Renegade

Something I've noticed is that McKay lost his place earlier in the season and had to fight to get it back. When he eventually did win it back, he started a bit rusty and then came good, scoring a bucketload. He seems to have lost the scoring touch he had earlier in the season. Perhaps having to fight for his place again, would do him the world of good.

How did Charlie Taylor get on? I thought he looked quite good when he came on at Kilmarnock.

Not done one of these in a while! A change in the set up is needed I think. We've become too predictable and out of ideas. An attacking 4-3-3 for me - Reguero Raven Warren Meekings G.Shinnie Draper Jones A.Shinnie Doran Foran McKay Subs - Esson, Pepper, Ross, Sutherland, Devine, Taylor, Roberts If Foran's still out, then have Sutherland in his place, with Polworth coming onto the bench.

No excuses, that was a load of rubbish. Half of them seem to have lost the ability to pass the ball and look perplexed as to how to get it back. In saying, ICT started fairly well and had some good chances. The system and set-up that ICT had was working alright, we just hadn't had the luck up till that point. Then Butcher's decides to change things and that was the biggest downfall of all. Up until half time, Doran and Ross had been playing quite well on the their respective wings, with Jones and Draper marshalling the middle. This all becomes undone for the second half when Ross is moved from wide left into next to Jones, with Doran moved to the left wing and Draper moving onto the right. Really, I mean really?! ( - my exact face!) The substitutions were a funny animal as well. When I saw Sutherland coming on in the place of McKay (a player who hadn't been in the game much at all), I thought that maybe Butcher had seen sense and we'd finally see Sutherland playing his true position, as an out and out striker. These hopes were quickly dashed when Philip Roberts started walking on behind him! (Roberts did nothing by the way, and seems to have started a new tactic of falling over when the ball has moved just out of reach!). The only sub I would have wanted to see was Andrew Shinnie being hooked for Pepper (who seems to have disappeared for some reason). People can point to the fact that Andrew Shinnie had a goal disallowed and that there may have a handball in the lead up to Motherwell's second goal, as well as our penalty claim shortly after, but theses are no excuses. We were rubbish and it could have been more. All in all, a disappointing afternoon.

I like the way the poster who predicted the score as 185-1 to ICT and said there'd be over a billion there actually managed to get points on the board!

HT - MFC 1-1 ICT FT - MFC 2-3 ICT MFC 1st scorer - Higdon ICT 1st scorer - Draper Attendance - 5,417

George Brislen-Hall

I think some people are sick with seeing the same team's over and over again. For example, I've seen Kilmarnock play more times than I can think of. There needs to be more teams in the league.

Usually when someone starts a new topic, it's to highlight a point or discuss something they're in favour of. I think I'll start a topic later on whether or not ICT should change the shirt design to green and yellow polka dots with orange and pink tie-die shorts and socks with flowers on. I'm personally against it, but you know what some people are like!

While I'm sure it's frustrating for Terry Butcher, having shouting matches with fans who have good enough to pay to go to the game does not reflect well on him. Whether he's in the right or not, it's unprofessional IMO.

True but in the heat of the moment and when you are disappointed, easier said that done when some idiot shouts abuse at you. There were a few comments from fans at the end of the game directed at Butcher from the main stand that were just ridiculous. Some fans really do need to get a grip and take a long hard look at themselves. I wonder why some of them even come to see us as some of these fans I have yet to hear shout anything positive or encouraging towards the team at all. I appreciate that but like I said it is not the first time, idiots or not they are paying customers and if Butcher thinks the stands can be filled with people shouting what a wonderful man he is then he is in the wrong job. I don't get why people shout abuse at him but it happens at every ground in the country and I feel he should deal with it better You don't have to be shouting anything at him to set him off. I once witnessed him screaming at a fan sat in front of him at an U20 match after said fan had made a comment to me about how the momentum of the game had changed in the opposition's favour! It was a horrible moment and I will not forget it.

It would be interesting to know how much time Sutherland was racked up coming on as a sub. It's probably not much more than an hour!

We're dominating the game, keeping the ball and creating loads of chances before making a bizarre substitution and going defensive against a team that haven't threatened us all game. This finally allows them to come at us and run down the pitch and score, before almost scoring a winner. Is that just coincidence? No, it's poor tactics. Also, there's rumours going round that Butcher had an altercation with a fan at full time and according to some reports punched him. I never saw anything, but can anyone shed some light on that?

