Huisdean

Given RFs comments post match, the team selection for the Dundee game will be very interesting, Realistically, the only changes can be made on midfield/up front as no scope for changes in defence where, arguably, most change is needed.

Agree with much of what DD has said. I was going to post on Saturday night along the lines of the worst performance of the season, team was very flat etc but then discovered that several players were suffering from illness and some players were not a 100% fit. That may explain the display in part. We may have suffered from bad luck in previous games but that was repaid in a large part on Saturday as if Partick had a decent striker, we would have lost. We did get a much needed clean sheet but this was as much down to luck that a truly great defensive performance. Of the team, Fon Williams did have a better game but still does not command his box as he should. Raven was obviously not a 100% fit and was pretty poor until late on in the game when he surprisingly started to get forward more. Warren and McKay did okay but Warren's booking was needless although I can sympathise with his frustration with the referee. They were certainly not a solid defensive partnership however. The midfield was poor and while excuses could be made for Tansy and Draper due to injury/fitness, Cole and Polworth need to contribute much more for 90 minutes than they currently do and they both need to improve on their defensive work. Doumbouya was poor although I do have some sympathy for him as he constantly gets fouled by defenders and receives little protection from referees. Anier was a bit rusty but think he could come good for us but only if we can get another forward for him to play off. Of the substitutions, Vigurs made a difference but how Mulraney got on before Doran is mystifying. Why Doran was dropped in the first place was also a mystery. Mulraney really needs to work on his final ball as I have yet to see him deliver one of any value. Until he does, I would be tempted not to play him ahead of other players. Therein lies the problem perhaps with the team, not so much the personnel but the tactics/formations used by RF. I don't think he knows his best team/formation but now needs to decide on his best team, starting tomorrow and the formation to get the best out of that team. Chopping and changing a couple of players each week is not working and consistency of selection, barring injuries of course, is badly needed. Finally the board, I think they are very much like rabbits caught in the headlines at the moment. I think they need to be more proactive and vocal in their support of RF and if they are not because they want to ditch him if things don't go well in the next few games, this may well mean they are too late to change things. I genuinely don't have any knowledge of how they view the situation but to me Ritchie needs some help from an experienced manager at the moment. Apologies for the long post but this may well be a defining week for us this season.

While not overly happy with the kick off time, this is dictated by the TV companies. I think the kick off time will hit the crowd size for both clubs and to be honest, the Old Firm do not get as big a crowd as they used to until they reach the semis and even then not always. If we were drawn at home, would we be complaining at a 1215 kick off despite any inconvenience for Celtic fans. If the club could subsidise the cost of travel then this would be helpful but having the opportunity to watch the game at the stadium with fellow fans is the next best thing for fans who cannot attend.

Wasn't at the Elgin game but if Cole played as well as reported, a bit harsh to drop him. He does give us something different when he runs at people with the ball but can go missing when the game is physical. May be an option to give him 45 minutes and if he is not performing, then sub him at half time.

Well said IHE. The man is a total joke.

Didn't know we had so many behavioural analyst experts posting on this site.

AS per usual Dougal, what utter nonsense

I have to say there has been some incredibly negative postings on this. Obviously results have not gone our way recently but while some of this has been down to poor play, I think it is fair to say we have carried little luck this season and suffered from some poor refereeing decisions. We should have won against Motherwell as we should have won against Hamilton and possibly should have drawn/won against Sevco. The margins in the league are just so tight this season that having that little bit of luck can make a huge difference. I also have to agree with other posters who have criticised the booing of the MOTM award for Vigurs. Everyone knows that the award is sponsored and some sponsors obviously have their own agenda for the award but to boo one of our own players for this is totally wrong. This forum seems to have a tendency for posters to pick on certain players when things go wrong and blame them for all our ills. The continued criticism of Tansey and Vigurs is totally unjustified. Sure Tansey may not be playing at his best but for some to suggest he is not trying is crazy. The criticism of Vigurs seems, to me, to be a case that many supporters don't like him because he left us for County and not on his actual football ability. These two players are not the reason we are where we are this season as football is a team game. I do genuinely think we are one win from turning the season around, and wouldn't it be good for that to start at Dingwall. Call me a happy clapper if you want but some of the posts on this game have really saddened and depressed me as a supporter.

