Kingsmills

I appear to be in a minority of one.

From what little I have seen, young Christie has huge potential but what do I know about judging young players ? When I saw a 16 year old Martin Bavidge come on to make his debut I turned to my companion and confidently predicted that we were watching a future Scotland international. Subject to that major caveat, I personally would have him on the bench ahead of Polworth.

At least that steadied the ship a little after two hammerings. Concerned about where the goals are going to come from with Billy McKay out of goal scoring touch. Seeing now the folly of only having one experienced striker in the squad. Would happily settle now for a 0-0 and a penalty shoot out on Sunday.

Thrown from the upper storeys of the downtown skyscrapers ?

Nice try Red Chappie but you blew it by making reference to all your Inverness based fans having used their allocation. There were no such restrictions. For what it's worth, I sympathise and personally believe your fans should have been given more tickets.

To be frank though, I doubt very much whether it made any difference to the result.

They have and have sold out the entire stadium upper and lower with the exception of our (Lisbon Lions) Stand behind the goal and a small buffer area either side. We have not sold out the lower tier of our end leaving the upper tier empty.

It could get a good deal more lethal late at night on the way down...

Okay then , let's go with where was the Thistle Club.

Personally, I think it's a great shame that Aberdeen haven't been allocated the upper section as it's very clear now we are not going to need it. When Scottish football needs all the fans it can get there are now going to be thousands of fans who want to attend who are going to miss out at the same time as there being thousands of empty seats. Parkhead would have been all but full with an even better cup final atmosphere and, crucially at a time when the game in general is short of funds and ICT is no exception, we would have pocketed another £50,000 or more.

You may have had a point . Yes I did say that at the time and, as it happens, he has done little so far to change my opinion. However, for better or worse, he was the man the board decided to appoint and, in my view, now deserves time to prove the many doubters among us wrong. If, this time next year we are still going backwards it may be a different story but for now he deserves backing but, with the greatest respect to those who are unreserved happy clappers, that backing does not and should not run to refraining from criticism, even harsh criticism, after results and performances like yesterday. Remember he is a Hibs man through and through and their fans generally love him to bits but even the great majority of them have got very little positive to say about his abilities as a manager. Nevertheless, the board seem to see qualities in him that nobody else did and appointed him ahead of one of the most promising and sought after young coaches in the country. The board backed him then it would be wrong and against the traditions of our club for them to waver in that backing now so soon afterwards.

In your opinion how many successive 5-0 thrashings does it take before a reaction becomes proportionate ? An over reaction might be calling for the manager's head. As far as I can see nobody's doing that..........yet.

Not much of a time at Hartlepool.

If you're suggesting that Brill might have been intimidated by a large noisy group of opposition fans, that doesn't auger well for next Sunday.

Not sure. Brill has not looked confident yesterday and today I got the impression that the defence are losing confidence in him. Maybe those best qualified to comment are those hardy souls who watch the under 20's as well as the first team. Which of the two 'keepers do they think is in best form at the moment ?

Good to see the SFA and their refereeing officials helping out their newest senior member in their ongoing financial crisis. Having smoothed their way to a Scottish Cup final payday by drawing them against the weakest team in the competition and ensuring they would be playing at home in the semi whoever the opposition their plans were almost derailed when the referee failed to find a reason to disallow the goal that had Albion Rovers leading going into the last stages of the match. However, quick thinking on the part of the ref' in awarding The Rangers a goal despite the clearest of fouls on the Rovers 'keeper saved the day. That was a close run thing.

I too like Yogi as a man. He's approachable and affable even if he does speak almost entirely in cliches but it's not just his developing record here that's a concern but his managerial record in general. There's nothing on his CV that suggested he was the man to take us forward. If you look at the 'New Manager Thread' despite over 100 names being suggested he was not touted once until he was produced out of thin air by the board. Whatever happens, having been appointed, he deserves to be given next season to prove us sceptics wrong but I am seeing very little to indicate that that might be the case. Quite the reverse. We have a very good squad of players who have not become poor overnight but I am not convinced that they are being well coached and manage. Being a nice guy who makes time to interact with the fans and attend supporters meetings will only take you so far.

