Matchday Thread ICT -V- Motherwell

[ICTRoughi]

Just back from the game there. Really didn't show up at all today. Motherwell were on a bit of a bad run similarly to the one we had before beating Dundee United 4-0. Sure, today's game was hard one for us to take. We can't win/draw them all forever - so I guess we were due to be put down a peg or two. If I am honest, I would have preferred it to have been a Parkhead than today.

On the game itself, Chris Humphrey was far too pacey for our defence today. Everytime he ran past Graeme Shinnie, you just thought they would score. Really impressive Motherwell side we played today.

What happend for the 5th goal? Didn't get a clear view from my seat.

I was really annoyed at the attendance today. Fair enough, Sunday, 12:45 kick off and on the TV but below 3 thousand - No excuses (excluding DD and others with personal reasons). We will just see you in Dingwall in two weeks I suppose.

[+DoofersDad]

I said after the Hearts game that we really missed Draper. I know that a number of folk have been saying for a couple of years that Morrison is someone who deserves a run in the side and many felt he should have started against Hearts. Well, he started today and we lost 5 -1. I've heard people speak highly of him but I haven't seen a lot of him myself. Several times he has come on as a late sub and has seemed tidy enough in what he did but I've never really seen signs that he could impose himself on a game the way that Draper seems able to do.

I'd therefore be interested to hear from those who were able to watch the game about how he did today. He was subbed after 68 minutes so it doesn't sound as though Terry was overly impressed. And what of OTJ? It seems to me that he is a lot less effective without Draper beside him.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Thank feck fer Smirnoff

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

I said after the Hearts game that we really missed Draper. I know that a number of folk have been saying for a couple of years that Morrison is someone who deserves a run in the side and many felt he should have started against Hearts. Well, he started today and we lost 5 -1. I've heard people speak highly of him but I haven't seen a lot of him myself. Several times he has come on as a late sub and has seemed tidy enough in what he did but I've never really seen signs that he could impose himself on a game the way that Draper seems able to do.

I'd therefore be interested to hear from those who were able to watch the game about how he did today. He was subbed after 68 minutes so it doesn't sound as though Terry was overly impressed. And what of OTJ? It seems to me that he is a lot less effective without Draper beside him.

Morrison did himself no favours today and was practically anonymous - missing in non-action. He is the type of player that I would play away from home in a holding position. Butcher tried to slot him in as a direct replacement fer Draper and in the same combination as Draper/OTJ. Butcher again made the mistake of trying to fit players in to a rigid system when it simply doesnt work. OTJ looked annoyingly apathetic but he needs to get the ball at his feet to be a play maker. Muvversmell bypassed them and McCall had clealry sussed our system and played two wide attacking wing backs and two wide attackers. That left G Shinnie and Raven rather cruelly exposed on their own.

Tactics won the day in the end.

[Renegade]

*Stand back lads, I'll handle this*

That was garbage, utter garbage. It's a sad state of affairs when you concede five goals and Reguero and Raven are your only decent players. The tactics were all wrong and ICT seemed spooked by Murphy and Humphrey. Their attacks were like a hot knife through butter. Is it just a coincidence that the team are playing well, playing good football and playing as a team until Foran comes back and all of a sudden normal service is resumed? Can Andrew Shinnie and Foran play in the same team? The former was on great form in recent weeks, and as soon as Foran comes back, is rotten? Foran has some good attributes, but I'd sacrifice them for what Andrew Shinnie has brought recently, any day of the week. Ross Draper was also hugely missed and you'd be forgiven for forgetting that Morrison was on the field.

Sutherland coming on as a winger. Has that ever worked? And the second half formation of the 4-4-2 diamond with one winger and Andrew Shinnie moving wide beggared belief.

From the very beginning Motherwell seemed sharper and more up for it. ICT seemed all out of ideas and had body language that didn't suggest a happy team. ICT were gubbed by the better team, but it was a crude and embarrassing performance. No wonder there was people laughing when Foran was announced as MOTM.

Edited November 18, 2012 by Renegade

[tm4tj]

A sad day, records broken and 1-5 flattered us, it could and should have been 10.

[hislopsoffsideagain]

I was furious at missing this game for 'personal reasons' - turns out my decision to avoid the score and watch it on SkyPlus meant I was at least spared the cold weather and able to fast forward the last 20 minutes!

