Douglas Mackenzie

Well that appointment took everyone by surprise,but fair play I think this appointment is what ICT need.Enough of all the excuses,now big Dunc will sort the men from the boys. I agree a 3 year contract is strange but if I was him that's what I would ask for to get time and stability to sort the mess we are in out. However funny to see club statement say they hope supporters will get behind Dunc.We will,but why dont the club now look inward at themselves review procedure and process and engage properly with fans. This divide cannot continue. SG jacket still on a shouglie peg but I doubt he ain't going anywhere. Maybe he has just saved his skin,but he needs to look at how he is running the club.

I thought that was the best we have played this season so far although that cannot be hard to be honest

I thought all the boys give it all today and that was a much better overall performance.The defence looked more solid today and the new Australian lad looked good.We need to sort out play in final third because we had chances today and made wrong choices.Now we need a striker.A better game to watch than of late.We need our new Manager to get in and get confidence up and then we need to sort out behind the scenes

I don't like seeing anyone losing their jobs,but the time had come to call it a day on the tenure of Dodds and Wilson.Certainly both had lost the support of fans and we can only assume some of the players, other wise they would have dug in and given all for a result.That said if they were encouraged to play a certain way and style what could they do about it as to ignore the instructions would mean them being dropped. I believe on paper we are a reasonable team and we just need someone giving the boys the right vision and direction,being realistic ,honest and above all open and transparent with a good football head. When we went so many games in the last two seasons without a win,then this pattern is being repeated in season three,you just wonder who decided to give Dodds a new two year deal and was that the same person who decided he should be sacked three months after giveing him this deal. If so that persons jacket should be on a shouglie peg. I don't think the CEO supported Dodds or the team as he should have done. Communication is the key element devoid within the hierarchy of ICT and this now needs ro be addressed also, but first let's steady the ship. Callum Davidson is the man for me Hopefully all at ICT will look at themselves and see what they have done to our club and then reflect and reset and move forward having learned some hard lessons.

It seems to me that there are competing and unnecessary demands at large within the ICT community. The elephant in the room is communication or lack thereof. Communication will only succeed if it is horizontal. Vertical communication always fails in other words if communication is always from the top to the rest,without listening to opposing, or different views then it is doomed to failure. The Chairman and board don't speak to the fans.The Trust has tried to engage, but the club say they are not representative of the majority of the support. The SLO is a Director, nice man maybe , but dumping this role on him so that we meet UEFA guidelines is not good enough,or fair on him. We need a root and branch review of the ICT staffing structure. We need a visible,approachable, determined and dynamic SLO who is a passionate fan and well able to negotiate stormy waters to get answers.The role should be P/T or indeed full time. Chairmen/Chairwoman and boards come and go as do Managers and players,but one constant is the supporter who mainly comes from the community and is in part of a generational line of supporters. We need to get back to basics and link in with schools, churches, youth clubs and other groups and sell them a vision which they can follow. Maybe a breakthrough would be if a restricted number on this forum asked the Chairman and board for a fair hearing and the meeting was designed to address the one issue of repairing communication, we would start to get somewhere.We should not try and eat the whole elephant,but do so in bite sizes.(Not wishing harm or real elephants ) We should maybe use our voice to start addressing issues,but we should do so in small steps and not try and address all issues in one go.

4,4,2 was a good set up today.First 10 mins we were ropey but once we scored we settled and were decent rest of half with Shaw best by far.Boyce and Andrrson look good additions.Second half we lost our way a bit and I guess we all knew what would likely happen and did. Easy goal for them. Dunfermline changed tactics second half and we didnt do anything to countrr. Putting subs on with minutes to go is a waste of time,at least give them 10 or 15 minutes and a chance to get into the game and do something.On paper we look okay,so if we could build on confidence who knows and a pocket full of different tactics plans and options would help.Official poor.

The start to this season is not the start any of us wanted. none of us know what really is going on behind closed doors at ICT,we can speculate etc,but whatever is going on the Chairman and board have to just get a grip of the situation and review why the Sporting Director spends as much time commenting on County rather than focussing all attention on getting ICT out of the mire by assisting Dodds and finding good standard championship players,because those with high aspirations of playing at the top level are not going to come to ICT. Dodds has a two year contract now and is going nowhere,we have to just accept that. The decision was not ours to make, although It beggars belief that after the last two seasons he was not offered a rolling contract. The CEO needs to get out from his office, speak with supporters and fans,(the real supporters and fans) listen to them and show some leadership off the park, then communicate his plans and actions to us all,including accepting that the club is in a difficult place. However, he must have a plan for revcovery. The assistant and coaches are going nowhere if Dodds is not going,so frankly it looks like we have to deal with the hand we have. As supporters, we should fully back the boys on the park as on paper we are a pretty good team and should not be languishing bottom with the players we have. We are,so something is clearly not right and perhaps that is down in part to confidence within the team. The Chair and Board don't read this forum they say,but the players maybe do, so how about this Saturday coming we go out there and support the boys on the pitch,give them encouragement and see if we cannot scrape a win and then with a win under our belt we can cool off,think rationally and come up with a startegy,plan of action that we can put to those running the club. Yes, I mean we have a voice,let's use it,but when we do, use it wisely in a well balanced and constructive debate/arguement.

