RiG

I feel he's gone unnoticed in recent weeks but credit to Jamie McCart who is looking really assured at the back with Donaldson. If I was Brad Mckay I wouldn't be feeling too great about keeping my place in the side once Rooney comes back from injury. Between the two of them, our CB pairing must be one of the youngest in the league yet their apparent lack of experience doesn't show.

As has already been said we only showed up for the last 30 minutes after with the game seemingly out of sight. A lot of our players were claiming handball for the first goal with Ridgers seeming to suggest that Dykes bundled it over the line with his hand. Whilst it would be a shame if that's what happened our defending was so abysmal leading up to that goal we probably deserved to concede a goal anyway. The second strike wasn't much better from our point of view. Trafford (I think) lost the ball in the middle and it was quickly launched forward to Dobbie who stole into a massive gap at the back with our players out of position. Ridgers half came, half stayed and Dobbie took advantage of his indecision to slide the ball past him and it was three not long after as we again failed at defending and couldn't clear the ball which was picked up by Todd and he dispatched a beautiful curling shot past Ridgers. Game over as far as I was concerned. But seemingly from nowhere we got back into it when Mccart rose highest to head home a free kick and this was followed not long after by Walsh who sent a ball into the box which evaded everyone and nestled in the net. The Queens keeper, having barely been tested all game, was looking exceptionally suspect. The third duly arrived via a Welsh spot kick. Not sure what it ewas awarded for but the fact that very few QotS players challenged the decision suggests it was a fair decision. We almost won it with perhaps the move of the match as we quickly broke from the back, Welsh, Poworth, Macgregor and White linked to play in Austin but his toepoke of a shot was well saved by Leighfield, his first act of competent keeping at a crucial time in the game. The change to 4 - 4 - 2 saw us make much more use of the wings and removing the possession haemorrhage that was Trafford in the middle left us with a much more effective partnership in the form of Polworth and Welsh. Queens should have been out of sight truth being told but we did exceptionally well to battle back to grab a point. Made the journey home a lot more bearable.

Not seen anything confirmed myself though I've probably missed it! Worth noting for anyone driving to the game that parking is available albeit limited. Should be plenty of on street parking a few minutes walk away but not sure I would feel leaving my car in Pilton There's a Morrisons close by as well folk could probably use too.

I'd be very surprised if it isn't just pay at the gate. Hopefully we'll get info on prices soon. For the league they charge £12 (adults), £6 concessions and £2 U12s though they might increase those a wee bit for the Scottish Cup who knows.

I'm pretty sure we had cameras there as we have the usual post match interviews. Maybe the file was corrupted or something when they went to edit the highlights? Shame we don't have a better shot of the Walsh goal as it was outstanding. You could tell it was in as soon as it left his boot. ETA: Aren't the PT highlights usually behind some kind of paywall? I think folk who use Jagszone to get the video highlights have to pay so we might not have been allowed to film too much.

Not a good performance in the first half as Partick had the better (half) chances and a lot more of the ball. We were really poor in the final third struggling to create anything of note and finding ourselves misplacing a lot of passes when we tried to build some kind of attack so we resorted to a lot of high balls in the vague direction of Oakley or to the flanks for Doran / Walsh to challenge for. Second half we improved and, in a match low on quality overall, perhaps the only two pieces of real quality won it for us. Walsh cut in from the left flank and sent a curling effort towards goal which the home keeper just got his finger tips to but it wasn't enough to stop the ball hitting the net. Ridgers then pulled off an excellent double save from a penalty by Spittal. The first save was low to his left then he was alert to jump back to his feet and smother the follow up effort. With Calder now gone and Tremarco injured Chalmers filled in at left back and wasn't great. Reasonable enough defensively but he struggled to support Walsh / Doran when required though he's made his home in central midfield for a while now so it was a bit of a square peg in a round hole situation there. Trafford was poor taking the place of Chalmers in midfield. He improved as the game went on but his passing was very slack and his touch poor. A first half booking curtailed him in effectively challenging for the ball somewhat. Doran too was a bit disappointing for most of the game. We struggled to create anything of note on the wings but Walsh lit the game up with his fantastic strike. However there were plenty of good performances from an ICT PoV. Ridgers for obvious reasons but also McCart and Donaldson at the back. McCart looks like he's been playing all season. That's twice now (I think) he's started games and breezed through them. Looks like a real gem for the future. Donaldson gets lots of praise from the support and rightly so. He did have a classic Coll brain fart moment trying to be too cute shielding the ball from the opposition and then almost giving it away but for most of the game he blocked every shot, cleared every header and kept everyone at the back organised. In the second half he appeared from nowhere to fling himself at a ball that a Partick player was winding up to volley towards goal. He's too good for us so we should enjoy him while we can. ETA: Someone filmed the penalty save from the home stand behind the goals:

