ictchris

A great day and the biggest robbery I can recall. Darran Thomson scored the goal as well, how much worse could it get for the Buddies than that? :015:

Is it not the eight best second placed teams go to the play-offs? To calculate which team goes out, results for the other nations against the sixth placed teams are taken out of the equation. So if we win all our home games and avoid any Georgia-style balls ups we should get through to the playoffs.

Rory has made less than ten starts for us, he is 20 years old. Booing him when he COMES ON as a sub is unforgivable. The same people who behave like 13 year old Westlife fans when Dean McDonald / Liam Keogh warms up no doubt :rolleyes02: Having said that I remember Barry Robson being consistently slated when he played for us by some of the intellectuals on the terracing so it's no surprise.

Me too.

Rory came on as a sub after several months out injured - booing a sub as he runs onto the pitch is hardly complaining at not getting value for money. I find it amazing that a young player who hasn't even started ten games gets such abuse, it's an embarrassment.

Draw on Thursday, live on Sky apparently. Teams in the pot: Aberdeen (P) Airdrie (D2)/Queens Park (D2) Brechin (D2)/East Fife (D3) Celtic (P) Cowdenbeath (D2) Clyde (D1) Cove Rangers (H) Dumbarton (D3) Dundee (D1) Dundee Utd (P) Dunfermline (D1) East Stirlingshire (D3) Falkirk (P) Greenock Morton (D1) Gretna (P) Hamilton (D1) Hearts (P) Hibernian (P) Huntly (H) Inverness CT (P) Kilmarnock (P) Linlithgow (J) Livingston (D1) Motherwell (P) Partick Thistle (D1) Queen of the South (D1) Raith Rovers (D2) Rangers (P) Ross County (D2) St Johnstone (D1) St Mirren (P) Stirling (D1) From a selfish point of view, raith Rovers would be an short trip across to Fife. Huntly away would be a beauty though.

Pathetic behaviour again from a section of our support.

Madness not selecting Ian Black. He is our best midfielder. Roy mcBain is a hard-working player but he just isn't up to playing in midfield. Absolutely crazy. Rankin on the bench ahead of Black? I'm flabbergasted. On the plus side, we've got Niculae and Wyness back up front and McGuire is back in defence. I think Rosscoe has been awful thsi season so here's hoping Proctor can take his chance at the back. I was also thinking whilst watching Falkirk v rangers that Alan Hutton is now one of the top players in Scotland but less than a year ago was considered one of rangers worst players. Could a young lad pulling himself up by the bootstrings to make big improvements be something we can look to RoryMcAllister for, obviously not the extent that Hutton has done?

Good post. I think Brewster coming back is a good thing for us, but I agree with you on the selection for Ibrox. I can see why he chose Proctor but it's madness to leave out Cowie, given the way he has been performing. I also think that Marius should have started against Aberdeen and Rangers. As you say he and Wyness have been scoring. Brewster did say that he wanted to give some fringe players a runout against Aberdeen and Graham Bayne has always done well at Ibrox. Perhaps Brewster wanted more of a physical presence/targetman for at the weekend. However, since he came in he's moved us clear of the bottom of the table and got us scoring goals. The shambolic situation that is our defence should have been sorted out long before Brewster came back in. Phil McGuire hasn't done badly - generally we've conceded less when he's played than when he's not. I would have preferred a more dominant, experienced centre half coming in though, there is still time in the window but I've said that elsewhere. If it wasn't for penalties, own goals or goalkeeping errors we would have eight more points and be in the top half of the table, presuming the following results had been the same draws against Motherwell (pen), Hibs (pen) and wins over Killie and Aberdeen. Our defending is what's hurting us at the moment. It's an embarrassment.

Goal on Saturday and then a cheeky Robbie Fowler-esque celebration please Richie. :crazy07:

