DoofersDad

I'd save your money if I was you. I think Falkirk will be looking for a manager to take them up rather than down. Having got rid of Hughes, it looks as though Raith could bounce straight back.

That may be true, Charles, but I certainly get the impression that fitness levels in general aren't as good as they were. If that is the case then it needs to be addressed. Games are won and lost by fine margins - a player with that little bit of extra energy gets onto the end of the through ball and scores; a defender who still has spring in his legs intercepts a cross before it can reach an opponent. Irrespective of any change in player personnel or tactics etc, maximising fitness is a key requirement for any footballer and can make a big difference in terms of results. It would appear that there are some ICT players who could be and should be fitter than they are.

Sacking Houston seems a bit harsh given that since taking over from Holt he took them, as 2nd tier side, to the Scottish Cup final where they gave us a very hard game indeed, and then took them to 2nd place 2 years running in a very competitive championship. That's a pretty impressive record. I don't think Falkirk's poor start to the season is because they have a poor manager. Instead, I think it is pretty obvious that they are simply missing John Baird.

Robertson was saying before the game that the poor performances are all in the mind and this rather backs it up. We have started brightly on a number of occasions but confidence is so low that scoring a goal leads to nervousness about whether we can hold onto the lead and we simply can't exploit the advantage the lead gives us. If we hadn't passed up chances to extend the lead in the first half then this thread could have been all about maybe having turned a corner. Instead, we lose a goal too easily in the 2nd half and then lose the plot, our captain and the match. It is easy to see why our players are so lacking in confidence. There may or may not be issues within the club that are causing tensions but aside from that we have a team consisting of players who were relegated last season, players recovering from significant injury (in some cases both) and players who have been bought in because they were cheap and who were cheap because their recent form is such that no-one will pay more for them. It must be frustrating for the manager seeing players do things well in training but then coming up short on match days, but something will happen at some point to make things click. Remember when we were relegated under Butcher. We didn't start the season too great but we finished it pretty well! I'm not suggesting for a moment that I am expecting us to win the division, but I am confident that we will bottom out from this free-fall pretty soon and become competitive in this division.

He's got a virus. Hope it's not bird flu

HT 0-0 FT 1-2 ICT Vigurs Opp Foxylias Crowd 743

Managers and coaches can tell players what they should be doing till they are blue in the face, but they can't do it for the players on match days.Only the players can do that. The players need to have enough of a footballing brain to understand what they need to do at any one time, they need to be motivated to do it and fit enough to do it. With one or two of our players at the moment, I wonder if they possess any of those 3 qualities. And in fairness to players, they can be made to look bad when team mates get caught out of position. A scenario here is that your team mate over commits elsewhere and leaves the player he should have been marking free. That player looks the most likely player for the ball to be played into and if it is, then he will be unchallenged on goal. As the nearest defender you go to close that down only for the ball to be played to the player you had correctly been marking at first . You are caught in no man's land, looking a complete idiot but yet it wasn't actually your fault. I think this is why Robertson was talking about involving all the team in addressing defensive frailties. Other players need to get back and help covering runners etc, they need to not give the ball away in dangerous positions and they need to make themselves available to receive out balls to prevent defenders being put under unnecessary pressure. I don't think Robertson was in any way complaining about players knocking on his door to get a game. Far from it - I'm sure he wants that. What he was criticising players for was showing a desire to play when off the park and then showing precious little interest when brought on. I am sure we will see plenty of desire from Tremarco and Doran when they return to the starting line up.

He hasn't looked great but I wonder how much that has to do with the tangible lack of confidence and trust in each other in the back line. I didn't have great expectations for Chalmers but I was expecting more from Elsdon. He is still a young lad but has done well in the youth set up at Middlesborough and has caps for England at U17 level. His poor performances can't be down simply to being rubbish, rather it seems to be that he simply doesn't seem to know where he is expected to be at anyone time. He looks as though he is someone used to playing in a well drilled and cohesive set up who is now being thrown into a situation where there is little organisation or leadership. If it is true that OFW may now be available for selection, then I think the defence would all benefit from that and as the unit begins to develop a bit more confidence and trust, Chalmers may not look quite so bad. Mind you, with Tremarco back, Chalmers is unlikely to feature much in any case.

