CaleyD

I've seen this being done in the past, it might have even been the same company. It appears that the shirts may be "seconds" or manufacturing overruns of originals which then have certain elements of the branding added afterwards. For ?15 though you can't really complain.

Having just read through this thread some of the comments about Vigurs from Saturday are laughable. Going forward he was making some intelligent runs and moves into space and when he wasn't doing that he played some cracking defence splitting balls which a more "intelligent" forward would have put to better use....it was this kind of service we were crying out for last season when we had Marius up front. On occasion he did leave us a little exposed when making runs and this meant St Mirren could exploit the wide areas...however, it's not something we got punished for by a poor St Mirren side. Duff...as I have said elsewhere he was absolutely solid for the first 45 minutes and owned Mehmet. but that changed after the break where, for whatever reason (Brewsters Orders or off his own back) he wasn't man marking him and that's why we lost the first goal IMO. He looked to try and be too clever with a wee head back to Fraser, but missed the ball and McGuire couldn't quite get in to recover the situation. It was his only real error in the entire game, but as with the Hamilton game it cost us a goal. Wood was struggling with his first touch all day and struggling even more to turn when he did manage to control it. However, when he did manage to shake the defenders he had a couple of good shots on goal and probably worked Howard more than Rooney or anyone else on the park. Inexperience perhaps did get in the way on a couple of occasions. Once following the rebound from Rooney hitting the bar where Black was running in behind shouting him to leave it as he was better positioned to hit it on the volley and once when Imrie was trying to get a shot away on the left hand side of the box and Wood was looking around to see where the ball was instead of following Imrie's shouts and getting out of the way. Rooney had some great runs and it was his final shot that was letting him down...but that's been a problem with most of our strikers for 2 or 3 seasons now and it makes you wonder why. In summary.... Duff....I don't think there's anyone "better" to taking his place from him. He's made a couple of errors but no more so than Munro or McGuire. Vigurs....Away from home or in a 5 man midfield I'd have him playing inside a winger ahead of Cowie who's a little off the boil at the moment and needs a game or two on the bench IMO. Wood....If we had a more potent striker to play him alongside then, as with Bayne, I think he would have a very important job to do in winning the ball at the front, but he desperately nees someone to be supporting him to mop up from his poor first touch, or someone to be drawing the defenders to give him a little more space to turn. Rooney....He's starting to realise that tippy tappy football is not how we play it up here and he's starting to make stronger more physical runs in to the box with the ball. He is improving and will continue to do so. Again, I think he lacks a more experienced Striker to play alongside. Whilst we can all sit here and find fault in the youngsters and blame "youth", the only real options for replacing these guys is with other young players. I don't necessarily agree or like that fact we are relying on so many young guys...or to be more precise, we don't have enough experience playing alongside them (certainly up front), but that's the way it is for now and so long as they are out there giving it 100% then that's all you can ask, regardless of how good, bad or indifferent you think they are.

I think the clue to him having known your (long dead) ancestors is in his name

I don't think it's so much about whether or not he is worth a chance as opposed to just biding his time till the chance comes along (and it will). I've said for a while that I'd love to see Wilson starting on the wing and tiring out defences and then Zander coming on to run circles round a tiring opposition...part of my logic was that he wasn't the strongest person on the ball, but from what I saw of him today he's muscled up a bit and isn't knocked around as easily as he used to be so could very well do a job from the start. Some of his balls into the box today were on a par with what we used to see from a young Barry Robson and I think he (Zander) is the closest thing we've had to an out and out winger since Robson left....Wilson was equally efficient on the opposite side of the park. St Mirren used the width of our pitch against us on Saturday, but today I watched a game where we were the ones using the width to great effect....that's what we need to be doing at home and Zander and Wilson are the type of players to do it. One big advantage from going to reserve matches is that you can hear everything that is said among the players and Zander was getting a lot of plaudits, encouragement and direction from his team mates.....as were all the young lads. In fact, Esson, Wilson and Munro were real leaders on the pitch today and working the younger lads through the game really well, and the younger lads were responding to great effect. Granted it wasn't the most experienced of Hibs squads, even for a reserves, but our mix of youth and experience seemed to work really well out on the park today and everyone seemed to understand what the other was up to for the most part. As you said, our midfield is probably one of the hardest areas of the team to break in to at the moment and with Imrie, Cowie, Wilson & McBain seemingly ahead of him in the pecking order he'll just have to bide his time and be ready to do as the other young lads have done and give Brewster no excuse to drop him again when the opportunity does arise. Away to Hearts might not be the best time for him to get that opportunity given the hacking physical nature of their game and the narrow pitch, but Zander playing wide at home is a good prospect IMO. Incidentally, Wilson played 90 minutes today and worked hard all the way through....I may have to reconsider my opinion that he's no longer capable of lasting a full match and I certainly think he's wasted as a 10 minute "super-sub" at the end of games.

