alternative maryhill

And the results from the Maryhill jury... Great game of football for the neutral - it's been a while since I spent the last 10 mins doing the "can we hang on?" jack-in-the-box routine. But over the piece we deserved it, although if Killie had scored the penalty there would have been harsh questions asked about our players farting about and being far too casual when they had several chances to nail Killie on the break in the second half. The midfield was excellent and this was where the game was won. Imrie was up for it from the start, beat a lot of players and got the ball into numerous dangerous positions; Vigurs again showed composure and the ability to see passes and also made a few decent runs; Duncan closed down well and didn't give it away too often; Blackie had a quieter game than usual but didn't get drawn into situations where he was likely to get sent off after being booked in the first minute; Cowie worked hard and was one of our most dangerous players in the second half, although I think his natural strengths are beng sacrificed by Brewster to allow Imrie to play wide right. The defence also played well, although Tokely struggled badly against Taouil until he was moved up front. Proctor was better in the air than I remember him being and Granty avoided too many long balls. Esson was excellent - it's been a good move to get him in. The forward line, on the other hand, is definitely still an issue. Wood worked really hard and held the ball up well, but never really got into any threatening positions: his goal, from where I was sitting, was a bit of a freak and more down to the the keeper than good finishing. On the other hand, Barrowman, when he came on, did nothing except get caught offside. For a player whose only strength seems to be hanging around and playing the last man, that is unforgiveable. I have no idea why Rooney wasn't given his chance. Choice of striker aside, I can't criticise Brew for his team selection today, nor can I criticise the players for their effort, apart from a too-casual approach in the last fifteen minutes. At the same time, today suggests that the SPL is simply full of mediocre teams and that some teams' approaches just play into the hands of other teams. Whatever they were trying to do may work against other sides, but today Killie just allowed players like Imrie and Vigurs space to create and they were punished for it. If they had been more aggressive and closed down earlier, both these players might have got frustrated and we might have been on the end of another defeat. As for the rest of the season... my asscrack is good n' splintered from sitting on the fence over Brewster's fitness to manage the team, and after today? ...I'm still perched on the fence, still picking out pine.

F**k sake. Think I'm going to go back to bed.

Famous last words?...

Sounds like Ian Black might have to go off. Bad news.

Beeb has Barrowman getting the assist for the goal. Apart from that, obviously...

Sounded like another flat home performance. Sad to say I'm quite relieved - was expecting a repeat of Hamilton & St Mirren games. Wonder if Rooney will get more of a run now? His goal sounded scrappy tonight, but he's looked the most likely of our strikers to score when I've seen them this season. Sounded like Barrowman did nothing again when he came on.

Get in. Didn't think that was coming TBH.

The Wire. Lives up to all the hype and then some. Watched Season 5 in 2 sittings. Also Roobarb.

Not wildly enthusiastic about this prospect. My brother has a season ticket at Pittodrie and is pretty fair-minded and long-suffering, but every time he mentioned Byrne's name he pulled the sort of expression you'd wear if someone farted in your lunch.

Well they could start by playing slightly more attractive football at home, make the matchday experience more enjoyable, if not the 3000 home fans we can barely attract will be even lower than that will lead to us not doing better than we are but a lot worse Got to agree with that, although to Stevie for a positive post. I think the really frustrating thing about this season has been our tendency to follow up an excellent display (e.g. Aberdeen) with a really flat one (e.g. Hamilton). That, and the fact that finding the best line-up seems to be elusive. Although I couldn't make Easter Road (and won't make another game till Killie on the 22nd) I find myself full of anticipation about tomorrow having watched Saturday's goals online. However, if the season so far is anything to go by, this instinctive optimism is misguided. I think for ICT fans to really "enjoy it" this season, the team has to string together two or three good perfomances in a row and let the supporters see a team beginning to gel. The next three games are on paper our best chance to do that (Falkirk haven't found their feet yet; Hearts and Killie have shaded after decent starts), but another aimless performance tomorrow and the frustration will set in again.

