Renegade

I was doing a bit of research earlier and in the late 90s we played two Lewis/Harris Select teams, which took place over two days with the first being played at Fivepenny on Lewis, the home of Ness FC. We won that game 4-0, before defeating another Lewis/Harris Select team 7-1 the following day at Goat Hill Park in Stornoway, home of Stornoway United. We played in Italy a couple of summers as well. Don't know what the venue was like, but one was against a Romanian team as I recall and another was bizarrely against the Qatar U20 side!

You may remember other threads such as "How many nationalities have played for ICT" and "How many nationalities have played at the Caley Stadium", well here's another in a similar vein. How many stadiums/grounds have ICT played at? Are there any in the league system we haven't visited through the years? How many have we been to that no longer exist? And of course, where's the strangest place we've played? We could include friendlies and reserve matches in order to get the number up. On top of this, are there any prominent stadiums we haven't visited in any capacity? I think I'm right in saying that we've never played at Meadowbank Stadium in any capacity, unless we played Hibs Reserves there (I think they used that at one time as opposed to Almondvale). It might be nice to include our own experiences as well. For me, seeing ICT play Charlton at The Valley in East London was a bit surreal and I doubt I'll ever forget our encaptivating 10-0 win over Muir of Ord Rovers on a pitch next to a bowling green, with Terry Butcher watching from over the fence while stood on a wee grassy verge. So how many grounds have ICT played at and where have we visited and have not visited over the years?

I see Dean McDonald has signed for Whitehawk, after "playing" for four different teams in 2013. God he was rubbish!

Where did I say it was "all John's fault"? Nor did I call for Hughes's head after the final. Where did I say it was? Blue eyed boy?! Actually I think Hartley as a man is a weirdo, but going by his record and Hughes's record, I, like the vast majority, wanted him appointed over Hughes. Eh? To be quite honest, I had to read your post through more than once to understand what you meant. To say I called for Hughes's head, despite the post you quoted saying I wanted Hughes to be given time, suggests to me that you actually didn't read my post at all and/or have me confused with some other posters.

Did Aberdeen not take forever to score one season? This would've been about 2000ish when they were rooted to the bottom for a long while. Strange as they had Eoin Jess at that time as well, but they couldn't buy a goal!

I was one of the 53. Hughes is very much trying to drum this passing philosophy onto the players and there's nothing wrong with that, but we seem to be passing it for the sake of it now. Even at 2-0 down we were passing around the defence and back to the keeper, when we really need to get the ball forward and we still seem to run out of ideas in the final third and attempt to pass the ball into the net. Ryan Christie was very very impressive as others have said. I think he'll be our Andrew Shinnie talisman-in-the-hole player very soon indeed.

I wonder if Hughes's entire style is what the problem is. Under Terry Butcher, if we won but played badly, Butcher would give them a rollicking. I know that for a fact. Butcher ruled the players with an iron fist. The impression I get from Hughes is he's a bit more pally with them. I wonder if say last night, where we played alright on the whole but got beat, Hughes's team talk is somewhere along the lines of "Nevermind lads. You played alright." A pally manager can work, but not always and it's often circumstantial. I wonder if Hughes's approach has led to the players thinking "Oh well, we don't need to win anymore, just give it a good go." That's where problems start, as Aberdeen found out post-Ferguson. Hughes's teams have never been big goalscorers, not at this level anyway. I was speaking to someone who's interviewed Hughes quite a few times and he said to me that Hughes's Falkirk "was like watching a Barcelona that never scored goals." I think the true could soon be said for us. There's nothing wrong with keeping the ball, but there's a time to go a bit more direct - not necessarily long balls, but forward passes and getting the ball into the box. We all want to see passing football, but not for the sake of it, allowing the opposition to regain their positions and at times taking our own zip out of attacks. Under Butcher the players had a real drive a lot of the time to get forward and score goals. I don't seem to see that so much now. How good is Hughes's record compared to others? Is his record any better than the likes of Ian MacCall's, Ivan Golac's or Alex Smith's? Not particularly. In hindsight, should we have gone for Paul Hartley? Yes. If the board could go back in time, would they appoint Hartley instead? I wouldn't be surprised. Hughes is a man who applied for the Hamilton Accies job when Billy Reid left and failed to get it. Should Hughes be sacked? Of course not, certainly not for now anyway. While I think he may well benefit from the good signings of Butcher and Marsella, he needs to at least get some time to show what he can do and show us that he can get it right. If we really are looking poor, say a third of the way through next season, then that will be the time to make a decision and if he's doing so poorly that he needs punted, then that's what we should do. For now, he should be given time and he will no doubt get it. Despite this though, going from what we're seeing on the pitch and looking at his previous record, fans have the right to be concerned and be free to air their views without being labeled as "idiots" and other such terms. I thought the aim for this club was top six, cup finals and Europe. Now "happy clappers" are telling us that we all should just be happy with staying up. The worried ones are the ones who want the club to kick on. The ones who are easily pleased with just staying up, if anything, are the real negative ones. Only the manager and the immediate staff have changed - not the players who got us to second, yet people are now happy with just staying up and attack those who want to push on to bigger things. That's the type of attitude that'll get us nowhere.

