<table width="80%" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">

<tbody><tr>

<td>

<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#003300">

<tbody><tr>

<td width="55" scope="col"><div align="left"><img src="http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/ball_icon.png"'>http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/ball_icon.png" alt="ball" longdesc="ball icon"></div></td>

<td bgcolor="#003300"><div style="background-color:#003300;" align="center">

<h2><font color="#FFFF00" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">THE MATCHDAY THREAD</font></h2>

<h5><font color="#FFFF00" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Discuss ICT & other games in this thread as they happen </font></h5>

</div></td>

<td width="55" scope="col"><div align="right"><img src="http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/ball_icon.png"'>http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/ball_icon.png" alt="ball" longdesc="ball icon"></div></td>

</tr>

</tbody></table>

<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5" bgcolor="#CCCCCC">

<tbody><tr>

<td width="100" rowspan="3"><div align="left"><img src="http://caleythistleonline.com/public/added_images/club_crests/inverness.png" alt="home team logo" width="120" height="120" longdesc="home team logo"></div></td>

<td><div align="center">

<h2><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Inverness CT -V- St Johnstone</font></h2>

</div></td>

<td width="100" rowspan="3"><div align="right"><img src="http://caleythistleonline.com/public/added_images/club_crests/stjohnstone.png" alt="away team logo" width="120" height="120" longdesc="away team logo"></div></td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td><div align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://caleythistleonline.com/page/index.html/_/previews-2011-12/inverness-ct-v-st-johnstone-preview-r929" target="_blank">PREVIEW</a></font></div></td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td><div align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">28th March @ 7:45PM<br>Tulloch Caledonian Stadium</font></div></td>

</tr>

</tbody></table>

<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5" bgcolor="#99cc99">

<tbody><tr>

<th width="33%" scope="col"><div align="center"><img src="http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/twitter-icon.jpg" alt="twitter icon" width="50" height="50" longdesc="twitter icon">

Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/ICTOnline" target="_blank">Twitter</a></div></th>

<th scope="col"><div align="center"><img src="http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/facebook-icon.png" alt="facebook icon" width="50" height="50" longdesc="twitter icon">

Follow us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/CaleyThistleOnline/122778317770191" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </div></th>

<th width="33%" scope="col"><div align="center"><img src="http://www.caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/chat-icon.jpg" alt="chat" width="50" height="50" longdesc="chat">

Go to the <a href="http://caleythistleonline.com/index.php?app=ipchat" target="_blank">Chatroom</a>

</div></th>

</tr>

</tbody></table>

<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">

<tbody><tr bgcolor="#0000CC">

<td width="51" scope="col"><div align="left"><img src="http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/ie8-logo.png" alt="ie" width="50" height="50" longdesc="ie"></div></td>

<td width="601" scope="col"><div align="center">

<h2><font color="#FFFFFF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Media Coverage</strong></font></h2>

</div></td>

<td width="51" scope="col"><div align="right"><img src="http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/firefox-logo.png" alt="ff" width="50" height="50" longdesc="ff"></div></td>

</tr>

<tr bgcolor="#F2F2F2">

<td width="51" align="center" valign="top"><div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>AUDIO</strong></font></div></td>

<td colspan="2">

<ul>

<li><a href="http://radioplayertwo.mfr.co.uk/" target="_blank">Moray Firth Radio Live</a> Commentary [<font color="#FF0000"><em>UK Only</em></font>] </li>

<li><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/scot_prem/7742209.stm" target="_blank">BBC "Open All Mics"</a> Live discussion and Goal flashes [<font color="#FF0000"><em>UK Only</em></font>] </li>

<li><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/scotland/" target="_blank">BBC "Live Commentary"</a> (see links on page) [<font color="#FF0000"><em>UK only</em></font>]

</li>

</ul></td>

</tr>

<tr bgcolor="#C0C0C0">

<td width="51" align="center" valign="top"><div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>TEXT</strong></font></div></td>

<td colspan="2"><ul>

<li><a href="http://soccernet.espn.go.com/scores/_/league/sco.1/scottish-premier-league?cc=5739" target="_blank">ESPN</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17455190" target="_blank">BBC</a></li>

<li><a href="http://live.skysports.com/ScoreCentre/live.html" target="_blank">SKY</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sportinglife.com/football/live/latestscores/" target="_blank">Sporting Life</a>

</li>

</ul></td>

</tr>

<tr bgcolor="#E9E9E9">

<td align="center" valign="top"><div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>VIDEO</strong></font></div></td>

