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Dunfermline -V- ICT


Scotty

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The mathematics unless my sums are wrong are that

Dunfermline need 3 wins + a turn around of a 19 goal difference in there remaining 11 games(their next game v celtic)

whilst Caley gain no more points from 12 games !(our next easy 3 pointer v gers)

Safe enough dya think ?

I would rather wait until it was mathematically impossible for us to go down to talk about it than sumise over ifs n butts and ins n outs.

To answer your question though I really don't see us going down, not compared to Dunfermline anyway, a team that haven't won at home all season cannot stay up contrary to what Jim MacIntyre says

Disappointed we couldn't take three points today but at least it wasn't a defeat and keeps the big gap between ourselves and Dunfermline

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Listening to the commentary I nearly choked when I heard the commentator mentioning Nick Ross' goal. It went something like.........Hayes fired a ball across the box and Nick Ross could not miss from there :furtive: I beg to differ, Nick Ross could and has missed from there.

Still, good to keep the status quo. And well done to Nick for scoring. How embarrassing would it have been to be the first side to lose at East End Park this season. Rossco must be particularly gutted to be second choice to Proctor. Butcher needs to take a wee look at himself just now. Once again no recognised strikers on the park, second rate defenders playing ahead of Rossco and agree about the subs, when chasing the game a midfielder for an attacker. Wakey wakey Terry.

honestly gnapka and sutherland were pathetic. tudor jones changed the game in our favour when he came on. held the ball well and sprayed passes to bring others into game. his arrival allowed foran to go up front with mackay.

until he came on we were rubbish second half. even the fans who kept the chanting going for all the first half started to turn on the players we were so bad. he changed a certain loss into a what will turn out to be an excellent point

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Thought Winall might have started, Shane is hardly prolific, Claude seems not to wear accurate shooting boots, Nick 'no goals' Ross starts again.... wonder where the goals are going to come from? hope Jonny is up for it today! c'mon ICT!!!!

EEEEHHHHHHHH maybe ....................................................Nick Ross

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Dunfermline must hate playing us:

They have won just once in the last 21 fixtures beween the two sides.

5 games this season and no wins for them, despite them taking the lead in 4 of those games.

However you could also point out that we've played the worst team in the league, with the worst keeper in SPL history, 5 times with our only win coming in extra time.

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First things first - I learned for the umpteenth time today never to trust a BBC weather forecast - so much for their prediction that there would be no further snow shower in the hills after midday. The trek back up the A9 was an interesting experience. I drove past the scene of that accident this morning and was horrified by the lack of any treatment to the roads.

As for the game, I guess you can either look at it as a point that keeps us from being dragged into a relegation battle, or two dropped points that significantly damage our top six aspirations.

Dunfermline were absolutely woeful in the first half, to the point that their own fans started booing them. This made it all the more horrifying that we went in behind at half-time. Our midfield were dominant in possession, but we had no cutting edge in the final third. Gnakpa had a shocker - not surprising considering the guy is not a striker. I'm inclined to defend Sutherland against criticism, as he put in a good shift, but I would agree that he didn't look like scoring today.

Their goal was a catastrophe for all sorts of reason. I thought the awarding of the free kick was a terrible decision - the forward punted the ball miles ahead and then leapt six feet in the air as Gillet ran across him. Hardie's effort crashed off the bar, and Proctor, indefensibly, headed the rebound straight to Cardle 2 yards out, who couldn't miss. Proc was under no pressure at all.

After the break, I actually felt the home side looked more likely to score than us. Esson made one particularly good stop from Kirk after another Proctor blunder (there is a theme here). The substitutions changed the game. As stated above, Tudur Jones started spraying passes around and stretching the game, but I thought McKay was just as effective - his lovely reverse pass put Hayes in down the left, and he fizzed a ball across the face of the goal that Nick Ross slammed into the roof of the net from point blank range.

TB deserves a fair bit of criticism for his selection today. It was clear from even the first 10 minutes that Gnakpa up front was not going to work - certainly there was a case for just swapping him and Sutherland around. As for his decision to play Proctor? Well, Gillet is quick, has good positional sense, and times his tackles well. But he's not big, and he needs someone who can dominate in the air to play alongside him - like Williams, Golobart or Tokely. The former two weren't available, but instead of going for Rossco he picked Proctor, who struggled against Andy Kirk, a guy who isn't any bigger than he is. I could list his every mistake today, but that would take a while - so I'm just going to say he was dreadful and that you can be certain he won't start next weekend.

The big positive today is that our midfield played very well. I thought Nick was our best performer even before the goal. Jonny had a quiet first half but was electric in the second. I was impressed by how willing Tansey was to get on the ball, and his passing was pretty good. Foran maybe wasn't as great as the rest, but moving him up front in the second half gave us far more firepower.

Credit to our support, who made an impressive racket. That attendance today is a shocker, and the home crowd were as quiet as ours at TCS.

