RiG

This is exactly the kind of gamesmanship you should expect from a part time side playing away from home only a couple of days after their last fixture. To combat it maybe we should try not allowing ourselves to get into a situation where Arbroath can time waste and feign injury to disrupt the game?

Apart from either side of half time where we looked a little threatening that was another awful performance. Why are we so poor? Apart from the second half against Partick Thistle we have not been great at all this season and somehow sit (or sat) top of the league.

Oh balls.

There's absolutely nothing to suggest that he has. At this time I'd say the guy needs support not folk calling into question his level of professionalism.

Carson isn't at the club because of a well documented family bereavement. Poor form to be speculating about any other reasons for his absence, whether they are true or not, at this time.

Morton are an utter gang and we will easily swat them aside. More frustrating is the fact that we have arguably the dullest tie of the entire 3rd round.

We were lucky not to lose that today. I felt we had a lot of the ball in the first half but we created nothing of any note whatsoever. Raith didn't really do much but they at least managed a shot on goal when Connolly (I think) cracked an effort goalwards but it was deflected wide. That genuinely might have been the first shot of the game and that was around the 40 minute mark. I missed the red card so I can't really comment on it. Raith are pretty good at getting the highlights out quickly so I guess it will be cleared up pretty quickly. I couldn't seem to figure out what our line up was. Seemed that Sutherland was playing wide right with Gardyne left and Welsh, Allardice and MacGregror all moving around the middle of the pitch taking it in turns to push forward to support Mckay. Second half I feel we regressed a lot. Raith seemed the more capable team despite playing a man down. Again, I struggle to think of anything of note we created before Raith did take the lead bar an curled effort by Sutherland which was sent just wide of the post. The Raith goal was from a lovely run by Zannatta, nice cut back and a smashing finish by Connolly. Although we got back into it after good work down the left side by Gardyne and a well struck effort from Welsh Raith had the best chance to win it when Zannatta found space but, like Sutherland, he failed to wrap his foot around the shot enough to get it on target. Gardyne appeared to play more centrally and almost looked like he had been given a free role to go wherever he wanted. When Doran came on our structure seemed to totally collapse and we played so narrow it was very strange to see. I thought we would have tried to stretch the Raith backline and have Doran or Gardyne attempt to pull players out of position but it never seemed to happen. I'm a wee bit worried that we are consistently not playing very well. We've only had one really good 45 minutes of football this season and that was the second half against Partick. We had a lot of the ball today and created hee haw with it and Raith, despite only having ten men, should probably have won the game. If we want to seriously challenge for the title we need to improve. a lot. On another note Jamie MacDonald is absolutely brilliant. A good keeper and, as always, he took the gentle ribbing we always give him very well. A top guy.

Another comfortable win without getting out of first gear. Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. We've only really sworded one team in the league and that was Partick Thistle when we wrecked them in the second half. Other than that we have been okay but sit proudly at the top of the league. Have we got more to give or are we not set up right to take advantage of the players at our disposal?

Wee plug for the last episode of The Wyness Shuffle which has a preview of the game against Morton with Dean MacKinnon who hosts the 'Just One Cornetto' Greenock Morton podcast (around the 54:23 mark).

Where is @CaleyD when you need him?

Agree that Walsh hasn't been great for a while but he has still be in the side that was, until yesterday, undefeated. Taking him off for another striker and moving arguably one of our key players out of position was a bad move. We lost our shape at a time when it was important to maintain it. For me, either Welsh or Allardice should have come off to allow us to keep playing with two wide men.

I know Walsh hasn't been playing great recently but I was surprised when he was subbed. Putting MacGregor wide right nullified him for almost an hour and he continuously drifted inside leaving Duffy with no one ahead of him to work with. Our whole right flank became redundant.

Deserved win for Accies. We were rotten for too much of that game to deserve anything. Nice finishes for both of their goals but really poor defending from our point of view. After the sending off it was almost all ICT but we created pretty much nothing of note. Half hearted penalty appeals in the second half and a wonderful strike from Gardyne, easily our best player, were all we had to show for our possession. Accies defended well and easily coped with our timid attempts to get back into the game. We had to lose sometime but I am very disappointed at how poor we were today.

Our away trip to Queen of the South has been moved to Friday night (again) and our home tie against Killie has also been moved to the Friday night. The Kilmarnock match isn't a surprise but an absolute stinking decision to have us travel to Dumfries on a weeknight (again).

The info has been on the club site and Twitter for a couple of days. https://ictfc.com/match-and-supporters-bus-info-hamilton-accies-a-02-10-2021

What a way to start your week - a new podcast from The Wyness Shuffle! Plenty of good news over the last few weeks bundled up and given to you all in podcast form for your listening pleasure. Enjoy!

