Robert

Tickets on sale now for the Quarter Final on 10 March: https://ictfc.com/scottish-cup-quarter-final-ticket-information

I’ve completed the survey and feel “it did what it says on the tin”, covering all elements of the match day experience. I did highlight in the comments section that my main gripes are the ongoing poor communication by the club and the queues at the catering outlets at half time. The survey rightly does not stray into performances. I hope it gets a good response and results in improvements that will benefit us all.

The tea lady may be the best option!!

HT 0-0 FT 0-1 ICT Billy Mckay Hamilton Lewis Spence Crowd 1250

Our away form is better than our home form, and we are due a win against Hamilton. I may be insane but I’m quietly confident.

Hopefully talks taking place with a number of those about to be out of contract, especially Allardice, Deas, Devine, Mckay and Samuels. The youngsters deserve more time too, possibly also Shaw. Doran, Sutherland and Walsh are tougher calls: all depends realistically how fit they can be and what we can expect them to contribute.

I’m glad Samuels has spoken out and cleared the air, but the club could have killed the issue stone dead months ago. Their report on Saturday, which is a fair summary: https://ictfc.com/match-report-ictfc-0-3-hamilton-accies

Noted yesterday: Sam Winnall for Buxton Toddy for Dunfermline Nat Wedderburn for Stenhousemuir Dale Gillespie for Brora Harry Hennem for Clach

One of the few positives today, after around 1520, was hearing the crowd and knowing I was within 100 of it with my prediction of 2087 and in line for a bonus! The BBC have got their figure wrong.

I thought Shaw was in the “no 10” role supporting Mckay but also dropping back to bolster the midfield, with Mackay wide left and Henderson wide right. Carson and Henderson tried hard to link up and create down the right, but we struggled down the left. Mackay had a great opportunity one on one but his first touch let him down, whilst Harper was one of many who’s passing was poor. Teams in our league know to press us at goal kicks so we can’t play it out from the back and that when we go long we’ve no height. Early on we were good enough to overcome that, Allardice tending to be the outlet to create space, but then it all went wrong with hoofball or poor distribution. The only saving grace is that our away form is better than our home form (despite some batterings) and we’ve four away league games coming up. I just hope we’ve a big enough buffer from the teams below us…..

For the first 20 minutes, we looked good, playing to our strengths, getting behind the defence and creating chances. Mckay should have scored and a 2 or 3 goal lead then would have reflected the match to that point. Henderson, Shaw and Allardice were the best in that spell. I did worry that we’d failed to score during the period we were well on top, and we suddenly stopped playing well, and constantly gave the ball away. We gifted the first after a wayward pass by Shaw, which seemed to knock his confidence as he’d being doing well until then. The rest is history although I felt the penalty was very soft. Henderson was the pick for me, and Mckay never stopped trying, at one point even covering left back after Harper lost possession. What worried me most was that Dodds was most animated in stoppage time when Douglas Ross got a throw in call wrong. The game was gone by then, it didn’t matter, and he has much bigger things he should be focussing on. 3-0 was a harsh score but that’s how it ended. We now need a response on Tuesday, although I think our (promotion) play off chances died this afternoon.

Oh dear, for the first 20 minutes I thought my 5 was justified, then we stopped playing. Now I’m at 2.

Looking forward to tomorrow’s game, as long as the right ICT turn up. Let’s hope for a positive performance where we play to our strengths and are on the front foot from the start. We have a poor recent record against Hamilton, but hammered them 4-0 last season: more of that will do nicely tomorrow! Three points please, as on a weekend where the current top 6 are playing each other, it’s our chance to make sure we are in play off contention. After tomorrow, our next four league games are all away, with the next home league game not until 25 March (we would have had Arbroath on 11 March). We have Hamilton, Dundee, Ayr and Queens Park away in that time, adding to the importance of getting three points tomorrow.

Dumbarton @ 2.20 please.

HT 1-0 FT 2-1 ICT Billy Mckay Accies Lewis Smith Crowd 2087

OK, if I replace an apathy rating with a realistic expectation rating: before: 3 after: 5

I wouldn’t consider myself apathetic about the club at any time. I’ve been frustrated this season by our inconsistency, which has made it a stop start season, and some of our tactics when we have not played to our strengths (indeed, sometimes we seemed always to play to our weaknesses). Hopefully Saturday marked the start of a good run in, but we will know soon enough! Hamilton have normally had the better of us recently, and they are on a decent run, so we need to have the same attitude and performance level in the forthcoming games against them as we had at Livingston.

Jordan Roberts for Stevenage tonight.

And Kai Kennedy. He doesn’t seem to have fulfilled the promise he had in his few months with us.

Thanks. Just watched it again. I went by the position the ball was played from rather then the player!! Lesson to self: pay more attention!

The club’s report: https://ictfc.com/match-report-livingston-0-3-ictfc From the highlights, surely it was Carson who set the first up, not Henderson?

Now all we need is a decent kick off time given all four will be televised.

Noted today: George Oakley with 2 for Morton Toddy for Dunfermline Shaun Rooney for Fleetwood after coming off the bench Sam Winnall for Burton Andrew MacAskill for Buckie Aiden Wilson for Rothes

I thought Dan Mackay looked good when playing off Billy in the second half last week, so we’ve maybe found out best attack (given current injuries). Henderson and Shaw wide with Mackay supporting Mckay up top.

Other than the Old Firm, wonder if any other team has achieved that.