alternative maryhill

That was the most depressing defeat yet. I barely recall any shots on goal except for Tokely's outrageous 35-yarder in the first half, and a header coming off the bar in the second. To be fair, the weather probably did make it difficult for the players, but knowing what it was like, WHY did they return to the long-ball p!sh that seems to be Brewster's default tactical setting? As people have pointed out already on this thread, the line-up was also wrong again. Barrowman trotted around 20 yards from goal and didn't seem to have either the strength or the guile to make any impact on Hamilton's central defenders; Vigurs was played wide left, which limited his greatest strength, his passing; Cowie was playing in the middle (I think) but as so often this season, just didn't look up for it. What was most frustrating was that Black was left out of the team but named as a sub, when it was obvious Brewster had no intention of using him. The game was crying out for someone who could put their foot on the ball in midfield, make space and make a pass, and Black should have been on after about half an hour. Any positives? Morais looked quite skilful, had some nice touches and made a few ambitious flicks and passes that nearly came off - also, he worked very hard throughout. Mihadjuks looked solid, but Hamilton didn't really threaten apart from the penalty incident, so it was difficult to judge him. The support was brilliant yesterday - fantastic atmosphere in the pub beforehand and really vocal inside the ground. I felt proud being part of it. Unfortunately it was far harder to feel any pride in the team - by 20 minutes into the game, it was all too clear what was going to happen. I can't see any possibility of us taking any points from the next three games under the current circumstances - the team has less ability than any of its opponents and judging by the last few games, it also has far less fight and self-belief. Although my feeling is that it is already too late to save us, Craig Brewster has to go now - the supporters and players deserve better.

Sorry Don, my post wasn't really meant to be taking issue with you specifically. It was more a response to the general direction the thread had taken, moving away from the focus on schools towards the issue of parental responsibility. I just wanted to point out that I think schools can and should take some responsibility for helping children develop behaviourally as well as educationally, provided they are properly resourced. This shouldn't excuse parents from their duty towards their kids of course, but it can make life easier for some kids from really difficult backgrounds. The media response to "problem chiildren" is always really frustrating - it seems to swing between placing all the blame on failings in education and placing all the blame on bad parenting, when of course there is no simple solution. The other end of the social scale, the independent sector, is not immune from this sort of simplification either - having sold my soul and taken a job in a private school when Glasgow City Council started cutting posts and reallocating staff, I've noticed that there is a percentage of parents who seem to think that having paid their school fees, they can wash their hands of their kids and allow the school to take care of all the motivation, encouragement and discipline. Unsurprisingly, the children of these parents are the pupils who tend to benefit least from what the school can offer. I guess what I'm saying is in an ideal world schools and parents will work together for the best outcomes for children. Anyway, I'm going to stop mithering and go and get ready for the game.

Can't remember feeling this much anticipation before a game for ages. Even when we've won, the atmosphere at most of the away games has been pretty flat this season, but with so many travelling and so much to play for it should be great today. Really hope the team do it for us - if we win, I could see a fair few making the trip to Tynecastle next week, even without the cheaper tickets and free buses. Jumping on the train for Hamilton West and Chambers in 2 hours...

There's some truth in this, but in areas of long-term. deep-seated social deprivation there are many families in utterly inadequate social housing, there are wider-spread addiction problems and higher crime rates. It's understandable that a certain percentage of people in these areas have lost faith in the political and education systems, and this transmits to some of the children. There is also an issue with children who may be effectively carers for their parents - school isn't really their first priority. If they are unmotivated and unhappy, they are more likely to be disruptive, and this can affect some of the other pupils (although never all - this image of whole classes being feral and out of control is a myth, in my experience). Ironically, school can provide real stability for some of these kids and some manage to flourish in spit of difficult home lives. The answer surely can't be to cut funding to schools so that pupils end up in larger classes and resources like nuture groups and time out zones are abandoned. Some parents aren't in a position to take full responsiblity whereas schools can, if properly funded and organised, help to some extent.

This is true, but what puzzles me is that Rooney is the only striker in the team not to have had a real run, if memory serves me correct. Maybe someone could produce the statistics, but I'd guess that he's started fewer games than either Barrowman or Wood this season, yet is still our highest scorer. Why not give him a run with Morais playing in behind him?

Sorry, can I just check - is our end ticketed? I was intending just paying at the gate.

About 700 according to this: http://www.scottishgrounds.co.uk/hamilton_academical.htm Looks kind of frail, doesn't it? If there are 500 of us there and we all do the bouncey at the same time, it could be match abandoned...

The draw is tomorrow afternoon. For selfish reasons would like an away tie, even though we've just won at home at long last. Queen's Park would have been ideal for me if Peterhead hadn't equalised. East Fife would be very nice though -don't think I've been to Methil before.

FT 3-0. Biggest winners of the day - congratulations to the team. Made snarky comments earlier about Brew playing Morais up front when he was apparently signed as a winger, but it sounds like he knew exactly what he was doing. Also sounds like the new centre half had a solid game. I guess we'll get a truer reflection of whether the team has really improved next week. At least they should go into it with a bit of fight and more confidence. I really hope the reduced prices and free buses encourage a lot of people to travel - seems like it's been ages since I last experienced a decent atmosphere at a game.

Morais again! I really hope they can keep this up next week. Confidence must be improved by this, assuming there's no disaster in the last half hour.

Vigurs. Sounded like a nice goal.