Deserved win. We largely cigared that today save for a period in the second half when Queens got their equaliser and looked like they might steal a point but fortunately we were able to go up a gear and get a deserved winner. Smashing performance from Gardyne. He might be 58 but he's still as fit as anyone in our squad and still has plenty to offer. Pacey and direct and not afraid to have a crack at goal when some might take an extra touch too many (Duku). Lovely finish for the winner and a deserved MotM. Devine continues to be perhaps our most consistent performer. He almost score a comedy own goal but other than that he was excellent again and stepped out of defence on numerous occasions to intercept balls forward from Queens. Carson was again solid at RB and MacGregor, before his injury, was running the midfield. Walsh was disappointing though and I feel that he's not really hit the height he did in his previous stint with us. Connelly looked useful for Queens who did press and harry us a lot in the first half but seemed to cease after conceding a goal and seemed content to let us knock the ball about looking for an opening. Unfortunately a fair bit of our play broke down in the final third (we definitely lacked a killer pass at times) but I felt we dealt with their few attacking opportunities quite well. Their equaliser was absolutely stunning but fortunately we just upped our game a bit and took a deserved win. All in all, a very pleasing day.

Pretty entertaining game and a draw was fair on the balance of play. I feel like we had more chances over the piece but they were not particularly clear cut. A goalmouth scramble and a Mckay shot which flashed by the post were as close as we came. Dunfermline had the two best chances of the game which drew wonder saves from Ridgers. The block from the Toddy header was outstanding and we were definitely up against it for large parts of the game particularly after we lost Sutherland and Doran to injury which really knocked our rhythm. Another good performance from Roddy with his classic Cruyff turn. He really is oozing confidence at the minute and it's great to watch him play. Allardice and Deas also did well for us but I feel they faded as the game went on. Harper and Welsh didn't offer much when they came on and Mckay struggled when we started going more direct as the game wore on. Referee was some laugh. So inconsistent in deciding what warranted a yellow card and what didn't. Disappointed and at the same time happy with a point.

Players from opposition teams have been sitting in the stand behind the goals.

Stunning turnaround. Absolutely stunning. Probably the first game this season we have actually gotten out of second gear and we ended up tearing Partick apart. First half was pretty even although Partick had the best chances with the Tiffoney strike and the Graham sitter. Carson seemed well out of position for the opener and Broadfoot and Devine didn't really handle the situation well either but after Ridgers stood up well to deny Graham and we got to half time at 0 - 1 you still felt if we got an early goal then we might go on to get something. And we absolutely did that and then some. The second half performance was just sublime. I can see why Partick felt they could let Broadfoot rumble forward for about 40 yards unchallenged as I don't think anyone in the ground expected him to find the bottom corner with a trundling effort but it's what he did and we again benefitted from another goalkeeping cock up when Sneddon forgot to grab the ball and Sutherland finished well from a narrowing angle. The best was the third with a lovely dummy from Duku and a cracking whipped shot from Doran to complete the turnaround. A utterly fantastic performance! What a shame that less than 2,000 ICT fans were there to see it. Maybe some are concerned with COVID and staying away (and that's fine) but if you know anyone who isn't going along to the stadium on match days then do your best to get them to come along because we have a real shot here at going up. It's probably as strong a squad as we've had in seasons (Billy Mckay on the bench not getting a game FFS!) and when we get going we are playing some excellent stuff. Bring on Dunfermline away!

Just a typo due to my fat fingers.

Seeing as @Robert is slacking (the announcement was made almost 20 minutes ago ) the club have confirmed that Roddy MacGregor has signed a new deal taking him through to the end of the 2023/24 season.

Pretty easy in the end despite Buckie starting the better with a couple of really good chances to open the scoring. Lots of nice quick, crisp passing around the box but too often it amounted to nothing. Mckay and Jamieson impressed up front and linked well together. Nice header for Jamieson to open the scoring and there's something almost reassuring about Billy Mckay bagging goals in the red and blue of ICT. I thought Hyde gave a pretty good performance at RB as well. Nice to be able to make 10 changes and still steam roller the opposition irrespective of what level they are playing at. Buckie are no mugs but I felt we handled them pretty well for the majority of the game. Bring on Elgin...

Why hello there! Thinking about listening to a podcast were you? We've got just the ticket - a chat with all round loveable chap James Vincent! We cover the highs and lows of his career, looking back at some of the big games in his ICT career, turning down Hibs, spells at Dundee and Dunfermline, returning to the Highlands and finally his departure from ICT in the summer. Well worth a listen!

Dunfermline have pulled out of the competition so, if we beat Buckie, we would have an away tie against Elgin to look forward to.