DoofersDad

I'm rather unclear about what Foran's thinking is. There does need to be tightening in the defence but I'm not sure how signing 2 new strikers sits with that. I agree with IHE that the signing of 2 additional strikers to join the 3 we currently have must herald a change to having two up front. But if we have central midfielders sitting a bit deeper and restrict the forays of the full backs in order to tighten the back, what's the plan for scoring goals? Are we going to hoof the ball up to the strikers in the hope they will win the ball and play off each other. If you play 2 strikers and have Tansey and Draper sitting fairly deep, then you can only play two of Polworth, Doran, King, Cole, Vigurs or Mulraney in between. It rather reduces the options for creativity. In this scenario I can see Cole becoming the key player for us for the rest of the season.

Sadly, there seems to be generally less interest in cup matches than league matches these days. In the season when we won the cup we only had a crowd of just over 2000 for our home QF against Raith. 4th round games against lower league opposition have generally attracted little over 1000. Whilst I think we ought to be able to sell out our allocation, the harsh reallity is that if we can take 1000 to Elgin then that will be a pretty good turn out compared to recent cup games.

How many mothers do you have RiG?

Should be a really cracking atmosphere and a cracking cup tie, but unfortunately I've got a prior commitment and won't be able to go. I should be OK for the replay though

Perfect day for a game of football today. No doubt winter will arrive once the winter break is over.

I can't see the Board sacking Foran. Having given him a massive vote of confidence by giving him a four year contract the Board would lose credibility by doing so. Ending his contract so soon would also cost money which would inhibit the potential both for replacing him with someone with a track record and investing in new players. It is not a question of sacking Foran, it is a question of how he can be supported at this early stage of his career so that he can begin to deliver on the potential they clearly see in him. I agree with much of what has been said about the reasons for us struggling this season but at the end of the day, the margins between success and failure are very fine and had we got a bit more of the rub of the green at times this year, we could be sitting in the top six and not at the foot of the table. Had that been the case, we'd all be saying what a good job Richie is doing. But we are where we are. We are not adrift at the bottom - far from it, but achieving safety does require a significant improvement in results. In most seasons, averaging a point a game would see a team above the bottom 2. We have 16 points from 21 games and therefore to get 38 points by the end of the season we need another 22 from just 17 more games. That is 1.3 points per game. St Johnstone in 5th spot are currently averaging 1.4 points per game, so that gives a measure of the standard we need to produce for the rest of season. I'm not going to comment now on what I think is wrong and how it might be improved, but what I would be interested in is what the Board's attitude to relegation is. We are not a club that has the resources to buy our way out of relegation every year and whilst I am sure there will be some resources available, any players available who are better than we have now will cost a lot. Foran's 4 year contract indicates a long term plan which perhaps accepts we may go down this season with time then to rebuild without over-committing financially. A club our size has absolutely no right to expect to be in the top flight year on year. Personally, I don't think relegation in itself would be a disaster. What would be a disaster would be to spend silly money in order to avoid relegation and then get relegated in any case. I do often wonder about the wisdom of saying that we need to strengthen. What it does is to say to the current players that they are not considered good enough. As I said earlier, the margins between success and failure are very fine and with a bit of good luck, a bit of improvement at the back and some improvement in tactical awareness I am convinced that we have a squad good enough to avoid the drop. Despite our lowly position, we have seen some entertaining football this season, and I have seen enough to be convinced that whether or not we go down this year, a future with Richie Foran at the helm for the next few years will be a very exciting one.

Good work. Always interesting to read.

HT 1-1 FT 2-2 ICT Polworth Opp Boyce Crowd 5,776 Yellow 6

HT 1-0 FT 2-1 Ist ICT Cole 1st Opp Ainsworth Crowd 2744

HT 1-0 FT 3-1 ICT Polworth Opp Waghorn Yellows 6 Crowd 47,662

Owain a manger.

That's because the car parks there are owned through the Private Finance Initiative. I think there are 2 or 3 other hospitals in Scotland in a similar position.

HT 1 - 0 FT 2 - 1 ICT Doumbouya Opp Coulibaly Crowd 3089

I think the error here is to assume there is actually a correct way of saying any name. Just as people in different parts of Scotland pronounce things differently depending where they are from, so do people in Wales. It is not always simply the distinctive accents, but which syllable you emphasise. An example of that would be the name Lamont and, of course, with regard to place names, Balloch is pronounced up here very differently to the Balloch close to Glasgow. Surely the thing is to respect the way the owner of the name pronounces it and do the best you can within your normal accent to follow that. An exception to that general rule of courtesy would be if you were ever to meet a real life Hyacinth Bucket. Perhaps we should get Dean Brill back

Can someone point me to the SFA edict which states that when players are up against Lonsana Doumbouya they are allowed to pull his shirt, physically grab any part of his anatomy, push him in the back with both hands, put their hands on his shoulders when jumping for the ball, block him of with their elbows, kick him and trip him up? It happens week in and week out and referees simply ignore it. There are times when the poor lad looks quite bemused as to why he is not being awarded a foul.

