ALSY

Agree with most of what's been said on here. The ineffectiveness of the central midfield is concerning: last week they looked solid without contributing a great deal creatively, but yesterday they were overrun. I'd like to have seen Mcbain on for Cox after about an hour to try to slow things down a bit and pick out some better passes. Eagle contributed little, but I also feel he received very poor service: there were a couple of times when Rosscoe could have sent him away and opted to play the ball inside instead. I wonder how much confidence the rest of the team have in him? Thank God we've got Hayes: he was again our most dangerous player and ran his heart out. His attitude is excellent, and signing him looks like the best thing Terry Butcher has done for the club. I think some of the criticism of Sanchez is a little harsh: I was watching him closely again and thought that he worked hard trying to create space and dropping deeper to pick up the ball. Unfortunately his touch just didn't seem to be there yesterday - there was one point where he tried to release Foran with a ball through the defence, similar to last week's second goal, but weighted it far too much. It was a bit of an off-day for him, but I still expect him to be a big player for us this season. Foran's performance was more concerning, IMO, although he did make an important contribution for the goal. I think most people expected him to be our most influential player this season, but yesterday he only seemed interested in fits and starts. One encourgaing aspect of the attack was Rooney's performance when he came on: he looked really up for it and also showed some nice composure on the ball on a couple of occasions; not something I would have considered a strength of his game previously. I've mentioned after each of the past two games that I felt Bulivitis's vulnerability against strikers playing in close to him would cost us, and it almost did, big style, yesterday. He just seems unable to cope with an attackers who back into him, then turn him. This isn't necessarily a reason to drop him, beacuse he has other strengths and clears his lines excellently, but is Butcher aware of this and is it something they can work on trying to improve? Other than that the defence was pretty solid, and it's great to hear both Golly and Munro shouting and organising. Munro has been excellent all season, but looks even more composed since Golly came back into the team. Yesterday was disappointing, but I'm not letting it bother me too much, perhaps because I have never expected us to be serious challengers this season. A point away against anyone is no disaster, and Airdrie looked a lot better than Morton yesterday: strong, tidy and quick on the counter-attack. Our team can and will play better, but we should probably expect that days like yesterday, and worse, will also happen this season. What we don't need are attitudes like those of a couple of clowns sitting a few rows behind me yesterday who seemed intent on getting stuck into the players and the manager from the off. One in particular, who was telling Golly he was an "embarrassment" and that he should "f*** off back to County" from the first time he touched the ball, has no business being near a football match. And this was no young boy who doesn't know any better: this guy was in his fifties. I'm sorry: who's an embarrassment?

If Golly is the new messiah then Sanchez might just be his prophet - you can judge for yourself tomorrow if you're not too jetlagged. I've probably jinxed him now... another 6-0 coming up.

Yup. Dragging an occasional supporter from Glasgow along.

That's a very good point, Don. It's going to be full of descendants of the victims of the Glasgow clearances too. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to put a football team there? Little wonder the poor wee souls keep going into administration...

This is one of those topics that someone could write a book about, in all honesty. The main reasons cited for our comparatively low share of the potential support are: the fact that Inverness has a higher proportion of incomers and older people than most other population centres historic opposition to the merger "new team syndrome": the idea that a lot of people in the area already had a "big team" and many of those were not prepared to switch loyalties when ICT started going up the divisions. It's the last one that's most interesting in light of the population figures absent friend posted: Livingston apparently has a population of 75,000, approximately 5,000 more than Inverness, yet their home support has sometimes dipped below 1,000 in recent years. Surely that suggests that "new team syndrome" must have a pretty significant influence on a team's potential to attract local support?

Oh, jolly good. This means I can still go to this one as the schools will be on holiday. Had resigned myself to missing it when I discovered that it was going to be rescheduled. Getting back to Glasgow from Kirkcaldy by public transport at 10 pm might be a bit of a challenge, mind you... Suspect this might be one of our lower away turnouts of the season.

