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Play Off Decider


Robert

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1 hour ago, WYNESS101 said:

Cup final or not.

We need a massive overhaul in the summer...yes that means Esson, Wilson and Kel. Maybe changing managers isn't the issue with the club but having the same backroom staff is?

Totally agree. Needs a complete overhaul and fresh approach 

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Absolute disaster of a night, no competitive football for a month and we are expected to turn up and give Celtic a game ,wtf. They have now 5 warm up games while we just kick our heels.

Tonight was a huge let down for a decent crowd and all the momentum we had built up over the last couple of weeks just evaporated in a terrible 90 minutes.

If you asked any ICTfan who would you take in the last game of the season (at home) Ayr would have been up there. But for some reason tonight we bottled it, big style. 2 maybe 3 shots on target in a must win game ....not good enough.

 

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Gutted! Never at the races tonight. Dodds set us up all wrong and played right into their hands.Too many players off colour tonight too.  We then ran out of luck. Their first goal looked offside. Our chalked off goal was onside. But in the end it didn't matter. 

Yes I'm singing now IHE.....

 

As for above I agree re a clearout but I'd keep Ryan Esson as he does fabulous work with the goalies and more importantly the U18s. 

What a disappointing night and quite the comedown from last Saturday. 

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2 minutes ago, forresjags said:

Absolute disaster of a night, no competitive football for a month and we are expected to turn up and give Celtic a game ,wtf. They have now 5 warm up games while we just kick our heels.

Tonight was a huge let down for a decent crowd and all the momentum we had built up over the last couple of weeks just evaporated in a terrible 90 minutes.

If you asked any ICTfan who would you take in the last game of the season (at home) Ayr would have been up there. But for some reason tonight we bottled it, big style. 2 maybe 3 shots on target in a must win game ....not good enough.

 

First half I would say we were terrified to run at Ayr, players would stop and either cut inside or play it back to defense

2nd half was better as we were willing to run at them, create overlaps and chase down long balls. The issue was floated crosses don't work well with the strikers we have, we need to cut to the byline and drill balls across goal

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I missed the first 20 minutes as it took 105 minutes to get from Perth City Centre to the A9 courtesy of those blasted roadworks. Don’t think I missed much though!

I thought the Ayr goal was offside but tight: need to see it again.

I was proud of the guys after the break. Some were dead on their feet but gave it 100% and I think that’s why Allardice and Welsh were subbed. Devine was struggling before the break so I assume was injured.

The introduction of Carson and Samuels changed things, as Shaw was excellent in the wide role and Carson showed why he’s really a central midfielder.

I hoped we’d kick on and get a winner but Ayr caught us, despite seeming happy to play down the clock at 1-1.

I thought Samuels was onside when he “equalised” but it was too little too late anyway.

A rollercoaster of a season.

Should we have done better in the league: yes.

Did injuries impact our position: undoubtedly.

Did our tactics let us down: yes, particularly “hoofball”.

Have we a great group of players who give 100% and deserve praise: yes.

Roll on the cup final. I expect a heavy defeat but in a one off game anything can happen.

Hopefully planning is taking place for next season as we will have quite a bit of rebuilding to do, on and possibly off the park.

 

 

 

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4 minutes ago, old caley girl said:

Gutted! Never at the races tonight. Dodds set us up all wrong and played right into their hands.Too many players off colour tonight too.  We then ran out of luck. Their first goal looked offside. Our chalked off goal was onside. But in the end it didn't matter. 

Yes I'm singing now IHE.....

 

As for above I agree re a clearout but I'd keep Ryan Esson as he does fabulous work with the goalies and more importantly the U18s. 

What a disappointing night and quite the comedown from last Saturday. 

Yes, I'd keep Ryan, his reputation is growing.

We were in line with the build up to their goal and it did look offside, the assistant ref was behind the play, but there were some really bad decisions from the officials tonight, but it was the wrong lineup, wrong formation and wrong tactics, but it had been happening all season.

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Tonight was the story of our  season. Didn't turn up for half of it, then when we did finally get ourselves into a position to progress we left it too little too late !

Most disappointing thing is that this was the 'easiest' Championship for years and we've finished 6th!! 

Time for major changes methinks (though that'll be happening anyway as most of the squad are out of contract). Bit of a worry as to where we go from here. We don't have the means to spend our way to promotion so need to get lucky with new signings/new management? Don't think I can take another season of some of the square-passing pedestrian turgid pish we've been served up this season. We must be more imaginative and much faster. 

 

Really hope we don't play like we did first half tonight in the cup final, or it could be extremely embarrassing!

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Not much to add but very disappointed we only turned up in the second half which was too late and I am sure the additional support there tonight won't bother coming back.  We seem to be stuck with the management team as the board and Chief Executive won't make any changes for next season.  I just hope we can hold on to some of our better players.

