RiG

I was pretty disappointed that Oakley left but the club needed the money, he was out of contract at the end of the season and wanted to play in the Premiership. Not exactly a combination of factors that typically ends up with the player staying.

Bit late to the party with these comments but here we go... I felt we were worth a draw. Odd line up to begin with. 442 diamond with Welsh on the right and Chalmers on the left, Trafford sitting deep and Polworth supporting behind a front two of Austin and White. United were all over us right from the off and we struggled to contain them at times. However after the initial rush of United attacks we slowly started to gain a foothold and were able to contain them whilst starting to carve out a couple of decent chances of our although mainly through set pieces with Rooney and then White passing up perhaps our best chances of the first half. Ridgers nearly gave up a comedy goal when he crashed a clearance off an onrushing United player and the ball went spinning back towards the ICT goal but fortunately for us it was just wide. Second half saw United again start the stronger and they nearly bagged the opener when a cross / shot across goal looked to be heading in before Mckay arrived to batter the ball away. Chalmers then channelled his inner Messi to dance inside a couple of United players and poked a shot towards goal. Not sure how close it was to going in but it seemed to be cleared off the line. Then came the moment that changed the game. I had said to my pal that, as much as I love Donaldson, he is still prone to a brain fart but normally it's something daft like a slack pass out of play for a throw in but this time it was much more costly. With Pawlett having received the ball inside the penalty area Donaldson went crashing through him to try and win the ball, which he did, but you cannot come through the back of an opponent like that. Clark stepped up to send Ridgers the wrong way. Pawlett then had a brain fart himself when he clattered McHattie when already on a yellow card and he was duly sent off. Doran came on to give us more natural width (obvious joke is obvious) on the wing and he sent in a wonderful cross which was met by Austin (who I had forgotten was on the pitch in the second half) but he couldn't make a decent connection and the chance was easily saved. That was probably our best chance to get on level terms save for a late Donaldson effort which was deflected and had the United keeper scrambling to tip it over. Whilst I felt we deserved a draw it was another case of not creating enough and not taking the few chances we did create. Despite the odd set up and playing central midfielders on the wings I thought both Welsh and Chalmers did well there, Polworth had a reasonable game as did Mckay. White and Austin didn't really get much service for most of the game and when they did they weren't clinical enough. If that was Uniteds full strength team then that gives me a bit of confidence for Sunday as we, in theory, won't play that same line up / formation so you'd like to think we will be better but maybe I am being overly optimistic (for once).

Not sacking Foran when he was clearly out of his depth will haunt this club for years to come.

Just clocked that the highlights are up on YouTube.

Not a game that will live long in the memory but after a gruelling match on Tuesday night the main thing was getting the win so a scrappy 1 - 0 did the job. I thought we tried to pass the ball around a lot more than last weekend against Dunfermline (no idea what we were like against RC sadly) and we created some decent chances. Nice wee near post flick from Tremarco for the only goal (another Polworth assist) but we passed up some good chances to go further ahead in the second half with McCauley being denied by a decent save before White crashed the ball over and then Polworth broke into the box but his effort was also saved and Doran couldn't quite get to the loose ball. Millar had the best chance for Morton when he rifled a shot just past the post in the first half but aside from that Morton were largely toothless and a bit of a mess in defence. Plenty of misplaced passes especially in the second 45 minutes. I thought McCart was excellent for us before going off injured and we also saw decent performances from Welsh, Donaldson and Mckay (yes Mckay, he did the basics well). Not our best attacking showing of the season but three points were the key especially after a disappointing outing in our last league game and the aforementioned Scottish Cup replay on Tuesday.

Find it bizarre that any ICT fan is considering going to this game irrespective of what end they go in. If you've got the cash burning in your pocket get along to the Partick game on the Friday or buy an ICT strip or just do something to support the club. They need the cash and far better you put it directly into the club itself some other way than going to a game that has nothing to do with ICT even if it is being held at our ground.

Probably knackered. He had played essentially a full 90 minutes and he's only 17 remember.

All these flavours and County continue to be salty.

John Robertson.

That pass from Polworth for the second goal is outrageous.

So Caley Tennis will now be in favour of extending Robbo's contract beyond 2021 then?

Sadly wasn't there but delighted with the result. White is always a bit of a Marmite player for me but not going to complain when he bags some goals for us! Apparently a good atmosphere generated by the Young Team so hopefully they are back on Saturday in good numbers again. Some of the videos of the players celebrating which are doing the rounds on Twitter are great to see. Clearly meant a lot to them. Delighted for them and the fans that went along last night

He had a couple of lovely slide rule passes that almost led to something but then he had a bizarre period where he seemed to be afraid to get involved. At one point Rooney had the ball on the right and MacDonald went into hiding offering no support and Rooney just ran past him. He's still very young so perhaps he was nervous / unsure what to do but I think he's potentially a real creative spark for us.

