cif73

24 minutes ago, lightwelter said:

Hibs might be lower league opposition, but man for man they're a better team then us. From our starting 11 tonight, around 3 would be good enough to start for Hibs (Draper, Warren, Meekings, and arguable OFW). They have real quality in Cummings, Stokes, McGinn and Henderson, all the types of players that can make things happen and win games with touches of quality. We on the other hand, didn't have a single player capable of that. I only wish Christie had stayed until the end of the season rather than spending it sitting on the bench. 

Especially when we've done nothing interesting/creative with the big bucks we got for him !!

2 hours ago, Yngwie said:

According to the BBC match report stats, in our last 3 games we have mustered a grand total of 3 shots on target, ie 1 per game. None of these games were against good or in-form teams. I know this is telling us nothing we don't really know already, but it's a pretty disgraceful stat all the same.

... but on a positive our backwards, sidewards number of passes completed is off the charts high 

2 minutes ago, gingerjaggy said:

bit of an overreaction on here but it is definitely very worrying now. By the way some are talking we are already down but I think Killie will be our saving grace. Who says the cup is a distraction? We win on wed and the fight for places may help our league form and will stop the rot which may just save our season. But the lack of goals is seriously worrying but we have what we have we just have to find away to claw ourselves to safety. I agree though that we have to move away from this possession style and go more direct. The radio made it sound like we had a lot of chances near the end so maybe things might change but we need it sooner rather than later.

Good to be positive and I agree with much of what you say but your radio reference sounds like you were saved the borefest of attending so you can't really appreciate just how lame it was

36 minutes ago, rocky1 said:

Latapy- probably

Spent on signings who are/ were useless plus a huge hike in Hughes salary so not much left I suspect .You will only find out on Wednesday but if the team turns up and fit players and those back from suspension can control their wild play may be the start of our season although there is not much left 

Scared to ask what kind of hike Hughes got. Despite being the incumbent when we won our first major trophy, a good proportion of the support seems fairly non-plussed over the prospect of Utd tempting him away last October. 

Was Latapy the brains of the outfit? What has happened to the Christie money? Was I mistaken in deciding to commit to the replay ticket and 2 hour round trip before today's match?

Today was really gash. If we can't score against a poor Hamilton team at home we are in deep doo-doo.

Every player seems to develop altitude sickness when they reach the final third.

The only positive was Foran coming on near the end. He has to start v Hibs if fit. Everyone is scared to consider shoot on sight when the opportunity arises.

Just now, Scotty said:

nope. Horner chased the lost cause, kept it in, and crossed it for  Storey to setup for Mutombo ... 1-1 

Fair one. I take it back. In Yogi we trust. 

Horner on for Polworth?!!! Is it just damage limitation now? 

On this display we'll be relegation candidates after today ... we're ver poor and don't deserve to go further today. 

BBC describes ICT as "shot shy" and "no cutting edge" (Biscuits Preston) ... no sh$£ Sherlock ... tell us something we don't know

Second thoughts ... maybe Yogi/the board need to hear it again.

Sounds like we turned up for just one half ... as has so often been the way this season. Probably would have taken that at the start of the day but gutting when we were so close to seeing out the win.

On 25/02/2016 at 11:27 AM, RednBlackComeback said:

Just for you Deano ......https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phhs3DjI7Kc

Quality. My first cup final. How times have changed. Great memories but how far we've come. Back then this was the pride of Inverness football while Aberdeen were recent double European trophy winners ... the gap has narrowed somewhat between the cities. 

1 hour ago, alternative maryhill said:

By and large I agree with you, but I think the tactics were decent for today's game. Celtic play a high line, and what we did was to press them right across the midfleld, try to stop them playing and take control of that area, then outpace them when we were in possession. It worked so well that we threw them right off their game and controlled it from about 15 mins in until half time. Warren's glaring chance came from this tactic, as did Roberts' early in the second half. Had Roberts scored that, then I think we'd be talking about a win or at least a draw, as Celtic looked very uncertain until they scored. Unfortunately, once they did, their confidence seemed to grow as rapidly as ours diminished, and they largely strolled the rest of it, although 3-0 wasn't really a fair reflection of the game overall.

