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alternative maryhill

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Everything posted by alternative maryhill

  1. Having watched the highlights, you're right, of course - Storey was mostly to the left of Roberts. God knows why my addled brain 'remembered' him being more on the right.
  2. Thank you! Especially as it was typed one-fingered from the bottom of a deep well of pre- and post-match Guinness,,.
  3. Neither played in a particularly advanced position - at times it almost looked like we were playing 4-2-4, with our forward midfielders playing just in front of the Celtic defence and trying to pressurise them into mistakes that someone could run onto, or trying to pass our way through them when we were in possession. When Storey and/or Roberts did break forward then yeah, Storey was tending to pull out wide towards the right, and Roberts was all over the place, but in a good way. At times he reminded me of Mckay in the way he was willing to receive the ball with his back to goal, and in the way he tried to pull defenders out of position. Much less of an out-and-out striker, obviously, but I think he's a good addition who will cause a lot of probems. Whether this formation works against a team that plays a deeper defensive line than Celtic remains to be seen, however. I should mention, by the way, that Vigurs had one of his best games for us - looked a lot more dynamic than in recent games, used the ball well and seemed to enjoy the greater space Celtic gave him - and that when Horner broke forward, he looked tricky and willing to take players on. I still wonder if there is any chance of Yogi trying Horner in a wide role ahead of Raven at some point, but then that doesn't really fit in with the way Hughes seems to prefer to set up.
  4. By and large I agree with you, but I think the tactics were decent for today's game. Celtic play a high line, and what we did was to press them right across the midfleld, try to stop them playing and take control of that area, then outpace them when we were in possession. It worked so well that we threw them right off their game and controlled it from about 15 mins in until half time. Warren's glaring chance came from this tactic, as did Roberts' early in the second half. Had Roberts scored that, then I think we'd be talking about a win or at least a draw, as Celtic looked very uncertain until they scored. Unfortunately, once they did, their confidence seemed to grow as rapidly as ours diminished, and they largely strolled the rest of it, although 3-0 wasn't really a fair reflection of the game overall. Long term, though, I think our lack of out-and-out strikers could make the difference between, say, 7th and 4th.
  5. Neil Cameron in the Herald obviously knows something we don't...
  6. Not a vintage performance, but we did deserve the win. Both full backs played well, and I thought Draper was the pick of the midfielders and that Danny Williams looked our most dangerous attacking player: some excellent movement, particularly at the start of the second half, and he had one clever flick that Ripley saved at his near post. Mutombo started well, but I thought he faded before the end of the first half was over, and he does still look a little lightweight, both in possession and when trying to close down opponents - I'd like to see him work a bit harder in the latter respect. There's clearly talent in there, but he does still look a bit of a luxury. Not as much, though, as Vigurs, who I thought was extremely disappointing. He was ponderous in possession, didn't close down enough or fight for the ball when he lost possession, and was frequently negative in his passing. This became even more obvious when Roberts came on and immediately started running at players and trying to look for forward passes. Obviously they are very different sorts of players, but I think a team that had Polworth starting instead of Vigurs, and also included Roberts, would have far more dynamism and forward momentum that we saw for most of the first half today: Tremarco's run and cross for the opener was about the first really decisive piece of play that we had managed, despite a few passages of neat interplay. The second half was better, although we did lose our way for a while around the time of the Motherwell goal, something that wasn't helped by the substitution of Storey for Polworth, when Vigurs would have been a far more obvious candidate to be replaced. In a way though, it was good that Motherwell scored, because it made the impact of Roberts' goal all the sweeter. What a strike. If you weren't there, you'll enjoy seeing it on TV. The Motherwell Twitter account, from deep in a well of its own salty tears, described it as 'speculative'. How bitter. Great to be in the quarter final draw, although I don't think this looks like a cup-winning team at the moment. Would love Dumbarton away in the next round if they could somehow get past Dundee, but if not, Morton at Cappielow would do very nicely.