<td colspan="2"><ul>

<li><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/default.stm" target="_blank">BBC Match Highlights</a> (online) - [<font color="#FF0000"><em>UK only</em></font>]</li>

<li><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006zrbv" target="_blank">BBC Sportscene </a>TV programme [<font color="#FF0000"><em>UK only</em></font>] </li>

<li><a href="http://www.ictfc.co.uk/page/matchhighlights/0,,10447,00.html" target="_blank">ICT Official Website Highlights</a> [<strong>Worldwide </strong>- Registration Reqd (free)]

</li>

</ul></td>

</tr>

</tbody></table>

<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5" bgcolor="#FEFEEB">

<tbody><tr>

<td scope="col"><div align="center"><strong><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">TEAM LINEUPS</font></strong></div></td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td><div align="center"></div></td>

</tr>

</tbody></table> <p> </p></td>

</tr>

</tbody></table>

Chick Young has just mentioned Tudor Jones has ACCEPTED a new contract with ICT.

If so, that would be good ..... Courier Online said he was happy to discuss it .... TB must have moved fast if he accepted it already !

http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/Sport/Football/Midfielder-hopes-to-repay-Caley-Thistles-faith-26032012.htm

I'd imagne he's snap our hand off given his injury problems.

Sutherland and Tade on the wings?

Quote of the night so far goes to TB during his pre match interview with Chick 'the sun shines out of the OF ar#e' Young when he told all the other teams in the SPL to 'get it right up yea' when talking about everyone having to travel up to the Highlands next season another twice to play County if/when they ultimately go up.

It made me and Caleyjag chuckle

0-1 HT. Fuming! Willie Gollum u wee cretin.

Getting played off the park. We are woeful in all departments. Amazingly we had 2 great chances to score but Tade & Mackay managed to feck them up. Ref getting a lot of stick for penalty but Tade totally cleaned out the Saints player. Grim.

Guys on the radio are saying the penalty was a stone waller, why do fans insist on thinking their players are never at fault for the penalties we give away.

Maybe was but looked a 50-50 to me just calling it like I seen it. I don't insist on anything.

Getting played off the park. We are woeful in all departments. Amazingly we had 2 great chances to score but Tade & Mackay managed to feck them up. Ref getting a lot of stick for penalty but Tade totally cleaned out the Saints player. Grim.

Makes you wonder why he was even back there anyway? One of our only strikers and he wipes out a player in our own box? Sums up our season so far really

Can only go by CaleyD's comments on the CTO twitter feed and he too said it looked like a stonewaller.

Did I ever mention before that I hate weeknight games !!! at work, no radio, no streaming, no nothing, and people keep coming by my office wanting stuff !!! Never mind .... ICT game first, then off to downtown Toronto to watch TFC -V- Santos Laguna of Mexico in the (concacaf) Champions League Semi-Final 1st leg. This could be a scary night !!!!!

For the love of the wee man our passing has been abysmal!

No need to panic, Gnapka's on.

Guys on the radio are saying the penalty was a stone waller, why do fans insist on thinking their players are never at fault for the penalties we give away.

Not on my radio.

After thinking for a while, I've managed to come up with 3 positives from that game...

- Tokely was flipping brilliant

- Tuffey looked assured in goal again

- It was a nice night and I got some fresh air

Everything else was absolutely dreadful. The penalty looked soft to me, and I thought the ref had a poor game, but I don't think we warranted anything from the match. It's particularly frustrating as St J weren't particularly special, but they kept the ball, looked organized and always posed a goal threat. I thoroughly dislike Sandaza (surely he should have got a second yellow for that dive/deliberate handball combo?) but I'd kill to have him in our team. How come they could get him and Sheridan, and we've only got the willing but goalshy McKay - who spurned three excellent chances tonight - and bloody Tade, who was trying in more than one sense of the word tonight. After he missed that early sitter he could do nothing right.

I felt we were second best in every area from the off - it was as if that tremendous performance at Pittodrie had never happened. Our midfield, so good against Aberdeen, was rank rotten. I've been a big champion of Jones, but he was far too slow and kept getting dispossessed. Why Tansey gets a game is beyond me. Foran has the right attitude, but not the quality - you could say the same of Sutherland as well. I suppose our defence is at least a bit more solid, though Piermayr kept giving the ball away. Shinnie had a hard time in the first half but certainly improved in the second.

This is another game which could be used in evidence against our management. Lomas had done his homework - press us high up the pitch and we quickly revert to punting high balls at McKay. Yet it was 70 minutes before Butcher made a sub - and 10 minutes before that he changed to 4-4-2, sticking Tansey on the right wing, which seemed to make us even worse. Too many times this season the tactics have been wrong, and by the time the manager changes them it's too late.

