CaleyD

The club passed on the attached PDF file which they thought may be of interest to some people. Lots of stats, facts and info that might generate some interesting discussion. Vauxhall Media Bulletin - Scotland vs Liechtenstein and Spain.pdf

Seems to be this assumption that because players are on "short term" deals then they are immediately going to be gone at the end of that. Here's a revolutionary thought for you....maybe those players might extend their contracts, just like Terry and Mo have!!! What's more, maybe they might now be a lot more willing to extend those contracts now that Terry has extended his!!! Not all players are/were on short term deals...in fact, there's probably fewer than people think.

Terry is barely 3 months into his plan to bring a different approach to how ICT set up and play football. It's a long term plan and it's encouraging that the club are willing to commit to that by offering these extensions. Had things been going from bad to worse since the start of the season then I might be more inclined to agree with the "why now?" statements, but I think we've seen enough to know that we're actually on an upward trend and whilst it's not been the most pleasant of rides so far, things can only continue to improve. I see this as a sign that the club are regaining their confidence in the long term aspirations of the club and hopefully that will continue and we'll start to see those players Terry wishes to keep being offered longer contracts as well.

The Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC management team of Terry Butcher and Maurice Malpas have been offered, and have accepted, contract extensions which will keep them at Tulloch Caledonian Stadium until summer 2014. http://ictfc.com/news/team-news/224-new-two-year-deals-for-butcher-and-malpas

Scarlet, you'll be giving people nightmares with imagery like that

I believe the deal involves a bit more than just the cash injection. Don't know enough to form an opinion on whether I think it's the right/wrong way forward for ICT...but we're not exactly spoiled for choice and I stand by my thoughts that with nothing other than "a love for ICT" left to invest in, then motives can't be anything other than doing what's best for the club.

Aye - a very positive perspective but not as "real" as RIG's . I feel that the large majority of punters - irresepective of attendance or not - are proclaiming that we were fortunate at the close to have gained the three points because of a practically inherent failure to score goals and/or to take chances. At the end of the day it is a very valuable three points and I am sure that all of us would have taken that outcome at the start. But to me it is as much about entertainment, performance and ma old adage of the "togetherness" factor. It sounds as if those constituents were more prevalent yesterday and that is the biggest positive from my perspective. We scored more than they did...that's what won the game. The missed opportunities count for nothing if you have more goals when the final whistle blows. The performance was there, the entertainment was there and the "togetherness" has never been lacking this season, IMO, so I fail to see what point you are trying to make in that regard. Had we only a couple of shots and scored and had St Mirren been peppering our goal and not scoring then I might buy into the "having lady luck on our side" argument...but that wasn't the case. There's no sense of complacency with me. Like everyone else I have my opinions on team selection and tactics, I just don't see the point in trying to hammer team and/or manager with them off the back of a win. Whether or not I agreed with the selection/tactics yesterday counts for nothing. The team and tactics used won the game, and deservedly so, whether another team selection or set of tactics might have resulted in a higher win margin is neither here nor there. I did consider your view. However, given the fact that you are hypothesising on matters you didn't witness for yourself and trying to undermine or ridicule the views of those who were there, then your view/opinion on anything other than the result count for little and certainly don't move to make me think twice about my view/opinion on the match. You can stick that in whatever pigeon hole takes your fancy

I can only think that those who deemed todays win as "lucky" were not there to witness it for themselves. For all those knocking our conversion rate....take a look around at Attempts v Goal ratios for other teams. ICT today had 9 attempts and scored 2...Rangers had 16 and scored 1...Man U had 17 and score 2 against Norwich who had 13 and scored none. Thought todays game was thoroughly entertaining and I can certainly see why St Mirren have been doing so well as they play a nice passing game....but we contained that and limited them to 4 attempts at goal. What's more...for the vast majority of the game only one team ever looked like they were going to score, and it wasn't St Mirren. Make no mistake, todays victory was not some fluke result against poorly performing opponents...it was a hard earned and thoroughly deserved win for the better team. Not saying it was a perfect performance, but it was a winning performance and it does a dis-service to the players who secured the points to suggest otherwise.