We will have a slight advantage over Celtic for the cup final as we won't be playing for them to come and watch us :wink:

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Fair effort in the end to keep the season alive in the league. Great run to bring it to this stage when we looked completely out of it at the start of the year. Injuries, Hamilton and Dodds have done us in the end. We can now look forward to the Highland Derby next season...as well as Hamilton...:ponder:

No game now until the pre-season friendly with Celtic at Hampden Park on Sat 3 June in the blazing heat of the mid-day sun...oh...wait...make that the late afternoon sun. Quite how Mr Dodds and his merry men will prepare the team for this without any game time remains to be seen. Mon the Caley Jags - unbeaten in Scottish Cup Finals. :ictscarf:

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10 hours ago, robbylad said:

Who was the guy that Dodds took such exception  to near the end? Had a right old ding dong. Dodds was clearly  raging with him. Couldn't  make out what was said sadly.

Is it this?

Screenshot_20230506_090511_Twitter.jpg

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We know that the club overspent by around £800k chasing promotion in 21/22.  Who knows how much we've overspent by in the past 12 months failing at the same thing.

Club debts were sitting at near £2 Million 12 months ago and could easily have increased by another million by now.

Cup money might wipe out losses from the last 12 months, but the way we're operating is not sustainable and we're likely in a worse state now than when we had to sell everything to keep the club going...and we don't have near as many assets this time around.

If that's the cost of having Dodds trying to achieve promotion, then the football arguments don't matter as we simply can't afford it.

Let's bring in a manager/head coach that doesn't need the massive coaching staff, the sports scientists, the video analysts, sporting director etc that probably account for half of those £800k losses.

Let's get rid of the CEO who's running things this way while we're at it.

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Ayr fully deserved that win last night. All over us from the get go and looked better all over the pitch for most of the game. We did get on top for a period in the second half but even then they still looked a threat on the break. Thought at the time the opener may have been offside but the videos above clearly show he was on. 

Bizarre from Dodds to watch us shell long balls forward to Mckay (but most of the time it was no one) and think this was okay. So many players fell flat at a time when we needed them. Worst was Allardice who had an absolute nuke of a performance. Taking on Woods instead of Doran was laughable. Just more bizarre Dodds moments that sum up our season.

As I've said before results recently have been good but performances have been poor for a good number of weeks. We were able to shitfest our way past jobbers like Cove but when a decent team like Ayr comes along we're found wanting.

The league next season could be the most difficult in a while and it's hard not to feel we've missed our best chances to get out of here now. 

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11 hours ago, robbylad said:

Who was the guy that Dodds took such exception  to near the end? Had a right old ding dong. Dodds was clearly  raging with him. Couldn't  make out what was said sadly.

The guy in question was sat near me and was pissed and hurling abuse through the game. At one point guy sat in front of him complained due to spit from his vitriol landing on his head; made no difference and he continued. Completely out of order. As the game was finishing he went down to the pitch where he must have given some of his abuse to Dodds; who in the tense finish to the game has reacted. The abusive individual was 100% out of order; no excuse at all for that behaviour. An extremely bad example to all ICT fans. 

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I am going to stick by Dodds in starting the same 11 as the cup semi-final. Can I pose some important questions - Did we "hoof" the ball to wee Billy anymore than we did at Hampden ? I note that Allardice had an off day - has he not been the rock in the midfield ? was his form a big negative last night ? Welsh was struggling at the end of the Hamilton and Hampden games ? How did he look last night ? Would you have started Carson in midfield in preference to either Allardice and Welsh ? Would starting Carson at right back been more effective / Would that have been fair on either Duffy or Harper ? I agree that Shaw is a more effective winger but would you have dropped either Danny MacKay or Henderson to start Shaw in that decision ? SO was it the formation or was it the players who failed - or both ? Were the changes made in the second half positive and understandable ? Would you have kicked off if you had been heckled ? Was that not borne out of the same disappointment and frustration as felt in the stands ? Does this defeat wipe out the performances and results achieved in the last couple of months ? If somebody said to you in February that we would be in with a play off chance in the last game of the season would you have laughed ? Would you have believed that we would be in the Scottish Cup Final and playing Celtic ?

Now I do think that Robbo and Dodds need to go and we need a manager with a different style and approach. That may be the only way that we keep some of the current squad and attract newbies. Jettisoning Scott Gardner does not make any sense but does he have the tackle to jettison Dodds and Robbo. Simply offer them a lesser contract and refuse BBC release.

