mazza20

2 years will make it too expensive to sack him at Xmas if we have another mid season meltdown...

26 minutes ago, big cherly said:

Your explanation in your first sentence mazza20 perfectly makes my point!
I fully understand fans wanting to back the club irrespective how they do, and thats fine if you like what’s on display ( I have no problem with that). 
I simply want to be better and entertained, and whilst we got to the playoff last year and a cup final this season I can’t honestly say what’s been on display for the past two seasons fills me with expectation. I discount the Covid year for obvious reason.
The off the field antics by the board during the same period is directly linked to the retention of Dodds due to the lack of money!

More of the football on display last season at home is simply not for me! 

Think a real world example would be Leeds and Everton this season. Everton knew they needed to be more defensively solid and went and got Dyche, whereas Leeds changed to Big Sam with 4 games to go and look how that went.

I don't get to games much unfortunately, but the few games I've been to last 2 years have been tough to watch, would say we lack that player that could really link the midfield to attack if we want to play the passing game or a proper target man if we want to play route 1

1 hour ago, ICTPAISLEY said:

I’ll certainly take more of the same, 45 minutes away from the Premier League against St Johnstone and this season 3 points off second place with a cup final at Hampden. We got a bit unlucky this season and there’s certainly room for improvement but we aren’t as bad as we’re made out.

I don’t really get why some of our fans have the old firm mentality where we should be outright winning this league.

Tbh I don't think there's a better candidate we could realistically get at the moment, if we're going to change manager then the board needs to have plan and then get someone who's style aligns with that. Next season will be worse if we just let him go with the expectation that there's someone better ready to take the job instead of doing any sort of research prior to this point.

I'm not thrilled about another season of Dodds but he's now got 2 years working with the squad so knows what he needs in terms of recruitment, and hopefully his match management improves with experience.

Luckily next season our bogey team in Hamilton are gone so that could 3 of our league losses turned into points instead

40 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

Attendance 47,247 - so where were the 5,000 empty seats?! A few hundred where our section and Celtic section met, the rest seemed full from where I was at least.

Couldn't see how full the top section of the south stand was so maybe some there?

As everyone else as said, result was better than expected. Had no trouble with the Celtic fans (except for the one that made himself known in our section after the 3rd goal) and was surprised to see my train from Killie was pretty evenly split.

1st half was tough, think the instructions were to stay defensive unless you're confident you're in the clear, noticed anytime Henderson or Duffy got the ball on the right there was a reluctance to either make a run or an overlap. 2nd half was much better as we moved our press up the pitch started getting the ball higher up and made some decent pressure. Agree with Dodds the goals in the 2nd half came at the wrong time for us, but would argue if Celtic didn't get that first before half time then 2nd half would have continued the pattern of the 1st. Wasn't overly happy with the ref, don't think I can say he impacted the result but Billy Mckay was definitely getting manhandled during the 2nd half and never got a call for it.

23 hours ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

Time to pose another few questions ?

Should we get rid of Dodds before the Cup Final ? Is missing out on the play offs more of a positive than a negative ? Would we have been totally fecked if we were to progress in the play offs ? What can we do in the next few weeks to prepare ?

Now Dodds - IMHO - provided quite an encouraging response to the last question - we take a whole week off to recuperate. We then get together like a training camp - work on fitness, work on team building and work on how to take on Celtic and start the final with a clear plan.

And most importantly - Are we organising a pub for either pre or post Cup Final - or both ???

I would let Dodds have the cup final, think it would potentially put off potential candidates if we did get rid of him. We should be doing some work behind the scenes, identify targets we want etc, gauge interest for the role, and need to have a sit down with Dodds and give him a chance to show why he may be the best candidate. We'll at least know that way if he wants to be here and we should be putting in milestones that he needs to reach if he wants to keep the job.

Missing out is good for the cup final, but probably bad long term. We need some major rotation throughout playoffs and rest days if wanted the best possible chance to get through.

Anyone put themselves through the post match interview? Don't agree with most of what Dodds said, it's been another big missed chance instead of a good season. Claimed he wanted to make changes before half time, but thought he'd see if we'd sneak to HT 0-0. To me that's him all over, make changes too late, it's a must win, last game of the season, if it's not working then change it immediately!

2 minutes ago, forresjags said:

Absolute disaster of a night, no competitive football for a month and we are expected to turn up and give Celtic a game ,wtf. They have now 5 warm up games while we just kick our heels.

Tonight was a huge let down for a decent crowd and all the momentum we had built up over the last couple of weeks just evaporated in a terrible 90 minutes.

If you asked any ICTfan who would you take in the last game of the season (at home) Ayr would have been up there. But for some reason tonight we bottled it, big style. 2 maybe 3 shots on target in a must win game ....not good enough.

 

First half I would say we were terrified to run at Ayr, players would stop and either cut inside or play it back to defense

2nd half was better as we were willing to run at them, create overlaps and chase down long balls. The issue was floated crosses don't work well with the strikers we have, we need to cut to the byline and drill balls across goal

2 minutes ago, Jaggernaut said:

Yes, I don't think I can sit through another season watching Dodds brand of Hoofball again.

