Huisdean

Agree with much of what you have said sheepslagger. The problem has not just been last season but not kicking on after we won the cup. Again the board must share some of the responsibility along with John Hughes. There does seem to be a total lack of understanding in football matters by the board which is something that could be fairly easily corrected and at no cost by getting the correct director in place.

Count me in as well. No reason to fear the Championship and if more fans would get behind the team (by turning up at games), we can come back stronger.

Absolutely not. Hartley is not a good manager and fail to see why some people rate him so highly.

Spot on. Where do many of the posters think new investment is going to come from. However, the board really do need to set out what their position is re a manager and next season by the end of this week as they should have been planning for this scenario. Sadly, I am not holding my breath on this.

But the JH situation appears to have been the trigger for much that happened afterwards. While not totally to blame for our current predicament, in my opinion JH certainly sowed some seeds of discontent that have continued into this season.

Agree with some of your points but........... what is to stop us coming up next season. Weakest Championship for a while but, and it is a big but, we have to get ourselves sorted out as a club quickly. Priority has to be getting promoted next season but in tandem with that, we have to look at our coaching system, scouting etc. While you may see decent "prospects" davie B, there is no guarantee that they will develop into first team players and I am of the opinion that, in Scotland, we over coach our players so they are unable to think for themselves but that is another issue. In addition to lookinh for more talent locally, we also need to look at the Highland league for players in my opinion. There has always been talent there but is very often overlooked. Again, in my opinion, we should pull out of the Under 20 league and farm out players to the Highland league, which to be fair we do, as this provides a better footballing education for them. Should we look at taking over a Highland league team, possibly too late to do that now but something to consider perhaps. In summary, priority has to be promotion next season but we do also have a chance to restructure the club but is the club bold enough to make radical changes?. Unfortunately, I have no confidence in the Board who seem happy to hide away and not look at how the club could be taken forward, and let's be honest, a lot of this is not rocket science.

This is the point I was trying to make but Tree puts it so much better. As with any company, it is the shareholders who bear any loss, not the directors and I reiterate my earlier point that if you make directors liable for losses, very few will want to be a director. To suggest otherwise is nonsense Caleyboy. I am certainly not commenting on the performance of the current board as that is another discussion for another day.

The Board are private individuals and, whatever you may think of them for our current plight, some have invested their own money already in the club. Why then should the individuals fund the losses incurred by relegation. If this was to happen you would have no board members or only ones who can afford to throw away money like Uncle Roy up the road.

Like Caman, I just don't see why Paul Hartley is being touted for ICT. I don't think he is a great manager, his record is not great and he is not the man I would want to replace RF.

While this may be slightly off topic, if/when we get relegated, there is a chance to start afresh with many things next season. Getting back to a more "local or Scottish squad would help and I refuse to believe there are not some players in the Highland League who could step up albeit part time or full time. While I accept that fans may not turn out in the same numbers as this season, the club will really need supporters to back the team. Boycotting the team because RF/The Board haven't resigned next season will only hasten any demise. There is a 1 in 4 opportunity to get promotion either directly or via the play offs which wasn't their previously so better odds than previously to get promotion. All of this does come with a huge caveat however in that the board/manager must get their planning right in the summer and that is the part which worries me most.

I stand corrected but will these players actually be with us next season?

Sad, so very sad to see what has become of ICT this season. Even sadder when I think about Friday's game as County were no world beaters and were beatable but when you gift them 3 goals, and we have gifted goals all season, then we have no chance. I actually bumped into RF on Friday morning and he appeared relaxed and upbeat, confident even so what happened between then and Friday night is anyone's guess but the loss of the first goal, and the manner of it killed us. As for blame, while RF is culpable as the manager, the board are much more culpable for putting him in this position. What is even more worrying for me, as some others have pointed out, is that we seem to have no long term plan/strategy for the club. We seem to have minimal development of young players, a scouting system that doesn't work and absolutely no fan engagement with the board. We should be encouraging greater links with Highland League clubs to develop/scout players and, IMO, should consider leaving the U20 league and loan players out to the Highland League to aid their development. It seems that the fans can easily come up with ways to take the club forward but the board cannot. Business men, don't make me laugh!. Community buy out anyone?

Totally agree Caley Boy

Certainly a confusing appointment although the confusion is of the Board's making. However, the appointment has been made and it is pointless to speculate or criticise on the appointment until we see if it succeeds or not. If it does, then the appointment will have been worth it so it would be prudent for some of the more excitable posters to calm down. If it doesn't work, then by all means then let rip.

I am astonished that anyone is contemplating having John Hughes back as a manager. His signings were even poorer than Foran's and our style of play had become so predictable that teams soon sussed out how to play against us and we had no plan B. Would we have changed our style this season under John Hughes and been more exciting to watch, would he have signed better players than previously, the evidence suggests otherwise. There are in fact many similarities between JH and RF's style of management in that they are both stubborn and will not change their approach even when everyone can see that change is needed. Is that the one bit of experience RF picked up from JH?

