DoofersDad

Excellent summary by RiG, Of course the injury crisis is a concern but it will pass, What is of more concern to me is the lack of creativity, 3 attempts at goal when you are behind for most of the game at home against the team that finished 11th last year is woeful. We could have carried on all night and still not had a shot on target. There seems to be an obsession of playing balls to feet all the time. Nobody seems to want to play balls into the spaces, nobody seems to want to take the responsibility to take players on or to look to shoot from distance. The one positive I would take from the game was that at least Mutombo looked promising. He at least seemed to understand that we actually needed to score a goal.

Probably just gone down the road to take in the game at Celtic Park tomorrow. Expect them back by Sunday.

Astra will be disappointed to only draw against a side who were taken to penalties by the no-hopers from Malta Seriously though, it is dreadful that the side that qualified through the fair play rule have had a player sent off in each of the last 3 Europa league qualifiers. If big Sam was still there they would have sailed through no problem.

Maybe there are secret merger talks going on!

I have no anti-Hughes agenda. Of course he had a significant contribution to the success of last season, but what I am saying is that there were a range of factors in his favour which should be taken account of in forming expectations for this year. We all have our opinions but in debating points can we please base our arguments on what others actually said and not on what you may have liked them to said. I'll just respond to a few points. I say he inherited a great squad of players and you say "His signings are no more or less successful than his predecessors". Could you please tell me who all these players are that he signed and who were such an integral part of our success last year? You state "you are willing to categorise recent signings as a "mixed bag". I'll wait." What I said was "Signings made to date look a bit of a mixed bag on first impressions, but time will tell." So I'm doing what you are doing - and waiting. "Time will tell". Then you ask "You quote 52% possession averages as being "hardly what you would expect" Can you tell me where that figure lies in relation to all other clubs in the league?" Well the average for the league is obviously 50%! A meager 2% above that does not really sound like a top 3 team basing its game on possession of the football does it? You continue with "but I'm sure that you will agree that the difference that you identify between 1.36 and 1.67 goals per game, averaged over a season, is statistically insignificant." Well, no! I won't agree. That's nearly 20% fewer goals! Fans come to see goals so I hope it is not 20% fewer fans also. That would be very significant indeed. You then say "And please, Rangers making the league stronger? Did you see them last year? They were nothing more than a tired old orthodoxy struggling vainly for any kind of relevance in a game that has passed them by." But The Rangers are not going to be in the top flight this season! What I am saying is that the league last year was weaker than previously when Rangers, Hibs and Hearts were all there. I am also saying that I believe the league will be a little stronger this season than last. But yes, Rangers were rubbish last year although you will recall they still managed to knock us out of the League cup because of our negative approach to the game. Finally you say "I'll await this season in expectation, hope and a genuine belief that we can replicate the league achievements of last year. And I'll give Hughes the credit he deserves if it happens." Whilst I don't share your belief that we can replicate last season's top 3 finish, I agree with the rest. If we do have a top 3 finish the humble pie will be taken out of the freezer. I trust that if we don't make top six you will be humble enough to revise your opinion of just how far forward Hughes has taken the club.