I think you've answered your own question there. The club will have likely known about the charge but won't have been required to take action until the verdict (innocent until proven guilty as you say) and therefore weren't going to be saying anything unless they had to. Once that verdict was known they've acted accordingly and informed the fans in a timely fashion.

The (entire) attack was caught on CCTV. It's going to be very hard for Calder to defend his actions in the face of such compelling and irrefutable evidence.

Calder away. http://ictfc.com/index.php/news/club-news/2342-club-statement-riccardo-calder

Given that we (rightly) punted Lopez for gobbing on an opposition player in a reserve game I cannot see a scenario whereby we stand by someone who has been convicted of assault.

Some of the crosses he put in on Saturday were outrageous. I thought defensively he had an excellent game as well. Totally nullified Mullins.

The through ball for the County second was perfectly timed as was the run by Mckay. He's clearly onside.

That flick from Oakley for the first ICT goal: That save from Ridgers:

I thought that was an absolutely enthralling game. There was plenty of quality on show for most of the game and at times when the quality dropped away it was still end to end action, a good serving of chances for each side to get a winner, controversial moments and players getting it up the opposition fans. From an ICT PoV it's massively disappointing we couldn't find a winner. I think we probably were the better team over the game but if you can't get the ball into the net then you can't complain too much if you don't bag the three points. County took the lead when Lindsay found himself with time and space about 25 yards out to collect a pass, compose himself then dispatch a low drive into the net beyond Ridgers despairing grasp. ICT were back in it moments later when Doran scampered down the left and crossed to Walsh at the back post and he headed the ball to Oakley who turned it in from a few yards out. ICT then had a period of pressure where we forced a number of corners and after County cleared the last of them, Polworth (I think) was played in down the left flank and sent a low ball into the six yard box where it seemed to bobble about a bit before it was turned in by Rooney of all people. County were nearly back in it when a high ball to the back post found Mckay (Billy) towering above Mckay (Brad) to head towards goal but Ridgers, somehow, clawed the ball off the line. A truly outstanding save but Mckay wasn't too be denied and shortly after he had a hand in the equaliser. Vigurs split the ICT back line with a wonderful through ball into the channel and Mckay scampered after it and drilled the ball into the box where Mckay (Brad) slid in and diverted the ball into his own net. A poor goal to concede and I can't recall where Ridgers was as it looked like it would have been a pretty easy ball to gather for him. Into the second half and County started the better side and should have been a goal up when Vigurs found time and space at the back post to send a ball across the face of goal where everyone left it including Kelly who slid in at the other post and sent the ball wide with the goal gaping. ICT were not in at all but then had the best chance of the second half when one of the County defenders completely missed a through ball which allowed Doran to get in behind the away defence and he teed up Polworth who steadied himself and hit the post with Fox beaten. Easily the best chance that ICT would get to win the game or so we thought as Calder then sent in a delicious cross from the left flank which White just failed to connect with at the back post with Fox scrambling across his goal. Again Inverness almost got a third when the County left side was exposed and MacKay (I think) crossed for Doran but the ball, again, was just ahead of the ICT player and as Doran slide in he couldn't get enough on the ball to steer it into the net. County then had a good chance of their own to grab a winner when Vigurs lifted a free kick into the box and it was met by Graham who headed it towards goal but Ridgers sprung into action and palmed it away. A draw probably the fair result in a pretty breathtaking game. As I said at the start I think that's one of the best games I've seen in a long time. Was very happy with how ICT played. We got a lot of chance out of County down their right side, especially when we got in behind their right midfielder and right centre back. Calder had a great game defending well and sending in some great crosses. Chalmers had one of his best games for us and Polworth, despite missing that glorious chance in the second half, was everywhere and Vigurs was again left to hatchet tactics to stop him getting past him for the umpteenth time when he rugby tackled him to the ground. Donaldson was a class act at the back and Mckay (Brad) had a better second half at right back than he did first half in the centre. Great to see Rooney and Mckay (Billy) engage in some getting it right up the fans celebrations as well. Can't wait for the next Derby next month after that.

