CaleyD

It's as much our Job as it is Parky and CC's to lift the team again. We have to try and put yesterday in the back of our minds, hope lessons were learned and get behind the team 100% again against Utd.

This has got to be the most pety subject that comes up on these forums (and other club forums) over the season. Fans dish it out to players of the opposing team for 90 minutes and then get all upset when the players give a bit back. There is a line which neither fans nor players should cross but it's been a long time since I have witnessed our fans or opposing players cross it. Grow up FFS.

I've seen McAllister play some great holding play in the corners of the park and muscle his way out of it in order to deliver a cross, but I've also seen him easily taken off the ball by guys half his size :shrug01:

And there we have it - it was all Santa's fault :002:

Nope Yep. Just checked my football League review, Bayne scored in Feb23 '00 v. Aberdeen, whilst 20. Strange one this - Soccerbase does have him listed as scoring that day, but he's not included in the team line-up Clicky Clicky

I watched with disbelief as the subs were made. There's times to be brave and go for it and there's times where you have to dig in and hold on to what you have (a bird in the hand and all that). Black was immense yesterday and I'm not suprised he was knackered and had to be subbed, but to bring on a strikers and change the formation was, as has been said above, suicide. We obviously went in to this match expecting to have to go for broke in the final 15 to 20 minutes, that was obvious from the players we had on the bench, and this seems to have been the gameplan which CC stuck too despite the fact we were a goal up, it was like the whole thing was cast in stone and he had to follow it through regardless. I'm a huge fan of CC, but I'm afraid he got it wrong yesterday and we were punished in unbelievable fashion for it. One thing you can be sure of though is that CC will have realised himself by now where it all went t!ts up and nobody will be beating him up for it more than himself. Disappointed? - Yes I am Angry? - I was, but thats passed Calling for CC's head? - Not at all, he continues to learn from his errors IMO, and thats a strength in itself. If we had scored a second yesterday as a result of his substitutions and went on to win he would have been hailed as a hero and his decisions refered to as 'Brave' - as it is, it all went wrong and he has to live with his decisions being refered to as 'Stupid'. Some old and wise dude (probably) once said - "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger". CC has to be given time to develop as a manager, in the same way as players have to be given time to develop and I am still confident that he has a **** of a lot to offer us in the coming years. Yesterday was a very sore lesson to learn, but it won't be the only one CC will have to face as he progresses up a very steep managerial learning curve.

Your not wrong - although in fairness it will probably breakdown around Daviot and free-wheel all the way down the hill :015:

I was getting rather worried that we wouldn't see our usual "Newly Registered, First Post asking for Tickets for a Big Game" thread. At least previous incumbents have at least been clever enough to try and disguise themselves with an ICT related username :015:

Don't hold your breath on that one - Megabus is point A to B and nothing in between (other than connections) and most, if not all, drivers I know off won't entertain requests for stopping elsewhere. I know I don't as it is just asking for trouble, before you know it you have people asking off at every stop on the way in to town.

Nope

This thread reminded me of this

See the Tickets Still Available thread in announcements at top of forum :014: :016:

Who we do (or don't) bring in this summer could well make or break us over the next couple of seasons. The club are going to have to dig as deep as they can (dare) into the bank balance to bring in at least one or two "quality" players IMO. We really could do with some fresh investment at the club, we have unsold shares sitting there gathering dust and I would like to see our Chairman utilise some of the "contacts" he has been on about since joining us in order to encourage someone to take up whats there and get some coffers in the bank. I'm not a fan of loan deals but if the money isn't there for capital outlay then we may be resigned to going down this route, at least in the short term.

And this weeks award for "Master of stating the Feckin Obvious" goes to IHE for the above statement. :015:

Less games does not necessarily equal less revenue. As Chibber has already said, it could mean cheaper Season Tickets, increasing the number purchased and offsetting the loss. You also have the situation whereby we play a bigger variety of teams, this reduces the "I'll not bother this time, we can go see us play them later in the season" scenario we currently have with playing some teams twice at home/away, which may just encourage a few more along to the "smaller" games. Prior to David Sutherland stepping down as Chairman of ICT he eluded to their being growing support from SPL clubs to do away with the split. I have a transcript of the meeting somewhere, but I think he mentioned more of a push toward a 10 team SPL as opposed to 16. As far as I am concerned a move to 10 teams would be self defeating as what we need to do is inject more variety into the season not make it even more mundane - I'd rather have the current setup than reduce the number of teams any further. Whatever happens, something needs to be done and the SPL/SFL/SFA need to start listening to the fans to find out what they want as they are the customer and only a fool fails to listen to their customers.

