DoofersDad

Despite all the positive milestones, we may also record our lowest average home attendance in the top flight. A millstone rather than a milestone.

IHE is quite correct but I can't help thinking if we had got all 9 points (which arguably we should have done), we would tonight be sitting level on points with Celtic and 15 points ahead of Dundee Utd. It would have been a genuine 3 way title race with us involved! However, it's not to be, but we are still in a very good place. By the way, when was the last time the bottom four all won on the same day?

Looking on the bright side, the fact that Hamilton, Dundee and St Johnstone all failed to win and bearing in mind that St Johnstone still have to play both Hamilton and Dundee, today's results have confirmed a top 6 finish for us

He was born in England although eligible toplay for Tanzania.

Won't it be a bit on the small size?

According to Wikipedia (who already have him listed as an ICT player till the end of season) he has played in 3 friendlies for Nigeria so presumably can't be too shabby. At 6'3" he's a big lad and obviously gives us options of high balls into the centre when surfaces are not so great for the passing game. His video of goal highlights is nothing like as impressive as Kinks and some of the goals shown demonstrate schoolboy defending rather than an exciting attacking talent. However, the perceived ability of a striker is often a refection of the qualities of the players around him and hopefully he has been signed because Yogi judges that he will fit in well with the squad we have. Let's make him very welcome and hope his goal scoring feats, if nothing else, are similar to Iain Stewart.

HT 0-1 FT 1-2 1st ICT Tansey 1st Opp McManus Time 41 mins

I think I would rather be a Scottish Cricket fan today than a West Indies one. All sorts of records in that game, but the one that I find is quite astonishing is that Holder, the West Indies captain, only conceded 9 runs from his first 5 overs but ended up conceding a record 104 in his 10! That included 64 off the last 2. Quite incredible stuff.

Regardless of who might be bottom of the 2nd Division, who might be in the play offs from the Highland League? There is a bit of discussion above with some folk thinking that Brora were taking steps to meet the criteria for league entry. However, I recall recently hearing Charles reporting on Good Morning Scotland that Brora were unlikely to apply. Can anyone update? I was sort of looking forward to the Brora / County derbies in the 2016/17 season.

I'm actually rather disappointed with the notice of complaint. It only makes reference to the Warren incident and offers a 2 game ban if accepted. Ciftci's actions deserve a far more severe punishment and having been able to view the footage at leisure, the SFA should be able to see Ciftci's premeditated and dangerously violent conduct for what it is. The shove on Shinnie was a forceful one which sent Shinnie sprawling. It was a deliberate, malicious act and seemed designed to send him hard into the path of Meekings. Fortunately they did not collide but they could easily have clashed heads with serious consequences. It was worthy of a red card and how the referee failed to give even a foul simply beggars belief. It also beggars belief that the SFA who will now have seen the incident also feel that no punishment is warranted. The 2nd incident was even worse. This was way off the ball and whilst Warren was watching the play, Ciftci launched into him from behind and sent him sprawling. That was not a foul in the course of play, it was an unprovoked assault and if you or I did that to someone in the street we'd get arrested. Warren obviously retaliated in some manner and whilst I am not defending him, a reaction is entirely understandable. Surely the original offence (which the SFA have seen) is a far more serious offence than Warren's reaction so how can they only slap on the same punishment as Warren will get? Players get suspended following red cards when they bring down a player in a goal scoring position even when genuinely going for the ball. They get suspended for badly timed timed tackles again where there is no malicious intent and they get sent off for raising an arm to push away an opponent who has fouled them or who is threatening them. Fair enough. But Ciftci's behaviour is far worse than that. It isn't spur of the moment, it isn't accidental and it isn't in reaction to being fouled. It is deliberate, malicious behaviour designed to harm an opponent - and on Tuesday night he indulged in at least two such acts of unprovoked thuggery. If the SFA had any balls about them they would be banning Ciftci for the rest of the season. What also disgusts me is the news that Dundee Utd are appealing the notice of complaint. They should consider themselves extremely fortunate that the offered ban is only 2 matches. What they should be doing is apologising for Ciftci's behaviour and announcing that internal disciplinary measures are being taken against him. I would hope that behind the scenes our club has complained to the SFA.and will do so again in the light of the leniency of the offer. By appealing the notice one can only assume that Dundee Utd condone such behaviour. The SFA's response should be to significantly lengthen the ban and perhaps Dundee Utd should also be fined as condoning such behaviour surely brings the game into disrepute. I know this is a bit of a rant but there is a really important principle here. Football is a hard game and we know that when players are giving 100% there will be times when players are hurt by mis-timed tackles and in the heat of the moment players will over-react to incidents. Players will get sent off and take their punishment and that is simply an inevitable part of the game. What is not an inevitable or acceptable part of the game is when players deliberately try to harm opponents. If the powers that be are not prepared to distinguish such thuggery from the normal inevitable consequences of committed competitive play then we have no chance of ever addressing some of the more innocuous forms of cheating such as holding and shirt pulling at set pieces.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/31635759 How on earth did Scotland manage to lose that one? Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!

