ictchris

If we look at the fixtures remaining, here are those for the sides vying for the top six: Falkirk vs Hibernian 27-02-2008 Falkirk vs Motherwell 01-03-2008 Inverness CT vs Falkirk 15-03-2008 Hearts vs Falkirk 22-03-2008 Falkirk vs Kilmarnock 29-03-2008 Aberdeen vs Falkirk 05-04-2008 Celtic vs Inverness CT 27-02-2008 Inverness CT vs Hearts 01-03-2008 Inverness CT vs Falkirk 15-03-2008 Kilmarnock vs Inverness CT 22-03-2008 Inverness CT vs Aberdeen 29-03-2008 Gretna vs Inverness CT 05-04-2008 Hearts vs Rangers 27-02-2008 Inverness CT vs Hearts 01-03-2008 St Mirren vs Hearts 15-03-2008 Hearts vs Falkirk 22-03-2008 Hearts vs Dundee Utd 29-03-2008 Kilmarnock vs Hearts 05-04-2008 Aberdeen vs Motherwell 27-02-2008 Rangers vs Aberdeen 01-03-2008 Aberdeen vs Gretna 15-03-2008 Aberdeen vs St Mirren 22-03-2008 Inverness CT vs Aberdeen 29-03-2008 Aberdeen vs Falkirk 05-04-2008 Who has the advantage? Home games: Falkirk - 3; ICT - 3; Hearts - 3; Aberdeen - 4. Form: Falkirk have won only one of their last six; ICT won one of the last six; Aberdeen have lost five of the last six; Hearts have won three, drawn one of the last six. Difficulty of games: Only Falkirk have no games against the Old Firm; ICT have one game against Celtic then play the rest of the bottom six. Misc: Hearts are apprently close to losing their best striker to Viking; Aberdeen have the come-down after a Yoofa Cup run and also have signifcantly poor goal difference than the rest. It's very difficult to tell. We are a side who play in runs - since we got into the SPL we have relied on taking advantage during our good periods punctuated by runs of games where we don't pick up results. For example, in 2004 we were still deep in the relegation race in the New Year but went on a run over January, Febryuary and March were we won four and drew two games to pull ourselves clear. In 2005/06 we went on a horrible run culminating in a dire 3-0 scudding at home to Falkirk - over the next nine league games we were unbeaten picking up results against Hearts, the Old Firm, Hibs and Aberdeen. Last season, after a poor start we went unbeaten in six (four wins, two draws) to get some points on the borad before going on a horror run of nine games without a win. this season we had our dreadful start but since have had some good runs, obviously the best being the five straight wins in November and December. Hopefully we can produce another good run between now and April and secure a top six spot. On balance, I'd think that Falkirk look best placed in terms of position, Hearts have the best form and Aberdeen probably have the best squad on paper, although their terrible form counts against them. What we need is twofold: to tighten up and stop losing stupid goals and to have one of our strikers hit some form. So far this season Wyness and Niculae have had good scroing runs, we need that from one of them again over the next period.

A good summary, although I thought Bayne did a bit better than you say. he won a few headers and chased well.

Denzil is a player who, in the SPL, will always score in bursts. He is a confidence player I think. He scored six in six games earlier this season and when he first came back he had the run alongside Dargo when he scored eight in nine games. Bayne has a lot to offer, if we play him right - targetmen need good service in terms of crosses and support from the middle of the park. From what I've seen Markus is good at coming in from a wide area and attacking crosses, in a Lee McCulloch stylee.

My flat.

With regards to signings, Brewster has a good record. Even at Dundee Utd! In his first spell with us he signed: Alan Morgan - Fair enough didn't work out, he was a young player proving himself. Craig Dargo - Obviously a very successful signing. At Yinted he signed: Noel Hunt, Craig Conway, Christian Kalvenes and Lee Wilkie all of whom have been good signings. He probably would've taken Dods there too if he hadn't got the bullet. Since coming back he's brought in McGuire and Proctor, both of whom have done well. McGuire definately had a settling affect on our defence and Proctor has shown he is a very handy player both in terms of versatility and ability. Also, on first impressions Dougie Imrie has shown promise coming up from the First. I'll draw a veil over Zibi!

-----------------Fraser----------------- --Proctor--McGuire--Munro--Hastings-- ---Cowie---Duncan--Black---Imrie--- -----------------Niculae/Wyness-------- ------------------Bayne--------------------- We always seem to lose out to Rob Jones when we try to hit our strikers against Hibs. I think if we had Imrie and Cowie down the flanks we could try and pull them out of position and capitalise. Also, get Wyness or Niculae a bit deeper to act as a link man to Bayne, who can chase balls into the channels and challange lost causes. I think we might be on a hiding to nothing as the likes of Fletcher and Sheils seem to be doing very well for Hibs. At least a goal would be nice in my home game!

