hislopsoffsideagain

One man comes well out of the interview, sounding informed, intelligent, confident and showing a clear knowledge of Caley's problems. Anything fancy Charles Bannerman as our new manager?

Considering that there are TV cameras there, how about people each print out an A4 page with "BREWSTER OUT" written in large letters? Fact is, even if there isn't much in the way of chanting, the fact that loads of people were holding up small but similar signs, with no bad language, would surely be picked up on by Setanta and shown on the telly.

Fine Brew, I'll get off your back on the following conditions: You motivate the players sufficiently that they actually give a s*** on matchday. You come up with a tactical plan that isn't just bizarre. If things aren't going our way, you make changes rather than standing arms folded. Your team actually give us a sliver of entertainment. You take the blame when your plans go wrong, rather than blaming it on the players, the fans, or the little pixies in your head. Basically, I'll get off your back when you start doing what you're paid to do. Note that I haven't even asked for good results!

Well, that's my day ruined before it even started. Sounds like he would have gone whether we had chucked Brew this week or not. Good luck to him, he's had good and bad games but has shown his class and desire on multiple occasions for the club. Finding a replacement is going to be impossible.

For the love of goodness, call this PR? The only PR this constitutes is Per Rectum! (Medical joke, sorry) As has been said, this tells the world that we can splash some cash in January, so asking prices will go up (as will wage demands). Brewster's dealings in his second spell have produced three guys who have done okay - Esson, Imrie and Rooney - one decent squad player - Proctor (though not showing it just now) - plus McGuire, Djebi-Zadi and Barrowman(the less said about them the better). Out in the same period have gone Morgan, Rankin, Bayne, McCaffrey, Hart, Wyness, McDonald, Niculae, Paatelainen and now Wilson. While some of those guys had to go (and some departures were out of his hands) we have a weaker squad than this time last year by a distance. No other business in the world trusts further investment in someone who has invested so badly in the past. It's common sense. Besides, the universe and his dog can see the players are not playing for Brew, and whatever the investment, it can't buy him an entire new first team (apart from Proctor who will get a game anyway).

The answer to what they do in training, at least from stories I've heard, is fitness, fitness, fitness. Apparently, according to Brew, you don't need tactics if you can run loads. This is one of the reasons the players are demotivated.

Go back in time about 16 months. Plead with 10CC to stay on. If he refuses to do so, hire Owen Coyle before he leaves St. Johnstone for Burnley Or, more realistically, Close eyes. Put hands over ears. Shout "La La La, I'm not listening" repeatedly.

You cruel, cruel person. You've just dashed the hopes of so many...

Four of us in the main stand are going along next time with four sheets of A4 paper, which will read "4", "4", "2" and "!" respectively. If nothing else, we might get a cheap laugh.

I sit behind the away dugout and trust me, Brew could hear the chants all right. He looked absolutely crestfallen.

Quote from post match interview: "I'm certainly not happy with the position we're in. We will be trying everything to get out of this situation. "It's going to take character to get out of. There's no place to hide. We know what we have to do to get out of it." If Brew knew what to do to get out of it, then perhaps he might have done it by now? On the bright side, he's not blaming the fans or the players this week. On the other hand I still wish he might just hint that one of the reasons we struggle at home is his 4-5-bloody-1.

Oh my god. I know football is just a game, but it's never felt quite as painful to watch ICT as it did today. The first half was a pretty good effort. Mulgrew's free kick was a cracker. I wondered if Esson moved a bit slowly but Abdn fans behind the goal tell me he had no chance. There wasn't much to choose between the teams before the break though, and there was a flair and desire at that point which had been sorely lacking in recent games. It was sorely lacking once more in the second half though. We concede so many goals at the beginning of second halfs that it's just mystifying. What does Brew put in the half time tea, rohypnol? The second and third goals were blunders best described as "catastrophic". First Imrie, under no pressure, heads back across his penalty area, straight to McDonald, then Hastings slips under pressure from Mackie and the wee git races clear to score. What really upset me was the way that, with 33 mins left after goal three, we basically surrendered. Rooney came on, but despite the fact Aberdeen still looked more likely to score after that, no other subs were used. Why not let players with something to prove (Barrowman, Sutherland for example) have a go, it couldn't be any worse. Yet again though, when push came to shove we collapsed faster than the French army in a war. First signs of out and out protest against Brew today from the Bridge End. I don't know if chants of "Brewster GTF" are as "unbelievable" as one poster as suggested; certainly at other clubs I've seen under-pressure managers get far worse. I suspect they won't be the last protests though, as I also suspect that this won't be our last defeat at home. Certainly the rest of Scottish football is now aware that Brewster is on a shoogly peg... Wood did a good shift today, again without much in the way of support. Esson made a stonking save from Miller at 1-0. Other than that, not many positives.

I see that Calderwood used his weekly P&J column to "sympathise" with our manager regarding our current lack of form. Anyone else note how keen he is to convince Brew to play 4-4-2? "Draws are no use to him at the moment" and all that. Methinks tangoman remembers how hard Aberdeen found it breaking down our 4-5-1 on opening day, and will do everything to convince Brew to play 2 up, even though it didn't work against Midden. Will our boss take the bait? http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/988561

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.