Caley Mad In Berks

Well, I'll take that. I'm sure I'm not the only one breathing a sigh of relief in what could have been a real banana skin fixture. Well done lads. A couple of league victories before the next cup match will do us nicely.

Only ex ICT scorer I spotted this afternoon (14 Jan) was Shane Sutherland in Elgin's 3-2 win over Annan. Hope that is his lot now for this month, with our game against them coming up!

Well done BB. I missed those Irish Cup games. Have added this goal into my running totals for 2017.

I see one of our ex players, Nauris Bulvitis, is only on the bench today for Plymouth at Liverpool. It is on BT Sport live right now. I wonder if we'll see any seething from Mr Adams today? To be fair to him, he has done much better with Plymouth than many expected, and certainly better than his old adversary, Mr Butcher did with Newport, after they both went south more or less at the same time a couple of years ago.

Sat -07 Jan 2017 SL1 R McAllister (Peterhead 2 - Livingston 3) SL 2 S Sutherland (2) (Elgin 3 - Montrose 0) Highland League S Soane (2) (Clach 2 - Forres 4) Z Sutherland (Inverurie 2 - Brora R 2)

Curtis Allen with two tonight,(3 Jan), in Glentoran's 5-0 win at Portadown

Good news. Hopefully now, with all talk of an impending move out of the way for a few months, he can settle down and get back his form to the level of previous seasons.

I suspect Boden will have to leave ICT to get a regular start somewhere else. He is by no means the only striker who, some would say, have not been given a real chance to shine with us. The prime example, back in 2012, was Sam Winnall, who only got two or three starts, when on loan with us in Butcher's time. As soon as he returned to England he became a regular scorer with Scunthorpe, and then, for the past couple of seasons, a prolific scorer with Barnsley, in both the English 1st division, and Championship. So he clearly had talent which Butcher did not see. I doubt if Boden is in that class, and I doubt we will find out while he is still with us.

2 Jan Rory McAllister gets us underway in 2017, with the only goal in a 1-0 win for Peterhead, at Brechin.

Amen to that.

I’ve tallied up the totals for 2016. By my reckoning, we had 67 exICT scorers, compiling 416 goals as follows :- 26 goals S Sutherland (Peterhead,9/Elgin,17) 25 goals S Winnall (Barnsley) 21 goals R Mcallister (Peterhead) 19 goals G Wood (Formantine) 18goals Z Sutherland (Brora R) 17 goals A Rooney (Aberdeen), C Allen (Glentoran) 14 goals D Gillespie (Brora R), J Oswell (Newtown AFC) 13 goals S Soane (Forres) 12 goals T Agdestein (Haugesund) 10 goals S Armstrong (Celtic) 09 goals M Watkins (Barnsley), D Sanchez (FC Jazz) 08 goals M Laing (Inverurie), D Wyness (Huntly), J Hayes (Aberdeen), B Mckay (Dun U,4/Oldham,4), B Greenhalgh (Maidstone,4/Concord R,4) 07 goals D Imrie (Hamilton), M Finnis (Clach) 06 goals A McDonald (Oxford U), A MacLeod (Strathspey), D Lopez (Arenas de Getxo), L MacKinnon (Buckie), T Sho-Silva (Bromley), G Tade (Steaua Buch,2/Qatar SC,4) 05 goals T Aldred (Blackpool), R Eagle (AFC Sudbury), A Grieg (Brora R), M Bavidge (Inverurie) I Sekajja (Hemel H,2/Dulwich H,3), T Kink (SJK,2/Mezokovesd,3) 04 goals D Davis (Birmingham), C Dingwall (Formantine), C MacMillan (Rothes), R Williams (Ottawa) 03 goals J Roberts (Crawley), N Bulvitis (Plymouth), L Hughes (Barrow), D Park (Cove R) E Ofere (Dun U),G Munro (Brora R),I Black (Shrewsbury), A Chippendale (Stalybridge) 02 goals D Khutsishvili (Forres), A Evans (Shelbourne), P Roberts (Sligo), D Dods (Brechin), F Morais (Bradford),S Williams (AFC Fylde), D Cowie (Hearts),S Leslie (Clach) C Ferguson (Albion), R Christie (Celtic) 01 goal M Storey (Aberdeen), N Ross (Dundee), J Rankin (Dun U), A Shinnie (Hibs), A Barrowman (Albion), R Babtie (Peterhead), B Gilfillan (Annan), J Duff (Elgin), G Morrison (Brora R), S Duff (Cove R), A Skinner (Nairn),G Shinnie (Aberdeen)