  7. I'm guessing it's maybe more hope than expectation or excitement. There has been a lot of pretty tepid football recently from the players we do have available, and people are probably just hoping that Roberts might offer something different from, say, Vigurs. From what I know of him, he can play wide, which is something we've been missing for a lot of the season and, although it was admittedly against much more limited opposition, he scored a lot and showed up well in pre-season, which has probably added to people's hope that he could be a useful player for us. It may be, as bdu98196 says, that he simply hasn't done enough in training to warrant a start in Yogi's eyes, but I can understand why so many people, me among them, wish he was given a bit more of an opportunity.
  8. Fair enough. I did say it was just my sort of gut reaction / idle assumption when I read the comments, but given that I'd forgotten what the injury that has been keeping Doran out actually is , it was maybe a slightly unfair thing to post without checking first.
  9. Might be a storm in a teacup, but if the Meekings tweet is a response to the reports of what Hughes said, then it's.not a very healthy sign. A player publishing something implicitly critical or even mocking of his manager suggests a serious lack of respect, and I can't imagine Hughes is the sort of guy who would let that go easily. Hopefully I'm wrong though: the last thing we need at the moment is a situation where Meekings ends up out of the team eve when he is fit again. FWIW, I assumed Hughes' comments referred to Doran when I read them: after all, he took a gamble playing Doran ahead of Williams in the Scottish Cup final when Williams had been doing a fine job in most of the preceding matches, and since than we haven't seen or heard anything of Doran. I thought Hughes' reference to the cup final seemed quite pointed when I read it.
  10. Disappointing performance. I know that our default strategy is to sit deep and build from the back, but I thought that yesterday would be an opportunity, against part-time players from a league below, to press higher up the park and try to overwhelm them early in the game. For the first ten minutes it looked like we were going to do that, with Storey and Williams both looking particularly lively, and Stirling's left back looking vulnerable. However, we then reverted to the deep-lying, low-tempo approach and created next to nothing for the rest of the half. Stirling were quick and direct down the right hand side, and looked threatening on a couple of occasions, although their moves tended to fall apart when they got to the edge of our box. We had a few more chances and close shaves in the second half, but rarely forced the Stirling keeper into saves. Fisher doesn't seem to have much pace, although he may need time to get up to the pace of competitive games, but he did add a bit of presence up front, and it may be that, if they play together, Storey starts to play a more roaming role, dropping deeper to collect the ball and taking it out wide when required - he was doing that anyway yesterday, but there was rarely any support for him until Fisher arrived. I don't have too many fears for the replay, but we will need much more of a cutting edge and more ability to press teams if we are going to get anywhere near where we did last season. Players of the calibre and directness of Watkins and Shinnie were sorely missed yesterday.
  11. Most exhilarating game of the season so far, thanks to the events of the last 10 minutes, but a very hard-working team was badly served by the bench yesterday, imvho. We were absolutely in control for an hour - I barely remember Hamilton creating a chance before they scored - but it was clear that some players were starting to tire badly in particularly difficult conditions, and given renewed hope by the goal, Hamilton were able to start dominating a game that they had never been in. The team's tendency to drop deeper and deeper and invite pressure onto themselves when defending a lead has been a source of concern and frustration all season, and while it was perhaps more understandable yesterday, given the conditions, at least having Williams' pace and Sho Silva's presence on the park in the last twenty five minutes would have provided genuine counter-attacking options: Storey was virtually a passenger during that period, having run himself into the ground. On the other hand, there was plenty to be encouraged by in addition to the final score. The midfield trio Tansey, Polworth and Draper was immense, key to us absolutely controlling the first hour of the game. After being one of our our best and most important players last season, Tansey had seemed quieter and less confident in the early part of this season, but on the evidence of yesterday, he is starting to get back to his best. Draper drove us forward, as he apparently did against Aberdeen; we're simply a far better side with him in the team, and we need to get him tied to a new contract asap. And of course, the revelation of St Liam continues. For a good three months now, he has been the bright spot in the team: relentlessly industrious, and positive and dynamic in his passing and the runs he makes, where too many others have been timid and conservative. Yesterday's two goals encapsulated all these qualities and rewarded Polworth for what he brings to the team. The one concern, of course, is that if his ability and influence continue to develop at the pace they have done in the first half of this season, then he might be the next player to follow Christie out the door. Wedderburn also had a good game yesterday, commanding the area in front of the central defence and bringing the three aforementioned players into the game. Vincent, on the other hand, still looks like he doesn't quite know where he should be playing. Hopefully this should inspire the team and given them confidence ahead of the derby, but County are undoubtedly a better team than Hamilton, and our players are going to have to make sure that they create plenty of opportunities, because on the basis of how our season has gone so far, it's an absolute nap that County will score against us.
