ymip

A marked improvement on our Alloa performance and some solid performances all over the park. Mark Ridgers really has gone from strength to strength after a relatively shaky start last season and had a couple of wonder saves on Saturday which got us out of jail. Perhaps a draw was a fair result but I left the ground thinking they were very much there for the taking. Disappointing to see so many empty seats on the highlights, felt busier than it looked in the North Stand and a good atmosphere throughout. Roll on 29th December up at Dingwall. Got to kick on now and start turning these draws into wins

Very best of luck with your treatment Scotty.

Utterly dire again this week. All well and good keeping clean sheets but we are absolutely woeful in the final third and Robbo's substitutions are frankly mystifying in the face of irrefutable evidence that his first choice striker is not up to scratch. A carbon copy of last season when he stuck with Baird for way too long when it was patently obvious that he wasn't the answer. Praying that Oakley is fit soon and back amongst the goals. Worth noting that Alloa had the very decent looking Daniel Zanatta, on loan from Hearts, giving our defence a tough time of it today. Meanwhile Jambos legend Robbo managed to acquire the services of Angus Beith as part of he Mulraney "deal". Rather sums up our season. I fear the worst next week.

Pedant alert: It's Dyce Boys Club rather than Dyce Juniors (who are a Junior club rather than a juvenile club). Dyce were the top boys club through here for many years and also produced the Shinnies, Ross Tokely and numerous others. Chances are they pinched Armstrong off another juvenile club as they did with Graeme Shinnie who started off at Cove BC. The club I'm involved with, Stonehaven Youth FC, produced Iain Vigurs (before he was pinched by another club...) and Russell Duncan who was a loyal servant until he signed for the Dismal dons from school. Plenty decent players through here who go under the AFC radar.

Window shuts on Friday and I think it's fair to say we could do with some reinforcements given patchy form to date, particularly up front. I would suggest Camnmy Smith would be a decent signing given his form in the Championship last season but very much doubt we have the wherewithal and I'd guess "bigger" clubs would be ahead of us in the queue. Jai Quitongo is another I would like to see but given he's now training with Partick also highly unlikely. Any local millionaire fancy financing a marquee signing or two?

Out of two cups by 14th August and no potential Belfast/Dublin jolly. Magic.

Absolutely tragic news. Sincere condolences to Alan's family and friends at this difficult time. RIP Herchie

Couldn't have put it better myself. Mate at work who's a Jambo season ticket holder has just come through and apologised for this decision which he agreed is a disgrace. He actually predicted a similar scenario this morning whereby the SPFL throw them a lifeline.

I was at the Cove - Hearts game last night and have to say that Mulraney had a very decent game which seemed to go down a storm with the visiting jambos. Will be interesting to see how he progresses this season. I don't see any harm in what he's said in terms of the relative professionalism of ourselves and HMFC. Hearts clearly have a better set up and more dough than us so it should come as no surprise. It goes without saying that Jake hardly falls into the Stuart Armstrong school of media eloquence so he's always likely to offer a fairly simplistic and un-sanitised response when asked to contrast the two clubs. No point in folk getting their knickers in a twist over a simple statement of fact.

RIG has pretty much nailed last night's performance for me. Until we scored the equaliser we were all over the place and showed an alarming reliance on long, high balls to the two target men up top. I sincerely hope this is not a sign of things to come. I've seen Tom Walsh twice now (@Keith and Cowdenbeath) and really like the look of the lad. A very elegant and graceful player and not scared to have a pop. Looks to be an inspired signing from Robbo and Co. and would be in my starting XI for Raith and Hearts. Also, another towering performance at the back from big Coll. Love his attitude and enthusiasm and would suggest he's nailed on captain material. DUFC's loss is certainly our gain. I thought Joe Chalmers and Fash Austin had nights to remember. Austin I like as a player but he really struggled against the Cowden defence which is rather alarming. Given that he's a Leven loon and the animosity between East Fife and Cowden I'd have hoped he's have been motivated to get one over them but was far from convincing. In terms of new faces I thought Rooney did ok but wasn't as convinced by White as Mantis. Works hard and holds the ball up well enough but I'd have liked to have seen more end product. Decent enough away support for a Tuesday night in darkest Fife. I think Raith will be more of a test by which we can gauge where we are and will be watching out for the Hearts scoreline from my summer hols with interest.

Only the hardy few who made it to Keith on Saturday can honestly claim to be "ardent". Everyone else is just playing at it. #ictelite #almondmagnumcrew #kynochparkhardcore #fortgeorgelightweights

Must have been about a dozen to twenty ICT fans at Keith which was rather disappointing given proximity and cracking weather. Lined up as per Johndo's post on Keiff thread. Liked the look of Walsh in midfield - busy with good feet and looking to get things going. McCart steady in central defensive duo with Big Coll who captained the team well. Front too battled away without a goal from open play. A decent enough work out in very warm conditions. Possibly first ever water break in Keith's history. Also liked the look of Aidan Wilson when he came on. Hope to see him on bench before too long.

