RiG

I thought that game was rubbish to be honest. I think we had one chance in the entire game with Odihambo scuffing a shot goalwards. Oh, Nick Ross hit the bar with a cross cum shot but that was as good as it got for us. Saint Johnstone had about three clear cut chances in the second half including one from an atrocious backpass by Munro. I think 1 - 0 was a fair reflection on the game, it was no more than we deserved. To be honest I'm just glad it's over as it was eye gauging stuff from ICT at times. I lost count of the number of aimless blasts up the park. We also seemed to be playing a 4-3-3 / 4-5-1 formation. Certainly didn't look to have anyone playing behind Rooney as per other games this season. I found myself struggling to understand how that team had put together such a fantastic run away from home after seeing that today. After three good draws against the top three sides we have turned in three lifeless performances against teams who we should be looking to get results against. No wins in six now and it's not a good run to be on and I do wonder if we are going to "do a Hull" and start to drift down the table a wee bit.

Am I the only one who, when they see the title of the thread, thinks that this is going to be a topic about sofas?

Just saw it there. Absolutely pathetic. A couple of the lads I go with said they thought it was a dive and they were spot on. This is the third home game in a row I have been left bemoaning the ref. Murray was garbage in the Rangers game, Thompson gash in the St. Mirren fixture and last night Collum was balls. Get these foreign lads back. At least they seemed to be half decent at officiating. The Scottish officials are simply not good enough. At least McDonald has retired so we are saved his pishness.

Everyone sees it differently so each to their own. I wasn't impressed with him but I'm not exactly the ruling authority no matter how much I would like to be :biggrin:

There were some quality shouts in the North Stand last night but the winner for me had to be "Aww Esson, f**k sake man release it quicker! You're atrocious!" Some of the stuff that comes out is mind boggling.

I think it's more the fact that whilst the team does really well away from home they continue to under perform in front of their own fans and it's a perplexing scenario as to why this keeps happening. It's not a problem restricted to this ICT of course, it's something that goes back a long way and it's frustration from the fans as it's a problem that shows no signs of going away

Good post and agree with pretty much all of that. I don't like these lofted corners that we are doing just now, they give the opposition far too much time to react. Get someone who can whizz a ball in right on top of the players or, as you say, maybe bend them away from the keeper at pace with someone rushing in on it. But certainly mix it up a wee bit. How we need a Barry Robson for set pieces now.

Erm, Tokely (and Munro) got absolutely beasted by Sammon on numerous occasions and Tokely himself was guilty of turning over possession with all these aimless hoofs up the park, more often than not, out of play. Both he and Munro were pulled apart by Killie. It was a very poor performance defensively last night where only Esson can really emerge with pass marks. We're not talking about outplaying an entire midfield but in their role as defensive midfielders they should be closing down the space / man with the ball and trying and break up the opposition attacks. Last night Killie were given a lot of space which they exploited, particularly in behind our midfield and in front of our defence where there was a lot of free pitch on offer.

Hmm, can't agree with Tokely escaping the "rubbish" tag to be honest. It was very much an off day for pretty much everyone really with Esson redeeming himself with saves from the free kick and the penalty. Not only do we look devoid of belief we look devoid of general ability. The seemingly simple task of finding a team mate with a pass appeared to be beyond a lot of the guys tonight and it's hard to figure out why that is. We had a good chance in the first half if I mind right, it involved a few passes including one sweeping pass from Munro (?) out to the right and the attack built up there. Might have been Foran or Rooney attacking a cross but the point is that when we take the time to find a team mate we seem to enjoy a wee bit of success. Unfortunately we seemed to be far too keen to welly it into the channels for Rooney to chase and we turn over possession. The first Killie goal came from a long punt down the left hand side, completely aimless and Kilmarnock mopped it up, recycled possession and started their attack. They hit a few passes about and eventually got a goal from it. Why can't we do that? Do we not have the players to do it? Certainly the middle of the park is an area where we don't have any creative drive but we have players who can pass a ball so why do we give it up so easily to the other team? Why do we persist in aimless punts down the other end of the park? Keep the ball. if the other team don't have it then they aren't going to score. I'm not expecting Barcelona style passing from ICT but we can do better than what we've seen in the last couple of home games.

Yuk. We looked very poor indeed again. I am beginning to think we are going to copy Hull and have an excellent start to the season and then go into free fall in the second half of the campaign. Killie were excellent and a lot better than I have seen in the past. Oddly, after bypassing the midfield whilst at Hibs, Mixu has got Kilmarnock playing some lovely football at times and their midfield tonight did everything ours didn't. Pass, tackle, support, score - pretty much everything required of it. A lot of the play for the visitors was going through Eremenko despite looking a bit fat and Esson did well to palm away his free kick which dipped wickedly after it was hit. Bryson got the opener after Sammon had been halted by Tokely. He did well to put away the ball after it broke kindly to him. Wright somehow missed almost an open goal when he bulleted a header past Essons right hand post. Killie definitely on top in the opening period. Second half was frantic with chances for both sides. ICT, as with St. Mirren, on top in terms of possession but the final ball was missing on too many occasions whilst Killie were happy to hit on the break. Perhaps the game changing moment happened when one of the Killie defenders clumsily bundled over Odihambo in the box. As clear cut a penalty as you are likely to see but inexplicably Collum decided against the award. He wasn't helped out by his assistant who also bottled a call on the incident. Really poor officiating and not long after this Killie got a second. An ICT corner fell to Eremenko who turned in his own box to launch a breakout. In a matter of seconds the ball had moved through the middle of the park to the left where a cross was sent in and a Kelly got on the end of it to send the ball past Esson. ICT got a goal back when Foran fired in a low drive from the left which squeezed past Bell at his near post where he should have done better. Killie wrapped it up with a penalty after Bryson went flying over an Esson challenge. Hard to tell if there was contact (I guess the highlights will confirm) and a lot of the ICT players protested vehemently but the award stood. Interestingly Collum decided not too book or send off Esson which was bizarre given he had surely denied an "obvious goal scoring opportunity". Esson saved the initial kick but no one from Inverness followed up the rebound and Hamill mopped things up. After that Bell dropped a couple of crosses but no one in an Inverness shirt was alive to it and one Killie defender tried to score an own goal with a bizarre attempt to header a cross clear but instead thumped it against his own bar. Deserved win for Killie. They are much better than I thought they would be and they have some good players in that team. Can't help but feel the penalty call was a huge turning point at a time when ICT were in the ascendancy. We just can't seem to get it together at home and have next to no creativity unlike Killie. We don't seem to have much of a Plan B when things aren't going our way and we are getting punished for it just now. Despite three good draws against Celtic, Rangers and Hearts it's now no wins in five for Inverness. Get Hayes back for St. Johnstone. Even if it means him playing in crutches. We miss him. Big time.

