ALSY

DC; Renegade: Fair enough, you don't rate Butcher as a manager; I have doubts myself. But can either of you explain why it would benefit the club more to sack him now, accrue extra debts for the club paying off his and MM's contracts and leave a replacement (probably of equally or more dubious pedigree) to fashion a winning side out of TB's signings, rather than accepting we're going to have a poor season and allowing TB and MM to walk away at the end of the season at no extra cost to the club? And if you can't, don't you think it's potentially counter-productive to be so relentlessly critical of the management team? I'm not having a go: I've just not been convinced yet by any of the arguments in favour of changing the management team mid-season. P.S. Apologies for not being able to quote properly from multiple posts in one reply - maybe some kind person less technically inept than me will explain it some day...

Sounds good to me. The brothers McInnes and I will heading through nice and early. In my two previous trips to Somerset i've witnessed a 5-1 defeat and 3-3 draw. 6 goals will do again, as long as we get at least 4 of them. It's the Black Bull on River Street, just across the old footbridge. Great wee place. Rowin is starting to think the maternal visit might not happen this weekend, in which case I'll just get you in Weegieland late morning. I'll confirm on Friday.

Will be there. Might have to combine it with a trip to see the mother-in-law and go down on Friday night, unfortunately. Meeting a couple of the other central belters for beer beforehand though - don't know where yet, but there's a nice wee spit & sawdust place with a beer garden by the river that I'll be lobbying to go to if the weather's decent.

That's an excellent point. With Imrie and Rooney playing wide we should be able to exploit the width of the pivtch far more than we appear to do. Having said that, we'd also need someone supplying quality passes from central midfield. Sanchez has the vision, but does he have the strength?

Excellent post. By the way, how was the support for the team today? Did the fans get behind them a little more? I haven't heard any reports of booing, although clearly there are a few people who weren't happy with the performance again.

How can you possibly drop Proctor, he was by far the best player on the pitch today. Esson Tokely Munro Golabek Shinnie Imrie Proctor Cox Hayes Foran Barrowman Subs: Allison, Stratford, McBain, Rooney, Sutherland Proctor in CM :D We have better players than Proctor Strangely enough, I've been wondering this week about how Proctor might play in central midfield. Cox has faded since the start of the season - Duncan was the better player against Raith - and I'd like to see both Sanchez and Imrie in the team. Moving Imrie wide left, putting Hayes wide right and moving Proctor into the middle might work - Prcotor's passing can be a bit dodgy, but he's got a great engine and in periods when we are under pressure he could add an extra line of defence and allow Sanchez to drop deeper and provide the link to Foran and to the wings. I don't see anything laughable about BA's suggestion. Proctor is only good at RB. When he plays in RM he'll run the whole way but doesnt get back to help the RB out I don't agree. He's not the most creative right midfielder and his crossing can be very frustrating, but he works extremely hard in that position, in both directions. If you cast your mind back, you'll remember that he played a number of games at right midfield during our best run of last season. Besides, that isn't really addressing the point I made: why is it so ridiculous to assume that Proctor might be able to perform a role in central midfield, even in the short term?

How can you possibly drop Proctor, he was by far the best player on the pitch today. Esson Tokely Munro Golabek Shinnie Imrie Proctor Cox Hayes Foran Barrowman Subs: Allison, Stratford, McBain, Rooney, Sutherland Proctor in CM :D We have better players than Proctor Strangely enough, I've been wondering this week about how Proctor might play in central midfield. Cox has faded since the start of the season - Duncan was the better player against Raith - and I'd like to see both Sanchez and Imrie in the team. Moving Imrie wide left, putting Hayes wide right and moving Proctor into the middle might work - Prcotor's passing can be a bit dodgy, but he's got a great engine and in periods when we are under pressure he could add an extra line of defence and allow Sanchez to drop deeper and provide the link to Foran and to the wings. I don't see anything laughable about BA's suggestion.

FT 1-1. Very predictable. So predictable, in fact, that it's just got me 50 points in the prediction league. Would rather have had the home win, mind.

Hayes off injured - very bad news. McBain on. Dundee, Raith and Partick all leading now - we'll lose a bit more ground if this stays the same. Feck - as I type, Rooney misses when through on goal - Alex will have something to say about that. And Wood scores for County...