After the euphoria of a top 3 finsh, qualification for Europe and winning the cup, I'm glad to see some some sensible expectations here. PerfICT and RiG sum things up pretty well but I think we are more likely to feature at the bottom end of the table than the top. With the success last season many people confessed to eating humble pie regarding Yogi. I have to confess that my humble pie is still firmly in place at the back of the freezer and I remain unconvinced. Of course last year's success was brilliant but I think it is unfortunate that so much of the credit is directed at Hughes. I think our success last year flattered us in relation the general level of performance but nevertheless was rich reward for the club as a whole - to the Board who have managed the finances of the club responsibly over the years and to the backroom staff and volunteers who have done so much to make the steady rise of the club possible. Hughes just happened to be in the right place at the right time and was lucky. He was lucky for a number of reasons. He inherited the best squad of players this club has ever had. It is this squad he has used during his more than one and half seasons here and it afforded him huge stability for his first full season. We were remarkably injury free last season. True Foran was absent throughout, but with the rest of the squad fit he would have been struggling to feature in the starting line up. The season saw the emergence of Ryan Christie from the youth ranks. He became increasingly influential and his value to the team is reflected in the number of bigger clubs keeping tabs on him. The league was the weakest for years. There was no Rangers, Hibs or Hearts. Motherwell and Kilmarnock were significantly poorer than usual and Dundee Utd hit the self destruct button half way through the season. And if truth be told, apart from the semifinal all our ties in the cup were against struggling clubs and we generally struggled to beat them. I'll come back to Celtic later. The record books will show that Hughes has taken us to our highest ever league position and won the cup, but some of the stats behind that paint a bit of a different picture. Looking back over the last 3 seasons and splitting them into the pre-Hughes era and the Hughes era the facts for the 3 league campaigns are these. Points per game: Pre-Hughes 1.61 : 1.49 Hughes Goals scored per game 1.67 : 1.19 Goals conceded per game 1.39 : 1.19 Goal Difference +14 : 0 Given all the positive factors going for us last season, I struggle to see how these figures demonstrate the significant progression of the team that some would have us believe. What is particularly worrying for me is the dramatic drop in the number of goals scored per game (and that was when we actually had a decent striker!) I know we were awful in the 2nd half of the 2013/14 season but last season we only managed 1.36 goals per game compared to 1.67 in the final year and a bit of the Butcher era.. Hughes has radically changed the style of play with an oft repeated emphasis on possession, but are we actually keeping possession? The fact is, our record on that is no too good either. Over the course of the league season last year we averaged only 52%. Hardly the sort of figure you would expect of a team which focuses on possession football and which finishes 3rd in the league. This is why I worry about the coming season. We are focusing on possession even though we are not actually that successful at it and as a result we create very little in the final third and score very few goals. I worry even more following Latapy's departure because I do sense that he was trying to advocate a more positive approach. It is worth saying a quick word about playing Celtic. We do pretty well against them and I think the reason is that they expect to dominate teams and simply try to play through any team at Scottish level. This leaves space behind them which suits a counter attacking style of play. It probably particularly suited Shinnie, Watkins and Mckay who, alas are all gone. We manage to do well against Celtic because when we win possession we are in a position to get behind them. Other teams sit back against us and we try to patiently play a tight passing game through them. Occasionally it works and it can be great to watch but for long periods we get tedious sparring in the middle of the park interspersed by a panicky back pass or two. What I'm saying is that we are at risk of being found out this season. We have lost some key players, the league will be stronger and we may not have the same luck with avoiding injuries this season. This season we will really see what Yogi is made of. Does he have the ability in the transfer market to adequately replace those who have left? Signings made to date look a bit of a mixed bag on first impressions, but time will tell. Will he be able to persuade those he wants to stay to extend their contracts beyond the end of the season? Will he find a way of introducing a bit more creativity into his style of play both to create both more chances and better entertainment value? Unless the answers to those questions are "Yes", then we will struggle this season and gates will fall.

I don't see a problem. If a player has not received a "better" offer it will be because clubs feel he is not worth the kind of money he is looking for. If a player aspires to play at a level warranting that kind of money then he needs to prove himself. He will only be able to prove himself if he gives 100% to the cause and develops as a player. He might even like it here and decide to stay (if offered an extension)!

One of the worrying aspects of this is the lack of faith being shown in our two young strikers Sutherland and Ferguson. Despite our lack of replacements for Mckay and Watkins, neither of the youngsters was even on the bench for either of the Astra games and we seemed to be one short on the bench in Romania. Maybe they are both out injured but surely this would have given options. I've heard it said that Yogi is reluctant to play youngsters before they are ready . I certainly agree that unrealistic expectations can put a lot of pressure on youngsters but if they are good enough they are good enough. If either or both of them was fit or available I can't think of anything that would dent their confidence more than seeing that empty space on the bench whilst the manager allows a new signing to play the full 90 minutes in stifling heat when, by his own admission, Lopez is not match fit.

Sounds like we were too cagey again. To win the match without it going to the penalty lottery we would have had to score twice. It would have made no difference if Astra had scored a goal on the night because 2-2 would have taken us through on away goals. Never mind. On the positive side we remain unbeaten on our travels in Europe and have yet to concede a goal.

Oh how we could have done with Billy in our two matches against Astra! I was interested to read today that Dundee Utd have tried to sign him several times but that their valuation and that of Wigan are "poles apart" according to Caldwell. Presumably Utd have money to spend so it would be interesting to know how much they have offered for Mckay and what Wigan's valuation of him is. Presumably Wigan want a lot more than they paid for him despite the fact that he has yet to score for them!

Celtic are not appealing the ban and I think that is very wise. A 6 game ban is really not very much for such a serious offence and any appeal could result in a significantly longer ban. The surprising thing for me in all of this is that Celtic have actually signed the player knowing what he is like. I just hope they don't condone his thuggery like his previous employers did, although I live more in hope than expectation.

Great draw for us and a massive incentive to get through to the next round. Interesting draw for Aberdeen as well. After their superb win in Croatia they must be favourites to progress to the next round where they would face another trip to Eastern Europe, but a very winnable tie. A win in Q3 would take them just one game away from the group stages and that must be quite a realistic prospect for them now. Should Aberdeen get to the group stages that would be really good for the Scottish game (plus it would probably provide a distraction from league business) so let's wish them well in their European venture.