HT 1-0. Please, please, please can we get through the first ten minutes of the second half without conceding a goal?

Always said Brewster was a tactical genius...

According to Robbo, Morais is playing up front. Sounds like more tactical... eccentricity, to put it kindly. We need a creative wide player to supply our strikers, we apparently sign one then leave our top scorer on the bench and play said wide player as a striker. Has he any experience in this position, does anyone know? Dundee ahead against Celtic. Boruc howler again.

Just been mentioned on the radio that Pressley is at the Aberdeen game today, although they have no idea whether it is connected with a potential move.

Risky strategy changing half the defence, but hopefully it'll work. Hastings' poor distribution from the back has been annoying me recently, so it'll be interesting to hear whether Djebi-Zadi changes things. Mihadjuk sounds like a big, strong sort of bloke and that's what we've been missing in the centre - Proctor doesn't have the presence to play there IMO. Agree with the other posters about the continued neglect of Rooney. He'll be looking for a move at the end of the season if he doesn't get more chances in the first team. Robbo covering the game on "open all mics" again - hopefully we'll give him something to get excited about.

Nice wee bonus that. I was looking forward to this one anyway - never been to NDP before and I can get a train virtually door to door. Does this imply we're not seen as a big draw, though? What a cheek... Seriouasly, I'd imagine the Hamilton fans would turn out quite well for this one anyway - they're on a good run and will want to support their team against most likely their biggest rivals for relegation.

Absolutely. As well as the potential financial benefits, getting past this game should also boost morale and confidence - that's a far bigger issue than fitness at the moment, IMO. I don't think we should worry too much about "fighting on two fronts" if we go further in the cup and are involved in a relegation battle. Maybe we'll even find out what our best team is... Hopefully Rooney will get a start on Saturday though.

Considering an offer from Hartlepool, apparently - just up the road from Hull.

I thought McBain was worthy of his MOTM on Sunday and was pleased with Duncan also. I don't agree at all with that. Are you kidding? Duncan was embarassing on Sunday. It amazes me the things that I.C.T fans come out with when it comes to player analysis. I fully apreciate that we are all allowed to voice our opinions but to say you were pleased with Russell Duncan's performance beggers belief! I normally prefer to read other fans posts with great hilarity, but I have really had enough of some of the garbage that is said about individual players/staff & e.x staff at I.C.T. Terribly kind of you to deign to post today. I look forward to more of your posts where you tell us all how stupid we are.

He did do OK on Sunday - was one of our better players IMO - but I think that was partly down to how Rangers played (attacking through the middle and mostly keeping the ball on the deck). Against Aberdeen and Motherwell, with high balls coming across the box, he showed that he doesn't have the presence, nor perhaps the positional sense, to play at centre half regularly. And why should he? He's a decent right back being played out of position.

If only! His guile and experience is exactly what we need for a relegation fight. Anyone who was still scoring in the championship last season and has been intraining with an EPL club this season would be able to do a job for us and help our less experienced players along. He'd never move for what we could offer him on a 6 month deal, though even if he has played in the north of Scotland before. No doubt there will be Yorkshire / north-east clubs in lower leagues who will offer him a deal.

I thought McBain was worthy of his MOTM on Sunday and was pleased with Duncan also. I don't agree at all with that. I'd agree with that, although McBain has a terrible tendency to go missing in games, and Duncan's erratic passing is a problem that we probably have to live with. We certainly couldn't hope to replace them as well as Black and Cowie, and we will need their experience and commitment to the club in the fight against relegation and in the eventuality that we go down.

I really wanted my 1000th post to be more positive, but why is it when we play well, the other team must have been below par? A team only plays as well as the opposition lets them. I'm largely in agreement with Absent Friend's post. I think the 'get Brewster out at all costs' attitude is colouring how most fans are viewing the team's performance. Sunday was not all bad. It only seems so as it follows some performances which were indeed, dire. I think quite a few posts on the matchday thread acknowledge the first-half performance was good - the thing is, though, that that work was undone by a goal right at the start of the second half, which has been a recurring problem all season. I know it was a good goal, but surely we're capable of keeping the ball for longer and trying to frustrate them and take the fire out of the game again? It's the repetition of such errors, as well as slightly mystifying selections such as Barrowman as a lone striker and Cowie being played in no man's land, that frustrate a lot of us who would rather not be calling for the manager's head, but see no other way out of this.

Haven't been watching it - didn't notice it was on - but the absence of nuture groups in Highland schools, I would guess, will be down to budget allocation. My previous school ran a nuture group in S1 / S2 for the pupils with the most challenging learning needs (which often contributed to severe behavioural difficulties). It was a qualified success - the pupils in question got more support and teachers in the mainstream classes were able to work at a slightly quicker pace without neglecting such pupils. There were a few problems - trying to reintegrate pupils in S3, for example, and also the fact that a certain stigma was attached to the nuture group. On balance, though I feel it was a good thing. This year, however, due to staffing cuts, the school had to decide whether it should continue with the nuture group and consequently have to increase class sizes across the board, or ditch the nuture class and keep smaller class sizes. With regret, they chose the latter. According to my ex-colleagues, there has been a bit of a deterioration in discipline and pace of learning as a result, but they reckon they might have seen that anyway had they gone for larger class sizes instead. In other words, it's a lose-lose situation. It is particularly hard in a school like that, with one of the most deprived catchment areas in western Europe, but smaller classes and better support benefits pupils no matter what social background they come from, IMO.