starchief

I also don't think it was a penalty from Meekings.  If Josh hadn't touched Rooney, Adam would still have put the ball out after a heavy touch, then fallen over.  A slight toucvh changed nothing.  No advantage/disadvantage from it.

Big Celtic fan hated by Celtic fans due to his carping about the club.  Also hated by Rangers due to being a Celtic fan, so carps on about Rangers.  Also hated by non-Old Firm fans due to constantly carping on about the Old Firm.  Usual rubbish from columnists (not really a reporter as it's opinions usually represented, not in-depth investigations).  He's little more than a blogger. Who cares?  There's nothing in these papers, except celebrities and opinions dressed up as fact.

Draper was ineffective, running after the game. Shinnie was the best on the pitch. Doran improved things for us, just wish Draper had made way.

I'm astonished you think that.

Yeah, I've been thinking about this.  The cup is just a one-off.  Europe shows far more consistency.  Definitely the more prized*.

*I reserve my right to change that to 'top six is the most important', 'finishing above Butcher is the most important', 'beating Ross County is the most important' or 'avoiding relegation is the most important' according to seasonal factors, such as being rubbish.

Doran looked really dangerous when he came on.  But I'm not sure he would have if he'd been on at the start. The tactics were a return to what we looked so good at: i.e. counter-attacking. 

In the run-up, I'd said Foran and Tansey as the holding midfielders, with Draper playing behind the striker.  I was wrong.  I'd dissed Tansey for not having the pace to play that role (he hasn't) but I think he should have been pushed forward for the long shot.  Not too far forward but enough for the ball to come back to him, then pow!  It's over the bar!  (but maybe in the back of the net occassionally).

Watkins looked good (not so much yesterday but decent enough).  I'd like to see a Ross-Watkins-Doran tried, with Watkins in the hole.  Maybe that would give us a better chance of a goal, rather than the more midfield Vincent/Foran/Ross in there.

All-in-all, we more than matched the team everyone has tipped to become the big force in Scottish football outside Celtic.  A first cup final is as much an announcement as getting into the SFL or being promoted to the SPL.  We are now very much a top six team.  We challenge for Europe.  We challenge for cups.  They're not easy things to win (ask Aberdeen, Hibs etc.) but, for the first time in our history, we deserve to be spoken about in the same breath as the New Firm and more feared than the Edinburgh clubs.

How far we've come.

He's probably closest to what we have for a substitute striker (even if he isn't), so I think he'll make the bench myself.

The team largely picks itself apart from a choice between Foran, Tansey, Draper and Vincent.  Two in the holding and one in the advanced.  Normally Vincent up front but he's not really done anything since injury.  I don't think Tansey has that pace, so I'd go for Draper there, with Tansey and Foran behind.

Williams  -  Watkins  -  Doran might also be an option but I think Williams more as a substitute if we're chasing the game.

I'd take a cup win even if it meant relegation.  My pre-ICT team was St Mirren.  They won the cup in 1987 and the team was:

Money; Wilson Cooper Winnie Hamilton; Lambert Abercromby Ferguson Hamilton; McDowall McGarvey, and managed by Alex Smith with Jimmy Bone.

Ian Cameron had a delayed arrival as he was sitting his finals for his degree, whilst Tony Fitzpatrick got on late - a true Buddies legend.  Big Peter Godfrey was our Bobby Mann but injury earlier on stopped him getting into the final team but he deserved it.

St Mirren then got relegated.  Can't exactly remember the year.  Can't remember the manager (might have been Fitz).  Can't pick out the team.

This will be the same for ICT.  A cup win for ICT will live in legend.  Way more bigger than either Europe or a league position.

Brill

Warren  -  Meekings  -  Devine  -  Tremarco

Ross  -  Foran

Williams  -  Vincent  -  Greenhalgh

Christie

Devine needs a game.  Foran and Vincent need to prove themselves. Raven, Doran, Shinne and McKay are key so need a rest.  Williams and Ross can edge themselves into the cup final team.  Warren would normally swap with Meekings but I'd rather a defensive right-back to give the centre pairing an understanding.

We've switched from a back four with two defensive midfielders to a back four with no defensive midfielders.  Hence, the heavy defeats.  It's not an unexplainable loss of form.

Now that is a real Project Fear possibility the Unionists are not using to scare the crap out of us...because it is one we can avoid with independence.

Sure, by following the French model advocated by Gordon Brown.  The one that's led to even heavier debt levels in that country than than previously.  The same policy that led to the voting out of the Spanish government when theirs failed too.

The only point I would make on this is that a lot of "fans" did not want Hughes in the first place so are just itching to find things to show him in a bad light and be sacked

Rubbish.  I'd be delighted if he proved me wrong.  He hasn't and his football management history doesn't leave a lot to look forward to.

Where would that leave, us, trying to find a new manager again, destabilising the club for several months and no guarantee we will be any better off with a new manager

Could have said the same with Brewster but I thibnk we should have got shot of him sooner.

