absent friend

With respect, I used the collective expression of 'front runners' and did not single out any player! There is no doubt that our young forwards are guilty of this to some extent but the main problem as I see it, is the players that collect the telling pass, move it forward to deliver the cross and in so doing loses it to the opposition, due to their initial touch being too heavy. They, unlike the centre forward, are not playing in the same tightly marked situation so have little excuse. This breakdown means that even the midfield are committed to the move, having passed the ball and are now running flat out into the penalty area and the loss of the ball, at that point, leaves our defence more exposed. Solution, more ball control training required by our front runners.

This is a lose, lose situation for the Board. If they had not allowed Brew to freshen up the squad pre Hamilton, the knives would be out. Since they did the knives are out. I take it, from your posting, that the new manager will not rate Brews latest signings. The Board are at fault if they take their time and get the correct manager. The Board are at fault if they don't sign Robertson. Brewster is no longer a bad manager, he is a Scapegoat. We were 2 mins away from a wonderful result ( a draw playing with 10 men against the team lying third in the table) and it was the Board that caused the defeat. Now if that way of playing is 'the debacle of tactical ineptness' may we have it every week as I think this would result in us surviving the drop! If the new manager was watching on Saturday he must be aware of the potential positive results he can get with the nucleus of the team on display.

Except if we go down he's in a worse position than he would have been if he didn't take the ICT job, as he can add crap at ICT to crap at Brentford in his CV. Exactly!! Hence my final sentence! .

I wonder if we appreciate the strength this position will give someone to showcase himself. I accept that Butcher is still involved in football but only on the sidelines - this position he will see as long term gain. Keep us up, do well next year (for us), move to English first/second, then up to Premier - that is the thinking, I would suggest. It is like winning the lottery if they manage to follow that path but as Dale says 'you have to be in it to win it' and currently most names being discussed on here are not currently in it! Hence the difficulty of getting the head round some names that seem interested. .

Having watched the game yesterday on Alba and reading the contribution on here, I am surprised that no one has mentioned our lack of ball control, up front. Yes, we played some football on the ground and it looked good in midfield but many passes, not over hit, to the attacking player seemed to result in too hard a touch, bouncing away from the player and resulting in a 50/50 ball with the defender. My old fashioned idea of a team make up was defenders were stoppers, midfield work horses and forwards were the ball players. We seem to have the ballplayers in the midfield and even in the defence at times, as they play out of trouble with intricate passes BUT up front... naa class! Lets hope the new guy not only looks for a quality forward but knows how to teach the existing front runners how to kill the ball/ play with the ball at their feet and this may then lead to the elusive goal that can be the difference between points lost and points gained. Maybe I am expecting too much from the players but it is annoying to see Rossco, with his build, play dinky passes, under pressure and the front guys collect the ball and then give it away due to lack of ball control!

Scotty, your last statement is the important one! The 'getting rid' element, on here, has now got their way - the most important part now, is the recruitment of the correct, for ICT, manager. We are an unusual club (family feeling, with this being our first sacking of a manager for instance) and our feelings were normally focused on the end result, with little personal criticism of the players/ managers/ board. Now that the power of attack, via this type of medium has been experienced, I fear the future will not reflect the past! A bad result, in someones view, will result in a verbal attack on here, with the managers past life, wifes past, grannies past, all being posted and used as ammunition and of course, 'and he's lost the dressing room' and this will result in pages of 'I knew this before we signed him' 'We could have done better' Hope I'm wrong But..........!

I don't know if my reply was considered personal abuse BUT if it was, I can only state it could have been much worse, believe me! How anyone can make that sort of statement, on here, beggers belief! What has the wee boy done to deserve that? Be his Dad's son? Go to the match and fit in with the other supporters? Be young? Naive? Leave him alone - this is no better than playground bullying. Calling a wee fellow names!! .

Doesn't surprise me, probably just did it to be like everyone else and anyway. How you can make a statement like that about a wee laddie is beyond my ken!! For Heavens sake grow up and realise that he, his parents, grannie etc may read this. It would appear from your contribution that there is no doubt that you are the sharpest tool in the toolshed!! Aye, Right!!

Jim Duffy for footballing experience and management role - Charlie to cement up the cracks in the teams spirit. Bad guy- good guy

To illustrate the defensive problem, here is the rundown of the season to date. League Goals Against, per match, average, season to date Rangers..............0.81 Celtic..................0.95 Dfc/Dons/Hearts..1.04 St Mirren.............1.04 Hibs/Killie............1.33 Falkirk/Mwell .......1.48 Ham....................1.71 ICT.....................1.76 This proves that we have defensive problems as well as the need for a striker. Reason or one of many, they clear lines- big punt upfield- straight back down field again, however, a short pass/throw out gets midfield involved, holds ball up, helps create and gives defence time to regroup. This is why I think Esson is perhaps better for us, his distribution is geared to buildup rather than the big 'hit and hope' clearance.

I accept that goals for are only relevant if the goals against column is OK! Surprisingly, at this moment of time, we are 4 goals better than St Mirren, 1 better than Hamilton, the same as Hearts, 1 behind Motherwell and 2 behind Killie. No way is that out of touch with other comparable teams to ours but as stated above, the against column is a problem - so get that fixed, sneak a goal or two and watch us go up that league!