First things first - the manager picked the wrong team. Butcher clearly remembered that Humphrey has taken Graeme Shinnie to town many times in the past and wanted Foran as extra protection on the left...but Foran offered no extra help, Humphrey ran riot, and by the time we changed it around we were two down. Not only that, but by playing Morrison and Jones in the middle we had no-one to get stuck in and make tackles - this is where Foran maybe should have started the match. When Butcher did move Richie up field, he stuck Andy Shinnie wide left where he saw virtually none of the ball.

Of course, maybe Foran should have started up front - or even Sutherland - as Billy McKay has started 15 home games as an ICT player and we have won only two of those. Unfortunately when the likes of Motherwell (and Hearts last week) stop us from passing up the pitch, we can only hoof long balls, and McKay can't win them. It's not all his fault - he can't help that he is 5ft 8in. But he gets a lot more joy when we are away from home or when we are winning games and can play on the break.

Aside from Doran (who ran his cotton socks off), the relatively solid Draper (relative to his fellow defenders at least) and Reguero (prior to his blunder for the fifth goal) the players were poor. Warren and Meekings have been outstanding as a partnership - but Warren was utterly bossed by Higdon today. Meekings was dreadful as well, and he will feel sick when he sees replays of his header straight to Murphy for the second goal. As mentioned above, Graeme Shinnie could not cope with Humphrey at all - the 1st and 2nd goals came because the winger got away and put in lousy crosses which we failed to clear properly (the first one was returned by the outstanding Law to set up Higdon). Sorry, Graeme, but you also fell asleep at the back post for the fourth goal as well - Cummins was your man and you lost him.

In conclusion, the coaching staff didn't do their job well, the players didn't do their job well, and the crowd (in terms of numbers, volume and encouragement) didn't do their job well. So it's no wonder we got absolutely shellacked.

Let's just hope it is a one-off, and not a sign that we are in a false position. But one thing is for certain - if Ross Draper has only one leg we still have to play him next week.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

"It was massively disappointing. We just didn't get going from the first whistle," said the Inverness manager.

"I didn't go mad at the players. In fact, I had a bit of a laugh and a joke with them."

"They are a great bunch of guys but today it was like a team of strangers turned up. We weren't at the races."

"Not one player can say, 'I did my job today and I did it well'.

"I could still be in the dressing room on Tuesday going through every player's mistakes but there's no point dwelling on that," added Butcher.

"We are a positive club and we want to move forward together, which we'll do, and we'll work hard on Tuesday and for the rest of the week and make sure we are ready for Celtic."

That is feckin laughable.

[Ten4]

A sad day, records broken and 1-5 flattered us, it could and should have been 10.

I guess-

Is the score a record spl defeat at Inverness

&

is the attendance an spl record low in Inverness?

[Renegade]

"It was massively disappointing. We just didn't get going from the first whistle," said the Inverness manager.

"I didn't go mad at the players. In fact, I had a bit of a laugh and a joke with them."

"They are a great bunch of guys but today it was like a team of strangers turned up. We weren't at the races."

"Not one player can say, 'I did my job today and I did it well'.

"I could still be in the dressing room on Tuesday going through every player's mistakes but there's no point dwelling on that," added Butcher.

"We are a positive club and we want to move forward together, which we'll do, and we'll work hard on Tuesday and for the rest of the week and make sure we are ready for Celtic."

That is feckin laughable.

Nice to know Terry thinks it's funny. No-one else did.

Edited November 18, 2012 by Renegade

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

How many narcissists does it take to change a light bulb? One. He holds the bulb while the world revolves around him.

[AJS]

We got brushed aside by Motherwell today and rightly so. In the likes of Humphrey, Murphy and Higdon they have some of the most dangerous and industrious players in this league and we didnt set ourselves up to counter them at all. Time and time again we play them and allow them too much time on the ball and get punished as a direct result.

We carved out decent opportunities sure but Randoplh had a fantastic game, emphasized but the save he made from Doran's strike, he is a top class goalkeeper.

We bounced back the last time we took a hammering from them and im hoping for the same sort of reaction after this. We've made too much progress to chuck it all away now, need to stay right behind the team.

[davie]

How many narcissists does it take to change a light bulb? One. He holds the bulb while the world revolves around him.

