bdu98196

For me, its Shinniesta - his level of vision, touch and general play is ahead of anyone else in the team and has developed significantly over his time at ICT. He hasn't scored as many as Billy, but he is involved in everything positive going forwards our team does and never neglects his duty to track back - clearly a team player and gives his all for the cause. Other notable mentions are Foran, McKay and Jones.

Hopefully its worth watching form our perspective, think its rerun again about 10.30pm - perfect viewing when getting in from the pub!!!

Really? Have to disagree there, we have certain players who are better than Killie have such as Shinnies, Doran for creativity but around the other areas the players are similarly matched at best and thats with Killie having several players out such as Bell & Sheridan. But we don't play on paper thankfully..............what we have is workload and effort combined with developing talents.

Sounds from the above posts it was a dominant Caley performance, but ultimately that counts for little unless you score goals - Ref Celtic beating Barca but only 11% of the ball. Sadly its about converting chances and for Billy perhaps the winter break came at the wrong time as he looks lacking in confidence infront of goal (based on the games I've seen recently - not last night). We were perhaps fortunate that we had 3 players all hitting form and scoring together (Foran, Shinniesta, McKay) but with injuries to Foran and Shinnie not 100%, it shows the lack of depth we have - we need someone to start scoring again soon as we just don't have the quality to draft in a replacement although with Shanes physical presence I'd like to see him get a chance playing more forward to win and hold up the ball. Still sitting 2nd which is way beyond expectations for this far into the season, not all doom & gloom but some tough games coming up - Motherwell, Hearts, D Utd, County but all are winnable, just need to start by putting our Motherwell hoodoo this season to bed!!!

Cammy Bell is injured for tonight, so Plan A has to be to pepper their goal with shots as he commonly has been the difference in games.

While comments regarding the personality of the player may or may not be factual, as a paying customer(s) we the fans have a right to make comment on a players performance if its deemed to be below that which is accaptable. This includes when a player looks dis-interested, lacks motivation, looks to put in a lack of effort compared to his team-mates - those are facts and I'm sure many of those who have raised these comments also post positive comments when players perform well - as do the fans at the game giving players standing ovations etc, such as after the cup semi loss, nobody left early and EVERY player go appriciated. At no point do I recall anyone on thsi thread suggesting 'boo'ing' a player is acceptable and most posters will condem this behaviour.

I know, Hooper only wishes he was as good as Billy, top scorer in his domestic league and even has an international cap........

Any idea what the situation will be with BBC Alba since they had rights to broadcast the game live when originall scheduled, is that deal still vaild or will the best be an evening re-run?

I was surprised by the BBC highlights, seemed somewhat biased to Celtic, perhaps thats an indication that although we had a lot of 2nd half play we never actually threatened the goal. The ommision of the penalty incident at 2-1 seemed odd,they discussed trival non-penalty incidents in other games, but not in ours where McKay/Doran (cant rcall which now) was pulled down infront of goal - Personally I would have thought it was worthy of a 2nd look. The highlights make the game look highly one sided, however on balance of play I dont think Celtic were as dominat as portrayed.

I disagree that Celtic team yesterday was guff and we all know it - Stokes, Miku, Rogic, Gershon they are all poor compared to Hooper, Wanyama, Brown, Forrest etc - as I posted elsewhere I'm glad NL never started with Watt. As for the boo's, I never noticed tham but suspect the player that they were directed at. Now I disagree with the boo'ing of a player but the lack of effort IMO when on the pitch was worthy of it, if he was boo'd entering the picth based on the cup history then thats unacceptable. When you see a team of players bursting to get back in a game, the last thing you expect is a player to be casually strolling around the park expecting the ball to be played to him compared to other forward players who on several occaions were defending open play back at the 18 yard line.

Disappointed to have lost the game today, I thought we did ok in spells, but that Celtic team was crap and certain players like Miku & Stokes were rotten which is a godsend as we could have been properly punished if Watt started. As ever the Shinnes gave their all, I thought Doran was causing all sorts of issues 2nd half, we still keep playing long high balls to McKay which unless we are playing a Dwarves 11 he will never win in the air. Ross struggled to do much in the game and regardless of his goal should have been hooked earlier, but not for Roberts as the early season desire and effort seems to have gone now, he's just a passenger and not a team contributer. Too many times when the ball was played out on the wing, Ross and Doran (1st half) would move inside or play the ball back killing any pace in the move, we need them to be more direct, take on the man and cross the ball into the area. We havent become a bad team overnight, but we need to start scoring goals and playing the ball a bit quicker into danger areas.

Troll. Can be meant in several contexts here.

^ this

Apparently NL is going to give Forrest a run out to prove he's fit for the CL game. He is a huge danger player IMO and without him Celtic are a much less creative team.

Maybe he just didn't want to score last night afterall.........................

Hopefully a weakened team will give us a chance, but I rate some fringe players like Tony Watt as being every bit as good as the first picks and these guys will be hungry to prove they are worth of CL game time. Its not going to be easy.

First ICT International to score a hat-trick? Lets hope they provide him the service he needs!!

1) Kille already have Cammy Bell so have to sell him first 2) They are a horrible nasty little club (IMO) and I'm sure even Tony has worked that out already and won't go there.

^ for that reason especially when we have injuries to key players it makes defensive stability important. Tony hasnt made any real mistakes IMO and has risen to the challenge and performed this season - frustrating for Esson to be kept out of the team, but we need to keep a strong unit to rider out this 'blip'.

Currently anyone from 2nd to 11th has a chance of top six. Its that close. Good run from them and a bad run from us and we could end up swapping places, but thats the same for any other team too.

Back to Castle Greyskull then?

The only reason I can think BR would be considered as a player/coach at ICT is if TB & MM have told the board they are away in the summer, although they are still under contract and an astute move is getting an experienced ex-ICT player in to learn the ropes until taking over. But thats all making assumptions and creating a story out of the rumours above - so none of it will be true!!!

Clearly if SFL3 football is good enough for a Scotland call up then its good enough to send youngsters on loan.

Gilks or Marshall ahead of Cammy Bell?

Suppose it depends on whether Roy is prepared to personally fund any deal? With the league being so tight, whats to say having a proven scorer like Boyd if he was on form couldnt get a team into the Euro qualification places come end of season. I would think central belt clubs would suit him best, but he has a rep for being a mercenary for money so who knows.........