Others are joining in though, and encouraging the lads at the back of Section G to get the drum going....and all they get in response is a mouthful of filth from the lads.....is it any wonder that others who are a little more shy are reluctant?

I'm not excusing anything, what I am saying is that players don't turn out half-hearted performances for no reason, and whilst you might get the odd player who might be having a day where they can't be ersed for whatever reason, what we are witnessing is several players in a game who look that way at times and their must be a reason. It's frustrating enough for us fans to be watching our team losing as a result of tactical ineptitude...so it's hardly unlikely that some players may be feeling the same.

3-0 to ICT. First goal was a bit of a scramble and could have been an OG, although we had McAllister who looked like he had a foot out and Park there or there abouts with Gillespie chasing in (i.e. The ball was going in one way or another...lol). Then a double by Shane Sutherland who came on as a sub. Lineups........ ICT Esson Scott-Woodhouse Djebi-Zadi Munro Proctor Duncan Wilson Gillespie McAllister Park Sutherland Z Subs - Allison (GK), Finnie, Rennie, Morrison, Sutherland S HIBS Grof McCann Hanlon Thicot Gatheussi McCormack Tantorno Wilson Pinay Campbell Cropley Subs - Flynn (GK), Wotherspoon, Welsh, Currie, Moyes Game was a bit slow to get going. A bit like Saturday where we never looked in danger but weren't producing that final ball. We then scored from a lovely cross ball which scrambled around a bit before finally dropping in to the back of the net. Duncan came off at half-time and was replaced by Connor Rennie and then Shane Sutherland replaced Daniel Park at the front and scored within seconds of coming on to the park and then squeezed a second one under the keeper to put the game beyond Hibs. Some brilliant play and passing by ICT in all areas of the pitch and Barry Wilson was encouraging the young boys and working well with them...calling them in to position and having them make runs etc. On the opposit side of the pitch Zander Sutherland was running up and down the wing for fun and tackling back like really well when needed. Djebi-Zadi had a fairly solid game although his passes were a little astray when he was pushing forward and looking to play the diagonal ball. And yet again Rory McAllister plays a blinder for the reserves.....he worked flat out for 90 minutes, was controlling long balls that were coming to him and was strong on the turn and in holding the play waiting for support....unlucky not to have bagged a couple of goals for himself. Esson didn't have much to do.....quite literally. He only had one save to make the whole game. Hard to judge a keepers shot stopping in a situation like that, bit his positioning and awareness of what's going on in front of him and the ability to ping a quick ball to a player for a counter-attack is head and shoulders above Fraser IMO. I remember someone commenting about his kicking being suspect in the cup match (?)...I can assure you it was spot on today. An enjoyable game and worth the wander down to the Stadium.

I was going to take my flask to the game today, but I'm worried Roscoe23 finds out and thinks I'm sad and pathetic

It is frustrating that every goal we have conceded at TCS this season has been soft and due to a momentary lapse in defence, but surely overall we can be positive about the start to this campaign. The most recent signings (Imrie, Barrowman & Rooney - still not convinced by Mcguire) have definitely added something to the squad and the youngsters (Wood, Vigurs, Duff & Rooney) have exceeded most people's expectations and are holding down starting spots on merit. Blackie looks a class act and seems to have sorted out his discipline and the defence looks a lot more solid against set pieces than at the close of last season (although pretty much anything would have been an improvement). I for one (and sometimes on here it feels like I am the only one) have faith in the boys and truly believe that we will be there or there about come the split. I'm sure I will be accused of blind optimism, but I hope that there are others out there who share my feelings. Your right, but it's still frustrating that had we not had so many errors we'd be flying even higher and perhaps doing what Killie are doing and really bucking the odds. Don't get me wrong, I don't think we have a divine right to win games and I am capable of walking away from a game we've lost feeling upbeat because the lads put in the performance and it just wasn't their day....and I also know that on occasion we'll walk away with a win just because it wasn't the other teams day. I'm happy that we've got off to a better start than we did last season, but I'm worried that we continue to make the same mistakes we've been making for far too long and frustrated because I know we are capable of better than what's being served up here. I do, to a certain extent, understand the frustration of the players and perhaps even the half hearted nature with which some of them play some weeks. They are being put out there, sometimes in a position which doesn't suite them, and being asked to execute a game plan which doesn't utlise their strengths. If I was a sparky and my company were sending me out to change radiators in houses every week and customers were getting on my case for a half assed job, then I'd be getting fed up as well.