  12. 'Getting closer' and 'just a few things to be ironed out' according to the man himself on Sportsound there - should be tied up 'in the next week or so'. That sounds like he's fairly set on staying.
  13. Pretty fair summary. We did close down well early on and moved the ball about well, but over the piece, there were a few players who simply didn't contribute enough. Vincent again looked a bit lightweight and didn't seem to know where he should be playing. Vigurs showed flashes of his ability with a couple of backheels and incisive passes, but for the most part he strolled about the place, as if he wasn't particularly interested in looking for the ball or getting forward. This was in contrast to Polworth, who worked his socks off looking for the ball in the way that Christie has found himself having to do this season, or Horner, who looked direct and confident going forward. As a relatively senior player with obvious ability and a lot of experience at this level, Vigurs surely has to take more responsibility and look to dictate play more. The substitutions were a bit odd too. Williams for Mutombo was an absolute head-scratcher: Williams was one of our harder-working and more direct players; Mutombo, on the other hand, again looked like a poor signing. He looks utterly unwilling to mix it - despite his height, he was outjumped for every ball he 'contested', and, as I've noticed before, when an opposing player in his proximity has the ball, he has a tendency to skip on the spot before beginning his run to challenge, as if buying the opponent time to get away from him. Maybe this is simply his running style, but it is highly inefficient and someone should be working on it with him. He did make one good run into the box late on, but didn't seem aware of the opportunity for a cut-back, and again, I just don't think his awareness of team mates is good enough to make him an effective player for us. This is maybe the fifth time I've seen him play, and the same concerns are apparent every time. Storey for Sho-Silva was also a strange one, giving how little Vincent was contributing - surely Sho-Silva could have played as a link-man in behind Storey? - but he did look a more promising prospect when he came on, although he had precious few opportunities. He made one excellent challenge for a high ball, and looked quick and direct when trying to break forward;unfortunately, we didn't seem able to find him with anything. Draper for Polworth was more understandable, give how hard Polworth had worked. When Draper is fully fit, though. I'd like to see if both could be accommodated within the team - Polworth deserves to keep his place. Finally, the concession of yet another late goal surely points to the fact that at the moment, something about the tactics and system isn't working. It seems clear that too often, we cede control of the game as soon as we go ahead, rather than trying to increase our advantage. Opposing managers are probably quite relaxed about going behind to us, because they know they'll have the opportunity to start dominating the midfield and pushing us back and forcing us into mistakes. The fact that Fon Williams was one of our best players (despite possibly misjudging the flight of the winner - I'd need to see it again) says a great deal. I think everyone in the away section would have taken a draw - this was ICT at Firhill, after all - but there was a depressing familiarity, almost a feeling of inevitability, to that late goal. Our inability to compete over 90 mins in many games bodes ill for Celtic next week.
  14. Suspended by club until further notice. Must have been something not nice (assuming the suspension is connected to the sending off).
  15. Either the Hall or O'Neill's or somewhere like the Griffin would work, or else there is Munro's on Great Western Road again, which is pretty handy for St George's X for anyone getting the tube from Queen St. Somewhere in Kelvinbridge post-match, I assume?
