hislopsoffsideagain

My email, for what it's worth... To whom it may concern, I am a long-time fan and season ticket holder at Inverness Caledonian Thistle, and have taken much joy from this over the years. There is little doubt that, over the last few years, there will not have been many clubs whose supporters have seen as many wonderful moments as we have, ranging from the cup victories over Celtic, the first division title and a number of excellent results and performances since our promotion to the SPL. Unfortunately, this season these moments have been few and far between. My season ticket money has so far bought me only one victory, and instead numerous defeats and performances by the team which have not only been abysmal, but completely devoid of any entertainment value. This is a "credit crunch" age, where for a third of the price I could buy a cinema ticket, sit in warmer, more comfortable surroundings, and have a far better chance of a more enjoyable afternoon. While I am aware that our club's resources are somewhat smaller than most other clubs in our division, I do not feel that this will do. I suspect that a number of factors are involved, but the one constant criticism amongst fans, and journalists, is that the team currently lack tactical acumen, spirit and leadership. It would, I think, be fair to say that the man responsible for each of these is the manager. This season, Craig Brewster has proven that he can only take us in one direction - down. Statistics show that we have never had a worse season results-wise, and as we lurch from one defeat to another, there has been absolutely nothing to suggest that he can turn us round. The January transfer window is coming up, and I believe that we need to install a new man (or woman!) in the role in time to exploit this and sign the reinforcements the squad requires. If this does not happen, we will be relegated. I love this club with all my heart, but if, under the helm of Brewster, we end up in the first division, while still playing the boring, tepid football of this season, you will lose my season ticket money for next year, and every season after that until a new manager is appointed. I suspect that I many not be in the minority in this matter. Yours faithfully,

I think coming on here and answering all these questions is one hell of a gesture to us. It's been tremendously interesting and informative. May I just say that the way you constantly stand up for us during your radio appearances, taking on those who might consider us to be a piddly backward club (mind you, we probably are a middly backward club) has also been noted by the ICT support and is much appreciated.

For the love of Pete, Yes! There are things that live on the bottom of ponds that could do a better job right now.

The fans around me in the main stand weren't getting on the back of the players - we were getting on the back of Brewster! The players look completely without direction at the moment, and while a number clearly aren't playing their best, the poor tactics and the continuous theme of playing players out of position are hardly aiding things.

4ize sums up pretty well how I, and how a lot of those who sit around me, feel about the current situation.

Well, what it means is that our away record at the end of last season was utter guff. Incidentally, three of our nine wins in 2008 came against Gretna, with 11 goals scored and 1 conceded. Take those away, and those stats look even worse.

Out of interest, here's an SPL table of all matches in the calendar year 2008...it makes interesting reading. P W D L PTS Celtic 34 29 2 3 89 Rangers 37 26 6 5 84 Hearts 34 17 6 11 57 Dundee U 35 13 13 9 52 Aberdeen 34 13 6 15 45 Motherwell 34 13 6 15 45 Hibs 34 12 8 14 44 Falkirk 35 9 11 15 38 Kilmarnock 34 11 5 18 38 St. Mirren 36 9 10 17 37 ICT 35 9 5 21 32 As for the other sides: Hamilton 17 4 2 11 14 Gretna 19 3 4 12 15 Our home record - P18 W4 D4 L10 F25 A25 PTS16 Our away record - P17 W5 D1 L11 F16 A29 PTS16 This does not suggest that 2008 has been a terribly good year for this football club, does it? It says something about how much we may have to rely on other sides in order for us to stay up...

Has he ever actually played there before?

Those querying why Bazza wasn't sent on have a pretty good point I think. There were about 20mins left when Rooney scored, suddenly giving us a bit of impetus. I know coming back from 1-3 is a bit unlikely, but should we not have thrown the kitchen sink at them? Instead Brew waits another 10mins until the game is completely dead as a contest before making changes, and brings on Zander instead of Bazza.

