wynthank15

Could be niggles, could be strategic resting of players, to be fair to RC their battle is not with the OF who are already in a league of their own 12 point gap against the rest. I think the Manager regards the Hibs game in midweek as more important and a better chance to pick up points, I wouldn't read too much into it.

No one could accuse you of making snap decisions Alan, might it not be better to see who's about then bag him? Am not so sure we will actually make the playoffs, not on current form.

Greetings Joseph, RC have always been THE highland club simply because they have been around much longer than ICT. As someone mentioned, much of the support has come from people who have moved to Inverness, at the cup final I sat with two girls born in Inverness who had travelled from France and Canada, the club had 15,000 supporters that day most I reckon from outside Inverness. When I moved north during the Paterson years I was entertained by the style of football his team played and which led to many Scottish Cup upsets Celtic (twice) Hearts away, Motherwell away when we were still a 1st division team, few had taken notice of what was being built in Inverness which eventually culminated in the SC win and third in the league. The club then shot themselves in both feet, however, Livingstone have shown that these days can come again. That said the game has changed for supporters, the days of turning up paying your money and standing with your pals discussing the game have gone and the game is poorer for it.

What are you wittering about, surely it's about the best people male or female for the position. You could argue that the team gender balance is appalling too, fact is we need 11 guys on the park. I'm sure if there were ladies out there with cash and football experience we would welcome them in a heartbeat.

As the song says "you don't know what you've lost till it's gone" Hope all the JH detractors and the RF agitators are enjoying their football. In case you think I am unconcerned at the club's present plight, I'm not but sometimes "people get what they deserve and deserve to get it good and hard". That's a quote from H L Mencken. As I said on the Robbo rumuor mill if the board had any ambition about getting out of this division Robbo would not be our manager. We are now a championship club with a championship support and finances and spending beyond our means as are a number of other clubs. That cannot continue.

Quote "Why would he leave one of the safest jobs in football and go back to the potential managerial merry go round that the Hearts spotlight would bring" Hmm lets see Scotty, substantially higher salary, player budget, a full stadium each home game, a great pool of players, a financially viable club going forward, a chance to become an iconic manager as well as a legendary player however, I agree with your first sentence I don't think Hearts would want him. I have never liked his style of play even when he inherited a very good team from Pele with the fortunate addition of Bingham he played the big switch ball that was the style used by Hearts during his playing days. Am not convinced he even has a style of football in mind when he sets up the team. I'm not sure about tempting him out of retirement either, he was probably the cheapest option, lived locally and was available in addition to being prepared to accept the cost cutting which was necessary, to my mind he has a pretty cushy number at ICT where I feel an acceptance of championship football for the foreseeable future is the board's mindset though it might not be admitted publicly. To be fair to the board we are financially outgunned by Dundee Utd, Dundee and Partick if they had any ambitions of premiership football I don't believe Robbo would be our manager.

Clarke seems to think that performance marks the bottom, I'm not so sure, some of the players don't want to be there and some are just not good enough or don't have sufficient self confidence or confidence in their team mates. We played a rigid 5 across the middle who got so deep they were almost on top of the back 4 and we still conceded 4 goals. Midfield is allegedly our strongest area of the pitch but we don't show it, we are so deep we can't get out and on the rare occasion a clearing punt finds the lone striker he can't hold it up and wait for the midfield to get up in support. Charlie Mulgrew Supposedly our most experienced defender got too tight to their big centre which puts him at a disadvantage right off the bat, the big man can rag doll him if he's touch tight plus has the advantage in the jump. I don't see any easy fix, if we're going to play with 10 men behind the ball I don't see us beating too many teams As I said above, any manager needs three weeks with the players to work on a system that suits their level, frankly, there are some modest club sides that could have put up a better showing last night.

Wafer thin margins, sorry.

Nope, it's called shrinkflation, you pay more for it and you get less of it, a bit like your cereal packet.

If I were Clarke I would announce now that if we fail to make the Euros the players will be expected to make themselves available to attend a summer camp during the finals. Anyone refusing to attend automatically rules themselves out of the squad for the future (print their names in the paper), they would be away from home for three weeks anyway if they qualified for the euros. He needs time with them to work on formations and a style of play that suits their ability, you can't do that in a couple of days before a match. I would also arrange three closed door matches against teams from outside Europe to put these ideas into practice, if we go into a world cup qualification group without this kind of preparation it will be more of the same.

Just to set you straight Alan and I speak as an ICT supporting ex pat govan weegie, the natives of Greenock and Port Glasgow are not considered weegies they are a separate tribe entirely.

Even by recent standards tonight's match against Russia takes some beating, could have been four or five, our defence and midfield were at sixes and sevens couldn't keep the ball and just what is the point of Charlie passback Mulgrew? can't pass the ball ten yards forward on the ground when a man is open and is out jumped by the opposition centre. Even Andy Robertson looked like a first division player tonight. Felt sorry for McBurnie up top as he had zero service, Christie showed some nice touches when he came on. The commentators of course described Russia as world class which they are not though we probably made them look better than they actually are. We haven't quite hit rock bottom yet but I feel sure that will come with time at which point the bankrupt SFA might finally decide we need an overhaul of how we play the game at all levels in this footballing back water. The winners tonight were the 20+ thousand who sensibly decided not to shell out for a ticket to watch that dross. I was at our last appearance in the WC finals in France and we thought the team was murder then as did the fans of the teams we played, the current squad have achieved a new level of hopeless. Maybe "project brave" will save our "national game"

Really!! just shows what a forgettable competition it is. Seems I set off some righteous indignation.

Couldn't agree more. it's almost as if anyone who can run for 90mins is athletic and can kick a ball (not very well) is considered a footballer. In the 1970's there were probably 10,000 people playing just in the west of Scotland amateur leagues, (not including the juvenile leagues) these included the Schoolboy signings at the professional clubs, the promising pre reserve professional players were farmed out to the junior leagues such as Dalgleish to Cumbernauld, these leagues are a pale shadow of what they once were and as a result the number of "footballers" is miniscule. One only has to compare the Caley side under Paterson to the team today to realise the drastic drop in ability and yet people are being asked to pay top dollar for a vastly inferior product. The market will eventually rectify that discrepancy which will mean many more part time clubs.

Why? I couldn't tell you who won the thing in the last three years. As BDU says make it regional group games and play the youngsters in it give them experience against 1st team players from league 1 and 2. All the pros in the last two generations have said what brought their game on the most was playing with and against men in the reserve league something the youngsters of today are not exposed to. If you can't play them in this make weight competition when are you going to play them. Seriously, who will remember who won this joke competition in 3 years time and more to the point who cares?.