Is this broken record back on again? Johndo what does this actually mean? It was a bad day for everyone, not just Butcher. He got it wrong. Team got it wrong, those who didn't bother to turn up got it wrong. You can't blame one man (refer back to your blaming the players and crowd remark) no matter your palpable dislike for the guy. Change the record - your far more interesting when you do.

[gordieict]

A very poor performance and like some have already said we were lucky it was only 5.

The crowd today was a huge worry today particularly after a run of good form, people were saying yesterday how Aberdeen had a big crowd and the difference it makes when the team is playing well, why are we not rewarded by the fans in the same way.

Something that Caley D said a few weeks back stuck in my mind "does Inverness really deserve an SPL team"

[+DoofersDad]

Will put it down to a very bad day at the office.

In my experience, any Sunday spent at the office is a very bad day.

[+DoofersDad]

Top scorers in the SPL, 1 defeat in 11 and 3rd in the recent form league. It's not all doom and gloom.

[IBM]

just about sums up todays performance, hope it's a 1 off.

[Alex MacLeod]

I was out in Sneck last night and never bumped into any of our players which surprises me considering they all turned out like they were hung over. Every season there is one game that just needs to be forgotten. Today we seen this game. From now on in we will win, lose and draw but we will play and play well. Celtic are there for the taking next week.

[gingerjaggy]

A very poor performance and like some have already said we were lucky it was only 5.

The crowd today was a huge worry today particularly after a run of good form, people were saying yesterday how Aberdeen had a big crowd and the difference it makes when the team is playing well, why are we not rewarded by the fans in the same way.

Something that Caley D said a few weeks back stuck in my mind "does Inverness really deserve an SPL team"

It is worrying that the crowd is down and the atmosphere still stinks which is something we have to try and combat. Just say we got to europe is the ground going to be as quiet even though we will have a larger attendance. But i think we do deserve an SPL side remember we are still a young club and john robertson said it we havent had generations of fans to build up a large fanbase. St Johnstone is the key point though, they have a larger stadium and have got crowds no bigger than ours so to say we dont deserve a team in the top flight because of the size of fanbase well do St Johnstone and they were one of the founder members of this league

[lukemackay]

"It was massively disappointing. We just didn't get going from the first whistle," said the Inverness manager.

"I didn't go mad at the players. In fact, I had a bit of a laugh and a joke with them."

"They are a great bunch of guys but today it was like a team of strangers turned up. We weren't at the races."

"Not one player can say, 'I did my job today and I did it well'.

"I could still be in the dressing room on Tuesday going through every player's mistakes but there's no point dwelling on that," added Butcher.

"We are a positive club and we want to move forward together, which we'll do, and we'll work hard on Tuesday and for the rest of the week and make sure we are ready for Celtic."

That is feckin laughable.

Nice to know Terry thinks it's funny. No-one else did.

i found it funny. i took the pish from first minute to last. mostly at all the oldies going mad tbh. it was rather amusing. if some people could hear themselves.

[Renegade]

i took the pish from first minute to last.

Bit like most of the players and the manager then.

Nice to know that you had a nice time though despite the embarrassment that was on the field.

[RiG]

i found it funny. i took the pish from first minute to last. mostly at all the oldies going mad tbh. it was rather amusing. if some people could hear themselves.

Come on Luke. Your positivity is admirable but I find it hard to believe that any ICT fan can have found that game today genuinely funny.

[Yngwie]

So what changed this week? The team had sessions with a sports psychologist. Hopefully he gets paid on results.

[lukemackay]

i found it funny. i took the pish from first minute to last. mostly at all the oldies going mad tbh. it was rather amusing. if some people could hear themselves.

Come on Luke. Your positivity is admirable but I find it hard to believe that any ICT fan can have found that game today genuinely funny.

first till last minutes abit of an exageration but after they almost instantly regained their two goal lead after we pulled one back i knew the game was gone, there was no point in wasting a good half hour moaning now was there. motherwell are our bogey team anyway. i came away saying we dont lose often but when we do we make the most of it and lose properly. no point in greeting about it, the players always have a chance to redeem theirselves next week.

we looked very tired today, just wernt at the races, and after the players have given so much over the last 10 games it was to inevitable that we would lose eventually with the depth we have to our squad. hopefully well bounce back next week.

[12th Man]

What type of drum did the well fans have as it produced a good sound.