Long term, though, I think our lack of out-and-out strikers could make the difference between, say, 7th and 4th.   

     

Good considered analysis as always Alternative Maryhill :)

In the 2nd half, a couple of minutes before Celtic's 1st goal, Alan "Biscuits" Preston on Radio Scotland says that if Inverness could finish, they'd be out of sight! .... Why is it that we have more midfielders than you can shake a stick at ... and less strikers than players with Williams as a surname?

This is why we need strikers ... to clinically finish chances we get!!

On 18/02/2016 at 4:59 PM, TheMantis said:

I'm only complaining about one comment by Richard Gordon which was totally unprofessional. He may be very balanced normally but in this case he was obviously sickened by the result and couldn't keep it in.

No amount of bbc apologists can wish this away and I'm sure the broadcast can be retrieved if necessary. I thought Willie Miller was fine and gave ICT loads of credit for a fine performance. 

I only heard it as I had to go up to Lewis on Sunday for family reasons or I would have been at the game instead of sitting in the car listening to medium wave. 

The beef that I had with Willie Miller on the radio post-match was his complete inability to accept Yogi's "No" as an answer when asked if that was ICT's best performance of the season. How on earth could they have played better in any other game this season when they had just gone and beaten the mighty Aberdeen thanks in part to an allegedly dodgy penalty?

On 2/16/2016 at 11:25 AM, Kingsmills said:

I have posted this in the ICT Forum rather than general football as I am delighted to say that national semi finals have become of increasing direct relevance to us in the past few years and, with any luck, could well be again this season.

Whilst generally a traditionalist, I think the time has come to consider the semi finals of both the Scottish Cup and the League Cup being switched to two legged affairs. If it's good enough for the Champions League, The Copa del Rey and the English League Cup it could well be good enough for us.

I see a number of advantages; Firstly, there is fairness to the club and supporters. In the last three seasons we have been forced to play cup semi finals against clubs in their home cities. It's to our great credit that we won two out of three of these but the fans were still out of pocket, the team disadvantaged and our numbers reduced to about 3,000 albeit 3,000 who made themselves sound like three times as many.

This season already, both St Johnstone and County have been obliged to play semi final opponents at 'neutral' venues in their opponent's back yards.

I am sure that there will be revenue advantages too, grounds are likely to be full or at least fuller. I know we struggle with crowds but I have little doubt that we would fill the Main and North stands and maybe even the wee West stand for a semi final on our home turf and whoever we play is likely to cram the South Stand for such an occasion.

There would be two extra prestigious games to sell to TV and tournament sponsors and the proceeds could, as now, be pooled between all four participants and both TV and sponsors would much prefer full stadia rather than the sight of Hampden barely half full even when Celtic are involved.

The final advantage is that the National Stadium would be kept for finals which would make those occasions even more special and unique than they already are.

 

Interesting subject to ponder ... but, if a two-legged format had been in place for the cups last season, I doubt very much that we'd currently be Scottish Cup champions.

I think we can always fancy our chances against any team in a single match but to beat e.g. Celtic on aggregate over two legs would have been a tall order ... and, most likely, our involvement might have ended last season at the semi-final stage ... imho

The same could be said of Ross County and their victory over Celtic this year (although applying my logic to that specific example probably strengthens my feeling for two-leg semi-finals ... if you catch my drift! tee hee)

So, in the event of meeting a "big" club in a semi-final, I'd rather the slighter more hopeful prospect of a final rather than the possible extra money from an extra match. The perceived additional money could come with getting to the final.

2 hours ago, Diddy said:

Says something that we were as gash as we could possibly play and you needed 4 match changing decisions in your favour to win the game, only scoring 1 goal that could be said was of your own making via an assist from our player. 

