DoofersDad

Close call between Duff on crutches and Bulvitis with the way he played yesterday.

I wish Butcher would stop saying "it's hard to take". What would he know about it? We're paying to watch the rubbish his side is playing whilst he's getting paid shed loads. What's hard to take about getting paid loads to do a bad job?

I was at the match today. During the first half and having nothing better to do, I read the match programme. In it TB says "I've been really pleased with all the players that I've brought in." "It's a strong start" and "I've been pleased with the way we've handled things". Clearly he's easily pleased. Esson - Three goals conceded at home and he played well - says a lot about the defence in front of him Proctor - very poor Munro - OK but not a leader. Good cross for the 2nd goal Bulvitis - Dreadful. Nearly as bad as Lionel against County Shinnie - Promising debut. Showed good skill going forward and passed well. But a bit lightweight for the back four perhaps. Cox - Pretty anonymous today. Need much more commitment from someone playing in the middle of the park. Ross - Excellent. Started to play really well when the rest of team realised he was actually in the team and not just warming up on the touchline, Made a couple of telling runs into the box and a couple of crosses which just needed a touch. Encoraged by this, TB promptly took him off so that Lionel could come on and give the ball back to Partick. Duncan - I've always been a fan of Duncan. Much of what he does is under appreciated by many of the fans. Today was the worst I've seen him play. No idea why TB left him on the park. Foran - No doubting his commitment and bravery. He did very well to get on the end of Munros cross for the 2nd goal but I remain to be convinced that he should be in the starting line up. Barrowman - Wouldn't have been my choice to come off at half time but then he shouldn't have been on the park in the first place. Gave the away support who were sitting wide of the goal some catching practice but at least he had a go. Hayes - My MOTM. Prepared to take players on and did well to win the penalty. Creating a lot of threat down the left in the 2nd half so TB switched him to the right. Sanchez - Didn't do too much today. Shouldn't be taking corners. Rooney - Barrowman on for 45 minutes: ICT 0 - Partick 3. Rooney on for 30 minutes: ICT 2 - Partick 0. There's other factors of course but Rooney always poses a threat and it was his introduction that really sparked the revival. He needs to be on from the start. Djebi-Zadi - Oh dear! First touch was to give the ball away. However, if he hadn't got sucked too far into the box, his first touch should have been to stick the ball in the back of the net. Butcher. Did well to bring Shinnie and Ross into the starting line up but why take them off? Taking off Ross and bringing on LDZ must rank as one of the most barking mad substitutions ever. I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt and to prove us doubters wrong but surely there can't still be ICT supporters who are not worried about the way he is managing this campaign.

Another unusual statistic of that season was that they drew both matches against Man U 3-3. It seems they had problems with centre backs as well.

I agree, I really don't understand you at all. That's because you are contradicting yourself. I took issue with you because you were agreeing with Absent Friend who came on with some nonesense about some of us having unrealistic expectations for the season. You then say I was right in what I was saying. Of course we were all expecting Motherwell would give us a humping given the way we've been playing but my point was that if TB was doing the job he's been paid to do, we would not have gone into the match with such low expectations. You then say you would not go to games to support the team if you thought the team were worse than ever and go on to say you always have been ICT and always will be. If you always will be ICT then you'll watch them and support them however bad they play. I think we probably agree. We had low expectations for the match against Motherwell because of respective recent form, but high expectations of what the team should acheive by the end of the season because of the stated ambition of the board. And of course we will go to ICT games even if the team is the worst ever - just maybe not quite so often.

As others have said. A loss is not a good result. It might have been a good performance but it was not a good result. And why were you expecting a humping? There seem to be too many people who take the view that now we are in the SFL we have to expect mediocrity and its par for the course to be given a gubbing by the likes of Motherwell. I don't buy that and neither should anybody else. Remember, when the board took TB and MM on it was with a clear mission. Whilst the Board seemed to resigned to relegation the clear remit for TB was to bounce straight back should we go down. To bounce straight back up requires us to have a better team than the one that went down. Last season we would have expected a tight game against Motherwell and it is reasonable to expect one this season. What is not reasonable to expect is that we be taken to penalties by Montrose, draw against the likes of Airdree and get beaten convincingly at home by County. Had we had results like that last season we would have been a laughing stock. We may only have lost 2 matches this season, but had we still been in the premier division and playing as we are we would be lucky to have secured a single point. I appreciate it is early days yet and the team will get better, but then so will others. Given that TB's remit is to get us straight back to the SPL it is not negative to say that early indications are worrying. We look as though we are going to be a mid table side at the moment and that is not what TB and MM are being paid shed loads to deliver. I hope I'm wrong and perhaps a convincing win against Patrick Gristle on Saturday will give me cause for a bit more optimism.

No. It isn't just you.

quote] I'm worried.

Put Roscoe up front. We might score some goals then. After all, he has scored more goals for ICT than any other player in the squad and has a better strike rate than Barrowman. He'd probably get booked less often too.