Anyway, after being briefly perked up by last weekend's result, I am descending back into depression. I've a 1 litre tub of Mackies Honeycomb Ice Cream in the freezer that's going to get demolished tonight...

Interesting to read that some folk think it was a stonewaller (including the radio team - did it include Brian Irvine by any chance?). It was right in front of me and it looked like two players running alongside each other then one fell to the floor. Maybe I missed something else but regardless of that decision we deserved nothing from that game as we were horrible. It was actually a bit like the Aberdeen game the other day with the visiting team sitting back and the home side having a lot of the ball but doing nothing of note with it.

I cannot think of many good chances for ICT tonight. Tade and Mckay both passed up excellent chances to open the scoring for us in the first half. Foran had a reasonable chance with a header in the second. I think that was it? The longer the game went on the more obvious it became that we were not going to get anything out of it.

That side was one of the most one dimensional sides I have seen in a long time. We are so flat and predictable. There was almost zero creativity and without Hayes we have no pacey and direct players that provide us with some sort of threat out wide. Tade and Sutherland just don't do it. The midfield has plenty of "bite" but there are no players who can play a key pass to slice open a defence or offer the forwards support from the middle of the pitch. Tudor Jones played so deep he was almost like an extra CB. Up front we were utterly toothless although in fairness after the early chances for Tade and Mckay the forwards had little else to feed off. If we continue to play like that from now until the end of the season we could be a lot closer to the bottom than we are now but we might just have done enough earlier in the season to see us safe.

On the plus side Tokely was excellent. He reminded me a lot of Darren Dods with his approach to his defending. No nonsense - just get it clear. Oh, and we took a throw in quickly as well. That's about it.

To add in something about Saint Johnstone I would say that they weren't great but they didn't have to be. An easy game for their players and barely had to get out of second gear I would say. I cannot think of many times when your defence was overly troubled by us and Morris bossed the midfield. He was excellent and kept things ticking over nicely for Saints in the middle of the park. Sheridan was quiet but Sandaza was a bit more lively. He converted the penalty well but was perhaps lucky not to be sent off after being booked and committing a number of bookable offences thereafter but I doubt if ICT could have profited from any dismissal. About 200 Saintees up for the game who made some reasonable noise. I doubt they will have been overly concerned at what they saw from ICT tonight and will be relishing our visit in a couple of weeks.

Edited March 28, 201213 yr by RiG

Just back from the game, what a dreadful game, couldnt pass, couldnt shoot, couldnt hold onto the ball, were second to most balls and in general we seemed to lack any creativity, enthusiasm or fight. I will write a more detailed synopsis in the morning but that was painful to watch. Only positive point for me was Tokelys performance, if it wasnt for him we would have conceded a lot more.

Penalty was handed on a plate to St Johnstone, what Tade was doing charging like a bull into the player i will never know

just back from game. we huffed and puffed but nothing to give in final third. sj look a league above us. comfortable on the ball and have two decent strikers in sandaza and sheridan.

we had two decent chances in first half.

tade in line with left hand post 15 yards out gets ball. keeper out of position and a player on the line. a decent player would shoot to the larger portion of the goal to the right. not haddie he shoots the way he is facing and screws ball 15 yards left of the left hand post. not a fan of tade but this was probably the worst i have seen him. needs 3 touches to control ball and when under control a simple layoff would do, but no he constantly turned into sj players loosing the ball most of the time.

mackay had a great run and turn inside macraken onto his right foot. same as tade had larger portion of goal to right but hit it straight to their keeper at left hand post.

as said on radio on way home both shooting to the narrow side when an expeienced player would have passed the ball in to the far side of the net

apart from that we never looked like scoring the rest of the night. gnakpa shot at the death hit corner of post and bar was always too high. saying that though dont think tuffey had a save to make until the last couple of minutes when they had a breakaway.

tokley was superb in defence tonight. pierymar could not pass the ball to save himself.

shane had a couple of runs but the end product was the same, passed the ball to the opposition.

mackay was too lightweight for sj centre backs macraken and wright. cant hold the ball.but then who can when balls are played to your head

as said earlier tade was--- well poor.

tel calls it correctly when he describes our players as full of running,heart blah blah blah. that is usual football speak for not skillfull enough

i have been an admirer of jones but tonight looked tired and was getting caught in possion a lot as the sj players were snapping at our heels in midfield. more games and hopefully he will play better.

Penalties against, sendings off, penalties against, sendings off, penalties against, sendings off etc, etc. etc.................................................story of the season!!!