The game totally changed on a dive that is embarrassing to the male gender.

If you don't take anything from this Celtic team you've rolled over for them. They are hopeless.

A paragraph containing "dives embarassing" to the male gender and "Celtic" reminds me of Shinnie's dive for your September penalty against Ceptic at Pittodrie

4 hours ago, Diddy said:

Can't remember ever reading a more clueless forum of fans.

We're miles up the table because Hayes and McGinn 80% of the time tear teams apart. Hayes went off early and McGinn is having his usual 3 game lull.

Draper should have been off the pitch by the time he rugby tackled Taylor in the box, which I can't fathom some people here think 'happens all the time'. 

And the big streak of pish's dive (again) killed the game and any half time talk and tactics. 

Someone has said the difference was you were going to do something from the incident  quite possibly but it wasn't a foul in the first place ya halfwit. 

And that Shinnie's wasn't a penalty too. 

Draper 'bossed' the game because he got away with it from an incompetent referee.

3 goals and a man sent off worth of wrong decisions is going to kill any team's motivation and prevent them getting into the game.

Awaiting your big timmy manager rolling over to his beloved side on Saturday.

Could we play your team every week please? 

15 hours ago, PerfICT said:

...also a word for young boys - superb throughout and 10/10 for "sheep on fire" chant when that chimney puffed smoke all over the pitch!

Aye ... pure comedy gold!

1 hour ago, PerfICT said:

Yes, I think this is a strong possibility and there are others, too. However, that does not solve the major risk that exists: if Storey gets injured, we have the sum total of nil strikers to choose from, especially now that Foran, Ferguson and Fisher are all FFFing crocked and Sutherland is out on loan. Risky!

Likewise, should we need a goal in the dying minutes of a cup tie and want to go 2 up front, what do we do? I'm sure a few of the guys can do a job up there, but that isn't the same as being able to bring a recognised striker on alongside Storey. Compare our situation to that at County - they now have 5 strikers to choose from: Boyce, Curran, Schalke, Graham and Goodwillie. Galling!

Yes, indeed! Where is the multiple-like button.

4 hours ago, PerfICT said:

Fair point....except, if he knew that why didn't he just say "it's against the rules" instead of "he's not the kind of player we need"?

Exactly ... good to know the likely reason albeit from another club manager ... 10/10 for Mark McGhee's open and honest feedback on who they've tried to get and why they've been unsuccessful. On Yogi's watch, we've had wonderful achievements and memories for which I' sure we're all very thankful but generally the fans (who are the one constant) like to know and discuss what's going on with playing staff and plans in that regard (within reason and subject to reasonable confidentiality). Nothing wrong with polite challenges/enquiry/banter.  

"I must reassure you folks ... I had nothing to do with Yogi's radar system"

4 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

I can accept that the player may not have wanted to come,  appreciate that his wage demands might have been beyond us but, given our lack of cover up front, I find it very surprising an quite disappointing that a player who is still relatively young, who has a proven record of scoring in our league, who has played very successfully under the manager before and who was available did not even register on Yogi's radar.

Does he need a new radar system ?

Yes ... to put it mildly!!

56 minutes ago, PerfICT said:

Don't agree with him there. The alternative is to have no striking options except Storey - I know he's after a number 10, but beggars can't be choosers! I suspect he either knew that he'd be out of our price bracket or wouldn't want to come. Shame - he'd have scored goals but not to be.

I can only presume from Yogi's comments that he didn't get on with Higdon latterly ... either that or we were priced out by an English non-league outfit and he's trying to save ICT embarassment.

To say that Higdon is not what we want is frankly utterly ridiculous given:

1. We only have Storey; and

2. Higdon is a recent former player's player of the year with a proven goalscoring track record.

Outstanding ICT tweet from the weekend. Handy (!!) that Celtic scored a legit 2nd against EK to scrape them through. Can't think why no-one from Celtic mentioned it ;)

Take a look at @ICTFC's Tweet: