ST MIRREN V ICT

[kencar]

A couple of wins and we'll be back in mid table mediocrity  :022:

The real problem is where these wins will come from we've now lost to 2 out of our 3 relegation rivals  :rolleyes02:

[CaleyJags07]

Outplayed by St Mirren... St Mirren also had 2 very good chances to add to their tally. This is absolutey sh**e CC. 3 games gone, 7 conceded 2 scored. ICT are now bottom of the SPL. If Caley keep turning in these results then we are in for a long long season...

[CaleyD]

It's points on the board that count but that doesn't mean we don't have any positives to take from today.

St Mirren only had 6 shots at goal today which suggest that our back line aren't making too many errors (they are hoever being punished for the ones they do make)

We had 20 shots on goal today 0 of those were on target and a few others were pretty close.

On another day we could have easily been looking at a score of the proportions seen at Ibrox today in our favour.

No yellow cards suggests our players are keeping their composure.

We went to 3 at the back with 20 minutes to go - this suggested CC had some confidence in the defense and we held out pretty well for the remainder of the game (apart from Keane missing the empty net) and this may give CC the confidence to try this tactic more often.

At least the Supporters Bus that broke down got to see what sounded like the more exciting half  :017:

[SMEE]

On another day .

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I posted this on footballs most hated phrases thread :015:

[+Tree]

Its been said by many before, but until we replace Caff we will continue to ship goals.

This reminds me of our first season prior to Dods coming in!

[EWS]

To whoever said that we were out played by St Mirren is wrong.  St Mirren had 4 chances.  They scored from two.  The first goal came from a mistake from Hastings and Rosscoe, the second came from us not being able to defend a long ball down the middle.  Our goal came from nowhere.

We need to sort out our defence, it was a shambles.  Why wasn't Watt playing or on the bench?  What is Charlie doing?  Does he have a clue?  Black off?  Mistake.  Bayne was knackered after 60 minutes and played 90.  He wasn't in it at all.

I'm sorry to say but I think this is going to be the season that Charlie will be found out.

Niculae is going to be a class act, we will be lucky to hold him past this season.

We have no organistation and I don't think that Charlie is going to be able to sort it out.  There were so many faults today, and if we cannot beat this St Mirren team (who weren't up to much) then we are getting relegated.  I'm sure that IHE will elaborate on my points.

Safe to say that I am disappointed that we lost today against a sub standard St Mirren side.  However, thank **** that we aren't Flakirk.

[caley100]

Defence is a bit of a worry the noo, heard Parkies interview on the radio he said that we are pushing forward more this season thus giving more space for our opposition to use.... theres me thinking it was just Caff and Hastings being crap!

Have to say, thats 3 games in the trot that Hastings has been at fault for a goal, we need a new left back, and we need this guy Watt to play instead of Caff.

[EWS]

Caff was our best defender.

[SMEE]

I thought Hastings was, for the most part, Rock solid last season and one of the most consistant peformers?

[EWS]

Hastings has been poor so far this season.

[davieB]

Caff was easily our best defender today. Time after time he was the one making last ditch tackles. For all those saying he's the weak link, then all I can say, having seen all three games this season, is that Munro/Hastings/Roscoe have for the most part been pish themselves. Tokely was awful AGAIN today.

We just seem completely disorganised all over the park. It;s leadership we're missing. From what I've seen so far, Munro isn't a captain. And it seems to be affecting his game badly.

I was impressed with Cowie again today. And I thought Blackie was our MOM....so why was he replaced? Duncan was average, Rankin was *****.

I said after last week that Niculae needs someone with pace playing off him. That isn't Bayne!! Bayne is an average forward, that's all. Why did we sign McDonald if he's going to sit on the bench each week? He was the one in form pre-season, yet he's not started a game yet. Niculae can win the ball in the air, hold it up, and add a touch of class with it.....we don't need him and Bayne up front. All we did today was continually hump the ball high to them,  on the rare occasion we put it out to the flanks we actually looked decent.

Niculae looks class, his run, and cross for Cowies goal was superb.

Disappointing to lose to a poor St. Mirren team. If CC doesn't get us organised sharply, it could be a loooooooong season.

Oh aye, what the feck was all that traffic in Glasgow about?????????

