CaleyD

Looks like we can strike the OG off McBains list of offences from Saturday Clicky Clicky

Heard that Rory is actually still on the books. He thought he had a deal lined up with someone else (I heard Peterhead) but that didn't transpire and the paperwork dissolving his contract with ICT (by mutual consent) had not been completed so he's still here and still drawing a wage.

Yeah yeah....just you whip it out and urinate all over my parade. I take back everything I said about giving the club the benefit of the doubt...will go and sulk for a little, and then come back and give Butcher my full support.

Johnboy, I'm actually going to give the club the benefit of the doubt at this point in time. After the failure of re-appointing Brewster then they will have an understandable "mental block" about going down that route and appointing Robbo, despite the scenario being entirely different. I just hope that they've spent the last week working through that by speaking to all suitable candidates and arriving at the conclusion many of us reached a long while back. For many on the board this could be a do or die decision....get it wrong, and no matter how they try and spin it, then they would have no choice but to walk themselves. I'm quite happy to have shown a bit of patience under those circumstances.

My gut is telling me that Robbo is going to be the man announced....but I have nothing other than intuition to base it on.

Had it been in December then it would have opened the "suitable candidate" field a bit and brought in those who might be proven and experienced, but perhaps didn't have specific knowledge of the team and/or the SPL. They would have had some time to get to know the squad and then be able to make decisions from there. Unfortunately it's not December, it's the end of January. We have less than a week to go in the transfer window and as far as I am concerned there's only one of the "current favourites" for the job who can hand on heart say that he knows the team/club and would be positioned to hit the ground running (well, flying is what he needs to be doing). Up until now, we might have been able to afford someone like a Knox or Butcher a couple of days to get a feel for the place before doing anything....but we're now at the stage where I think that appointing anyone other than Robbo would be negligent on the part of the Board.

In terms of rescuing the season it matters not a jot whether we like, dislike or are indifferent to the recent signings or if Brewster should have been allowed to sign them shortly before being sacked. The fact is, they are here, and the incoming manager has to assess them along with the remainder of the squad and decide what part they can play in turning things around. One question I hope that is coming up in interviews is "Have you identified players you might want to bring in before Monday?". I would expect any Manager who is serious about the job to have done his homework on that and perhaps even gone so far as to make a couple of "If I got the job would you be interested in coming to ICT" type phone calls to potential targets....I know that's what I would have spent the last week doing if I was a manager throwing my hat into the ring for the job.

While you're at it, could you check how that compares with his post-ICT record? We all know that he did very well with us in the First Division, but it's what he's done since leaving that concerns me. Win - - Loss - - Draw 33.33% 33.33% 33.33% - Derry 29.41% 50.98% 19.61% - Livi 40.00% 26.67% 33.33% - C*unty 37.14% 37.14% 25.71% - Hearts 52.38% 32.14% 15.48% - ICT 41.15% 37.32% 21.53% - Overall E&OE - Based on easiest figures I had to hand.

I think the fact that Hearts don't have two pennies to rub together and are desperate to shift a couple of players to get some money in might be more of a factor than the club necessarily being desperate to hold on to him (although I think we should be).

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Hope he didn't do too much damage!!!

I'll go off and check this stat, but I was told at the weekend that Robbo's career statistics show a win rate of something like 44% overall. I bet there's not many managers outwith the top teams in the SPL and EPL who can boast stats anything close to that.

What baffled me a little was the re-shuffle that moved Munro to LB. Losing McBain left us depleted and weak on the left hand side, so why hook another left sided player to bring on McGuire? If we were going to "sacrafice" what Vigurs had been offering going forward we would have been as well to drop him to LB...he would at least have had the pace to close down the attack that led to the 3rd goal and it would have caused least disruption to the existing setup.....as it was, we chose to bring on another player, re-work the back line AND rework the middle line to accommodate the change. More importantly, I think what led to the loss of the last goal was the fact we tried to sit back from the re-start instead of attacking the ball and forcing Hearts to play it back. Don't think it's fair to go looking for individual scapegoats. Overall the players gave everything on Saturday and and "mistakes" were, IMO, tactical. Don't think we can have expected to fix everything overnight, and hopefully with the appointment of a new manager this week we can start to correct these formation/tactical errors....which is why it is so important that we get someone in who knows the players and the team and has been keeping a handle on where things have been falling apart for us this season.