Absolute nonsense from our man at Aldi. Bell fell out of favour towards the end of the season but he grafted non-stop in every game I saw him play for us. He also seemed to be genuinely delighted to be playing for ICT and was always appreciative of the fans. No need at all to slate the guy in this manner. I'm sure most fair minded fans would wish him well and thank him for his efforts while with us.

You would hope that that given our appalling start to last season that Robbo might be looking to shake things up a bit this pre-season. Having said that there's little point in rolling out stronger opposition when no one bothers attending. I remember heading North a few years back when we played Royal Antwerp and there was hardly a soul there apart froma sizable and nosiy Belgian support. A return fixture with Crusaders in Belfast would be decent but probably out with our budget these days.

Uppers: M&S Harry Gow Daniel Mackay 3 year contracts with us County relegation Errea Invernessian Bon viveurs ICTFC Downers: Aldi Greggs Vigurs 3 year contracts with them 5th and no cigar Macron Rosshire Rednecks RCFC Barley Chatterman's patter........

I truly despair at folk on here's views of Vigurs. He is a superb footballer and will be a huge loss to us - anyone who thinks otherwise clearly doesn't really get football at all. More worryingly this appears to be a very visible attempt by our neighbours to lay down a marker for next season and beyond. A much as I enjoyed their demise on Saturday I fear they will be going large on an immediate return to the Premiership. We appear to be shopping at Aldi and they are clearly intent on melting their plastic in M&S.

I presume this relates to the young lads going on the park after the goal which was a bit daft but in no way warrants this sort of hysterical hand wringing, yet again. This constant vilification of our dwindling support really does my head in. Rae is presiding over an utter shambles off the park, and serious under performance on the park, and seems to be using these regular attacks on our own fans to deflect from these glaring shortcomings. You can guarantee that there will be yet another negative article on the BBC website this afternoon which is completely unwarranted. I'd be more interested in hearing when our emergency loan players are arriving or an update on the impact our COO and Commercial Manager are having on addressing the aforementioned operational shortcomings. "Barley Chatterman to thread, Barley Chatterman to thread....unacceptable social malaise in the bagging area."

Can hardly summon up the enthusiasm to head down to Tannadice or Cup Final which is a pretty alarming state of affairs. Would love to know the real story behind the Calder/ Harper/Mckay debacle. Pretty much sums up where we are these days. Can we actually survive a second train wreck season of this nature? Woe is me.

It appears that Compo and Clegg (not saying who's who..) had switched off their hearing aids to avoid Donview's moaning :)

Very important that we stay on same level as our neighbours over the bridge who are also in the eight team "Progressive" group but I believe they're appealing and looking for Elite status. Would be a real issue for our ability to attract local talent if we were on a lesser ranking. Out of the 8 "Elite" Academies only Aberdeen outwith the Central Belt which seems totally unfair and biased against the provinces. I guess Malky doesn't fancy the drive North. Poor old Dundee in the third tier!

Excellent team performance today. Vigurs, the Stonehaven Pirlo, absolutely bossing the midfield - ably assisted by Polworth with another energetic performance. Coll Donaldson has stepped up and looks solid in the centre of defence, even Ridgers had two excellent saves. Back-to-back quality performances on the road. United were absolutely woeful and if either side is going to feature in the play-offs my money would be on us. We are way behind but these last two performances have been grounds for significant optimism that the corner has been turned. Huge game next week against the Pars. Happy camper tonight.

If my U14s defended as poorly as this lot I'd be mortified. For alleged "professional" footballers to be so defensively abject is simply beyond comprehension. We're shipping 3 or 4 goals every week with defenders switching off, failing to track runners and showing absolutely no willingness to meet balls in the air. What do they actually do at training all week? Looking on the positive side the club has enough footage from our weekly catalogue of ****-ups and bloopers to release a Christmas stocking blockbuster......perhaps a multi DVD version by Chrimbo. ???

Pointless slating sub-standard signings for being sub-standard. They're simply churning out performances commensurate with their ability and the salaries we're offering. The outrage is that someone within the club has felt it appropriate to shell out two and three year contracts to guys who are quite simply never going to get us into promotion contention but that again seems to be in line with Yogi's recent comments regarding board members calling the shots on signings. I guess as we plummet through the divisions one or two of these players might ultimately find their level but wouldn't count on it. It was fantastic while it lasted but I think we are clearly raking over the dying embers of our meteoric climb from Highland League to Scottish Cup glory and should probably try to get our heads around a future consisting of part-time lower league obscurity. A truly grim proposition but seemingly inevitable unless we see fundamental regime change and significant investment in the club by a wealthy benefactor with cash to burn. Robbo has clearly taken on the gig on the basis that he'll work with whatever squad the club can throw together so is probably safe until the point they opt to throw him under the bus and install another patsy who accepts to work with the dross they've assembled on and off the park.

Relegation battle ahead with the worst defensive unit I've seen in the club's history.

We ship 5 at Dunfermline, 2 absolute shockers agains Aberdeen kids last week, 4 so far at St. Mirren. A defensive train wreck every week.