Discounting subs made in the first half due to injuries, Brewster made 93 substitutes during SPL games in his first stint as manager. The average time at which he made a sub was the 75th minute. During this period three goals were scored by Caley Thistle subs (Bryan Prunty v Rangers 05/03/05; Liam Fox v Dundee 14/05/05; Graham Bayne v Aberdeen 15/10/05). A quick sample of the subs made from SPL clubs this season (in the first four weekends of games) reveals that the average time after which a substitution was made is 66 minutes. Of this sample nine goals were scored - Nacho Novo v ICT; Zemmama x2 and Fletcher v Gretna; Ross McCormack v ICT; Daniel Cousin v St Mirren; Andrew Driver v Gretna; Chris Porter v Gretna and Dean Shiels v Aberdeen. Does this show us that Brewster should make substitutions earlier in the game? Perhaps - eight of the nine goals scored during the sample were scored by players who came on before the 75th minute, Brewsters average time to make a change. However, what I think is important is the type of player you have on the bench. 'Impact' players are key - all the goals scored during the second sample were from attacking players who either have pace, power or the ability to produce skillful moments in order to turn a game. The question shouldn't be - get subs on earlier but get better subs. We have Dean McDonald who has shown promise in the reserves and is skillful and has a wee bit of pace (from what I've heard). We also have Graham bayne who is a powerful target man who can cause problems at set pieces. One of the best uses of substitutes I have seen in recent years is David Moyes employing Duncan Ferguson as a 'wild card' thrown on in the second half of games to make an impact. Could Graham bayne be our Big Dunc? Also, it will be interesting to see if Dean McDonald can continue to develop in the reserves and possibly start to make a difference off the bench.

Who cares if managers talk about their mistakes? Clacher, Brewster signed Morgan, Dargo and Wyness. I do agree that Robbo was a hugely important manager for us though - he built successfully on the foundations left by Pele.

The age of the internet has negated the need for paper fanzines.

He was great for us in the First Division but hasnt' really pulled it off in the SPL. If he hadn't got injured I think he'd have left already. If he does go, we need to get someone in to replace him. I would like to see us go in for Bullen again or even his ex Wednesday team-mate Coughlan.

St Mirren will be a tough game. They are unbeatenin their last three games and are getting results. They have a solid team and even the perpetually ***** Billy Mehmet seems to be producing the goods with a couple of goals and an assist in the last three games.

I have faith in Mikey. Even Mark 'Mr Consistency' Brown had a few shakey moments when we first came into the SPL. I don't think Fraser should have been dropped for the Aberdeen league game.

I would ban anyone who didn't used to post on the Rivals site.

Lets be honest, psychology is a waste of time, it's a subject thought up to allow dimwits who couldnt' get into medical school to pontificate about people's minds. A hundred years ago most pyschologists would have been feeling the bumps on peoples heads to tell their personalities.

There's only one hysteric on this thread. Nurse! :004: I was just watching some of the highlights of the season so far on youtube and Niculae has shown some canny touches - the two assists against Falkirk especially. I do think that we should have tried to ease him into the season, considering he hardly played last season and had no pre-season to speak of. Who remembers a couple of seasons ago, we went to Ibrox at this time of year with a misfiring striker after a disappointing midweek defeat? End result a well deserved point and a humdinger of a goal for aforementioned striker :023:

I haven't made it to many games this season but from what I've seen Niculae is doing well. He had a decent game against Celtic, as decent as you can get if you lose 5-0. Wyness' return to form has coincided with him being paired up front with Niculae.

He's already scored in the CIS.

4-1 for the Dons, Nicolson hat-trick. Our defence should be ashamed of themselves, they seem to have fallen to bits without Dods. Professional sportsmen shouldn't be so reliant on one player.

Thanks to the wonder of the internet I've seen all our goals this season. We are weak and lack thoroughness and concentration in the centre of defence and we give the ball away far too easily. Look at the St Mirren game, for example. For the first goal, we had possession a couple of seconds prior to the goal but gave the ball away cheaply, allowed a player to turn and lost a goal. For the second the ball was played in behind us, Kean chased it down and squared it for Corcoran to tap in - not one of our players put any pressure on either player. We are simply too slack, we can't afford it. We need another commanding centre half, perhaps Brewster should go back in for Bullen in the window. I also wouldn't mind us looking at Graham Coughlan, he was solid for Livingston and has had a good career down south. Having said that he seems to be doing not bad for Rotherham, might not be interested in uprooting.

:015: Disclosure Scotland are strange. I know a guy who was knocked back for an admin job in the NHS for being convicted and fined for a punch up from ten years previous but I also know a guy who passed one despite having a conviction for firing an airgun at someone only a few years before. Btw, I don't just hang around with a bunch of criminals :023:

A drugs conviction would kibosh you because I assume you had to pass disclosure? The only jobs that would result in automatic dismissal for drug related offences are ones that involve being in charge of children/vulnerable people, jobs where you have peoples lives in your hands or operate heavy machinery. You probably wouldn't be able to get a job like that if you had a possession conviction. Of course, most contracts of employment will have 'gross misconduct' or 'bringing the company into disrepute' clauses to cover for this. I doubt there are drugs strong enough that would have enlivened that game at Meadowbank though - just say no kids!