**** off. "Shocker for Inverness... the whole defence switched off" Straight back into attack, hopefully. Same subs as Tuesday - Sanchez and Rooney on, Foran and Imrie off. Maybe Sanchez can make the difference again.

According Robbo, we're looking content to sit back and hit on the break. Is this wise? With Hayes and Imrie up front we do have the pace to counter-attack well, but I don't like the thought of Bulvitis, Tokely and Golly having to absorb too much pressure for the whole of the second half.

Make that **** poor HOME form. Really hope the support is right behind all the players when they come out for the second half: the team looked right up for it at the start of the second half against Raith and more of the same today, with Dunfermline's confidence lowered, could make it safe early on.

Agree pretty much with everything Yngwie has said. Sanchez did make a difference when he came on: when he's up for it, he looks our most genuinely creative player, making space and seeing passes that others don't. On that form he's got to start, but I don't know whether it should be off a main striker, or whether Butcher should risk playing him in midfield. Certainly in the first half we were crying out for someone in midfield to put his foot on the ball and dictate play properly: Cox and Duncan worked hard but it all looked very hurried. I worry, though, that playing deeper Sanchez would get bullied off the ball. A word of caution for the weekend: the poor standard of our football in the first half last night looked to be down to a collective lack of confidence. Individually all the players fought for every ball, but whenever an ICT player was in possession he seemed desperate to get rid of it, while no-one else seemed to be shouting or making decent runs; hence the return of the punt. Raith, by contrast, seemed far more confident and their off-the-ball running led to much slicker and more dangerous build-up play. Butcher obviously did his job at half time, as the players came out looking far more confident, with Imrie, Hayes and Duncan looking to get on the ball and Tokely and Proctor both coming forward far more effectively. It took a couple of good substititions, but we got our reward for this eventually. However, if we want to build on this win, the home support MUST get behind the team on Saturday, even if individuals make mistakes: we're far more likely to win with a team that makes the odd error but keeps fighting than with players who start hiding because they are scared of the reaction if they make a mistake or something doesn't come off.

I'll be there. Kirkcaldy's a good day out.

The 208 isn't much to look at, but it's right beside the ground and bound to be absolutely heaving with supporters from both sides before and after. I remember it being great crack after the final we won in 2003. Shame I'm working the following day this time.

Eagle's been on the left in all the games I've seen him in this season, with Hayes on the right, apart from brief switches during the games. Has that not been the case at home games too? You're right, though, he's been decent today. It was nice to see him going straight back into attack again after the goal - looked like he took a real lift from it.

Nice to get a wee bit of luck for a change. Poor game though - no fluency from either side. I've got about a 20 second lag between the Alba streaming and the Sportsound commentary, mind you, which isn't making it any better.

I seem to remember Leeds Utd wanted to take Tokely on trial a long time back - think it was in '97, the season we won the third, when Tokely had not long broken into the team. Leeds were still doing pretty well then.

Fair dos... and I mentioned other posters who had said similar things because I didn't want you to think it was a personal attack. I just think the boycott route can only be detrimental to the club. I do think the stewarding can be very petty over people standing up, especially as it's rarely enforced among away supporters, but as far as the "gypsy" stuff is concerned, the club has to abide by anything that could be construed as racially offensive, even though I don't believe there is any racist intent behind the way the term is used at ICT-County matches.

Or people that maybe didn't realise what the reality of being back in the first was likely to be and are looking for a way out? There have been a few posters on different threads alluding to "the final straw" and "not going back"...

I think he does. I've been at five games this season and in all of them (except, perhaps, Morton) there have been long periods where the opposing side had the upper hand and periods where we have played nice, controlled pressing football. You'd maybe expect this pattern against Dundee, but against Airdrie? We were the same at the start of last season under Brewster though, before the rot really set in, and during the mini-revival under Butcher, and those were quite different starting line-ups. I can't really put my finger on why it is, except for the obvious, that the players in each case haven't been quite good enough to take control of and kill off games.

It's going to be interesting to read the reports of those who were there - how awful was the first half, how much, if any, encouragement we can draw from the second, and to what extent were selection and tactics the problem.

And County 2-0 down. Richard Gordon just said QoS were 4-2 up on us - please tell me he meant on Dunfermline, not that Partick had got a fourth.

Ya dancer. Sounds like we're going for it - Rooney, Foran and Sanchez all on. Ten minutes to complete the comeback...

County a goal down too. Good luck comes in threes - quick second goal and we might have a chance.