Edited by hislopsoffsideagain
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Nick 'no goals' Ross starts again.... wonder where the goals are going to come from?

Presumably you now have an answer to that question Richard? :lol:

Just a bit of reverse psychology Charles, he does peruse these pages..... by the law of averages he had to score at least one of these sitters!

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As usual, great account from hislopsoffside again. Couple of things to add:

Foran was terrific. Worked harder than any other player on the park and on a day when too many ICT players, unusually, looked like they didn't care, fought for everything and tried to make things happen.

We would not have equalised had it not been for Billy Mackay's persistence in the box. Deserves a start next week: despite his goal, Ross is not a striker, and Gnapka didn't quite seem to know where he should be playing.

Kenny Gillet is the best player on the books and should stay at centre back.

All in all, it was a horrible game of football and we would do well to improve next week, but Dunfermline were at least as bad as us and we're no worse off with one less game to play.

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Never underestimate the power of a strong bench, Tudur Jones and Mckay changed that game for us. Those lads have both steaked a claim for a start next week.

We were all over the Pars first half, defended soundly, controlled midfield but Terry's brain dead idea of playing 2 wingers up front was an absolute sham. They got in each others way, they overran passes, they underhit passes, there was no communication and against the run of play Dunfermline exploited our lack of clinical finishing by scoring right on half time....well done Proc for heading it back into the path of Cardle :shrug: .

We struggled to keep our heads in the second half, ball was getting given away cheaply and we continued to look non existent. Proctor nearly drove me to tears when he let that ball run under his feet and had it not been for Esson it wouldve been 2. As said the 2 subs came on, helped with the goal and after that we looked like we could push on for a winner.

Dont want to give Gnakpa a hard time, only his 2nd start and yet again he was out of position. He is a winger - end of, hasnt got the strenght or the work rate to be a target man. Also Tokely or Williams have to go in for Proctor next week, it was easily his worst performance of the season.

Foran was outstanding today, grafted and created from both midfield and attack and also worth noting that he appeared to keep a cool head when things were difficult and was prepared to admit a couple of mistakes he made in the game, keep it up Richie. Tudur Jones deserves a mention too, he came on and almost instantly our midfield and overall play had more urgency about it. Terry reckons he could be a key player for us in the run in, if he stays fit that is almost a certainty.

Satisfied with the point given the performance but we probably couldve taken 3 points today had we played better. Changes need to be made for next week, especially up front, so looking to at it with much anticipation.

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Not long in from the game, and a fair point to take from a relatively poor game. Neither side played too well despite both having a share of the chances and in the end can't really complain with a point each.

We weren't getting going at all really until the much needed introduction of Tudur-Jones and McKay. Gnakpa is not a natural striker and there was little movement at all from him up top which was limiting our attacking options. For what it's worth I thought Shane did alright and looked bright enough in the short time he was upfront before being replaced by McKay. Until we had Tudur-Jones and McKay on the pitch we were playing long ball all the time and just gifting it back to Dunfermline. There was a 10 minute period after half-time where it was so frustrating to watch and even our most creative player in Jonny Hayes got the ball in our half and just hoofed it aimlessly forward at one point.

Changes simply had to be made, and credit where it's due, Terry got them spot on. McKay buzzed about creating movement and chances for us upfront with Foran pushing forward to support him, and Tudor-Jones held the midfield superbly well with Tansey. We got the ball down and played some good football pressing the Pars back into their own half. McKay did well to get the ball out to Hayes, who'd made a good run on the left. He fizzed it across goal and Nick was in the right palce to finish it. Well worked goal and I think it's exactly what he needed to get a bit of confidence back after missing a similar chance a couple of weeks back. Hopefully he won't be so hesitant now to have a pop, after the goal v Hibs last season we know he's capable of a good finish.

Proctor was poor and shouldn't be near the CB position for us. Whenever he goes in for a tackle in the box my heart is in my mouth convinced he's going to give away a pen. As stated above Gnakpa wasn't effective upfront and was rightly subbed after a poor performance.

On the plus side though, good performances from the rest of the team. Hayes, Ross, Foran, Gillet and Tudur-Jones all did well with the latter changing the shape of the game and having a huge influence on the result for us. But MOTM for me would go to Greg Tansey today. Did all the dirty work today in a Russell Duncan-esque performance. Battled for everything, had the head up looking to open up the play and try and create something when he got on the ball and put a good shift in.

All in all not a bad result and a decent away trip, onwards and upwards to 3 points against HMRCFC next weekend. :rolleyes:

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felt sorry for gnakpa he had no service.

owain 'tom brady' tudor 'the big show' jones is most definatly our 'quater back' key in earning a point today. strong in a tackle and good on the ball definatly an international footballer from what ive seen so far.

foran and mckay up front looks like they could be sucessful up top if they get a chance they seemed to know where each other were and didnt get in each others way like the unsucessful foran and tade partnership at the start of the season.

the team that ended todays game should start next week. with certain exceptions *cough* proctor *cough*

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