Just back. We imploded in the second half, as soon as Dundee Utd turned up a gear. If Brew didn't know that the fans lacked confidence in him before then he does now - let's just say the responses to the subbing of Imrie and Barrowman will have told him that. It's ironic that he suggests fans need a reality check - if he thinks we'll score a goal with Barrowman as a lone striker then he must be joking. He just about managed to equal his performance against Hearts with another display of laziness and cowardice - I know Wilkie is big, but the number of times Barrowman chickened out of 50-50 balls was a joke. As for the rest of it, the decision to play Duff at right back was astounding, and the boy was exposed more and more as the match went on. Surely he should have been at centre-back, with Proctor at right-back? Add the usual move to play Cowie and Imrie on the wrong sides, then to play Vigurs wide right after Imrie's substitution, just beggars belief to what our manager is thinking at times. And to cap it all, Rooney once more comes off the bench and changes the game. And yet Brew still leaves the boy on the bench, when he is the only way we're going to score goals consistently. If a 4-5-1 doesn't work with him in it, we need to find a system that suits him and play it instead. Before he scored, we had managed a grand total of one half-chance (for Cowie) in the whole game. Positives? Hmm, will have to have a good think! Black and Duncan did all right, and Hastings put in a power of work down the left, though his final ball was guff as ever. I suspect there will be a lot of posts once more questioning the wisdom of giving our gaffer a new deal. And after another home game that stank of ineptness I won't blame those posters in the slightest.

Smileymometer: Esson :D :thumb04: could he have done better with the goal? Two great stops in the second half but Fraser-esque distribution Tokely :018: ;) worked hard, did okay against Driver but delivery from attacking areas was a let down Proctor :015: :D :P Found it hard early on against Nade but got the better of things as the game progressed Munro :021: :D :D :D I think he's been great this season, and kept it up today Hastings :D :D :D light years ahead of Wednesday's effort Wilson :D :D showed some flashes early on and didn't do too bad a job of tracking back either, but looked knackered by half time Black :D barely a chance to get involved before having to go off Duncan :D :D the poorest I've seen him all season. With Black off the onus was on him to spray the passes and he couldn't deliver Imrie :D :D :D :D not enough end product, but kept running and running and seemed to be involved in everything we did well Rooney :D :D :D impressed with his work-rate and bravery, but again nothing much seemed to come from it Barrowman :D the footballing equivalent of a chocolate teapot McBain :D :D another one of his invisible man days Vigurs :D :D should have been on earlier, used the ball better than the rest of the midfield even in an unfamiliar right flank position Wood :D :D followed Rooney's example when he came on

Gaaaahhh!!!! Another frustrating afternoon - but for completely different reasons to Wednesday. Lots of effort from the players today (with one or two exceptions but we'll get on to that in a bit) but we just didn't have enough quality to break down Hearts, especially with no Cowie, no Black (who got an eye injury early on) and with Barry running out of legs early in the second half. Our defence dealt with Nade much better than expected, with Munro getting the MOM and Proc putting himself about too. Rossco also put in a solid shift. But, Imrie apart, we lacked pace and flair and simply didn't create enough chances. Two subjects are likely to come up from this game. One is the referee's performance - he made a good pantomime villain with some daft decisions, though I wouldn't say he was the reason we lost the game (Some who think we should have got a pen for a challenge on Rooney might disagree, I guess). The other issue is that of Mr. Andy Barrowman. When was the last time that seeing a player being subbed has raised a cheer from the North Stand? Unfortunately, Barrowman is going to get a slagging tonight, which may be down to the fact that he hadn't even broken sweat when he was hooked. He took one look at Zaliukas and wet his pants, I reckon. While Rooney gave Berra as good as he got, and went in where it hurts time and time again, Barrowman gave a performance reminiscent of another legendary Caley forward named Rory McAllister. Anyway, not a bad game, certainly one we didn't deserve to lose. But if we can't get results when we play okay, that doesn't bode well for the rest of the season. As Scotty said, there's not a lot of reasons to moan about Brew today though.

