Caley Stan

a.m., the commentators were very enthusiastic about the contribution of Stratford in the first half. I found this interesting as he's been getting a lot of stick from the home fans. What did you think?

Butcher made mistakes in the post-split matches - we all recognise that. However, the overall feeling at the end of the season was that the appointment of Butcher and Maplas had a positive impact on the team, that our results improved significantly and that we were very close to staying up. 99% of the ICT fans i spoke to at the end of season felt that Butcher deserved the chance to manage us in the First Division. Now he's got that chance and he's building a new team. It has potential and it's too early to judge whether it can challenge for the title. That's what i'm thinking about and i don't understand why some people feel the need to dwell on disagreements over team selection in games that took place four months ago when we had a different team in a different league.

Did you know your sons would grow up to be rock stars when you called them Crusher and Zogg?

This was a pleasant surprise. It was great to have that level of coverage. Des McKeown, Bill Leckie and Richard Gordon were very enthusiastic about our new signings (particularly Sanchez and Stratford) in the first half but they will have seen the second that consistency is going to be our problem with so many new and inexperienced players. Despite that, there seems to be a consensus among the pundits that we are going to challenge Dundee. I hope they're right.

Grantyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm starting to get excited about this. It mind sound ridiculous but if there's even a glimmer of hope of Scotland qualifying then i'll be right up for it. Here's my stupidly optimistic gung-ho team: ---------------------GORDON---------------------- HUTTON----MCMANUS-----WEIR-----WHITTAKER MALONEY----BROWN-----FLETCHER---MCFADDEN ---------------MILLER-------FLETCHER------------ I believe that these are the best 11 players in the squad but obviously that team's a bit top heavy. Burley's more likely to go with something like this: ---------------------GORDON---------------------- HUTTON-----MCMANUS-----WEIR-----DAVIDSON --------------------ALEXANDER--------------------- BROWN------------FLETCHER----------MALONEY --------------------MCFADDEN-------------------- ----------------------MILLER------------------------ Prediction: 4-1 Scotland

The distinction between 'fit' and 'match fit' comes about because no matter how good a player's physical condition is, there is no substitute for playing first team games. Dani Sanchez may well have gone running every morning and spent every afternoon in the gym for the last 12 months but if he hasn't been playing first team football then it will take him time get into the right rhythm. Give him some time.

He was good at Dens where he had more space to make runs and showed signs of forming a good partnership with Foran. He`made good runs, dropping deep or wide to receive the ball and his goal came from a Foran flick-on when Sanchez went beyond him and finished well. In the other three league games we haven't had enough of a grip in midfield to spark periods of pressure so it's difficult to pin the blame on either of the strikers. I don't think this is the time to make judgements on any of the new signings, call them tubes or question their work-rate. Give them time.

It was a definite penalty. Rooney's standing leg was taken from under him and the referee didn't have a good view. I think it hasn't been mentioned much because everyone agrees that we deserved nothing from the game.

But if you really want to see Brian Irvine then you have to go to M&S. I think the guy lives there - maybe he has a lingerie fetish.

Well i have now and i don't feel any better for it. One of our players gives a very poor, nervy, performance in a big game and the response from the txt generation is 2 boo him and campaign for him to be removed from the team. It's pure bollicks.

Perhaps you could fill some of that spare time by enrolling in a basic literacy programme.

And Keogh. We were just about to get going with Richie Byrne before that pleasure was cruelly taken away. Rooney had a great chance to level the game and fluffed it. I think it was definitely a penalty which could've given us an undeserved equaliser.

-----------------ESSON----------------- TOKELY---BULVITIS---MUNRO---LDZ HAYES----DUNCAN----COX----MCBAIN ----------------SANCHEZ----------------- ------------------FORAN------------------ A few dilemmas for Butcher ahead of this one. Does he bring Tokely back into the middle? Bulvitis hasn't convinced so far. Does he bring in the old gaurd to shore up the midfield? Does he stick with Sanchez or give Rooney a chance? As you can see, i think Bulvitis and Sanchez deserve another chance to gel with their respective partners - this game is less important than a league game so it's a good opportunity to do that. Rooney missed while clean through again on Saturday. If he's going to get back in the team then he has to score from the bench. And yes, bring back Russell and Roy to show the new boys what it's about.

I'm not long back from Inverness where i succeeded in forgetting about the traumatic experience at TCS on Saturday afternoon. Now, as i sift through all the threads on this board, it's coming back to me in all it's horror. We were terrible. Very similar to the Ayr game in that we looked completely inacapable of creating a chance. The difference was that County were much better than Ayr - their midfield drove past us repeatedly and they should've scored more than they did. I don't think we should dwell on it though. We were good in Dundee and some folk started to get carried away - the same thing is happening now. It's a new team and we can't judge it yet. My feeling as that the midfield is lacks grit and experience - hopefully Butcher realises that now.

Defensive midfielders always take flak for being "anonymous". How often have we heard the same complaints about Russell Duncan and Roy McBain when playing in that position? Having said that, i do have concerns about Stratford. The fact that he's reached the age 24 without playing first-team professional football is one of them. What does a guy who's been playing college football in U.S. know about the physical scrap that's involved in playing in the Scottish First Division? The other major concern i have is that he isn't closing down space quickly enough. After all, that's what defensive midfielders are supposed to be doing when we fans (myself included) don't notice them. This was particularly striking at East End Park when Dunfermline midfielders were allowed to shoot from the edge of the box repeatedly. On Saturday, i thought the whole midfield was dominated by County and all four of them have to take responsibilty for that. I'm still not sure about Stratford. He might turn out to be a devent sqaud player in the future but for now we need grit and experience in the form of Russell Duncan.

I don't think motivation is an issue with Butcher. Here's what Morais had to say about in the SoS:

Lionel was terrible but booing him is counter-productive. For all his faults he does have some qualities that could shine in this league and the fans' response to his poor performance should've been to urge him on.

ICT @ 1.57

Are you referring to Celtic's famous 4-2 victory over the mighty ICT?

It's the result of an extremely convoluted attempt to expand the number of countries who have representatives at the group stage, brought to you by those great champions of the weak and impoverished - Michel Platini and David Taylor. UEFA changes

I had a quick look at Wikipedia to find out who the hell Unirea Uriziceni are and found this: I like to support all Scottish clubs in Europe but these ***** make it difficult.

Ideal goalscorers. Good confidence boosters for Eagle and Rooney.

Hi Robbo, Since you were in Dingwall on Saturday i thought i'd ask - just how bad are Ross County and how many goals do you think we'll pump them by next week?