But will IHE appear as Peter Pan

We have a goalkeeper injury crisis! OFW and Ryan injured, Cammy Mackay back on loan at Elgin and Daniel Hobban also injured. Only available keeper is a 16 year old youth player. This could see the Hamilton game being postponed. Where is this information from. Nothing on STV news tonight?

Are you at the game Hiro, if not how can you say players not pulling their weight. Vigurs and Tansey consistently getting slated and not always deserved.

I think he was definitely missed from the midfield against Aberdeen and truly cannot believe some of the criticism he has been getting on this forum. Has Tansey been our worst performer this season, far from it and while he may not be hitting his normal high standards, he should still be one of the first names on the team sheet as he does offer something different for our midfield. As for being dropped, it wasn't that long ago that many posters on here were wanting a certain forward dropped and looked how that has turned out. As for a deal with Aberdeen for Storey, that is a complete non starter.

I think Mr Shinnie forfeited that right during the game when Ryan Christie got sent off and last Saturday's game when he was as bad as other Aberdeen players for gamesmanship. Would you treat your former employer like that?.

Ironically, they will probably succeed as this was a foul but yet another decision the ref got wrong. If only the ref had done this at the free kick from which Aberdeen scored their first goal. Have to agree with other posters that Aberdeen players were going down exceptionally easily and conned the referee although the referee should be able to deal with this better than he did on Saturday. The Aberdeen management team were also at the fourth official all game trying to pressurise him. No class at all from either the team or their management.

See this kinda thing really pisses me off, it's one thing if were getting beaten trying but why do we need to underperform in so many games. It's not like we CANT do it, we've shown we can.. So what's the problem? Too much time off, too much nights out on the ****, no desire to progress? If we're not careful we'll be firmly rooted to the bottom by Christmas A Bit harsh. Players don't deliberately go out to play badly. Some players had an off day yesterday and, on the day, Aberdeen were the better team when it mattered, albeit aided and abetted by a very poor referee. On the subject of the referees, they seem to be getting progressively worse, certainly at the home games this season and do appear to have it in for ICT. Hope I am wrong but key decisions are clearly not being given to ICT or we are being treated differently from the opposing team. It does also appear that referees have stopped penalising defenders who blatantly foul forwards by holding them, pushing them and climbing all over them.

Put the big spoon away Johndo.

Feel a bit disappointed not to come away with a win after the performance put in by the team and the challenges that had to be overcome with the loss to injury of Fon Williams, Tremarco, Doran and Vigurs. Don't know what happened to Fon Williams but Tremarco looked like a hamstring injury and Doran and Vigurs looked like groin injuries so all could be out for a few weeks. Had we kept them all on, result may well have been different. Back to the game and, to be honest, only one team tried to play football and it wasn't Hearts. If anyone ever accuses ICT of being a physical team, they should look at Hearts. Yet again some of their play acting was dreadful and in this they were aided and abetted by a truly woeful refereeing performance. Don't think Doumboya got any protection from the ref and was constantly being fouled. Glaringly obvious pushes by Hearts went unpunished. Craig Thomson was truly truly dreadful and should be ashamed of such a poor performance. While we are still a work in progress as a team, if we can keep these players together, we can go places as a team, maybe not this season but the potential is there. The public of Inverness need to get out and support this team as today was really good entertainment.

But the point is that he has now played there often enough to improve in that position but looks to have not learned anything. That is not good enough I'm afraid. The manager is trying to accommodate the midfielders he has so someone has to play out of their favoured position at times. Better to play surely than be on the bench but if Polworth cannot adapt then something needs to change. I genuinely think that we cannot play both Vigurs and Polworth they way Ritchie wants the team to play now but that is up to the manager.

Tansey needs to start as he is us better options so I would drop Polworth and either keep Vigurs in or play with Fisher and Boden up front.