Because this defensive style will only hold for so long. Also, every time I've seen Stratford (both home league games and the two cup ones against Albion and Stranraer), he's been useless. McBain is far better round there. He might be getting on a bit, but he could still put in a better shift than Stratford. I'm no fan of Duncan at all, but I'd even have him instead of Stratford. Bulvitis is another one. Might have some games where he's alright but not the answer in the long run IMO. Desperately needing a Dods/Mann type in there next to Munro. Seems too clumsy for my liking and should Butcher stick with him for the rest of the season which I predict he will, I won't at all surprised to see a good number of own goals/penaltys being given away by him. Eagle's another. Exactly what does he add to the team? He might have a good cross but he can't do much else. Awfully one footed as well. ICT desperately need a right winger as well I reckon. What is Hayes? For the last two games he has played a textbook right winger's role very effectively. I suspect there's a strong streak of wind-up in your team line-up posts Renegade, but seriously, I wouldn't meddle with the team that started against Partick and Morton: as I said on the matchday thread, there's a real understanding beginning to develop between the players, and the approach yesterday was anything but defensive. I think you should look again at Stratford, by the way - he's very unflashy but he actually gets through a lot of work closing down attacking opponents and allowing Cox to play the more offensive midfield role. I do agree with you to some extent about Bulvitis - I think his positioning and tendency to get caught on the wrong side of attackers will cost us a goal or two this season, but he does bring other strengths to the team and I'm reasonably content to see him stay in there unless a clearly better alternative emerges.

I was very encouraged by our performance yesterday. Morton looked short of confidence and inspiration, but we still had to beat what was in front of us and we did so easily, controlling the game pretty much throughout. What was most pleasing was seeing the understanding that is beginning to develop between the players and seeing the strengths of some of the new players manifesting themselves more fully. Sanchez was the most obvious example of this: yesterday again we witnessed his ability to drop off his marker and create space in the box and for the third away game on the trot he bagged himself a goal by doing this. As well as this, however, yesterday he showed how well he can drop off the main striker into the "hole" and pick out passes that release the player ahead of him. He did this for Foran on two or three occasions, and Foran could have had couple more goals if he had held the line a bit better. On the evidence of the last few weeks, this idea about Sanchez being lazy is a myth, and I think he could turn out to be a very important player for us this season. Hayes was also excellent, despite a quieter spell early on in the second half. As Arbroathawayday pointed out, it's great to once again have a winger with pace who can hit the bye-line and cut the ball back. The other standout players for me were Munro and Golabek. After all the concerns that were expressed about the wisdom of resigning Golabek, it is beginning to look like an inspired piece of business. True, neither Partick nor Morton were particularly dangerous going forward, but Golly has added an authority and assurance to the defence that simply wasn't there when Lionel was in the team. Munro again didn't put a foot wrong defensively, and the desperate punts forward that he resorted to for most of the last two seasons seem to have disappeared from his game. Bulivitis again demonstrated his strength in the tackle and in the air, but I still feel that he is prone to getting pulled out of position occasionally, and I think this will probably cost us a goal or two over the season against teams with trickier forwards. I don't mean to overdo the praise - Morton, after all, were poor and our performance was by no means total football - but I went yesterday looking for causes for optimism for the season and I think I found a few. If the team takes the same approach at Airdrie next week then we should have another enjoyable game and hopefully another win.

The Norseman. Attached to the north-east corner of the ground. There will be a few of us in there shortly before 2, all being well.

Dougie was still on crutches at the Partick game, but I didn't notice whether he had a cast on. Anyone else excited about seeing what Odihambo can offer in this division? I think he looked really promising when he started at Tannadice last season, and he was one of the few threats when he came on against Falkirk on relegation Saturday. Someone with pace and skill up front could really make the difference for us this season if Terry perseveres with the passing game and the midfield gains a bit more solidity.

