alternative maryhill

I posted this too, in the matchday thread, because that's what SKY Sports News reported. However, they also reported that Anderson was sent off for the same thing, which clearly wasn't the case, so it might have been their mistake. He has been a very disappointing signing, though, no question about it. Edited to add: sorry, Luke, just noticed that you'd already made the point about SSN.

Get in.

Penalty! Anderson on Sutherland. Red card as well.

Tudur-Jones sent off for the second time in six games. John Robertson calling it 'very harsh', but SKY Sports News has it as being for foul and abusive language. If the latter is the case, Butcher will have to think seriously about selecting him in future - that would be two completely needless and stupid red cards. He was also, by some distance, our worst player at Motherwell last week.

So, Esson, Meekings, Warren, Raven, Blackman, G. Shinnie, Jones, Draper, Doran, A. Shinnie, Foran. Wonder if Blackman will be wide left or Graeme Shinnie will be pushed further forward, with Blackman in defence? Not thrilled to see Jones in the team again, TBH - he had a pretty shocking game at Motherwell.

I'm taking a half day. See you at 3.45 Not any more - got my dates mixed up. The Stirling one is next week; the one on the 25th is at Glenalmond College, somewhere in the middle of Perthshire. Looks like it'll be a taxi to Perth, a train to Stirling and then another train to Larbert if I'm going to make it. At least it might cut down on the time spent in the pub...

Have just realised that I am at a conference in Stirling that day, which finishes at 3.30. I guess that means either sitting in a pub in Stirling on my own for a few hours, or heading to Larbert, and finding a pub to sit in for a few hours, until the rest of the ICT contingent appears. Either way, the next day at work will probably be one to forget...

Woo hoo indeed. Exactly the draw I was hoping for. Haven't been to Ochilview since Falkirk were playing their home games there - whenever that was. Also gives us probably our best chance of going through, although I'm taking nothing for granted.

For the neutral that was probably a cracking game to watch. We had a lot of possession and played some nice stuff in midfield, but there were too many wrong decisions in the final quarter. We did have quite a few chances, although I'd still say Motherwell had more, and obviously they were much more clinical than us. The fourth goal was an absolute beauty, but or the others, the ICT defending was calamitous, especially Raven for the third. Humphrey tore Shinnie apart all afternoon on the other side too. All the same, if Gary Warren's overhead kick hadn't been saved, if Andrew Shinnie had scored his penalty, then we might have had a very exciting finish. I still maintain we're playing much more attractive football than last year, but after the defensive displays of the last two weeks, people ate entirely justified in feeling worried about the season ahead. It'll be interesting to see how Butcher responds to this.

Excellent news if true that this is the line-up. The club could really do with a decent cup run - it's been too long - and with a few SPL clubs out already, hopefully Terry believes we have a chance of going a long way in this competition. It also gives a few players a chance to atone for Saturday. Or, as Chris says, assist us to a calamitous defeat...

A bit, yeah. I always really enjoy your match reports and the way you read our games, but I don't really think the tactics were the problem today, and although I broadly agree with you about Sutherland's and Raven's limitations, and also about the number of poor passes today, I can't really criticise Butcher for sticking with a line-up that has played some decent football and gone three games undefeated. We probably should have been more aggressive from the start today, but I'm guessing the manager is trying to instil a consistent philosophy of patient passing football rather than hopeful long balls.There were glimmers of this for fifteen minutes in the first half and in the final ten minutes of the game, but the biggest problem was that we met a team of naturally better players, many of whom had something to prove and so got stuck into us from the start. Today's performance might give Butcher the justification to bring in Meekings and Pepper, and I'd be very happy with that, but I hope that he does continue with the approach that the team has adopted so far this season, rather than making some knee-jerk reversion to packed defences and punted balls forward: we are going to have bad days no matter how we play.