Trouble with Barry is he doesn't have the stamina for more than 45, or the legs to protect his full back. I hope we go for Esson Tokely Duff Munro McBain Cowie Black Duncan Vigurs Rooney Wood But Brew's insurmountable logic will surely lead to Esson Tokely Proctor Munro Hastings Cowie Black Duncan McBain Imrie Rooney Of course - the fault is with the players, not with the system. So he will play Rooney up front because he scored, even though he needs a partner, and he will drop Vigurs for McBain, even though he had Vigs out of position tonight, even tough Imrie was guff, and even though McBain should be replacing Hastings.

I'm going to stand by Granty here. I thought he was doing the job of three players, given how bad Proc and Hastings were. He dealt with Higdon pretty well, compared to Proctor who just bounced off him again...and again...and again

I don't know about anybody else, but watching us is just so painful and frustrating for me right now. We go through periods in every game (a long one tonight) where we can't put two passes together, and we're about as organised as a bowl of alphabet soup. And (or so it seems) it really is not hard from 7 or 8 rows back to see what the problems are. So why can't the bloke who's getting paid for it (and his assistant, the last living member of Homo Erectus) sort these things out, instead of standing there with his arms folded looking like he's dreaming of his holidays? I can't help feeling that if you zoomed into Brewster's brain, it would be like the bits in the Simpsons when you see what Homer is thinking.

If you had offered me a draw with 15 minutes left, I would have bitten your hand off. We were absolutely awful, and we somehow got away with it because we were playing a Falkirk side who for some inexplicable reason didn't go for the jugular, and because they had a goalkeeper who was an absolute joke. We lined up exactly the same way as against Hibs, as Brew clearly expected that Falkirk, despite their reputation for playing a disciplined, organized possession game, would instead set out in the ridiculously cavalier way that Mixu's boys did. Therefore we were treated to a first half of Falkirk keeping the ball for ages, and us occasionally getting it and promptly hoofing it away. As usual Imrie and Cowie were on the wrong sides, and for the love of goodness, why play 4-5-1 at home if the midfield won't go within 20 yards of the lone striker? The Falkirk goal was just calamitous. First they got a 2 on 1 against Tokely out wide, then no-one shut out the cross, then Lovell beat Hastings in the air (Richard, mate, you had an absolute shocker tonight), then no-one even tries to close down Higdon for the shot, then Esson for some reason doesn't attempt to save it. It was so completely and utterly preventable. We were then treated to the comedy of Brew attempting a tactical change in the middle of a match. Most coaches would wait for an injury or something, call 3 or 4 players to the sideline and explain what to do. Brew instead kept yelling incomprehensibly at Vigurs who, understandably, couldn't really believe that Brew wanted him to play wide right, with Cowie wide left, and Imrie up front, mainly because it was an absolutely stupid idea. In all the confusion, Proctor then ushered Higdon through on goal, but somehow he sliced the shot miles wide. The best you can say about the first half is that we were only one down at half time. Brew at least chucked on Rooney and Barrowman, though Wood hadn't had the chance to break sweat and Vigurs was being played out of position and just looked lost. And, god forbid, our wide players were on their natural sides! We made it a shade more difficult in the second half, but our equalizer was probably the first opportunity we got. Their keeper completely flapped at a ball in the six yard box under pressure, and it bobbled around before Rooney headed it in from about half a yard. It might well be the worst goal ever scored. So why Rooney felt the need to leap into the crowd and get a pointless yellow is beyond me. Falkirk had one great chance to win it, so did Barry Wilson, and that was about it. Not sure it was really worth haring back from work in Dornoch and skipping my dinner for, frankly. At times it looked like it was Munro and Rossco against the whole Falkirk team, as everyone else was a waste of time. Rooney made a difference of the bench with his running. Hastings, as mentioned, couldn't put a foot right, and Imrie also goes in the "turkey" category for his performance tonight. Brew, my friend, you got away with it tonight. Will you get away with it on Saturday if Hearts show anything remotely resembling ability?