An entertaining game. Given our injury problems I am happy to settle for a draw although we could have won the game and jumped from 12th to 7th. I think in the first half and the earlier part of the 2nd half we created enough chances to have won the game but the longer the game went on the more likely it looked that any winner would come at the wrong end of the pitch. We need a bit more composure in front of goal and we need better balls into the middle. We also need to be a bit more disciplined at times. Draper, who was captain for the day, nearly followed Warren's example in getting sent of for needless fouls. He got a deserved yellow for a pretty reckless challenge and was lucky not to get another one later. Mulraney needlessly gave away the free kick from which Hamilton scored. He was goal side of the player with the ball and rather than just stay goal side he lunged in when he was never going to get the ball. We also gave away 2 or 3 more free kicks in dangerous positions and it is this sort of lack of composure that is regularly costing us. It was good to see Cole have a good game. In some other games he seems to have been caught out by the pace of the game but he looked a lot more aware today and took his goal really well. It would be great if we were able to extend his loan.

There will be two or three playing through the pain today. If an outfield player is needed in goals my bet would be Drapes. ictfcsince94 is spot on that the players need our support today. I think Hamilton will be pressing us hard and be right in our faces. I can see us losing an early goal and that is when the guys will need our support and not have people getting on their backs. In the circumstances, I would be happy with a draw but a win would be a real morale booster. Forget the Christmas shopping - get behind the team!

HT 0-2 FT 1-3 ICT Doran Opp Imrie Crowd 2566

Criticising the team on this forum is fair enough (I do it myself) but it would carry a bit more weight if people supported the team a bit more on match days. Let's face it, we don't exactly provide much encouragement for the guys on the park, especially when they really need a lift from the crowd. We've actually played some pretty decent stuff at home this year and it has been a good bit more entertaining to watch than last season. Yet crowds are poor, we make very little noise and as soon as the performance drops of a bit we moan like hell. I have to say I was rather embarrassed when Aberdeen's 3rd goal went in the other week and about half of the already sparse home crowd got up and headed for the gates. I know it was disappointing, but just what message does that give to the players! We are a small club with a small budget and a small squad which is currently badly hit by injuries. It's at times like this that the team really need to see and hear the support of the fans. Next week's match against Hamilton is now one we really need to win or we could risk becoming isolated at the bottom. Hamilton are also struggling having only won twice all season so this is a game we would normally be expecting to win. It will be depressing in the extreme if we lose. So let's get behind the team rather than getting on their backs. We want our team to do well, so lets give them a bit of help and show our positive support on Saturday.

Sounds like a very sensible decision to me. He has worked hard over many years to reach his goal in F1 and whilst some wish to continue at the top for as long as they can others prefer to quit whilst at the top. Good luck to him, I say. To defend his title he would be forced to stay at Mercedes with Hamilton as his "team mate". This has 2 distinct disadvantages. Firstly he would have to compete with Hamilton who is undoubtedly a better and more competitive driver. Secondly he would have to spend yet another year working in the same team as Hamilton who is not exactly the greatest person to have as a work mate. Rosberg leaves with the upper hand over Hamilton and I'm sure that denying Hamilton the opportunity to take the title from him will probably give him as much pleasure as winning it in the first place.

This sounds like really superb news for the club but I doubt it will have a huge impact on the club's day to day finances. Presumably we make savings in terms of lease payments but there may be more expenditure in relation to rates and maintenance. It is the AGM next week so perhaps we will then know a little bit more about what this means in practical terms.

HT 0-1 FT 2-1 ICT Doumbouya Opp Swanson Crowd 2913

It's such a conspiracy that everything you might want to know about it is freely available on the Government's own website. You can read all about it at http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/investigatorypowers.html The reason we haven't heard a lot about it is simply that opposition parties, the media in general and the usual civil rights campaign groups don't see it as something to get too excited about.

Great news. Top player with a great attitude. A great example to the youngsters coming through the system.

HT 1-0 FT 1-2 ICT Doumbouya Opp Wighton Crowd 5,388