Life After Relegation

[absent friend]

Monday morning and guess what? I'm still alive!

Having felt the life ebbing out of me on Saturday and that followed by my fear of reading the Sunday press, almost ashamed that we went down.

Some rational views on the new situation.

It is without doubt my biggest hurt is the attack on our management team. They took over a football team (can we call them that) that was disjointed, dispirited and lacking in tactics and they almost kept us in the SPL!

Every game was firefighting for the management team - sure IHE can come on here, like others and suggest this formation or this players be included/excluded BUT the management team did not have that luxury. They had to make the most of what they had and do it on the park, not hypothetically and indeed we are not privy to what they had in the way of players. i.e. the players behaviour behind the scenes.

So much for history, they now have the opportunity to put into practice what the armchair pundits are calling for - a season with their management stamp on it, against some lesser teams and I did say some, hopefully making progress towards the SPL next year with a new, disciplined and tactically aware, team of players ready to do us proud. In the interim we will, as fans, get back into the mode of accepting winning as the norm and we will also carry this into the top league next year.

A battle lost but the war is still to be won.

I now await all the neggie comments.

.

[Johnboy]

Ok... here's the first neggie comment....

If Butcher would just come out and admit he made a big mistake by playing Rossco at centre- back and Pavels at right-back, and that it ended up costing us the match - he would rise considerably in my esteem...

But will he do that? Should ICT persist with a management team not prepared to own up and admit serious mistakes were made over our past 3 games?

The thing is we had actually reached a point where we were 5 points clear of relegation - How did it all go so badly wrong from that moment up until the end?.

Edited May 25, 2009 by Johnboy

[teaandpies]

I can see your point but Ross had been playing well in the centre before this match. I too would have played Ross on the right but everyone makes mistakes.

Think some peeps are blowing this out of proportion and Butcher has done a great job since he arrived.

What cost us was the poor start to the season when Brew was in charge - not one game at the end of the season.

Looking forward to seeing the team after the clearance and to the first local derby!

[absent friend]

I have a history on here of blaming players, on the park, for their behaviour on the park.

I accept that you, if you were a manager, would be able to influence your players behaviour on the park, from the dug-out, but you see Butch is only human!

Maybe the plaudits given to Rossco, when he previously played in this position, were given by ignorant supporters and not your goodself.

Ask the management team to offer an apology for a players behaviour on the field of play, regarding an iffy decision by the ref?? That is not an neggie - it is absolutely absurd and smacks of an need to establish blame. Why not an apology for the forwards not scoring goals, the keeper for letting goals in etc etc.

[Johnboy]

Ask the management team to offer an apology for a players behaviour on the field of play, regarding an iffy decision by the ref?? That is not an neggie - it is absolutely absurd and smacks of an need to establish blame. Why not an apology for the forwards not scoring goals, the keeper for letting goals in etc etc.

All we needed to secure our SPL status was a nil-nil draw.

I sincerely believe we would have achieved that with 11 players on the park for 90 mins. I don't think Rossco should shoulder all the blame... He was suckered into the tackle with Lovell who, it has to be said, went down very easily.

Rossco admitted in an interview with the Courier on Friday he was happy to be picked to play anywhere for the team, but did admit he was more comfortable at full back.

You began your opening post by saying - "Monday morning - and I'm still alive" Well good for you! You are indeed fortunate in that most of the pain you have suffered through the team's relegation, has stemmed from critisism of the manager...

Why not spare a thought for all those connected with the club now set to lose their jobs because of the defeat on Saturday.

Aren't they entitled to question some of decisions that were taken on Saturday that led to our demise?

[12th Man]

Any manager who comes in will look at players as he sees them, what their strengths and weaknesses are, with no emotional ties.

If he feels that Rosco is a stronger player at CB than RB then thats up to him

We were 8 points behind St Mirren when Tel and M arrived

[caleyboy]

There are a lot of questions to be answered by the Board and the sooner they deal with what is a major financial problem the better. Some of the questions I have:

Can we afford to keep the present management team of Butcher & Malpas?

Can we continue to afford a Director of Football?

Can we afford to keep 2 full-time U19 coaches?

Can we still afford a Chief Executive?

Can we still afford a Reserve Team?

What size of 1st Team squad can we afford?

Do we need to maintain a squad of 16-18 full-time youth players when a small number of QUALITY kids could be coached and trained with the 1st team?

What happens with our Youth Development programme?

Where do we get the money to pay the lease on the two stands now that they will be near empty at most home games?

I apologise for sounding so negative but I really think our problems started when we lost JOHN ROBERTSON and PARKY. When Brewster moved to DU we went for the easy option and appointed CC ( a legend but unqualified and probably unfair to give him the job ), re-appointed Brewster (a proven failure but someone our borad knew they could dominate and manipulate) and by the time they took action to get rid of him, we were ALREADY relegated!

We have come to the end of a very exciting journey where we have created a sizeable number of jobs, given our fans the chance to experience prem league action, given the City massive exposure but I,m sorry to say that I feel although we were a prem league team for a number of years I don't think the club ever moved as fast as the team. I hope I'm wrong but unless we atract new money and new people and take the whole thing and shake it up, I feel we are maybe at our level and will just have to accept the fact that we are NOT a prem league club!

[absent friend]

You began your opening post by saying - "Monday morning - and I'm still alive" Well good for you! You are indeed fortunate in that most of the pain you have suffered through the team's relegation, has stemmed from critisism of the manager...

Why not spare a thought for all those connected with the club now set to lose their jobs because of the defeat on Saturday.

Aren't they entitled to question some of decisions that were taken on Saturday that led to our demise?

I would suggest that as you have taken the mantle of spokesperson for the redundant people at CTS, maybe looking deeper at the cause for our plight would be more sensible than getting an apology from the current manager, for a players iffy tackle on the park!!

I feel you must have Mystic Megs ball to know where my thoughts are at this time, re redundancies at ICT!!