This is basic stuff. It's not what they should be working on in training as they should already have these basic skills if they are playing at this level. The worrying thing is that TB has brought players in who don't appear to have these basic skills and if they don't have them now, they never will. I'm worried.

Where will it all end? Technology for deciding whether someone is off side or if it is a foul or who the ball came off for a throw in? Just keep it simple, keep the game flowing and keep all the contoversial decisions. It gives us something to talk about and an excuse for when we lose.

Are there any car parks in Airdree?

And u think shipping in some Fijians/Samoans/(watever crazy idea it was) would have better ball control than the current crop? <_< Tim Cahill has excellent ball control. I wasn't aware we'd signed him.

There isn't the tradition of big time football in the Highlands and it takes years to establish. Look down south and you see teams like Bolton and Blackburn regularly pulling in 20,000 even though they are close to the big Manchester and Liverpool clubs and have populations of only, I guess twice that of Inverness, if that. That tradition was built up when there were fewer things to spend money on and it was what the working man did every Saturday. If crowds are going to increase there probably needs to be a significant decrease in gate prices and more entertaining football. We don't necessarily need more people going to watch the team, we need those who do go to sometimes to go more often.

His actions were totally inexcusable but don't you just wish we had someone who could cover the length of the pitch that quick.

And the boo boys should go on a 3 hour coach trip during the game.

Worse the Voghts! Then he must be sh*te. But at least there seems to be improvement with Burley whereas Voghts inherited an OK set up and then made it worse

The real problem for Scotland is the lack of quality players. Is there anyone in the current Scotland team who would get into team GB? I think not. Given the pretty average players at his disposal, Burley has done a not bad job. The excellent perfomances in the last 2 games suggest he is capable of getting the best out of mediocrity. The one class act in Scotland is Boyd as his scoring record for Rangers proves. I am sure if he had been playing, Scotland would have qualified for South Africa. Of course, Burley must take some of the blame for that and maybe his future will be decided on his failure to control his best players. But the real problem for Scotland is the lack of top quality young players coming through. Extend the school day by 2 hours and devote it to football is my answer. Training for an hour in the morning and a game in the afternoon. It's about time the education system got its priorities right.

A more positve game plan from TB, more willingness to shoot from the players and more willingness to support the team from the fans. Is it any wonder the players don't have the confidence to be positive when some sections of the club's supposed support groans and even boos them when it goes wrong. Better to have 3 shots landing in the car park and one in the back of the net than no shots at all. Lets applaud a positive attitude and encourage them to try again rather than boo a poor bit of play. Maybe those who boo'd Lionel can buy a ticket for the other end of the ground next home match and cheer for Partick - that won't have such a negative effect on our players because it won't be obvious that some of our own so called support is actually helping the opposition.

Very excited. I think Foran and Odhiambo has a good ring to it - like Wyness and Ritchie, or Stewart and McLean...... Me too. I don't know that I'm convinced with Foran but I think Imrie and Odhiambo have the potential to pull defences all over the place and that should create space and opportunity for Rooney (preferably) or Barrowman to start getting on the scoresheet regularly. Once they start scoring and get their confidence going they will score more.

To get back to the subject of the thread, yes I do think England look the business. They have often suffered in the past due to lack of depth in the squad and the failure to score as much as they should. They have also played too cautiously. They may still be a bit vulnerable at the back but they look very strong in front of that. With Barry, Lampard and Gerrard they have got players of real quality and presence, all of whom can get forward and score. Lennon, Wright-Philips and Young are all players who can torment a defence whilst Rooney, Heskey, Crouch and Defoe can all score and are very different strikers offering different options for various circumstances. In Capello, they have a manager who is tactically sound, makes sure his players know what is expected of them and who adopts a positive attitude. Perhaps they are not the best in the world at the moment but they are up there and can win it on their day. Football fans will want the World Cup to be all about great football and if their own team has not reached a particular stage will want to see the teams who are playing the most exciting football progress into the next stages. If England are one of the teams playing the best football, as they may well be, then support them and hope for more great football in the next game. All the silly people out there should understand that the World Cup is the greatest football competition in the world and should be a celebration and festival of all that is good in the game. Instead of supporting your own moronic prejudices, how about supporting football?

Will Golly be able to play? Is he cup tied or does the deal with County have a clause which stops him playing against them?

Man of the match goes to whoever took the video. Top stuff. 3rd save by Esson stopped what was a welll struck penalty. I think he moved before the Partick player started his run up but if the ref saw nothing wrong with it, that's good enough for me.

Quite a few contenders here Makes Roscoe look like a pussycat. Whilst it can be compelling watching these, the sad thing is that many of these tackles were or could have been career ending events for the victims. Sometimes, as with Germany's Schumacher, the perpetrators get away with not being sent off or even booked. Whilst we want players to show passion and be committed (and sadly this sometimes results in serious injury) we need the authorities to be really hard on those who cross the line and go in with clear malicious intent.

No. It was his feet that were the problem.