ALSY

Anyone know why I've managed to get away end tickets for Celtic Park on the day in the past but can't do the same for Rangers? It says something about Strathclyde Police on the sticky but I would have assumed the police policy would be the same city wide? I wouldn't know if I could go until Friday afternoon, by which time it'll be too late to get a ticket from the club. Not that Ibrox is ever that enjoyable an atmosphere or view, but I'd like to get to as many games as possible, and I still remember the joy of that Graham Bayne goal a couple of seasons back...

Thats more like it! at least Falkirk are in a worse position than us! I can see us beating em tomorrow! That will be the positive we all need, id rather it were in the league though.

Nah. I'm bored with the league now. Time we won a cup. Or at least got to a cup final. Those back-to-back semis at Hampden were excellent.

Have high hopes of being able to go to Falkirk - took a lot of work home with me tonight to free up tomorrow. I hope both teams play the way they did at the same venue a few weeks back...

You lot cant see the wood fer the trees.

Of course we miss Niculae at home - but we could do with a Bingham, a Ritchie or even a Bayne up front !!

As a lone striker? Or as one of a partnership? I think Rooney is our new Bayne - do you think should he have played alone up front today, or alongside Wood? I think Wood played well with the ball to feet today and that Brewster was proably right to start him - just can't decide whether we should have started Rooney alongside him in place of McBain, or played Vigurs in midfield in place of McBain.

What a miss from Garry Wood, he was very poor all day and a very bad decision from Brewster to start him upfront!

We were good after Rooney came and we went 2-0 down.

Stewards again were an absolute disgrace. Surprised tomcaleyjag or anyone else hasn't mentioned about him getting chucked out yet! For puting a flag up!!! What a ******* disgrace, the club should be ashamed! 1 steward says its ok, we keep it up for the game. But yet just before kick off...eject him!!!!!

The club should be ashamed of the people they hire to do that job! No hoper ***** that only wish they were the Police!! That fat ******* was loving the power trip and after he chucked him out he came up to us and tried to get a joke with us. I'm sorry but what a cu*t!!! The club really need to get a grip!!!! SHOCKING!!

Don't really know how you can justify that. Wood worked hard and created chances for himself as well as scoring our only goal. Before the game I thought Brewster should have started Rooney, but once I saw how we managed to press the Celtic midfield in the first half and give the ball into Wood's feet, I realised Brewster had made the right decision. With Rooney as a lone striker, it might have been too tempting to start punting high balls to him early on. I suspect Rooney is most effective as the ballwinner in a pair up front when we are playing further up the field rather than having to play on the break - wasn't it Rooney that won the ball for Wood's goal?

As a former pupil, I took the opportunity to have a final look around the school last night as part of a 'nostalgia tour', before the demolition of it begins in a few weeks time.

Quite a surreal experience, seeing as I haven't set foot in the place since the day I left nearly 20 years ago! Evoked memories I didn't even know I had! Thing that got me was it smelt exactly the same, sounds weird but each floor of Millburn had a different smell, tech dept, science dept, etc and that hasn't changed!! Had a peak into some of my old classrooms too and, apart from a change in colour, it was like a timewarp.

They also had team photographs from bygone years on display. Funny how you can still put a name to a face you haven't seen for 20 years ! :o

Or am I just getting old ? :thumb04:

I don't know what I'd have done if I'd been around to take that opportunity... would be interesting to see the old place again, but I didn't particularly enjoy my years there, and I suspect it might have been depressing as I seem to have stumbled into teaching as a career rather than seeing it as my vocation, and still kind of kid myself that I've not really crossed the rubicon and become the boring b*stard in front of the blackboard.

The thing about nothing seeming to have changed is interesting though - the place I'm in now is a really traditional old school, and depending where you walk, you're still assailed by the smells of old gym shoes, or wood shavings, or sulphur. It's very evocative: occasionally I'll turn a corner and be teleported back to Millburn and imagine that Baillie is approaching with knuckles outstretched...

Got to nominate the Academy St chipper, if only because one of the owner's daughters was my childhood sweetheart when I was thirteen. Thought I was coming into a fried food empire for a couple of weeks or so...

Another timeless moment on Soccer Saturday seconds ago: Hartlepool go 3-2 ahead after being 0-2 down, James Brown the scorer; Jeff leads the assembled panel in a chorus of "I Feel Good" by the Godfather of Soul. Sometimes impartiality is overrated...

FRASER :015: :D :P He didnt really do anything wrong and blameless fer the goals.

ROSSCOE :021: :D :D :D Typical Rosscoe display - solid at the back and always trying to get forward - I felt that he did sell himself fer the first goal though.

