RiG

Imagine thinking that Tremarco fouled that lanky streak of piss for the second "penalty" Absolutely no chance was there a foul there at all.

Absolutely furious at this news! No consultation with the fans yet again! I won't be back!

First point that we've gained this season after conceding the first goal in the league lads #recovery

Deserved that today. We more than matched Saint Mirren for large parts of the game in terms of possession but our lack of a cutting edge in the final third really came back to haunt us. The best example of this was probably when Polworth broke clear with Doran to his left and Austin (I think) to his right and he passed the ball out of play for a goal kick That said Ridgers made some outrageous saves to keep us in it so over the piece a draw was a fair result. Saints went ahead after some sloppy defending from Donaldson. He was asleep when Mullen burst past him into the box and as Donaldson tried to get back with him he started clawing at Mullen's shoulders and he went down. Bit of a theatrical fall maybe but still a clear and stupid foul from Donaldson. Davies coolly slotted the ball into the bottom corner of the net. As mentioned above any potential ICT attacks usually broke down outside the Buddies box as we struggled to find a killer final ball. Whilst we had more of the ball it was Saint Mirren who looked more likely to get the next goal as they had the clearer cut chances of the two sides. Morgan passed up the best one of these when his fierce shot was turned behind by Ridgers. Then we had an incredible few seconds of play as Ridgers somehow managed to claw a goal bound header off the line and ICT scrambled the ball away only for a wicked cross to be sent back in from the left and MacKenzie (I think) threw himself up in the air under pressure from Tremarco and the referee gave a penalty which led to mass protests from the ICT players. Looked incredibly theatrical from the Saints player but arguably justice was done as Ridgers saved the spot kick with his foot giving ICT a big boost just before half time. Vigurs almost got ICT back on level terms when he sent a wicked left footed shot towards goal but with Samson already having given up on getting near the ball it crashed off the bar and behind. With ICT continuing to control most of the ball but Saints still a potent threat on the counter the referee denied ICT what looked like a stonewall penalty when Doran dinked the ball over a defenders foot only to be barged over. Incredibly Doran was booked for diving leading to yours truly having an almighty heads gone moment in the North Stand. With about 20 minutes to go Lewis Morgan struck an utterly ridiculous free kick into the net off the post to put Saints firmly in the driving seat. It really needs to be seen to be believed, a truly awesome hit. Limbs AOTS in the away end. With ten minutes left on the clock ICT got a goal back. Polworth floated a corner into the box and with Samson static in his goal line Warren sent what looked like a pretty tame header into the ground. Samson looked like he sort of fell over instead of saving the ball and it squirmed past him to give ICT a big lift going into the final moments of the game. That faint hope was nearly extinguished seconds later when Morgan broke clear of the ICT defence and again sent in a powerful shot which Ridgers dealt with well. Saints were made to pay for that missed chance when ICT were given a free kick about 25 yards to the right of the away goal. Polworth somehow smashed a free kick past a despairing Samson into the net leaving the home fans dreaming of the impossible come back. Both sides then had opportunities to claim what would surely be the final goal and the three points. First Mackay stretched to get on the end of a chipped ball into the box but he couldn't get enough height on his header to lift it over an advancing Samson. Then the lively Morgan was again denied by last ditch block from Tremarco before the loose ball was blazed over. A quite incredible game, frenetic and end to end for almost the entire 90 minutes. Ridgers kept us in the game with some great saves whilst Vigurs performed well in the middle seemingly feeding off the sense of injustice felt by the home side with some of the referees decisions. For Saints Morgan was just sensational. He's an easy player to pick out but even if you had been sleeping under a rock for the last few months you would have left being impressed by the guy. He tore Mckay apart on several occasions and I suspect Brad will be quite glad the game is over. A really good away support in attendance, about 800 odd, who never stopped singing for almost the entire game save for the few minutes when we finally found our shooting boots. Referee was laughable. Clearly not a fan of playing advantage.

The alleged incident(s) took place in the Main Stand at the refreshment stalls where fans of both sides were mixing. Punches were thrown and scuffles broke out. Utterly embarrassing antics especially given the ages of the fans concerned.

Stroll in the park last night. United were howling and utterly toothless up front. Much better performance from ICT compared to recent weeks, lots of chasing and harrying of the opposition forcing them into mistakes although sadly not many from Moshni who was actually pretty decent. Good play from Oakley for the opener. He cut in from the right and somehow sped past the United defender before he flicked a ball through to Doran and he found the net possibly via a deflection off Lewis. Oakley also managed to somehow managed to miss an open goal from a yard or so out after Austin fired towards goal. Second half was more of the same, us dominating but ultimately failing to find the net. Mackay had the best chance when he found space in the box but his fierce shot was smothered by Lewis. Mackay was lucky not to be sent off after a mental lunge at Robson (I think). Ross Tokely would have been proud of that attempt at a tackle. United only really threatened when MacDonald lifted the ball over the bar when he should have scored. Awful crowd, barely 1,600 there despite what ICT claim.

The forecast was for rain all day today up north but I assume it hasn't played out like that?

This is playing on my mind as well. Heading up from Edinburgh this afternoon. I guess if there is any doubt they'll need to make a call around lunchtime to save United and their fans from travelling but hopefully it goes ahead.

