bdu98196

With no game last wknd any news on more recoveries at all? Raven, Vincent or Mutumbo fit again?

SPFL - Agree on Ziggy Gordon although will probably not be able to afford him, Ryan Dow Championship - Nicky Clark, Peter Grant, Blair Alston but probably end up with Kevin Thomson, El Alugi & Andy Dow - yogi loves an ex-Hibee afterall SFL1 - El Bhaktoui of course - to think 12 months ago he had never played 11 a-side Others - Higdon, Fleck I'd like to see us try get some good loans if we cant sign players, guys like Tony Anderu who are SPFL proven but failed to make it after a move When you see lists of SPFL out of contract players, its worrying how one club (ours) makes up about 20-25% of the professional players listed!!!

With Warren, Meekings and Devine all tied up - does this mean JH is seriously looking at Meekings long term RB then - I hope not as he's proven much better centrally and Raven has done enough to warrant a new deal in a position up until a few months ago for whatever reason he had made his own. Very confusing times and recruitment strategy.

Another defensive midfielder? We have Draper tied up longer term, Tansey too, ok given the January events he may leave but Polly is still there and even though out of contract currently can see Hughes wanting to stick by Wedderburn & Vigurs with new contracts as they are players he brought to the club. Its wingers, forwards and creative midfielders we lack or will lack.

Sorry, not dismissing the validity but with vague statements like that it could be a cleaner and someone in the pie shop. So many posters on here have 'sources in the club' - if these sources are so happy to discuss and divulge confidential information relating to players contracts or terms of employment then they obviously have no respect for their position, employer or colleagues confidentiality so may as well just be completely public with the information - unless of course its hear-say and conjecture? If Warren is highest paid its deserved, he has been leader and captain of our most successful team and acted in a highly professional manner - easily displaying attributes to make him successful at a higher level. In life people either get paid a) what they are worth or b) what they ask for - often these are not the same, hopefully the club behaves in the manner of a) and everyone is paid based on what they can contribute and represent good value - running an organisation with the structure of option b) wont be sustainable very long!!

Perhaps the club offered as much as they could afford to Shinnie or any other player and still balance the books. The football club is a business and has to be run like such. If the average salary is £X and we offered Shinnie £4X then that means we would have had to either sacrifice 3 players or sign 6 players on £0.5X just to break even. So you end up with a threadbare squad relying on the youngsters who aren't ready or good enough or a team with 1 or 2 top players and the rest just not near the required level. Where is the actual facts in that statement, its been media conjecture - has the player ever come out and officially said through a reputable source this was the case. Everyone on here constantly blames the club, the players have input into this and can decide who to sign for, how much and when. Consider they have informal chats with the manager and club, if they indicate a desire to leave then why waste time, money and effort on long discussions otherwise, having solicitors involved etc when its unlikely they will change their mind. Too many on here think real world football is like football manager.

So you trying to say County fans dont have 5 fingers lol

Sadly its inevitable that a provincial club like ours with such a small fanbase and remote location (in relative terms) will struggle to recruit and in the event of success, certainly like we have retain players or a higehr calibre. The loss historically of our better players has happened for years, Robson, Cowie, A.Shinnie etc, more recently G.Shinnie, Mackay, Watkins, Ofere. While its disappointing not to keep players but its a fact they may get offers better than we can provide, whether salary, environment, location etc. We should be delighted to have key players like Tansey, Draper, Meekings, Warren signed up as I believe all are outstanding talents at our club and demonstrated to be SPFL quality or better so could have left to go elsewhere. We may be back to a summer or rebuilding but thats the price of success - look at Southampton after their good season when almost a full team left, expect the same with Suprs or Leicester this year - closer to home look at DUtd, Hibs,Hamilton all teams who did well and built some success only to loose the heart of their squads. Unfortunately for us we dont seem to be good at getting transfer fee's but when there are better or more appealing offers the club can only do so much. Like any business we have a wage structure, budgets and limits on what we can do - just like any walk of life someone will leave if offered something they percieve better for whatever reason.

I think we may be more likely to see us beat Hearts than DUtd. Honestly see the form of the Arabs improving all the time and a draw from there now would be a good result - with MacKay and Ofere starting to work together they have a dangerous attacking force who can cause damage. Still think 7 points is achievable but 6 of those in our home games.

Motherwell winning on Sat was a big result, doubt many expected them to get points in their last few games other than against us, which we would have had in our control. There's so many possible combinations of results, its hard to know where we will end up. I do think 2 wins from the next 3 and if we miss Top 6, we should be clear of any relegation threat even in the bottom 6. The unpredictability of the league, equal quality teams, inconsistency, surprise results, thank god this Armageddon period will end next season and we can get back to boring predictability!!!!

Unfortunately I didn't make the game, but after watching the highlights, while we played well, a defensive mistake gave Irvine a great chance but we got lucky and he missed, had he scored would it have been the same old ICT chase the game. We do better when teams come at us and we can sit in and try hit on the break, this is why taking the lead is so important, when we go behind or have to break teams down we lack that creativity or quality. Great result and demonstration of commitment to get us back on winning ways, now to press on and pick up 6 points from the games against Motherwell & DUtd, maybe even a result against Hearts. Still not convinced by Yogi's tactics and line ups recently but vindicated in this case by the result that on Sat he got it right or it worked.

