Kingsmills

Well well, the morning after the night before.

Firstly, it's impossible to ignore the elephant in the room, or should that be the donkey on the pitch, how that man can be regarded as our best official by anyone other than the egotistical W Collum is utterly beyond me.

The man is a disgrace and I genuinely can't decide whether he is genuinely biased or merely hopelessly incompetent.

He was right that Devine was the last man, he was right that a foul had been committed but it was blatantly obvious that Devine was the victim of the foul rather than the perpetrator. As far as Duffy's second yellow is concerned, he made a textbook clean tackle winning the ball which Collum very clearly saw nothing wrong with until he was influenced by the antics of the Arbroath player writhing on the ground.

He ruined any chance of the match being a spectacle and made our position almost  although as it turns out, not quite impossible.

Like many others, when we went down to 9 men my mind immediately turned to Easter Road 2014.

What an amazingly commited and resilient performance from the lads after that that left my heart sometimes in my mouth but more often bursting with pride

Make no mistake, we rode our luck but deserved to and in the end deserved to win.

I was one of those calling for Broadfoot to be 'rested' for this game and I don't mind admitting that I was entirely wrong. Man of the match for me and not just for his coolly taken decisive penalty but, saying that, they were all heroes.

The fans were magnificent too apart, it has to be said from the idiots throwing objects onto the pitch. It's illegal, embarrassing and utterly juvenile. We value your noisy and enthusiastic support but if you are going to behave like that I, for one, would prefer that you stayed at home.

The final will be a challenge with so many injuries and suspensions and with those who are available thoroughly fatigued but we are there, we have a chance and we have shown over the years that when it comes to what is effectively a cup tie we are capable of upsetting the odds.

The dream lives on. This morning I am a happy and immensely proud ICT fan.

HT; Arbroath 0,   ICT 1

FT; Arbroath 0,    ICT 2

ICT; Sutherland 

Arbroath; McKenna 

Crowd; 3 109

Yellow; Carson

Liam Fox is being interviewed for the Raith Rovers manager's job.

Another Friday, another crucial match with hopefully 2 more to come.

We need to better out of the blocks than Tuesday but we can certainly do this.

2 hours ago, caleyboy said:

I'm sure BD will make the right decision

I hope so but there have been far too many games this season when he hasn't.

5 minutes ago, IBM said:

Never mind breakfast you will have to treat No Shin Guards to his supper if he picks you up and takes you to Arbroath

Sadly, I have made prior arrangements

38 minutes ago, TheMantis said:

Never tried those, but will need to be in Arbroath by 5.30 to get smokies for Mrs Mantis' Saturday lunch.

A brace of smokies and an away win.

A perfect afternoon/evening in Arbroath.

When it comes to smoked fish, smokies are so much nicer than kippers.

Although, with all due respect to Mrs Mantis, breakfast fodder for me rather than lunch, served with a runny poached egg  grilled tomato and hot buttered toast.

5 minutes ago, TheMantis said:

Same here. MoM. Then probably Sean Welsh. I know he's injury prone but he takes some hammering in midfield.

Hats off to Dick ****** Campbell, although it was fairly obvious what he would do. Press hard, get right in our faces and see if we could deal with it (how will you deal with it Doddsy?).  Run around for an hour, just like at Killie, see if they could get a lead to take back to Gayfield and then run out of steam and pray that was enough to see them through the last half hour. 

We don't have a Xavi or a Messi so our players constantly had  one eye on the opponent who was arriving to hit them hard and their touch let them down. Never seen so many misplaced passes in one ICT game. We should have taken at least one of those chances though. Arbroath are not pretty but they're good at what they do and we were drawn into that. Expect more of the same on Friday.

 

I sruggle to remember anyone successfully passing to one of our own players in the first 30 minutes.

We can't afford another half hour like that at Gayfield.

11 minutes ago, forresjags said:

A tired performance from the first whistle to the last. Looked more interested in not losing than winning the game. 

Hard to pick out a stand out but Chalmers always looks like he has a goal in him. Amazed yet again he was replaced before the end.

Chalmers is both a creative and a direct goal threat from virtually anywhere in the final third.

Given that he seemed to be out of luck last night, I thought it wasn't such a bad idea to take him off and have him that little bit fresher for Friday.

Who knows when we will have a better chance of getting back into the top flight.

Forget about the play off final, at least for now, and treat this as a one off final.

'Must win match' is a cliche over used in football but it definitely now applies.

5 hours ago, IBM said:

Someone near me at half time said Dodds should take Broadfoot off and move Deas into the centre and bring on Duffy which would be the same as your thinking which sounds ok but I think Dodds will favour Broadfoot come Friday. 