Matchday Gallery Courtesy of Peter Paul - CaleyJags.com

It will only be an issue so long as people continue to make it an issue....and in that regard we are often our own worst enemy as we like to trot it out as an excuse time and again. I would even go so far as to say that ICT mention it being a problem more often than you ever hear others mentioning it and we need to start playing more on the positives than the negatives. It's become just as much the "convenient excuse" for our own use as it has for others and if I were Chairman then I'd ban anyone involved with the club from ever mentioning it or using it as an excuse for anything.

Was just another example of the "spirit" that was among the lads yesterday. Don't think it matters two hoots where he's from.

You're all falling into the trap of trying to apply logic to the way in which ICT operate. Thought you would've learned by now!!!

Most people seem to be missing the fact that McBain is also having his shirt tugged in the above picture....which is what it looked like at the time, a two-way tussle between the players to get to the ball.

I did, I was sure it was going in the net :thumb04: Looking forward to seeing it, and hopefully silence the naysayers who doubt Imries quality. He will continue to improve and shake off the "Mr. Inconsistent" tag. A top acquisition. I'm far from being an Imrie naysayer....just think that, to date, he's shown lacking when it comes to taking set pieces....as said though, happy to be made to eat my words.

Re: Imries Goal....... Me sitting with head in hands as he steps up to take it and saying "Please not Imrie, he'll just blast it into the wall" Followed by me sitting drop jawed in amazement as it zings straight into the net...never so pleased to have a player make me eat my words Looking forward to watching the replay of it, as I don't think ANYONE on the park was aware of where the ball went until it hit the back of the net.

Think it can be anything between 1 and 3 for Foul and Abusive Language.....but don't quote me on that. You mean McBain not Duncan? Tell said player you bumped in to that I'm going to buy him a copy of the Green X Code so he can learn what footpaths are for

Some Ref's would have given the foul, but it was far from a stonewaller (without the aid of video backup) and Esson must take some responsibility for being a little weak when coming for the ball.

Firstly to solve the confusion over formation...it was a 4-1-4-1 On the subject of McBain....despite scoring an OG and conceding the penalty he was still a contender for my MotM until getting sent off. His sending off was/is a bit baffling....the claim seems to be "using foul and abusive language" towards the linesman....however the linesman was 20 to 25 yards away and with the Hearts fans making racket in the background then I would say it would be near impossible to pick if he was saying anything, far less make out what it might have been. The penalty looked soft, and given the reaction of ALL the ICT players at the time they appeared to think the same. I said before this game that if we showed sings of change/progress and playing with a bit of fight and spirit then I would be happy....and that's exactly what we got today, especially in the second half. No sign of heads going down on conceding and even after pulling it back twice and losing the third you could see the determination of the players in getting the ball up to half way quick and ready to commence battle. Things seemed to conspire against us...first with the news of injuries resulting in an "experimental" line-up (which was as effective as we could have hoped for, IMO) and then the early injury of Gattheusi and the knee-jerk substitution of Proctor, when a little more thought might have seen Tokely moved to RB, Duncan in to do the man marking and Black on in Midfield. Topped off with appears to be an uncharacteristic reaction to a situation by McBain (perhaps brought about through having a bit too much fight in his belly) and the red card. I certainly don't think McBain will be unpopular with his team mates...nor should he be, and I think some of the comments by those not at the game are a little out of order. What we need now is a Manager who can channel that fight and passion and turn it into results. Glad I made the trip today as it re-enforced my belief that we have a capable squad (maybe with the addition of an experienced forward) who are far from giving up.

Don't agree with IHE's assessment of Gattheusi...whilst it would probably be fairer not to judge him based on his short time on the park I thought he actually looked like a useful player and was helping create down the right hand side.

Hastings also injured.