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ICT v CELTIC - 25/08/12


CaleyD

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I suspect we would have fared better against Celtic's 1st XI.

I agree with this. Guys like Watt and Twardzik will be desperate for regular involvement and came out of the blocks really fast. All the same, no real excuse for how poorly we started. Hopefully we'll see a reaction to this next week.

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Watching on Sky, who was the Celtic supporter doing the analysis on the commentary?, and we did certainly deserve to lose, however some of the referee's decisions were shocking and led directly to 2 of Celtic's goals. First one Wanyama was climbing all over King but the goal stands. Fourth and Izzaguire takes out Nick Ross, but play on and Celtic score. A couple of bookings as well which didn't even look like fouls, Gavin Morrisson especially. And of course we weren't allowed to take a quick free kick so Celtic get a chance to regroup to defend.

I'm beginning to sound like a Celtic "fan" saying it was all the ref's fault, but I do agree we weren't playing well, let Celtic play their game and the result was probably right.

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Well, being honest...there are a few games where i think we should not expect to be picking up points too often. Celtic is one of them, so I canna complain about the result.

It's not the result that worries me it was the level of performance. Very poor.

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Those two late goals, when Celtic had stopped playing, should not be allowed to detract from the fact that, for the first eighty minutes, we were an absolute embarrassment.

First up, the team selection was dreadful. We know Raven has struggled at right back. We know Sutherland has contributed nothing on the wing. Yet both started, while Nick Ross was stuck in a deep midfield role instead of on the wing. What does Morrison have to do to get a start?

I've no idea what the tactics were today. We appeared to be playing a shambles-0-1 formation from what I could see. Anyone who has watched Celtic the last 2 years knows Hooper drops deep into the space between midfield and attack - so most teams sit someone in front of the defence to counteract that. We didn't. So when he came deep, either our centre-half let him go, meaning he got the ball into feet and had time to turn and run at us, or the centre-half went with him, leaving Watt one on one with his partner (as for the second goal). The contrast to Ross County's performance against Celtic last week was striking. Derek Adams clearly had a tactical plan on how to make things difficult for their opponents. Terry Butcher just thought he'd put 11 players on the pitch and see what happened.

The third goal summed it up. Presumably the players got a bollocking at half-time, but none of them were switched on enough to interfere with what was a pretty simple set-piece trick. Frankly, I think it's because most of them didn't really care about whether we won or lost today.

Aside from Aaron Doran, none of our players looked like they wanted the ball...and Doran didn't use it that well when he got it. McKay was isolated as usual, but he failed to hold the ball up even when he got it into the channels or in to feet. The one time he got in behind, he wasn't quick enough to hold off the defenders. He's too small, he's too lightweight, he's not quick enough and he can't score...but apart from that, he's a top player.

Ross and Doran tried hard, at least; the former was clearly out of position. Andy Shinnie barely touched the ball, and had one of those days where it seemed like every decision he made was the wrong one. Is Sutherland blackmailing the manager with dodgy photos or something? I can't think of another reason why he is in the team. Draper might have got two goals, but for a big unit he was outmuscled and outfought a lot. He wasn't the only one who couldn't manage to complete 5 yard passes to unmarked teammates - there were a lot of others (what the hell do they do in training?) - but he was the most culpable. He also has the turning circle of a bus, and Celtic just passed the ball around him.

Our backline was so bad that they might have given me Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Raven was a catastrophe. He kept giving the ball away easily, kept being caught out of position, and kept being skinned. The centre-backs were also calamitous, particularly King, who was nutmegged within a minute by Hooper, and then was totally culpable for the second Celtic goal. Graeme Shinnie was the best of a bad bunch. Esson looked shaky at times, but I don't think he was culpable for any of the goals.

The only positive I can think of was the perfomance of Pepper as a sub, who was lively and keen to get involved...and whose through ball for Draper's second was the only piece of quality football we produced all day.

Lastly, Butcher should be censured for turning round and having a rant at the fans when we went 2-0 down. At that point we hadn't even managed to put three passes together, and there had been absolutely nothing to cheer - what does he expect? He should just be grateful that some of us (fewer and fewer by the week) are dumb enough to still pay through the nose to watch this utter dross.

Can you tell I'm angry?
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I wasn't there. But jesus people get a grip.

What did you expect? A 3-0 win? We played poorly big deal, our players arnt worth millions of pounds. It doesn't matter what we do against Celtic its about what we do against the other teams.

Before anyone goes off on one at me for not being there I'm a season ticket holder but was otherwise engaged.

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