alternative maryhill

Having just seen it again on Goals on Sunday, the Mutombo challenge was every bit as dreadful as it looked at the time. I don't think anyone in the away support could quite believe it, as it was so blatant and unnecessary: almost as jaw-dropping as Devine's handball, which looked as though he'd forgotten where he was and thought he was playing volleyball. I thought Mutombo had a bad game throughout, actually - some bad first touches, poor linking and too many aimless runs. Lopez used the ball better than on some previous occasions when I've seen him, but he still doesn't really look like a striker, more a number 10.

Dundee supporters over on P&B are being highly critical of what they saw as a deliberate strategy to hack and bully their players out of the game. I didn't really see it like that (Mutombo's demolition of Ross apart), but there were a few clumsy challenges which looked like the result of players low in confidence trying not to lose control of the midfield. Overall, I thought we did reasonably well for 70 minutes or so, with Christie again our most creative influence and Williams showing up well again at left back, but we failed to kill off the game or take the sting out of Dundee - I said to either RiG or Red Card about 15 minutes from the end that we should be putting Wedderburn on for Mutombo to shore up the midfield, but when he did come on, Vigurs came off, which seemed counter-intuitive, as by that stage we looked like were only interested in defending. Nevertheless, we probably should have seen the game out, but given that we got away with Devine's handball thanks to Fon Williams, we can't be too unhappy with a point. I do think it will be a long and scrappy season though - I hope I'm wrong, but I can't see this team clicking and going on a run of good results, especially with the injuries we have.        

 

I have said before on here and on P&B that we have no God given right to be anywhere near the heights achieved last year.

Talking of P&B, an absolutely tremendous meltdown thread has just appeared over there. I'll leave you to guess who might have started it...

Someone has either:

a) had a very bad day     or

b) been hacked.

I suspect there is a lot of truth in this. We conceded two very cheap goals early on - as with last week against St Johnstone our makeshift central defence struggled to mark against cross balls - and for the rest of the first half Celtic played at little more than a strolling pace, with our only real threat being the shot on the turn from Mutombo. It felt like they could have punished us more if they had really wanted to.

Second half we started better, with some nice linking play from Vigurs in particular, and for the first five minutes after Christie's introduction we briefly looked the better team in midfield. However, we were outpaced and out-thought for the third goal, and caught absolutely flat-footed, fannying about around our own six-yard area for the fourth.

I said 'I suspect' earlier because, to my deep discredit, I left after the fourth goal: something I've done only once before, but hell, it was my £26 to spend as I chose. I'm sorry I missed Christie's goal, and the opportunity to applaud a player who continues to give his all for ICT (and who should have started) and I'm sorry I missed Dani's first goal for the club - hopefully there are many more to come.

I'll be interested to hear if those who stayed felt that the last 20 minutes provided real optimism for the rest of the season, or whether it just felt like we grabbed two consolation goals and pressed well against a team that was already mentally in the dressing room. Certainly, though, we need to try to dictate play earlier and command our box better against Hamilton next week, because those first two goals could have been scored by almost any team.       

Yep, definitely. It always takes a few games of any season before we start to get a real sense of how good our opponents are, but games at McDiarmid have generally been pretty difficult for us, and given our injuries and lack of any cutting edge in the last few games, I was really encouraged by how we played yesterday - thought we were the dominant and more creative team.

As a few people have already mentioned, Christie, Horner, Polworth and Williams all had excellent games. When I've seen him on previous occasions, I've never been impressed by Polworth, but yesterday he was consistently looking to make forward passes and bring Williams and Christie into the game, rather than simply passing it around in our own half. I was surprised by Hughes' decision to drop Wedderburn yesterday, as he'd started the last few games and seemed have been following the possession-first philosophy to the letter, but I wonder if Hughes actually feels that Wedderburn was a bit too careful and unadventurous in those games - certainly the build-up play yesterday was a lot more dynamic than it was in the two games against Astra and, apparently, in last week's game. I liked the look of Williams at left back again too - thought he did fine there in the first leg against Astra, and yesterday he looked pretty solid defensively (although the cross for the equaliser did come from that side - I'd need to see it again to see if he was at fault) and got forward really well. In pre-season, a few posters suggested that he could be developed into a natural successor to Shinnie, and on the evidence of yesterday, there's no reason why not. I think I'd prefer him to Tremarco in there.

