CurrieICT

Walsh oozed class and was the main creator of chances. McCart strolled through the game and looked comfortable on the ball, making room and time foe himself when needed. This is the first time I have seen most, if not all, of the younger players and none of them looked out of place. My young MOTM was Kieran Chalmers as he regularly broke up Forres attacks and then started ICT attacks, constant energy and not frightened to put a strong tackle in. Machado wasn’t far behind him as young MOTM. If we can hold on to these players we have a sound foundation to build a team for the future. I was standing within earshot of JR for the second half and it was encouraging to hear him continually talking to the younger players about positioning and the positive thing was that they listened and obeyed instructions. Todorov indicated to JR that he had cramp.

Article in today's Edinburgh Evening News with an interview with Jake Mulraney. On reading the article he doesn't seem to have a high regard for the club and the way it is run:- He played at Nottingham Forest and Queens Park Rangers in his teens and was released by both clubs. Dagenham & Redbridge, Stevenage and Inverness Caledonian Thistle have all been necessary stopping points on Mulraney’s route to top-flight football. This is one of the biggest clubs in the country so it’s a big step up. No disrespect to Inverness but it’s run a lot better here. You actually feel way more like a pro here. Everything is done properly, recovery is very efficient, all that stuff. I would have hoped that a former player would be more respectful towards his former employers even if he is correct. Hopefully Brad is playing on the 29th and shows him who's boss. Read more at: https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/sport/football/hearts/once-compared-to-aaron-lennon-jake-mulraney-senses-second-chance-at-hearts-1-4770168

Can't disagree with your comments and it was a real team performance with plenty of fight shown to get us back into the game. At no time did we look a team from a lower league. Difficult to choose a man of the match as a number of players put in strong performances Ridgers - made important saves and couldn't be faulted with the goals McKay - great blocks and tackles Donaldson - strolled through the game and could have had a copy of the Courier in his back pocket. Soft booking Calder - didn't put a foot wrong. Soft booking Doran - lasted 90 minutes and never stopped Oakley - never stopped and caused endless problems. A deserved goal Bell - ran himself into the ground and was thwarted by a superb save from a header Mt Finnie ( the referee) made some baffling decisions and wasn't helped out by his assistants. Two soft bookings for Donaldson and Calder when similar offences by Dundee players weren't treated in the same way on a positive note after Vigurs had been deservedly booked he was mouthing off and Finnie had the common sense to go over to Gary Warren to tell him to pipe down. After that Vigurs kept quiet but had a poor game by his standards.

The pies are barely average and I now don't buy them. When the catering contract comes round for renewal there should perhaps be a clause in it that local providers should be used and this would give money back to the local community as local businesses would be supported and would save carbon emissions by not shipping in pies etc. from Glasgow. Perhaps we should suggest to the Board that this is an area that needs to be addressed and that a panel of supporters should be gathered with local pie suppliers invited to supply samples of their merchandise with the favourite being selected as the pie of choice for ICT. It would possibly generate some local interest in the club and maybe we would get decent pies. Volunteers for the tasting group should form an orderly line behind myself. I can't believe we are discussing pies.

I was at the game on Saturday and I think that I was sitting a few rows behind the person that you are referring to. It was getting to the point that I was tempted to move seat but realised that I would probably still have heard him from anywhere in the ground. "Fans" have a right to voice their opinions but when a team is lacking in confidence and struggling then it is positive comments that are needed not just abuse. The poor crowd on Saturday just helped this person's abuse be heard by everyone as he had little to compete with. Vigurs and Polworth get dogs abuse at games and on this forum but at the end of the day they are probably two of our most skilful players and we need them a lot more than they need the abuse that they receive. Things aren't good within the club and it needs genuine supporters to rally round and support our players when things aren't going well on the park.

I just wish he had shown as much fight on the pitch. Every time he had a misplaced pass, and there were quite a few of them, his shoulders slumped, head went down and didn’t try and win back the ball. His coat’s on a shoogly peg after this.

I haven't been on the site for a few weeks, purely to maintain my sanity given the rank performances over the past few weeks, but was thinking of making an effort to go to the game against Peterhead tomorrow. Having read through the comments on this thread and some of the others I am having serious doubts

Can't really disagree with your summary apart from Mulreany who seemed to be in one of his "I'm not in the mood" performances. If he he moaned less and applied himself consistently he would be an automatic pick. The defence was shambolic and easily brushed off the ball. We needed a strong defensive midfielder to help break up the Dunfermline attacks but that's another story. Wedderburn did that job well for Dunfermline. I believe that every team needs a strong spine with a solid keeper, centre back, midfielder and striker. What have we got? A spineless team. it's going to be a very long season.

Well spotted. You obviously have too much time on your hands.

There may be the small question about getting a work permit. I don't know all of the rules but I thought that you had to play in a percentage of your countries international games to get one automatically and I don't think his international career is good enough as his last cap was against Scotland in March this year when he came on as sub in the 94th minute. Sorry to be a pessimist.

I was at the Hamilton debacle as well and the RF man management skills were made loud and clear in his post match interview when he said "Some of our players have not got the bottle, they showed that today. We might have been the better side in the first half and their keeper pulled off a great save from the penalty, but some of our boys are hiding and we are in for a fight now. I told them straight, 'I can see who is bottling it, I can see who does not want to take the ball'. It is not them all - I thought Billy Mckay was excellent - but it makes it a massive game for us now on Saturday against Dundee." I would be surprised if anyone would be motivated in a positive way least of all players like Iain Vigurs and to some extent Liam Polworth. RF can only aspire to have the man management skills of someone like JR

I was at the game as well and this report is spot-on

Iain Vigurs is like marmite, you either like it or loathe it. I get the feeling that he is one of these players that needs the manager to put his arm round his shoulder and tell him he is a good player. Last season he was played in a variety of positions and coupled with the management style of RF I can understand his inconsistent performances. This year we have JR and his style of man management coupled with playing him in his best position will get us seeing better performances more often than last season. Tonight against Stirling Albion he was very influential throughout the game and was one of our top players. Please lay off the guy and I am sure he will be a key player this season

Larnell Cole was one of our top performers yesterday but Rangers will pose different problems from Hearts and the team has to be set up to nullify these yet still be threatening to the opposition. Hearts played without much/any width but Rangers will and the team selection has to take this into account. If we are to get anything from this match we have to pick the team that can get a result and if it means dropping a player that performed well in their last game then so be it. The team for Rangers must have the same level of energy and commitment as they showed against Hearts. Therefore no place for Vigurs in my team and Raven would also be a starter.

The performance yesterday was full of energy and after witnessing the shambolic display at Hamilton it was hard to think that this was the same set of players. It is hard to identify any players that stood out as every one gave 100%. The defence was solid and although Hearts had a high number of shots on goal they were speculative and easily dealt with. I liked the look of Laing considering he only arrived this week as he looks mobile and slotted in well. We flooded the midfield and crowded out Hearts whenever they had possession with Draper and Tansey showing their experience. Cole was full of industry and Mckay kept the Hearts defence busy chasing down constantly. I think that the team that Hearts selected was in our favour as they had no wide players until Walker came on and once he did our defence started to creak a bit. The pitch is abysmal and the likes of Mulraney and Cole struggled to keep control of the ball when it was bobbling all over the place. Definitely a point gained yesterday but Rangers and Celtic will be a different proposition as they have wide players that can do a lot of damage. We will need to keep the same levels of energy and commitment and probably play a similar formation if we are to get anything from these games. I left Tynecastle feeling more optimistic than when I left New Douglas Park but that wouldn't have been hard.