Yeah looks that way from the video. I assumed it must have been a deflection given he seemed to be totally wrong footed by it.

Yes it was one of the worst performances I can recall in a long time. It was as bad if not worse than Partick away earlier this season. We barely strung more than 3 or 4 passes together for most of the first half; For the most part we stopped punting long balls in the vague direction of White when Austin came on; The reason for McCauley's brain fart was not lack of fitness. He made three very badly timed challenges and was acting similar to Mulraney at Falkirk last season; The errors from McCart were ones under little pressure but he improved as the game went on; and Brad wasn't great.

Hands down one of the worst performances from an ICT that I can recall in a long time, especially that first 45 minutes. We were all over the shop. McCart, who until recently had been a very solid performer, was uncharacteristically sloppy with a number of sliced clearances and slack passes but he got better as the game wore on as did the likes of Trafford who was something of a headless chicken until we went to 442 and he seemed to be a lot more effective. White struggled badly until Austin came on. He (White) didn't get much service and when the ball did come his way he was largely dominated by Ashcroft who was excellent yesterday as were Connolly and Vincent for the home side. McCauley should have been sent off. After he was booked he committed two needless fouls that both could have resulted in a second booking so it was no surprise when Robbo took him off for MacDonald. Pars had a weak penalty claim when Anderson seemed to go down quite easily. Maybe any highlights will show something different but I wasn't convinced at the time. Second half Dunfermline started much the better side. I don't know what Robbo said to the players at the break but most seemed to be still sleepwalking when Thomson dribbled across goal then lashed a shot past Ridgers who seemed to be caught by a deflection or by McCart ducking out of the way or something. Disappointing goal to concede but we were lucky not to be two down when Connolly battered the crossbar with a lovely shot just outside the area. We started to come back into the game when Doran went off and Austin came on giving White a bit more support up front and we started to create some half chances. Walsh had perhaps the best opportunity for an equaliser when he drove towards goal and was afforded a lot of time and space to shoot from about 20 yards but he sent the ball well over. White and Mckay passed up a couple of decent chances to bring us back on level terms but they shot wide of / over the goal. A seriously disappointing performance after what was a good showing on Monday night against County. We were missing arguably three of our most important players in Donaldson, Polworth and Welsh however if we want to stay in the playoff spot we need to improve our performances quickly.

Add on the words "Scottish Cup Champions, you'll never sing that" and get it framed and stuck up in the Mallard.

Don't often agree with you but I think you're pretty spot on here. We were an excellent team for a good few years. Some horrendous management from, well, the managers and the board see us where we are now. Still, I hope we don't become like Aberdeen. Always looking back. It would be good to make some more memories with ICT now.

No we shouldn't. We had great players in that team. Whilst I agree that we shouldn't have been expecting Cup finals our sights were definitely beyond battling it out at the bottom of the table with the personnel we had to work with.

Butcher and managers before Hughes seemed to get on okay with signing players for less money than Yogi had to play with. Why did he sign so many stinkers? He was a great manager for us and took us to places we'll realistically never see again but it was time for him to go. The public fall out between manager and chairman was only going to end one way. Foran was an unmitigated disaster. On every conceivable level. We'll rue the day he wasn't punted after that Accies match you mention. Who knows where we would be if he had been binned and we got someone else in. All ifs buts and maybes now sadly.

Travelled to the first game, called off 30 (?) minutes before kick off. Trudged back up north. Couldn't make the reply as I had a chemistry test that afternoon and the teacher wouldn't let me take it at another time. Also missed Bucharest as well so I've probably missed two of the biggest nights in ICT history. Wouldn't trade it for Stirling Albion away in the League Cup though...

The stewards in front of the YT were always quite lenient with them but unfortunately events at Brechin last season and Polworth this season have seen a number of the YT absent for varying reasons. I am not condoning their antics but they are a miss in terms of what they brought to the support in terms of atmosphere as are the other supporters who are clearly drifting away. The North Stand is slowly but surely thinning out. It's not much of a surprise that it is akin to a morgue most Saturday's now. The last time there was a decent crowd in there was the last home derby game.

I can't remember exactly what the phrase was Gregor used I'm afraid That was just the first thing that came into my head.

Two starts, two goals. A 100% strike rate. And at a higher level as well.