Erm, we did. https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/Sport/Football/Home-comforts-made-Coll-Donaldsons-decision-to-extend-Caley-Thistle-stay-an-easy-one-11122017.htm

Try telling these guys it's only a diddy cup...

They've sold more than 2,500.

They could have done it for the 2,000th and 2,500th person as well. Their ticket sales have been phenomenal for this game. I didn't think I'd see the day when ICT were outnumbered by Dumbarton in a cup final but that's what looks like happening tomorrow.

Personally I don't think they are. They aren't doing a bad job but everything seems a bit late in the day to drum up some interest. Harry Gows were given tickets last night to give away today and even they made a comment about the late notice given to them. I know there was a bit of a delay in getting the tickets to the clubs from the SPFL but that shouldn't have stopped ICT from drumming up some interest right from the word go. Most folk these days get their news from social media but until recently Facebook and Twitter were pretty quiet about this game. It doesn't take much to set up automated Tweets to ping out info about how to get tickets for the game. It was good to see that the team were going round schools in the area to get younger fans interested. However I would have liked to have seen more things like "The person who buys the 100th, 500th, 1000th ticket wins a special prize" and it could have been things at minimal cost to the club like signed strips, be a mascot at a home game (or even the final itself), do some more ties in with local shops to win tickets basically do anything to try and incentivize (is that a word?) folk to buy a ticket for this game.

I completely and utterly disagree with this "punching above our weight" stuff that people come out with. We've spent the majority of our existence at the top tier of Scottish football and comfortably so for the most part (albeit in the bottom half of the division). Saying that we were punching is pandering to the central belt consensus that only the historical biggest teams should be in the top division. I'm absolutely buzzing for tomorrows game. Initially I was slightly apathetic but the closer it's come to game day the more excited I am getting. Bring. It. On.

Eh? We've been playing like we did in the first half pretty much all season and look where it's got us. Far too often we pass the ball about well enough but have absolutely zero creativity in the final third and don't finish the few chances we create when they come our way. That's not how a team that will be "comfortably safe" performs.

I think it started around the 12/13 season when we were facing each other in the top flight for the first time. We also had El Kessecko around that time as well which I thought was decent but Cold Firm? Nah.

Caley Stan sums it up well. We dominated the first half without ever really threatening to score the goals needed to put us into a comfortable lead. Oakley was incredibly wasteful. Staggering that he gets a free ride from our fans when Baird was crucified any time he missed a good chance. We simply cannot afford to pass up the kinds of chances he did yesterday if we want to get a few more wins on the board. United were posted completely missing in the first half but the introduction of McDonald at half time and later on McMullan brought them a lot more joy and they had the measure of us for most of the second 45. I don't really know what their goal was like. They had a throw in about 30 yards from goal and I looked away for a couple of seconds only to turn round when I heard the home fans cheering Mulraney and Doran coming on helped us stem the tide a wee bit and get us back on the front foot on a few occasions towards the end of the game but again we didn't create too many clear cut chances to get a winner. And that is us in a nutshell really, plenty of the ball but very poor in the final third. Stan mentions Polworth being wasteful yesterday and whilst i agree I would also say that when he gets into those positions there is precious little movement ahead of him to seek out. There's no Billy Mckay type player hanging on the shoulder of the last defender looking to be played in on goal. Our crossing from wide areas is pretty poor and hold up play by the main striker isn't good enough and we turn the ball over before they get support up to assist. Defensively however I thought we were pretty decent yesterday, certainly less mistakes compared to Tuesday night and some other games recently. Even without Donaldson I thought we coped quite well with United for the most part despite being under the cosh in the second half. Warren mopped up a lot of attacks but Seedorf defensively was poor. Apart from Warren I thought Bell and Tremarco were probably our standouts. Bell brings a real energy to our attack buzzing all over the place to try and support Oakley whilst Tremarco is much more solid at LB than Calder. If we want to win the Challenge Cup next weekend we will need to up our performance again but I'm not too sure if some of these players have much more to give.

Encouraging...

United fans don't seem to think this will be on. Lots of water on the pitch that hasn't drained away.

Andrew Dallas is the referee. *insert angry gif here*

Who cares who was responsible. The fact is that Butcher had a system that worked well with a limited budget and signed some cracking players for us. Even when they moved on we still got some excellent replacements which were supplemented with cheap loan or short term signings. Hughes, with a bigger budget, completely failed to replace the good players when they left, signed about ten central midfielders and didn't address our shortcomings up front for the vast majority of his tenure. Your never ending romanticism with Hughes is, to a point, merited. I don't disagree that we will probably never hit those highs again. That said, you are also pretty deluded regarding other parts of his tenure, namely player recruitment, that, whilst an obstacle for previous managers, had still previously been accomplished with much greater success, and with less money to boot, than what Hughes had at his disposal. That failure to recruit well was the start of a slippery slope. Foran though was the catalyst for the resultant downfall.

The way wythank15 talks about Hughes you'd think he was the only ICT manager that had ever lost good players from his side and had budgetary constraints. Also worth remembering that our good form earlier in the season came with a front two of Baird and Bell who not only buzzed about the front line to create and take chances (less so in Bairds case!) but both did a power of work defending from the front which made us a lot more difficult to beat.

They had won about 3 games since the end of October. They were in complete and utter freefall.