Some of OFW's poorer performances last season were when he was carrying injuries and probably shouldn't have been playing. Whilst he is undoubtedly a better keeper than Ridgers, he lacks a commanding presence in the box and our central defence is in desperate need of that. But with OFW back between the sticks I would expect the defence in general to be a bit more solid.

You may have also noticed that qualifiers for the Women's World Cup have started so expect even more hype. But to be fair, some level of hype is justified as the England Women's team is pretty good just now. Their first match against Russia was live on BBC2 last night and it really was a very entertaining game to watch. Robbo could do worse than sit his squad down to watch a video of the game. The score was 6-0 but it could easily have been double figures. They had 32 attempts on goal. The English women played with a real purpose and showed a great awareness of their team mates. There was a real connection between players in playing balls into the spaces. There was also great awareness of when shooting opportunities and a decisiveness in getting shots away. In short, going forward and decision making in the box was everything that it isn't with us at the moment. It really was refreshing to watch. If they continue to play like that, expect a lot more hype!

Rather than kicking on, Mulraney seems to have gone backwards. When he first came here, Foran was clearly very excited that he had signed a young, attack minded player who was going to be a bit special. Early signs seemed to justify that and he would beat defenders all ends up and leave them in his wake. Sure there was a lack of end product and some rough edges but I think we all shared in the optimism and he got voted as POTM on more than one occasion I think. His decent performances then might have been a reflection of his confidence then - a confidence which will have totally evaporated now. I doubt that his failure to kick on is due to poor coaching because you don't need to be a coach to see what he does wrong. I think he's so busy looking at the ball at his feet that he never clocks what's going on around him. If you are the sort of player that can pull defenders out of position (which he is) then you create space for team mates to run into. But he doesn't see that. His decision making is very poor.. I'm sure there is an attitude problem too but the main issue might be that he simply doesn't have a footballing brain.

Last year Mulraney had 13 starts and came on a a sub 19 times. This year it is 3 starts and on as a sub 5 times. That is 40 games he has been a part of and he has yet to score a goal and yet to make an assist. It's up to him to make an impact when he is given a chance. He has been lucky that he has had so many chances to impress but unfortunately he continues to flatter to deceive. It really is time for someone else to get a chance.

I perhaps should have clarified that I meant Clach serve no useful purpose to ICT. It is really rather self evident that Clach serve a purpose for those who choose to support them! But when people resist change because of their loyalties to the status quo, they tend to forget that what they are remaining loyal to only came into being in the first place because others were willing to embrace change and create something new. No doubt there were those opposed to Clach being formed all those years ago who felt people should continue to do what folk had done for generations past.

I wasn't at the game on Saturday but am surprised to hear Robbo aiming the public criticism at Oakley and Mulraney equally. From what I've seen of him in other games he seems to have put a decent shift in. Criticism of Mulraney is fair game though. Clearly the lad has pace and great ball skills but he doesn't get any end result out of anything good he does. He's had over a season to prove he can cut it and must be close to the manager saying enough is enough. For all his skills, he seems to lack both the motivation and a footballing brain. At the Q&A session earlier in the year Robbo referred to some of the youngsters and said that if they are good enough they are old enough. Time to give youth a chance I think rather than keep hoping against hope that Mulraney will come good.

Inverness FC would have been good. Personally, I can't see that having a Highland League team in Inverness as well as ICT serves any useful purpose. All it does is reduce our gates and income a little bit more making success that little bit harder to achieve.

I started to support ICT because I was living in Inverness when they were formed and bought into the club believing this was the best way to bring a better standard of football to the town. Having bought into the club and supported them since then, I will always support them through thick and thin. I must say I get a bit hacked off with those who seem to think that because we have had the success we have, we now have some divine right to remain in the top echelons of Scottish football. We don't. We are a small club with a small core fan base and no rich benefactor to buy success. Without going into my views for the reasons for our rapid fall from grace, the fact is that we are where we are and we are probably in a more precarious position than many folk seem to realise. As a result of poor management over the past 2 seasons, our financial position puts us at serious risk of a second relegation. Immediate promotion is not and never was on the cards. But we will only get stronger again if people continue to support the club and support the team on match days. We get success because core fans support the club through the good times and the bad. If we are realistic about our place in the grand scheme of things then that makes success all the sweeter when it comes.