Unfortunately, as people have already mentioned, Lopez had another mostly-ineffectual game. Hughes obviously sees something in him, but to me, so far, he looks ponderous - he seems to lack pace and movement so doesn't really create opportunities for good out-balls or get beyond defenders, he doesn't release the ball quickly enough when he is in possession and under pressure (although he does deserve credit for playing Christie in for his goal yesterday), and for a pretty big guy he seems to go down too easily. It's still early days, and obviously a lot of our best attackers in the past got off to slow starts with the club, but at the moment he doesn't look like a spearhead-type player. Mutombo looked more promising - he had some nice touches and looks like he will be capable of taking on and beating players - but he drifted in and out a bit yesterday, and his choice of final ball wasn't always great. Encouraging, though, to see us bring in a player who might offer us another attacking dimension.

Obviously it was deeply frustrating to lose the goal so late yesterday, and to see Cummins given so much space after an otherwise pretty solid performance at the back from Draper and Devine, but overall, there were grounds for optimism about this much-changed team. Just hope we can push on against Partick in midweek ahead of the trip to Celtic Park, which we probably shouldn't expect much from.               

Nah, mate, sorry - checked again and that's the only one I have. I've just added a couple of others to the gallery though.

Here's another one for you:

Cheers, Richard. Will definitely be in there beforehand.

I'm going to both. Glasgow - Bucharest is a lot more expensive for me than Glasgow - Inverness, but the £60 train ticket to Inverness still stings. I expect an ICT-crested cake with a file in it to be sent to me when I'm put in debtors' prison for defaulting on my credit card repayments later this year.  

Edited to add: I booked the train before ICTPaisley suggested the mini bus, which obviously would have been a great deal cheaper.

Real shame to see Nick Ross go. His misfortune is that we've been blessed with some excellent players in his best positions in the past 3 years, but I'd still like us to have kept hold of him, especially with Marley gone.  

Apologies if this is in the wrong forum, but I've just heard that Sheddy Carr, lifelong Caledonian and ICT supporter, and former member of the ICT management committee, died yesterday. I'm sure a lot of the older supporters on here will have known him, and his son Robert asked me to post a message on the website to let you know. RIP, Sheddy. 

 

 

 

TO NAELIFTS !!

Was in school with the young fella on the far right behind IHE.  

CiF...? If those are initials, then I'm going to guess Lovat Road...

Right on the money, alternative maryhill ... Or is that AY from 'round the block ? ;)

 

It is... It's been a while - hope you're well   I think Simon and I bumped into you at the 4-3 Livvy game back in 98, iirc. 

 

TO NAELIFTS !!

Was in school with the young fella on the far right behind IHE.

 

CiF...? If those are initials, then I'm going to guess Lovat Road...

 

TO NAELIFTS !!

 

What game was that before / after?

 

Birmingham - don't you recognise the dodgy pub in the background?

Tuned in to Sportsound to hear what they were saying about the momentous and historic events at the showpiece conclusion to the season.

 

Gave up at seven after half an hour of nothing other than a lower division side's failure to win a play off match and the unsporting and petulant of at least one of  their players.

 

Does anyone know if they ever got round to mentioning us at all ?

There was a review of the final between 7.20 and 7.30, which consisted of replaying radio highlights and then an interview with Barry Wilson, during which they mostly asked him about whether we could keep the squad together. 

To be honest, I don't have too much of a problem with them leading with the Rangers story as they would already have covered our win on yesterday's programme, and there was the issue of potential police involvement to discuss - i.e. it's still an evolving news story. However, they spent far, far too long on Rangers and their situation, and the ICT coverage was pretty perfunctory - if they were so desperate to keep Rangers involved in the discussion, then they could at least have considered the idea that top-flight Scottish football might have benefited from their absence and looked at our story in that context. But no. Chick Young was absolutely doing his nut, more or less saying that any Scottish football supporter who was glad that Rangers were staying down was ignorant and wrong.    