That De Rosario hits a mean free kick:

Sorry but there wasn't a peep from Section G the other day. There were some guys at the back of Section F that made some noise but I didn't hear a thing from the usual guys. This isn't a knock at them by the way, there was very little to get excited about, and they've provided plenty of noise before but unfortunately it was just one of those games were there was little to cheer. There's been plenty of games which have generated a fair amount of noise from the stands. The St. Mirren game just wasn't one of them.

What is the obsession in this country about running around like a headless chicken chasing the ball as it is passed across the oppositions backline? If our players go tearing after every pass then they are out of position and leave space in behind them which teams will exploit. We can defend just as well by holding your position and force the other team to work much harder to find the space in behind our players. Do you think players like Hayes can afford to waste energy chasing lost cause after lost cause? I don't want him wasting his time chasing down an opposition left back when he needs to conserve energy for running at him for (hopefully) a full 90 minutes. Indeed one of your points about pressing the opposition higher up the park would have seen us lose more goals the other day as St. Mirren were punting balls over the top for Dargo to chase. Had we pushed further up as you suggest that would have allowed them even more space to hit these balls into and leave a huge gap between our backline and Esson. Dargo would have loved it if we had done that.

ARGH! Not another topic on a singing section! But yes the atmosphere on Sunday was really poor. Aside from the goal there wasn't really too much to get excited about in the first half from an ICT perspective especially with St. Mirren dominating the opening period.

That's where his assistant should have come into action. Unfortunately he looks to be one of your typically spineless officials who won't give anything until the referee gives it at which point he also waves his flag in the same direction.

In fairness I don't blame him. If I was having snowballs thrown at me I wouldn't be overly chuffed.

Can't really disagree with what Hislopoffsidesagain says. St. Mirren were better than I thought they would be. Dargo was a right handful and we never got to grips with him or Higdon. Had it not been for Esson we would have lost that about 4 - 1. Clearly our MotM today. Cox did well to follow up the deflected Foran shot but after he was booked then fouled another Saints player he was invisible as he couldn't get involved in the middle of the park any more. Cracking Saints equaliser all coming from ICT being unable to break down the Saints defence and turning over possession. Rapid break from Dargo who teed up Thomson and he unleashed a rocket into the roof of the net. Wonderful strike. Second half we had more of the ball but didn't create the clear cut chances that the Buddies had done in the first half. Rooney, Foran and Ross all guilty of passing up half decent chances. Unlucky with the winner as I am sure the original strike was going wide until it was deflected in past a stranded Esson. Very much a Christmas hangover on show for ICT today and we will need to seriously sharpen up for Wednesday. I am sick and tired of these inept Scottish officials and I really wish they would f**k off. Craig Thompson was atrocious as per usual today best highlighted by a shocking two footed lunge on Rooney by Cregg which warranted a straight red but for some reason he was only booked. Big penalty shout at the end which went ignored as well. Looked a good claim to me in the North Stand.

What was it like going through (well round) Huntly and Keith? Pitch looked clear when I went over the bridge earlier and the weather forecast is clear for the next couple of days. Cold obviously but no snow forecast.

That's an interesting article because nowhere in it, other than the local rag headline, does it say that St. Mirren think we will be complacent! Guess it's the Paisley equivalent of The Sun.

Lennon's out of his depth.

Further proof that Lennon is a clueless fool and has pissed money away on signings that clearly aren't good enough for the SPL. If Darryl Murphy is "worth" £1.5 million () then our Rooney (the good one) is worth at least £8 million.

I had initially thought 9th or 10th. Now after the start we've had and having seen how utterly abysmal Celtic are I think we can take 2nd spot behind Hearts.

Beating Aberdire away with Duff taking the piss out of Maguire towards the end :biggrin:

Yes. Fair play to him for admitting he made a mistake but they need to stop apologising and stop making these mistakes in the first place.

I think their backline is just garbage to be honest. Zander Diamond is really poor and hasn't improved in a few seasons now and Considine is much the same. As for Ifil - lol covers it quite well. Throughout the team there is a derth of quality. Vernon looks quite good and the experience of Hartley is a boost for the team but even Maguire blows hot and cold and isn't consistent enough. Put simply Aberdeen are good enough and I think Brown has a big task to get them stabilised and moving up the table.