For what it's worth, This is the split in the board that I referred to in another post. My understanding is that the Muirfield Mills were not happy with the ways things were going but did not have a majority on the board to change things. I think this is bad news for us unless this puts pressure on existing board members to up their game or resign.

While relegation can happen to most teams if they have a bad season ( and some fans need to realise that bigger teams than us have been relegated or escaped relegation on technicalities), the bigger issue for me has been the performance of the board and not just this season. I have posted several times on this but we do not seem to have any long term strategy for the club or if we do, then I for one am certainly not aware. I have heard, but have no proof, that there are splits in the board but there seems to be a general lack of drive and ambition from them. Not knowing them personally, I could be wrong and it may be just my perception but perception is a powerful tool. It the, as it now appears, the inevitable happens, and we do get relegated, then fans do need to get behind the team and support in similar numbers as they do currently. That would help the team, and finances greatly but this is where the actions of the board are crucial. They do need to show they have a viable plan to take the club forward if relegation happens but I am not holding my breath on this and say that with great sadness. While RF and the players have had to face the media, take flack from supporters etc, the board have been hugely anonymous (I appreciate they have to be careful in what they say and how people interpret what they say) but the silence has been very disappointing to me and is indicative of the fact that there are no real leaders in the boardroom. Fully appreciate this may not be on topic so feel free to move if required but Saturdays result really was a bitter blow.

Agree totally and think a lot of this is down to his association with John Hughes. He is certainly a more experienced coach than RF. Unless you have evidence that this is the case, then this is just pure speculation and doesn't help matters.

Seriously with pace out wide that Aberdeen have. May work on Football Manager but not in real life.

Boyd was making these sort of challenges on Billy McKay all game long and was not penalised by the referee. At least he was consistent(ly) poor.

Just don't buy that his form has improved since he knew deal was done. Think the more likely cause for the deal being done is that Aberdeen are losing McGinn and possibly Jack so they needed to move quickly. If nobody else was interested in signing him, then where else was he going to go if offered more money by Aberdeen. Personally, Hearts or Rangers could equally have signed Tansey and he would have been an asset to them as he was to us but they didn't show interest as did nobody of any interest in England.

Have to disagree on this. That was not the only tactic we used but as time went on, we needed to try and win somehow so every tactic had to be followed. The key today was getting the second goal, same as the County game but we couldn't get it. We were the better team today and nobody will convince me otherwise. Sure at the end, we were hanging on a bit but we were chasing the game for a winner so had to take some risks which I don't think is being appreciated. The pressure Kilmarnock had was what we had for large parts of the game, no more no less. I agree we need some luck, which we simply are not getting at the moment but we are certainly not relegated yet.

Not at all IHE and idiotic to suggest. Today proved that we don't have the personnel to play a 5 at the back and even Foran saw it wasn't working and changed it to a back 4 putting Laing into midfield which was baffling and moving Draper up front. I think Brad Mackay was injured which is why McNaughton came on and he had a pretty good game. Draper probably had one of his worst games in recent times and struggled to pass to his own team. Had we got the second goal our play did deserve, and that was due to their keeper, then we would not have needed Fon Williams to make the saves he did. We really should have put the game to bed before Kilmarnock's late rally bit it really wasn't for want of trying. Not our best performance but certainly not our worst. Finally a word on the officials today who were truly dreadful. Bobby Madden penalised any sort of contact by our players, some even with no contact, yet let Mckay be fouled all afternoon by Boyd. Penalty looked soft but difficult to see where I sit but Madden gave it instantly. If he gives that, then he must give some of the fouls on Billy but he didn't. The simulation by Jones was so blatant yet only a warning while he told Mulreaney he dived when blatantly fouled. Had he given the foul, he would have to send Dicker off but Madden bottled it completely. How Kris Boyd gets away with his tactics of simply not challenging for the ball then waiting to get the foul he plays for is beyond me. The referees poor performance could have cost us dear as several free kicks given to Kilmarnock in good areas that were patently not free kicks. The treatment of Mulreaney by Kilmarnock was poor, and also aided by the ref as several poor tackles made on him that largely went unpunished. Would not be surprised to see Mulreaney out injured again as a result. Poor result for us with the way the other results went but genuinely didn't think we deserved this result and more than merited a win but luck is definitely not going our way.

Polworth has a fair bit of work to do if he is to become a nailed on first team pick. Nobody "deserves" to be a first team pick, they have to earn it and Polworth has not done that for me yet. As for Greg Tansey, I am astonished that some posters are effectively saying good riddance to him and he was not that great a player/will be a big loss. He has been the midfielder most able to influence games for us and we are undoubtedly a poorer team without him. I don't think he has been as bad this season as some make out but not playing him in his best position in games has diminished his influence in my opinion. All the best Greg for the future.

As is your nonsensical reply. Perhaps if we all had more respect for each other............