Yngwie

The only good thing about our descent into the bottom 6 is that we won't have to play Motherwell again this season.

We haven't won all season with Esson in goals. On the bright side, we only conceded 3 today, which is our best showing against Motherwell this season!

****

I know it would be very very wrong, but I really would like to see Terry punch one of these people.

I'm guessing that Caley100 didn't actually make those posts himself, but I'll leave them up for the time being so that he can see them and investigate.

The league table never lies, and as at the end of January the CTO POY points were: Andrew Shinnie 38 Billy McKay 34 Richie Foran 31 Owain Tudur Jones 25 Ross Draper 21 Gary Warren 20 Aaron Doran 20 David Raven 19 Josh Meekings 16 Antonio Reguero 12 Ryan Esson 11 Graeme Shinnie 7 Andre Blackman 5 Conor Pepper 3 Philip Roberts 3 Very hard to choose when we have so many good performers, but I wouldn't disagree with the table other than to maybe move G Shinnie up a few places and Doran down a bit. And remove Blackman altogether.

But I guess the fact that we spend our time and money watching sweaty men kick a bit of leather round a field confirms that we are not rational.

It's funny how the same result can generate such different emotional reactions: 1-1 like last night - gutted, angry. 1-1 bog standard even game - indifference, ach well. 1-1 snatching an undeserved late point. What a great feeling, buzzing. And yet if we are rational, last night's scenario is actually the best of the 3 options because we showed a degree of dominance and good football that bodes well for future games, we showed that we were clearly the better team and therefore should carry more optimism than if we'd been outplayed and just got lucky.

None from 10 now!

Did you hear it from someone who had read it on here last week?

1 win in our last 8 games is relegation form, and we'll need to do better than that to hold onto a top 6 place. It is notable that Billy Mackay has scored from open play in just 1 of his last 8 games. Bubble burst?

Here's a stat for ya - in the last 2 seasons Nick Ross has scored in 5 games. We didn't win any of them.

Until they bring in Heffernan.

That's because it's not. Not even remotely.

I'm not. Football clubs are forced to pay the police a lot of money to attend, so as far as I am concerned they can blooming well turn up when we tell them to.

Yes they were the reserves and yes hit the woodwork a couple of times too, but there was an awful lot of international standard talent on show, and the wage bill for that XI would still be many times that of our team. We would probably have got a better result against their strongest team playing half-heartedly with the CL game in mind.

When Terry was asked in an interview how to pronounce the name of his new signing, he replied "Jonesy".

Straw clutching I'm afraid.

Like this?

I thought thatm on the whole we played pretty good football today. Not too downheartened, but after this run we need a win pretty darn soon.

Inverness CT: Esson, Raven, Warren, Meekings, Graeme Shinnie, Doran, Tudur Jones, Draper, Ross, Andrew Shinnie, McKay. Subs: Reguero, Sutherland, Polworth, Pepper, Roberts, Devine, Taylor. Celtic: Forster, Gershon, Fraser, Rogne, McGeouch, Kayal, Commons, Rogic, McCourt, Miku, Stokes. Subs: Zaluska, Matthews, Nouioui, Herron, Watt, Atajic, Chalmers.

Well, 70% favoured Reguero, but the opinion that counts has opted for Esson today.

He scored 2 international goals, but both were a few months before he signed for us in September 1999.

I believe Shane has made 56 appearances off the bench for us - is this an ICT record? More importantly, is that his destiny here, to be a squad player and sub at best? Hailed somewhat bafflingly by Terry at the start of the season as the ideal replacement for Jonny Hayes, it clearly hasn't worked out that way. He's 22 now, and out of contract in a few months time. Would you offer him an extension? And would he want one, or would he fare better elsewhere, perhaps dropping a level or two in the hope of getting regular games or getting played as a striker?

As well as having the VHS and the DVD, I still have a box in the cupboard that contains several newspapers from Feb 9th 2000, which I might peruse when I get home. Pages are a bit stuck together though.