to sign left and right backs in the summer together with wide midfielders. Whilst we seem to have decent numbers in the middle our wide areas are sorely lacking and have been for some time.

The "highlights" are on YouTube. Needless to say I won't be watching them.

Hard to grumble much about the result. Saint Johnstone were clear and deserved winners over the two legs. Whilst we looked a lot better in the first half last night I'm struggling to remember too many good chances falling our way. Perhaps the header from Broadfoot (I think) which Clark tipped over. Apart from that I don't feel like we really troubled Saint Johnstone. The opening 5 minutes of the second half just knocked the stuffing out of us. Horrendous marking for the opening goal and a cruel deflection for the second killed the game. Some of players were already on their knees at this point. When Welsh saw a shot blocked and Doran sclaffed one wide I knew that was game over. We simply had to take one of those chances to get back into the game and we didn't. By the end we were going all out to get something, thumping long balls forward and leaving acres of space at the back which Saints ruthlessly exploited on the counter attack. 4 - 0 was really harsh I feel but, ultimately, Saint Johnstone deserved their win. We just didn't have enough left in the tank to do it.

Fantastic effort!

I'm not aware of any but if you are unsure there is a housing estate nearby that you can more than likely park in as well. ETA: Dobbies will have shut by the time a lot of people arrive so you can park there as well I guess.

Section C has been sold out for ages.

I've watched the McAlear goal back about 50 times already sine last night. There have been plenty of stunning goals at TCS over the season but right now I am struggling to think of many better free kicks scored by ICT than McAlears sumptuous top bin effort yesterday evening. Can anyone remind me of any I might be missing?

Depending on your pre match plans (i.e. if you have none) you could park at The Glover Arms which is about a 15 minute walk from the ground and this will allow you a quick exit back onto the A9 after the game. You would need to come off at the new junction, go around the back of the ground and crematorium and then head out on the Crieff Road for a little bit.

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.