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6 minutes ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

I am going to stick by Dodds in starting the same 11 as the cup semi-final. Can I pose some important questions - Did we "hoof" the ball to wee Billy anymore than we did at Hampden ? I note that Allardice had an off day - has he not been the rock in the midfield ? was his form a big negative last night ? Welsh was struggling at the end of the Hamilton and Hampden games ? How did he look last night ? Would you have started Carson in midfield in preference to either Allardice and Welsh ? Would starting Carson at right back been more effective / Would that have been fair on either Duffy or Harper ? I agree that Shaw is a more effective winger but would you have dropped either Danny MacKay or Henderson to start Shaw in that decision ? SO was it the formation or was it the players who failed - or both ? Were the changes made in the second half positive and understandable ? Would you have kicked off if you had been heckled ? Was that not borne out of the same disappointment and frustration as felt in the stands ? Does this defeat wipe out the performances and results achieved in the last couple of months ? If somebody said to you in February that we would be in with a play off chance in the last game of the season would you have laughed ? Would you have believed that we would be in the Scottish Cup Final and playing Celtic ?

Now I do think that Robbo and Dodds need to go and we need a manager with a different style and approach. That may be the only way that we keep some of the current squad and attract newbies. Jettisoning Scott Gardner does not make any sense but does he have the tackle to jettison Dodds and Robbo. Simply offer them a lesser contract and refuse BBC release.

Is that not his job though IHE? I think by putting same team out we played straight into Ayr's hands? It was too predictable. 

I'd have put Carson in for Duffy. I'd have had Doran on from start and yes Dan Mckay on bench as when game changed he was already off but it was crying out for a player like him. I can forgive Allardyce he just had a bad day at office performance. Shaw is not a number 10. He is a wide player who happens to be able to play No10 sometimes. 

I'm rambling here but I'm so disappointed. A big crowd there and we lose a lot of newbies again I bet. I'm also concerned re the long break till the final. Makes it even harder now. Seriously could cry this morning with frustration and disappointment. 

Been a horrible season again and my preference would be for changes in the management team but doubt that's going to happen. 

Do we renew our STs? Honestly I don't know at moment. 

 

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Anyone put themselves through the post match interview? Don't agree with most of what Dodds said, it's been another big missed chance instead of a good season. Claimed he wanted to make changes before half time, but thought he'd see if we'd sneak to HT 0-0. To me that's him all over, make changes too late, it's a must win, last game of the season, if it's not working then change it immediately!

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Just now, mazza20 said:

Anyone put themselves through the post match interview? Don't agree with most of what Dodds said, it's been another big missed chance instead of a good season. Claimed he wanted to make changes before half time, but thought he'd see if we'd sneak to HT 0-0. To me that's him all over, make changes too late, it's a must win, last game of the season, if it's not working then change it immediately!

I just can't bring myself to watch it! 

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Afraid that Dodds is in a no win situation as armchair managers all have their own visions and views. I dont think that Carson is a full/wing back and he is more effective in the middle of the park. Danny MacKay would not be my choice but he was MOM in the semi final so why bench him. Doran to me has become a last 20-30 minute substitute. Dodds was right to consider hooking people early doors but I suspect that he may have been worried about the vitriol that would have incurred. I thought that his post match interview was acceptable and that he did take a degree of the blame.

Anyway answer my questions with an honest yes or no - based on before the match started.

The bottom line surely must lie with another question - IF YOU were Billy Dodds would you be staying ??

My response would be "no feckin way".

But it is not just Dodds that needs to go and some of the others will stay blaming him.

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2 hours ago, jed5697 said:

The guy in question was sat near me and was pissed and hurling abuse through the game. At one point guy sat in front of him complained due to spit from his vitriol landing on his head; made no difference and he continued. Completely out of order. As the game was finishing he went down to the pitch where he must have given some of his abuse to Dodds; who in the tense finish to the game has reacted. The abusive individual was 100% out of order; no excuse at all for that behaviour. An extremely bad example to all ICT fans. 

Tell Scotty he can pick a seat next season in the North Stand. They will be plenty of freed up spaces!!! He’ll have some stiff competition thou in the Pi55ed and vitriol contest!! 

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Fair play for a great effort to get into the position we were in last night despite the disappointing outcome - 8 weeks ago I thought there was more chance of us being in a dogfight last night with Arbroath, Cove and the Accies!

A missed opporchancity without a doubt for many reasons this season with most of them being homemade. 

 I agree with IHE that everyone probably need the 4 weeks of rest before the cup final and during that time a start can be made to sort out and clear out before we go again next season - coz that ain’t gonna be a walk in the park by any means!

 

 

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Six league wins at home all season all season (nine way). That's largely where we lost it. Our home form has been really poor for the last few seasons.

Frustrating as despite the really poor standard of all teams, we were still only a handful of points away from top.

Agree that big changes are needed : we trip ourselves up far too often.

 

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