And people say I lack of a sense of humour sometimes

Yes, now that we know who owns the lease and the properties sitting on the land, all we need to know now is why we were led to believe that these things were being put into the hands of a charitable trust when they have in fact (since the day they were transferred) been nowhere near the Trust set up to receive them. I have asked the question in reply to the e.mail Mr Smith sent me but have had no acknowledgement or reply as yet. Yes, and I appreciate when they do respond. It's just a shame that it feels like pulling teeth....but hopefully these things can, and will, improve as we go forward.

True.....once a tink, always a tink.....but he's our tink now

You only Drum when we're winning, Drum when we're winning You only Drum when we're winninggggg

I could probably sit here and list a dozen or more things/people that I believe are wrong, but what frustrates me most just now is the inconsistency and the fact that just about every goal we've lost so far this season has been the result of an unforced error on our part.

Read my post in full and you'll see that I was talking about the first 45 minutes. When the team came out in the second half Duff didn't seem to have been charged with continuing the man-marking roll...who made that decision, player or manager? I don't know, but having seen Duff marking Mehmet religiously for the entire first half I can't see him taking it upon himself at half time to do something different when he came out for the second.

If you want to sing/chant/smack the drum then just do it....don't get so worked up by other people joining in or not, or even those who might look on disapprovingly. Fail to see why your getting so upset because someone flipped you the birdie, after all it was in response to a mouthful that came from among your group of mates. As to those sitting having a cuppa in the carpark....have you ever thought that these are fans that travel a considerable distance to see the team and grab a cuppa before heading in to the game, or take 10 minutes for one afterwards before heading home? Really, you have to lose this whole "we're superior fans because we make more noise" attitude. People support the team in a variety of ways and everyone should be made welcome and be (within reason) tolerant of how other people choose to support the team....that goes just as much for you tolerating those who don't wish to sing, as it does for those who don't sing tolerating those of you who do. Nobody should feel the need to "stand up and be counted" because of the way they choose to act on a matchday, and your doing nothing to garner support by calling fellow fans "Pathetic and Sad".

Entering Greenock with cash on your person is a bit like jumping in to a crocodile pit with a steak dangling from your waist....you'll be lucky to make it out alive (Not sure what the answer is, but I'd assume that since we're likely to have more fanstravelling from the Central Belt than up here it will be Cash Gate)

You can draw parallels between some of those in the "singing section" and Ian Black. Ian Black was getting a hard time for refs for a while, it wasn't always justified, but we knew it was because he had a tendency to push his luck and back chat. A wee change in attitude and a redirection of his energy more in to his game than getting upset at everything and he's all the better for it...and not getting anything like the same problems from refs. Perhaps some of those within the "singing section" need to do likewise. Redirect your energy more in to doing the singing, chanting and drumming and less into winding up the stewards. Maybe then we'll get situation where you are allowed to stand up briefly for songs and stuff without being immediately reprimanded. Likewise with the Stewards, perhaps if they were a little less obsessed with looking for something to have a go at you about and concentrated more on matters of safety then they might just get a little less hassle from fans.

You got no "abuse" from anyone until you started with the swearing. All Alex was doing was asking/encouraging you to get the drum out so we could all have a sing song together and you only got the finger when you started with the hardman act. Seriously, as I said elsewhere, you boys are turning in to bigger whing merchants than the "sweety rustlers" you complain about. I don't give a flying fig if you don't sing, chant or play the drum...but don't come on here playing the whole "high and mighty" card about others not doing something you no longer seem prepared to do. You seem more interested in causing arguments and problems with those around you than singing and drumming and it's getting to the stage where it's not only the sweety rustlers that want you to GTF....your quickly alienating all those who have spoken up for and supported you in the past.

