DoofersDad

Excellent post, Scotty - in more ways than one.

Statues should only be erected to those whose contributions have been truly outstanding. Jock Stein was such a man, Erecting statues to the also rans undermines the tribute which the statues to the truly great atest to.

Yes it is interesting. It does sound as though there are some relationship issues within the team and whilst it is good if the meeting has helped clear the air, it is perhaps a bit worrying that some issues appear to have been left to fester and are only being addressed now after a prolonged run of poor performances and results. It is probably nothing too serious but it is always best to address these issues as soon as possible so that what might be minor misunderstandings don't develop into feuds and things aren't said or done which would make reconcilliation harder. Hopefully there's nothing amiss which a good gubbing of Celtic won't put right.

I think if you could have chosen which 3 players you would want to score it would be the 3 who got goals yesterday. I've been very impressed with Sutherland this year but he was really needing a goal. Scoring will do his confidence no end of good and also for young Macdonald. Foran has missed one or two recently and whilst many have praised Pernis for his save from Foran last week, in truth Foran had acres of space at the near post and should have simply tucked it away there rather less spectacularly than trying to power it across goal into the far corner. Whilst Rooney did not score, the other 3 scoring was good for him. For too long he has been the lone striker and the weight of expectation has fallen from him. His place is not under threat and knowing there are others in the team who are scoring helps to take some of the pressure to score off him. This performance is just what was required before the Celtic game. A good performance there should help confidence to be transferred to the rest of the league season

I just wonder how Lennon would have behaved had Celtic lost.

No it's not strange. From the North stand we can see he is incompetent whereas we give the other one the benefit of the doubt. There was an incident on Tuesday when the ball ran well over a foot out of play and the Utd player backheeled the ball back into play and the linesman did not flag. It was a terrible decision . Had that happened the other end of the park we would have been none the wiser.

Three red cards for Rangers! Passions obviously run high when the prize is a trip to play the mighty ICT

Ok. So it was poor fare yesterday and folk are right to be disappointed - I'm disappointed - but if we are disappointed in the performance of the team just think how disappointed the team must be with the "supporters". I know the subject of the lack of atmosphere at home games has been done to death in the past but I really think we reached new lows yesterday. I honestly can't remember being at a match anywhere where there was less noise. I was late arriving and as I walked to the ground I could hear nothing other than the passing cars. I walked into the ground and it was like walking into a bloody library. There were a couple of half hearted attempts to get some chants going but that was it. The rising noise of expectation when we broke forward or had a corner was strangely muted. You could hear a Werthers Original wrapper at 20 paces. And finally when Utd scored their second there was the biggest mass exodus I have ever seen. If Celtic had just lost 2 - 0 at home to Hamilton and gone bottom of the league then a mass exodus might be justified but FFS we are a small team and we are 7th in the SPL.! If we finish the season in 7th then that will be the highest position any Highland team has finished in the history of Scottish football - but yet several hundred walk out in disgust! Yes, the season has had its ups and downs and we are certainly on a down at the moment, but overall the team has done well and deserves our support. Last night it did not get it and as a result we got what we deserved. I really feel for the players because they deserve better than that. I'll repeat it - we're 7th in the SPL. That's good. Let's applaud that fact and get behind the team :ictscarf:

It's a shame that the club couldn't sell tickets on Monday with those with a ticket stub for Saturday's match against Motherwell getting priority before going on general sale later in the week. After yesterday's disappointment and with the cup game the following week I can't see there being a large number of paying customers at the weekend. This will be a shame because we need a good support to lift the team. Our chances against Celtic would be much improved by a good win against the Well.

I wish it had been an early start yesterday. A 2.30 kick off and I would have missed the game.

If tonight's game wasn't depressing enough I now see that Hamilton scored in the 4th minute of time added on against Hibs to make the result 1 - 2. I had originally predicted that scoreline, but last night in light of Hibs recent form I changed it to 0 - 2. Had I left it alone I would be 6th and now I'm 10th. However, every cloud has a silver lining - Hamilton's recent form is even worse than ours and whilst I'd now place us favourites for ending the season in 10th, we are at least a step nearer mathematical safety than we were at the start of the evening.

Don't know where to start - so I won't.

I think Laurence has had a bad day. There is some truth in what he says although it is rather overstated. He's just being unrealistic in his expectations. Even Barcelona have bad days.

Good post, Dougal. Every match from now on will be the most important match of the season untill we have either acheived a top 6 position or it is no longer possible. Time for everyone to get behind the team.

A bit harsh :annoyed: This will be the final table Celtic Rangers Hearts Dundee Utd Kilmarnock Aberdeen Motherwell Hibernian St Johnstone ICT St Mirren Hamilton dougal Looks like you're for the drop, Dougal

Get real, Laurence. What do you expect? How many teams are there in England based in a town the size of Inverness who have a team playing at the level ICT are? Very, very few. The fact is that ICT are a team who are punching above their weight at the moment. They did not get where they are without playing some pretty good football. Enjoy the fact that ICT are an SPL side and enjoy it when the football is good - just don't expect it every week. Oh, and why don't you change your avatar to Fergie if you're going to slag off the manager

3.30 Kick Off on Sunday allows Old Firm supporters to go to church in the morning and still make it up for the game.

If there is one thing that is predictable it is that the results are going to be unpredictable. This week in the Predictor league only 8 out of 126 predictions got the correct score - thats about 1 in 16 being correct. Given that there are only 16 possible scores where neither team scores 4 or more it just goes to show that thecollective wisdom of the pundits in the predictor league is no better than choosing scores at random. At the start of the season I said I'd be happy for us to finish 11th. I'll stick my neck out and predict we'll finish somewhere between 4th and 10th. That means that as far as I'm concerned, taking the season as a whole its been a good season.

Let's hope they don't bugger up the pitch too much. There's a proper game being played there on the following Tuesday.

Nice one.

We moan about poor refereeing decisions but what about this. I think the referee was admiring the quality of the save and didn't clock it wasn't the keeper who made it. http://www.youtube.c...player_embedded

I like this poll. It let me vote for all 3 options.

Celebrating ICT's 2-0 victory?

It's all very depressing. We need a real shake-up in the game that encourages dynamic change. We need a pyramid system that breathes new life into the bottom echelons of the Scottish League. In England the potential for teams to progress from minor leagues into the league means that small clubs can have real ambition whilst established clubs cannot afford to be complacent. As a result quality throughout the structure has improved. Take today's match in the cup where it appears as though non league Crawley Town outplayed Man Utd at Old Trafford - they had more of the possession and more shots at goal. League restructuring needs to be about improving quality throughout the leagues because that is how quality in depth at the top will be produced. It is not just about how many title deciders the old firm can have in a season.

Don't get carried away, We've got a very difficult run in and whilst 4th is still possible, 6th is still a very challenging target. The win today was really important and will have boosted confidence no end. The next four games are absolutely crucial - we probably need to see the game at Hibs as a must win because after that all our games are against sides we might expect to end in the top 6. Two games against Dundee Utd and one against Motherwell will be games we can't afford to lose and we realistically need to win 2 of those. With teams behind us having games in hand we probably need 10 points from the next 4 games. If we don't, we will need to beat Hearts and/or Celtic later on and hope other results go our way. Kilmarnock are certainly stuttering and might drop out of the top 6, but on the other hand I wouldn't rule Aberdeen out.