I think you are right and, in doing so, Dodds will be wrong.

Memo to the kit man. Friday evening in front of the cameras in beed of a win.

It has to be the pink strip.

9 minutes ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

Advice for Friday.  Broadfoot please stop making so many mistakes - quite a few in the last few games.   Chalmers, have a quick look around instead of automatically pulling the trigger.  Everyone, stop hoofing long, high balls up the field (unless there's a Gayfield gale behind you ).   And for heaven's sake, please practise penalties - it could well come down to that.

Broadfoot has probably been our poorest player during the play offs and seems to have run out of steam.

I appreciate that he is vastly experienced but I don't think he would be in my starting XI for Friday.

Looks badly in need of a rest.

We grew into the game and, in the end, were unfortunate not to take a narrow advantage into the second leg on Friday.

However, there is no getting away from the fact that that first half hour was horrendous, horribly reminiscent of some of the worst of our mid season slump and we were very lucky not to concede at least one during that spell.

We kicked off our campaign against our fellow Championship clubs with a win at Gayfield and there is no reason why we can't conclude it in the same manner, especially if we are backed by a few hundred noisy travelling fans.

However, we need to get into our stride much much more quickly than we did this evening.

0-0 and all to play for. Let's make ourselves unpopular with the rest of the football community by ending the Arbroath dream on Friday.

1 hour ago, Northern_jaggie said:

Congratulations to Mark Ridgers on breaking the club record of 67 career clean sheets with ICTFC! Surely our best ‘keeper we have had and a great servant of the club. 

Many congratulations indeed and a terrific servant and reliable 'keeper.

However, for me, he remains third on the all time list behind Jim Calder and Mark Brown.

18 minutes ago, Robert said:

2470 according to the BBC Sport app. Felt like more than that to me. 

It was surely nudging 3,000 despite the disappointing away support.

I am one of the many at fault for the fact  that we have not moved on nearly as much as we should have.

I attended many of these events, boxing dinners were the worst where the only women in attendance were the scantily clad girls who entered the ring to be wolf whistled at and hold a a card with the number of the next round.

I squimed in my seat at what was being said  Andy Cameron was another serial offender as compere, complained to Mrs Kingsmills when I got home and vowed never to go again (until the next excuse for 'networking') but was too cowardly to do or say anything at the time.

It's incumbent on those of us who were cravenly complicit to stand with those brave enough to make a stand niw.

I am genuinely ashamed that I did not do so when it might have made a difference.

Arbroath are rested but we have momentum which we need to capitalise on.

A two goal cushion would be ideal but if we can take any first leg advantage at all into the second leg at Gayfield then that should stand us in good stead.

The latest in a succession of vital games.

The most racist and mysogynistic after dinner speaker I have ever heard was the late Peter Osgood.

It was thirty years ago and, even by the standards of the time, utterly appalling.

The only reason that the women present were not offended is that none were permitted at the 'Sportsman's Dinner'.

We may have edged forward since then but clearly not nearly far or quickly enough.

12 minutes ago, IBM said:

They got a job lot for a tenner Tom Walsh has one as well 

Ridgers had no idea what their use was.

1 hour ago, TheMantis said:

I see quite a lot of "lazy b*****d" quotes on P&B from both sets of fans and Motherwell too, although he did well there initially. Maybe just his running style. I'd certainly have him back.

Absolutely.

30 minutes ago, TheMantis said:

East Fife to LG2 under Stevie Crawford. Cowden almost certainly down to LL under Maurice Ross. Dark days in the Kingdom.

Not to mention the shameful and unrepentant behaviour of the Raith Rovers owner earlier in the season in signing an unapologetic rapist.

30 minutes ago, TheMantis said:

I see Dick ****** Campbell is being discussed elsewhere. I heard him speak at a dinner once. He did apologise in advance to the one or two females present... Maybe Ange as the manager of the year instead of Dick was just diplomatic 

Archie Macpherson lies to pensioners so you can't expect high standards from him.

Do we know who the speakers were?

The speaker principally complained of was Bill Copeland, a criminal defence lawyer who supplements his income on the after dinner circuit.

I have to declare an interest in knowing and not particularly liking the said gentleman.

6 minutes ago, Robert said:

Which one? They’ve got three Hamiltons!

Good point. Thank you,I have now clarified.

1 minute ago, Robert said:

Congratulations to Chalmers for being named the Championship Player of the Month for April. 

Very well deserved indeed. He has played a large part in the turnaround in our fortunes.