RiG

Hughes managed the team when we were in the top tier during his entire tenure so he was always about 1 or 2 wins away from reaching the Quarter Finals most seasons compared to Paterson who had no negotiate many more games to reach the same round.

ICT highlights up now:

The Livi symbol in the top left should give you a clue as to who did the highlights As others have already said the midfield trio of Welsh, Carson and Trafford were excellent. Slightly disappointed in Storey and Walsh as, in the first half, we seemed to get real joy out of attacking Livi down the flanks, particularly the right side, and it was a shame we didn't try and take advantage of their apparent lack of midfield cover for the fullback. Although Livi had more of the ball I think we had the better chances overall. Ridgers didn't have much to do until late in the game when Livi flashed a shot straight at him. Defensively I think we were pretty comfortable. Tremarco had a good game and Rooney started well but was less involved in the second half. Good away support in both numbers and voice. Fair play to them. Good to see Douglas Ross still as effective a linesman as he is a politician.

He was injured at the end of last weeks game.

Prior to last night County had won 2 out of their last 17 games and fans were seriously questioning replacing Kettlewell and Ferguson. They are hardly comfortable.

Five wins on the trot for Livi going into this game so you'd imagine they will be feeling confident although it doesn't look like they've got a good record on grass pitches. The significant majority of their wins have come at home. The last time they won away on a grass surface was back in August against Ross County.

There has literally been about 4 chants of support this campaign for the team. It's been dreadful from the first game of the season. Despite their previous transgressions we need the YT back and fans of similar age to get behind the side. All well and good trying to attract families but those fans typically don't get behind the team. Maybe a word could be had with Motherwell and see how they work with their YT with its own dedicated section of the stand?

Didn't think the Alloa penalty was as soft as some made out. My initial reaction was penalty at the game. And it was probably no more than Alloa deserved. They created the better chances and again played some really good football. Our defence continues to look creaky in the absence of McCart and Donaldson. White had one of his classic games where he scored but also passed up easy chances to secure what would have been a big win for us. How he missed the header from about 4 cm out at the end I'll never know but he should great strength to hold off his marker before turning in the equaliser. Walsh sent in some decent crosses during the game and having him back is a boost and Welsh was typically composed in the middle when he came on. I'd like to see him team with Carson in the coming weeks. Vincent and Trafford weren't great. Ridgers made some good saves especially at the end as Alloa threatened to nick a win. They probably had the better chances in the second half in fairness.

The same source that breaks the majority of transfers in Scotland and more recently the Donaldson and McCart deals so it's pretty much a given.

Wasn't Todorov absolutely howling playing at CB in one of the pre season friendlies? Obviously that was just one game but...

If we somehow had kept Donaldson and McCart I'd be confident of us securing second point and having a great shot at going up in the playoffs. Losing both of them is a bitter blow to our chances. I just cannot see Mckay, McHattie or Toshney being of the level required to keep us in second spot let alone be successful in the playoffs. I hope I'm wrong but these moves significantly weaken our team and damage our chances of promotion. Another season down here is going to ruin this club.

Losing both our first choice CBs is a bitter blow to our promotion hopes. Massively disappointed.

If he is the answer I don't want to know the question.

Tommy Wright on STV saying they're working on a deal with ICT to get McCart in before the end of the month.

I find myself (mostly) agreeing with an Alan Simpson post... White seemed to be getting a bit irked by some of the long balls played up to him on Saturday. He had a go at Ridgers and Tremarco for, I'm guessing, not really getting the ball in an area where he could actually win it. He's limited striker but he works hard and we really don't seem to play to his strengths. We ended Saturday with two capable wide players with good crossing ability in Doran and Walsh who could easily have put in a decent ball for White (or Toddy) to attack but instead we continued to ping high balls up to the giant Ayr defence to win. Strange. And of course all these high balls sailing up over the midfield take Keatings out of the game for long periods as well as he never gets near the ball and White struggles to win it in the air to lay it off to him (Keatings).

No one was saying that we lost because of the ref just that he was rubbish and made some bizarre decisions.

Not like you to have trouble reading what people have posted about the game.

Some of those decisions...

I think whilst we were on the end of some pretty debatable calls from the referee, Ayr were the better team throughout the 90 minutes and deserved the win. Kerr seemed to set Ayr up a bit more defensively than previous match ups and they let us carry the ball forward with little pressure but we were swarmed as we entered the Ayr half and forced to thread balls through a well organised Ayr midfield and defence (which we couldn't do) or try and dink a ball up to White and later Todorov (which we also couldn't do). When Ayr seized the ball they broke with real pace and direction quickly feeding the ball wide to Forrest or Moffat on the flanks or looking to play a pass in behind the ICT centre backs and a lot of their good chances game from this. Only a triple block / save combination from McHattie and Ridgers stopped Ayr opening the scoring in the first half which saw wave after wave of attacks threaten the ICT rearguard. Fortunately we held them off and had the ball in the net when Keatings lifted a free kick in for White who beat Doohan to the ball and flicked it in but the referee gave a free kick for a foul by White. Seemed pretty soft but it would have been hard on Ayr had we gone ahead (though thoroughly pleasing obviously). Second half and there seemed to be a strong claim for a penalty when Doran broke into the box and looked like he was pushed in the back sending him to the ground but the referee waved play on. Not long after this Ayr scored. I didn't see what happened but after I had stopped admiring my new trainers I looked up to see Trafford on his arse and Kelly seizing on a loose ball, heading for goal before calmly slotting past Ridgers. No more than Ayr deserved in fairness but frustrating nonetheless from an ICT point of view. Ayr had more chances after this to extend their lead before Doran went down under another challenge however this time he got straight back up to chase the ball before Aitken blew for a foul and cautioned Doran for diving which seemed a bit odd given he didn't seem to be looking for anything. We went with 2 strikers for the final few minutes with Todorov coming on to partner White but we didn't really create anything of note until the final kick of the game when Ayr threw bodies to block a couple of ICT efforts from close range (these might even have been our only shots on target...). Bizarre to see us end the game with a couple of big lads up front and our two best crossers of the ball on the wings yet we persevered with little dinked balls up towards White and Todorov which almost never found them. Any ICT fan not bothered about losing Donaldson AND McCart should be worried after today's defensive showing. Whilst McHattie was solid enough Mckay with the ball at his feet was an absolute bombscare. Vincent was decent for us, possibly closest to ICT MotM. Kerr and Moffat looked good for Ayr and Drinan really gave Mckay and McHattie a torrid time. We have a real battle on to maintain second spot which could be huge come the end of the season...

The club have (finally) confirmed that McCart has signed a PCA with Saint Johnstone.

Fingers crossed for a Taylor Swift gig.

"Young" Chris Kane? The guy is 25 / 26 years old FFS.

Dreadful news. Absolutely gutted.

Encouraging? https://ictfc.com/club-statement-7

Aside from the BSC Glasgow v Dundee United or Hibs tie that must be one of the dullest Scottish Cup draws in recent years?