DoofersDad

Alex Fisher got a hat-trick for Yeovil in their 4-0 win at Notts County on Friday evening.

We were 2nd in the league when Yogi took over. With the squad Butcher had built up and the way they were playing, finishing the league in 2nd place was very much on the cards without any further investment. Instead we slumped to 5th. It is interesting that despite the current manager's comments on the Dunfermline game, according to Sky Sports, we had 18 goal attempts. In all his time here I reckon you can probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of times a team under Yogi had that many.

Under Yogi we were certainly the best at passing sideways and backwards but I'm afraid he never quite grasped the importance of passing the ball forward.

Good question. I think Tremarco is certainly a better defender, but then I don't think full back will be Calder's best position. Calder seems to me to be one of the best, if not the best crosser of a ball we have. I would like to see him play in left midfield. This would allow Tremarco and Calder to vary things on the left side with Tremarco overlapping wide from time to time and Calder dropping back to cover if need be.

Yes. And it certainly isn't only some of the young lads who are abusive either.

I've been full of admiration for what JR has achieved since he came back as manager but I think that is a simply appalling interview. For a start, how dare he criticise these young lads for disrespecting the opposition and the fans and being responsible for going out of the cup that, in his words, "we worked so hard last year to win". If he thinks making every effort to win this game was important, then he should have put out his strongest team. If he thinks the team that started on Saturday was his strongest team than how disrespectful is it to make no less than 7 changes. But to add insult to injury, his criticism of the 7 is mostly unjustified and to restrict his comments to the 7 is plain wrong. What about the 4 who also started against Ayr? Of those, only Rooney had a reasonable game. The Par's first goal came from a Trafford error and McKay's foul. The 2nd stemmed from Polworth losing the ball in midfield. Yes we were lethargic in the first half, but no more so than for most of the game against Ayr. Responsibility for that lethargy must lie primarily with the more experienced players who failed to show the necessary leadership on the park. And if some of these young lads were so poor, why then only take one of them off and only make 2 substitutions? He says that White and Welsh were fine and McCart did OK but that there was "... nothing. Nothing" from the others. I guess he was too far away to see just how well Calder did out on the left in the 2nd half. He makes reference to the number of crosses coming in and that some were good, but just who does he think was getting the ball across? The ball boys? To quote from the official match report " Spotting a weakness on the flanks, both Rooney and Calder continued to hit tantalising crosses into the box". And how can John Robertson say White and Welsh were fine and then go on to say it may be a long time before any of the 7 play again? It just doesn't make sense. Unfair criticism of his players in this way is a sure fire way of losing the dressing room. There is only one person responsible for yesterday's defeat and that is John Robertson himself It is John Robertson who should be taking a long hard look at the video of the game before making a few apologies to some of the lads. As I say, I have been a great admirer for what John has achieved here. His comments have often been uncomfortable but honest and fair. That is why I am just so disappointed to hear him making such unjustified criticism of his young players in order to deflect the blame from where it so clearly lies - with himself.

Calder was not exactly casual. He was exposed firstly by very slack play by the midfield gifting the ball to Dunfermline and making little effort to get the ball back, and secondly by McCart who seemed to let the ball run past him when it looked to me to be the easiest thing in the world to have cut the cross out. Calder was left in the difficult position of knowing that any touch on the ball could have put it in his own net. Calder couldn't quite sort out the mess that his team mates created but at least he tried. To put the blame on him is very harsh indeed.

I'm struggling to think of when an ICT player last put as many decent crosses into the box as Calder did last night

As defending champions I would have thought that we would be determined to go as far as possible and to field our strongest team. Cup runs are good for so many reasons that to risk going out with a weakened team when there is no need to rest players seems a very strange call indeed. Dunfermline fielded an even more weakened side than us for some reason. We should have beaten them and ironically, without the negative contributions of 2 of the 4 who started on Saturday, we would have done. Brad McKay's rash challenge (albeit outside the box) led to the penalty whilst Polworth gifted the ball to the pars who made good use of the opportunity. On the plus side, we played some really good attacking football in the second half, particularly when Walsh and Oakley came on. The subs provided a much needed urgency and Walsh and Rooney combining well down the right created more space for the outstanding Calder to exploit on the other side of the park. Calder was a clear MOTM and got several very good crosses in, often from positions where you felt it unlikely he would be able to cross it at all. I hadn't seen Welsh play before but I thought he had a decent game and looked more positive than either Trafford or Chalmers. As others have said, we have looked very slow in our build up play this year. We need to attack with a bit more pace and width. Last night we did that for the final 30 minutes and created chance after chance. Hopefully making several changes has provided some clues to the manager about how to make us a more potent and exciting attacking force. With Tremarco returning I would like to see Calder playing in midfield. He had some good performances at the end of last season too. I rate him as one of our best players and he needs to have a regular start. Worth noting that on the day we tamely bowed out of the cup we won last year, our unwanted cup winning captain of a few months ago was doing sterling work for Yeovil in the English League cup against former European Champions Aston Villa. They lost 1-0, but to quote the BBC report Villa "were denied as Gary Warren dived headfirst to stop Hourihane's powerful shot." I'm sure he enjoyed his evening more than our current captain who was not involved at all as the trophy slipped from our hands.

