Robert

I’ve been saying for a few weeks that I’d like to see Mckay and Sutherland together. They got the second half today but I’d start them both at Elgin to see if they can form a partnership with a view to them starting against Morton in a fortnight. Duku is a menace and works hard, but we are not getting the goals we need, so time to change things. I also think we missed Devine today. A word about the referee today. He was too card happy, self inflicted by punishing the first dodgy tackle. According to the BBC stats, there were 21 fouls, but somehow he booked 7 players and sent 1 off, which did not reflect the nature of the match. I think Duku was subbed at half time due to the high risk he would get penalised again and sent off.

Disappointing performance and result. In the first half, the early goal rocked us and gave Hamilton confidence, then they got their second with a good finish. Once they went two ahead and down to 10 men, they packed their defence and we struggled to break them down, although their defenders had a lot of last ditch defending and blocks. However, other than Harper hitting the bar and chances for Sutherland and Welsh, I’m struggling to recall many clear cut opportunities. Gardyne deserved his goal as he was our most dangerous player, and linked up well with Harper on the left. We need to be more potent as we are not scoring enough goals and our league position flatters us on recent performances. Worryingly we have beaten the teams in 2nd to 7th and dropped points against 2 of the bottom 3, with the other team in the bottom 3 to come next. It just highlights how any team can beat any team in this league so we need to be on our game every week. Still, despite today’s disappointment, before the season started we’d all have taken being 3 points ahead at the top after 8 games!

Consolation goal by Gardyne. We’ve bossed the second half but struggled to break them down. Good effort. In the 92nd minute.

McDonald on for Duffy. Allardice at right back now it looks like.

Mckay on for Duku at start of second half.

Only positive from the first half is that Killie are also losing. Can we do what we did against Partick and turn things round in the second half? We will need to play much better to do that. Hamilton have not been particularly good which makes it worse that we are 2 behind.

OK, we will score 3!! Not convinced on what I’ve seen so far though.

Sutherland on for Walsh. 4-4-2? Accies down to 10.

2 down. We’ve not got going in this game yet. Good finish this time. Card happy ref too, so fair bet there won’t be 22 players on the park at the end.

1 down already.

Duffy for Carson and Harper for Devine, and only 6 subs with no sign of Carson, Devine or Doran, presumably all injured. We can’t afford to lose any of our starting back four as no defenders on the bench. I will be watching the livestream. Come on the Caley Jags!!

As long as he keeps playing well and avoids injuries, I don’t care what he and his hair look like!

Hopefully on the Friday night in Dumfries we perform as well as we did in the Friday night match there last season.

The club has announced an Autumn Season Ticket offer covering the remaining 14 home league games. Hopefully it may entice some lapsed fans back. https://ictfc.com/season-tickets-2021-22-autumn-offer

That’s me signed up.

Longer highlights now available. Seeing Welsh’s free kick from the camera behind the goal shows just how good a free kick it was! https://ictfc.com/highlights-ictfc-2-1-queen-of-the-south-25-09-2021

Lewis Nicolson for Clach is the only Highland League one I can see from this weekend. If we include former youth players, Aiden Wilson got two for Rothes in the same game.

But fortunately he redeemed himself by scoring the winner!

Ticketing information has been released for the Elgin game on 9 October. As well as the early kick off at 1400, tickets must be purchased in advance: https://ictfc.com/ticket-information-elgin-city-v-ictfc-09-10-2021

The club’s report along with three excellent goals and post match comments: https://ictfc.com/match-report-ictfc-2-1-queen-of-the-south

Nathan Austin again for Kelty this weekend.

Gardyne was really up for it today and encouraging others. His goal celebration showed how much he wants to win games with us, then there was his dance with Carson after the final whistle as they were clapping the fans. He wants to do well here.

Josh Meekings sent off for misfiring Brora in their defeat at Inverurie today.

I must also commend Broadfoot. He is growing on me and is forming a great partnership with Devine, who I still feel is under rated by some. Several times today he took the ball out from deep and moved forward looking to set things up. It did not always work for him, but it was good to see. Next week I’d like to see McKay start. Duku works hard and is a menace to defences, but has not scored in the league for us yet. I’d like to see how McKay and Sutherland work together, as they could be a potent pairing.

Pretty dominant first half without creating any clear cut chances, but deservedly ahead after a great free kick by Welsh. We failed to kick on after the break and it was no great surprise when the equaliser went in, as they had tested us a few times before it. It was a very good finish. That was the kick up the backside we needed and we got the winner through Gardyne from a long ball by Deas, with Jamieson playing his part by distracting the defence. However, we need to be more clinical and put teams away when we are on top, and stop making it hard for ourselves. Pick for me today was Gardyne, closely followed by Welsh.