ALSY

That is a remarkably strange post... Cheers Don. You're voicing pretty much what I suspected. Was interested though, because as far as I remember, Zander got first tem experience before Vigurs and has been our "next big thing" for at least a season now, but Vigurs seems to have overtaken him in the pecking order. Possibly less competition in Vigurs preferred area of midfield, or has Vigurs simply developed more quickly. yeah i would say vigurs has overtaken him but that might be down the fact that vigurs is physically a lot stronger than zander but once zander gets physically stronger which he will do, he'll be in with a shout. you cant compare vigurs and zander though because they are different players with different footballing styles. although iain is being played on the wing iain is a centre midfielder and zander is an out and out winger. i would like to see zander givin his chance this season but i wouldnt compare iain and zander for the above reasons. Yeah, having seen Vigurs at Killie last season, I always assumed he was a central midfielder. Was surprised to see him playing as our widest player at Falkirk. That suggests that Brewster does feel we need options on the wings but also, as you suggest, that he thinks Zander hasn't developed sufficiently to perform that role in the first team yet.

That is a remarkably strange post... Cheers Don. You're voicing pretty much what I suspected. Was interested though, because as far as I remember, Zander got first tem experience before Vigurs and has been our "next big thing" for at least a season now, but Vigurs seems to have overtaken him in the pecking order. Possibly less competition in Vigurs preferred area of midfield, or has Vigurs simply developed more quickly.

Was impressed with the youth at Falkirk, but maybe the more experienced players have a point to prove now: Fraser Tokely Duff Munro Hastings Cowie Black Duncan Imrie Barrowman Rooney Rosscoe's got a good record at Tynecastle - Hearts fan as a kid apparently, maybe still has ambitions to become a Lithuanian...

Don - or anyone else who gets to reserve matches - does Zander look worth a chance in the first team to you, even half an hour as a sub or whatever? On one hand people are criticising Brewster for sticking with the young players on Saturday (although having been at Falkirk I thought it was a justified decision); on the other, some are calling for Zander to get a run. Midfield's probably the hardest part of the team to break into, but maybe his creativity's what we need?

According to a story in today's "Herald", the channel's first game will indeed be the Hearts-ICT match - recorded on Saturday and shown later in the week with Gaelic commentary. Didn't give a day or time, unfortunately. Maybe someone should run off a wee banner for the occasion. How does one write "Stick the long ball up your @rse" in Gaelic?

Back to the drawing board? Sounded like we were OK in parts but it didn't sound like we ever dominated the way we did for long spells at Falkirk. Guess we'll find out what those at the game thought in a couple of hours, although as usual I doubt there will be any consensus. Will be there next week though - Tynecastle's always a good day out and I'm hoping I can counterbalance last season's five away defeats on the bounce with five away wins this season.

This is when I'm glad I'm an away games supporter.

Time for a Duff/Munro partnership? Ah. Wondered which of them was at fault. Don't wish Mcguire any ill-will and think he had a good game last week, but I'd rather see him make a mstake if one of them has to. We know McGuire's a bit error prone, whereas Duff has been so good since his mistake against Hamilton that it would be really dispiriting if he made another high-profile error. Imrie on now, with Barrowman and Wilson to follow - the subs that made the difference last time out. Come on.

@rse. Thought we were sounding good this half as well. Wonder which of the central defenders will take the flak for this one?

Couple of landmarks - Rooney's first, and the 6,000th Premier League goal. Very relieved though - this was sounding so uncannily like the Hamilton game that I fully expected us to concede just on half time. Also, every other scoreline is edging me closer to the foot of the prediction league, so we'd better hang on to this one!

Quite happy with the retained line-up. Imrie and Barrowman might feel frustrated as they both had an impact when they came on a fortnight ago, but it was the best performance I've seen in a while and none of those players deserved to drop out. Shows courage on Brewster's part to stick with the younger players despite more experienced players being available, and also confirms that we have genuine competition for places now. Hopefully that's enough to motivate us to our first home win of the season.

Starts and scores...

Think Vigurs deserves to keep his place after Falkirk, although this time I'd play him and Cowie on their preferred wings. Possibly I'd have Duncan in for McBain and Barrowman in for Wood, even though Wood did pretty well against Falkirk IMO. Won't do Imrie any harm to start on the bench again if his reponse when he came on at Falkirk is anything to go by. We must have quite a few players desperate to stake a claim for a start now, which is encouraging.

If i were to get this done elsewhere, then the club would actually get bigger over time . :018: :thumb04: (there's always one to lower the tone!!!) Apparently getting a tattoo on your stomach is very painful... I found the tattoo on the side of my stomach not that painful. The ones that really hurt were over any major organs or bones and where there were an abundance of sweatglands i.e. on my back where my liver is, the inside of my bicep and the bones at my wrist I'll take your word for it. The closest I've ever got to a tattoo was the sticky-on ones you used to get with bubble gum out of Reay's on Hill St (sorry, this is going in a "Memories" forum direction...)

If i were to get this done elsewhere, then the club would actually get bigger over time . :thumb04: :018: (there's always one to lower the tone!!!) Apparently getting a tattoo on your stomach is very painful...

If you can afford the train it shouldn't be too dificult, Chris. Obviously the Edinburgh-Glasgow shuttle runs at least every half hour until pretty late, and there are trains from Glasgow Central to Cartsdyke (nearest to Cappielow) leaving at 1805 and 1835, which will get you there in plenty of time. There should be trains back into Central at 2156, 2231 and 2256, which would allow for extra time. The walk from Queen St to Central is less than 10 mins. Wouldn't recommend the area as a entertainment venue, mind you - if you've ever seen "Sweet Sixteen" then you've seen Cartsdyke. Don't know if there are any decent pubs for a pre-match pub - may enquire on P&B nearer the time.

