Ross County -V- ICT : Matchday Thread

[Harry Chibber]

First half, I couldn't see a thing because of the low sun and if everyone's going to use the pitch as an excuse then I'll use the sun as mine. We were all over the place, Proctor was lost in the centre of the park and as Mike says our defence didn't have an outball because neither him or Duncan were willing to come short to take it off them + Gardyne was working his erse off in the hole.

Looked as though we hadn't learnt a thing from the first game, IHE's right if Butcher had changed it and we'd lost he'd be getting pelters from our support but I think that's the hard decisions you expect your manager to make. There is a lot of work to be done in the January transfer window

[Iain]

First half, I couldn't see a thing because of the low sun and if everyone's going to use the pitch as an excuse then I'll use the sun as mine.

The grass was also very long.

[RiG]

It was too cold to play football. This is clearly the only reason why we lost on Saturday.

Edited November 9, 2009 by RiG

[ictchris]

We started poorly, the goals we gave away were very poor and although we probably had more of teh game after that we never really stretched County or made them work hard. Bulvitis can f*ck right off, he is absolutely abysmal. Tokely also didn't do much. Despite his goal I thought Rooney was crap.

[Iain]

The pitch is far to ******* narrow, suppose they must have anticipated our 4 man attack

[Harry Chibber]

Dingwall is at a higer altitude than Inverness... that's why we lost

[caley100]

Actually its lower than TCS Harry, its always getting flooded.

We lost because they scored 2 and we scored 1.

Saying that the free kick for the first was a feckin screamer, but i didnt think it was a free kick in the first place, Russell looked to have got a good toe on the ball, Short erse richmond( SOMERS)- see mantis just feckin loves himself and loves the authority - as we have noticed, The second was Rossco getting caught out of position and Bulvits unable to prevent the cross and then the sun for getting in everybodys eyes-including Esson.

Edited November 9, 2009 by caley100

[The Mantis]

You were well pished Rich. It was Somers ;)

[Renegade]

I think we're all missing the big issue here, and that is, what on Earth was that thing that came out to wave to the fans just before kick off? It's been in all my nightmares since!

[Renegade]

For me, that was a completely different side to the one that beat Morton last week, or as it? ICT played, to put it bluntly shockingly, and those who think that ICT deserved to win that game really need to see some professional, cause they obviously have a few problems. What can say to describe ICT after that performance? Well, lifeless, disorganised, ego-fanatical, to name a few. County deserved to win on the very reason that they were the opposite to those reasons.

Getting into the game in the first place was one thing, those tailbacks into Dingwall were unbelievable, but there was no light in the performance on the Black Isle. Unsurprisingly, Butcher went with the same formation and line up again, which is understandable. If he's lined up with something and it had ended in defeat then he'd be getting pelters from changing it.

On the whole, the only players you could really say that they had a good game were Golabek, Hayes and at times Tokely. Esson was solid enough but had a little to do at times, though could do with coming off his line quicker. Of the rest of them, Munro was solid enough but it wasn't one of his better games, and I reckon that that is mainly own to his defensive partner. ICT's defence has traditionally always been watertight up until recent years, but now it has sprunge a leak big style, and it's being done by a Bulvitis shaped hole. Poor Nauris hadn't a clue. His defensive display was abysmal, his passing along the ground and back to Esson was atrocious and it seems that if he has to think about where to put the ball, he mindlessly punts it forward. ICT desperately need a centre half in the mould of a Dods/Mann figure. Hell, even Lionel in there could probably do better! It is strange though, over the last few weeks, I felt that Bulvitis has got better, but Saturday's performace was just awful. Had that been Lionel with that performance, the fans would be going even more nuts that they are already. Golabek was pretty good making a few good runs forward and crossing into the box, and the same can be said for Tokely who unlucky not to score with a header towards the end of the first half, but it could well have been more difficult than it looked at the time.

In the midfield, Proctor had a quiet game, though not necessarily a particularly bad one, though his central counter part was another one who was awful. How Duncan can get years worth of consectutive games is beyond me, he can't pass to save his life and always seems to go for glory when just outside the box. Sanchez was okay at times, but didn't have an overly good game before he was taken off. Hayes came on for him and I felt had a good game. A good crosser, good vision, a hard worker. That's exactly what you want in a winger. Foran was another one who had quite a quiet game, but still seems to be a bit of a hot head. And then there's Imrie. Now, he's a hard worker, but someone needs to tell him that there's more players on the pitch than just him. It's called "football" not "Imrieball". He's seems to be a bit of an egomaniac and you never seem him look for others, and for a winger he seldomly seems to cross into the box, instead just charging as hard as he can. His game is all about him. He's another one, who constantly goes for glory and his awful shooting proves that. He needs to be dropped ASAP, though I doubt that he will, due to him seeming to be one of Butcher's favourites.

Up front, Rooney did nothing most of the time. He had a couple of chances to score but never seems to take his chances. His penalty was also poor and was lucky it came back out to him to knock it home. He's another one I'd consider dropping to the bench. Odhiambo didn't do much when he came on. That was the first time I'd seem him and I wasn't overly impressed. The main moment for him was when he headed wide, when he did have the time and space to take the ball down and either knock the ball across goal or knock it home himself. Cox also came on and did okay, but he didn't have much time to do anything. He should definately replace Bulvitis or Duncan in the squad for Airdrie next week.

On the whole, a poor day for ICT. Butcher went with a predictable but not necessarily wrong team selection, but County were far more organised and fitter. Part of me feels that Butcher in part, won the game for County. What they have done is have Brewster in a position where he can work on fitness and fitness alone and leave the tactics to someone else, in this case the tactically better Derek Adams. I ain't gonna jump on Butcher's back just yet, as I would've done in recent weeks, but there's definately things he has to sort out.