No, that's not a confession, it's a Birthday Greeting for the user of that name who's now old enough to legally stand his hand in the pub!!! I wonder how many can identify him from this photo, taken during his time as an ICT Ballboy...any suggestions on suitable caption are welcome. Happy Birthday Mr G...hope you have a good one There's nothing like an impartial ballboy!!!

We'll happily carry your article on here as well if you like.

1. Given that it's our younger players who are performing the best so far this season, then an emphatic NO. 2. I thought he was perhaps coming to the end of his time at Right Back, but since being moved in to the middle the thought of him nearing the end of his time hasn't even come in to my head...so NO. 3. Our foreign players all have very good English..so NO. I think Bahaus has got it spot on. Our lack of (fully fit) defensive midfielders means there's a lot more pressure being put on a back line that, due to constant changes, isn't the solid unit we would wish it to be. As with anything that isn't at full strength, put enough pressure on it and the cracks begin to show.

I'm with those who say that we just don't know, nor can we be expected to know, what our 1st Choice starting 11 would be. It's just assumed that certain injured players would come straight back in to the squad, but (leaving aside the Utd game) there's not much individuals who are currently playing have done wrong to justify them being hooked as a matter of course. We're also in a situation where the current team are starting to get to know each other and you would have to weigh up the risk of upsetting that with the potential of any player returning from injury adding more than might be taken away. Then there's the fact that it's a dangerous mindset to believe that any one set of eleven players is going to be the best team to put out for every game. Against the stronger opponents we might want to set things up for counter-attacking football, whereas against teams closer to our level might demand a more positive attack minded team/formation. At home where we have plenty of width we might want to set ourselves up to exploit that, and at places such as Celtic Park (who I think still have the narrowest pitch in the league) you may want stronger as opposed to faster wide players.

Regulation states that stadia over 10k must be all-seater, but nowhere does it state you must sit. The "you must sit" is an SPL directive. Safety certificates issued by Local Authorities are exactly that. They assess the facilities as meeting all necessary safety regulations and sign them off as fit for purpose. My understanding is that Celtic have investigated everything and feel a case can be made (and would be accepted) for changing the legislation on stadia over 10k being allowed standing areas. The SPL rule that "you must sit" has no basis in law or legislation so it's effectively worthless and is an internal matter which the clubs themselves could easily change. The grey area is on whether stadia could change seated areas to standing areas (or have them dual purpose and allow standing in existing areas) and still obtain the local authority issued safety certificates. This has as much to do with the ability for exits to handle any increased capacity if emergency evacuation was required (and other related safety issues) as anything else. As far as TCS is concerned, we already have standing areas which have been signed off as "fit for purpose"....stadia are assessed as a whole, not on a "per stand/area" basis and nothing in our safety certificate states that any area cannot/should not be used. We're just not allowed to use them because SPL says so and we would be an ideal test bed for the re-introduction of standing areas without the need for any change in legislation (as we are under 10K capacity)....if the SPL were to allow it. Let's face it...the fact we're not allowed to use our terracing is nothing more than bureaucratic BS. The fact that we could use it and host larger crowds when we were in Div 1, yet somehow it becomes dangerous because we are in the SPL is utter nonsense.

Hard to find fault with any of the team today. Lost concentration and got dragged into Celtics game for about 5 minutes when changing from 10 men back to 11 and conceded the two goals...but aside from that, probably our best perforrmance of the season.

Absent Friend....you too are missing the point. People accept that we are hindered by injury, but the performance against Utd was not of the standard that it should have been...even allowing for injuries. If you take a baseline of 100 as being where we would be with all players available and 70 as being where we should be with injuries then ICT performed at about a level 40 last weekend for large spells. If we had performed at 60 to 70 throughout and lost, then the reaction would be a lot different, IMO. The "injuries" only account for so much of the teams drop in performance. I also fail to see how Butcher can justify having a pop at the fans for being upset when he himself has describe areas of our game as being woeful last weekend.

