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Two points lost but could have been worse. 12 points off the bottom and surely we had a bad day at the office. But the inquiry must be as to how we played so well in the first half hour and then didn't play at all after that. To me Foran and OTJ didn't gel - OTJ disappeared and Foran may not have been fully fit. Doran had an off day as did Roberts who was starved of the ball in the second half. Shinnie had an off day as well. McKay was completely isolated. The back five were faultless and Raven was my MOM becos he always played the easy ball to feet. Tactically the hoof returned and we sat far too deep in the second half. We should have attacked not defended. Hearts were poor but were up fer it, won most tackles and got the run of the ball. Another issue is that we simply do not have any quality on the bench to put on when we have 2-3 of our match winners under performing.

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can only echo whats been said already, hearts were there for the taking today, we sat way too deep and got what we deserved.

i blame terry butcher for that, we were never set up to do anything but defend. the theory in having foran and OTJ in the middle is sound, aslong as foran doesnt drop back every single time, you need that outlet ahead of the defence, being the captain of course he feels he should be at the back helping.

disappointing to draw any game from a late penalty, theres no lesson to be learned here though, we've been doing it all season, tbh i dont even consider us to be leading in a game unless its by more than one goal and neither should that side. even last week against kilmarnock they were down to 10 men and pressed us, its no way to see out any match

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Hugely disappointing to throw away two points, not for the first time this season. Felt sorry for Tudor-Jones who'd had a good game, including 'goal of the season' contender. Very soft penalty. We always looked good going forward, and created some chances, even in last couple of minutes following equaliser. Like last week v Killie we dominated the first half and although we had our backs to the wall for most of the second half, our defence stood firm until the penalty and, unlike at Killie, I couldn't see the opposition scoring. How wrong I was.

I can't see Roberts getting many more starts after that performance. Andrew Shinnie also not at his best I thought. My MOM by a country mile was David Raven, solid in defence and dangerous going forward.

A real chance to go level at the top, even for a few hours, missed.

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Mary Hill has also got a very worrying observation as to why we only woke up, passed, attacked and looked up fer it when they equalised. That is how we should have started off the second half not ended it. In retrospect I wish that they had scored a lot earlier. But let's face it the only way that they were going to score was from this spot. Totally baffled as to why that was so lacklustre but equally maddened that we have apparently regressed to seeing out a game rather than finishing it off. Finally puzzled as to why Doran and Roberts weren't stopped at some stage and why Roberts was kept wide left, starved and wasted in the second half whe he could have been put up front with McKay against a central defence which was scared of pace.

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Seriously Johndo ? did you watch the same Roberts as i watched? i watched him very closely a couple of weeks ago to see what all the fuss was about ( against St Johnstone) and he was awful, and i thought he wasnt much better today, yes he is young and learning but surely a basic skill for a footballer is being able to control the ball? at one stage his first touch took the ball 20 feet away from him.

He should have been hooked at half time in both games.

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Threw it away with a poor second half performance in my view. Yes, we defended well and they got a soft pen' but it was no more than the Jambo's deserved. We couldn't pass the ball and we couldn't hold on to the ball when we had it evn to take the pressure off. Warren was my MotM judging out Tudor-Jones (what a strike by the way). Bill MacKay never stopped running but lacked to cutting edge. As for young Phil Roberts, I know he's young and learning his trade but I've seen no real evidence to suggest we should try to hang on to him. He gave to ball more than any of the others I reckon. Disappointing result but at least we keep the unbeaten run going for a short while yet.

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it is another deflating lose of points like against St Johnstone. I think we did miss draper in midfield as we showed very little composure in midfield and hearts probably deserved a point for there belief and pressure but they were very poor and we should have put them to bed. We didn't create to much but when we did go forward we looked dangerous with ball to feet. Abit of an off day and a disappointing result against a team there for the taking but lets not forget where we are and how well we have done so far so onwards and upwards

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Seriously Johndo ? did you watch the same Roberts as i watched? i watched him very closely a couple of weeks ago to see what all the fuss was about ( against St Johnstone) and he was awful, and i thought he wasnt much better today, yes he is young and learning but surely a basic skill for a footballer is being able to control the ball? at one stage his first touch took the ball 20 feet away from him.