:D Quality. Shame on you both. Cappielow is a great Scottish football ground, the like of which we are seeing fast disappear in age age of prefab lunacy. A wooden main stand, two ends of terracing (one closed, forever), an enclosure with a holey asbestos roof, a long walk to outside toilets with a concrete pee-tray painted in club livery, and a shambolic pebble-dashed 60s inn selling cheap watery beer less than two minutes from the turnstiles. Does this sound like a shithole to you?

Not at all - five minutes or so. Is that 1717 from Cartsdyke or from Greenock Central, by the way? Cartsdyke is the station nearest Cappielow. Aiming to get the 1305 from Central, getting into Cartsdyke around 1345, if you can get through in time for that.

Don't think I've ever started one of these before. So, who's up for a trip to the Costa del Clyde on Saturday? Classic Scottish football architecture at Cappielow, and the Norseman, which must be one of the handiest bars in the Scottish league, does a mean line in cheap cat's ****...

Does that mean our away match against Raith Rovers on the 3rd will have to be re-scheduled? I'd just assumed they would play the semis midweek to avoid disprupting the league programme.

I already stated i dont know him personally but what i have seen from him. I.e Things he says in interviews and to newspapers, he seems a cocky, arogant **** who i dont particualry like. I don't particularly want to get drawn into your argument, but I find that quite a strange evaluation of TB. Sure, he carries himself with the confidence that someone who was, in his day, a world class player is entitled to do, but I've never found him to be arrogant in interviews. On the contrary, I've been really impressed with the gracious way he's accepted defeats and with the apparently genuine warmth he has shown towards Inverness and towards the fans. I also don't buy the criticism of his signings, especially given that he was powerless to prevent the loss of Black and Morais. I was frustrated by some tactical decisions in the run-in last season and with the decision to let Vigurs go, but I've been fairly encouraged by the way he's set out the team this season and by most of his signings, especially given the limitations he had to work within and the little time they've had to settle into a largely new team. There's no way the club will think about changing the manager before the end of TB's contract, and that's the way it should be. He needs at least this season and probably half of the next before we can truly evaluate whether the club is moving forward, consolidating or going backwards. Anyone who expects a season in the first division to be relatively plain sailing probably hasn't been following the club long enough to remember the five seasons we spent down here, finishing 6th, 4th, 6th and 4th before finally winning the title. Edited to add: DornochCaley, I've just read your post which refers to comments Butcher made as a player, which slightly negates my opening paragraph. All the same, plenty of people have said daft things in their younger days. Is that really a reason to dislike him 'as a man' 20-odd years later, regardless of what you think of him as a manager?

It's interesting... I intended to keep more of an eye on him as I'm aware of the amount of stick he's been getting, but he still didn't make a huge impact on me. He seemed to put in a lot of running, but I don't remember any particular thing he did to affect the game going forward. I wonder if he maybe does for us what Fletcher did for Man U against Arsenal last week by sticking to opponents, making it difficult for them to cretae and breaking up the play with little interceptions and short passes? Cox certainly looked the more dynamic of the two, as he did at Dundee, but perhaps Stratford's work makes that possible. The one thing I wasn't very impressed with was his use of the dead ball. He took most of our corners and they were pretty ineffective. Will be good to have Imrie back for that reason - he was in the crowd, but still on crutches, so it looks like it might be a while yet before we see him. It was also nice to see Blackie and family in the crowd.

