Robert

As well as our award, Billy Mckay is also the Championship Player of the Month for January: https://ictfc.com/billy-mckay-named-cinch-championship-player-of-the-month Well deserved!

Pretty speechless reading this! Billy Dodds is the Championship Manager of the Month for January! https://ictfc.com/billy-dodds-named-championship-manager-of-the-month-for-january It just makes you wonder who the judges are or how bad all the others have been!

Agreed. At best we are in a four team contest for fourth place with Partick, Raith and Morton. Queens Park look out of our sights as we will not claw back 11 points and 14 goals in 13 games, whilst I can’t see us clawing back 7 points on Ayr and Dundee either. It is so frustrating as if we played every minute the way we played the first 20 of the second half yesterday we would be in a much better place. We can do it but it seems we choose not to.

I taped yesterday’s Calcutta Cup game and watched it this morning. It is great to win at Twickenham again, and we deserved to. Hopefully we can build on this and beat Wales next weekend and get in contention for the Championship itself. We have three home games against Wales, Ireland and Italy and an away game against France to come, and having already won away from home, this must be our best chance in years to actually win the Six Nations.

It is hard to see. He looked to be claiming as he fell but there were no protests after the goal was scored so I suspect any touch was minimal and not enough to be classed as a foul.

The club’s report: https://ictfc.com/match-report-ictfc-2-2-morton

Jordan White for County at Rangers and Alex Fisher for Yeovil yesterday. In the Highland League, Harry Hennem scored for Clach, along with Andrew MacRae for Brora and Andrew MacAskill for Buckie.

I didn’t think I was that positive as the first half was woeful. However, until Duffy’s gift, I thought we were going to kick on and win it, whilst our attitude and effort in the second half was chalk and cheese from the first half. At least we managed to equalise after that howler and well done to young Cairns for being in the right place at the right time. I thought Shaw made a difference when he came on today as he was happy to run at defenders. Allardice is getting back up to speed and I’d start Harper at left back ahead of Delaney next week. After a good start with us, Delaney seems to have faded recently and has had a torrid time in the last two league games. An update on the injury position would be helpful. Sean Welsh was missing, which is a concern. Lewis Nicolson has not been in the squad for the last two games so is presumably injured at present. He should get a run in the team in my opinion. Ben Woods has vanished after being used as a sub just after he signed. Then we have MacGregor, Samuels, Sutherland, Walsh and Deas: an indication of how they are progressing and likely timescales for returning would be helpful.

A game of two halves. First half we continued with the way we played against Queens Park in the cup and looked toothless and clueless. Delaney gifted Morton the early lead with a wayward pass across the back and was very lucky not to concede a penalty a few minutes later: all that within the opening 10 minutes. Doran had our best chance but repeated what happened on Tuesday and could not control the ball when clean through on the ‘keeper. The attitude and approach was totally different in the second half. Harper moved to left back with Hyde alongside Allardice in the middle, Delaney being hooked. Shaw replaced Doran with Mackay moving into the number 10 role. We were positive, moved the ball fast, took on defenders and looked dangerous. Mckay tapped in after sustained pressure. At that point we should have kicked on and won comfortably but Duffy got caught out at a long ball and gifted Morton the lead. That’s four goals we have gifted in five days! Late sub Cairns then got a poacher’s goal to tie things up after good pressure. A draw was a probably fair result but we’d have won it but for our slackness: that needs sorted. However Morton created more chances than us and Ridgers was called into action more than their ‘keeper. After the woeful first half I didn’t see us even getting a point but we should have got three. Ridgers, Devine, Duffy and Delaney have all contributed to the goals we conceded in the last two games. We need to cut out basic errors. On a positive, after a first half when it looked like the players were not playing for each other and the team, the second half attitude and endeavour was good to see. We are still in the play off hunt but need to start winning soon, and we’ve a double header with Hamilton and need to aim for six points.

I will be happy if we keep the ball on the grass for once rather than resorting to hoofball.