  16. Yep. I remember a Sunday afternoon game early in 2012-13 season, where we got absolutely turned over, 4-1 I think. Seem to remember that TSNY was absolutely seething at Owain Tudur Jones for some reason - did he possibly get sent off? ETA: Just checked the match report. No, OTJ didn't get sent off, but he was replaced by Gavin Morrison after about an hour, so presumably he wasn't having much of a game. Or maybe Butcher got sick of TSNY shouting at him...
  17. What a relief that game was. We still didn't create a great deal in terms of clear-cut chances, but the defence held its shape better and the midfielders closed down much more effectively than in recent games, and we never allowed Motherwell to get a grip of the game at any point. The original penalty decision looked a clear-cut handball, and fair play to Craig Thomson for ordering the retake for encroachment, which most teams do and expect to get away with. The Storey goal looked like it had wrongfooted Ripley horribly at the time, and apparently, according to Storey on Twitter, it was a big deflection. The Vigurs goal, however, was sublime - one of those where you could see him shaping to hit it as it fell to him, and it looked like it went in in slow motion. Vigurs didn't have a great game otherwise; Polworth, on the other hand, was superb from start to finish: fighting for everything, getting all over the park, and distributing the ball really well. He had a very good game earlier in the season against St Johnstone but since then seems to have been pretty inconsistent; hopefully him getting a run in the team has built his confidence and he might be able to establish himself as a first pick even when we have a fully fit squad. Tremarco was another player who has looked uncertain recently but who had an excellent game, and on the other side Lewis Horner looked fairly solid and didn't stop running all day. In the longer term, the most important thing about this game is that it has put more points on the board and stopped a potentially morale-sapping slump. There was nothing from today's game to suggest that we are likely to go on the sort of run that will get us back into the sort of position we were at the turn of the year last season; at the same time, I'm less worried than I was that we might end up getting cut adrift, with, say, United and maybe Partick. Yay for mediocrity.
  18. Glory hunters! Pure and simple... We're no more immune to that than any other club in the country! Loads of new posters on this forum in the build-up - never to be heard of again. Literally thousands of 'fans' who attended that day who had never been to the TCS before. Literally thousands of fans who attended that day who have never been back to (or indeed, ever been to) the TCS since. We don't have 15,000 fans - we've 4,000. And if that doesn't increase after last season, then it simply never will. Glory hunters!Pure and simple...We're no more immune to that than any other club in the country!Loads of new posters on this forum in the build-up - never to be heard of again.Literally thousands of 'fans' who attended that day who had never been to the TCS before.Literally thousands of fans who attended that day who have never been back to (or indeed, ever been to) the TCS since. We don't have 15,000 fans - we've 4,000. And if that doesn't increase after last season, then it simply never will. Inverness potentially has a much bigger fanbase in my opinion, but it will take time. Too many folks in Inverness and area are Rangers/Celtic/Aberdeen fans, the club needs to get ICT into the mindset of kids in the schools now more than ever while we have had some success, forget bigger attendances for the next few seasons and look at the bigger picture and look to get these kids growing up as Caley fans, then who knows, maybe you then have a club with an average attendance of 6-7000 in 10-15 years time. It may never happen but that's where I see potential in the club, more so probably than any other club in the country. I agree with Sneckboy about the size of core support and the unlikelihood of it increasing significantly. We could do all the marketing and outreach in the world, and even move the stadium to a more central location, and I don't think there's any chance that the average attendance would ever reach figures of 6-7000. It's not just down to 'glory hunters' though, imho: there is a range of reasons why our support is static, some particular to Inverness, some reflecting wider trends in Scottish football. For a start, the make-up of Inverness's population has surely been in a greater state of flux, for all of the club's life and long before that, than almost any other Scottish population centre of similar size. We often hear about it having one of the fastest growing populations in the UK, but many of those who arrive will already have a long-established support for a different football team, or, if they haven't already developed an interest in football, are unlikely to suddenly do so to the extent that many of them will become regular attendees at TCS. Moreover, what is mentioned far less frequently is the number of people who leave the area. Traditionally, Inverness has been a place that young people go away from in order to study, and the club's lifetime has