GRANTY :D :D :D Again - seldom tested.

MAGUIRE :D :D :D As Munro - still think that he could have cut out the cross fer the first goal.

DUFF :D :D :D :D Did he not look the part when he came on ?

HASTINGS :D :D Some may say it was jet lag but does he travel across the Atlantic every feckin week. Woeful fer the second goal and hasnt got much of a clue when he goes over the half way line.

IMRIE :D :D :D :D Sneaked my MOM. Excellent first half, faded mid way through the second fer 10-15 minutes but got a second win. Brilliant free kick - looked a lot more comfortable on the left. Went asleep fer the first goal.

BLACK :D :D :thumb04: He just looked frustrated from the off. Just couldnt get into the game and showed his frustration and should really have walked. But he comes back out and looks the part again, looks calmer and then he is hooked !!

DUNCAN :D :D :D :D Good to have ya back. Enuff said

MCBAIN :018: ;) Sorry but Brew has to simply drop him - enuff of the favouritism - if we had Vigurs on from the start it may have been a different tale.

COWIE :D :D :D :D Just like the old Don fer the first 45 but the goal changed it completely. He had to drop back and was in no mans land fer 15 minutes - then he had to withdraw into a deep midfield position - that was a very poor decision tactically.

WOOD :D :003: That was fer the goal. He missed an absolute sitter which could have changed the whole game - he did the same at Falkirk but we survived - he simply isnt ready yet but he has potential.

WILSON :003: :003: Wish he had come on five years younger !!

ROONEY :003: :003: :003: Put himself about more than Wood.

Brew simply has to jettison Hastings - try McBain at full back fer fecks sake - bring back Vigurs and stop treating Wood like he used to use Rory - and fecked him up.

Gawd do we need a centre forward and a pacy front runner or what ?

Basically - Cellic were there fer the taking.

I'd agree with that except for Wood's score - thought he worked well and managed to get on the ball (unlike Barrowman) without dropping so deep that we lost any threat up front (unlike Niculae). The missed chance was frustrating but it was a moving ball and he did manage to get it on target from a first time shot - it wasn't exactly Iwelumoesque. Think he would get 3 and a half smileys from me, if we did half-smileys.

Pretty good performance - we didn't deserve to lose. Like most other posters, I felt Imrie had a great game and Cowie also looked far more positive than previous games this season. Wasn't happy to see Wood starting ahead of Rooney, but I thought he did well. We shouldn't judge him too harshly for that miss in the first half - he created the chance and placed a moving ball on target; he just didn't get enough lift on it to beat Boruc. Also took his goal well. The only player that didn't seem to contribute much was McBain - would have preferred to see Vigurs in the midfield as Celtic were nothing special today and a little more creativity might have given us a few more clear cut chances.

Frustrating but encouraging, as long as we can take the same attitude and focus into our next matches.

Cowie and Imrie have been inconsistent, but I get the feeling both will be right up for this one (Cowie hopefully remembering his MOTM display in the 3-2 last season), and they are the two players best equipped to come up and play off Rooney if Barrowman is out. We need Duncan in the holding role against Celtic - he's often excellent in these games, where his concentration is at its sharpest. Vigurs just shades it over McBain for me - more creative with the ball at his feet and hopefully he won't be overawed. It's a great stage for him - don't think he's started a live TV game yet, has he? Most experienced defence needed for this one, I think - Roscoe is usually up for these games and I think McGuire was good enough during Granty's absence to regain his place from Duff.

Mixed feelings on this for me.

Whilst I'm not upset at the points on the board, and think we are about where I would have hoped/expected us to be, I do think that the "performance" on the park hasn't been what I expect from an ICT team....Kilmarnock game aside.

Had we played every game with the same spirit as was shown against Killie we may or may not have more points on the board, but I would at least be satisfied that we'd given our all to get what we have.

We can't turn the clock back and do anything about games already played, so I just hope that as we go through the season we see more and more of what we saw against Killie and that progress is being made.

I voted "better" based on our points total, because I was pretty pessimistic about the season and expected us to lose at Aberdeen and Falkirk, but I agree with Don about some of the performances. In the two away games I mentioned, I was surprised and impressed by how we played, but listening to the Hamilton and St Mirren games was frustrating and depressing - we seemed to have very little fight or composure. If we don't start dominating teams in the lower half of the league, especially at home, then we'll definitely be in a relegation battle right up to the end of the season - there's no Gretna this year.