Interesting. Did we end up at £20 due to Queens Park not agreeing or did we simply not consider reducing the price?

Interesting move for Matheus Machado. After joining Rothes from Elgin in the summer, he has now joined play off chasing Montrose in League 1. A bit of a step up for him. Lewis Jamieson is back at St Mirren after his loan spell at Airdrie.

Anyone been near the ground today? It’s very windy where I am this morning so if it is the same at the ground it could make the conditions challenging.

Time to put Morton in their place and win the three points. It may not be pretty, it is unlikely to be easy, but we need the win. A great performance would be a nice bonus too.

Add the referee who missed Meekings’ hand ball in the semi too. Regarding Tuesday’s attendance, I think the main factor in the low crowd was the £20 admission fee. £10 would probably have generated the same revenue with a much noisier crowd and overcome the need for the North Stand closure. Maybe our good fortune in getting through to the next round is the bit of luck we need to kick start our season. We will know soon enough. Morton tomorrow, a double header against Hamilton then Dundee away this month will make or break our season. Ideally we win our home games and, at worst, avoid defeats in the away games.

https://ictfc.com/match-report-ictfc-0-2-queens-park-31-08-2023

To be honest, we don’t deserve to be put through to the fifth round, regardless of the error by Queens Park. We were so poor last night that almost anyone could have beaten us. I’d rather we now focussed on having a good end to the league season, making the play offs and putting things in place for next season.

We actually went one round further this year: fourth rather than third. May 2015 seems a lifetime ago, as does knocking County out a couple of seasons back. That was as bad a performance as I can remember in a long time. Other than after we weathered the early storm and Henderson hit the post, we were second best all over the park. Doran had a great chance but got his feet in a tangle, although I’m certain he was offside when played through. Other than that, we did nothing. Queens Park passed better, moved better, won all the second balls, created the better chances and could have won more comfortably. They knew how to play us and we had no answer. They pressed us so we couldn’t play out from the back, and when we went long as a result they invariably regained possession. Boateng mopped everything up in midfield and Mckay had no hope against their tall defenders. We needed a Plan B to keep the ball from goal kicks and throw ins but we failed to have one. As for the goals, I’m a fan of Devine but his wayward pass loosely towards Duffy created the first gift, whilst goodness knows how neither him nor Ridgers took control as they jointly gifted the second. We had some hopes that our fortunes had changed in recent weeks, but tonight was very, very poor. We need a reaction on Saturday or our season is well and truly over. 869 of us gave up our time on a miserable Tuesday and got absolutely no reward. We can’t even blame the weather or the officials. Not good at all.

Better change my first QP scorer prediction for tonight!

He tended to be a sub with them so got little game time. I thought he’d have made it to a higher level than an English League 2 side after his loan here finished but maybe his progress has stalled.

It’s one to wrap up well for tonight! Heavy showers interspersed with sunshine all day: bet we just get the rain tonight with the yellow wind warning kicking in just after kick off! Working out which way the wind will affect things and then winning the toss may be key tonight, whilst not playing high balls into the wind at all. The team will be interesting. Will Allardice and Harper get game time or be held back for the league? We will know soon enough.

Only Highland League scorer I can see at the weekend was Anthony McDonald for Brechin.

If the highlights are a fair reflection of the game, we are fortunate to have got a point. Both Raith goals stemmed from poor play by us: a defensive header by Devine that fell to a Raith player and a slack pass by Hyde. However, both our goals were good. Great play between Henderson and Mckay for the first, whilst the second looked to be off the training pitch. A great run into space by Mckay and picked out perfectly by Welsh. Big week ahead as we need to beat Morton (and also Queens Park in the cup ideally) then we have a double header next month against Hamilton, our bogey team, who look to have found some form. We will know by the end of February if we are going to be in contention for a play off place.

The club’s report: https://ictfc.com/report-raith-rovers-2-2-ictfc-28-01-2023

I actually agree with you. It all highlights why we need open communication by the club