If we have to do it, can we at least get a target man?

3 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

6th place is such a disappointment after that amazing run built our hopes up -  followed by 1 point from our final 2 league games, yet still be just 3 points off second place. So many what ifs…

Imagine we could actually beat Hamilton on a regular basis ...

2 minutes ago, ICTPAISLEY said:

I’m fine with Dodds for one more year. 

If we snuck into the playoffs then I'd give a year extension with the expectation that if we're not looking like title challengers by Xmas he's gone. To me, he's not shown to be a great tactician (too many we either start poorly or go for route 1 with Billy Mckay up top) or even a good man manager (bust ups with squad morale plummeting in both seasons)

1 minute ago, Duke of Inverness said:

Another game of hoofball. Better in 2nd half to an extent.  New Manage for the final and into next season. 

Realistically, who would we get / want? I think it might time for a wholesale change of the backroom staff

2 minutes ago, WYNESS101 said:

The ICT way

Can we add high balls to a striker that isn't know for his aerial prowess to the ICT way?

2 minutes ago, WYNESS101 said:

League has been great for Scottish football going down to last day of the season but "We need to start strong this time" shouldn't be said by any ICT fan. We needed out of this league END OFF

Tbf we've started strong last 2 seasons and just throw it away at Xmas

2 hours ago, RiG said:

I was saying to a few folk last night I was torn about wanting to go up. Obviously for the better exposure, ability to attract or retain more / better players and the clear financial benefits you want us to go up.

But on the flip side you have rubbish kick off times, multiple midweek rounds of fixtures and shockingly expensive tickets amongst other things.

Whilst I am disappointed at not going up there is a (very) small part of me that is at ease with the thought of 3 pm games most Saturdays and arguably better away days than some of the matches in the Premiership.

Probably not a view that will be shared by many, especially not the bean counters at the club, but I'm trying to seek out something positive from last night!

Definitely more away days closer for me with us in Championship 

3 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

Well, there it ends.

We were the better team in the first half but failed to capitalise on it by scoring. It is a bit of a cliche that you need to score whilst on top but true nevertheless.

We were two slow coming out of the blocks in the second half and, before we knew it, found ourselves 2 down and effectively out of it.

Those last 45 minutes of a very long season were just a bridge too far after a gruelling regular season peppered by injuries and other reasons for losing key players at vital times followed by the play offs which were even more gruelling and peppered by further injuries to vital players, suspension and absolutely horrendous refereeing failures.

I don't blame the players. In the circumstances they did remarkably well to get us as close as they did and can, to a man, leave the stage with their heads held high as can'ting the fans who to a man, woman, boy and girl were, once again absolutely magnificent. I struggle to remember when we had such loud, loyal and enthusiastic support.

As for the future, while we will be saying goodbye to a number, I believe that we have the nucleus of a squad capable of competing for promotion next season including a rapidly improving Austin Samuels and hopefully a fully fit and improving Roddy Macgregor.

We will need to add a few and bring in a couple fresh loanees but more recently Robbo has proved himself more adept at recruitment than when he was manager probably because that is now his main focus.

The one position I remain unsure of and in genuine doubt about is head coach.

Dodds will probably accept himself that he was appointed as the cheap and convenient option.

I was worried at the time that there was a reason why, despite a long and relatively successful coaching career, no club had sought fit to appoint him as manager in his iwn right.

I think those fears proved justified with long spells where he was like a rabbit in the headlights with no tactical awareness and no plan to make constructive changes when everyone else could clearly see that things were not working.

However, in fairness, towards the end of the season and particularly during the play offs he seemed to grow more into the role and things certainly improved in that regard.

For that reason, I would be inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt and retain him in place but on the very clear understanding that if we were not actively involved in the title race at Christmas then he would be replaced.

Once again great credit to our magnificent fans who once again sang their hearts out in Perth last night. It was a roller coaster but it was fun while it lasted.

I would say the end of the season, Dodds was making subs and changes that swung games (the Killie and some of the playoff games come to mind). I reckon he's learned a lot and if we can get some depth to the squad and a striker we can aim the long balls to, we've got a good chance

On 5/21/2022 at 9:58 PM, RiG said:

Depending on your pre match plans (i.e. if you have none) you could park at The Glover Arms which is about a 15 minute walk from the ground and this will allow you a quick exit back onto the A9 after the game.

You would need to come off at the new junction, go around the back of the ground and crematorium and then head out on the Crieff Road for a little bit.

Do they have any time restrictions? Initially looked at Tesco but that says 2 hours max

I think Danny Lennon could be a decent option, he has experience rebuilding a squad and I imagine he would be cheaper than Hartley.

Didnt play anything decent until 2-0 down, when we stopped playing so many long balls. No winger down the right meant McKay was constantly out of position with no cover. Too many long balls out to the left which became predictable.