THE MATCHDAY THREAD Discuss ICT & other games in this thread as they happen Inverness CT -V- St Mirren PREVIEW 29th 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 SPFL Official Site ESPN BBC SKY Sporting Life VIDEO SPFL YouTube Channel ICT Official YouTube Channel   TEAM LINEUPS

I agree. I thought Meekings was a merited red card under the rules as they stand.

Someone help me out here. There must be at least one reason which justifies Vincent's selection (compounded by playing him out wide)? Is anonomous for most of every game he has played in.

....was he not JH's first re-signing?

I think Vincent has something to offer, but not out wide and not as part of a 5 man narrow midfield!

I think Danny Williams was Hughes first re signing?

IHE ? Planning for next season why? Because we played a refreshing team which included three young inverness lads - who contributed more than our 'more experienced' senior players (Meeking,Vincent,Draper). The back four were at sixes and sevens from the off but seem untouchable in terms of team selection. (Have a look at our goals for/against column lately).

Kingsmills - negativity seems to be your forte but not a word of positivity. And that goes for Macduffer too.

 Having been at the game I was more than delighted to see Polworth and Christie starting and even more so as the game progressed and both contributed to most of our good play. Surely these guys have to figure from the start in our remaining fixtures.

Delighted to see the two young local lads get a game and hold their own. Mckay NOT running on empty in my opinion, he is getting very few penalty box opportunities and that's where he scores from. For example today Shinnie lashes out a shot from an impossible angle in the second half when a square ball across the 6 yard line would have given Billy a tap in.

Meekings is running on empty however. He is an excellent young talent but I for one thinks he needs the break he is now going to get.

IHE ? Planning for next season why? Because we played a refreshing team which included three young inverness lads - who contributed more than our 'more experienced' senior players (Meeking,Vincent,Draper). The back four were at sixes and sevens from the off but seem untouchable in terms of team selection. (Have a look at our goals for/against column lately).

Kingsmills - negativity seems to be your forte but not a word of positivity. And that goes for Macduffer too.

Having been at the game I was more than delighted to see Polworth and Christie starting and even more so as the game progressed and both contributed to most of our good play. Surely these guys have to figure from the start in our remaining fixtures.

You say look at our goals for and against column, well it is 37/32, no worse than Motherwell 51/46 and Dundee U 57/38 so it is upfront that our problems lie, our against column is better than 2teams above us, in fact our against column is better than every club bar Aberdeen and Celtic so they can't be as bad as you make out.

IHE ? Planning for next season why? Because we played a refreshing team which included three young inverness lads - who contributed more than our 'more experienced' senior players (Meeking,Vincent,Draper). The back four were at sixes and sevens from the off but seem untouchable in terms of team selection. (Have a look at our goals for/against column lately).

Kingsmills - negativity seems to be your forte but not a word of positivity. And that goes for Macduffer too.

 Having been at the game I was more than delighted to see Polworth and Christie starting and even more so as the game progressed and both contributed to most of our good play. Surely these guys have to figure from the start in our remaining fixtures.

Rimet, I really, really want to be positive - and it's great to see Polworth and Christie given a go - they've earned it, and they did well.

But it's so frustrating when we can't beat the second bottom team at home, because players are players are played out of position, and we use a stodgy style of play and system that has no width and no pace.  Don't you think the 'roll your sleeves up' mentality is negative?  i'd rather tactical awareness than passion and assorted cliches any day of the week.

Mahonio - please read what I said! (our goals for/against LATELY)! I can also study league tables so far this season but that has little relevance to our latest team shape and performances.

There is no doubt that our recent attacking play has lacked fruition but surely this lends itself even more to giving other players the chance to impress? And our 'regular' back four have been particularly weak of late and were very average today!.

Macduffer - I actually detest the 'rolled up sleeves' attitude and relate this to much of why Scottish football is light years behind our European counterparts but your desire for 'tactical awareness' is extremely idealistic and certainly was not of great relevance to our early season successes! I am delighted that you wish to be positive but this seasons' early success was certainly not based on tactical awareness nor stunning managerial prowess! Surely the emergence of an organised and structured Aberdeen/Dundee United are more relative?

For me today I took great pleasure out of the fact that we played two young home grown lads who performed reasonably well and might turn out to be huge successes at the club.

What about brill? Made an excellent save in 2nd half but generally looks completely lacking in confidence. His kicking is absolutely woeful. Our team really has self destructed.

Collum I believe holds about 70percent of our red cards .does anyone have the stats .?surely it is worth pointing this out to the Spfl just to confirm we are not getting a fair crack of the whip

Did we deserve 3 points - maybe!!

