ictchris

I'll be honest, I never expected to see Halkirk V Inverness CT (LIVE) written anywhere. I'm sure SKy Sports are gutted to be showing Man Utd v Spurs rather than this.

I was hoping Ian Black would try to crock Tom Huddlestone, that would've been funny to see. You get what you pay for in the end and Spurs wage bill is more than seven times hearts. Even so, it's a bit disheartening that they didn't put up more of a fight.

Expect a bid for Tevez.

From Twitter: TyroneSTV - STV News understands a group of existing shareholders [my emphasis] have invested a quarter of a million pounds in Inverness Caledonian Thistle. TyroneSTV - Inverness also in talks with consortium of ex-pat fans about fresh investment in the club. I'd assume that Alan Savage must be part of this group. Who else?

Ayr fan on P&B suggests that the choice of grounds won't be finalised until Monday.

I'm sure everyone thinks this anyway but we need to be very, very careful about who invests in the club. A large percentage of investors in football clubs are hopeless egotists and a smaller number are basically crooks - read up on the recent owners of Portsmouth or Notts County, absolutely unbelievable. However, I'm confident that our board will carry out proper due diligence on whoever comes in.

Another game, another back four line up for us. Tudor-Jones is also out for the next two months with a knee injury. --------------------------------Esson---- -------------------------- ----Piermayr-----Aldred----------Hogg---- -ShinnieG------ ---Hayes---------Ross-----------Tansey--- ------Doran----- ---------------------tade-----------Foran- --------------------- Personally I'd rather see us look at a 4-2-3-1 like we had at the start of last season perhaps something like this: --------------------------------Esson---- -------------------------- ----Piermayr-----Aldred----------Hogg---- -ShinnieG------ --------------------Tansey----------Morrison- ----------------- --------Hayes--------------Ross---------- ---Doran------------ --------------------------Foran---------- -------------------------- Don't think we'll see it though.

Tough deal for him. Hopefully Cox will be back soon, otherwise I'd slot Nick Ross into the centre of midfield alongside Tansey.

This report is for season 2009/10, when we weren't in the SPL. I don't think it covers us.

He was poor yesterday. He didn't show much positional sense and what he did with the disallowed goal was just ridiculous. He also pulled out of a few tackles and blocks which is disappointing for such a powerful guy. I think he could do a job in terms of being a big strong player who works the channels and creates situations. A couple of times he was picked out and gained us some yards or a corner. Hopefully he'll grow into the SPL and become a valuable player.

The first half was our worst performance since Brewster was manager, absolutely awful stuff. We looked disorganised at the back, our midfield were non existant and up front we weren't doing anything. Hogg and Rosscoe just weren't gelling at all in the middle and kept losing the ball in the air. Barrowman and Kirk were all over them, pulling them out of position and giving them questions they couldn't answer. Very poor picking up for the first two Pars goals. In the middle of the park in the first 45 we were ineffectual - Tansey was quiet and Jones looked off the pace. Jones seems like he could be a player but didn't work hard enough. Such a big guy could be a real asset if he had more of an engine but he just didn't get involved enough. He hit a couple of decent passes so we'll hope that he comes to assert himself more as he becomes established. Up front Foran and Tade were dealing with high balls that they couldn't do anything with, Tade especially didn't seem to know what he was doing while Foran at least did some good work dropping deeper. Second half we seemed to push ourselves into the game more through force of effort than any real improvement, although Tansey began to take more of a hold of things and play some good passes. He showed great feet and composure to work himself space for the first goal, although his shot was deflected over Gallagher. Once again, terrible marking at the back did for us minutes later with Tokely abandoning his man to allow him a free header. Very, very poor stuff. We continued to make more headway than in the first half but without doing much of quality. Doran was on a off day, he didn't look confident and hit poor crosses and lost the ball on several occasions. The one time he did manage to get a ball over, Foran flicked it in only for Tade, standing in an offside position, to tap it in from a few inches out. The ball was clearly going in, if Tade had stood still it would have been a goal. Absolutely mind boggling that a professional player would do that. Foran gave him a few choice words about it. The Pars still did for us with some decent passing and took advantage of our terrible, indecisive back line on a couple of occasions but Esson produced a good stop when Cardle (I think) had a shot at goal. We brought Nick Ross on for Doran and he made a big difference in our game, he used the ball well and provided us with real impetous in the middle. We got back on terms when Jones pinged one from 25 yards that Gallagher fumbled and Hayes knocked in. Gallagher had done that a couple of minutes before, great awareness from Hayes to pull that one out. We took the lead when Foran's header across goal was bundled in by Tansey, showing great bravery in sticking his head in where it hurts. Most of our fans couldn't believe we were ahead and, to be honest, the Pars got what they deserved when Hardie stuck a brilliant, unstoppable free kick in the top corner after Hogg hauled a player down thirty yards out. Disappointing to lose an injury time goal for the second week running though. Overall, I can't be too gutted about that as we got a point from a game that we easily could have lost convincingly. There are probably more positives for us than the Well game - good spirit, three goals and good showings from Forna, Tansey, Ross and Esson - but also big, big worries at the back. We just looked disorganised, with poor marking and nervousness characterising everything we did. The fact that we had experienced guys like Tokely and Hogg in there is also worrying. Hopefully we can sort out the defence as we get more settled. We had to make two changes to our back line during the 90 minutes and this was the third different defensive line up in three games, which can't help organisationally. I am worried about goals coming from up front as Foran isn't going to be prolific at this level and Tade certainly isn't going to score lots of goals, until he learns the offside rule at least! On a positive note, glad to see the Pars back in the SPL. Decent ground, good fans, nice wee town and a steak bridie. I also like that you are playing proper black and white stripes again after those ***** Yankees style tops for the last few years.