The same nonsense was spouted about Butcher when we had a bad run under him

Not by me.  But then, he took over a club almost certain to be relegated with a high turnover of staff.  Not a 2nd placed team that can only beat Stranraer at home.

If this club starts to go down the lines of other clubs and firing managers afyer months in the job, we will suffer in the long term.         

Generally yes.  But bolting the stable door after the horse has bolted led Aberdeen to years of relegation battles and bottom-six standings.  Got to be balanced.

A couple??? More than that.  He was a poor choice that needed to win over the fans.  When is the time when enough is enough?

The only team we've beaten at home since November is Stranraer.  It's down to tactics, not players that got us to second.

It's not.  I didn't resurrect this post based on one result.  Will ICT be better next season with or without Hughes?  I see nothing to say 'with' and plenty to go for change.  Yogi just doesn't seem able to pinpoint what's wrong.  That happened with his previous clubs too but at least that was after a time.

the management team did nothing wrong today, it's the players responsibility to be up for such an important game

You thought Yogi's tactics worked?

Seems Yogi was disappointed by the defending.  How did that unit suddenly become so leaky?  Well, if Yogi can't figure out, I'll tell him.  Previously, we played counter-attack, with one, usually two, defensive midlfielders. Draper and Foran aren't great passers but they can attack when flinging the ball out to speedy wide men.  Does Hughes, with all his years of experience, not know this?  And, if he does, why does he think his system will work under players that revel in a different one?

I'm amazed Yogi still hasn't got to grips with the team.  A succession of reds, Billy struggling to get a goal and poor results doesn't bode well for the future.  I hope he wins the cup for us but if he stays on, then he needs to dismantle the team.  He's not going to get a dominating team that can push forward and score more than we concede with this squad.  It's the team or the manager.

So either we lose a number of players and give Yogi a bit of money so he can buy in some big strong players to match bigger-spenders in the league, or we cut our losses, let Yogi go and bring in someone that knows we have to play a counter-attacking intelligent style with the same players we have.  I'm for the latter.

I desperately hope we win the cup.  But it seems a one-off to me.  I cannot see us improving under this manager.  I don't expect him to get sacked (we've not got that kind of board)  but I would rather we cut our losses sooner rather than later.  I'd said to give Hughes til the end of the season but that's too long now.  He can't take us forward, other than a one-off cup final.  I fear for next season.

Bit of a harsh red but not unheard of.  Not too many complaints over it, though a yellow would have sufficed.  Tansey should have done better.

Butcher built us on a 4-2-3-1 counter-attacking style.  Hughes giving it a "right good go" is leaving us exposed.  There's got to be more intelligence to our play. Attempting to dominate is not our way.  Let's absorb the pressure, then hit on the break with plenty of pace and touch.

rebelwithoutaclue: saying "it'll be alright on the night" is only an argument for independence diehards.  It will, quite rightly, persuade nobody wavering.

Alex MacLeod: saying we won't pay isn't living in the real world.  We'd be viewed unreliably by the financial markets.  It's a non-starter and not the confrontation most Scots want.

I'm astonished that the SNP hasn't got a raft of measures thought up over the last 10 years or so detailing what would happen in the event of no pound, or under what terms we would join or refuse to join the EU, if the doubts of secession came to pass. Burying heads in sand is quite stunningly poor.  I expected a lot more detail on alternatives.

my personal view is that many people are now seeing that right wing labour will not work for the majority of traditional socialist voters. Theres no more "I vote that way cos my daddy voted that way". People are taking an interest and basing their votes on the actions they see coming to fruition.

Yeah, people I know who are so anti-Tory and pro-Labour (usually on Facebook), I ask what it is about Labour they actually support?  Was it war in Iraq?  Cosying up to the bankers?  Virtually bankrupting the country?  Having lower taxes for top earners than the current government?  Mass unskilled immigration?  Biggest drop in workers' wages ever recorded?  Higher unemployment than now?

And the answer is inevitably that they were socialist 30 years ago!?!?  In fact, I even knew people that voted Labour because they were anti-Iraq War, as if voting Labour would get you a non-Labour government.  When will people learn that its Blair, Brown and Mandelson that are the foundation of modern Labour, not Keir Hardy to Wilson?

Couldn't care less about matches against the Old Firm (what there is left).  And I don't just mean when it's ICT. It's boring.  Just exhibitions.  Will Barcelona beat Blackpool?  Yeah, of course, unless the multi-millionaires can't be bothered. Who will win the SPL this year? Who will win it next? They aren't worth bothering about.

If you had a big Alsatian dog and supported Wolverhampton Wanderers, there's only one name you could call it...

...Derek Dougan

Charlie Christie refused my offer to buy him a drink. What a heartbreaker.

Absinthe and saki normally goes down so well on a Tuesday night too.  You didn't forget the maraschino cherries did you*?

(*for lovers of either Double Diamond or Bass for the more mature amongst us)