hislopsoffsideagain

An eloquent statement from the chairman, summing up the argument in favour of voting 'yes'.  That said, I thought St. Mirren's statement was a good presentation of the argument for 'no'.

I'm no fan of 12-12-18, and for what it's worth I think we simply need to add in a second relegation place or a relegation/promotion playoff from the SPL to the current setup; given the obvious misgivings a lot of clubs and fans have about introducing the new setup in time for August, I think the sensible solution is to implement the things everyone seems to agree on - financial redistribution, one governing body, getting rid of 11-1 - right now, and then spend the summer debating the rest of it.

That said, Kenny Cameron has so far proved to be a very able chairman and I have full trust in him.  Therefore, if he says that voting 'yes' is the way forward, I'll stand behind him.

To be honest, I don't think the size of the top division is the reason Scottish football is on it's knees.  I think it's because fans are charged ridiculous amounts for a mediocre product - for example, £26 for a ticket for a televised home game against St. Johnstone on a cold Friday night.  And they wonder why supporters aren't coming to games...

St Johnstone certainly have the knack for how to stop us playing - in all three matches against them this season we've looked a bit untidy and struggled to put much together.

St J looked far more comfortable on the ball but didn't create all that much - on the other hand, Andy Shinnie, Doran and Draper passed up excellent chances even though we didn't play well.

I'm not sure about this fad Butcher has for playing Draper wide - we miss his energy and running in the centre of the park.  Foran and Jones aren't nearly as mobile and St Johnstone's midfield ran them ragged a bit.

On the bright side, I thought Meekings was absolutely terrific tonight.  Devine had a rocky first half, but was excellent in the second.

I think we can look back on that as a point gained which at least hinders St Johnstone's chances of catching us a bit.  Hopefully Hearts do us a favour tomorrow by taking points off County.

At the time, I thought the penalty decision was a shocker; having watched the Alba pictures it seems a very difficult one to call - one angle seems to suggest Ikonomou got the ball and one does not.  I'm not complaining, mind!  Iain Brines was just embarrassing; asking a policeman to go and have a chat with Derek Adams seems pretty cowardly to me, and he showed the patience of a saint with Vigurs' dissent and repeated fouls.  I'm just grateful that we got the rub of the green with the clown's biggest decision.

I've not come away from any of the derbies this season thinking we were particularly better than County, and today was the same.  After we got the early goal, they dominated midfield and we struggled to get any possession.  That said they created very little before Lawson's goal.  It was certainly a terrific hit, but I'm flabbergasted no-one got out to try and block it, and disappointed that Esson didn't save it - I thought he had plenty of time to get across his goal and he got a hand on it.  I'm not too worried about Reguero being in goal for a bit - for me, the Spaniard has looked the superior keeper this season.

The back four played very well for the most part; I thought Taylor really struggled at Dens Park last week but he did an excellent job this afternoon and was probably our best player.  Warren, Meekings and Raven were all good.  I'm not convinced the shape of the midfield was a good idea, but as the game went on Foran had more influence in the middle of the park and Draper got into it more and more.

I'll take that result - and the sour look on Adams' face - any day.  Hopefully we can get through the last derby of the season - I'm certain there will be one more - with an unbeaten record for the campaign against County

That was as good a nil-nil as you'll see for a while.  There was some really slick passing play from both teams at times, though in truth United looked more likely to win as the game went on.  Jackie Mac has them well drilled already, and if they play like that for the rest of the season they are a good bet to finish second.  They seemed to be playing a 4-5-1/4-3-3 and the extra man in midfield allowed them to dominate.  That said, we spurned a few chances of our own - if Andy Shinnie had headed Doran's beautiful cross either side of the keeper he would have scored.

As stated above, Devine was absolutely terrific, as indeed was Meekings.  In fact, our back four were probably our best four players for me.  The forwards showed only flashes of quality, though Andy Shinnie looked lively.  Doran was getting a bit of stick, but our best chances seemed to come from his crosses.  Bringing on Foran to play up front was the right move as we were forced to resort to long balls, but I'd rather have Pepper's energy than Sutherland's faffing anyday.

As with almost every game we've played this season, the ref was a complete clown.  Meekings got booked for a beautifully clean sliding challenge on Russell - although it was quite clear the United player was hurt in the process.  I thought it was pretty unreasonable that some fans booed when he limped off later on - he'd come off worse from a few crunching (but fair) challenges and had tried to get up and get on with it rather than complaining.

Not a bad result, in my opinion.  Dundee United look twice the team they were when we humped them 4-0 earlier in the campaign.