Spartans are playing at home on the Saturday.

With the switch being made around two weeks since the draw it's likely a number of supporters will have made travel arrangements already. To move the game just over three weeks before the date is pretty poor. Why was this not sorted out in the days after the draw? As someone who has suffered at the hands of short notice postponements / fixture amendments I feel for any fans who have forked out for travel for this game.

Game is on the Sunday. 3pm kick off. http://www.edinburghcityfc.com/2018/11/01/re-arranged-fixture-update/

We had moved to a 4-4-2 so he was, at that point, playing on the flank where he isn't as effective. Therefore it was take an out of position Polworth off or take off Welsh who was doing more of the dirty work in the middle of the pitch. A surprising sub on the face of it but it made perfect sense tactically.

White had clearly had enough of the comments from a section of the home crowd at full time last night.

I'm not a big fan of White and, like you, I think Oakley is our best striker. However I think he (White) is getting a hard time on this thread from people who are slagging him off when his finishing was not the big problem yesterday. We again created precious little and struggled to prize apart a very strong Alloa defence. White isn't the kind of striker who is going to create his own chances. He needs to be set up with a good cross or a ball over the top to chase. Those kinds of chances were in very short supply yesterday so as much as folk can go on about White not scoring there are other parts of the side should be getting some of the blame as well.

Not much point having a goal scorer in the pitch if we, erm, don't create goal scoring chances. That was dire today. Narrow pitch or not players like Doran and Walsh failed to provide any meaningful chances for White who is unfairly getting pelters on here. He really doesn't have much to work with most of the time. He's the kind of striker that plays with his back to goal so coming up against a team like Alloa that sits very deep he isn't going to get a lot of opportunities to score. We never stretched the play, we never managed to attack with any kind of pace or incision that allowed us to get in behind the home defence. We were just meh all over the park. MacKay probably had the best chance for us when, in the second half, he gambled on a ball being played in and Parry rushed out smartly to smother the shot. Aside from that we were desperately poor. Forget about County next week, we've got Dunfermline on Tuesday night first. Let's focus on that.

Because despite those two goals White hasn't nearly been as effective as he was against Dunfermline. Also, for one of those goals he didn't really know much about at all. Indeed he passed up an easier chance a few minutes later. Oakley has a better strike rate this season than White and is a better player overall bringing a lot more to the table than White does. That's not to say White doesn't offer us something but I think Oakley is a more useful all round player and a better fit for the team. He's probably our best striker. Finally, I said if Oakley is fit to start. I'm well aware that he's unlikely to start but if he was then I'd have no issue with him being in the starting XI.

Why is that so ridiculous? If Oakley is fit to start next week I'd have no issue with him playing and White on the bench.

United look like a different team compared to last season and we were holding on a fair bit in the first half with Mckay blocking a couple of goal bound shots with some desperate lunges. Disappointing to concede goal from a set piece. Looks like Tremarco was beaten in the air although given the height disparity between him and the United player it didn't seem particularly clever having them lined up against each other (from our PoV anyway). Bit of a lucky equaliser from us but we'll take it. Think we should have had a penalty for the foul on Doran. The highlights don't show it as well as the view we had behind the goals but the United player comes through him to try and get the ball and even then I don't think he actually gets a touch on the ball anyway. Think Donaldson was a bit unlucky to get a second yellow. Good to see him still bamming up the home support though and getting them frothing. Happy with a draw but again concerned at how poor we are up front and how little we create. United will be disappointed they didn't quite force a second goal.