Row S

Played some good stuff tonight but still room for improvement. Three or four other chances should have been tucked away to put the game to bed earlier and we often gave the ball away too easily in the midfield. Still I would have taken any win, but 4 going on  7 or 8 - 1 was a long overdue and well deserved bonus. 

Let's hope we can put a decent winning streak together and get into and sustain that play-off place. On that form tonight wins against QoS, Dundee United and Dunfermline in the coming weeks are achievable.

Falkirk beating the Arabs 6-1 on Saturday must have been a freak result because they were pretty poor tonight. John Beaton also did his worst to try and spoil things. He and the standside assistant were absolutely shocking. Then we shouldn't have expected anything else from him.

I would expect Robbo to move McKay to RB tonight with Warren and Donaldson (if fit) as CBs. Tremarco will complete the back four. We also have Seedorf and Calder as cover for full backs. Personally and in terms of pace, I'd rather have Seedorf in for Warren. 

Will leave the "experts" to guess the rest of the team as any suggestions I make usually get shot down in flames on this site.

4 hours ago, MorayJaggie said:

Pitch inspection confirmed for 11am. The cost of turning it on surely outweighs the cost postponing the match.

But the forecast for frost was known at least a week in advance so the pitch could have been covered. At this rate it might be May before this game is played.

I suspect that most of the refs like the teams we play from down south don't like coming to Inverness, or Dungwall for that matter. That seems to have been the situation since we came into the Senior Leagues in 1994. Add to that the standard being poorer when dropping down a level then it's no surprise we are getting a raw deal. Robbo is quite right to demand an explanation for the performance of the ref on Tuesday v Livingston on the Vigurs second yellow incident.

The elbow to Donaldson's head by the Livi player in our box in an earlier stramash was far worse than Vigurs accidentally "catching" (still not clear) their player about waist height. That earlier incident that led to Donaldson being cut and then bandaged went unpunished, not even with a foul. Both the ref and his stand-side assistant must have seen it. 

It's obvious the ref had it in for Vigurs after his petulance following his first booking. If Warren's header hadn't been luckily scrambled away by Alexander just before the overhead kick it would have been 2-0 and we were set up to get all 3 points. What if?

A shame the highlights didn't show the McKay header being scrambled off/behind the line in the second half plus Austin's shot heading for the top corner.    

55 minutes ago, jed5697 said:

A lot of positive posting that reflects what was a decent performance and very unlucky not to see the game out. Livingston were only ever going to score from a set piece and never looked like creating anything. It is clear that the standard of refereeing in the championship is poor- can the players and management acknowledge this and agree to try and crack on regardless... Team spirit again there to see. Well done and good luck to David -the legend- Raven and his family. 

Sums up what's been said above pretty well. 

There's no doubt that Vigurs being wrongly dismissed disrupted our shape. Then after 're-grouping' the injury to Chalmers was another blow. I thought we would have gone three at the back at that point with Raven and Calder pushing forward right and left. Unfortunately not the case and Trafford and Polworth then got over-run in midfield.

McKay and Austin also unlucky to find Neil Alexander in good form. I was also convinced the McKay header was over the line from where I sit in the North Stand. Austin also too honest when he stayed on his feet to ride at least two poor challenges on him in the box. Still, he looks an excellent signing. Play him up front with Oakley and Doran when we have 11 players on the park then we could have the potent strike-force we lacked in the first half of the season.

Jim MacIntyre was sacked for talking bullshit in Central Belt cliches and now Coyle is doing the same. I know many Co#nty fans who are totally p####d off with his flannel and have decided to give up going to games. Uncle Roy and other directors under a lot of pressure to sort things out.

Baird subbed again - no surprise! Oakley scores again - also no surprise! 

Well done for the recovery today but it was Brechin ffs.

The week after week we keep hearing about how poor Baird and Polworth are. Surely it's long overdue to bench them and start with Oakley and Trafford or Doran.

Ditto!

Just as I was saying...... At least one sub has made a difference.

Back to trying to avoid play-off at the bottom of the league at this rate. Sounds like key subs required to help get out the current predicament.

On 27/12/2017 at 2:59 AM, Renegade said:

Warren isn't mobile, skillful or fast enough to play up top. 

Just like John Baird then.

Oakley ahead of Baird every time for me, but Gary Warren would be better up front than either. Throw Daniel Mackay in there for the knock-downs and who knows what could happen. If 16 year olds can break into the Hearts first team then why not for us?

26 minutes ago, Eagle4Caley said:

His run up the pitch to score the winning goal in the Cup Final is the memory we should let linger in our hearts for eternity

It was the only thing positive I ever said about him. Before that I was cringing and saying no, not him when he was standing on the touch line ready to come on at Hampden.  

Glad to get some info on what state the pitch is in and thoughts on the game being on or off. The heavy rain earlier tonight won't have helped, but we could really do with this game being on and getting three points on the board.

5 hours ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

Looks like Gordy has got it going already. Wish I was in Sneck. What about an ICT Walking Football local league ?

 

Yes, I wish I could make it on Thursdays from 1 - 2.30pm at Hilton Community Centre. A few familiar faces there too. Is that Richard Hastings back row far right?

Best bit of business so far this season. For me he's been our best player in nearly every game he's started.

2 hours ago, IBM said:

He was playing on Saturday

.....but subbed at half time.

According to Robbo last week Zschusschen will be like a new signing, when he eventually gets fit. ? 

Yes, that's all very well but doesn't explain who has given permissions for use of the car parks as vehicle compounds for Thrifty. Check the Council Planning Applications part of the website and you'll see that no applications have been lodged. Nothing in Council committee minutes of the Common Good allowing that use either.

So what chance of it being on this Tuesday? If the pitch wasn't covered up to make it playable for yesterday it will have frozen snow on it. Can't see that shifting in the next 48 hours if the USH isn't used.

Well it is the panto season so don't expect common sense.

Personally I'm hoping the game is on as I need a good reason for avoiding Christmas shopping. 

Back to the topic ........ I'd just like to wish my ex colleague Gordie all the best and look forward to seeing what materialises and bending his ear about a few things.

The tail end of Storm Caroline?