PerfICT

Disappointed for Christie. Probably reading too much into it, but is there an off-field motive for not starting him? Presume Mutombo will be the lone striker, which makes sense

......that's what you get for our "supporters pulling the Celtic players doon in the box!"

.... tough re-introduction for Tremarco at Celtic Park!

Assuming no further injury woes, no players returning and no transfer activity: Fon Williams Raven Draper Devine Williams Polworth Tansey Horner Christie Vigurs Mutombo Subs: Esson, Sutherland, Ferguson, Brown, Wedderburn, Lopez If Vincent is back and fully fit, he might go in ahead of Horner or Polworth? Likewise, Meekings for Draper?

Totallly agree with Kingsmills. However, this story seems to be gathering pace: I never really get how fees are arrived at - my limited understanding of economics would suggest that value = "whatever somebody will pay". But it is slightly different in the case of a small club like ours, where value seems to = "whatever we can't refuse" (which appears to be not very much!) On that basis, I would not be the slightest bit surprised if he went for £500k or less. however, it might help if there are a few clubs in for him, particularly Barclays Prem clubs. The new TV deal down there means that a couple of million is loose change and could easily be gambled on a punt. Let's hope that there is some way that we can keep this talented football with us for another year AND still get market value for him when he moves on to better his career! Fingers crossed!

Agree with you Ywingie. Top 3 are probably right too (even if in the wrong order). Personally I'd be happy with 9th just now!

I doubt either Motherwell or St. Johnstone would play like they did against us throughout the whole campaign, if you look at it this way then similarly minded Partick fans must be wondering how on earth we managed to finish 3rd last year based on we were the worst team they played during last seasons campaign. You could say both teams St. Johnstone and Motherwell were poor when they played us, but you can't say how good or bad a team really is based on just one game you saw, especially this early in the season when teams are still finding their feet. And we are only 3 games into the domestic season, not 5. 1 goal in 5 not 3 to exaggerate your point I suspect. Some folks have no patience. So we consider European and Domestic seasons to be separate? Even if we do, 1 goal in 3 games is hardly stellar. I guess when Yogi said he was hoping for double figures, he meant the team as a whole. Well you don't win a point in the league for drawing with Astra do we now?. No 1 goal in 3 games isn't ideal either but we are only three games into the league and other teams are also struggling to score goals as well. There just needs to be a bit of patience and we have had a lot of disruption to the team with injuries. We still have a decent side and once these players come back it will get better and we can start climbing the table. Didn't win any points in those Scottish Cup games we won last season, but I'm still glad we won them. All these players can come back, but none of them is the regular goal scorer we need. It would be nice to have someone who can go on a bit a goalscoring spree, but first of all we need to create the opportunities which we aren't creating enough, this might just be down to the type or blend of team we currently have rather than on individuals, not much can be done about that though Vigurs has brought a bit more adventure when we go forward. But our goals should also be coming from others as well and we had a good spread of goals around the 1st team last season, almost everyone chipping in. But it must be hard for Lopez getting all this stick right at the start of his time here, I would have a little more patience with him. I think our problem does lie with our midfield and the way we play far far too cautious at times, but then it does work for us but maybe not with the way we are currently set up, so once we get players back we will see. Couldn't agree less. The midfield is bereft of ideas for the final ball because there is no movement in front of them! The role of a lone striker is to: (a) present a target to be hit, either for knock-downs or down the channels (b) provide a distraction for the defence to make a hole for the ball-carrying midfielder or another to charge into Lopez performs neither of these roles and the positions he takes up actually adds to the cluttrer in midfield. So (and this happened several times last night), when Christie gets a yard of space and lifts his head, there's no option ahead of him, so he ends up having to play it square. Compare this to Vigurs' ball to Mutombo in the last few minutes - he could play it because Mutombo called for it and made the run off the shoulder of the last defender (with the pace to get there first). Somebody mentioned this after the St J game, but I definitely felt it last night: after the first few minutes, the players seemed to sub-conciously avoid passing to Lopez. Whether that was because he was never in space or whether it was because they feared he would undo all their hard work is impossible to tell. For me, Lopez is a million miles form what we need and persevering with him would be a massive mistake.

.....So, we haven't signed a target man, but we do have a boy with pace on the bench in sutherlansd, so why not bring him on. It seems JH does recognise the problem, but refuses to respond to it.

We're essentially playing with 10 men in every game: a 4-5-0 formation. Lopez is truly clueless, with no pace, no positional sense, no touch and no effort. he's also poor in the air. Sutherland needs to be given the nod - I don't care if he's not ready:my granny would be better than our current number 9. Some good performances tonight: Williams, Raven, Devine, Fon Williams, Horner, Polworth, Mutumbo and Christie all had good spells. Vigurs definitely added something. However, all that effort for nought.....or nil.

...ah yes, but who will be there to receive it?!

In case anybody was in any doubt - here's the direct relationship between attendances and average wage using figs for 2013/14 season: I took Hearts out of the analysis for generating the correlation because their wages were unusually low that season for obvious reasons. Equally, Celtic fall above this calcualted line, but they have other income streams that allow them to spend more (e.g. Champs league). Given all the other factors that could be involved, it is amazing how tight this relationship is. We're right on the line and we know that the club just about breaks even at that level, so you might consider this to be the break-even line - those above it were probably spending beyond their means or using up a nest-egg, those below it were probably saving for a rainy day or uncertain of their future in the prem. I would be prepared to bet that RC and PT are now spending about the same as us, now that they have established themselves in the prem for a few years. Equally, Hearts will be in a more confident position now and will probably be nearer to Abdn in terms of wages.