I thought people might find this article amusing - Scottish football website The Terrace is running a series on every SPL club's 'worst XI' from the SPL era.  I was asked to do ICT's, and set 2004, our promotion to the SPL as the cut off point.

I'm sure there will be disagreements with some of the picks, but I think most of them will be hard to argue with...particularly the dreaded Andy Barrowman!

http://terracepodcast.com/1/post/2013/02/worst-xi-inverness-caledonian-thistle.html

What a sickener.  Feels like a defeat to be honest.

The fact is that we only have ourselves to blame for not winning.  We created more than enough chances, even without playing particularly well.  In front of goal we lacked composure.  For the first time since September, our forwards look short of confidence in the box.

For the umpteenth time, I was left perplexed by our subs.  Devine looked completely at sea in midfield.  He didn't look like he had ever played there before, and Killie just waltzed through the middle of the pitch after he came on.  Their goal came because Sutherland failed to track their left back when he raced forward, and in the process left Raven hopelessly exposed against Dayton.  All we needed at that point was a bit of extra energy on the park - bring on Pepper for crying out loud!

The referee was hopeless as usual - how he failed to give a pen for a blatant foul on McKay by Sissoko is beyond me.  Sending Shiels to the stand right at the end just seemed petty as well.

It's always going to be hard to play against 12 men.  I thought Craig Thomson's performance was flabbergasting; it was like different rules for each team.  Their defenders were all over McKay and Shinnie without punishment, yet Celtic players were awarded fouls whenever one of our guys so much as breathed on them.  From the moment Doran got blatantly tugged back on a counter-attack and he wouldn't even give a free-kick, let alone a yellow card, I knew there was no hope for us today.  He was five yards away from Fraser's blatant handball and refused to give the penalty, and 90 seconds later Celtic scored.  His decision to stop play for a Kayal 'injury' when we had an attack on was nothing short of scandalous - he signalled to everyone that there was a head knock, yet Kayal got up instantly when play stopped and had a knock to his thigh.  In most countries, people like Thomson aren't even trusted to hold a pair of scissors - in Scotland we make them referees.

I didn't think it was a poor performance from us today at all.  Draper and Doran particularly stood out for me with excellent shifts, and our full backs both played very well.  I don't know why Esson got the nod over Reguero; he looked a bit uncertain at times though I don't think he was at blame for any of the goals.  The only big disappointment was Celtic's second, where we switched off after a corner was initially cleared and Gershon was virtually unchallenged as he headed home.  I don't think it's unreasonable to claim that we have played well enough in the last four games to take something from each, and I just hope the players keep their heads held high because we will win plenty of games when we are playing as well as that.

This summed up our week nicely - we had plenty of the ball but failed to take the opportunities we had, and all the breaks went to the opposition.

Considering that we lost Foran and Andy Shinnie early on and our gameplan was out of the window, I thought we did pretty well.  Without Andy Shinnie we lacked a killer pass which was our big problem today.  We were well on top in the first half without threatening Cammy Bell - Kilmarnock spent most of it defending yet created the best chances.  The first goal was just dreadful bad luck, and the second game when we were chasing it.  Sometimes that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Contrary to IHE, I thought Nick Ross was excellent.  He, OTJ and for the most part the back four played well today.  Sadly, our forwards were quiet, though that might have been due to a lack of service.  Roberts looks dreadfully short on confidence, nothing was coming off for him at all.

Oh well, at least we have a nice easy home game next week to get us back on track...oh, wait...

This smells of an SFA **** up - they seem to have mistakenly told Hearts that Wilson is not suspended.  The subsequent explanation - or the lack of - mean that this now increasingly stinks of an SFA cover up.  Either he has served his suspension or he hasn't.  So far no-one has managed to define when he could have served the suspension - which implies that he hasn't done so.  It sounds like the club were contacted this morning and told there was no issue - they have decided to ask the SFA to explain what happened and have not received a satisfactory answer.

It doesn't sound to me like Hearts have done anything wrong, but it's increasingly likely that someone at Hampden has made an enormous error and the powers that be are hoping that, if they ignore questions about it for long enough, the problem will go away.

And what do we do if it turns out the SFA made an @rse of it?  Buggered if I know.

After every game, I think "it can't get any better than this", and the team keep proving me wrong.  Long may it continue!

I felt we were just about the better team in the first half, though Langfield only really had to make one save, a terrific stop from a Foran header.  Aberdeen looked dangerous until Hayes spurned their best chance of the game early in the second period, denied by a great Reguero stop.  After that, there was only one team in it.

