ictchris

An Iain Vigurs shaped hole? Blackie is brilliant. I can't believe he's still with us!

We win our first home game of the season in, by all accounts, an impressive perofrmance against a decent side and people want to make five changes? I would keep the same side except maybe give Esson a chance ahead of Fraser.

Lets put it in perspective tho. A loss yesterday could EASILY have seen us sitting SECOND BOTTOM, such is the precarious nature of our league position! We are in the Quarter Finals courtesy of STRUGGLING to dispose of two teams we should be easily dispatching in 90 mins. The way i see it, we should be able of putting teams like Hamilton and St Midden to the sword at home. And its games like that i find so difficult to accept if the outcome isnt favourable. I do not have unreasonable expectations. If we are in a similar position at half way point, giv or take a position or two, then great, we are doing exceptionally well. Come the end of the season, i really dont think a minimum position of 9th- 8th is too much to wish for. As the saying goes, if my auntie etc etc. When did our fans become so arrogant that we thinkt he manager should be sacked for not 'putting teams like Hamilton and St Midden to the sword at home'? Unbelievable stuff.

I have seen us play some fantastic football this season, at Falkirk and Aberdeen. We were pretty poor at Tynecastle and Cappielow though but got through in the cup and only lost narrowly to Hearts. You often see teams hitting long, high balls to forwards when they are lacking in confidence and ideas. Certainly when we are playing poorly you see this, however as I said above when we won at Falkirk and Pittodrie we played excellent football. With the players we have we aren't going to perform excellently all the time - everyone realises that but I think we are capable of performing well regularly and have showed that this season. What players are played out of position? The only ones I could think of are swapping the wide midfielders around, taht's a tactic that is very common and can yield results. Again, against Aberdeen Imrie had a great game on the right and against Falkirk Vigurs and Cowie did well on the right and left respectively. The only player who you could say was driven away was Wyness, which was handled very poorly by the club. However, last season Denzil was not up to it in the SPL and the last few times I saw him, he was a shadow of his former slef. He just didn't have the strength or the pace to make it in the SPL, he was too easily shrugged off the ball and he wasn't offering anything to the team. Regarding offering up contracts to current players, that is just rumours, although regarding Ian Black, Brewster gave him his first start for the club, he tried to sign him when he went to Dundee utd and he has started him in every game this season. That suggests that he sees him as an important part of the side. Obviously Blackie is a player with a temper and Brewster has tried to deal with that, I think that is absolutely correct. Having tantrums when substituted, getting booked every other game and getting sent off for kicking the ball away is unacceptable and had to be dealt with. So far this season Blackie has been booked once and performed superbly, perhaps Brewster's approach should be given some credit? I remember when we were in the lower leagues, we used to get fans of SPL clubs coming onto the rivals site when we drew them in the cup and assuring us that we were in for a doing, that they were far superior to us. One Hearts fan in particular gave it big licks over his clubs seven internationals, only to come crawling back humbled when we stuffed them at Tynie. Away cup games against lower league clubs in midweek are potentially big hurdles and we have got over them so far this season. The important thing in cup games is to get into the draw for the next round. Dundee Utd, Hibs, Killie and Rangers have all got to cup finals in the last few seasons after having neede extra-time, replays or penalties to beat lower league sides in previous rounds. You are right to say we're one game from 2nd bottom but what's equally true is that we are one game from third. The only important statistic is that we are where we are. Incidentally, this is the best position we have ever been in at this point in an SPL season in terms of points on the board, goals scored and goals conceded. I don't think things are perfect, far from it - I have big concerns about our forward line and think we could do with an experienced centre-half. However, credit has to be given where it's due and we have had a better start to the season than anyone could have predicted.

There are problems with our team but as things stand we are fourth in the league and in the quarter-finals of the league cup. Given that at the start of the season no-one on this site would have turned it down. For a club in our position to sack our manager outwith the transfer window for footballing reasons would be folly of Newcastle-esque proportions.

Presumably when the NotW is published we can all discuss this? If it actually is in the NotW.

I said in one of my reports that the games against Killie and United were vital - a point at Tannadice would make it a happy international break for our lads.

Fourth in the table anyone?

Crowd 3426. Pretty poor.

Looks like the ref could be one of the talking points again this season.

Vigurs booked.

Get in.

Guy Kerr scores for Elgin.

Heard this mentioned on Sportsound - local press in Falkirk were reporting that the Falkirk stadium company had gone into liquidation. This has been denied by the club and the company. I thought that Falkirk were looking to get the stadium finished, although with the state of markets and the building industry these days would a project like thsi slipping into insolvency be that much of a surprise? BBC link denying story

Imrie contributes again, nice one wee man.

Having said that, we came from behind to beat Morton and Falkirk. Certain victory for us this afternoon then.

Unless Barrowman and Imrie answer our striking questions then a point is a great result for us from this game. Sickener.

Connor Sammon from a free kick. Dreadful.

Inverness CT 01 Fraser 02 Tokely 05 McGuire 14 Munro 16 Hastings 27 Vigurs 12 Duncan 08 Black 06 McBain 10 Barrowman 11 Imrie Substitutes 23 Esson, 03 Djebi-Zadi, 07 Wilson, 09 Rooney, 13 McAllister, 15 Cowie, 24 Duff Kilmarnock 01 Combe 02 Fowler 04 Lilley 06 Ford 05 Wright 23 Hamill 29 Pascali 07 Bryson 10 Taouil 28 Sammon 20 Fernandez Substitutes 27 Rascle, 11 Invincibile, 15 Murray, 19 Skelton, 24 Flannigan, 30 Cox, 34 Simmonds I think that dropping Cowie might be a good decision - he didn't look good in either game last week and Vigurs was excellent when he came on at Cappielow. According to Sportsound, Imrie will be playing just off Barrowman so it's a 4-4-1-1. By my count that's the fifth forward combination we've used this season. Just checked this out: Aberdeen - Barrowman as lone striker Hamilton - Barrowman as lone striker. Hibernian - Rooney and Barrowman. Falkirk - Wood and Rooney. St Mirren - Wood and Rooney. Hearts - Rooney and Barrowman. Killie - Barrowman with Imrie 'off'.

Exclusive link to Newcastle negotiations

I will be there.

Sergio Markarian.

Like the whole team, I thought he wasn't great for the first hour but really came on in the second. Great finish for the winner. He had a wee bit of 'banter' with the Ton fans after the goal, funny to see them running down the steps to abuse him

I am writing the match report so will post that up tonight. I will sum up my views in brief - first hour dire, second hour good. Imrie - why do all these First Division teams hate him? Vigurs is great. Rory is done, shouldn't get another chance.

----------------------Fraser--------------------- --Proctor------Duff--------Munro-----Hastings--- --Cowie-----Duncan-------Vigurs-----Imrie---- ------------McAllister---------Wood---------------