ictchris

Real fans don't go in hospitality.

How many of them did Tudur Jones boot up in the air?

How will we line up against HIbs? I think it'll be something like this ---------------------------Esson--------------------------- ---Raven----Meekings-----Warren----Blackman--- --------------Draper----------Foran--------------------- ----Doran--------ShinnieA---------ShinnieG-------- --------------------------McKay-------------------------- Foran dropping into midfield is a bit of a no-brainer. He looked good when he played a bit deeper following Jones' red card on Saturday and is the most experienced option. McKay should come in to play up front. This will mean a change of style for us. Foran up front thrives on early direct balls for him to flick on, whereas McKay is more suited to making runs into channels. The best I've seen us play this season was the first 30 minutes against Kilmarnock when we pushed up and got Shinnie, Doran and McKay on the ball in dangerous areas, hopefully we can do thsi again. I would like to see Draper and Foran stepping forward to use the ball with Andy Shinnie, with Doran, Shinnie G and McKay make runs around the box, Foran will bring a lot more drive to the midfield than Jones being an attacking player. If King is fit I'd start him alongside Warren and put Meekings to right back, Raven dropping out.

I can leave my flat at 2:55pm and get there before kick off :)

Neither of the red cards were for foul and abusive language, that's just what they put on Sky and the BBC. As for OTJ, he looks like he could be a good player, the way he moves, his body shape all suggest that he's a good player but he never actually does anything. He uses possession neatly but I think he sometimes slows down play, he always seems to try to play little dinks and flicks when playing things simply is the best option. Ross Draper has shown him up in central midfield, the drive and power that Draper brings to the role far outshines OTJ. Foran also looked very good when he dropped back into midfield following his red card.

The first half was poor stuff, with nothing really happening. Aberdeen had more possession but didn't do much with it and we didn't really threaten the few times we got the ball. Foran had a couple of chances but couldn't get the ball down. A great blocking tackle from Draper on Hughes (I think) was Aberdeens best opening. The second half took off more. Aberdeen forced a corner with the first attack of the game, from which Andrew COnsidine's shot was cleared off the line. We seemed to push up a bit more and tried to get Foran into play more. The match really took off when Owain Tudur Jones was sent off for a tackle on Ryan Fraser. Jones was obviously going for the ball, sliding in to hook the ball away but mistimed it as Fraser nipped in, sending the wee winger up in the air. It's a difficult one - personally I think it should have been a yellow, he wasn't reckless, he wasn't out of control but it was mistimed and gave Fraser a sore one. Teh fact that Jones is massive and Fraser tiny made it look much worse. Terry Butcher was going mental on the touchline and I think he could end up getting in trouble with the SFA for his behaviour. He was swearing and shouting "He's the worst ref I've ever seen" to the crowd. We rejigged by subsituting Andy Shinnie, who had been quiet, and bringing on Shane Sutherland who went up front while Foran dropped back into midfield. Soon after we took the lead, with a ball forward from Shinnie putting Shane Sutherland clean through on goal, where Russell Anderson brought him down. It looked a penalty to me and a red card. Foran knocked it in. Not long after that we broke away following an Aberdeen attack with Foran carrying the ball forward and Doran, Sutherland and Shinnie up against only Mark Reynolds. Foran played in Doran, right in front of goal, but he got the ball stuck beneath his feet and sent the ball bobbling wide. our players seemed to claim for a penalty but nothing was given. After the goal we were sitting very deep and Aberdeen pushed on, having lots of possession but not really creating any clear chances until Hayes made a run to the byline and crossed for Cameron Smith to head home, a pretty simple goal. Perhaps our centreal defenders should've done better marking Smith or Blackman done a better job matching Hayes. I dont' think we can complain about a point and there were some positives. I thought that Foran, Draper and Warren all had good games, Andre Blackman looked decent on his debut and gives us another option on the left hand side. On the other hand, we lost a lead for the third time this season and haven't kept a clean sheet yet. Also, I thought Doran and Andy Shinnie were very poor. ShinnieA doesn't relish playing with Foran up front as the more direct balls don't suit his game, he prefers it into feet. Doran looked one paced and missed an absolute sitter for the goal. He obvously has talent, he's shown that in the past, but he needs to perform consistently. One of the most important things we need to start doing is getting our creative attacking players in possession in the right areas of the pitch. We played very deep and there's not much point in getting someone like Doran on teh ball ten yards inside his own half, we need to push up and get him on the ball in the final third. We also need better movement and runs from our attacking players - often the full backs or midfielders would emerge with the ball and not have a forward pass to make.

TGIs, Nando's and Frankie and Benny's are all terrible.

I'm going to start supporting our Under 20s.

Ross County are riding high, on their best run of form in their history. They are unbeaten in 40 odd league matches, are in the top half of the SPL and, most likely, have the best side in their history. What are their fans talking about on their forum? How many tables ICT have sold for hospitality for a game not involving Ross County. Dear oh dear.

You only need to look at a few comparable nations to see what a different having a good manager makes to a national side. Ireland have Trappatoni (albeit funded by Dermot Desmond) and they qualified for a tournament with a limited squad. They were roundly pumped in the finals but at least they got there. Norway re-appointed Egil Olsen in 2008 and has lead them into the top seeding pot for the current qualifying tournament.

You would have Jimmy Calderwood ahead of Gordon Strachan? Strachan took Celtic to last 16 of the Champions League several times with limited players. Calderwood has a comparable record to Levein and he would be another disaster. Smith wouldn't be that bad an appointment, he steadied the ship last time. They should sack him immediately, we have zero chance of qualifying. Nothing Levein has done in his time in the Scotland job shows any potential for us to turn this situation around.

Terrible performances, timid, negative, one-paced. Levein showed almost as soon as he took the job that he was out of his depth, too negative and lacking in the confidence in himself to do the simple thing.

----------------------------Esson-------------------------------- -----Meekings-----King--------Warren-------ShinnieG--- ---------------------Morrison------Draper------------------- ----------Doran-----------ShinnieA-------------Sutherland--- ---------------------------Foran------------------------------- Foran was magnificent up front at Well. OTJ was dire, he deserves to be dropped.

I like the way that our forward players are fluid and change positions, I think it's a strength. A great way of creating chances is to 'double-team' your opponent, to outnumber them and having players comfortable changing positions is a key way of doing that. We need to play football in the right areas of the park and push up - against Celtic (albeit I only saw that game on the telly) we sat so deep it meant there was no chance of us doing anything. I'd be interested to see a chart of where our forward players touched the ball in that game - Doran and Andy Shinnie certainly had to drop into their own half to get teh ball on numerous occasions. The first 30 minutes of the Killie game showed how good we can be when we push up and get the ball to Shinnie, Doran etc in the final third of the pitch. Pushing high is a risk and I can see why defenders lacking in confidence drop deeper but we do so much better further up the pitch it's worth it. Graeme Shinnie is fantastic pushing on, as he showed in the second half of the Hearts game.

Anyone got the team?

What happened to those old videos on Youtube?

He plays on the left He plays on the right He plays in defensive central midfield He plays centre half He plays in the hole He plays wide left He plays in the false nine position He plays in goals Richie Foran makes County look *****.

Caley Thistle also had a shock win there in 1996, we beat Stenny 1-0 thanks to a Brian Thomson goal to set up a tie against Rangers. If those Caley videos are still on Youtube then you can see me jumping on the wall to celebrate the goal.

I'll be there.

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/media/books/Keyes-hamilton-the-secret-race.html?page=all

I don't think it's the stage where the players aren't doing it for him or he's making inexplicable selections. It's a very difficult important time though - there are signs that we don't have that bad a team and there are things going well but we need to start turning promise into points and wins. If Butcher and Malpas can't do that soon they should be gone.

I think a back four of Meekings, King, Warren and Shinnie isn't bad. From what I've seen this season (three games in the flesh on one live on the box) none of those players are completely out of their depth in the SPL. King had an absolute shocker against Celtic but against Hearts and Killie he looked decent. I hope that we don't go back to last season, chopping and changing of the back four with gay abandon.