All three goals were superb.  Did Andy Shinnie catch out Langfield at his near post for the first?  He seemed to have the ball pretty much on the by-line, yet he found the opposite top corner.  However he did it, it was just sublime.  The second might be the best team goal we'll score all year.  I think it was Doran who drove from midfield, then Draper back-heeled it into McKay's path, and the wee man shimmied round a defender and stuck it in the bottom corner.  I can't wait to see it again.  For the third, Raven crossed, Andy Shinnie got in front of one centre-back to flick it on, and McKay was quicker off the mark than the other centre-back to pounce and smash it in.

I can't think of any particular criticisms at all today.  It was a great team performance.  Most of the praise will go to the attackers, but the defence played very well today, with Raven and Meekings real stand-outs for me.  I was worried that the three weeks without a game might have sucked our momentum away, but no sign of that yet!

A cracking game for the neutral.  Heart attack-inducing stuff for the supporters.  Both teams seemed to just give up on the idea of defending, and the last 15 minutes saw each team taking a turn to attack the other.  Whilst we had our share of chances, St. Mirren had two goals disallowed for offside and hit the bar and post late on.  On the other hand, Craig Samson made some ridiculous saves at the other end, particularly one from a Doran header in the first half.

Andrew Shinnie was absolutely awesome today, constantly finding space and driving forward.  His goal was the latest in a line of very good goals we've scored at TCS this season, and might even be the best.  I thought Draper had a really good game today too.  The front players, as ever, looked very dangerous today.

At the back, young Cooper looked a bit shellshocked at times.  In the first half McGowan was beating him to every loose ball.  The youngster got better in the second half and there's no doubt Warren was guiding him through the game.  Not for the first time this season, Graeme Shinnie struggled when left isolated against a winger - Gary Teale appeared to be beating him at will.  I don't know what was going on for their second goal - Teale given too much time and space to cross, and Stephen Thompson given the freedom of the six yard box to head home.

We might not have got the three points, but it's still thrill-a-minute stuff so no arguments from me.

Well done guys, another superb result and another entertaining mattch too.

This was such an open game that I felt nervous right up until the fourth goal because both teams were throwing so many players forward.  Our centre backs did look a little exposed on a few occasions.  But their defence - the excellent Rab Douglas aside - is just hideous and our forwards carved them open multiple times.  Another terrific performance from McKay leading the line, and Andy Shinnie was just about unplayable in the second half.

You wouldn't know we were 4-1 up if you'd looked at our dugout, where the boss appeared to have come down with an acute case of Tourette's in the second half!  As far as I could tell, the standside linesman, Graeme Shinnie and Richie Foran bore the brunt of his ire...

And isn't it nice that Colin Nish didn't score against us for a change?

We are second in the SPL at Christmas.  Bloody hell.

I was furious at missing this game for 'personal reasons' - turns out my decision to avoid the score and watch it on SkyPlus meant I was at least spared the cold weather and able to fast forward the last 20 minutes!

First things first - the manager picked the wrong team. Butcher clearly remembered that Humphrey has taken Graeme Shinnie to town many times in the past and wanted Foran as extra protection on the left...but Foran offered no extra help, Humphrey ran riot, and by the time we changed it around we were two down. Not only that, but by playing Morrison and Jones in the middle we had no-one to get stuck in and make tackles - this is where Foran maybe should have started the match. When Butcher did move Richie up field, he stuck Andy Shinnie wide left where he saw virtually none of the ball.

Of course, maybe Foran should have started up front - or even Sutherland - as Billy McKay has started 15 home games as an ICT player and we have won only two of those. Unfortunately when the likes of Motherwell (and Hearts last week) stop us from passing up the pitch, we can only hoof long balls, and McKay can't win them. It's not all his fault - he can't help that he is 5ft 8in. But he gets a lot more joy when we are away from home or when we are winning games and can play on the break.

Aside from Doran (who ran his cotton socks off), the relatively solid Draper (relative to his fellow defenders at least) and Reguero (prior to his blunder for the fifth goal) the players were poor. Warren and Meekings have been outstanding as a partnership - but Warren was utterly bossed by Higdon today. Meekings was dreadful as well, and he will feel sick when he sees replays of his header straight to Murphy for the second goal. As mentioned above, Graeme Shinnie could not cope with Humphrey at all - the 1st and 2nd goals came because the winger got away and put in lousy crosses which we failed to clear properly (the first one was returned by the outstanding Law to set up Higdon). Sorry, Graeme, but you also fell asleep at the back post for the fourth goal as well - Cummins was your man and you lost him.

In conclusion, the coaching staff didn't do their job well, the players didn't do their job well, and the crowd (in terms of numbers, volume and encouragement) didn't do their job well. So it's no wonder we got absolutely shellacked.