Do the maths..... The 5% Levy means ICT having to pay Celtic somewhere in the region of ?3300 based on a ?24 ticket price (assuming all ticket sales were adult). Allowing for the fact that we already charge an extra ?2 for OF games the the other ?2 is to cover this "levy". A sell out crowd would net the club an extra ?8000 or so with the increased prices (4000 ticket sales assumed, which makes allowance for season ticket holders/freebie corporate tickets). After payment of the Levy the club have made a ?4700 gain under the guise of increasing tickets to cover the cost of the levy. So if your of a mind that we'll have a capacity crowd regardless, then you have to accept that the club are profiteering from it's own fans off the back of this OF levy. If like me, you think that the crowd will be effected, then even if the away end is full (netting an extra ?5400ish) then it only takes a drop of around 90 people in the home end before the club start eroding the benefit of the increased prices....a drop of 225 or more and they are in to total loss and negative impact (i.e. being worse off than they would have been absorbing the cost without an increased ticket price). IMO, it would have been better for the club to take the financial hit than to increase prices...and even better still if they had told the OF to do one and sold tickets themselves. It wasn't going to cost them anything like ?3300 to administer it at TCS, and they could have justifiably added a handling fee for away fans (as they do to home fans) for online & telephone sales, in order to recoup the cost.

I'm not in any hurry to see Munro back to be honest. As I said on the matchday thread I thought Duff and McGuire did well in the first 45 minutes. Duff was there to mark Mehmet out of the game and he did it beautiful, McGuire thrived in a setup where he wasn't having to constantly watch for Munro to call the line for the offside trap (which we screw up more often than not). It's one thing to have a "system" that you want to play, but that system has to take account of player strengths and weaknesses, and we looked a lot stronger with a setup which involved man marking at the back than one where we basically let strikers wander about and cut in behind at will because we're more interested in pushing the line out to win the offside decision and then flapping around with hands in the air when it's not given instead of chasing the opposition down. Brewster needs to start playing a system that suits the players not players that suit his system. It's almost as if he's trying to be too clever at times, but that's just causing confusion and frustration.

The Feather Boa certainly gives a hint to where your TV tendencies come from

There's a man with a drink problem............ ....his mouth is obviously far too small. Happy Birthday Mr G.