It seems as though I'm the only one who found this afternoon to be thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable. But then I was at my Grandson's first Birthday party. I wasn't the only one not there though. The falling attendances are a real worry and they won't improve until there is a major improvement on the park.

Of course it would be stupid to treat swearing the same as letting off flares or committing criminal damage. I'm not suggesting for a moment that the club actually would treat them the same, but the point is that the club statement suggests they would. The statement needs to be judged on what it actually says and not on what you assume they mean.

Just to elaborate on my earlier post. let's have a look at a couple of sections from the club's statement. 1. "The Club is also aware of a group of supporters who operate under the name of the “Ultras”. They are a particularly vocal group of supporters, something that we have no concerns with, providing, going forward, they temper their language, cease setting off smoke bombs and cease causing damage at home and away grounds." It is clear from this that the club is putting bad language in the same bracket as the criminal activities of letting of smoke bombs and causing criminal damage. If folk are being banned for the latter two, the implication is that unless the youngsters "temper their language" they could be banned for that. So what are the club doing about the foul and abusive language from older supporters? And what are they doing about the swearing from players on the park? The 2nd point from this section of the statement is "They are a particularly vocal group of supporters, something that we have no concerns with". What miserable wording! The club should be celebrating the fact that these lads give vocal support. It should be encouraging them to continue to do so. Instead, it comes across that this great vocal support which most of us love to hear is something the club simply tolerates. The 3rd point is that "cease setting off smoke bombs and cease causing damage at home and away grounds." almost implies that all the lads in the group are guilty of letting off smoke bombs and causing damage. They can't "cease" something that they have not been doing. They are all being tarred with the same brush. 2. "Unacceptable conduct is conduct which is deemed violent or disorderly. Violent Conduct includes any actual, attempted or threatened physical violence against any person or intentional damage to property." Well, I think we are all clear what "violent" conduct means but "disorderly" conduct could mean different things to different people. What might be simple youthful exuberance to someone could be considered disorderly behaviour to someone else. There is a need to elaborate on what they mean by "disorderly" and the club has chickened out of doing so. The worry here is that in the event of a complaint, "disorderly" may mean whatever it is convenient to the Board to mean. Of course the club was right to ban those identified engaging in criminal activity. And of course the club was right to issue a statement. Unfortunately the statement is hugely unhelpful in moving forward. It is particularly disappointing that such a naff statement should come so soon after there were promising signs that the Board was wanting to engage constructively with supporters.

No. It's a bad sign. The faffing about at the back in the Hughes era was tactical faffing about. It was part of his master plan to keep possession regardless of which direction the ball travelled in. The current faffing about is because defenders are making mistakes.

Apologies if I'm being thick, but the Board makes a number of points. Just which point are we supposed to have misunderstood?

It's a green dot from me PF. I don't know why others are taking issue with this post. This is a perfectly reasonable point to make and earlier in this discussion I also made the point that one can't be too hard on the youngsters when they get set such a bad example from the foul language of people very much older than they are. The club can't have it both ways. It can't tell the youngsters that unless they moderate their language they will be banned, and then completely ignore the foul mouthed abuse that some of our older supporters dish out. Whilst I certainly support the banning of those letting off smoke bombs and causing criminal damage, I don't think the statement is very clever in it's general tone. There really needs to be more words of encouragement to what I am sure is the vast majority of youngsters who go to games to support the team and have a bit of fun and who, from time to time, may overstep the boundaries when egged on by the small minority who want to cause trouble for some reason. It reads like a statement written by someone who has never done anything naughtier than running through a field of wheat. These lads need to be told their vocal support is greatly valued by the club but for the sake of the club and for their own sakes, that enthusiastic vocal support must be kept within the boundaries of the law. To me, the statement read as though those youngsters who have not been banned will be tolerated and a close eye will be kept on them. Hopefully the youngsters will have enough sense to appreciate that they come along to support the team and not the Board.

HT 1-0 FT 2-1 ICT Oakley Opp Todorov Crowd 2335

HT 1-1 FT 2-2 ICT Polworth Opp Morgan Crowd 3721

Great draw for us but really intriguing ones for Elgin and Cove.