That is a truly bizarre post.

I wouldn't have revived this thread myself just yet but I can understand why it has been done but I don't think winning the League Cup will alter the legitimacy of discussing the manager's position. Anyone can win a one off game and ourselves and Partick Thistle have shown that the Dons have their off days and are far from invincible. I sincerely hope we return from Glasgow next week with the silverware but that will tell us little about Hughes's managerial capabilities. All he has had to do so far is to 'mastermind' a win over a poor and demoralised Hearts youth team and we came within 20 seconds and a Nick Ross goal of blowing that. The true measure of Hughes as a manager is the league and the Scottish Cup. In the league it looks as though we will hold on to get into the top six but that's from a position of being clear in second place. In the cup we scraped past Stranraer only to be humiliated as soon as we played the first top tier team we had to play. The Jury has to be still out but the omens are not good and it will take a lot more than a single victory on Sunday, however significant a game it may be, in order to alter that.

Bit like last week then. Becoming an unfortunate habit.

I couldn't go today either (thank goodness) but Which ever way you paint it a home crowd of 1,500 outnumbered by away supporters when admission was only a tenner is a very poor show indeed and worthy of comment.

Not sure there will be much of a late surge now.

Beat them midweek and we are home and hosed as far as top six goes.

Why would it be an unrealistic expectation for there to be in excess of 10,000 at Parkhead for our first major final ? St Mirren and Kilmarnock each with similar home crowds to ours each took circa 16,000 to their recent League Cup finals. Motherwell which has a smaller population than Inverness took over 20,000 to Hampden for their last major final and our neighbours from Dingwall took 16,000 to theirs. Nobody is being negative or critical of those who are going who will support their club with pride and passion no matter how many or how few we are but there's no getting away from the fact that for whatever reason we have failed to engage with the casual supporter or non supporter in the way that most provincial clubs do on these occasions. Aberdeen will be backed by roughly four times their core home support whilst we will have just over twice ours. What I will say is that there is one final opportunity ahead to capture the imagination of those who have not yet bought tickets. Tomorrow's match is live on terrestrial TV. A victory and an entertaining performance backed up by a healthy noisy crowd might spark the enthusiasm of the waverers an a last minute mini surge of sales. Paisley to Hampden 16 miles, 30 mins travel, Kilmarnock to Hampden 50 odd miles ! hours travel not exactly the 4 hour journey any "casual" ICT fan would have to make. As for our friends across the bridge this was at a time when playing in games against big teams was rare. I wonder how many they would take now? Your point about how many times more than the core of the Aberdeen support than ours backs up my point. Where were the other 28500 today. Dingwall to Hampden how far ? and what does it matter that there will be 30,000 Dons fans at Parkhead who weren't at the Hill of Dung today. My whole point is they, like almost every other provincial club in the country, have been more successful proportionately in engaging those who don't normally attend than we appear to have been.

Why would it be an unrealistic expectation for there to be in excess of 10,000 at Parkhead for our first major final ? St Mirren and Kilmarnock each with similar home crowds to ours each took circa 16,000 to their recent League Cup finals. Motherwell which has a smaller population than Inverness took over 20,000 to Hampden for their last major final and our neighbours from Dingwall took 16,000 to theirs. Nobody is being negative or critical of those who are going who will support their club with pride and passion no matter how many or how few we are but there's no getting away from the fact that for whatever reason we have failed to engage with the casual supporter or non supporter in the way that most provincial clubs do on these occasions. Aberdeen will be backed by roughly four times their core home support whilst we will have just over twice ours. What I will say is that there is one final opportunity ahead to capture the imagination of those who have not yet bought tickets. Tomorrow's match is live on terrestrial TV. A victory and an entertaining performance backed up by a healthy noisy crowd might spark the enthusiasm of the waverers an a last minute mini surge of sales.