I agree with this. Guys like Watt and Twardzik will be desperate for regular involvement and came out of the blocks really fast. All the same, no real excuse for how poorly we started. Hopefully we'll see a reaction to this next week.

IHE's assessment is bang on, you'll be pleased to hear, SMEE. Yesterday's approach was almost unrecognisable from most of last season's performances. Yesterday, I don't recall a single one of those speculative balls over the top that Mackay could do nothing with last season: the stress was entirely on retaining possession, building patiently from the back and allowing Doran, Shinnie and Sutherland to try to take players on and open up the defence, and even though we were still behind on almost 70 minutes, there was no sense of us panicking and starting to throw balls forward: players and management alike kept faith with the system they had started with and eventually it paid off. Sutherland worked hard and did manage to beat his man on several occasions, but I think he was tending to do this from such deep positions that he didn't create much threat; Andrew Shinnie had an excellent second half and was our most composed and creative player; but the performance that I found most encouraging was Aaron Doran's. On the previous occasions I had seen him he had a tendency to stay on the touchline and hide rather than getting involved, but yesterday he was coming inside and taking on his man at every opportunity. He could be a really important and effective player for us this season if he continues to do this. Mackay worked his socks off as usual and his goal was a just reward, but with this system we could ideally do with a striker who is adept at taking the ball at the edge of the box and carving out opportunities - either a Dargo or a Wyness in his heyday would have fitted into this team really well. The biggest thing lacking from yesterday's performance was the creation of more clear cut chances in front of goal. Ross Draper was the pick of the new boys for me: he protected the defence really well, was solid in his tackling and interceptions and moved the ball on in a simple and effective manner. It was difficult to assess the qualities of the new centre back pairing of Warren and King as they didn't have a great deal to do, but first impressions were that they were solid, held position well and fitted effectively into the new system by looking to use the ball to build attacks rather than simply hooking it away. Raven also looked solid enough, although as IHE has pointed out, Meekings had a greater impact with his tacking when he came on, probably becuase St Mirren at that stage were trying to get back into the game and threatening our defence more. Overall, it was a satisfactory result and a more than satisfactory performance. I've found our style of football over the past season and a half pretty depressing to sit through: like SMEE, I go to football primarily in the hope of seeing an attractive style of play, and if we end up near the bottom of the league but having played in this style all season, I will be more than happy.

My prediction is that I'll join up, remember to fill in my predictions assiduously for the first six or seven weeks, then miss one week, slide twenty places down the table, and abandon the whole business in a huge and prolonged sulk. As I have done for the past three seasons.

I'll be there. The Fifth Top.

Celtic Dundee Utd Motherwell Hearts Aberdeen Kilmarnock St Johnstone Hibs County St Mirren ICT Dundee

Good to hear that we will be in a position to sign another defender but where are the goals going to come from? In our relegation season our top scorer got 5 goals, and I'm not convinced Mackay will do any better than that. This is my biggest worry by some distance. McKay looked tidy enough with the ball at his feet, but playing as a lone striker trying to latch onto long balls he was almost completely ineffective. If Andrew Shinnie stays fit and can work as a link between the midfield and McKay then he might have more success, but ideally I would like to have seen us sign one more striker, preferably an experienced one. I'm glad, though, that Butcher has come out so early to say that there will be no more signings made. IIRC, last season it was all a lot more vague, and the possibility that more signings could be made just led to more frustration among the supporters when we had such a poor start. At least this year we will know exactly what the situation is. I'm also looking forward to seeing more youth team players given their chance - it would be fantastic if we could begin to build the core of a team for the future around homegrown players - but I do anticipate the season being a struggle, and I'm keeping my expectations low.

http://www.highland-...ll-13072012.htm Not a great decision to come out with this statement, imo. I think most of us suspected that the SPL chairmen would be privately hoping for Sevco to be voted into Div 1, but Kenny Cameron's more or less come out and admitted it, and it makes his earlier comments about sporting integrity seem hollow. Could he not just have made a more straightforward statement about the financial challenges facing the club and appealing for as much support as possible?