[EWS]

They are resurficing the M8 which is causing massive tail backs.  It was due to finish this morning, but as you can tell they didn't.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

FRASER  :011: :011: :011: Blameless again for the goals - need to see the second again tho - so frustrating how he stays on his line at dead ball situations.

TOKELY  :011: :011: :011: Pretty good game. Always made himself available. Terrible lapse of concentration for the first goal.

HASTINGS  :023:  Has evidently lost his confidence. Got a few more bollockings today. Hooked !!

CAFF  :001: :001: He just isnt up to it - a shadow of the player 3 seasons ago. Appeared to have been told to stay stuck in the middle of the defence and to pass it as quickly as possible to the nearest person available. That made him look a bit better although. to be fair, he did put a few good tackles in.

GRANTY  :001: :001: :001:  Tries and tries. Fairly solid as ever but is he trying too hard or is it that he is too busy looking after and covering fer Caff and Hastings. I would seriously relieve him of the captaincy.

COWIE  :011: :011: :011: :011:  My MOM - not difficult tho !!  Another engine like McBain with a fair bit of skill and pace attached. Brilliant run fer the goal. BUT where was he supposed to be playing - it certainly wasnt right feckin midfield.

DUNCAN  :011: :011: :011: Solid enuff but was practically the playmaker for long spells. Sprayed balls a la Ray "The Crab" Wilkin.

BLACK  :011: :011: :011:  Made mega space today and  got a lot of passes to his feet which he dealt well with. Appeared to be playing to far forward - almost off the front two. I have never seen him do that before so I take it that it was tactical. Hooking him was ridiculous.

RANKIN  :011: :011: :011: So promising but fails to deliver - what a waste of a sweet left foot. Actually lookede the part at left back.  :024:

BAYNE  :011: :011: The target man - which basically meant that we had no threat going forward as his touches were either going back into midfiel or into Midden territory.

NICULAE  :023: Not feckin impressed at all. I will deal with him elsewhere.  :008:

To be honest as EWS said Midden were garbage and they still deserved to beat us. We played well in spells but we are toatally devoid of ideas 30 yards out. We had no width and everything was going to Bayne and Niculae. Bazza did make a bit of a difference but this was the day to try Zander. Wyness should have been on a lot earlier. The never ending change of the system in the second half evidently showed that panic was setting in. Every time Midden broke ya felt our defence was leaky. Bayne + Niculae doesnt feckin work. Am I pissed off or what ?

[EWS]

IHE I thought that Niculae looked allright with his fitness to the end, however  I though that it was Bayne that struggled.  It seemed that at the 60 minute mark he just lost interest and couldn't be bothered.  As someone sitting behind me said ' We have got the wrong Bayne back.'  This was a different Bayne, one who wasn't busting his gut for our team.  The workhorse has gone.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Bayne was played to accomodate Niculae. When did you see Niculae busting a gut to get into the box, going out wide to make space, speeding back to cover. Fer fecks sake he has his white boots and perm to consider.

[EWS]

Aye, I notice that he was always tieing his shoes.  I thought that Bayne should have been hooked quite early, even for Rory (steady) though my friend did point this out.

Barry was due to come on just before we got the goal.  Then Charlie changed his minds, surely the goal didn't really change much and he should have come on then instead of 10 minutes time.  CC can't make subs, a problem I brought up last year.  I'm losing patience.

[tm4tj]

We really should have taken something from this game. For all our huffing and puffing it was St Mirren who had two clear chances to kill the game. One header in the second half downward and bounced high and wide when a goal seemed easier and at the death when they rounded the keeper and stroked the ball wide, a bad miss for them. We on the other hand could not muster any real clean chances on target despite dominating most of the proceedings. Bayne hit a ferocious shot in the first half which would have screamed into the net had it been a yard either side, unfortunately it was straight at the keeper from the edge of the box. He headed one just over in the second half but his contribution otherwise was not enough. Hastings was not tight enough and poor in the air, Tokely was caught out for the first goal, a long crossfield ball floating over his head, he will be disappointed by that but he did well apart from that error. Grantie and Caff I thought looked better today, with Caff having the best game out of the back four. Russell Duncan continues to give the ball away, but counteracts that with some great play. I also thought Rankin had a better game than the Gers one, not too difficult though. Black was decent and kept his cool.  Cowie was my MoM, grafting hard and making a great penalty box run to slide the ball home from Niculae's excellent cross, he new exactly where and when Cowie was.

