Robert

We are 1 down, Oakley of all people. Now we need to repeat what we did on a Saturday and turn this round.

Bit surprised Shaw is only in the bench but Longstaff has looked lively when coming on as a sub. Great to see MacGregor in the squad. I assume Duffy is injured?

We need to kick on from Saturday’s great result and secure another away win tomorrow.

We really need to get Wotherspoon signed up on a longer deal, and I agree we should let Sheridan go. It was noticeable that Lodovica came on rather than him on Saturday so the decision may already have been made. Anderson and Boyes are both contributing well so hopefully their clubs don’t recall them. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of two fringe players got “released by mutual consent” as we have a very big squad.

The third goal is rightly getting plaudits but Shaw’s turn and picking out of Anderson for the first was quality too. It is great having a good feeling about the team again.

HT 0-1 FT 1-3 ICT Billy Mckay Morton Crawford Crowd 1403

George Oakley for Morton, Nathan Austin for East Fife and Ethan Cairns for Forres today.

I see Morton won at Arbroath today. Six points from our games against that pair will do nicely and have us looking up instead of down.

Or go for more goals! Billy Mckay from the spot: 4-1.

David Wotherspoon: we are 3-1 up. Max Anderson with the assist. Now let’s close the game out!

We’ve taken the lead: Nikola Ujdur. Cammy Harper with the assist.

1-1. Max Anderson after 21 minutes. Nathan Shaw with the assist.

One down after 10 minutes.

A big game today if we want to climb away from the bottom of the table. With Arbroath playing Morton, if we slip up we could find ourselves back in the bottom two. With Morton on Tuesday and Arbroath next Saturday, this week could prove pivotal for how our season shapes up. Three points please!

Oh dear, I hope this is not a kiss of death: Manager and Player of the Month awards for Duncan Ferguson and David Wotherspoon: https://ictfc.com/duncan-ferguson-named-championship-manager-of-the-month-for-november-2023/ https://ictfc.com/david-wotherspoon-named-cinch-scottish-championship-player-of-the-month-for-november-2023/

Arbroath @ 2.50 please.

HT 0-1 FT 1-2 ICT Billy Mckay QP Paton Crowd 1167

As an aside, the club had a “pop up shop” at the big Tesco when I was in this morning. A couple of staff members, including Keith Haggart, were chatting with customers entering the store.

The only thing I saw was the idiot Celtic fan in with our fans who celebrated their third goal as though they’d won the Champions League and got a deserved punch from one of our fans (not that I condone violence, but that idiot got what he deserved……). Neither of them are amongst the five pictured.

As a member, I received an e-mail with an update from the meeting (which I attended, thought was worthwhile, and would encourage more fans to attend the next one when it is arranged). Details are also now on the Trust website. https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/post/update-supporters-trust-fans-meeting-held-saturday-23rd-september-2023

No goal! The officials surely could not have got it wrong!!?? No arguments from me about the penalty.

As an aside, driving home from the game, I heard John Robertson’s report on Sportsound. He gave the assist to Duffy. What a ball that was by Wotherspoon to set Mckay up. As mentioned in the thread, we need to improve at throw ins and leave someone upfield when defending set pieces, but my other bugbear is when we always seem to make a pass when a shot is on. It happened several times yesterday particularly in the first half. The way the ground was, any shot could have bobbled and caught the goalie out.

It’s tight this year Gringo: only 12 points between first and eighth!

That’s a sore one to take but in reality we were outplayed until we took the lead against the run of play. If Raith had had their shooting boots on, they’d have been out of sight by half time. We were much better in the second half, but the goal was a surprise when it came. We then had our best spell and created several chances, coming very close when Anderson (by then playing in a more advanced role) cannoned one off the post. Then the late equaliser meant we looked like getting a point (which we’d all have taken at half time) but the stoppage time penalty was a sickener. Losing Devine meant a change of shape to 4 at the back, but I felt we played better with two wide players than we had with Duffy and Harper being wing backs. I’m not blaming the changes as Mckay and Wotherspoon had worked their socks off, and it seems to be the norm that they give us 100% for 70 minutes before being taken off. It is maybe the reality check we need, as our results have been better than our performances. If we had to lose our unbeaten run, I’d rather it was today than in any of the next three against the teams below us, Queens Park, Morton and Arbroath.

I’ve even dug a vest out for the game and my ICT hat will get its first outing of the season.