Typical Scottish football...........lump it up and hope for the best

I never saw the game...was that the craic? have to say....stating the obvious but, 2 VERY valuable points dropped at home.....am not fancying our chances for second place at this rate. We seem to have taken a footballing step backward under Burley.

Having defended Fletcher in your earlier thread SMEE, I've got to admit that he was pretty pish today - didn't seem to know where he should be playing, and a certain ex-ICT player was by far the better of the attacking midfielders.

Just posted a lengthy post-mortem on P&B so can't be bothered going over the same ground again, but 2 mistakes on Burley's part are clear: McFadden should not be on his own as a lone striker, and Morrison should not have been picked in the first place, particularly when Brown, Robson and McFadden can all play wide midfield (in addition to Maloney, who was, IMO, on the wrong wing).

^Thats the part i dont understand.

He is by far and away the weakest link at Man Utd IMHO!

I can understand him getting a game for Scotland tho

Until the recent Scotland campaign, I always felt he played much better for Scotland than for Man U as he had more freedom on the ball and got forward more. His passing and ability to shield the ball and look for a pass are excellent - better than Ferguson IMO - but he cannot tackle and should never be played deep. I think he's one of those players who would be outsanding in the SPL but looks average compared to the other players when playing for Man U. Yet the fans there seem to appreciate him more now and I remember listening to 606 after the 7-1 game against Roma, when almost every caller nominated him man of the match for his use of the ball.

As for the captaincy, he seems the obvious choice to me - experienced, intelligent and will command respect from the other players. Who else is there? Gordon possibly. Caldwell? Hartley?

Are these line-ups confirmed? Interesting changes - McGuire, who scored last week, replaced by Duff, and Duncan, who apparently had a good game, replaced by Cowie. Is Duncan injured? He's not even on the bench.

First away game I've missed this season.

Motte & Bailey might be right, although this is a woodland near Cuduthel/Dores Road....apparently in the middle of this forest, the trees form a natural circle and this is where the wiccan ceremonies took place

Don't know how the place has become conflated with motte and bailey castles, but I think you're refrering to Torbreck Wood - accessed from the Dores Road just past Holm Mills. I think the southern distributor road runs past it now. There were various shock-horror stories in the Courier about evidence of black masses there about 15 years ago, but I'm not sure whether the wood had any natural features that made it particularly suitable for occult ceremonies, or whether it was simpy secluded enough that people could get pissed and crucify cats without fear of discovery...

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

That's a bit harsh...

Ultimately, though, the thing people care most about is: are they enjoying the games?

Pretty good game, what is it with these two teams and scoring barrow-loads of goals. Nice celebration from Andy, i don't know what the killie players and fans were raging about, the comentators said it was a clear penalty, i suppose we'll see in the hidhlights.

The best player on that park was Ian Black, followed closely by Imrie and Barrowman. See what happens when we play those two? For the record, vigurs also impressed today. I thought he played well, but tired a little in the end.

A good performance, the fans responeded, black rises like a salmon to head a 18 yard header home, imrie plays fantastic, barrowman scores, fraser makes a mistake, roscoe plays well-ish, hastings and mcguire look dependable.

WHAT IS GOING ON??? :thumb04: :018:

We lose 1-0 to Hearts... ;)

Only joking. Sounds like Imrie took a lot of confidence from midweek and really played well. Good for him. How did Barrowman look to you, goal apart? He did my head in at Tynecastle because he did so little. I know he's a goalscorer and wants to keep the shape of the team correct, but he did so little last week that it looked like he was taking the pis5.

Black given BBC motm.

FT 3-1. Great result as our unpredictable season continues. Sounds like we worked hard and also kept our heads while Killie's players lost theirs. Also sounds like Black was superb again. Well done to the team - looking forward to Tanndice, although Utd fairly turned over Hearts today.

Black score with a header. How bizarre, yet how wonderful.

Rooney and Wilson on for Barrowman and... someone.

Cowie for McBain. Can't say I've heard McBain mentioned much during the game - certainly less than any of the other midfielders.

Fowler sent off. Let's get this won.

Sounds like Brew should take Vigurs off before he gets sent off for dissent or persistent fouling. Maybe bring Barry on and reshuffle the midfield a bit?

Fantastic! Barrowman and McGuire both justifying selection it would seem.

Killie players sound like they're losing it.

Get in!

BTW Guy Krr scores for Elgin.

Just arrived home. Looks like the usual ICT-Killie match - plenty of goals, plenty of errros. Had 2-2 on the predictor but will be happy to be proved wrong if we win this one.

Surprised Rooney didn't get a start after Tuesday, but very glad to see Vigurs in the team.