FIGHT THE POWER

I quite enjoyed that match in a bizarre way. We lined up with Foran up front for McKay and Meekings slotting into the back four in place of King. Straight from kick off we won the ball and pushed forward with some decent play and for the next five minutes most of the play was ours. Ross Draper hit a low shot just wide and it looked like it might be an enjoyable game. Well started to push back into the game and forced a succession of corners which we looked a bit shaky at, Hately has great delivery from dead balls and Higdon is always a handful. Following two or three corners, Hately whipped one in and Ryan couldn't keep it out at his near post. He'll be absolutely gutted about it, there really isn't an excuse for not getting that ball. Almost straight from the kick off Well were two up as Humphrey, who was lively all day, tore down the left and evaded two lunging, desperate tackles from ShinnieG and Draper, centred for Higdon who took advantage of the space in the area to knock it home. It was absolutely gutting at this point, we looked on the end of a real hammering. However, we started to push back into it and had the ball in the net when Richie nodded the ball to the back-post for Sutherland to knock in, although this was then ruled out for an infringement on Foran's part. Being at the other end of the ground I didn't really have a great view but there didn't look to be that much in it. Foran then chased back, won the ball out wide and tore in on goal but his effort was blocked. We had pushed right back into the game and deserved the goal that came just afterwards. A corner was knocked clear to Owain Tudur Jones, who lobbed it to the back post where Foran headed in. We probably looked more likely to score at this point and Foran was played in by a long pass from Meekings for a great opportunity. His shot was blocked and he couldn't direct his header from the rebound goalward. In the second half the game was more end to end with both sides having chances. There were a couple of massive Well shouts for a penalty, one when Meekings (I think) made a tackle in the area (looked decent from our end) and again when a shot hit what the fans and players claimed was a hand. We also had a shout for a penalty when Richie was brought down while bearing in on goal by Mr O'Reilly had no time for it. Things were nicely poised when David Raven, who had actually been pretty solid today compared to other poor displays, made an absolute howler. We'd had the ball in midfield and Raven received it and tried to roll the ball back to Esson but his short pass was eaten up by Higdon, who knoced it home. It was an absolute sickener, we had fought so hard to get back and to lose a goal like that is hard to take. We continued pushing forward, Shane came close with a header from a Foran cross that his marker did well to put behind for a corner. Subsittute Ojama helped finish us off though, tearing away on a breakaway, beating his man and squaring for Higdon to crack one home for his hat-trick. We could've cut the deficit almost straight away when Foran was clearly brought down in the box by Page and the ref gave a penalty. Shinnie's spot kick was well saved by Darren Randolph, who had earlier made a stunning diving stop from a Gary Warren overhead kick. I left with a couple of minutes to go as our train was at 1711, not sure much of note happened in injury time. Overall I feel strangely positive after a 4-1 defeat, which isn't like me. We really did well going forward, although, as AM says we took the wrong option around the opposition goal a few times. Richie Foran was absolutely brilliant today, on another day he could have scored a hat-trick, he worked hard, won everything in the air, played good passes and crosses, fought and harried. An absolutely towering display and we need to keep him up there if we are going to get anything out of this season. The obvious downside is our defending. We looked nervous defending corners and Chris Humphrey was livewire and had the better of Graeme Shinnie a lot fo the game. We just seem to make basic errors too often - a short passback, not dealing properly with a run from wide, letting a corner sneak in. I fear we'll end up repeating the mistakes of last season, chopping and changing at the back. Raven I feel sorry for, he hasn't done that well but was playing OK today until their third goal. Graeme Shinnie was caught a few times by Humphrey and looked uncomfortable against him the whole game. Shinnie is the sort of the full back who dominates his opponent by pushing onto them rather than by dealing with them and that style isn't suited to a guy like Humphrey who is pacey and got time today. In midfield, I think Ross Draper is a great player and had another influential game. Owain Tuduro Jones, cross for the goal aside, is a waste of space. He looks like he can play but he never actually raises his game and takes control fro 90 minutes. The fact he was subbed in a straight swap (for Graeme Morrison who was better) says it all. I thougth Shane and Doran did OK, took a few too many wrong options but were available and looked fluid, espeically Doran who popped up all over. Andy Shinnie had some good touches but had a quieter game than previously. We need to sort out our defence and it's a big job but watching that today it isn't hopeless.

I'm liking this Blackman guy