Tremendous. Will be going to that one, work permitting. Seems yonks since I've been to Cappielow. Have a horrible feeling the last time might have been that 5-1 defeat. Seem to remember it was on a Friday night, although I've no idea why.

Don - cheers for such a full answer, I'm completely out of touch with this sort of thing having been among the weegies for so long. Sounds like in the long term, if we stay put, we may not feel so isolated as we are currently. Caley - I'd agree the Bught is ideal for fans coming on foot - it's almost certainly closer to the town centre than TCS, as opposed to the Torvean Quarry option, which would be exchanging like for like. But to limit on-site parking would be to assume that the increase in number of fans prepared to walk would be greater than the fall-off of fans unprepared to travel because they can't get parked. I'm not sure that's what would happen. In order to keep away support and out-of-town support up, I think we'd have to provide greater access and parking around the Bught, and I don't think that would be good for the town as a whole. Stick with what we've got, I'd say.

He certainly wasn't. I've always felt that Duncan was the only player we had capable of doing a "sitting" role, and believed that Blackie couldn't do it, because he'd be neutering the best part of his game and giving away free kicks by challenging late with his wee legs. However, Black was superb today playing deep, and Roy McBain covered well for him when he was going forward. Craig Brewster, unexpected tactical genius, has made a liar of me.

Don (if I may, not knowing you) - I'll address this to you, as you've obviously considered this in depth, but would be interested to hear opinions of any home-based supporters - is there any indication that the land between the stadium and the city centre is likely to be developed for retail and housing in the near future? I ask because I feel a move to the old quarry site, which is probably farther from the Longman from the city centre on foot and farther from the A9 & A96 by road, would probably see our crowds drop even lower than they are already. As you've pointed out, the road system around the Bught would have to be redeveloped to allow for football traffic, and I think that would spoil an attractive and peaceful part of the town. So I reckon the best option is probably to stick with what we've got, but it would be good to know whether, in 10 or 20 years time, that long stretch from around Shore St to the ground might have shops and flats and pubs to stop off in on it instead of the wasteland that's there at the moment.

On the basis of today's performance, yes. Unless it was some sort of fluke, Duff is clearly already a more rounded and imposing centre half than either Proctor or McGuire. As for Vigurs, he looks like a real prospect - more subtle than Imrie but still able to take on and beat players, good passing and decent pace. He played effectively and with real confidence today, and it's clear that he has developed a great deal since the last time I saw him start (at Killie last March). Given how young both still are, there is really exciting potential there. After today's performance, Mentalist, you may be right.

No point in posting a full match report because Chris has already done that and got it pretty much spot on. The most important and encouraging thing that has to be said is that Brewster got it spot on with tactics and (if this is down to him) motivation from the start. The ball was played on the deck from start to finish, and it was patient, controlled football with the midfielders apparently really in tune with each other. Just as we had at Aberdeen, we looked the hungrier team and closed the ball down well when we didn't have it. As for individuals... Black was outstanding, seeing passes and making space for himself excellently, Vigurs was always prepared to try to take on and beat players and usually succeeded - didn't look like a player who has only had a handful of starts for us - and I also thought Garry Wood was very effective: decent with the ball at his feet, made a few good lay-offs and passes around the box and got into some good positions, although both he and Rooney were doing an awful lot of the foraging back that Niculae used to do, meaning we didn't always have an outlet up front. Interesting how people see the game, though - Mantis was directly behind me and has said he thought Wood had a mare, so maybe I didn't pick up on some weaknesses or mistakes. Cowie and Mcbain were both very quiet in the first half, but I don't think there were any failures in the team today. For me, though, the absolute stand-out was Jamie Duff. Every aspect of his game looked solid: he won almost every header he challenged for, intimidated and stuck to his opponents without giving away daft fouls, made several great interventions with his feet and also used the ball well out of defence. Although McGuire didn't do anything wrong today, it was Duff who looked the calmer, more accomplished and more experienced defender, and at the risk of being hyperbolic, I thought it was one of the best performances I've seen by any ICT centre half. Concerns? Perhaps only that Falkirk looked very lightweight and that made it hard to judge how effective this sort of performance would be against a stronger, uglier team; also that Rooney and Wood, while both hardworking and good users of the ball, don't yet look like instinctive goalscorers. However, I'd be delighted if Brewster stuck by this team for the next match, and even more delighted if he stuck by this style of football, regardless of the line-up, for the rest of the season. Haven't come away from a match feeling this positive for a long time.

A couple of people made the point on the Arbroath match thread that we missed Duncan's presence in the middle of the park last night. Although I get frustrated by his distribution, he would still make my first choice ICT line-up, but I know not everyone has felt this way in the past. I was Aberdeen and thought he had an excellent game, but I didn't see either of the two subsequent league games. So my question is: has the apparent deterioration in performance much to do with Russell's absence, or is it mostly CB's tactics? And has anyone re-evaluated their opinion of Russell having seen the team without him recently? Your thoughts. BTW - when is he due to return?

Through 4-2 on pens. At least that spares a few blushes at work. Not terribly encouraging for the future though. Jambos out to Airdrie Utd, also pens...

2-2. Djebi-Zadi giving away the penalty.