But NOT the keeper!!!

1) I think maybe 'potential' was omitted, Don. 2) If the players were not to blame how come their performance received adverse comments on here, from fans, 100% behind their team? 3)As I stated, I hope Brewster does not underestimate how tough it will be, looking at last nights game! .

Maybe just thinking out of the box does help. George Best, if I remember correctly, played for Hibs free and took 50% of the additional gate money per game (don't know how they established the additional figure) and it worked for a while. Ronaldo playing, ICT crowd 7000, usual 4000, extra revenue ?60000, Ronaldo ?30000 - everyone happy!! What's his phone number??

Ask Rory if he feels that the ICT fans were 100% behind the team. OK, maybe I could have used the term club as this is all embracing! Then of course I would have had the 'I don't support Brewster/Board' brigade not happy with my usage of that! Just for the record, along with Chris's Rory, look at recent postings and see postings, non-positive, re Fraser, Esson, Rossco, Proctor, Hastings etc etc, right through the whole team!! No doubt, if you were the players, reading through the threads and saw all the names there, you would see the contributions as being a 100% supportive of the team, by the fans! Aye, Right!! Groundswell? When is the last time ICT fans had concern regarding their away support being too large for the area allocated to them by the home club? I would suggest this is indeed indicative of a groundswell of support that was not evident in the immediate past. Contrast that with 'the little band of ICT fans' as the BBC described our away match attendance recently. .

Watching the St Johnstone match last night, I was amazed at the footballing ability on display by the home side. If this is the level of competition to climb back up into the SPL, we better make sure we stay up. Unity was requested to assist the team at this time - Brew, you now have the biggest groundswell of support for the team since ages, please, please, use this to lift the team before Saturday and put on a show to make us all proud and use that as the springboard, up the league! The drop could be painful, the climb could be forever. The future for ICT is in the SPL!

You could actually believe that their primary readership/ advertising revenue was located in Glasgow!

Yep, I wondered which side of the corner flag it would cross the line!! He appears to still have lots of running in him, that's for sure.

Were I a board member, I think I would listen more closely to Dave Milroy than some armchair managers! It seems strange and I feel sure he must still have some contact within the club, that the loss of the dressing room was not an issue with him.

Could it be, Harry, that the player's agent(s) are sniffing a quick buck and the Board don't have a snowballs chance in Hell of resigning them. This, I would suggest, is one of the unsettling things that can escalate in the dressing room, if the players are allowed to stay till the season end. Every other player could then play 'hard to get' when it comes to resigning time for them, as he has heard nothing but 'I have made this much by moving' from Black/Cowie, for the previous few weeks. Let's be sensible here, Black/Cowie will justify their move, in the dressing room, either by talking up their financial take or talking down their present employer or a mixture of both! Poison for any employer looking to have a 'team' and our strength is normally the team spirit, reported as 'punching above our weight' or 'big players' - when in fact we are just playing for each other.

Novo's only kick at goal, in the first 45, was from the half way line when he tried to lob Esson and I would suggest if you think of the game, Miller and Novo, their left side striking partnership, were neither in the match, first half. Rossco was also helping build up attacks so to say he was MINCE only confirms my point already made, don't we all see players/matches from a differing view point. The second 45, with his injury, followed by his substitution, does not allow much comment.

It was interesting to hear Terry Bucher, on Setanta last Sunday pre kickoff, being critical of Black getting a place in the team. His opinion was - he has made up his mind to leave the club, let him now go as he will not be of a mind to give his all. Reflecting on Ian's performance on Sunday, perhaps Butcher was not far off the mark! If we have Ian not performing and Cowie not performing, till the season end, we are even in bigger trouble.

Does the above two posts not highlight football supporters. Whatever your view is regarding Rossco, it is the opposed views on here, that make this all so entertaining. I do feel that any defender that has Rossco running at him with the ball, must consider standing to one side and wonder if a tackle is really worth while. The ball or A & E?

Aberdeen put up the idea of scrapping the reserve league about 6 weeks ago, due to costs. They play their second string games, I think, at Montrose, so I suppose they have travel costs for every game. It is difficult, however, looking in from the outside, to understand how an SPL team can do without a reserve team. Where do the 'almost' players play, the recovering players play? We are in the middle of potential signings, where better to see their potential than in a well contested reserve match. However if the clubs financial whizz-kids were to come on here, I feel sure we would be surprised at the saving this move may make financially for the club. Money towards another good player perhaps? We must also have high travel costs due to our geographic position with travel to the central belt very financially onerous for us. Do they, for instance, do a reserve game in a one day outing, I wonder?

Rig, I would agree with your above comments on the DU game but having rewatched Sundays match, we played a lot of passing movements which came off in the first half but in the second half, tiredness/ loss of concentration/heads down meant that we did not find our men and the interceptions put Rangers into a forceful position so often but we were still trying to pass the ball. Black is a good passer of the ball and with his waygoing we did lose some 'dig' in my opinion!