Let's just hope it is a one-off, and not a sign that we are in a false position. But one thing is for certain - if Ross Draper has only one leg we still have to play him next week.

I think it's a sign of how well we've been doing that we feel disappointed by only getting a point at home to Hearts.

A fair result in the end, but the penalty decision was a shocker. Jones is going to clear the ball and the Hearts player runs into his leg.

The big disappointment today was how disjointed our attacking players looked - in previous weeks they've appeared to have a telepathic understanding but today they looked like they'd never met before. We certainly don't look threatening when Doran and Andy Shinnie aren't playing well.

In contrast our back four deserve plenty of plaudits - I thought they were all phenomenal today. David Raven looks twice the player he seemed in August. Warren and Meekings were majestic and Graeme Shinnie did well too., Foran also gave everything today.

A bit of an off day really, but it's another point gained, I suppose.

Over the course of the 90 minutes I think a draw is fair - until we got the penalty (which would have ended up in the Firth but for the roof of the North Stand) St Johnstone looked to be shading it. But we had plenty of chances to double our lead, and the late equalizer was a soft goal which was all the more sickening - our back four had played extremely well up to that point. Warren was MOTM for me, with Raven and Graeme Shinnie also very decent. Reguero's parents were sitting next to my mum and dad and must have been proud of their son's performance - a couple of terrific stops which justified his inclusion ahead of Esson. McKay put in an excellent shift up front and took his goal really well; he was denied a terrific second by Mannus' fingertips. Andy Shinnie's hideous penalty and his subsequent miss from about 4 yards overshadowed what I thought was an otherwise good performance from him.

St Johnstone looked like a very decent team to me and a draw is not a shabby result at all. And at least Tade didn't score...

That was about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on.

To be honest, I thought that Utd were the better team in the first half an hour, but after we took the lead they absolutely collapsed and we played them off the park.

There were some quality goals there too. Foran's first was a glorious finish, curled first-time into the top corner. His second was a smashing header as well, set up by a quality cross from Roberts. There was an element of Keystone Cops about the third, from Andy Shinnie, but for me the fourth was the best of the lot. All Roberts' strike needed was Alan Partridge screaming "He must have a foot like a traction engine!" It nearly took the net off.

An excellent performance from back to front. Foran led the line brilliantly and Doran, Roberts and Shinnie were all excellent. Roberts, like David Davis last year, has a technique and skill level far ahead of anyone else; once he gets fully fit (he looked knackered even at half time) then we might see some fireworks! Draper was superb again. Morrison has an element of Russell Duncan about him - he doesn't seem to do much but we look more solid with him in front of the defence. The back four dealt with Daly and Russell well. I'm not sure Meekings put a foot wrong all day. Given the criticism that has come his way this season, Raven's good performance deserves mention too.

I assume Esson was injured in the warmup? Reguero is a bit unorthodox but he made some decent saves and his distribution was great.

Aside from another useless referee, no complaints from me at all. It's a long time since I've enjoyed a ICT game this much. Bring on the County!

Should we just start every game with ten men? It seems like we play better after we have a man sent off...

I'd have taken a draw at half-time, and bitten your hand off if you'd offered it to me after Jones was sent off. Amazingly, I ended up feeling disappointed that we hadn't won.

The first half might have been the most banal 45 minutes ever. The fans might as well have been sunbathing. Nothing actually happened on the pitch. The second half more than made up for it.

My first instinct was that Jones should have seen yellow rather than red - but he leapt in, his leg was off the deck and it was reckless. The ref was well positioned to make the call. I felt sorry for Ryan Fraser, who was the victim of two rather bad tackles from Raven and Foran as well, and looked like he could barely walk by the time he was substituted. The other sending off, on the other hand, was a no brainer. Sutherland got through, and showed real presence of mind to cut across Anderson, meaning that the defender couldn't win the ball without bringing him down...and Anderson fell for it.

If only we hadn't @rsed up that four-on-one break - how on earth did Doran squander that? - we would have taken all three points. Unfortunately, a pretty good defensive performance was ruined by a collective loss of concentration when Aberdeen took a quick free kick, and Cammy Smith was unmarked to head home from six yards out.

Still, at least we're off the bottom.

Some very good performances today. I thought Ross Draper was immense in midfield. Blackman slotted in well at left back, and until the goal I thought Warren and Meekings were solid. Foran had a rank first half but, after dropping into midfield when we went down to ten men, he was a changed man and must have covered every blade of grass in the second half. Sutherland had his best performance for aeons after he came on - it was gutting to see him stretchered off at the death.