Alex you beat me to it Why not? As someone else pointed out, Fraser had an awful game against Killie last season (I was there - watched him manage to throw ball off his own post and then knee it in for an OG within 30 seconds of the game starting, and it didn't get any better), then was dropped for the following game. Malkowski came in for one game against Aberdeen and achieved the well-nigh impossible of being even more howling than Fraser had been the previous week. Fraser came straight back in and was pretty solid for the rest of the season. Now, I'm not saying we should put Esson in and hope he plays badly against Hibs, but the point is, it might do Fraser no harm to be dropped for one game. If Esson performs well, he keeps the position for the next game. If he's pish, we put Fraser back in and hope it's given him a wake-up call. No player is indispensable - what I can't understand this season is why Brewster drops players after they've had good games.

Iain and any others who know more about it than I do, I will apologise in advance if there are any crass cultural generalisations here. I've got a few friends wih roots in the Western Isles who say that Inverness is not looked on as representative of the Gaidhealtachd; that it is a non-Gaelic city which also sucks in and monopolises finances and resources that should be distributed more fairly around the whole Highlands and Islands area. The Western Isles also perhaps suffers from the same problem that we do in Inverness, namely that a lot of people already had their "big" team loyalty long before the merger and that that loyalty is something that is hard to break, particularly in the Outer Hebrides, where the affiliation of supporters to the Glasgow clubs along religious grounds is more pronounced. Do you think either of these things are real factors (along with the travelling, of course) in preventing us getting support from the north-west?

Based on what I saw at Cappielow, I'd agree about Rory. Whatever talent the coaching staff see at training clearly isn't being replicated in games and the reception he gets from a section of the support clearly isn't going to help change that. Apart from that, I'd keep everyone else - we don't have the depth to rotate convincingly with a full squad at the moment, let alone cover for the injuries which will inevitably occur as the season goes on.

If we're talking about Aberdeen's original interest in Foran, which was expressed about a season or so before Motherwell signed him, it dropped due to alleged disciplinary problems both on and off the park. Don't remember him being a particularly controversial player when he was here - maybe he'd grown up a bit. If they've thought about a move for him more recently then I've no idea why they might have revised their opinion. Moot point anyway - as a few of us have said on here, his wages would probably be outwith our budget. If Winters has indeed left Brann to return to Scotland, does that mean he already knows where he's going? When he could be bothered he was a quick and intelligent player, and would also have the experience we are currently missing, but if we were to go for him we might just end up with another Gary McSwegan.

Esson Proctor Duff Munro McBain Cowie Black Duncan Vigurs Imrie Rooney

Next two games are crucial. We've shown earlier in the season that we have the players to match and beat other teams in the league and as many have pointed out, all our games apart from against Rangers have been settled by the odd goal and we've had a fair bit of bad luck. On the other hand, what's been concerning recently is that the belief seems to have gone out of the team and no-one (least of all Brewster) seems to know our best line-up. If we can't take anything from Hibs and Falkirk, then we could end up in the sort of situation Aberdeen and Dundee Utd got themselves into in '94-'95 - experienced players going awol, feuds in the dressing room and every attempt to change the line-up failing. From a purely personal point of view I wouldn't be that unhappy exchanging the likes of Falkirk and Tannadice for a season visiting East End Park and Firhill - brings back a few memories - but it could be disasterous for the club.

Lots of interesting suggestions there. Foran would be an excellent signing if he's still the player he was at Motherwell, but I suspect out of our price-range wages wise unless he's made such an @rse of it down south that no-one wants him. Anyone know how he's done? McPake likewise I thought was a good target when we went for him in August, but I seem to remember quite a few clubs were interested and we'd probably not be his first choice if Livi indicated they were willing to sell. Higgins has been out of the County team recently, hasn't he? Certainly looked the part last season mind you, but would we be getting another Barrowman who might be unable to make the step up?

Would Buchanan come? We did eventually make an offer for him, I think, after not offering a pre-contract when he was on trial with us in January '07 (opportunity missed IMO), and got the knock-back - "better prospects at Partick" or somesuch. Maybe his take on that has changed as Partick don't seem to be moving forward in the First, but I'd guess he's one of those guys for whom Glasgow is the centre of the universe and the Highlands is full of scary dragon creatures.

Rosscoe's a big game player though... Seriously, can we risk throwing Proctor in at Ibrox when he's not played all season? Thought you were in Glasgow tonight Stan?