So, if we're lucky we'll have it by Christmas then :015:

People are talking as if we have some right to win this game.....but only if the team selection is right. In other words if we lose the match then CC is in a no-win situation regardless of his team selection as the boo-boys will be out in force (again) saying that he got it wrong. It'll be the same old "shoulda started with..." or "that substitution made no sense/was too late/was the wrong player" Winning doesn't even seem to please some people and they will still come away with "we got lucky, it doesn't make CC a good manager" type comments. Doesn't matter what the team is on the day, the lads will have to be performing at their best to get the result. EVERY player mentioned so far is capable of a match winning performance when on form, and that includes those that are being singled out as "not good enough". I'm not saying we shouldn't talk about team selection or comment on whether it could/should have been different, but we have to lose the mindset that just because CC doesn't play it the way we see it that our ideas would have produced a different result. Some of the suggested line-ups on here are adventurous and risky, to say the least - it's easy to suggest a line-up we are highly unlikely to see then come back after a bad result and say "if we had gone with...." the result would have been different.

Looks like the lads were unlucky to lose 2-1, or at least not take more from the game. Gordon Gillespie has kindly provided some match pics - Clicky Clicky And the Match Report is on the Official Site - Clicky Clicky

As much as Black p!ssed me off with his shirt throwing antics etc, you have to learn to bite the bullet and use the best you have available. IF he's been sidelined for his attitude as a punishment then it is a punishment the entire team is suffering from and I'm up for giving him a second chance if it's to the teams benefit. Would like to see McSwegan given a decent amount of time on the park. His fitness can't be all that far off, and even if he can only last the first/second 45 then I think we could make good use of a mature head upfront, someone to put a foot on the ball and either have a pop or lay off to Bayne/Anyone coming forward. Thats the only weakness I can see in Chibbers formation, somone to lay balls off to or link up with Wilson/Rankin coming in off the wings. Perhaps start with McSwegan behind Bayne and drop Duncan from the starting XI - if it's not working then take McSwegan off and put Duncan in as above. Kinda just playing Devils Advocate here and would have no issue if we started as per Chibbers suggestion (i.e. would be feckin boring if we all just agreed with Chibber and he'd never get his head through the turnstile on Sunday :015:)

Some decent points there CH2 and glad to see you backing them with a bit of reasoning. However, you seem to have summed up your entire reasoning for following ICT and contributing to these forums with... So your whole reasoning for listening was in the hope that you could find something to prove yourself right and you were glad that the team had a bad day so you could come on here and gloat about it. In all honesty bud, I'd take myself off on a bit of a soul searching mission to find out which team you really support cause it ain't ICT. Any real fan/supporter would have been sad/disappointed to have listened in on the game to find any fears they had being played out in reality - not, as in your case, get their jollies from it.

ch2, under your philosphy that all the positions that matter are already decided, then the split makes absolutely no difference and doesn't change that fact. All the split does is gives the middle teams something to aim for - a top 6 finish - which makes still the post split matches practically meaningless anyway. It's not the split which is the biggest problem in making the SPL more (evenly) competitive, it's the distribution of the money that comes in to the legue that's the problem. As with many things in life it is designed to make the wealthiest clubs even wealthier, leaving the 'smaller' clubs battling it out for thescraps - which in reality make very little difference to their ability to strengthen and compete with the big boys. In short, the Split only acts as a distraction to the bigger and more important issues that exist in Scottish Football.

Any time I have seen Xander on the reserve teamsheets it's been with an X, not a Y.

Thats the problem - they can only take action against him as an individual, they can't take any action against Hearts as "legally" he is nothing more than a shareholder. As far as I am aware they can't just say "we don't like you, now along you run and find some new friends"

You know, I'm with IHE - Small Fan Mentality :014:

I recall a rumour doing the rounds previously when Sutherland was suppose to have been in talks with Romanov about some kind of agreement to bring players in. It would seem our interest in looking East still exists and I have no objection to bringin in ANY player that helps improve the squad provided the core of the team remains Scottish.