ictchris

----------------------------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

Joey Barton in talks for a year long loan deal, he and Butcher have been spotted in the Phoenix, fighting over whether to put the Smiths or ACDC on the jukebox.

Derek Riordan just seen getting thrown out of the Heathmount. Staff in the Corriegarth welcome him in.

Just spotted Grassa buying a 12 incher (steady) from Bici's pizza. Surely he can't be eating all that on his own, obviously we're bringing in a few more players.

I posted about this on another forum: Armstrong was allowed to get away with what was going on because he was such a huge star, he was the biggest cyclist on the planet, probably the biggest star in the history of the sport. He was tight with the UCI (failed tests 'vanished', frozen positive tests dismissed, straight positive tests discarded after personal donations from LA) and they made a fortune from him. The thought process is pretty easy to understand - he isn't doing anything that other people aren't doing, there's no harm in covering up the test, it's for the greater good. What that mentality does though is normalise doping in the sport. The quote from Floyd Landis in the Paul Kimmage Observer article sums it up - If I wait long enough I'll have the chance to win without doing this [doping]', but there was no scenario in my mind where in my lifetime I was going to get a chance to race the Tour and win clean.. That's the logical result of giving Armstrong the benefit of the doubt. From reading about the case it seems obvious what's happened - Armstrong doesn't want his day in court because rider after rider will declare, on oath, that they saw Armstrong doping, the test results will be brought up and analysed and the whole world, rather than just some cycling geeks, will hear testimony like that in the link that TSAR posted earlier in thsi thread. Doing this, that evidence won't be heard (unless it's leaked, get Assange onto it) and he can claim that it's bitter cheats and tampered samples. It is interesting what Kimmage says about Contador, Wiggins etc not making comment. I'd guess that they just don't want to talk about doping because it reinforces the image in the general sporting publics mind that cycling is a sport for dopers and that they are just lucky for not getting caught (well in Wiggins case as Contador has already been caught but you know).

Armstrong had taken the USADA to court in the US and lost. The US anti-doping agency is responsible for handing out doping bans to US athletes. The UCI (who are thick as thieves with Armstrong) have to abide by the anti-doping agencies, they are signed up to WADA, who are the overall body for drug testing in all Olympic and paralympic sports, including cycling. If the UCI don't strip him then they will be failing to implement the WADA code, that would be a huge infraction. I don't doubt that the UCI will try anything to stop him being stripped but they are in a corner with this.

He's joined the gigantic list of players who I said were rubbish but turned out to be brilliant.

Hmm yes quite George Brislen-Hall here, just signed for these Scottish chaps. If it doesn't work out at least I'll be closer to the grouse moors on the 12th. Quite.

He's joining the massive list of Caley players I said would be rubbish but turn out to be brilliant.

Give us a shout about getting the train though.

It's the start of the season, no need to rest people. Just watch as we get put out now

Could be a Winnal, could be a Davis. Hopefully the latter.

Rory was rubbish for us, absolute garbage. I remember having an angry rant to TheMantis about his showing against Morton in the League Cup at half-time - one of the poorest performances I've ever seen from a Caley Thistle player.