OFW will head off to the Euro's and accept a better offer from a club down south, leaving us to then try chase up with Brill who will have been snapped up by another SPFL club who see the opportunity in signing him regardless of his injury. That's how ICT seem to be working recently - procrastinate on the choices then end up with neither and some kind of inferior compromise.

I'd change Tremarco for Danny, with Polly alongside Roberts and Storey. Play some attacking football for a change, but as its away from home though, I'd expect it to be much more defensive than that unfortunately probably including Wedderburn and Hughes somewhere.

No idea what was going on, but I did see a few fans jumping over the barrier onto the track infront of the North stand just to get closer for shouting at Hibs players - this may be the route to the snack shop but jumping the barrier cant be seen as anything other than unacceptable behaviour. Usually 2 sides to every story and the truth somewhere in the middle!!!

Based on his control, touch, movement, passing, lack of pace - I'm not sure he has the attributes for that position either. A player out of his depth at this level, Wedderburn looks mobile in comparison.

That starting line up was a disaster, no idea what that was about, playing Wedderburn, Horner (did ok), L.Hughes while Storey, Roberts, Polly, Danny were on the bench - our only creative players. The game was crying out for some pace and creativity from our side. Post match Yogi criticised the players citing the loss as down to individual errors - while correct to a degree, the line up put us in that situation and the players picked which falls at the managers door. This was possibly our best ever chance of reaching another final, OF playing each other and could have faced an inconsistent DUtd, instead we fall with meek, timid and niave tactics.

County will unveil the cup pre-derby game with a open bus tour through Dungwall after the game too.

Fon Williams Horner Warren Devine Tremarco Tansey Draper Storey Roberts D.Williams Foran If Storey hasn't recovered, put him on the bench to replace Foran in the 2nd half or vice-versa and start with Polly. Vigurs was awful at the wknd so needs dropped and I'm convinced if we had more fit players he wouldn't get as much game time, big Hughes was fairly anonymous and struggled to hold up the ball or give us an edge upfront (although against a less physical Hibs team than Hamilton he may do better). Foran however was impressive the 20mins he played, really made a difference to the team, whether he is fit enough for a start I'm not sure

If we keep Horner its cos he decided to sign. If anyone bothers to read the article there are offers on the table for several players as JH has said for weeks, including Vincent. Personally I think JV is a luxury we cant afford given his lack of game time over the last few seasons. However if JV leaves (or any others) that have had offers its because they want more money or go elsewhere for reasons known to them - its not necessarily a case of we picked those who are staying over those who leave.

Its cos of the new Brian Rice training regime.............sadly first rule of fight club......... More seriously though, we have seen only a few game time injuries occur where a player needs substituted such as Brill, Warren, Fisher, therefore I think some assume that any other injury has to be during training. However often these can be game knocks which can manifest after the match. There is no denying that this year we have had a lot more injuries though (excluding illness) whether this is down to the change in coaching staff (Rice for Latapay) only the club know. Its clear that over the last 12 months our style of play has changed a lot from open attacking football to negative and cautious whether this is due to the available players being fit or the new training and management regime its hard to decide - until we have enough quality players fit to start our games, its all just pure fan conjecture.

So whats wrong with Raven, anyone know? He was in the stand y'day and looked to be moving freely enough. Seems like he has been missing a good while, yet nobody knows why or when he will be back and is a player we miss badly.

Warming up on the touch line is possibly the closest we will see foran to playing again. He cant shake off injury and age isnt on his side, been out so long its hard to see him back at this level if at all. Sometimes wonder if he appears on the bench when times are bad to distract or motivate the fans, a demonstration by the club to justify the longer than usual contract he was given when injured ad aging, showing they are trying to get our captain back to save the day. For me that ship has sailed and warren is now the key leader.

With raven and merkings still injured and tremarco and warren supended perhaps we need to attack for a change and not have our makeshift defence under constant pressure from sitting inand pass backs. Start positive abd try get early goals to finish the game but i dont see that happening sadly and we will most likely create our own downfall as so often this year. Least its at home for a change tho.

From reading this and seeing our last few games we are toothless and lack creativity. Too many creative and attacking players have left and replaced with dull, steady additions. With most of the season gone its fair to say some havent worked out or delivered like vigurs, mutumbo, wedderburn, sho silva, lopez - some are gone but some remain. Couple that with injuries and lack of form from many established picks we are being stretched with a thread bare squad, limited quality and negative tactis. Last year was such a high, do we expect too much or are we massivly underachieving? For certain one big thing missing is entertainment.

We are so negative with back and sideways passing, the ball is moved so slowly hibs always had time to regroup and defend only when we increased the pace after equalising did we see hibs start to crumble. Constantly players check runs to pass inside, we are so narrow in the middle of the park with only storey and Roberts going wide when they after re the men who should be central. Disappointed by how many times storey gets caught offside though, with his pace he should play the line better as he will still be favourite to the ball. Lucky to get a draw but we need to play better and show a bit more urgency and creativity