East Fife, Livvy or Stenny away would suit me, I could probably make those games. If we get Stenny then I will be arranging an 'off' with the Akabusi Loyal, it'll make Green Street look like Seaseme Street.

--------------------Esson-------------------- --Piermayr----Tokely-----Aldred----Gillet--- --Hayes------Tansey-----Tudor-Jones--Doran--- -------------------Foran---------------------- -------------------Tade----------------------

The good news is that your bairn has an absolutely awesomely cool name. The bad news is he's half Greek so now owes the German Central Bank ?150,000,000,000. Seriously, congratulations to you and your good lady.

Has he actually signed or was he just back picking stuff up?

Gil Blumstein - Israel

I suppose there are two ways to look at this result and performance. Positive - Well are a good side, top six last season and cup finalists. They haven't really been weakened in the close season and beating them away was always going to be a difficult one for us. Even so, we competed well and with a bit more luck (two shots hitting the woodwork) could have got something out of the game. We have a few injuries and haven't finished close season shopping yet. Despite the result Greg Tansey looked good and Richie Foran ws sharp, showing he's benefitted from a full preseason. Negative - We were easily cut apart, our defence looked brittle, Tokely and ALdred aren't a partnership, Proctor isn't a right-back, Andy Shinnie was completely anonymous, tactically Butcher got it wrong so we ended up with Hayes and Ross getting the ball too deep, Tade and Foran didn't have much of an understanding and frequentlyh went for the same balls, we were left with a bench consisting entirely of kids, our rivals this season have signed experienced players whereas we have gone for kids and we are all doomed.

Poor first half performance, especially at the back. We just didn't look solid, Tokley and Proctor were poor. I thought Tansey did well and Tade worked hard. Foran looked our biggest threat but Shinnie was anonymous in the first half and in the second he wasn't much better. 'Well were good, they knocked the ball around very well for their first half goals and Lasley hit a beauty for the third. I think they could do well this season. Hopefully they finish third and this result isn't reflective of how our season goes

They got relegated from the top division last season.

Thank you! A wonderful turn of phrase which I may well take the liberty of plagiarising in a report at some time during the season! (Although I'm sure someone else has got there first liong since.) It would be especially suitable for Open All Mics!!! You'll need to credit the author and pay him Charles. Straight from the Johann Hari school of journalism.

You getting the train through from Edinburgh TSNE?

Good to see Nick Ross getting on the scoresheet - the only thing missing in his game last season was that he didn't get in on the business end of things quite as often as you would hope a young player of his quality would. Hopefully an omen for the season to come.

I hate Nacho Novo more than I hate Hitler.

Twitter is excellent, more up to date with transfers than the Highland News, the Courier and the P&J put together.

Stalking footballers is the true purpose of twitter.