If Cifci gets what he deserves we'll not be seeing him again this season. Having seen the highlights I don't think Raven did anything to warrant a 2nd yellow, in fact, I'd question if it was a foul at all. Utd player made a meal of an inocuous challenge and did his best to try to get a fellow professional sent off. Watkins is a different matter. The commentry team may have had it wrong in that it wasn't a two footed lunge but instead it was a one footed stamp. That to me is a red card every time and I think he was very lucky only to get a yellow. Seemed to me he got a little nudge in the back which caused him to lose control of the ball and as a result he lost his composure as well. The team needs to quickly move on from this and focus on playing football and keeping their cool. Motherwell may be bottom but they are fighting for their lives and having seen how we reacted to a bit of roughing up, they will give us a very hard game. With a lengthy gap in league action after Saturday it is vital we get the three points on Saturday so we can go into the run up to the split with a clear advantage in 3rd place.

Why was he in Inverness in any case if he was launching some sh*te grain whisky distilled in Fife?

That's not a foul by Ciftci, that's assault. Given the action elsewhere on the park one can understand how the officials only saw Warren's reaction and therefore you cannot fault them for sending Warren off but not Ciftci. What the authorities do is perhaps another matter. It is the sort of behaviour which should result in a very lengthy ban indeed.

Don't know if anyone else heard it but on radio before game Yogi said we'd tried to bring in players after Christmas but couldn't manage on the money available. Assume he meant wages?? That would not be a great surprise given our limited finances and I am sure the vast majority of fans would have been accepting if the chairman had said when Billy left something along the lines of we will try our best but will struggle to replace him on the money available rather than the very definite 'we have contingency plans' when that turned out not to be the case. The Board's in a no win position here. They need to attract potential players and then persuade them that the benefits of being here are worth signing a contract even if the money is not as good as the player was hoping for. If the Chairman states that it will be a struggle on the money available, potential players won't bother to look at us in the first place. Rather than stretch the budget to bring in someone new, the priority must be to secure contracts of players who have not re-signed. From the BBC match stats, the problem yesterday was not so much in converting chances as in creating them. Only 7 shots at goal against 10 men is not good. Yesterday was a team problem and not a lack of a striker problem.

The later apart from Watkins one imo By that do you mean he shouldn't have been booked or that it should have been a straight red? On the radio there was immediate shock from the commentary team at what they described as a two footed lunge. The immedate comments was that it must be a red card and that he will be off. They were then very surprised at it being only a yellow, particularly with the ref being so close. One of the team described it as a shocking challenge. Interestingly, later in the commentary they made mention of Raven being a very lucky boy not to have picked up a second yellow early in the second half but they didn't mention Marley. Perhpas they had seen a replay and realised their initial impression was wrong. Don't know if this will be picked up on in the "highlights" but how did you see the incident?

Can't remember why I didn't risk embarrassing myself with a prediction, but I see that Dougal predicted we would be 10th behind County and Hamilton would be bottom. Perhaps that is why he has been so quiet recently.

Ah! So it is. Maybe we just didn't deserve a point tonight.

In the post match interview Yogi was saying that all the decisions were going Utd's way as if the ref felt he needed to even things up. It certainly didn't sound that way on the radio and one gets the impression that we were lucky to end up with more than 8 players on the park. But even if there was serious provocation the level of indiscipline is inexcusable. Being one goal and one man up for 85 mins we should have been disciplined and focussed on possession and keeping the ball in the opposition half. We should have won the game comfortably. Not only has the indiscipline resulted in the gap being 6 points rather than 10, Warren will now be suspended and others are building up disciplinary points which could well be costly later on given the threadbare squad we have. It will be interesting to hear the views of those at the game.

Can't afford Raven, Warren or Shinnie to pick up a 2nd yellow. Need to press Utd and make the goal and the numerical advantage count.

No. He's destined to be heading for Peterborough to play for the Posh. Mind you, it is quite interesting to read that all three of Beckham's sons seem to be pretty talented footballers. I don't know if they have also inherited their mother's musical talent but if so, then my advise to them is to stick to football.

What happened to the good old fashioned Centre Forward ? and the goalie, right back, left back, right half, centre half, left half, right winger, inside right, inside left and left winger?

HT 1-0 FT 2-1 First ICT Warren First Opp Ciftci Time 1st goal 41 mins

Nice compilation of his best goals and there are some real stunners in there. He certainly looks like more of a replacement for Marley than Billy though. I was also impressed with his first touch . Of course these very brief videos can showcase highlights of a career of several years in just a few seconds. It's hardly a complete picture and it begs the question of why he is currently a free agent. But the boy obviously has a great talent and so well worth Yogi having a good look at him. This weather should make him feel at home!

Kink - that's big K and small k!