Two points dropped lost and two daft late substitutions again. ICT played well, had chance after chance, and had a stonewall penalty not given, but that's no excuse. As soon as we saw Devine coming on, everyone round me was saying they were sensing the worst. That was the type of game where you go out to win and keep going. Hanging on for a win like that, was a far more dangerous tactic than going for a second goal and it well and truly backfired, before it was nearly made even worse when Killie almost won it at the end. Butcher made the wrong choice. Also McKay as MOTM! Really?!

HT - ICT 1-0 KFC FT - ICT 2-1 KFC ICT 1st scorer - A.Shinnie KFC 1st scorer - Heffernan Attendance - 2,819

That was the one that could have been a penalty, but it would have made little difference to the outcome (or none had Ambrose taken it! ). In saying that though, Hooper could have stood somewhere else, and arguable was there to impede Buffon, which in itself is a foul. Also, the first Juve wasn't given when it initially crossed the line. Had the ball then been cleared then it would not have been given. To me that suggests it was no fix.

No he would and should (and maybe should have) deal with it(or dealt with it in this case) accordingly. A new free kick or penalty though can't be given though until the ball is live. I was at a game once where something like your scenario happened. In the build up to a corner, one the defending team's players, basically clothes-lined WWF style one of the opposition and he was sent off before the corner was taken. While it was a foul in the box, a penalty couldn't be awarded due to the fact that the ball wasn't live.

I think the reason there was no penalties was because the majority of the pushing, if not all of it, was because it was before the ball was live.

He never talks about ghosts anymore. He always used to put up pictures of doors and stuff and say "look at how many ghosts there are in these pictures!" and there was none! My personal favourite was when he put up a picture of a spooky figure walking in the woods and claimed that this proved beyond all reasonable doubt that ghosts were real. The "spooky figure" turned out to actually be a statue of the Gruffalo!

I'm sure another one will pope up soon enough!

Character assassinated? I like every other right thinking person, thinks it's stupid to boo your own players, particularly even before they've come onto the field. I was saddened to hear some people with an IQ somewhere around room temperature booing Rory McAllister when he was warming up and came onto the field a few years ago. I cringed when people booed Lionel Djebi-Zadi against County, no-matter how bad a performance he put in. In saying that, that's not to say that people don't have the right to complain. Philip Roberts is a player who often comes on, as was the case in the cup game at Kilmarnock and watched, for the best part of an hour, the action going on around him. It was the same in December away to St Johnstone where he came on and simply looked like he couldn't be bothered. His performance that day made Claude Gnakpa look like Gregory Tade. As fans we have a right to criticise the attitude of a player, when it's glaringly obviously that they couldn't care less. Booing before he goes on the field though, is not the way to do it.

IIRC I remember Butcher saying a while back that ICT do do a huddle kind of thing, but they do it in the changing rooms.

In other news, ghosts aren't real!

There was a good ICT chances as well in the second half that was never shown, nor was McKay's shot before Nick Ross's goal. Going by the highlights, which also should a couple of Celtic's half-chances, it looks like it was one-way traffic for ninety minutes when it wasn't at all.

Interesting to read the comments about a lack of a Plan B. Obviously there's benefits to having a settled team, but there are times when they've become so settled that opposition will know exactly what the team will be, who will play and how to play against them. In the season in the First Division, ICT would often start 4-2-3-1 and would change to a 3-4-3 if they were chasing a game. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't, but the intent was there and it was certainly better than doing nothing (I seem to recollect this being the case in the 4-3 win over Raith where Foran scored a last minute bycycled kicked winner and it was also a system Charlie Christie used from time to time when needing a goal). Something like this needs to be done again. The same type of thing can be said for substitutions. There was a time earlier in the season where Sutherland came on as the first substitute as a winger on about the 80th minute and did so for about seven weeks running. Team's are obviously going to cotton onto this and will react accordingly. Philip Roberts now seems to have taken that first substitution mantle. We never seem to be a team who springs a tactical or substitutional surprise. The last four games, ICT to me have been calling out for Conor Pepper to come on as an impact player with pace and enthusiasm to run at the opposition and give the team a bounce. Philip Roberts is never going to be a man to change a game. There's been many times, we've needed a player like Pepper to come on and get at the opposition, giving 100%. Roberts seldom seems to give more than ten.