PerfICT

Afraid the contingency was the guy at Southend. Well, we're a good deal weaker than a week ago. Dundee Utd will struggle to replace GMS and Armstrong, but no doubt they have a string of talented young guys to bring in. Hamilton must be raging (but rolling in it?)The window is always an anticlimax, I'm afraid. Difficult to get the right players who want to move at the right price and at short notice. Shambles.

Jeez - anybody left at Accies?? Not a bad shout, PF....

....and Hamilton will really miss Andreu....come on somebody: take a chance on coming to ICT and glory....

Concerned that anything now would be a panic buy - Balotelli for Liverpool springs to mind. We do need a striker, but not just the dregs. Celtic and Aberdeen have strengthened, but Dundee United are certainly weaker: what an opportunity for Europe! Billy - we need you for 4 more months! Oh we'll, I suppose we'll guddle through with Watkins and Ferguson, but what could have been!

apparently our bid for Lee Barnard (Southend) turned down. Not very inspiring! http://www.echo-news.co.uk/sport/blues/11764085.Southend_United_reject_Inverness_Caledonian_Thistle_s_bid_for_Lee_Barnard/

Took some pals from Edinburgh to the game - they had been the year before too. Missed Tansey's goal while waiting in the queue for drinks under the stand. Thought we'd go on to win comfortably................and then the wheels came off! Red cards and Hamill combined to make for what looked like a miserable afternoon (again!) But wait....Nick Ross...scoooooooores! Bedlam. Then the nail-biting for 30+ minutes, but what an exhibition of how to play when 2 men short - even had chances to win it. Felt it was our day by the time it came to pens and sure enough, Hamill obliged. A sweet moment when big Drapes rolled th ball nonchelantly in to win it. Smashed my son's i-pod i nthe chaos after Nick Ross' goal to boot!

Right! The condition of the pitch required a different approach from usual, but it was a 'leveller'. I think this was the first time at home that we didn't dominate possession stats, but there was no way we could have been playing it around the back four and keeper, because the bounce and run would have made it suicidal. Agree that it was the right thing to do to get the game going ahead, but the conditions were never going to help a team usually noted for its passing.

Handball looks a cert!

BBC match report says it should have been a penalty. "Pictures revealed that Reguero had indeed clipped Watkins and he struggled to retain his balance before tumbling." No question he was clipped, but no ref is going to give a pen for the way he went down. Not a criticism of Watkins, but he took two paces before going down. Feel the contact, go to ground - no argument. Fair play to Watkins if he tried to keep playing, but plenty would have played for the contact and won the pen. No criticism - just was never going to be given as it happened. Pretty sure the penalty should be award for the offence, not based on style marks for how the victim goes down...or have I got that wrong? Of course, but the delayed reaction was unconvincing. I think Marley genuinely tried to keep playing and was unbalanced by the clip, but it looked like he realised he wasn't going to make and went down. The issue really is: If he was clipped, ref has to give a pen; if ref didn't see it as a clip, he has to give Watkins a yellow card. I'm not sure what no pen and no yellow means?

BBC match report says it should have been a penalty. "Pictures revealed that Reguero had indeed clipped Watkins and he struggled to retain his balance before tumbling." No question he was clipped, but no ref is going to give a pen for the way he went down. Not a criticism of Watkins, but he took two paces before going down. Feel the contact, go to ground - no argument. Fair play to Watkins if he tried to keep playing, but plenty would have played for the contact and won the pen. No criticism - just was never going to be given as it happened.

PS - Marley's dive was dreadful: Either go down with the contact or get to the ball - don't swallow dive a yard after the contact!

That was poor fare today. Pitch was shocking, shape didn't really work - get Shinnie back to full back and Tansey in the heart of midfield. Esson looked nervy and his kicking was erratic. Brill's absence was probably the biggest impact: No playing it out through the full-backs.Marley did quite well, but it's not his best position. Tremarco (I think) made a poor decision, dived in and allowed their winger to whip in a good ball for their goal. Not sure Warren could do much about it. Way off the standard of our play over the past few weeks, but maybe the pitch dictated that kind of football. County were poor going forward and are in trouble. Points dropped.

We'll not have anybody new for tomorrow. If fit, the obvious choice for me is Watkins. Good in the air and quick. I think we need to think about Ferguson for last 20 minutes, particularly if we're a couple up. If Watkins is not fit, then we're struggling a bit: Doran, Ross, Christie are not strikers and it requires a special skill. Maybe play 2 of them up front to give each other support? Whatever, County won't have a Scooby how we're going to set up!