Nobody was "Shouting at you" to start with, what they were doing was asking you to get the drum going to assist with the songs and chants that WE were trying hard to get going. You ***** and moan that nobody joins in with you and when others ask you to join in with them....well, you ***** and moan about that too!!! Alex shouted up asking you to get the drum going and someone shouted back telling him to "F Off" or something to that effect. As far as I can tell you've become nothing more than an attention seeking annoyance, both to the Stewards and those around you. I use to happily to back you lads when you were getting grief from Stewards or "Sweety Rustlers", but it seems that there's one or two little upstarts among the group that are bringing the rest down, and it scares me to death that we have trainee police officers among them too...what is the world coming too??? Your turning into the whinging moaning fans that you spend all your time on here complaining about. I'm not McAllisters biggest fan, but if he were to jump the barrier and come up to smack you guys in the mouth for the abuse you dish out to him then I wouldn't stand in his way. It's one thing to tell a player to get the finger out when they are on the pitch and not performing, it's quite another to start with the mindless crap some of you lot come away with when the lad is warming up. The group I was a part of did indeed have a bit of banter with Imrie...something along the lines of "You angry Dougie? going to come on today and score?"...heck I even shouted to let him know that we still loved him when he appeared to have "thrown us a look". Anyway, on to the game......... I pretty much agree with comments that we were the better of two poor teams in the first half and we didn't look like losing a goal. I actually think the back 4 performed reasonably well, especially McGuire and Duff who I both gave points to in the PotY. Duff had obviously been told that he was to man mark Mehmet, which he did to great effect by winning just about every 50/50 ball and a good few more besides. This is part of the reason Falkirk never looked likely to open the scoring in the first 45 minutes. We also seemed to have forgotten trying to play the offside trap which we are so awful at, which meant we weren't getting caught out with the line going forward as someone was slipping in behind. Being able to concentrate on his own game seemed to benefit McGuire a great deal also and for the first time in a while he looked to be playing with real purpose. Rossco.....I've said it before and it was obvious again on Saturday.....we don't get the best from him when Wilson isn't in front of him. We all know that Ross can make some great forward runs and we know he is slow to get back...Barry knows that more than everyone given the time they've played together and he filled the void by being the man to do the leg work to get back and cover for Ross till he recovered his position and other players just aren't doing that. As for his booking...that's typical Ross, one of his "moments" where concentration just seems to break and he lets go with something wild. Had that made contact then he would have been looking at a deserved straight red. Hastings....he seemed to still be in "Canada" mode and positioning himself centrally, leaving a huge hole at the back left. Across the middle....Can we have the old Cowie back please? His performance on Saturday was dire. I don't think playing him wide does him any favours, but he can play there and can do better than he did. Perhaps he needs to sit out a couple of matches to regain his hunger for the game. Black was his usual solid self, no wonder the lad gets so frustrated, because at times he must feel like he's doing the job of all 11 men out there. McBain, an absolute workhorse which we aren't making proper use of due to problems elsewhere in the squad/tactics. And Vigurs....the lad has an obvious natural flare and with time and a little proper coaching he may well prove to be one of the best youngsters to ever come through at ICT. I think it was his inexperience that let him down on a couple of occasions on Saturday, that and the fact that there's nobody out there giving any kind of direction. Some of the runs he made looked good, but he left us exposed a few times on both sides of the park. Up front, Rooney looked to be doing a bit better than previous reports had hinted at. A few times he picked the ball up from the edge of the centre circle and carved a path for himself through the middle. He seems to be starting to cotton on to the physical nature of the game up here and realising that he has to take the ball himself sometimes as we don't do the tippy tappy stuff that he was used to down south. Wood, or is it Graham Bayne reborn? A grafter and a man who can win balls...but didn't really show anything beyond that. His first touch on most occasions was terrible, and he has the turning circle of an oil tanker. We nipped ahead on the stroke of half-time and had we continued the second half like we played for most of the first that could very well have been the final score, but we didn't and it wasn't. The first thing I noticed after the break was that Duff was no longer man-marking Mehmet...a fact which contributed to the loss of the first goal when Duff was more interested in watching the ball than seeing what his man was up to. Fraser could, and should have been out quicker to have claimed it, but I don't think we can blame McGuire. Then came the start of the substitutions....first one (Imrie on for Vigurs) seemed to make sense and Imrie might have had a chance had Wood not been blundering about in front of him (I'll put it down to inexperience). From there it got a little more confusing....Rooney, who had made the best of the chances presented during the game was substituted for Barrowman and McBain who had been covering a lot of ground trying to mop up loose balls and cover for Vigurs the whole game was replaced by Wilson....the guys coming on, no problem...but the guys going off were a complete mystery to me and those around me. Our missed chances....Rooney hitting the bar was unfortunate and the move leading to it was worthy of more. Black (I think) was behind Wood for the rebound and screaming for him to leave it as he was placed to hit in on the Volley but Wood tried to bring it down and then you can make up your own mind as to whether he was shooting or trying to play it back into the path of Rooney. Wood did have one decent strike I can recall, and it was on the one occasion where he actually managed to turn with the ball without the need for a 10 yard clear zone. All in all a very disappointing outcome, although some small individual flashes of what players are capable of. What's really disappointing is that I can't remember the last time we lost a goal that wasn't the result of a mistake....look back through the replays and we probably conceeded 10 goals that were identical to the first one we lost yesterday. As to the second one, Ross screwed it up out wide....but where were the central defenders? They should have been in there ready to cover. We are beating ourselves at home every time, as we did last season. We might have the "inexperience" excuse just now, but it wasn't the reason last season, which means that there's other fundamental issues which we have to be looking at as the cause.

This should be unbelievable, but sadly it does not surprise me in the slightest. I'm with RossP and I'll predict our lowest ever attendance against the OF in the SPL to date, and a large increase in the number of OF fans in the Home End as a result of ICT fans not being interested in taking up the tickets. There's a reason blood-letting fell out of fashion in the late 19th Century....it's because people realised that it did more harm than good.