When all said and done perhaps we need a reality check.We remain in the second tier of Scottish football because we are a mediocre team not ready for the top flight.The club has no money and no sugar daddy so we rely on our young up and coming players, which in many ways is good.However,we have to look for buys from the lower English leagues ,or from clubs who are moving on players in their twilight years.Yesterday was a perfect day for the opening game of a new season.2000 turned up.The product on display was much the same as the last few seasons.Some promising,some hard working with a bit of skill and others.The guys on the field do their best I am sure but when confidence is low they need reassurance,encouragement,support and understanding. We need to back the team we have, like it or not.BD has just signed a new deal,he is going nowhere and those around him are happy to be in a job so they are not going anywhere,that means we have to try and influence their(Chair,CEO,Manager and coaches) thinking in other ways by speaking with them,writing to them and by doing what we are doing on this forum and not by sitting around and just putting up with the same old year in year out We need stronger voices within the fan base demanding improvement. The reality is that we are aiming for top half of top half of table.We are not going to get promoted this season,so let's do the best we can with what we have got until a sugar daddy arrives or the club can get itself turned around.

Same old I'm afraid, although we had nice touches in first half and were unlucky twice to Billy Mackay shots.Defensive error cost us a goal yet again and thank goodness for Billy Mackay,Shaw and Davidson and young Bray in second half.We will have to sharpen up if we are going to make anything of this season with Dundee U,Queens, Partick and Dunfermiline all pushing for for top.Not a lot else you can say other that Queens were running rings round us for most of second half.Standside linesman had a poor game missing too many incidents.

If we are going to persist with this long high ball stuff we need some height up front or in the area midfield to front. At a guess I would estimate that BIlly never got any of those high balls up to him as every defender he was up against was much bigger than him. That is not taking anyothing away from Billy as a player.It just makes sense when you have small strikers and attacking front men to keep the ball down and pass to them. Hoof ball as we call it on here has rarely worked so why persist with it unless we get some tall target man.

I agree with you OCG. How can a board member and Director be the fans liaison or to give the role it's proper name the SLO. The SLO should be someone who represents the views and opinions of the supporters whilst airing them with the CEO or board. That way he/she will be like the meat in the sandwich - neither totally on one side or the other,but able to put across the general consensus of opinions and views on behalf of a collective. I am not talking about running to the board because Bloggs was moaning about this or that. I mean the SLO should be able to garner a good grasp of the fans opinions and views from speaking to them and then be able to raise these at Board level in an open and constructive manner, seeking an appropriate response to give back to the fans. In other words the link, the bridge,or the go between. Same when the board want to discuss an issue and seek a view from fans,they should go through the SLO.

Just to let you know the SLO sent me an Email over the weekend which I found today in my spam. He left me his contact number, so I phoned him today. Short version.He is SLO for ICTFC but he doesn't monitor the Email box a part time member of staff does, so if he doesn't get Emails it's because no one has forwarded them. He suggested I thought communication was poor from his chat with the Chairman. I said it wasn't poor, it was shocking. I am trying to keep this short,so suffice to say he apologised for my experience with the club and blamed lack of staff. He advised he had received no mail from me even when I advised that a member of staff told me Gordon had asked her to Email me.I believe him and now understand that the member of staff was only using her initiative as she monitored the SLO box.However from experience,when doing this sort of thing you have to be sure you and the role holder have a water tight system.Clearly ICT don't. The board don't look at social media relating to any fans pages or forums which begs the question how do they know what the fans are thinking wanting or needing ,hence the reason we get told little. The SLO was open and frank and promised to raise all concerns at the board meeting next week. For me I raised an issue and flogged it because of the principals involved.I have now shared the outcomes and at two minutes to four, I am too late for the early bird season tickets, so I will drift for a while before deciding where to watch football next season. Whatever,thanks for engaging with me,thanks for letting me be part of this forum and I wish you all the best.

For clarity,I hate sounding so negative about the club and the way it is run,but all I and most of you are trying to do is sort out the issues off the park.I don't believe in moaning and not proposing or producing solutions so I sent 6 or 7 to the Chairman and we talked them through. I am not sure that any of them look at our social media posts,so they are missing a trick on picking up quick wins.Mind you I thought the SLO would be across all such media to get a feel of things from the engine room. Then he and the management team could act on it.

Thanks for all contributions to this thread.We as fans think communication is key.Whilst I don't think it would be right to lay down here what the conversation with the Chairman was yesterday,I can say I suggested they were in a bubble and disconnected,which he disagreed with.I worked out that SLO was Supporters Liaison Officer myself and he is listed as this on the Web site with his own Email.I had to look up the role of SLO to see whst it was about and to let one aspect of my chat with the Chair slip,he was up front and said he wasn't aware Gordon's role was listed as SLO.and he asked what a SLO was. He told me that Gordon had never heard from me or received an Email from me,yet after I sent the first one outlining I had sorted my online problem, but felt compelled to highlight the poor communication,a named lady from the club Emailed and said Gordon had asked her to get in touch. It is my personal opinion only,however I am convinced after these few weeks and conversations had,that the board are further disconnected than I thought. On hindsight my mistake was actually going to the Chair when I should have contacted the CEO as he has day to day governance but again I tried a few Emails using @itfc and I never got a response. Maybe the SLO will phone before 4pm on Monday when the early bird season tickets stop. If not I'm off.

The role of SLO is one which all clubs competing in UEFA competitions must have under article 35 of the UEFA Club Licensing&Fair Play regs. Interestingly,I had a call from the Chairman today and I advised of my own concerns re communication and that of other fans.I didn't say I would print what was said,so to be proper I will not go into detail here.We had a robust honest exchange of views and he listened to what I had to say.He said he would take on boards my points and he directed me to Gordon Fyfe, SLO. I covered my issues with the person covering this role also and I am now waiting a response from the SLO. Suffice to say I haven't renewed my season ticket yet until I hear what the SLO says. As it stands I am not convinced there will be change soon.