I'm still dehydrated, and I'm not sure whether it is from the drink or from the several pints of water it felt like I cried at full time. Didn't really expect it, I must admit - I'm usually a bit more stoical than your average X-Factor or Masterchef contestant - but I think it was a combination of the dream coming true and a release of the tension of the previous 20 minutes or so; I'd convinced myself we were going to blow it from the moment Tremarco was sent off, even after we went ahead again, and my legs totally went from under me when the final whistle blew. Absolutely magical day though, and one of the best things about it was being able to spend most of it with a combination of the close friends that I started going to see the team with in 1996, and the close friends I have made over years of ICT away days.    

I'll be there with a couple of former caleyaway ex-pats and one interested neutral, as well as the central belters. 

For me, it must be a toss-up between St Mirren (both grounds combined), Celtic, Motherwell or Killie - the three clubs closest to Glasgow that we have been in the same division as for longest (obviously we and St Mirren have both been in the lower divisions whereas all the others have been in the top league throughout our existence, but we also played Saints in the first). Don't keep records of the games I go to, but I can't have missed more than a couple of away days at any of these grounds since I stopped working weekends a decade ago. 

Just like a young Rodney Marsh, but with bigger hands...

Haven't seen much of the Hearts pair, but given that he is playing for one of the best teams in a higher league, surely Ryan must have an outstanding chance of getting this. Don't really get the fuss about Denayer, and I know that a lot of my Celtic-supporting work colleagues feel the same. Marley Watkins has handed him his @rse on a plate when we've played Celtic this season. 

Have just floated through a day at work surrounded by 1000-odd miserable Celtic supporters. To be fair, not all of them are quite as madly paranoid as the tin-foil-hat brigade on Twitter and the various forums - some of them even admitted that we were the better team and fully deserved the result.

Nothing new to add to what has gone before, but what a brilliant, brilliant day - will never forget the feelings when Raven's goal went in, then when the final whistle went, and then when it actually sank it that we would be coming back for a Scottish Cup final. If the team approaches the final with the same willingness to take on opponents going forward and the same tireless chasing back and harrying when not in possession, then we've got to be in with an excellent chance.  

Great job getting that place organised Red Card.

Seconded - couldn't have had a better venue. Cheers, Red Card. Hopefully we can get it for the final, when I won't be working next day and can take more advantage of it. 

Surely the bottom line is (hopefully) that Yogi tried something different against a team who appears to have had us Sussed for ages. 

This is a fair point, and Partick definitely didn't look even half the team that did us 3-1 and 4-0 earlier in the season, which the rejigged system may have had something to do with. We defended pretty well; the problem was, as others have already said, that we created almost nothing: I can't remember a more toothless final-third performance from us. There was a definite sense of us missing Mckay yesterday: Watkins' default mode as a striker seems to be to look for balls over the top or defence-splitting passes to run on to; Mckay was much more adept at dropping deep, holding the ball up to bring our wider players into play, then getting into the box to look for the cross or return ball.

In the run-in, and especially with the cup semi approaching, I'd personally like to see Hughes revert to a more traditional 4-4-2, with Watkins and Doran functioning as wingers, Ofere as a target man with one of Christie, Williams and Ross off him (all three have generally done well since the turn of the year, but I think we can look a little narrow and a little lightweight when they all start), Tansey and Draper in the middle, and our usual first choice back four. If Doran doesn't look up to it then either Ross or Williams could arguably play that position, but imho, if we're going to hurt opponents then we need to start taking  them on more directly in the final third. In particular, I think we need to find some way of pressing better and increasing the pace of our attacking when we meet Celtic, who are a different proposition from the team we beat earlier in the season, and this formation should, in theory, allow us to do that.      

Probably the biggest factor in a poor overall performance today was players that have been pretty heroic all season apparently having off days. Draper's passing was very poor; Raven similarly so; Shinnie, in the first half at least, seemed very reluctant to take people on; and Christie's brain seemed to be working just a split second ahead of his feet, so that the ball didn't always follow him to where he wanted to go.

The opposition and conditions also played a significant part: Motherwell set up really well against us and stopped us getting into any sort of rhythm, a tactic that worked really well for Partick earlier in the season, and the pitch became increasingly heavy as the game went on, which made it difficult for us to establish any sort of fluency once we came into the game.

Apparently there has been some criticism of Ofere on social media. I don't see why. He worked hard, showed a decent first touch and tried to bring people into play, and considering he must know next to nothing about his teammates, I thought he did well. Could be a decent signing as we push, now, for what is a very realistic and achievable third place finish.