He should have been hooked at half time in both games.

I thought that he was poor today but he is clearly being played out of position - in the same manner as Shane - he looks like a striker to me. And again he is also being used as a foil fer Doran and with Shinnie in there as well his role is to pull the opposition wide which often ends up in him being starved and more of an emphasis on dropping back to defend. As he is a loan player I would prefer it if we were stating Pepper or even Brislen-Hall. I still however strongly believe that this lad will be an accomplished striker one day.

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Very much a case of the back four being let down by the rest of the team. Too many players having an off day, however for 60 minutes it was obvious that something need to change and nothing came from the management team.

We seem to be unable to change things in the middle of the game.

Having seen Roberts several times now there seems very little to justify his selection and indeed insufficient to suggest that we should be extending his loan stay. Money could be better used on a wide midfielder I suspect. I know that we have Nick to return and Pepper is also a prospect, however it is noticiable that he has not featured as much recently.

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Very poor performance from us especially in the second half where we seemed to completely lose the midfield battle and could barely string two passes together.

In the end it was a repeat of the Saint Johnstone game where we had our backs to the wall and defended desperately to keep an equaliser out. Gutting to lose a goal through what appeared to be a very soft penalty but we didn't help ourselves by sitting back so deeply and inviting Hearts onto us.

Smashing goal from Tudor Jones and we should have been two up when Andrew Shinnie went through but I don't think we can grumble too much with a point. We simply weren't good enough to warrant anything more.

Good Hearts support. Must've been about 300 - 400. Another poor turnout from the ICT fans.

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I think it's a sign of how well we've been doing that we feel disappointed by only getting a point at home to Hearts.

A fair result in the end, but the penalty decision was a shocker. Jones is going to clear the ball and the Hearts player runs into his leg.

The big disappointment today was how disjointed our attacking players looked - in previous weeks they've appeared to have a telepathic understanding but today they looked like they'd never met before. We certainly don't look threatening when Doran and Andy Shinnie aren't playing well.

In contrast our back four deserve plenty of plaudits - I thought they were all phenomenal today. David Raven looks twice the player he seemed in August. Warren and Meekings were majestic and Graeme Shinnie did well too., Foran also gave everything today.

A bit of an off day really, but it's another point gained, I suppose.

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I was watching on TV. It's disappointing to lose two points so late but we can't really claim to have deserved three points. We started well, getting Andy Shinnie and, espeically, Doran into good positions on the ball and threatening Hearts. Tudor-Jones and Foran did well in midfield, with OTJ using the ball well. Anything that Hearts offered up our back four dealt with well. We probably should've done better with a couple of chances, Shinnie could've taken a touch when he had a sight of goal and I thought McKay could've gone on a few paces before shooting when he beat Zaliukas. The goal was a peach, a cracking shot by Jones after excellent, determined work by Shinnie.

Towards the end of the first half Hearts came back into it but in the second they started to make more headway. They attacked us most often down our left, where I think we are bit vulnerable playing ShinnieG and Roberts. Shinnie is an attacking full back and can find it difficult to cope when teams overload on him and Roberts doesn't offer much protection. Hearts also put more pressure on us in the middle and Jones and Foran dipped in their performances from the first half, especially Jones who didn't dictate the play the way he has been doing. Hearts didn't really threaten us that much, there were a few nervy scrambles but I don't think they really had any clear cut chances. The penalty was a sickener to concede but we would be asking for the same if it had happend at our end.

We can't complain about our season so far but one area of concern is the number of leads we give away. We've drawn five games after being in winning positions, with some of those also featuring a drop in performance level from us (today and Kilmarnock at home spring to mind). The type of football that the management has this team playing is a high tempo, pressing game, it could be that it's a challange to maintain that for 90 minutes.