Final goalscorers of 2016 today (31 Dec) were Sam Winnall, yet again for Barnsley in a 2-2 draw with Birmingham, and Curtis Allen for Glentoran in a 2-2 draw with Dungannon. HAPPY NEW YEAR, although I suspect, it will be drowning our sorrows tonight, instead of celebrating.

Johnny Hayes got Aberdeen's winner tonight (30 Dec) in a 1-0 win at Hearts and Michael Finnis got Clach's winner in a 2-1 win at Nairn.

By the sound of it the Motherwell game was another that was there for the taking, but we couldn't deliver the killer blow. So what has gone wrong? As others have said the nucleus of the squad has not changed much over the past couple of seasons. Some maybe are creaking a bit, and not at their former best (eg Warren/Raven) but still ,I think, with enough to offer. We've lacked a consistent goal scorer since Mckay was at his best, but we've managed, with good contributions from Watkins, Storey (at times), Ofere (for a short while), a little from Doumbouya this season, but most from good contributions from the defence and midfield (especially Draper and Tremarco). Personally I think our biggest loss is the creativity of Christie in generating the good scoring chances for the others. So all I can see which has changed are the tactics which clearly is down to the manager. When Hughes let us down big time by engineering his exit, we had no choice, given the budget, but to let Foran have a go. Even if we were to punt him now, I don't see any big names which we could afford lining up to take his place. So I think we must give Foran at least until the end of the season to get it right. I just hope he has learned enough in this first half of the season to make the adjustments necessary to keep us up. Forget top 6, survival is the only aim now. I don't go along with those saying a spell back in the Championship might do us good. What rubbish! If we go down I can't see us getting back up first time, or maybe at all. So it is all hands to the pump, including we, the supporters, to do our bit. Losing becomes a habit, and we must snap out of it immediately, starting at County on Saturday. I feel certain that the confidence gained from beating them, would be an enormous boost, just what we need to get the second half of the season going in the way we all want. So onwards and upwards ICT.

Another for Stuart Armstrong tonight (28 Dec) in their 2-0 win over County.

Adam Rooney scored the winner for Aberdeen and Doug Imrie got Hamilton's goal in today's (27 Dec) 2-1 win for Dons.

Yes, one of my favourite ever games (well, the last 5 minutes, plus ET and penalty shoot out). Nick Ross's finest hour?

S Winnall and M Watkins both score today (26 Dec) in a 2-0 win v Blackburn. How we could do with either of these this season! A Chippendale gets a consolation goal for Stalybridge Celtic in a 1-2 loss at home to Curzon Ashton

Stuart Armstrong scored for Celtic today (24 Dec) in their 3-0 win at Hamilton.

Pity, it sounded as though we matched them for much of the game. Stats from BBC looked fairly even. Shame we couldn't have gained a point. We'll need to beat 'Well on Wednesday to lift ourselves off the bottom before the New Year. Come on ICT, you can do it.

Graeme Shinnie and Adam Rooney both scored in Aberdeen's 3-1 win at Motherwell tonight (23 Dec). It was Shinnie's first goal in 2016.

I'm fed up singing about Rudolph, what about Olive? You know the one ..... Olive the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names.

Thanks for the info on that, Yngwie. I've added him to my list of ex ICT scorers.

Sat 17 Dec 2016 Eng Championship S Winnall (2) (Cardiff 3 - Barnsley 4) EL 1 I Black (Shrewsbury 2 - Bristol R 0) National League T Sho-Silva (Macclesfield 1 - Bromley 2) Anyone see it on BT Sport live? Highland League M Bavidge (Inverurie 2 - Lossiemouth 2)

Anyone not able to get to Killie tomorrow (17 Dec), with nothing better to do, could watch one of our ex players, 'Tobi' Sho-Silva, on the box (BT Sport at 12.15), playing for Bromley at Macclesfield in a National League game. (assuming he is selected of course)