LundavraJag

Heart says Dean Brill and probably in terms of ability but head says OFW. Tough one to decide but from the clubs perspective you have to look at risk, only then does it become a little clearer who would be the safer bet.

I thought the scoreline was the main disappointment for today's game. I would say tactically we were absolutely spot on and as a critic of Yogi against Celtic(I think he gives them too much respect at times for the team they are now)I thought he really got it right today. Team were solid but ultimately lost the game in the first 15 minutes of the second half and the scoreline was buffered by the quality of Griffiths. Roberts caused them problems getting himself a beauty of a chance to give us the lead with a 1 on 1 with Gordon but fluffed it and arguably his decision making caused a 4 v 2 attack to fall flat. Warren had a free header quite early but failed to hit the target. Celtic were poor. We were the better team for 55 minutes of that game but was just a bad day for us in front of goal. Performance was there and on another day it is never 3-0. Celtic Park really is a dump but luckily for us the city is a top night out. Not worried for Dundee.

Thoroughly enjoyed Monday night's game and as usual this season the atmosphere was immense. How things have changed in that North Stand from just a couple of seasons ago where match after match at home there was literally nothing for the entire game. Really can make a difference so thumbs up for all the effort put in by the majority of those involved in section E. My old man met me at the game and paid cash, showed me his seat number was row C in section E...I suggested he might give it 5 minutes and find an empty seat in section B or C , he was nearly greeting the last time he had to stand for the whole game. I was a bit surprised to hear Barry Wilson on the radio after the game saying that was our best performance of the season. I thought we were good but only once we had been given a shot in the arm by means of a Greg Tansey penalty and their opener look like no effort at all, they then started pressing and it looked like we could be in for a long night. These things happen and our equaliser sparked us into complete dominance after which Aberdeen did absolutely nothing to deserve anything from the game. There were controversial moments but at the end of the day we were the better team and did much more to win the game than some bitter sheep might suggest we did. Top marks to Tremarco, Draper, Warren, Storey, Roberts, Tansey and enjoyed Mutombo's appearance off the bench. Horner was ok but I thought quite poor when he gets into a drive forward....he gets there fine but then spills the ball pitifully quite often but maybe he could do with a similar run in the team which has shown such an improvement in Tremarco this season as it could well be down to confidence. Massive 3 points.

Sounds like Rob has been a busy boy.

Good luck to Ross County in the final. I am a bit more relaxed on my view whether they win games or not now since we have set the bar so high already with last years venture. Before that I desperately wanted us to be the first highland team to achieve a cup win and a Euro adventure...and we did.

Saw this this morning, I would be gutted to lose either of these two to one of the teams around us. Hopefully there is something decent on the table for both of them then at least if they go it is not because we didn't try. They're both on my 'must keep' list.

I think the outgoing players compared to the incoming players since Hughes has come in does make for grim reading but it is hard to blame the manager for one side of this, our good players are always going to move onto better things whether for free or for a fee but I am not too confident in JH's ability to replenish our ranks at the minute with an ever worrying transfer policy. I hope these new lads are a couple of gems but was it really the midfield we needed to strengthen! Not much to say on the Tansey transfer deal as no one knows exactly what happened fro our point of view(do we even know what happened from theirs?) but there's two sides to every story. That journo in the other thread is a complete knob, he justifies why I don't read any of the horse sh*t in any of the rags or their website equivalent. Even the back pages are manure.

Particularly delighted about Draper committing his best years to us. I didn't feel too confident about getting our key players signed up but with Warren and now Draper it is definitely a good few steps in the right direction. Disgrace about warren, I find it unbelievable when looking at those statistics about game time. Needs to change.