 

Not sure where you're getting your stats from, rocky1! The reality is quite different. Here are the stats for every referee who's sent off an Inverness player in all competitions since (and including) our first SPL season. We've had 45 red cards, of which Collum is now responsible for 4.

 

Note, some of these refs are now retired. (names in brackets). Iain Brines seems to be our 'favoured' ref with just 1 red card issued in 24 games. Collum had been top of the list with 1 red in 28 Inverness games prior to his last 2 games officiating us!

 

The columns (no pun intended) are: number of games - number of red cards - frequency (number of games per red card)

Positives from yesterday?

1. Ryan Christie.

2. Our second goal.

3. The final whistle.

4. Marley getting on.

Negatives

1. James Vincent - a passenger for the last 8/9 games. Why oh why is he still in the team?

2. Watkins and Ross not getting a start ahead of Vincent.

3. Our back four ball watching.

4. Taking off Ryan Christie.

5. Yogi's tactics and the system, which most of the players haven't cottoned on to yet.

I could go on with a huge list of negatives but the biggest of all was that over officious little tw#t, Willie Colon. He just has to jump in quick even before a foul is committed. Every time he is up here I lose my voice shouting at him.

Edited March 30, 201411 yr by Row S

Vincent is being hung out to dry by Hughes continuing to try and play him wide on the left. The sooner this stops and he gets moved in to the middle the better. That's where we will see the best of him.

hislopsoffsideagain, I hope you have the necessary badges and experience to manage an SPL team. If you have, did you apply in November? If you have, why was Yogi chosen ahead of you?

Secondly, I'm certainly not a friend of Willie Collum, but he's not to blame for this Red Card. While Shinnie may have a point, 49 out of 50 refs opt for red in this situation.

Thirdly, I agree with those who say that Billy Mckay needs a rest. The alternatives: A false 9, as we say in Germany, played by Christie, Foran (if fit) or even Tansey, or give Adam Evans a chance.

hislopsoffsideagain, I hope you have the necessary badges and experience to manage an SPL team. If you have, did you apply in November? If you have, why was Yogi chosen ahead of you?

Secondly, I'm certainly not a friend of Willie Collum, but he's not to blame for this Red Card. While Shinnie may have a point, 49 out of 50 refs opt for red in this situation.

Thirdly, I agree with those who say that Billy Mckay needs a rest. The alternatives: A false 9, as we say in Germany, played by Christie, Foran (if fit) or even Tansey, or give Adam Evans a chance.

 

Does one now require coaching badges to offer an opinion ?

hislopsoffsideagain, I hope you have the necessary badges and experience to manage an SPL team. If you have, did you apply in November? If you have, why was Yogi chosen ahead of you?

I don't know either.  Is it too late to get hislopoffsideagain as manager?  Seems to know a bit more about the way ICT should play than the current numptie.

Just watched the highlights. Not convinced at all about the red card for Meekings. I think that Shinnie has gained enough ground to cover the touch away from goal to mean that it isn't a clear goal scoring opportunity. 

IHE ? Planning for next season why? Because we played a refreshing team which included three young inverness lads - who contributed more than our 'more experienced' senior players (Meeking,Vincent,Draper). The back four were at sixes and sevens from the off but seem untouchable in terms of team selection. (Have a look at our goals for/against column lately).

Kingsmills - negativity seems to be your forte but not a word of positivity. And that goes for Macduffer too.

 Having been at the game I was more than delighted to see Polworth and Christie starting and even more so as the game progressed and both contributed to most of our good play. Surely these guys have to figure from the start in our remaining fixtures.

I wasn't exactly criticising as in many ways the yoof have to be tested. BUT my point caller is that the psyche suggests that we have basically given up on this season and preparing for the next. In my view that is unfair on the paying public.

 

Carry on moaning...................... Is that a film title? should be .....cast available.

 

Would you suggest that those of us who are alarmed at just how quickly things have gone downhill in the last few months pretend to be happy or would you be satisfied if we merely kept quiet and left the forum to the happy clappers ?

 

 

No i do not suggest any such thing, but I do suggest a bit more realistic approach should be  made instead of all this negative stuff that is being poured out time and time again by the negativateers it is boring, non-constructive and giving ammunition to all the other clubs' supporters. what happened to the togetherness attitude and the backing the club through thick and thin. We have been extremely unfortunate over the last number of games we could have won every single game....we didn't I know that but it wasn't for the want of trying................. Now you try being a bit more positive before bitterness sets in, you may enjoy your football more.

This forum isn't supposed to be a cheerleaders convention.  I'll support the players through thick and thin - but the boss has to be accountable.  Otherwise we'd still have Fred the Shred in charge of RBS....