Racist chanting? I think you are mistaken. I heard no racist chanting but I did hear the Astra players referred to as tipsy because they kept falling over as if they were drunk.

Maybe Yogi has good reason to believe Fon Williams is a better keeper than Esson but I think it was a mistake playing him simply because there will not have been enough time for him and the defenders to get to know each other and develop an understanding. There was poor communication between him and the defence on a few occasions and not just at the crucial free kick. A couple of back passes were played to his left as though instinctively the defender thought it was Esson in goal. Not sure that Lopez offers us a great deal upfront. He seems to have good control and has quick feet, but he won little if anything in the air and his movement was limited. He had one good chance but shot tamely straight at the keeper. Hopefully he will show up better when he gets to know the way the team plays a bit more. Good to see Foran back but did he actually touch the ball? The North Stand gave him a great ovation when he came on but at the end he seemed to storm off the park without acknowledging the crowd in the North Stand and with barely a word for opponents or team mates alike. What was that all about? Overall though we were the better side and for a first game of the season against a different style of opponent and with new faces in the side plus a bit of rearrangement to do, it was a pretty decent performance. Astra are no great shakes and we are still very much in the tie. We do need to get at them though in order to create more chances and we need to strike the ball with conviction when the chances do come our way.

Wow! Never saw that one coming!

5764 in Perth tonight. Surely we can get more than that for our first ever European match!!!

Now signed for Celtic for £1.5m! There is something far wrong in the game when a player like that is sold for that kind of money. It does seem a lot of money for Celtic to pay just to make sure he doesn't kick Brown in the head again. I wonder if Dundee Utd will make better use of the money this time.

One would like to think that the club would be announcing that all tickets had been sold by now. I don't know what more the club can reasonably do. I think the whole of the Highlands is well aware that ICT won the Scottish Cup and will be the first team in the Highlands ever to play in a European competition. By definition, our first ever game in Europe is something which will never happen again and if people aren't motivated yet to buy a ticket then I don't think anything the club can say or do will make any difference. It will be interesting to see what the crowd actually is, but if we can't get close to a full house for this one then you can kiss goodbye to any hope of ever making significant increases to our average gates.

Is that why he moved to the USA?

A very crude comparison would suggest that as England has 10 times the population of Scotland it should have 10 football clubs for every 1 in Scotland. Top tier in Scotland has 12 clubs so it seems reasonable that the 2nd tier could be seen as broadly comparable with the level below the 92 clubs in the football league. I think what we see of Conference (now the "National" league) football and the players who emerge from there bear this out as a reasonable comparison.

Another angle here is the role Brian Rice has taken on when "on holiday". Players warm up before a game to tone up the muscles to avoid injury. If they don't warm up properly then they could sustain an injury either during the warm up or early in the game and that could lead to some awkward liability issues, particularly if a player was injured doing an exercise specifically directed by Rice. Now I appreciate Rice knows what's he's doing and that he would be doing what he's doing nominally under Yogi's supervision, but the fact remains that a club at our level should not have people who are not employees of the club taking training / warm up sessions with the players. I wonder therefore whether Rice has some contract with the club or failing that, what form of approval for his involvement the club has given. Noting also the public criticism Yogi made of the Board in relation to getting trialists up here, one gets the impression that there are some significant tensions behind the scenes. It is all a bit unsettling at the start of what should be a historic season for the club.

Well, the Women's World Cup is over and we haven't had a thread for it on our football forum. That's a shame, so let me belatedly put it to rights. It is a shame that there is not a higher profile for the women's game because it can be pretty entertaining. There seems to me no reason why women should not be equally able to develop good ball skills or be able to spot a good ball and I am sure as the profile of the game increases and more young girls are inspired to take up the game, even more players with even better skills will emerge. The world cup has produced some really good moments and good goals as illustrated in the link below. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/33398720 Where the game does have a significant difference to the men's game is the relative size of the keepers to the goals. A theme that comes through in the compilation is that when a shot is well placed, the keepers lack both the height and the leaping power to reach the ball. This should, in theory, increase the chances of a shot at goal being successful and therefore should encourage attempts at goal. The smaller stature of the women keepers must be equivalent to increasing the size of the goal in the men's game by about 15cm all round. Another difference has been significantly less foul play and gamesmanship (cheating) than we see in the men's game. And without getting into the England v Scotland thing, England's success in coming 3rd must be good for raising the profile of the women's game throughout the UK. The Women's World Cup has been a breath of fresh air and I look forward to seeing the game continuing to develop.

Would they be allowed to register women as players if they made the highest bid?

I believe he was playing in midfield tonight. Mind you, I have always been of the view that he's better in midfield than at full back.

Where Tansey has not been so great last season is free kicks. I agree with the point about Tansey coping well with the pressure of a penalty but Roberts looks as though he could be an option for free kicks.