Thought aside from the first 15 minutes and last 5 or 10, it was a very poor match with dreadful passing from both sides. In our defence I thought we were the better team throughout most of the game and looked like we wanted to play some football, just a bit incapable of playing the way we wanted to. They will be much happier with the point and the longer the game went on the more I was getting the feeling it would turn out the same as the SJ game at home earlier this season. Its incredible that despite all that JH has done for us and what he has achieved that he is still has significant criticism but it is deserved. He has done a lot for us and you cannot ignore that but the lack of changing things when the game isn't going our way or key players are out is painful for the paying fans. We went through this phase when he first joined which eventually turned out very well for us but we haven't had a massive turnover of players and haven't massively changed our system like we are all of a sudden starting over, what we have had is some injuries though. The predictability of our play against some teams can really make me cringe at times, especially at home.

I think Barry Wilson was spot on when he said 2 nil flattered us. We scored the goals in the half we weren't very good in and failed to score in the half we absolutely dominated, County were out of idea's as to how to get through us in that second half though which was to our credit so can't complain. Great atmosphere in the North Stand today, awesome effort from the singing section along from me. Thought Storey put in a mega shift up front, Polworth showed up well again and good performances from our entire back 4. It just wasn't Wedderburn's day today and he rightly came off. Sitting quite pretty in the league now after our recent form and with a game in hand we can put County back where they belong.

Voted Brill as my favourite. I have seen Calder play since I started watching back in the 3rd division but really I was too young to remember much of his performances and character but is clearly a keeping legend for us. I remember being completely uninspired by the signature of Brill on a loan deal from non league Luton town but fair play to him for eventually settling into Yogi's suicide back-pass regime and becoming a top keeper for us. It worked out well, except his terrible injury this season. Mark Brown was in his prime with us before heading to Celtic and was arguably the better keeper but my favourite is definitely Deano.

Totally unnecessary to come out and say these things now to the press when it will only go one way with the fans, if he has something to say to the chairman then he should go to his office and say it. One minute we are all delighted he has signed on and the next minute he has opened his big mouth again and I am not so delighted.

Thought the atmosphere last night was spot on considering the football we were offering on the pitch, wish it was like that every home game. We were rubbish again, I don't get why we persist with a game plan that was clearly not working for us and that the players were struggling to cope with. County were sitting quite high and knew exactly what we were going to do as we are that predictable yet still the back and forth crap between the keeper and our two cb's continued, they had the simple job of closing our defense down and we made the mistakes from there on. Can Yogi really be watching and thinking he is happy with how the game was progressing, that things were miraculously going to change on their own? County were better but we got ourselves into trouble most of the time and made it easy for them. Agree with the comments about Vigurs and Tansey playing together, Draper is by far the biggest miss for us at the moment. I think we had the players to win the game last night, the score did flatter us on the balance of play but our system of play flattered them as a team and made it easy. So so predictable yet again and painful to watch. Tremarco, Vincent, Fon Williams, Devine, Vigurs all had very poor games. In Devines case I don't think he is the type of player that copes well being constantly under pressure. Polworth, Christie and Storey I thought had decent games.

Neither team deserved to win the game and the first half was terrible from both sides, it was an ugly game of football to watch. SJ came for the draw with their play and will be delighted with all 3 points, we simply didn't create anything that would give us that opportunity. We had so much of the ball in the second half but as someone stated earlier we couldn't even get the ball into any dangerous area's that might at the very least create a mistake from the away side, also how often was Tremarco on his own out wide in the second and how many balls did he send into the box? Apart from Storey's run through on goal to blast high and wide, we had no alternative plan other than to pass straight through their entire team. Thought Fisher's behaviour was poor. There was a spell in the second half for about 5 or 10 minutes where so many passes went out or to the opposition(from both sides) it was like watching a sunday league game. At no time did I feel we would get the 3 points.

I totally agree PerfICT, the way it has all unfolded has been a bit messy and starts to look a bit desperate after the 2nd or 3rd rejection. It could clearly have gone a lot smoother if they had done their homework.

I think it would be a bit harsh to make him unemployed when, in my opinion, he fully deserved his contract at the time and it is not his fault he was injured when he was in excellent form, don't forget he wasn't playing the Miles Storey role either but in midfield. He may still believe he has plenty to offer the team and maybe an alternative route would be for him to sign on as a player-coach.

You're probably right and I only have to think back to last year at Easter Road against the Jambos as to why I am happy to keep attending league cup games.

