THE MATCHDAY THREAD Discuss ICT & other games in this thread as they happen Inverness CT -V- Partick Thistle PREVIEW 22nd Mar 2014 @ 3:00PM Tulloch Caledonian Stadium Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Facebook Go to the Chatroom Media Coverage   AUDIO   Open All Mics (BBC) [uK/VPN Only]   TEXT   ESPN BBC SKY Sporting Life   VIDEO   SPFL YouTube Channel ICT Official YouTube Channel TEAM LINEUPS TO FOLLOW

 

What everyone seems to be gorgetting is that apart from celtic we have beaten all the other top 6 teams this season. So I'm not settling for some hopeful euro route just yet. Hoping cup semi's go to lots of replays and our fresh squad can nab the points to get us to at least 3rd under own steam.

I've had a look at the UEFA rules and although they don't cover every possible scenario, I think you've summarised it accurately, Rasczak, in your possible scenarios.

 

DU v Aberdeen final = Aberdeen win, ICT in Europe, DU win, them in Europe (Winner as cup final representatives)

DU v St J final = Winners in Europe (Winner as cup final representatives)

Aberdeen v Rangers = 4th place in Europe regardless of result (Aberdeen as cup final representatives)

Rangers v St Johnstone = ST J in Europe (St J as cup final representatives)

 

In essence, we really need Aberdeen to beat St Johnstone to have any chance with a 4th placed finish!

Not sure how thats arrived at. My understanding is that if the winners have already qualified for a Europa League place then the runners up get the cup place. Hence Gretna, Falkirk Dunfermline and Queen of the South playing in europe in recent years.. I know the SPL tried to change the ruling so that next top team would qualify over runners up but not sure if it ever happened. On saying that I'm sure Motherwell got the place when County were runners up.

Good 3 points yesterday and great to see Billy score. 

 

I've had a look at the UEFA rules and although they don't cover every possible scenario, I think you've summarised it accurately, Rasczak, in your possible scenarios.

 

DU v Aberdeen final = Aberdeen win, ICT in Europe, DU win, them in Europe (Winner as cup final representatives)

DU v St J final = Winners in Europe (Winner as cup final representatives)

Aberdeen v Rangers = 4th place in Europe regardless of result (Aberdeen as cup final representatives)

Rangers v St Johnstone = ST J in Europe (St J as cup final representatives)

 

In essence, we really need Aberdeen to beat St Johnstone to have any chance with a 4th placed finish!

Not sure how thats arrived at. My understanding is that if the winners have already qualified for a Europa League place then the runners up get the cup place. Hence Gretna, Falkirk Dunfermline and Queen of the South playing in europe in recent years.. I know the SPL tried to change the ruling so that next top team would qualify over runners up but not sure if it ever happened. On saying that I'm sure Motherwell got the place when County were runners up.

 

 

As I said earlier, the implication from the SPFL site and recent history is that the runner up gets in only when the winner is in Champion's League, as last year when Hibs got in as Celtic won the cup and league. County missed out as DU were 3rd that year so no CL, 1st and 2nd got CL then, Motherwell were 5th and so got in as lowest league place qualifier. I may be wrong but I think it has been this way since the Cup Winners Cup was scrapped, or at least shortly after that.

 

Getting a bit off topic for this thread now though isn't it Alex, maybe you could move it to a separate thread for any further discussion.

Only my view, but I'm trying to simplify it. Look at it in this order:

 

The Scottish Champions go to the Champions League.

The Scottish Champions, therefore, are not eligible for the Europa League. (ignoring the scenario where they 'parachute' in at a later stage).

 

That leaves 3 Europa League places available.

1 from the Scottish Cup: Best team eligible for the Europa League qualifies - Call them 'team x'.

 

2 from the Scottish League: Top 2 clubs aside from the Champions and 'team x'.

This is only my view.

 

Get off the matchday thread and start a topic about the European places

I thought Foran was lucky to stay on the park. He is fast becoming a liability with his predictable lunging challenges.

Just as well McKay scored after that shocker of a miss. He would have been as relieved as the fans that bothered to turn up were. Already been said a dozen times, but shocker of a first half with Brill keeping us in the game. It really was Brill versus Partick for forty minutes.

 

Poor crowd again considering Partick had their usual 400ish.

Lazy copy and paste from P & B.

 

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Great post from SLJ. Can't really argue with any of that.

 

Partick definitely had the better of the first half. We struggled to get to grips with Erskine, Taylor and Higginbotham who all found space in behind our defence on a number of ocasions. Only some good goalkeeping from Brill kept us in it. We had actually started the game the better of the two sides but after about five minutes Partick dominated. Our best chance fell to Draper but his tame pass / shot was easily gathered by Gallacher. Partick had great chances for Taylor when he cut inside and left Warren on the floor before smashing it straight at Brill. He also forced Brill into a great save from a free kick and was denied a third time when Brill again was equal to another effort after he again cut in from the left. Tansey had a good chance when he hit a quick half volley but he pulled it wide.

 

Up until this point we had been playing 4-1-4-1 with Foran appearing to be playing as the slightly deeper midfielder. At half time Hughes, thankfully, moved us back to the old 4-2-3-1 which saw Tansey move further up field and support Mckay who was an incredibly isolated player in the first half. At one point when he had the ball about 35 yards from the Partick goal there were no other ICT players in the same half as him.

 

The formation chance quickly paid dividends as Tansey started to link well with Mckay and Williams was able to offer more width than he had done in the first half and although Vincent continued on the left side and was always cutting in Shinnnie got forward in support of the attack much more effectively than he had done previously.

 

A neat one two between Mckay and Tansey played in the midfielder who lifted the ball over the onrushing Gallacher but sadly it landed on the roof of the net despite Mckay being convinced that it was going in. Soon after Mckay had his best chance of the game as some patient, probing passing eventually played in Mckay who found himself in behind the Partick defence but he sliced his shot well wide of goal with just Gallacher to beat. However Mckay finally grabbed our first goal in 19 years of football when a lofted free kick from Shinnie found Draper at the back post and he nodded the ball back across goal to Mckay who bundled the ball home. 

 

Partick were much reduced as an attacking force in the second half. I can't recall any real chances for them although Taylor was denied a goal again this time by the assistants flag as he had strayed offside. Despite the away side being somewhat more toothless it was stil a nervy end to the game for ICT.

 

Hopefully now Hughes will persist with the more settled 4-2-3-1 style that the team are so used to. If he is desperate to change the style we play then I hope that he waits until the end of the season because the team just doesn't seem ready for it just now. It's really disrupted us recently and could, come the seasons end, be looked upon as a major reason for missing out on the League Cup and / or a place in Europe.

Edited March 23, 201411 yr by RiG