Ross Tokely and Terry Butcher speak to Iain Auld of MFR ahead of this weeks visit to Celtic. http://ictfc.com/news/team-news/206-defence-the-key-in-glasgow

The point that Butcher (and one or two on here, some of who weren't even at the game) seem to be missing is that much of the disappointment is not a result of us losing, it's the manner in which we lost. That has nothing to do with injuries or bad luck or the team still gelling...it's due to players not doing what we know they are capable of doing, getting the tactics wrong and failing to adapt. What does he expect in return for that...rapturous applause??? He thinks ICT fans are bad...the fans of many other clubs would be calling for a Managers head for being in the position we are in at present. He should be thankful that the fans, for the most part, appreciate what he's trying to do and appreciate that plan has been hampered a bit by injury and continue to show willing, support and Trust that it will come good. If he thinks the fans are against him then he's very much mistaken. If he wants to alienate the fans and turn them against him, then swearing at them in the vile manner he did is the surest way to go about it....especially when their was absolutely NO justification for it.

For all you golf lovers.....http://ictfc.com/news/events/204-golf-day

Will have more information to share on this shortly...please bare with me.

I thought we finally looked like a team that had got it together for the first 20+ minutes. Utd's first goal came against the run of play, but that didn't seem to phase us and the team were sticking to the game plan. The Nick Ross goal seems to getting credited as a "gift" but I disagree. Nick Ross has shown a willingness to be persistent in chasing everything. That together with split second timing is what resulted in him being in the right place to pinch the ball off the toe of the defender and stick it in the net. Anyway, whilst we stuck to our own game plan...which was being well executed...we looked the better team. It wasn't until we got drawn into playing Utd's game that the wheels started to come off. I think we missed Morrison in the middle of the park..in the same way as we used to miss having Duncan in there. Utd did to us what we normally do to other teams yesterday...punished us when hitting on the break. Mostly due to the fact that we spend more time backing off from anyone who makes a run towards the area instead of getting in the early tackle. I joked yesterday that, with the exception of Graeme Shinnie, our back line looked like it could run faster backwards than it could forwards. Foran wasn't right from the start of the game yesterday...he was slow and his reactions were definitely jaded. I was surprised he lasted as long on the park as he did. For the first time this season I came away from a game feeling more than a little concerned. I think it does most of the guys out there a disservice to suggest that we're struggling due to injuries and/or the team not having had time to gel. All Butcher had to do at half-time was get the team back out there playing the way they had for large spells of the first half (especially the first 20+ mins). If Golobart hasn't come off through injury then that change was the first mistake...he might have made a couple of errors, but a reminder to keep it simple would have stemmed that issue. Second error was taking on Shane Sutherland and sticking him out wide..the lad's a striker, play him in his natural position if you want to see the best of him. If Butcher wanted a wide player then we had Chippendale on the bench, given that the Utd defence had shown signs of weakness earlier in the game, then having a player with a bit of pace who, in his brief appearance last week, showed willingness to run at players, would have proved far more effective. In summary...the team lost their way a bit in the first half and just needed someone to get them to re-group...that never happened. Butcher lost his way in the second half and failed to rectify the issues we could all see from sitting in the stand. Yesterday was a bad day...pure and simple. We can't hide behind the "new squad and injuries" excuse any more. Everyone on the pitch yesterday is more than capable of producing a better performance over 90 minutes than we managed to do.

We can fit them in Bronson, no worries.

Still space for you if you want to join us.

http://ictfc.com/newsflash/176-celtic-away-24th-sept-ticket-details

Come on Alex, can't believe you're trying to make out that Conroy is anti-ICT just because he gives out a few extra cards in our games

Ticket Prices and Turnstile Information on the official website. http://ictfc.com/newsflash/196-dundee-utd-ticket-details