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ICT are top scorers in the SPL, not only in numbers but also in quality of the goals :ictscarf: :ictscarf: :ictscarf:

And even that may not be enuff - by the way your font is the typing equivalent of a speech impediment.

It's enough to stay comfortably away from the relegation zone and ahead of OTB, and that's all that matters.

And I won't let you provoke me with your pseudo-psychological ranting

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Two points lost rather than a point gained in my opinion. We weren't at our best today. Credit to Owain Tudor Jones for that class goal. I thought that Billy McKay had his moments but he was his usual self but I guess it's not his fault because nobody was feeding him any good through balls. Garry Warren continued to impress me and thought him and Josh Meekings are making a very good team at the back - long may it continue.

Hearts weren't really at the races neither, which makes the result even harder to take. Nevermind, big game vs Motherwell next week and hopefully get back to winning ways.

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My key points -

  • Defensively ICT seem fairly solid and Dave the Rave had an excellent game.
  • This idea, to quote Butcher that we should "weather the storm" is nonsense. Hearts were there to beaten and trying to hold on to a 1-0 score at home for a whole half is a bad idea.
  • Jones, Foran and Doran played well in the first half, yet were anonymous in the second.
  • Philip Roberts is Claude Gnakpa MK2.
  • McKay tries hard, but has nothing to work with. A 4-4-2 diamond with Foran up top and Jones in-front of the back four would've been far better.
  • Andrew Shinnie had a poor game.

All in all it's not a bad result, but Hearts were there for the taking and should have been beaten.

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My key points -

  • Defensively ICT seem fairly solid and Dave the Rave had an excellent game.
  • This idea, to quote Butcher that we should "weather the storm" is nonsense. Hearts were there to beaten and trying to hold on to a 1-0 score at home for a whole half is a bad idea.
  • Jones, Foran and Doran played well in the first half, yet were anonymous in the second.
  • Philip Roberts is Claude Gnakpa MK2.
  • McKay tries hard, but has nothing to work with. A 4-4-2 diamond with Foran up top and Jones in-front of the back four would've been far better.
  • Andrew Shinnie had a poor game.

All in all it's not a bad result, but Hearts were there for the taking and should have been beaten.

Bit harsh.... least Phillip has a goal this season :ninja:

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Each individual player has played to such a high standard of late, have all gelled together and have played exceptionally well as a team.

Pity we didnt sneak the 3 points at the end but we werent sharp enough going forward, we came to life at 1-1 which was too late really, so a point is what we deserved.

Thank goodness for Hearts finishing ability being so bad otherwise the slack passing would have cost us dearly.

Soft penalty but if it was earlier I think we would have won it as the team came alive afterwards.

As long as we keep picking up points thats the main thing.

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Real game of two halves, although I think you have to give McGlynn credit for the changes he made at half time. He replaced two more offensive midfielders with two more defensive ones and flooded the midfield. We couldn't then play through them the way that we did in the first half, and the longer ball was then inevitable. With the height of Webster and Zaliuskas, Hearts were always going to cope better. We should have been out of sight at half time but us being p*ssed at this result just shows how far we have come. Roberts didn't play well today, but his overall progress is good - the Gnakpa comment is harsh. Motherwell are due a roasting up here, and I think that this is just the team to do it.

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ICT are top scorers in the SPL, not only in numbers but also in quality of the goals :ictscarf: :ictscarf: :ictscarf:

And even that may not be enuff - by the way your font is the typing equivalent of a speech impediment.

It's enough to stay comfortably away from the relegation zone and ahead of OTB, and that's all that matters.

And I won't let you provoke me with your pseudo-psychological ranting

Should have gone to specsavers - can anyone please interpret ?

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first time in a very long time ive been disapointed with a draw against hearts. perhaps the first time ever. but that just says it all about where we are just now.

owain tudor jones' strike was incredible. up there with dorans goal against county. his celebration, first class.

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