Hate seeing ex-players of ours with some other top in their mitts! Ah well, good luck to the lad and I hope he does really well and that he doesn't end up in league 1. I would really have liked to have had the chance to cheer him off on Saturday, but not to be!

Excellent interview. I like his "man the barricades mentality" and I'm sure he'll get the right response from the players. I was still hoping that Billy would be here on Sat so that we could give him a good send off, but sounds like there's no chance of that, so let's move on. Not sure who he has in mind for up front on Saturday, But that means he's keeping County guessing too! Would be great if he gets his target by then, but if not, we've got the players to win the game, so let's do it......in style!

Eh? For Billy maybe (financially), but we'll need to see whether ICT even break even on the deal (depending on how many league postitions it costs us).

....I stil don't really get how fees are arrived at. Were West Ham due to pay a fee for development of Hendrie, even if he went on a pre-contract at the end of the season? If so, presumably it would be the same in Shinnie's case. Or was the fee just to sweeten the deal....a gift from West Ham to the paupers? Hendrie for a million on a pre-contract and BMck for £150k now - how does all this work? What about the £3M offer for Efe Ambrose the other day????? Would you swap him for Warren or Meekings (I wouldn't!), but what would we get for them? Buttons. It is certainly a market that works like no other!

McDonald or Higdon would both be great....but I doubt we'd get either. Never say never. ..

Can SeVco afford the wages he is on at SeVco???

It'll be disappointing if he goes before Saturday - I'm sure we'd all like to give him a send-off (after he's scored a hat-trick against County, of course!)

Not sure that is necessarily true. Billy has been excellent over the last few years, but this season, we have proved that we have goals all through the team, even when he was having a lean spell. Granted, some of that was on account of his movement and ability to keep defenders occupied, but providing we can get a similar style of player in that role, I think we'll still score goals. Let's see what the "contingency" is - Watkins? Ferguson? New player in?

MacLennan and Wilson are certainly both very young lads, so some inexperience there. Nevertheless, not great getting gubbed every week at this level.

I think we have to accept that transfer fees within Scotland are a thing of the past. Players and clubs prefer to wait for contracts to run down so that players are free to go wherever they like (without interference from club) and "buying" clubs only have to dangle salaries in front of players instead of salaries + transfer fees. Financially, we are near the bottom of the Premiership pile and therefore have very little pulling power to keep good players here once they feel the urge to move on. This is not the fault of the Board who run a very tight ship, it is the reality of modern football. The tactic has been to get players on reasonably long contracts (2-3 years), which has worked inasmuch as we have a settled team and are not constantly re-inventing ourselves like County (for example). Towards the end of those contracts, players need to decide whether they are at the pinnacle of their career - in which case, they'll take another contract with us, or can earn a better wage elsewhere, in which case they will move on (for free). The success of the last few seasons suggest that this model works. the down-side is that we will continue to lose players who have developed here for nothing. C'est la vie until we can get 20,000 fans through the gates. Good luck to Graeme Shinnie - I hope he gets the international caps that he has deserved. I expect him to retain the captaincy and play even better for a while. Depending on the league table towrds the end, we might need to think about resting him if his performances start to tail off (as for any player) - it has to be distracting to know that you'll be elsewhere as soon as the season ends.

I see where you're coming from! Actually, I think I'd play Shinnie in this one, with a "go and show us that you're still with us" incentive. I reckon he'd have the game of his life. I have no doubt that an opportunity will come in the next few weeks to drop him and, if Tremarco keeps his form up, Shinnie might just not make it back into the team...

I question neither his integrity nor his reasons for leaving. However, as I've indicated on the transfer window thread, there is now an unavoidable conflict of interest, which might become impossible to ignore as the season progresses. Good luck to the guy, but I'm interested in what happens to ICT this season. It seems that Aberdeen are short of a left back right now, so maybe best to deprive them of him until next season so that Watkins can rip them apart in the remaining games against them! That leaves the question of whether he (or anybody) can be expected to do what is necessary to actively damage the prospects of his future employer. For me, it is unfair to put him in that position, particularly in games against the Dons. This will be a real test of JH's man management skills: Keeping GS happy while really wanting to play Tremarco in key games.. A very difficult equation!