RiG

It was announced on Twitter. I think it was Section K, Row N but the seat I don't know. I think it's in the family section.

Sportscene is muck so that's a good thing that we don't need to watch that mess to see our highlights however the wider issue of lack of exposure is a greater concern as I have said before. The only good things about going down if / when we do is more games at 3pm on a Saturday and more football during international breaks however these do not outweigh the significant negatives from relegation.

Foran went into the stand and sat with the fans, chatted to them, posed for photographs and signed programmes for supporters.

What a post that is. *stands up and starts to clap*

This was one of my biggest bugbears with Foran. Good performances against Dundee and Saint Johnstone earlier int he season and later against Hearts and Rangers and instead of keeping that same approach to games he changed it and results faltered thereafter. I know you can't play the same way every single week and you need wee tweaks here and there but it seemed bizarre to have these good games and see players like Tansey coming to the fray after looking lost for weeks only to change the set up again and then the likes of Tansey went back to being completely ill effective. He never seemed to want to build on good results and changed things around again, results again became poor but then he strangely started to stick with defensive and narrow setups.

Unfortunately winning just once in our last 23 games counts for more. Taking points off the likes of Rangers and Celtic is always great but our season is largely defined on points taken against the likes of Kilmarnock, Hamilton, Dundee and so on and this is something that we haven't done this season for a long time.

The point is that your bold claims about being some kind of soothsayer who foresaw this demise and rubbished claims of our new style of play at the time are simply garbage. I don't disagree that if Hughes was still in charge we probably wouldn't be on the cusp of being relegated however his time at the club was clearly at an end for reasons that have been discussed to death on this forum and he had to go. What he did with us was fantastic, taking a team we all thought was at its peak under Butcher and somehow got them playing even better. It was incredible. But after players started leaving, Hughes yet again showed his failings in the transfer market and couldn't replace those who left. Foran was clearly the cheap option but given the club have let Hughes spunk a mental amount of cash on the squad, gave him a new contract and then had to pay him off (and some allege are still paying him now), I am not sure what folk expected the club to do? That said I do think that the board should have acted back in January or whenever it was that we lost to Hamilton and, as much as I love Foran, sent him packing. It was clear by this point his tactical setups and team selections were questionable and we were already sliding down a very slippery slope. The fact is, blame can be apportioned on all parties here. Hughes for leaving a bloated, unbalanced squad in need of a serious overhaul with little cash for the incoming coach to work with, Foran for his largely poor signings, questionable selections and odd tactical setups and the board for sitting back and allowing this mess to develop.

Really? Let's take a look at what you said just before Hughes left and Foran came in. Hmm, so far it looks like you're pretty non plussed about Hughes leaving recognising that his style of play has it's limitations. Nothing obviously at this stage of anything suggesting that you had called out the new exciting brand of football as nonsense. Some pretty fair comments here, reservations about the lack of experience which was echoed by a number of ICT fans on here at the time and, with hindsight, a very accurate comment about needing an experienced number two. Still nothing about calling out the style of play as rubbish. Again, repeating the reservations concerning lack of experience but again nothing about calling out the new style of football as you claim. More doubts but ultimately comments hoping that Foran does well. I sense a pattern here. This is the last post of yours I could find close enough to the time of Forans appointment which talked about your thoughts on him taking charge. Yet again, no comments whatsoever about the style of play and indeed you thought we might even get into the top six! That's definitely setting your expectations quite low especially given your concerns about his lack of experience... You almost seem pleased that Foran has failed so you can tell everyone "I told you so!" yet it's also clear that some of the bold claims you are making now about being some kind of prophecy regarding calling out the style of football that was going to be on show are a load of bollocks.