The team that went on the five game run was: Fraser Defence of Tokely or Proctor right back; McGuire, Grant or Proc at Centre back; Hastings left back Midfield of Cowie, Black, Duncan, McBain, Rankin Up front: Generally Niculae on his own. Disappointing to lose tonight but we have been pretty poor away from home this season and Motherwell have been playing well, both throughout the season as a whole and for the last few games. Not easy to see us taking much from Hibs and Celtic away.

Gretna have been stripping back for most of the last year. They stumbled over the line in the First Division and have now released practically all their half-decent players - Danny Grainger to United and McMenamin to Dundee, putting Bingham, Paatarlu and others out on loan and releasing (deep breath) Martin Canning, James Grady, Tony Caig, Ryan McGuffie, David Graham, Allan Jenkins, David Cowan, Niall Henderson and Colin Scott. These guys have all been replaced with, for the most part, 18 year old loan players from England. I think what has happened is that after having a laugh with his team through the Second and Thrid divisions Mileson, or those around him, realised that to put together an SPL quality squad and upgrade raydale would require serious, serious money - he wasn't prepared to go for it and has been slowly running down the club since. Sad for the Gretna fans but probably inevitable.

Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war? Caley Thistle set to adopt aerial route to success Published: 19 February, 2008 CRAIG Brewster may be forced to change Caley Thistle's normal passing game in order to cope with conditions underfoot at Motherwell tomorrow evening. The pitch at Fir Park has come in for heavy criticism after a spate of matches were postponed throughout last month due to waterlogging. This has left the surface badly rutted and even Motherwell boss Mark McGhee was critical of it in the wake of Saturday's 3-1 triumph over tenants Gretna, claiming it was in no way conducive to one-touch football. Given the nature of the pitch, McGhee has been forced into opting for the aerial route to goal and Caley Thistle manager Brewster could do likewise tomorrow evening. "The one thing we know about the pitch at Motherwell is that it is going to be the same for both sides," he said. "By all accounts the condition of it isn't good, so suddenly we've got to really think about how we approach the game. "There's no doubt, however, we'll have to be that little bit smart and get the ball into certain areas of the pitch where we know we'll be able to play." Tomorrow night's encounter is the second game of a five-match spell in 14 days for Caley Thistle after they began with a 1-1 draw against Dundee United at home on Saturday. After Motherwell, Caley Thistle's difficult schedule of fixtures will see them visit Hibs on Saturday and Celtic a week tomorrow, before finishing off with a home encounter against Hearts. Brewster, however, remains unperturbed by the amount of games his side will have to play between now and the start of March, which could go some way to deciding if they are capable of finishing in the SPL's top six come the split. "We've simply got to deal with it," he stated. "It's going to be difficult, especially with three away games in a row, but this is the way it's worked out. "When you get a run of games like this in fairly quick succession then there's a few points to be won and lost, so it's up to us to pick up as many as we can in order to maintain the momentum we've built up." The fixture against Motherwell will see Caley Thistle reach another significant milestone in that it will be the club's 500th league game since joining the Scottish League in 1994. The occasion, however, will only be remembered should Inverness achieve a positive result against a side currently flying high in third place in Scotland's top flight. Caley Thistle have lost twice to the Steelmen this season already, but Brewster believes that if his players deliver a performance he knows they are capable of then they could come away from Lanarkshire with something tangible. "It's another difficult game for us, but then every one in the SPL is," he added. "However, if everyone plays to their potential then I don't see any reason why we can't put on a really good performance at Motherwell." With so many games coming up in such a short space of time, Brewster may contemplate changes for tomorrow even- ing in order to freshen up his team. The impact made by Graham Bayne after replacing Marius Niculae on Saturday was noted by Brewster and should he choose to adopt an aerial route, his presence in the air could well unlock Motherwell's defence. "Graham Bayne came on against United and played well," he said. "I know what he has in his locker and there's no doubt we got a real lift from him coming on, but I'll wait and see how training goes before deciding on any changes." There had been reports after Saturday's encounter that both Dennis Wyness and Barry Wilson had been ruled out after failing late fitness tests, but Brewster revealed they were simply left out of the final 18-man squad. The duo will be in contention for a place at Motherwell, although David Proctor is definitely out with a hamstring injury.