I will stick up for Marius here, I thought he did a great shift and a lot of shutting down defenders and running down the keeper stuff.  If I have any complaint it seemed he is over eager to please and shot fist time on a couple of occasions when he could maybe have taken a touch or two, however he can put himself about and worked the Bayne shift pretty well, the goals will come.  Bayne, yes unfortunately it was my comment, he looks a shadow of the player we saw before. Maybe the competition is getting to him.

I thought this game was tailor made for Zander, soaking wet pitch, skin them on the wings, alas he never got on. Our Canadian International better buck up or we will be in trouble, he has gone from hero to zero in a few months and was guilty of causing our defence a few problems.

Overall, we should not have lost this game with the amount of ball we had, we played pretty good for long spells, but the killer touch is still lacking. Both their goals were poor defensively, even the shot for the first looked saveable, the second happened at the opposite end but we looked far from convincing when the cross came in. We will play worse and win but we need to sort it out quickly because the games are not getting any easier over the next few weeks. 

This week has come and gone and we are still pointless, therefore next weeks home game is getting to the stage of a must win scenario for the two games after that are tough away days.

[CaleyD]

Is all the extra games Hastings played during the summer catching up with him?

Has playing at Centre Back for Canada caused the issue where he seems to drift in and give players too much space out wide?

Does he have half an eye on the upcoming International Friendlies?

Discuss..........

[chris123]

If I hadnt known better, on todays preformance I thought that Caff looked the expirienced spl defender and Grant looked like the player that had just recently been thrown in at the deep end.

I thought Niculae looked far superior to any player on the park, with the exception of Blackie who I really think is quite the talent.

I actually thought that Niculae showed real drive and determination to win, chasing up ever ball that went out of play to try and get the game going quicker.

[kencar]

Hastings has been poor so far this season.

I wonder if thats anything to do with the fact he had only 2 weeks off in the summer due to playing for Canada in the gold cup  :rolleyes02: FFS really it shouldn't come as any surprise he's knackered Thierry Henry basically had a season off after the world cup due to fatigue. We have no defensive cover. We have signed a defender who has basically no first team experience

[davieB]

If I hadnt known better, on todays preformance I thought that Caff looked the expirienced spl defender and Grant looked like the player that had just recently been thrown in at the deep end.

I thought Niculae looked far superior to any player on the park, with the exception of Blackie who I really think is quite the talent.

I actually thought that Niculae showed real drive and determination to win, chasing up ever ball that went out of play to try and get the game going quicker.

Spot on :022:

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

This all reminds me of a song that Ray Stevens once crooned to me called "Everything is beautiful". The serenading words now, on perusing this thread, make total sense - "There is none so blind as he who will not see. We must not close our minds; we must let our thoughts be free."

[tm4tj]

or in your case The Streak

Hello everybody, this is your action news reporter

With all the news that is news across the nation

On the scene at the Football Stadium

There seems to have been some disturbance here

Pardon me sir, did you see what happened?

Yeh, I did...I was standing over there by the pies

And here he come

Running thru the away terrace, threw the fruit and vegetables

Naked as a jay-bird

And I hollered over at Ethel...Isaid don't look Ethel

It was too late, she'd already been incensed...

[Chorus:]

Here he comes, boogie-dy, boogie-dy

There he goes, boogie-dy, boogie-dy

And he ain't wearin' no clothes

Oh yes, they call him the streak

Fastest thing on two feet

He's just as proud as he can be

Of his anatomy

He's gonna give us a peek

Oh yes, they call him the streak

He likes to show off his physique

If there's an audience to be found

He'll be streakin' around

Invitin' public critique......................

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

:rotflmao: You really are improving. As I said to ya nothing wrong with stimulation of discussion.  :001:

[monthecaley]

RANKIN  :011: :011: :011: So promising but fails to deliver - what a waste of a sweet left foot. Actually lookede the part at left back.  :024:

i was pretty impressed with rankin at left back. he'd probably be caught out by long balls over the top though...