MacShimidh

In answer to the original question, after watching yesterday's game I'd say:

Both. Oakley to start, Baird to come on as a second striker in the last 10 minutes for whoever looks knackered out of the front three.

Good team win that. We didn't have any weak links tonight, Vigurs and Polwarth worked hard off the ball, and the defence watched each other's backs well. Up front, there was some really sublime one-touch stuff, Mulraney scored one, made one and his goal was a beauty. Full-backs contained Falkirk for most of the game, Calder looked really decent and Mackay didn't make any errors. More of the same would do nicely!

17 minutes ago, Scarlet Pimple said:

Very pleased for oor John Robertson who deserves this win. 

And the club and players for what appears from afar as another good effort.  Am I wrong in thinking that Ian Vigurs was not playing. Sorry about that if not.

Vigurs suspended after sending off against St. Mirren. Polwarth put in an excellent midfield shift, outstanding delivery from corners as well as a good range of passing from him. Bell and Mulraney both lively and the defence looked pretty solid after an early scare. All in all, a really impressive team performance, beautiful fourth goal from Oakley and good to see Doran back on his feet. Nice work all round!

Whatever the terms, it's water under the bridge now.

At least the club and now the board have eventually taken pretty decisive action. Onwards and upwards.

 

2 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

I'm in London

Glen Affric. At least you can get radio

Bloody hell.

I'm working on Saturday.

Josh Meekings is a hell of a player.

First 43 minutes we went toe to toe with a better team and didn't look like a result was beyond us for the 1st 1/2 hour of that. Lost one goal to a great individual strike, lost another and all our confidence to a classic defensive clusterduck, and then went to pieces.

I've seen a lot worse, tbh. The only thing I'm glum about is results elsewhere which have piled on more of the sticky stuff. It's snorkel time.

Billy Mckay  - not just for the reasons well set out above, but also because he makes it very plain what he thinks of the service he is getting - or not getting, and sets the bar for pressing and trying to win lost causes. 

It has to be said, whoever at the club got him back when they did deserves a massive pat on the back.

2 hours ago, ictfcsince94 said:

I think Billy King still out injured

Vigurs in then, and hook him for Mulraney if he can't be arsed.

To be fair, he is our best set-piece taker by a long way - which is the second reason I'd drop Tansey.

                       OFW

MacKay   Warren   Meekings   Tremarco

          Draper      Polworth

     Doran        Cole         King

                     McKay  

With Billy back, I reckon the best chance to get him scoring is to play the system he was used to last time he was here - fullbacks have to focus on defence and feed the wide-men - who have to stay wide, not all get sucked into the middle. Cole has decent vision, and with Mulraney, King and Doran we have three players who are best when they play wide. Midfield is weak at the moment, but I think Polwarth and Vigurs could both do a job in there alongside Draper if they knuckle down.

Hoping for the best, but not super-confident. I don't think we've really adapted to losing Graeme Shinnie - Tremarco has been heroic going forward, but he doesn't have the same eye for a pass.

I think Richie may be close to the quitting stage tbh - that last interview suggested he doesn't know how to lift the players, and one more performance like the last couple might confirm that. He cares about the club, and I wouldn't be surprised if he falls on his sword.

I feel really sorry for him - the decision to promote him to manager without being an assistant first was a really bad call by the board - presumably largely because they didn't want to pay off Rice, who had just joined. I'm a bit baffled that they didn't manage to fire Hughes rather than keep paying him, after his unprofessional conduct towards the end of his stay.

Water under the bridge though - it's the future that matters, and it looks like change is probably required.

Whoops, someone spotted this in Ryan's Twitter history from 2012:

Awkward

2 hours ago, 12th Man said:

Maybe Aberdeen could afford to pay a higher contribution. Christie didn't even make a subs appearance at the weekend and there's nothing to say he will get a lot more game time at Aberdeen

 

Makes sense if Hayes and possibly McGinn are offski.

Anier could be a great signing. He only got ten starts at United, the rest of his appearances were off the bench, late in games.

Got injured on loan at Hibs, so it was sub appearances there as well. Sometimes stats do lie.

2 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

There may be defensive issues this season but it can hardly be said that scoring goals has not been the problem. Scoring goals is a problem and remains so. We may have a forward players on the books but none of them can be described as reliable goal scorers let alone anywhere close to being prolific.

Actually, outside of the top four of Hearts, Aberdeen and the ugly sisters, we've scored the most goals (26). It's that big (40) conceded which is sinking us.

I'd say from the games I've been at it's the shape of the team that's not working, rather than pointing the finger at the defence. The ball isn't sticking up front, and
the midfield just don't seem to be able to protect the back four at all. To my mind, it's players not knowing and sticking to their roles, rather than individual weakness as such.

6 hours ago, forresjags said:

Boden did ok against County and looks like a player that can link up play.

Boden and Fisher upfront against Elgin and lets ditch the lone striker role that creates nothing.

Yep, I liked his attitude against County, he didn't get enough time to do much, but he looked keen.

The omens weren't great:

 

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

was thinking some folk might think that ICTFC means "I see TFC" but its a moot point now .... cant make anything out of GVAJ ___

Goal Vincent!
And Jubilation

We should really use the whole name, not the acronym "INVERNESS", I think:

It's
Not
Very
Exciting
Right
ee 'Nuff
Even
Saturdays
Sundays

More exciting than Dingwall, of course ;-)

Ach no, put the microphone away David, you're too good a right-back to be supporting Rod Stewart.

Back to the day job!

Team that knocked us out of the Scottish Cup did alright too!

17 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

Exactly this, hopefully recent developments will have the double bonus of enabling us to retain our fine and fully committed right back as well as being able to employ Tremarco in his most effective position in central defence.

Tremarco's a left back, surely?

Did you mean Meekings?

I would be intrigued by the combination of Russell Latapy as manager, and Richie Foran as assistant - wouldn't bet a fortune on the results, but it could just work...