A couple of significant literary facts that haven't been mentioned: "Josephine Tey", very popular crime novelist in the inter-war period, had novels adapted for cinema, I think, and most still in print - born Elizabeth Mackintosh in Inverness in 1896 and attended the IRA. Always wondered whay the town has not made more of this connection; More recently, the God-like Ali Smith, twice Man Booker nominated and one of the best writers working in the UK today, born Inverness in 1962 and went to the High School. First novel "Like" features Inverness heavily and the town is also the setting for a lot of her short stories. I'd recommend "Like" to anyone who enjoys reading. Still awaiting Millburn's first great contribution to world culture, however...

RECIPE: BANGER CHICKEN 1. Buy packet of bangers 2. Take said bangers to Walker Park 3. Find largest, ripest pile of dog keech in vicinity 4. Insert bangers in keech 5. Stand in tight circle round keech and banger combination (participants preferably wearing white shell suits) 6. Light bangers 7. Wait This, I should point out, is not an activity I particpated in, although I did witness it, and the aftermath, from a safe distance...

Well he's not had a decent run of games due to injuries and a bit of rotation up front. Also he hasn;t exactly had a barrowload of chances to prove his worth. The thing that's frustrated me about Barrowman when I've seen him so far is how little he does on the field when he's not got the ball to feet around the box (against Hearts he was woeful). It looks like a lack of effort - but then we were criticising Niculae last season for dropping too deep. Maybe we don't press enough to have the luxury of a "penlty-box" striker in the starting line up - but then maybe if Brewster played Imrie and Cowie on their preferred wings then we'd get to the bye-line more and create more chances for Barrowman. Certainly the apparent lack of effort will not sit well with Brewster, which is maybe why he hasn't been starting, but then if that's the case, why did he sign him in the first place? Possibly he's just not suited to a team that plays on the break more often than not.

Back on topic. The big difference is that Utd were able to bring in a manager of the calibre of Levein, who had proven SPL experience and a good record in charge of Hearts. I don't think we're necessarily going to attract a manager with the same pedigree - I certainly can't think of an obvious replacement and no-one who has been mentioned on other threads convinces me. If we were to get rid of Brewster now and didn't get out of the position we are in, would we be calling for the head of the manager come June? That's always a bad route to go down - Utd and Aberdeen were a mess for years when they kept changing managers. I'm not a fan of Brewster's tactics or man management and the second half on Tuesday was one of the worst displays I've seen from an ICT side, but I don't think he's been too bad in the transfer market and I'm not sure we can blame him too mucn for the lack of depth in the squad. The bid for McPake was a good one, but Livi were never going to sell and if they had been willing to, there were better offers on the table for him. Likewise, the attempt to bring Dods back in was a good move that was rejected by Utd. As for the experienced striker that people keep talking of, who is out there that we could realistically get? I think the best suggestion I've read recently was Scotty's idea of trying to get Kenny Deuchar on loan, and even he hasn't really proven himself at SPL level. I do think, however, that Wyness and Hart could have made a difference to the team recently and I guess Brewster must take some of the blame for letting them go. I'm genuinely undecided about Brewster. Although there have been some very poor games, I've seen good team performances this season (Aberdeen and Falkirk in the league) which suggested to me that we have the makings of a team that could put in another solid performance in the SPL if we can put a run together. The problem is, practically the same line up has gone out the following week and performed miserably. Is the inconsistency purely down to Brewster? I don't know. I just feel that history shows that clubs that change managers due to fan pressure or panic after a bad run rarely do well - especially clubs that may struggle to attract a manager of significantly better quality. Edited to add: Just refreshed my memories of a couple of posts - Winters, if available, could be an interesting move - certainly has the experience, but he could be a right lazy turd at Aberdeen; Steven Milne is also a good shout, but didn't we already show interest and get a knock-back?

Apparently its Strathclyde Police policy for BOTH clubs. I seem to remember however that last season or the season before, some tickets were allowed to be sold on the day at a ticket booth away from the turnstiles. Perhaps the Police have tightened up on this, as the info from the club, which was supplied to them by Rangers and Celtic, seems quite clear. I am not sure how they are handling the return of unsold tickets, sometimes they are sent back in advance via the post, sometimes they are delivered by hand via someone on the team bus. I would suggest you contact Andrina on email (tickets@ictfc.co.uk), explain your situation and ask her if they will still be available the day before. If they are, maybe someone here will pick them up for you and meet you in Glasgow to sort it out .... Its been done before. Cheers Scotty. If I know how I'm fixed early enough on Friday I might give Andrina a shout. Tonight's experience wasn't the most motivating, however...

Enjoying the football always helps too.