Absolute rubbish tonight!! Why the long ball to macckay every time?? it doesn't work. Tokely MOM by a mile. Stonewall penalty but we were mince. At least dunfermline are poorer than us otherwise we're going down.

Not impressed!!!!!!!!!!

Edited March 28, 201213 yr by PandB

It's quite clear from that game, Sutherland is not a winger FACT. McKay is not a lone frontman FACT. Tade is just a striker, not a wing man FACT. Countless long balls to a slight 5"7 striker, up against two 6"+ centre-backs is just not going to work FACT. And if things continue like this next season, then we're going to be in for a tough time.

Oh, and Tokely must stay FACT!!!

Edited March 28, 201213 yr by Renegade

I honestly felt sorry for McKay tonight what on earth is a player of his height and build supposed to do with the kind of service he was getting? To just lump the ball high and long towards him is insane. In the absence of Hayes and Doran play Ross wide and get him to try to put crosses in. And push Foran forward in support.

Like many others got to mention Tokely he was magnificent. Thought his time may have passed a couple of months ago but been well and truly proved wrong.

Ach, where do you start with that rubbish.

We look so highland league it's unreal. Tade and Sutherland were as guilty as hell of not bringing the ball under control quickly enough. Tudur-Jones can think again if he wants a contract, he was going through the motions and is Piermayr a footballer. We had no midfield and wee Jodie Morris showed everybody how it's done, able to put his foot on the ball and find one of his own players with the ball. We simply could not string more than two passes together, absolutely pathetic.

Terry needs to get his finger out if he wants to keep his job. Wrong players on the park were easy enough for 3000 people to spot, but the bold Terence again leaves it too late before replacing the headless ones. We are struggling for quality, simple as that and it won't be Butcher that keeps us up, it will be Dunfermline. I am a big fan of Butcher, but he seems unable or unwilling to change the pattern when things are obviously going tits up.

On the bright side. Rossco played his heart out and Shinnie tried hard. Golobart got stuck in and did reasonably well and it was only half price admission. Apart from that, there was no bright side.

Hugely disappointing result, but not unexpected, just sums up our lack of invention really.

lets start from the back.

tuffey- had nothing to do one save and one penalty. not stressed at all thanks too....

....tokely and golobart who look to be a partnership and a half back there.

shinnie and piermayr for me were decent at the back but going forward nothing worked

the midfeild which wasnt strong enough got dominated foran and tansey couldnt get the ball jones done well but when your playing a midfeild 3 then all 3 of them have to work together i thought theyd continue in the same vein as saturday obviously i was wrong. they had no outlets. no width was give

tade- lost confidence early on and nothing he done worked

sutherland- not a winger. simple as that

mckay put in one of his best performances of the season for me which we seem to be saying every week now. he put in a shift held up the ball, everything he done worked which couldnt be said for most the team.

we had 2 shots on target to st johnstones 1 which wasnt till the 70+ minutes (not including the penalty obviously).

now the penalty.

WARNING: ranting :WARNING

. if we dont get them no one should and we havnt fecking got 1 this season. any chance of some consistency referees! its been over a fecking year now. this is something that was a bit of a joke at first but now its gone beyond that its got to the point where its sickening. we had no shouts for a penalty tonight but what annoys me is the fact that the first shout for a penalty they had tonight they got when weve had at least 15 shouts in the last year and not got one. it doesnt take a genious to watch a game and tell when theres a foul in the box or not especially when you a fecking asistent in your ear for 90 minutes ''helping'' you and i use the term helping lightly as it seems to me that assistant refs have absolutely no balls about them in this country. its a joke

rant over.

tonight i felt we looked like a team with nothing to play for and im certain that butcher will knock it out of them (possibly literally) and itll get better from tonight to the end of the season.

Rossco has to stay!! We are running seriously short of players who play with the traditional, true Caley Thistle spirit - and who play for the jersey.

Half price entry to see a half assed performance...and it would seem only half the ball boys!!! Seriously, how much time was wasted waiting for someone to retrieve the ball tonight? We were complaining about St Johnstone wasting time towards the end, but the truth of the matter is, all they had to do (and were doing when they realised) was to stick the ball out of play at the Main Stand side corners as it took forever and a day to collect it and get it back into play.... embarrassing.

Agree with much of what has been said about our own performance, but totally disagree with the suggestions that St Johnstone were any better. For all the talk of Sandaza and Sheridan, they did very little to trouble us and I would say we had more shots (on and off target) than St Johnstone.

The only thing that separated us tonight was the totally naive, stupid and utterly pointless penalty conceded by Tade.