What the article is not clear about is the mechanisms for approving such policies . It is all very well for officials to draw up changes but some committees of representatives of member Associations must surely approve them and the Committees themselves will be accountable to the body as whole. What then is the position of UK FAs? Are they opposing this or are they doing FA? The sums of money floating around at the top level of football these days are totally obscene. It would appear that what to us ordinary people is corruption is just a fact of life to those at the top of the administrative tree.

Just had a look at the on-line programme for tonight's game. I must say I rather like the idea of reading the programme before heading off to the game. Robbo is having a go at the fact that the English, Welsh and Irish clubs in the competition all have a bye into the 2nd round. It seems a bit unfair but all the more reason to make sure we win tonight. It would be unfortunate if we, as champions, were out of the competition before they had even come into it. Robbo also doesn't mince his words about certain off field matters. Let's hope everybody gets properly behind the team tonight.

No doubt the behaviour of the idiots in the crowd was a factor in the rather lack lustre performance following the penalty and the sending off. I agree that it is extremely important for all the team that they get some proper support tomorrow. Gates for these cup gates tend to be pretty poor but hopefully fans who were shocked and disgusted at Saturday's events will make an effort to get to the game and give some loud support to the team and particularly to Liam. I very much hope and expect Liam will play. He has a point to prove and I imagine after the hurt of Saturday he will be fired up and will have the crowd with him. After the backlash, he is not going to get abuse tomorrow night and I fail to see what possible benefit there would be to him or the team in leaving him out. We are the champions and we will need to field our strongest team if we are to defend our title against strong opposition. Nobody should be in any doubt that our strongest team has Liam Polworth at its heart.

HT 0-1 FT 0-2 ICT Brad McKay Opp Louis Longridge Crowd 1411

Just what do these people think they will achieve by dishing out this kind of abuse? The abuse about his family will surely be seen as out of order by anyone with a thread of human decency about them, but more generally, the abuse and the boos directed at Polworth himself affect not just Liam and his family but his team mates too. Why would anyone want to play for ICT when their own "supporters" direct abuse at the team they purport to support? One of the things that gives players a boost is when the fans of the opposing team get on the backs of their own team. What the boo boys and the abusers do is give succour to the opposition and disillusionment to their own team. If you are going to boo and abuse your own team then why don't you do us all a favour and buy tickets for the South Stand

I don't think anybody is looking for perfection but we are looking for signs that we will be competitive this season. 9 of yesterday's starting 11 were in the team that performed so well at the back of last season and with the league cup games there have now been 6 competitive games this season. In those circumstances it is reasonable to expect a more cohesive, urgent and confident performance than we saw yesterday.

Leaving aside the appalling behaviour of some of our so called support, I came away from the game feeling rather despondent. Yes we have 4 points from 2 games, 2 clean sheets and an extension of a lengthy unbeaten run in the league to 13 games, but this was a very poor performance and we were fortunate to escape with a draw against 10 men. We can't expect to play that poorly again and not get beaten. It wasn't as though we didn't create chances - we did, but despite a long unbeaten run, we lacked the class and composure to convert what chances we did create against what was a pretty shaky Ayr defence. As we pressed for a goal in the 2nd half there were occasions when a much more direct Ayr side carved us apart and had good chances themselves. We were lucky that their usual shooting boots had been left down South. They were woeful in front of goal. I thought Donaldson had a generally decent game although he did lose possession carelessly in dangerous positions a couple of times. Walsh looked the man most likely to make things happen and Oakley also put in a good shift. The rest were very ordinary at best. With Ayr down to 10 men on our wide pitch, we should have been able find space for players to run with the ball and for the ball to be played into. Instead, our build up was usually slow, cautious and unimaginative. There was little urgency, little running into space and pulling defenders out of position, little pace to the game and little use of the width of the park. We gave Ayr all the time in the world to get organised at the back. Even when the ball was played wide to Tremarco the usual play was foot on the ball and then pass back inside as the defender came to him. It might then go sidewards once or twice more before a diagonal ball was sent into the box in the hope of finding Oakley or Austin. We rarely used the width to get behind their defence. As a result, chances, when they came were mostly half chances with very few clear cut chances. I hoped that the introduction of Doran would make a difference but he too slipped into the general lethargy of the performance. There was precious little of quality and precious little ambition from anybody. Having had Ayr reduced to 10 men, you would have expected the players to have sensed a real opportunity for a good win. The fact that the team seemed to have no idea how to make the advantage tell is a worry. It's a long time since I left TCS feeling so disappointed.