It wasn't really a day for either Doran or Andy Shinnie, who couldn't get on the ball enough to make an impact. I'll cut Ryan Esson some slack because of the wind, but he flapped at a lot of crosses. And I'm sorry, but David Raven was terrible yet again. As soon as Hogg, King, Cooper and Brislen-Hall are fully fit, I don't think he'll be anywhere near the team. And as for the manager - he is lucky the fourth official was in sympathetic mood, considering some of the abuse Butcher was giving the ref - turning around to the crowd and screaming "He's the worst referee I've ever seen" is usually enough to get you sent to the stands. It's the first case I've ever seen of a middle-aged man developing an acute case of Tourette's.

At least this is a bit more positive than my last few after-match posts! Still think it's going to be a struggle against the drop, but I wonder whether the Dons might be one of the teams we're fighting with...

As regards Paul Sheerin - both Craig Levein and Mixu Paatelainen made the jump from second division to SPL as coaches.

Paul Hartley is another young coach doing well in the lower leagues.

For all those people saying "Who can we get who is better?" - I point you at St Johnstone's successful appointments of rookies Owen Coyle and Derek McInnes, or Derek Adams over the bridge, as examples. They took a chance on young coaches and have been rewarded.

I feel Butcher still belongs to the stone age of football managers, where they think that all you need to do on matchday is tell the players to "go out and get it right up 'em". I can't think of any occasion when a tactical change by him has changed a game in our favour, but plenty where the opposition have changed their system and we've not been able to respond. He no longer seems capable of making this team even the equal of the sum of their parts (let alone greater than), nor does he seem to be able to coach up players - Ross, Graeme Shinnie and Sutherland, for example, have not become particularly better players over the last two years.

This feels like 4 years ago, where Brewster was clearly a lame duck and the team were a mess.

Since we beat Hearts in January, we have won three out of nineteen league matches (one of which was against a second string Hibs side). In that period we have conceded 43 goals. On four occasions we have conceded four goals; twice we have conceded three.

You have to admit, plenty of clubs have sacked managers following runs of form as bad as this, have they not?

I'm sorry, but this now feels like September 2008, when Brewster's ICT side couldn't buy a win. And we all know what happened then...

Is it time to panic yet? Because I'm feeling pretty panicky...

Good game for the neutral, that.

What the hell was OTJ thinking? It was a cynical foul but he should know a damn sight better than to raise his hands and then try to headbutt the guy. The ref had no choice but to send him off and I hope he's feeling pretty ashamed at the moment.

It was all the more disappointing as I thought he'd had a great game today up to that point. We'd started well but after Doran missed the one-on-one at 1-0 we lost momentum and Killie bossed the latter stages of the first half. Racchi's penalty was rubbish but Esson's save from the rebound was stunning. Everyone around me thought he was at fault for their equalizer though - couldn't tell from my angle.

The second half was about even stevens until the red card - though even then we passed up the best chance of the latter stages when Bell somehow kept out a close-range header from Nick Ross. Surely Nick must start next week - he did well again as a sub, and is a much better option than the mediocre Sutherland.

I'm quite impressed by our two new centre-backs - both looked pretty comfortable.

I'm still not sure about Butcher's tactics - Killie were having a field-day in wide areas, mainly because Sutherland and Doran wouldn't track back. We were absolutely swamped by their five man midfield and Killie dominated possession for long periods. And pushing Doran up front initially after McKay's substitution was bizarre.

All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with a point today, as I think we can play better. And we will need to. But it's still eight years since we won our first home league game of the season (and that was at Pittodrie!).

These clubs should be applauded for not responding to threats and bullying, not criticized for refusing to kowtow.

Of course, the SFL clubs would still be quite up for reconstruction...but how come it isn't an option unless the Newco get preferential treatment? I'd quite like Kenny and the other SPL chairmen to explain that.

Absolutely spot on.

Why, thank you sir.

I understand Kenny's frustration at the fact that the reconstruction plans have not gone through.

However you only have to look at the statements coming out of clubs like Clyde, Annan, Raith and Ayr to see that reconstruction was only going to happen IF they stuck Rangers in div one...and the proposal was simply for some sort of working committee to discuss it and come up with a plan by November. Unsurprisingly the SFL clubs didn't trust Regan, Doncaster et al one inch, especially when they were effectively told 'if you don't agree, we'll form SPL2 and let you lot wither and die". These clubs should be applauded for not responding to threats and bullying, not criticized for refusing to kowtow.

Of course, the SFL clubs would still be quite up for reconstruction...but how come it isn't an option unless the Newco get preferential treatment? I'd quite like Kenny and the other SPL chairmen to explain that.