Aberdeen looked a shambles on Sunday and by all accounts they were gash on Tuesday as well. If they go on a bad run and we keep steady I could see them end up ensconsed in the bottom three. Hearts appear to be building up a head of steam though.

Not a bad start for him - goal with his first touch as a celtic player!

Brilliant stuff, this is what Scotsport should be like! Check out Dougie's barnet and Archie getting screamed at around 3:20

Totally agree. Is there a harder working player in the SPL? :010: Where the feck have you been? Bayne is under-rated, we did well to keep him.

You can't really predict how Imrie will do. One thing that can be said for certain is that he likes to get stuck in and have a bit of pace, which is important in the SPL. Pace is certainly something we nee.d

McGuire has played one game in the First Division in his career, the rest of his time in Scotland has been in the SPL with Aberdeen and latterly Dunfermline. Barry has a lot of top flight experience at Livingston. Malkowski has played 50 odd SPL games for Hibs. As for players from the lower leagues, can't complain about Cowie, Bayne, Dods etc. Many people were spitting feathers when we sold rankin as well.

I could care less if he's a good player! Having said that from his Bebo he likes James Blunt - unforgivable!

Apparently Gretna have released Martin Canning (ex tink), James Grady (Hamilton) and Allan Jenkins (Morton). They have signed a few 18 year olds on loan to replace them. Methinks they are resigned to relegation already, they are certainly looking one of the worst SPL teams ever.

Dougie Imrie has a bit of a 'rep' in the First Division. He certainly has a lot of bookings and was involved in a near-tragic incident involving Hamilton Accies player Ross McCabe. Apparently, McCabe tackled Imrie and they collided - during the collision McCabe was knocked unconcious, his heart stopped and he was rushed to hospital. The game was abandoned and McCabe had to retire from football. The clash was completely accidental - I think that Imrie landed awkwardly on McCabe after the tackle. Link 1 Link 2 From those links, Imrie went to speak to him in hospital and I think that the players involved all realised it was a terrible accidnet. From reading P&B though the incident fuelled intensive rivalry between Accies and Clyde fans, some nasty stuff there. Aside from that Imrie seems to like to get wired in - excellent, I like that in our team. Good to have a bit of dig about us. I hope we sign him.

We signed Markus from Cowdenbeath. Dundee utd signed Craig Conway from Ayr and he's done pretty well, as has that lad Gomis. So it can be done.

As TJE says he hardly set the SPL on fire with Killie, or have much of an impact in Division One with Queens. Hmmmmmm.

Has he signed up then? Nothing on the fishul site.

I think IHE should turn his pyschological raindancing on himself and try to explain why he is so obsessed with Marius Niculae? Niculae does all this on a regular basis. Your main gripe with him is that he isn't brilliant 100% of the time - who is? Certainly not Bingham or Juanjo. Niculae hadn't played football for over a season when we signed him. Perhaps that's why he took a few games to get into his stride, since when he has been one of our best players, scoring several vital goals, contributing to a great run which has seen us move from relegation candidates to challenging for the top six. I imagine Niculae could score a hat-trick in every game from now until season's end and you'd still be on here complaining. With regards to Russell, I like him as a player. His passing can be wayward at times (i.e. last Sunday) but he is a vital cog in the machine. I really hope we make him a new offer to keep him - I'm sure he isn't expecting the mythical ?5,000/week that MN gets but just a raise. He is now an established SPL player after all. I'd hope that we aren't letting him go in order to fund pay hikes to other players - to coin a phrase "Why put another layer of gold paint on the Bentley when you are losing the entire engine"?

Brewster was at the St Johnstone-Raith cup tie the other night. Possible targets on the pitch - Andy Jackson, young St Johnstone striker who has scored about 10-12 goals this season and just turned 20. Represented Republic of Ireland Under 18s.

Just report any Rangers fans in our end to the police, who should remove them. It is against the law to sit in the 'wrong' end at a football match. The club should make sure that any Rangers fans have their ticket stubs confiscated, their seat numbers noted and are banned from our ground for life. They should also investigate why the ticket office are complicit in breaking the law by selling people 60 tickets in a block. There is no reason why this shouldn't be done, apart from that the club don't want to as it will be a lot of hassle and bad publicity (in terms of the media). Having said that one of my fondest memories of watching Caley was when Sir Caley The 3rd ran down the terrace to scream foul mouthed abuse at the Tims in our end when we beat Celtic in 2003, get it right up you, you manky doleite minkers! :015:

From today's Inverness Courier: I remember this guy from his farcical 'bid' for Elgin City. He is an absolute clown, your classic Walter Mitty character. Thank God David Sutherland doesn't want him.