Interesting. I'm not sure he's really what we need just now, but he certainly can play and his style of football will suit the ICT way under JH. However, he has had injury problems in the past and I just hope he doesn't upset the team spirit at the club. It's worth the signing just to upset our neighbours otb!

Given the news regarding Iain Vigurs and the apparent good showing from Calum Ferguson for the U20s, how about: Fon Williams Raven Draper Devine Williams Polworth Tansey Mutombo Christie Vigurs Ferguson I know Hughes has said the young lads are not yet ready, but neither is Lopez (will he ever be ready to be a No. 9?) so, needs must! It also Sou8nds like Sutherland had a decent impact when he came on against St J, so we could always go to 4-4-2 with Sutherland in for Mutombo.

Not according to Sneckboy's "Contract Situation" thread - only one year left. This is the point to extend his contract by a few years (as DUFC did for Ryan Gauld) in order to hike the pricetag. Who knows where we'll end up if we lose Christie at this moment in time!

Assuming no more injuries and nobody else back from injury (or new signings!), it has to be the starting 11 from the St J game - what choice is there?

Riordan?!! You've got to be kidding? JH is always on about togetherness and the spirit amongst the guys - why stick a bad apple in there? No question he's talented, but football is so much more than that.

The attacking plan you mention must have missed Lopez. He really was terrible today. Thought Polworth had a very good game, but in the end we certainly threw away two points ....was going by limited reports from bbc online. Sounds from those at the game that Lopez still doesn't have it! Delighted for Polworth! If Sutherland could be trusted up front instead of Lopez, we'd have 3 home-growns in the team.

Well done to the lads today. Always frustrating to lose a late equaliser, but a massive improvement on last week from a very depleted squad. Sounds like there was an attacking plan today, with Christie and Lopez in partnership. Hope for the Partick game!

On the Vigurs issue, I have mixed emotions. On one level, I think he's a good footballer, with a free kick on him too - I always thought he loooked dangerous around the box when we played against him. However, he does have self-discipline issues and right now he's not what we need. We've got midfielders galore and are problems are all in attack and defence....

The point is: if there realy is a treasure chest for a rainy day then this is the moment to open it. The unthinkable alternative would be to keep it in reserve until we're in the Championship. This isn't about smashing wage caps or investing in a massive squad, it's about patching up a really thin squad that has been ravaged by injuries. Short contracts, loan deals etc should be enough to at least give us a fighting chance of scoring a few goals.

'Inverness boss John Hughes says he thinks he needs to add 3 players to his injury hit squad' 'John Hughes "we've got the wee treasure chest we've put away for a rainy day, unfortunately the rainy day is upon us'' As I said "it's already p!shing down!" Open up the treasure chest Mr Cameron or it might just be too late!

Are we ever going to see Richie Foran again? Setback after setback and his age might suggest that we won't. A real shame if he doesn't make a return - we could really do with him right now!

After seeing the match on Saturday, this is simply terrifying news. I cannot believe that we don't have some cash in the kitty to help us out of the spot we find ourselves in regarding a lack of strikers and a stack of injuries. If the chairman is keeping some for a "rainy day", I think he needs to think again - it p!shing down already and January might be too late to save us. Pessimistic - too right I am: makeshift defence for months to come and no strikers - what's to look forward to?

It's taken me until now to recover from that car-crash and comment on yesterday's game... Put simply, that is as bad a performance as I have ever seen from ICT. Yes, we're ravaged by injuries, but that has only served to show us all what we already knew: we have a very thin squad and need more strength in depth! Our recruitment this year has been nothing short of a shambles and yesterday was the result. No depth, no strikers, no shape, no energy, no pace. On the new boys: his is the first time I've seen Lopez and I was totally unimpressed. He carries no aerial threat, no pace and no ability to anticipate (striker's instinct). He's is passable at linking play in a number 10 role, but not a number 9. Mutombo looked quite sparky when he came on and was instrumental in our only chance from open play, but without a target in the box, most of his good work came to nought. I didn't see enough of Wedderburn to make a judgement - Yogi was unfortunate to have hooked him for tactical reasons before Warren was injured. Fon Williams made several excellent saves, including the penalty. After a bit of a shaky start, it looks like he's a good addition. I know he's not all that new, but Horner looked distinctly average. What else did we learn? 1. Raven is no left back. This experiment should not be repeated. Williams did OK hen he went to left back and that appears to be our only option now. 2. Meekings is not a right back. The Warren-Meekings partnership in the heart of defence is our backbone and losing Warren is going to hurt. 2. We can't play 4-4-2 because....we don't have a single striker, never mind 2! As Craig Levein found out in Czech Republic, 4-6-0 just doesn't work. 3. Right now, we need to banish thoughts of top 6 and concentrate on the usual - avoiding relegation. Where to from here? Yogi needs to work his socks off in the transfer market. We need at least 2 strikers and (now) several defenders. I think we've missed the boat to a large extent - loans might be the way forward? I can only see one formation with any merit at the moment, with 2 holding midfielders protecting a new central defensive partnership: Fon Williams Raven Devine Wedderburn (Meekings) Williams Draper Tansey Mutombo Christie (Roberts, Doran) ???? My granny? (Ferguson, Sutherland?) Time to scrap for every point and get some of these injured guys back. Very worrying.

...on that basis, I say play your trusted servant and make the new boy prove himself worth the place. There is nothing wrong with strong competition for places and if Wedderburn proves himself to be better than Draper, then he should get the nod in the long run.