Don't forget loss of TV money, potential loss of sponsorship, hospitality income etc. Relegation, financially, as an utterly horrendous issue for the club to have to deal with. There's talk of a significantly improved TV deal from BT in the very near future as well which we stand to miss out on if we don't get back up at the first time of asking. We're going to find it harder to recruit players and there is almost zero coverage of the Championship now that Rangers are in the Premiership (we've all seen how quickly BBC, BT and Sky dropped any kind of live games or highlights). As much as I love Foran there is absolutely no way that he should have been allowed to continue to oversee this shocking decline in the clubs fortunes. We absolutely had to stay in the Premiership and it shouldn't have mattered who was in charge we simply could not afford to allow relegation to happen. He should have walked after the 3 - 0 defeat to Accies instead we stuck whilst others twisted and we look set to pay a very heavy price.

Has he been told he is free to go? I recall he signed a six month extension to take up to the end of December 2017. He had a good season for Hearts in the Championship a couple of seasons back. Maybe it's his level. ETA: I see he has been told he has no future at Hearts: http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/sport/football/hearts/hearts-will-allow-billy-king-to-leave-on-free-transfer-1-4433554

Wouldn't be upset to see that line up TBH. I was wondering about possibly playing Fisher wide left and the reason for that is we used to do that with Foran when Mckay played up front. Foran was there for the long diagonal ball which he would often win and knock down to Mckay. Maybe Fisher could work playing there?

The day before a derby game and we have five posts about the game mostly whether or not we can watch it on TV. Looks like folk on here are as excited as I am for this game on Friday With Tremarco out injured and Warren (still?) suspended the defence needs to be rejigged again. We'll end up with three CBs again I'd imagine (probably Laing, McCart and Mckay) with McNaughton and Raven as full backs. If we do this I'd like to see a midfield three of Polworth, Tansey and Draper with Fisher and Mckay up front. There's little creativity or pace in that side but sadly this seems to be Forans favoured approach to games right now.

Tremarco out for six months according to Jamie Durrent. Maybe ICTBob can see the future!

At least 200.

As expected Hartley has been punted. http://dundeefc.co.uk/news/club-statement-paul-hartley/ Dundee have rolled the dice in a bid to stay up whereas we look content to fall away into the Championship.

It's clearly a bug bear of his and something he has been punished wrongly for in the past with the Guidetti dive.Pointing out the blatant hypocrisy of Celtic and their fans is hardly tantamount to showing disrespect to ICT.

That was clearly not the point of the tweet at all.

Looks like Dundee are set to sack Hartley to halt their slide down the table.

That's what I think whereas a red card suspension is immediate. I don't know what's more surprising - Sportsound getting something wrong or Sky Sports getting something right!

Liam Boyce is meant to miss the Motherwell game not the derby according to Sky Sports. Sportsound said he would miss the derby but later corrected themselves to say his suspension won't kick in until the Well match.

I had typed something up but I just don't care enough to post it. It's the same stuff most of us are saying on here week in week out and I just can't be bothered to repeat it. Foran never learns and the players don't seem to think they can get out of this mess. Fisher was our MotM and I thought Laing, McCart and Polworth did well. Again, some of the senior players let the side down badly yesterday but given the line up and selection from Foran we were on a hiding to nothing.

Who are these "goal scoring" players and what is this new found defensive strength? I've not seen much of it at all this season. I don't agree with refusing to go to the games because of the manager in general, but that's your call and you are of course free to do that, however I completely agree with the highlighted text. As we have said time and time again we have looked at our best playing a 4-2-3-1 with Polworth spearheading a midfield trio of Tansey and Draper. It's absolutely bananas for Foran to have continued to persevere with a toothless, narrow and negative 3-5-2 (or 5-3-2 however you might see it). We've barely looked any better at the back and we have completely stifled ourselves up front and are even blunter than before. Then we have the bizarre interviews praising the players one week then slagging them rotten the next. Hughes was criticised by many because of his pig headed stubbornness when he was here. Incredible that Foran doesn't get the same treatment.

One thing we simply can't afford to do is concede the opening goal. Our record when losing the first goal in the league is abysmal. We've conceded the first goal in 23 league games this season and so far have never recovered to win. Nine draws and fourteen losses in games when we concede the opener.