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Probably not just the obvious choice but the only choice. He came to us from Hereford where he made only 1 appearance and before that it was a grand total of 6 for Shrewsbury. He'll not exactly be a legend in the West Midlands. He's from Aberdeen and started his career with the Dons. In any case, the Dons now have plenty of free weekdays to fit a match in.

If that happens then big Col will be scared to tackle anyone again. The way to stop any good striker is to starve them of the ball.

Each to their own, but I'm with CaleyD on this one. It's always interesting to read other folks' thoughts but it is not something that I particularly want to think about beyond the occasional time when I maybe think a particular player is being used inappropriately. I'd rather discuss games after they have taken place than before, and I enjoy joining in the prediction games and having a little bit of mildly competitive fun just guessing on the outcome of the matches. On that subject, so far there are just 10 of us with predictions for the opening round of games on Gringo's great little Prediction League. It takes no time to do each week. It is more enjoyable the more folk are involved, so come on people, get yourselves signed up and your predictions in.

HT 0-1 FT 1-1 ICT Walsh Opp Mackin Crowd 3211

I see the fixture list on here and on the Official website has us beating Hearts 5-0. If only!

If 2 million customers like eating "microwaved garbage" then it is a good business model to provide it. Too many businesses fail because they offer what they want to provide rather than what the customer wants. There have been some nice ideas for how the club might raise some more money and attract new people to the ground, but for most of this there is probably very little evidence for there being a demand. I think a little market research amongst the existing and potential fan base might be in order.

It's a good point Lawrence makes about the teams in the draw having a ball number allocated according to alphabetical order. Had we lost to Hearts by less than 4 goals we would have been 3rd in alphabetical order of the non-seeded sides whereas Partick are 5th. As it happens Kilmarnock are the 3rd in alphabetical order so we would likely have got The Rangers at home with Kilmarnock away at Livi and Motherwell hosting Celtic instead. Anyhow, that's all rather incidental and the reality is that we aren't in the draw and that is disappointing. I didn't watch the game but it sounds more like a bit of a reality check than a disaster. As I said earlier, knowing you can afford to lose the game but not by too much plays tricks with your mental attitude, and with Hearts needing to shake off some poor early season form and prove a point following the loss of points from the Cove game. It was a thumping waiting to happen. It sounds as though Hearts had a good day at the office and were clinical in front of goal. We are unlikely to face a team in the Championship that will be able to so ruthlessly exploit our defensive frailties, but it is important that the fact that those frailties exist has been so clearly demonstrated. Part of the problem is undoubtedly the lack of bite in midfield following Vigurs' departure, as is the general lack of experience in the team. I worry that many folk have too high an expectation of this squad in what looks to be a significantly more competitive Championship than last year. I think the squad has promise for the future and will certainly have some very good results this season. The shortcomings in the side will also mean we will lose matches we perhaps ought to win and the net result of that could well be ending the season in much the same position as last. It will be a long and hard season but for all the disappointment, I think the heavy defeat to Hearts is a reality check and will be helpful in preparing the team for the challenges ahead.

It's a bit of a strange situation to be in having a 3 goal cushion. Clearly Hearts need to win the game and you would expect them to be fired up for the game. Our lads will have been told we need to go out and win the game to keep the momentum going and to show we are the best in the group. But the danger is they will know they don't have to win and that can lead to a loss of focus and bit of complacency. They also know it will be a bit of a disaster now if we do go out so that all makes for a bit of apprehension in the back of their minds. Once you lose that focus it is so hard to get it back. It's going to be a very difficult afternoon now.