coincided with vastly increased number of school leavers across the UK going to university. I could name maybe 30 people from the central belt who I see at away games or go to away games with regularly, who are all examples of this trend. A couple of them, like RiG and Top Six Next Year, do continue to buy season tickets and attend TCS regularly, but it's a huge commitment for them, and it's not realistic to expect most people in that situation to have the time or money to do this. FWIW, I think that the numbers of teenagers and younger children at our home games makes up a pretty healthy proportion of our modest crowds - a bigger proportion, I'd argue, that in the crowds of many other Scottish teams, based on what I've seen at their grounds - but how many of these regular supporters will we keep when they finish school? The UHI might make a small difference, but people will still want to spread their wings. I think the 'Old Firm factor' is actually overstated, certainly among people born in the 90s and beyond, although I think it has limited our potential audience among those who were old enough to have chosen their 'big team' by the time the club was formed. There were plenty of people I was at school with who I saw regularly at Kingsmills in the 80s, but who also went to Celtic Park, or Ibrox, or (in my case and a few others') Pittodrie a few times a season, and who didn't make the jump when the merger occurred, simply because their allegiance to their 'big club' was too strong, rather than out of any deeply-held opposition to the merger. Celtic, and certainly Rangers are far less exotic or glamorous than they once appeared, and although there will be kids running around in their strips in Inverness, I'm convinced that this doesn't affect us significantly more than any other Scottish team of comparable size, whether in Perth, Ayrshire, Fife or Lanarkshire. The far bigger threat or distraction comes from the blanket coverage of the English Premier League and Champions League, which is encouraging a lot of young potential supporters to see Scottish football as devalued and even embarrassing. In the school I work in in Glasgow, where probably 99% of those who follow football would once upon a time have described themselves as Celtic supporters, and remain privileged enough to be able to afford season tickets if they want them, increasingly large numbers describe themselves and Man City, or Chelsea, or Barcelona or Real Madrid supporters, and disparage all Scottish football. I've heard more than one pupil describe how they were offered a Celtic season ticket for their birthday by their parents, and turned it down. Why should we expect kids in Inverness to be any different? That, of course, is probably a fairly significant factor in explaining why clubs across Scotland like ICT, and St Johnstone, and Motherwell, have not seen significant crowd increases in highly successful recent periods in their histories: the genuine interest in Scottish football that actually brings people through the gates just isn't there (expect for those 'one-off' occasions, like the Scottish Cup Final), although the overall stagnation in support in Scotland is sometimes disguised by recent bounces in crowd size experienced by 'sleeping giant' clubs like Hearts and Aberdeen. I do think that location is a slightly aggravating factor for us, and ticket prices are definitely too high throughout Scotland, but ticket offers and price reductions in the past haven't succeeded in significantly increasing support in the past, as Motherwell under John Boyle found out to their cost, so we are probably stuck with them, as the club has to budget around them. Finally, changes in working patterns have probably had a bigger impact on attendances than many people acknowledge. Far more people now work regularly at weekends than did during the heyday of Scottish football, and so they simply aren't able to make many matches. For my first 10 years of supporting ICT, I worked two weekends out of three; it felt like a real privilege to be able to attend games. I suspect that this is an area in which Inverness sees a slightly bigger disadvantage; as the primary shopping and service centre for about half of Scotland's land mass, it employs vast numbers in the retail and service sectors, and obviously the busiest time for such businesses is at the weekends, so I suspect that a larger proportion of people working in Inverness regularly work weekends than in the hometowns of most other Scottish clubs. This is all conjecture, though - I don't have any figures. Put all this together, and I just can't see us, or any other team of similar size, ever stepping up to another level in terms of the support we command. I suspect the club believes this too, and cuts its cloth accordingly. That's not to say that the marketing couldn't be a lot better and more imaginative - even adding 500 to the gates regularly would make a big difference, and that's not completely unrealistic - but it probably does explain the reluctance to offer Yogi a significantly enhanced contract (back on topic...) and a significantly increased playing budget. I don't think the chairman or the board members always get it right by any means, but I do have some sympathy with their dilemma here.