I share a few of your fears, but this last bit is slightly OTT. For much of the 18 years the two clubs have been in the Scottish league system, ICT have had a higher concentration of local players and more stability and continuity in their squad than County. Under Terry Butcher more than any other manager this has changed - some would argue that he has had no choice, others that he's gone too far too fast - but just because County has accumulated a few of our former players, this doesn't mean they should be held up as some model of visionary, ethical Highland football. Without wishing to rush to conclusions about players I haven't seen yet, I do worry that the signings so far do seem to be repeating a pattern that didn't really work last season - pretty much exclusively players who are either very inexperienced or injury-prone, from outside the Scottish system. If we had (and have) no choice but to offer only short term contracts anyway, then last season we could really have done with a couple of old heads who knew the Scottish league and the players they would be facing, and who would help to bring through the young local players. I had hoped to see Butcher try to bring in one or two of this type of player this close season instead. Maybe what we're hearing is correct - that there simply aren't such players available that we can afford - but other clubs of our size have managed it in the past (St Johnstone last season being the shining example), and the suspicion lingers that TB has a 'type' of player and that he might see older, very experienced Scottish players as less likely to bend to his authority. We'll see, though - there's still a fair bit of time left in which to add players, and some players' wage demands may become more manageable if they start to feel they're in danger of not finding a club.

Just emailed the Supporters' Trust, as per CaleyD's advice. I really hope Kenny Cameron is going to listen carefully to the views of the supporters; it will be utterly mortifying if ICT vote in favour of admitting some newco Rangers.

Young goalkeepers = 'Kid Gloves'. Is it still even possible to buy kid gloves, and would anyone want them? Also 'go nap', for scoring five goals in a match.

Enjoyed that. We played some nice passing football and the supporters were great throughout. Having Andrew Shinnie back in the side gives us a bit more creatvitiy going forward and brought the best out of Tansey. I agree with Luke about the defence: I've always liked the look of Gillet and Golobart playing together in the middle. Got to mention Doran too: I've been critical of the way he's seemed reluctant to look for the ball, but he got stuck in yesterday and did very well before going off.

I assumed Tansey would be offered a new contract - he's been about as close to a mainstay as we've had this season. I've been a little disappointed by him, what with him apparently having been Stockport's player of the season before coming up to us, but the team has been so unsettled this season that it would probably be rash to write him off and to assume we could do better. McKay? Good worker, some nice touches, doesn't look like a goalscorer, but possibly a good partner for a proper penalty box striker. Clarkson is an interesting idea - he was a genuine goalscorer at Motherwell, though I've no idea how he's done at Bristol. As for Blackie, nice dream, but he said in all his press interviews around the Scottish Cup semi-final that he wanted to move to England next season, and I'm sure he'll have far more rewarding offers than anything ICT can give him even if he does stay in Scotland. I also expect Tokely to go. I think he'd have been out the door with Munro and Duncan last season if he hadn't had that extra year on his contract, and to be honest, if I'd had to choose between them, I would rather have kept Munro, but I'll be sorry to see him go if this is his last season, and not just for sentimental reasons: I think he's been one of our better players in a dreadful campaign and has probably done enough to earn a new contract.

Haven't voted, but I think there's a fair chance it will be. He's bound to be in charge going into the season unless he chooses to leave for some reason, but if we're really struggling, say, three months in, then the board will have a decision to make. At the moment I can't see any team that is going to be weaker than us next season. Of course he could add a few new faces, find a settled system that works, get lucky with fitness and have us safe by Christmas, but there have been far more negatives than positives this season.

Yep, this absolutely. I'd be worried if I thought Butcher was intending going into next season with Tade as our first choice central striker, but despite his limitations, his workrate and the goals he has chipped in with makes him worth keeping. He's no Craig Dargo, but he's no Andy Barrowman either.