The season is becomming a bit of a mess

[Laurence]

Reading forum comments nobody would realise that the season is becomming real messy - 3 home matches 3 defeats

How many more defeats before somebody moans?

Away form can't carry a team up the league.

[ICTPaisley]

Reading forum comments nobody would realise that the season is becomming real messy - 3 home matches 3 defeats

How many more defeats before somebody moans?

Away form can't carry a team up the league.

I'm not worried at all yet. I've seen enough good things this season to know we can come good when we get our players back. Losing to Celtic and Heartsat home isn't that bad, The Hamilton game was a bad one but we can make up for that one on Saturday against St Mirren.

[dan_ict]

People have to realize that we are not in the first divison anymore and cant expect too win every game. still too early to worry but as ICTPAILSEY says we've seen enough good things to know well have a good season

[Georgeios]

Agree with above..

[+DoofersDad]

I'll be happy with 11th at the end of the season but on current performances would expect better. Apart from some serious concerns at the back due to several injuries the standard of play is pretty good. The SPL is new to many of the players but they are adapting well and I have no worries. We have the potential to destroy some of the weaker SPL when the ball runs for us, but the occasional great result will also be mixed with a number of matches where we underperform and get punished for it.

Let's enjoy the great results when the come but not worry about the poor ones. This is a developing team and for anyone to expect the kind of run we had last season is crazy. Unrealistic expectations and over critical reaction to defeats will only place undue pressure on the team. I was disappointed we lost yesterday but I actually enjoyed the game

[caley100]

Its getting like Brewsters style where we canna buy a win at home, however if you cast your mind back to the start of last season we also had a poor start - yes i know it was the first div, but the players still had to adapt to that league - and we did!

We can start by beating St Midden on staurday, then we will get back on track for a first home win over Abderdeen, that would be nice eh?

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

A lot of sensible responses - We really have to look at making 11th as our first goal and anything extra in the first season back is a bonus. You would have to admit that we havent exactly had the rub of the green so far either. We have a small squad and our survival was always dependent on keeping the first team picks as fit and as available as possible. Losing both first choice full backs is a big blow, add Foran to that, even Gil, Innes has been AWOL and add in Hayes coming back to fitness - it syas it all - and then we draw Cellic away in the cup - who broke the dressing room mirror.

The defence which is usally our mainstay has chopped and changed with TB practically forced to play a few players out of position and that doesnt help at all.

But Rooney gets better and better, we appear to have brought up a couple of young starlets in Ross and Sutherland and we are spolit for choice in goals. Duff is also beginning to look like a good buy but he split up what looked like a knowledgeable partnership in Duncan and Cox and Cox has had to alter his role a bit.

Ask the same question again after we have played everybody once. And finally our away form could be the crucial ingredient to ensure that we stay in the SPL mix next season. There is a long way to go - and if you need any reassurance - just go back to December last season and look at where we were then.

[SMEE]

IM a subscriber of 11th place finnish or higher as being our goaal. We are only 5 games into the season. ICT are notorious slow starters! Apart from the Hamilton result, i think things have gone as I would have expected.

[TopSix]

Probably sounds crazy but how about the club reduces the size of the playing area and play a tight game to try grind out results. Nothing to worry about so far. I've got a lot in faith in TB and the team.

[DALNEIGHCALEY]

IM a subscriber of 11th place finnish or higher as being our goaal. We are only 5 games into the season. ICT are notorious slow starters! Apart from the Hamilton result, i think things have gone as I would have expected.

You expected a win at Tannadump ?

[SMEE]

IM a subscriber of 11th place finnish or higher as being our goaal. We are only 5 games into the season. ICT are notorious slow starters! Apart from the Hamilton result, i think things have gone as I would have expected.

You expected a win at Tannadump ?

Points wise i mean....swap the 3 pts we got at Tannadice and swap it for the 3pts we dropped with Hamilton, and its about where i expected us to be at this stage

[AJS]

Since the start of the seaon we have played Celtic, Hibs, Dundee Utd and Hearts, all of which finished in the top 6 last season. We've also played Hamilton, a team who are turning into the new Aberdeen for us as we haven't beaten them in the SPL.

We've also had multiple injuries at the one time, something that we haven't really had before during a season and most of whom are getting back to full fitness.

Couple these circumstances together and i'd say its been an unfortunate start to the season.

Yesterday was a perfect example of how makeshift our squad has had to be at times.

I have concerns about the home form but then i remembered we didnt win at home last year until October and after that we didn't lose at home again. All we need is one result to go our way and i think it will boost the teams confidence a fair bit.

The season has started badly i guess you could say, but it is by know means a forgone conclusion.