Not long back. Reading through the thread, it sounds like the radio gave a pretty fair reflection of the game. We started brightly, passing the ball about well. Hayes' pace, Foran chasing everything up front and Cox's dig in midfield meant we ran the show for about the first half hour. Sanchez took his goal well and I was impressed with his movement in general in the first half, dropping off his man and making space for himself. As you'd expect, Golly looked more a lot more solid defensively than Lionel, and generally used the ball well to pick out intelligent passes and build from the back. Towards the end of the first half we seemed to lose a bit of momentum, and that continued throughout the second. It was pretty poor fare in general, but Partick definitely had more of the play and Esson made a couple of good saves. Thoght Granty and Golly defended well on the whole, but on two or three occasions Bulivitis got pulled too far forward and got caught either too tight to his man or on the wrong side of his man. If this becomes a habit, it will lead to us losing goals to teams with quicker forwards. I was also a bit frustrated with Rosscoe's tendency to punt the ball out of defence - hasn't anyone told him we're a passing team now? Anyway, I don't remember the exact circumstances leading to the equaliser, but I think everyone had seen it coming for a good 20 minutes. Extra time was actually a little better for us. Rooney and Barrowman up front still looked a little static, but there were occasional flashes of good movement. There was one particuarly good move involving Foran, Rooney and Barrowman, ending with a Duncan shot - think that might have been towards the end of the second half of normal time, come to think of it - that was very encouraging. Duncan actually did a reasonable job playing wide right in extra time, although his passing, as usual, was a bit hit and miss. I feared the worst when it went to penalities, given the circumstances of our last trip to Firhill, but Rooney, Barrowman, Rossoce and Granty took their penalities execllently, and Esson made three tremendous saves to put us through - the third, a one handed tip onto the bar, was quite outstanding. Overall, not a great game of football, but it sounded a lot better than last week's performance, there were periods of enjoyable passing play from us and the team did well to get back into it after losing its way for most of the second half. I also felt the estimate of 100 visiting supporters was a bit conservative - I'd have said 150-200. I was very quiet all over the ground, though - a real sober, Sunday afternoon affair. Looking forward to more rowdy Saturdays over the next two weeks with two more games roughly in my neck of the woods.

Shouldn't be too difficult. Hopefully drag a few along with me.

Funny, was thinking the exact same thing myself. Don't want to be too much of an apologist for Butcher - I think he made quite a few mistakes in selection during the relegation run-in - but wasn't part of the problem with Byrne that he was injured for most of the early part of Butcher's time in charge? By the time he was available Butcher had a team that had gone on a decent run, and it's understandable that he wanted to show some faith in most those of players even when the results started to worsen again.

I didn't see the incident, but I'd be inclined to give Foran the benefit of the doubt. He did tremendous work getting to the bye-line and cutting it back for our second equaliser against Dundee, and maybe he had that in mind. I expected Foran to be a little more prolific too this season, given his past scoring record with Motherwell, but perhaps he will get more chances once the team starts to gel a bit more. It's still very early in the season.

On a purely personal note, the positive is that this is a game I can make even though it will be a midweek fixture. Realistically, though, I don't give us much chance. Our recent record against Motherwell is very poor, and I think Gannon looks like a pretty shrewd manager. People seem to think they will struggle simply because Gannon isn't well known up here, but Motherwell seem to have a lot of good young players coming through. Sofa for me if we do win though, being married to a Motherwell supporter.

Well said. Inevitably he'll be a bit slower, but he brings experience and a certain amount of footblling intelligence. Obviously it's a short term fix, but it suggests that Butcher is maybe less enamoured of LDZ than everyone thinks and realises he needs options at left back. Isn't that that everyone is asking for? FWIW, I would prefer to see McBain at left back - he was our most reliable player in that position when he got his chance last season. Hastings was very poor at the start of last season, as he was the previous year before regaining a bit of form later on, and it was obvous Butcher saw nothing to make him think he would improve the team if he came back in. If McBain isn't an option for Butcher, then hopefully Golly will bring a bit of short-term stability and Butchr can look more closely at Shinnie and decide whether he can make the step up at some stage. There's certainly no point in predicting doom and gloom before we've even seen Golly start a game this time around.

Anyone want to open a book on when his first suspension kicks in?

Rooney on for Proctor. And why not? Throw caution to the wind.

Thank feck. We need a bit of the Paterson-era sprit now - come back for a 3-2 win. First shot on goal, though. Poor.