Strange how fans see some things differently. First of all, have to agree a poor game overall but cannot agree over some of the comments on certain players. The criticism of Vigurs by many is harsh as he certainly put in the effort as far as I was concerned and played himself out of some tricky situations well. While Polworth may not be playing in his best/favoured position, he needs to accept that he must learn to play there and not look so lost at times. He is after all a professional footballer. Dounbaye played a bit better and did win quite a few balls in the air. He was however continually fouled while challenging for the ball (Killie players using their arms to jump over him or wrap their arms around him) which made it difficult for him. Some posters have to remember where our strikers have come from and to expect them all to hit the ground running is simply not realistic. Remember how slow some of our best goal scorers started slowly (Wyness/Dargo/Mckay) so give them some time. Someone commented earlier that the subs were okay except Boden. Given he was on the field for the least amount of time, this was harsh and I thought he did okay and complemented Dounbaye. We seriously, in my opinion, need to experiment playing with two strikers. The reality is that too many players had a bad day at the office yesterday which I am sure they will admit. It also has to be understood that our new manager will make mistakes as that is the only way he will learn. Some things he has picked up such as better use of subs and trying to win/draw late on in games which his predecessor failed miserably at but worringly perhaps he has inherited some of Hughes stubbornness in playing certain player in roles they are not suited to or leave the team unbalanced.

Maybe not but a Fisher/Boden front two has merit for me and is worth a try at some point.

Cannot believe some of the posts on the game. I thought we played pretty well for the most part and could/should have got a point at least which would have been deserved. We did need more pace and it was noticeable that our best spell came when Doran and Mulraney introduced. I don't think we can afford to play Vigurs and Polworth together the way we are playing this season as neither are good at providing defensive support so to play them both is a luxury we cannot afford. Genuinely think Polworth needs to be the one to drop out as he is not playing well (as is Vigurs but I think Vigurs can provide that extra bit of class we sometimes need). On another night things will go better for us but a special mention to Ross Draper who was immense for us. Where would be without him. On other matters, someone has already mentioned the so called ICT fans waving a tricolour. These idiots are not fans and should be ashamed of themselves ( in case anyone responds with this was done to support our manager/Irish players, why was this not done previously?). I also take it Rangers FC do not understand irony. Cars stating give racism the red card displayed by both teams at the start then RFC fans proceed to sing racist and bigoted songs all evening with no sanction. When will the SFA/SPFL grow some balls and actually take some action against the clubs for this. Although a good crowd last night, very noticeable the number of rangers supporters in the main stand, three in front of me who hardly uttered anything all night but gave me dirty looks when shouting on ICT and criticising Rangers. Finally, Willie Collum. How is this clown still a referee at this level. Last night, he gave fouls that nobody else saw, missed blatant fouls, for both teams, played advantage for Rangers on every occasion yet stopped us twice when we had good potential breaks on. Marked reluctance to caution Rangers players early on yet no hesitation in booking Tansey. Maybe he should dress up as a clown to match his persona.

S Sorry but if some of our fans look to cause trouble at a game, then I for one don't want these "fans" attending. Not at the game so cannot comment specifically on yesterday but having been verbally abused by some of our "young fans" after the County game when I told them to behave and not cause trouble outside the ground, if these are the same fans then as far as I am concerned they are not welcome.

I moved to Inverness in 1967 from Aberdeen and because I stayed "up the hill", Inverness Thistle were my adopted team. My first game I attended was against Elgin and the crowd was certainly in the thousands, three perhaps. I well remember local derbies getting crows of 4/5 thousand as would Scottish Cup ties during the seventies. I w as also a season ticket holder at Thistle for many years but crowds had started to diminish from the eighties onward and at the end, crowds were down to the low hundreds for all Inverness clubs. Anyone who states otherwise has a very selective memory. Crowds in Scotland have diminished since the late sixties for many reasons, not least because there are so many alternatives on a Saturday afternoon now. As a last example, before I moved up from Aberdeen, who my father took me to watch, they reached the Scottish Cup Final in 1967. On the way to that, they had a replay against Hearts, I think midweek and drew an astonishing crowd of 45000 to Pittodrie. How great would that be now.

Really good and thoughtful interview totally ruined by the host (Kenny McIntyre?) not discussing with the guests on the show but immediately cutting back to the Celtic game. Pretty shocking stuff but to be expected from Sportsound.