As soon as I saw the team sheet yesterday I just knew we were going to make a chore of it. Yogi has 3 perfectly good wingers in the squad, all of whom he leaves on the bench in favour of 2 extra centre mids with both spending next to no time on the wings. Add that to 2 more displays of woeful defending and another home game without a win.

 

I really do want Yogi to do well here but all this talk on winning ugly, and making such blatantly wrong moves with the midfield is getting more and more frustrating by the week. I said it mid week and I will say it again, we have the players and the understanding to go out and attack teams, we were doing it with success and confidence at the start of the season, but the wherewithal to have a go just isnt there anymore, maybe theyre burnt out, maybe they dont understand what theyre being told to do but we are under no pressure now for the rest of the season, we should be having a go, there is no excuse for it.

 

The inclusion of Ryan Christie was a bright spark to the day, a few nervous touches aside he didnt look out of place, got past players, tried to carve out openings, definitely more to come from this lad, Polworth had his moments too, great cross to Billy to set up the 2nd goal.

 

Willie Collum never helps, havent seen the red card but Shinnie did look to be covering, though given the size of Magennis and the speed he was going at he would probably have bench pressed Shinnie as well. Can see why Deek over the bridge is seething with Goodwin, got away with everything yesterday, Collum must have feared a damning review from him on Sportscene. 

 

Just want this season to end now.

Tremarco In at left back and Shinnie wide left.

Just watched the highlights. Not convinced at all about the red card for Meekings. I think that Shinnie has gained enough ground to cover the touch away from goal to mean that it isn't a clear goal scoring opportunity. 

 

Just watched the highlights. Not convinced at all about the red card for Meekings. I think that Shinnie has gained enough ground to cover the touch away from goal to mean that it isn't a clear goal scoring opportunity. 

I haven't seen the highlights, but it looked to me from the back row of the north stand that Shinnie had this covered! 

Team selection was positive in the selection of Christie & Polworth, more than happy to see these guys get game time.

 

The defence is worrying though, the pressure is telling every time we get a pass back now you feel the worst. 

Along with the St Mirren 2nd goal I feel the defenders are not so confident with Deano compared to start of season. They seem to be caught in two minds a lot, shall I pass back or hoof it out.

 

They were all so strong & positive at the start of season and need to get that vibe back asap.

 

Games are coming so thick & fast at this end of the season, we don't have the flexibility I think to rest so called key players.

Worth the appeal for meekings?? if not does he miss the motherwell and county game

For me, the team is basically running on empty in many positions just now. Mackay for one looks dead on his feet and maybe Meekings/Vincent as well. Again, it has to be remembered that several of these players are probably playing their first full season at this level and may now just be starting to struggle so giving them a rest and playing other players may ne necessity IHE, not giving up on the season.

 

I thought the changes yesterday gave us more energy and pace in the team and we looked well worth the 2-1 lead. However, when Tansey went off, we definitely started to sit back, again is that due to tiredness, either mentally or physically, I don't know. Sending off did alter things although I thought Watkins did okay playing at centre forward and worth a try to give Billy a rest. For those moaning about having 2 wingers and not playing them, Watkins and Williams, lets be honest, neither of them have really set the heather on fire recently when given the chance so I think the suggestion that playing both of them would be beneficial us not proven by the evidence.

 

I know I will be shot down in flames now but some posters but I think some of the postings just now are amongst the most negative I have seen on this site, and this is causing division amongst posters on the site. It seems to be that those posters who did not want Hughes are seeking any and every opportunity to be negative, that is their right, but this is not helping. Had anyone suggested the current scenario for ICT at the start of the season, Top 6 and reaching a cup final, we would all have grabbed that with both hands. Yes it has gone a bit pear shaped but let's not kid ourselves, we have been punching above our weight and it is now coming home to roost.

It seems to be that those posters who did not want Hughes are seeking any and every opportunity to be negative

Nonsense.  Everyone negative (such as myself) would loved to have Hughes to succeed.  But it hasn't and his background suggests nothing better.  It's either accept that or want a change before the damage is permanent.

 

Had anyone suggested the current scenario for ICT at the start of the season, Top 6 and reaching a cup final, we would all have grabbed that with both hands. Yes it has gone a bit pear shaped

But it's not the start of the season.  How has Yogi done since he came in?  We wouldn't be in the top six based on those results. His record also suggests that we will struggle next season too.  This is on the basis of keeping our current squad - you know, the one we were desperate to re-sign as they got us to second.  Next year, I expect a struggle with relegation, purely down to tactics.  Not the squad's ability.

 

we have been punching above our weight and it is now coming home to roost.

Why did we hire a manager then if he has no effect on the team? If it's some natural up and down, then save the salary.  The fact is, manager are supposed to improve the team.  Otherwise, it's pointless having one.