4-4-2 doesn't seem to work and 4-2-3-1 seems to be defensively ok on the whole leaves us weak up top. For that reason, I'd go for 4-3-3 formation, with 3 up top, but also keeping the 3 in midfield to try and keep hold of that area. Raven and Shinnie bombing up and down providing the width. Brill Raven Warren Meekings Shinnie Tansey Draper Christie Doran Foran Mckay Subs - Esson, Devine, Tremarco, Ross, Watkins, Vincent, Williams

HT - Motherwell 0-0 ICT FT - Motherwell 0-1 ICT Motherwell 1st scorer - Vigurs ICT 1st scorer - Mckay Time of 1st Goal - 76

I'm not convinced we do have players that are good at shooting from range. Who's really got a good long shot on them? Tansey does, Shinnie sometimes does and maybe Meekings. That's about it really. Ben Greenhalgh has a decent shot, but seems to have disappeared. Doran shoots from range almost every week and every week the ball is ballooned towards the corner flag. It was no surprise when the same happened on Sunday.

Think I'm right in saying that everyone who's made a first team appearance this season is signed up for next season, apart from Ben Greenhalgh and Adam Evans. Conor Pepper, Joe Gorman and Matthew Cooper have all been in the squad but haven't played and are not yet signed up. Think we should be looking at offering Ryan Christie a Jim McLean-esque 10 year deal next to be honest!

Ross Draper has just signed a two year deal!

Penalty shoot-outs are not a lottery. This a very British attitude, which is seemingly dismissed on the continent. If you have five Graham Alexanders in your team and a keeper like the former Portugal keeper Ricardo, you're going to win the shootout. England almost always lose shoot-outs, while Germany seem to win them all. Is that just a coincidence? We were disadvantaged by the fact that we'd replaced Foran and Vincent, who'd have definitely taken penalties and *probably* would have scored. Mckay has never been a good penalty and when Tansey put his over, I knew that was it, but what also helped Aberdeen is that they had Vernon, Robson and Rooney who are all great penalty takers. Brill diving the same way every time didn't help matters and why don't keepers stay in the middle for one or two? There's always one that goes down there and Rooney's did. Disappointing, yes but they're not a lottery. Only people who lose them call them that.

What the deal with that 'Justice for the 96' banner? Obviously Hillsborough was a tragedy but I fail to see what it has to with the Scottish League Cup Final, Inverness, ICT or Aberdeen.

And losing them.

Wanting a player to play in the game is one thing, but dead balls are another animal altogether. Every week Doran cuts inside and shoots from range. Every week the ball is ballooned skywards. For Doran to take the ball and take that free-kick, knowing full well how poor he is from range and attempt to take the glory for himself was very selfish.

Doran! He grabbed the ball straight away and wasn't letting anyone else near it. Why doesn't that surprise me? Selfishness personified.

I don't see a problem with people leaving prior to the trophy presentation. The ovation had been given and losing like that is heartbreaking and most would want to get out and get it over with as quickly as possible. Post-ovation what would people have gained by staying? Or was it a 'lack of respect' to Aberdeen that was the problem?

With that one towards the end, who was the genius who decided on Doran to take it? 99 times out of 100 he skies the ball from outside the box and he's selfishness enough to do it every game. That was a chance we could have run with as well.

HT - Aberdeen 2-1 ICT FT - Aberdeen 2-3 ICT Aberdeen 1st scorer - Shaughnessy ICT 1st scorer - Foran Time of 1st Goal - 12 Total Shots - 14 Total Corners - 7 1st Yellow - Meekings

Brill Raven Devine Meekings Shinnie Draper Tansey Doran Foran Vincent Mckay Subs - Esson, Tremarco, Watkins, Ross, Williams As we all know, if you flood the midfield, you knock Rooney out of the game. Vincent is at left wing to try and do that. Also, 4-4-2 would be cut through by Robson and Flood like a hot knife through butter, so 4-2-3-1, so something else that dominates the midfield is a must. Finally, we must look to put Aberdeen under pressure. When they're defenders have the ball, look to close them down. When the danger men have the ball, take them out. Keep the ball and get it into areas where we can hurt Aberdeen. As Jack Charlton used to say "Put 'Em Under Pressure' - that's the bottom line. Hopefully Yogi doesn't try his five men on the half-way line when defending corners tomorrow, which he considered when we beat them 1-0 at Pittodrie.

It would be nice if every ICT banner that exists was brought tomorrow IMO.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's one rule for the Old Firm and one rule for the rest of us. I once wandered past a Celtic supporters bus at Falcon Square one night, just as it opened it's door. The stench of alcohol was almost unbearable!

The Twitter person 'Mr Fly On The Wall' is reporting that Doran has been dropped for the final. Interesting that the word dropped is used and not out injured or something, providing it's true of course.

Christie was good when he came on and Williams looked good at times, as was the defence, while Mckay got no service. Polworth though, just awful.