Might be a bit sore to see Graeme Shinnie going ballistic in grabbing a goal against us but by Billy celebrating it doesn't bother me one bit, regardless of what former players score against us they are all within their rights to enjoy their goals without any sort of backlash unless obvious characters like a certain Iain Vigur's emerge. I'm sure Billy enjoyed most of his time here but there's nothing wrong with him celebrating, I'm glad his career is on a better path now than it was at Wigan.

Buzzing after the second half last night, huge improvement on the dire first but the attacking football and drama really got the crowd going so really enjoyed the both atmosphere and football on show. First half was a continuation of what I've seen at home already this season bar the euro game, second half a different game altogether. Thought Hearts were poor, a bit dirty, didn't offer much at all and their players very keen to go to ground and once they were a man down they just deteriorated further allowing us to kill the game off for a deserved 3 points. I thought there were some poor performances in the first half but most if not all improved for the second. I thought Christie was being given a hard time but overcame this later on and did well to capitalise on poor defending to get the ball in for Vincent. Thought Tremarco was good and Storey grew with confidence as the game went on and probably deserved a goal, you can see he has a bit of presence about him and some good pace. Thought Tobi did well and looks good on the turn, I completely missed his carry on in the box but after watching it in the highlights there was definite contact. It is a double edged sword for this one, if he acts as if nothing happened then Oshinuwa gets away with running a fist across his face? Why should he let that go? Instead he makes a hash of it and looks a bit of a muppet going down so late but in my opinion does the right thing and brought it to the ref's attention. If there had been no contact then fair play, give him grief but there is little excuse for ramming a fist into anyone's face in any walk of life so the Hearts player got what he deserved. Overall a terrible first half from both sides, we stepped up a gear in the second and deserved all 3 points.

Don't have any issue with Ryan saying what he did and will support him until he leaves us and then beyond. I'm surprised some people appear to be so offended as he is just saying all the things expected of him when you join a new club. The only thing I am mildly disappointed about is that he is actually a Celtic fan but being from the same generation as him in relation to ICT it is clear to see why he is as I was in exactly the same boat with the other half of the old firm from passed down allegiances, I managed to let loose the shackles of the glory hunting stages of my younger life when I compared the affiliation I had with Rangers with that of ICT. There was no comparison and I didn't need a second team. When I say disappointed it is because someone can grow up so involved with ICT, born and bred and still be a supporter of Celtic...it just highlights the problems we have as a club with fans of the old firm in Inverness. The phrase pissing against the wind comes to mind.

If this is looking bad now(and it doesn't look great), wait till next season when everyone else is out of contract , it will be complete role reversal then.

I agree, I would prefer he said nothing than stuff like "when the old firm come calling you do not say no". Ryan has a decision to make and comments like this will only encourage him to join Celtic, in the meantime rubbing salt in it for us. Is there any need to publicly tell Ryan that he can't say no to Celtic?

I think if a loan deal for Stokes is included in what was already on the table without a major contribution to his wages, then this will soften the blow from our end. The figure for Ryan is still well short of what we all want and what he is worth but last night this deal was being compared with the Scott Allan deal(275k or so) by Michael Stewart or Stuart McCall which is a bit off the mark, I think comparisons to the Ryan Gauld deal would be a lot more accurate. Something really bugs me about the way Yogi has been harping on about Ryan during this speculation and don't think he has contributed positively at all.

The best outcome would be as JH states that he wants, with a loan deal back to us for the rest of this season but I would really be disappointed if we received under a mill for him. There is obviously the length of his contract to consider but in comparison to the Dundee United two that got them 3 mill(longer contracts of course), less than a mill would be hard to take but anything over and I think we can be relatively satisfied given the teams interested. If only he did have a full contract, the club would be sorted for years. In answer to your question about should we spend it? Not all of it, not even a quarter of it but enough to see us have a dedicated striker on our books would be nice.

7 figure sum being mentioned there as opposed to the £600k from the other day but if we lose Ryan now without any loaning back to us will hit us hard, especially if it's imminent.