  19. We played some decent enough stuff in the first half without really looking threatening, and the Killie goal felt a bit like us being punished for not creating clear enough chances. The second half was as bad as I've seen us all season though: far too narrow, far too many misplaced passes, far too many lazy-looking through balls that seemed to suggest players thinking 'we'll just give it to Miles and he'll do the rest'. I felt sorry for Storey - he ran his socks off, but the Killie defence stuck close to him and dealt with him pretty effectively throughout. To be fair to Hughes, choosing to put on Mutombo and, eventually, Sutherland, did seem to hint that he wanted a bit more width in the team, but it seemed little strange to take off Raven rather than keeping him on to play behind Sutherland and taking off one of the four central midfielders that we ended the game with. None of Tansey, Christie, Polworth or Vigurs played particularly badly, but that area just looked crowded and messy. Mutombo, incidentally, still isn't doing it for me - as noted in the Dundee game, he has a decent enough skill level, but doesn't seem to look at what his team-mates are doing or know when to release the ball. One passage of play, where he skinned a couple of defenders and got to the edge of the box, then released a comically weak shot when he had far better passing options available, summed him up. Hopefully when Roberts, Doran and Sho-Silva come back from injury, we will be able to change up the system to something more direct when required; obviously yesterday was just one bad result after a very decent run, but we were crying out for a Watkins-type figure in the second half. Decent away support for our longest league journey, and as usual it was a good laugh with the #caleyaway regulars, but I'm suffering for it today, and it would have been nice to have a decent performance to look back on to ease the pain.
  20. Think Red Card & Iain are meeting Jim at the Counting House quite early (Jim's train gets in from Aberdeen at the back of 9 iirc), then heading down to the Sir John Moore. I'll probably get everyone there. Don't know which train we're getting down yet. What time are you in?
  21. At least half a dozen of us from Glasgow and a few more from Edinburgh are heading down.
  22. Sorry to hear this. Laura has sorted me out with last-minute tickets many times. Best of luck, and see you on a #caleyaway day soon, I hope.
  23. No chance. We tend to play well when we're in a managerial interregnum. Remember the game at Easter Road when Butcher was there as a 'guest of the Hibs board'? If Yogi's away by then, then put your money on a definat ICT win. To be honest, if that was true the media would be all over it. It doesn't add up either that he can speak to them today but they have stated prior to this that there will be an announcemet tomorrow. McCalls odds have now dropped to 5:1 For us no news is good news. iirc it was the same 'source' on P&B that posted about the announcement tomorrow and then claimed today that Utd have 'officially' been given permission to speak to Butcher; in other words, it's either someone trolling or desperately trying to appear like sort sort of oracle on the basis of hearsay. I wouldn't be getting my hopes either up nor down on the basis of anything that appears on that thread.
  24. Gary Sutherland's Hunting Grounds, which is one of those all-42-league-grounds-in-one-season books (I'm sure there's at least one more doing the rounds), features the author visiting TCS in January '07 to see us beaten 2-1 by Celtic, and we are Killie's opponents when he visits Rugby Park (a score draw, unsurprisingly). A couple of our away games against Hearts in '04-'05 also feature in Aidan Smith's book Heartfelt (lifelong-Hibs-supporter-becomes-Hearts-supporter-for-a-season-for-a-bet, yadda yadda yadda). We sort-of-almost feature in Stuart Maconie's Cider with Roadies, when he mentions the SuperCaleyGoBallistic headline (and manages to misspell it 'Cally', something his editor obviously didn't pick up). And of course, there's Steve Paterson's book.
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