Edited September 19, 2010 by ajsict92

[Tug]

in all honesty i was a bit dissapointed on saturday, was my first game of the season and was hoping for better but to be fair i did see alot of encouraging signs and i feel pretty positive that come the end of the season we will have our faith vindicated by a 11th place or above finish

no disrespect to you laurence but this is pretty standard fair for an ICT side and having moved up from down south it may take you a few games yet to get into the spl mode of things

[DornochCaley]

I don't think this is too much for concern. Before the season kicked-off, many people were talking about top 6! That expectation level was far too high. A club our size should always be looking first and foremost to stay in the SPL. If that means 11th, then so be it.

Fair enough, 3 losses out of 3 is boring as feck for home fans. But should we really be expecting anything that much better? We all needed being brung back to earth after a FANTASTIC year last year.

[TopSix]

Still think we'll be top six... But maybe next year - not this one.

[Kingsmills]

Far too early in the season for such a critical thread. Let's see what things are looking like after the first round of eleven games.

[Bronson]

Only a point of bottom, but also only one win of third place. Will be a tight league at the bottom and we just need to make sure we don't get detached at the bottom.

[Misher23]

I agree thats its far too early in the season for a discussion like this. 11th has to be our first target and anything above that considered a bonus for this season. TB is too good a manager not to be able to sort out the home form and i have ever confidence that we'll be sitting around 7th/8th by the end of the season. Injuries have not helped our cause so far.

[weirdcal]

last 3/4 seasons we have had a crap start at home. we dont usually get going until october at the TCS.

just hope that we put the boot into the saintees this weekend, that will do for me

[Badly_Drawn]

The disappointing (if not necessarily surprising) thing for me is how quickly we've lost that "winning habit" momentum from the second half of last season, I'd naively hoped it would carry forward despite the increase in standard of opposition and give us a better start to this season...

[ICTPaisley]

Its worth noting that St Johnstone in their first season back in the SPL last year took 7 matches before they got their first win. It came on the 3rd of October. They managed to finish 8th and IMO had a very successful season. We've already took a massive scalp off Utd at tannadice and if we can match that with a win in Paisley we'll be in a good place to build on.

Also Hearts who finished 6th last season lost more than they won. We can't except to win more games than we lose its just not realistic. If we can manage to get the main wins against teams like St. Mirren, Killie, St Johnstone and Hamilton (from now on) and focus on draws away from home against the rest we'll finish in a good position.

Edited September 20, 2010 by ICTPAISLEY

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Its worth noting that St Johnstone in their first season back in the SPL last year took 7 matches before they got their first win. It came on the 3rd of October. They managed to finish 8th and IMO had a very successful season. We've already took a massive scalp off Utd at tannadice and if we can match that with a win in Paisley we'll be in a good place to build on.

Also Hearts who finished 6th last season lost more than they won. We can't except to win more games than we lose its just not realistic. If we can manage to get the main wins against teams like St. Mirren, Killie, St Johnstone and Hamilton (from now on) and focus on draws away from home against the rest we'll finish in a good position.

Remember our first season in the SPL ? There are simply two leagues for us as alluded to above. And as has already been pointed out the only team in league 2 that we have played is Hamilton - but I still maintain that it will be our away form that will be save our bacon.

[Johnboy]

Its worth noting that St Johnstone in their first season back in the SPL last year took 7 matches before they got their first win. It came on the 3rd of October. They managed to finish 8th and IMO had a very successful season. We've already took a massive scalp off Utd at tannadice and if we can match that with a win in Paisley we'll be in a good place to build on.

Also Hearts who finished 6th last season lost more than they won. We can't except to win more games than we lose its just not realistic. If we can manage to get the main wins against teams like St. Mirren, Killie, St Johnstone and Hamilton (from now on) and focus on draws away from home against the rest we'll finish in a good position.

Good post, ICT Paisley... Totally agree - I've given you a star for that!

There have been many encouraging signs so far this season. The 1st half performance against Celtic, who really struggled to break us down that day. The demolition job at Tannadump and a hard fought and useful point rescued at Easter Rd...

When TB has a fully fit squad to choose from, the results will get definitely get better.

[TopSix]

If we can consolidate, give the younger guys like Ross, Shinnie and Sutherland a decent run AND have the gaffer and Irish players in place next season we could do really well. I'm not giving up hope yet though. The season has seemed long so far with the international break and it is really too early to tell. At least the midden are in the same position as us injury wise.

[old caley girl]

as others have already said last season we were also in the same position. Its a big step up playing with the big boys and we're all on a learning curve again.Lets not panic and give things a chance to pan out. Much too early to call it a mess imo. laurence CT always do things the hard way guaranteed.