Robert

Alex Samuel with two goals to have us 2-1 up.

I didn’t know Raith had picked up Rudden. That increases my nervousness but, for reasons I don’t understand so can’t explain, I think we will get at least a point tomorrow.

Brad Mckay has joined Kelty Hearts on loan from Falkirk.

The Spartans @ 1.53 please.

HT 0-1 FT 1-2 ICT Billy Mckay Raith Vaughan Crowd 3650

Just to wrap this up, tickets duly bought in the shop this afternoon.

The article on the club website implies they are available in the shop to season ticket holders now. I was going to pop in later as I’m in town so will let you know if I get mine: https://ictfc.com/match-info-hibernian-h-10-02-2024/

You beat me to it!

He’s arrived! Another defender but a signing rather than a loan: https://ictfc.com/remi-savage-joins-ictfc/ In fairness they both sound like they have potential but surely we will have players leaving too.

Yet another defender!

Seems Cammy Kerr’s arrival is imminent: https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/dundee-fc/4876881/dundees-cammy-kerr-set-for-inverness-switch/

Two for Ethan Cairns for Banks O’Dee tonight.

Hibs have a league game on the Wednesday so that will have ruled them out if a Friday game. Only Aberdeen, Motherwell and Rangers have games on the Tuesday so it had to be one of them in the Friday. The disappointment for me is that they’ve preferred Hearts at Airdrie to Hibs at Inverness for the Sunday teatime game. I’d have thought that with our cup pedigree we’d have been picked. That said, I’m much happier with 1500 on a Saturday than 1700 on a Sunday.

Logan Chalmers for Ayr tonight.

Ayr won 2-0 so are now above us. We’re in 8th, only ahead of Queens Park by a point with Arbroath three behind us. Squeaky bum time again.

Ayr have appointed Scott Brown as Manager ahead of playing Arbroath tonight, the game in hand they both have on us.

I’ve no idea when you were last there, but I’m confident you will find the Social Club to be extremely ICT friendly if you go there now. The venue will hopefully appeal to a wide cross section of fans, and hopefully many who have not attended the previous two meetings will be able to attend. A club Director will again be in attendance to answer questions and hear the views of fans, so the more that are able to attend the better. There’s a summary of the previous discussions on the Trust website: https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/post/update-supporters-trust-fans-meeting-held-saturday-23rd-september-2023 And anyone not already a member (it’s only £5 or £1 for kids) is encouraged to join. More information and how to join are here: https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/join-us

There’s a midweek card in the top league so the Friday night game will need to be one of the teams that have a Tuesday game, so one of Aberdeen, Motherwell and Rangers. They won’t move Rangers to the Friday so chances are it will be the Aberdeen game then. It’s probably then between our game and the Hearts game for the Saturday lunchtime pick with Viaplay having the Old Firm for the late Saturday and Sunday games. You’d like to think with our cup pedigree and the potential for a shock that we’d be picked.

We’ve drawn Hibs at home in the fifth round.

Noted yesterday we’re Toddy for Airdrie, George Oakley for Morton, Marley Watkins for Kilmarnock, Dan Mackay for Livingston, Nathan Austin for East Fife and two by Sam Pearson for Yeovil.

Sam Pearson joined Yeovil in the National League South this week, scoring twice on his debut yesterday.

He came on for Doran and got just over half an hour. He took his goals very well (the first was a cracking finish) and all the players seemed delighted for him. I think he does have potential. He is still young and learning. I’m not sure if Doran got a knock in the penalty incident, as he headed towards the touch line behind the goal for a few moments after it. Hopefully his substitution was just a precaution. Someone commented above that Doran should have taken the penalty but I don’t think he was ready to, given the nature of the challenge. I can’t argue with a striker stepping up to take it although Gilmour may have been a better option at the time. A shout out to the ground staff. The pitch held up very well and didn’t look to be cutting up at all. A few seasons back there’s no way the game would have gone ahead.

We got the job done, which was the main thing seeing what happened in some other games. I thought we started well and were trying to utilise the pace of Samuel, but after the early disallowed goal by Doran, we reverted to slow build up play and taking passes when shots were on for most of the first half. Gilmour’s goal was needed as otherwise the first half would have been one of our worst 45s this season. We showed a bit more urgency at the start of the second half and should have been 2 up with the penalty. I felt the red was a bit harsh but he was wresting with Doran for about 10 yards! Samuel’s kick was saved comfortably but he made amends a short time later with Carragher getting the assist. We failed to capitalise until the late double from Brooks added gloss to the score line. MacKay also pulled off one fine save to maintain the clean sheet. We started as a 3 5 2 with Duffy and Longstaff as wing backs, with all of Anderson, Carson and Gilmour in central midfield. We switched to 4 at the back late on after Ujdur went off, with Longstaff at left back. He did ok, but I felt Duffy was the more dangerous of the wide players. Carson had a quiet first half but made some decent passes after the break. It was good to see Doran and MacGregor get game time, along with Samuel and Brooks being amongst the goals. So job done with a good result after a largely unconvincing performance.

HT 2-0 FT 4-0 ICT Doran Broomhill Grehan Crowd 937

He scored 10 (not counted in the 11) in this season’s North of Scotland Cup, albeit against lower standard teams, but maybe lack of game time has held him back? Time will tell.