I don't buy the whole "we're at home, therefore we must play two up and go on the offensive" malarkey at all. Falkirk never come up here and stick 10 men behind the ball, they'll come up to win, either with 4-4-2 or 4-3-3. If we put 5 across the middle we can get in amongst them and stop them making pretty patterns with the ball in the midfield area. Of course, as has been traditional in recent seasons against Falkirk, if Latapy comes on, we're pretty much screwed regardless. He always seems to cut us to ribbons. I think that the starting 11 for us will be the same, unless Wood is knackered after his exertions at Easter Road - could see someone else leading the line instead then

Murray at LB for Hibs, with Samba in defensive mid? Maybe? Looks certainly like Mixu has picked a lineup to test how fragile we are defensively after last week. Glad to see Vigurs in, can't help feeling Wood is going to be pretty isolated today. There are gonna be a few goals, question is whether we get any of them!

Would I be right in thinking that Esson didn't play for the reserves this week? If so might that suggest a start for him on Saturday? As much as I like Fraser, he's been too dodgy this season (not just at Ibrox) and I think he's run out of second chances by now.

I too move from the "undecided" column to "anyone but Brewster, please". Are there any mods left who still give Brewster a chance?

How long has there been a rule that the visiting team at Ibrox have to use a clown between the sticks instead of a goalkeeper, and four wheelie bins instead of defenders? Oh wait, that's actually Fraser and our back four. There's a phrase I'm saying a lot this afternoon, and it rhymes with "clucking bell".

I don't have many arguments with the starting 11 today, assuming it is a 4-5-1. Proctor back in for Duff is probably a good call. I still think Kris Boyd will score a hatful, though...

The Sunday Times today notes the "Big Jock Knew" poster So now the press think we're a bunch of bigots as well. Fantastic. Whose bright idea was it to put that on a flag?

Take away the first 20 minutes of the second half and we were the better team. Brew had us well organised from the off, and the lack of a target man and a route one ball meant Celtic had to play it through us, which they found pretty tough. Wood deserves a bit of flak for missing that glorious chance, but it was a world class stop by Boruc. What does Brew put in the players' half time tea though? Yet again we were caught cold at the beginning of the second half. Imrie had a wonderful game otherwise, but he should have been tracking Naylor down the left. Our defence should have dealt better with the cross though, and the same goes for the second goal. It was a shame as we looked great in the closing stages after Wood grabbed one back, the substitutions were good ones (Black was walking a tightrope and wasn't having all that great a game) and we definitely warranted a draw. C'est la vie. Imrie deserved his MOTM, while I thought Wood did a good job with such little service. Munro was the pick of our defenders for me.

by request of andyp85... Fraser :thumb04: made a complete pig's ear of the Killie goal. Other than that had bog all to do Tokely :018: :D ;) solid enough defensively, didn't get forward as much as usual Munro :015: :D :P good to have the skipper fit. Got the measure of Sammon as the game went on McGuire :021: :D :D :D best he's played in ages, looked very comfortable. Not sure if the goal was quite how he meant it! Hastings :D :D :D see entry for Rossco Vigurs :D :D :D some nice touches and worked hard, but was out on his legs after an hour Black :D :D :D :D allowed to get further forward today and gave us a real creative spark in the final third. Bet that's the only header he ever scores Duncan :D :D :D :D he drives us mad with the lackadaisical passes, but fact is the defence is much better protected for us having him McBain :D :D Quiet game, didn't really contribute much Imrie :D :D :D :D :D fantastic performance, ran at defenders all day long and at the centre of most of our best moments Barrowman :D :D :D :D super pen, super celebration, did a good job holding the ball up and won more headers than he should have The Subs? Not much impact from any of them, though Cowie should have grabbed us a late fourth