mhs Posted March 22, 2014 Report Share Posted March 22, 2014 (edited) Back quickly as staying in the Highlands. First five minutes we couldn't get the ball then the rest of the first half we camped in the home end. Had a few good chances, most notably Taylor with a powerful shot from the edge of the box and a low curling freekick from 25 yards - both well saved. Second half was the opposite, we started bright but Caley got into the game and that was it. We slowed down, stopped pressing and closing them down and lost most 50-50s. Taylor had a goal offside and I think that was the correct decision. Caley ran up, got a weak freekick and floated a ball in, went across our goal and was bundled/headered in by Mckay. Bit scrappy goal. Didnt come close to equalising with only a couple of half chances. The subs didnt really make a difference but Buaben and Moncur got stuck in. Disappointing day. Erskine was poor, Higgy has his poorest game for a long time. Dools tried and had a good first half. Banzo was excellent in the first half too. Fraser was okay with some nice play. Defence got pass marks but SOD looked weak and had some poor passes/crosses/clearances. Mainly let down by the wide attackers today imo. One real positive was that Gabby looked pretty solid, he won most in the air and was strong and played it simple. I would say he seemed better than Conrad. Moncur could be useful too. The ref was poor, some awful decisions including Higgy's and Banzo's booking. Edited March 22, 2014 by mhs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
read'n'yell Posted March 22, 2014 Report Share Posted March 22, 2014 (edited) Back quickly as staying in the Highlands. First five minutes we couldn't get the ball then the rest of the first half we camped in the home end. Had a few good chances, most notably Taylor with a powerful shot from the edge of the box and a low curling freekick from 25 yards - both well saved. Second half was the opposite, we started bright but Caley got into the game and that was it. We slowed down, stopped pressing and closing them down and lost most 50-50s. Taylor had a goal offside and I think that was the correct decision. Caley ran up, got a weak freekick and floated a ball in, went across our goal and was bundled/headered in by Mckay. Bit scrappy goal. Didnt come close to equalising with only a couple of half chances. The subs didnt really make a difference but Buaben and Moncur got stuck in. Disappointing day. Erskine was poor, Higgy has his poorest game for a long time. Dools tried and had a good first half. Banzo was excellent in the first half too. Fraser was okay with some nice play. Defence got pass marks but SOD looked weak and had some poor passes/crosses/clearances. Mainly let down by the wide attackers today imo. One real positive was that Gabby looked pretty solid, he won most in the air and was strong and played it simple. I would say he seemed better than Conrad. Moncur could be useful too. The ref was poor, some awful decisions including Higgy's and Banzo's booking. Don't talk shite. (edit: he is my brother, its ok) Edited March 22, 2014 by read'n'yell 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highlandjag Posted March 22, 2014 Report Share Posted March 22, 2014 Good analysis from mhs and I would pretty much agree with it. I don't think playing both Taylor and Doolan worked and we would have been better with Bauben rather than Doolan. For the short amount of time he was on I thought Moncur looked OK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fearchar Posted March 22, 2014 Report Share Posted March 22, 2014 A good summary, but I felt that Buaben should have been brought on earlier to stiffen up the midfield, where we were being pushed around in the second half, and Taylor was repeatedly caught offside, as well as being penalised all too frequently for clashes with defenders. Even if that's down to the referee, it's still a liability. My Caley Thistle-supporting cousin thought there wasn't much between the two teams, but was surprised by and very complimentary about the large, voluble support by comparison with that of St Johnstone, for example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stillresigned Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 Agree with most of the above apart from bringing in Buaben for Dools. To be totally honesy I defy anyone who regulary watches Thistle to make that call, it seems to me a comment made using a large dollup of hindsight, to be frank. Overall, we simply werenlt good enough, play like we did in the second half, against Celtic and to be honest we'll get humped badly. Whilst I thought we were a touch unlucky not to go in to the interval leading, we did not come out for the vast majprity of the second half,I agree with the comments about the referee, he was of the usual low standard I've come to expect od Scottish officials. I'd like to see the challenge on Sinclair again, it looked a stonewaller to me at the time, although to be fair I forgot my specs, so I maybe misssed ATS maybe over egging thr pudding. Can only say that if it had happened at Ibrox the referee would've been pointing to the spot instantly. Maybe it was the turning point of the game, since I feel if we had equalised then the tide would have turned back in our favour. Finally, I'll say that it looked a really soft goal to lose, though to be fair to ICTthey took a grip on the midfield, just prior to this. Once again we get nothing from a game we should have at least drawn! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThickAsThieves Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 Agree with most of the above apart from bringing in Buaben for Dools. To be totally honesy I defy anyone who regulary watches Thistle to make that call, it seems to me a comment made using a large dollup of hindsight, to be frank. I said it a number of times before kick-off... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindau Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 (edited) This is certainly not hindsight but I was surprised that The Prince was dropped yesterday. I think he is one of those guys that you think doesn't do much and you maybe only appreciate what he does when he is out the team. Expect him to be back on Wednesday as I can't believe Archie will go with the 4 Amigo's against the leather belts Edited March 23, 2014 by Lindau Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady-isobel-barnett Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 (edited) Good analysis from mhs and I would pretty much agree with it. I don't think playing both Taylor and Doolan worked and we would have been better with Bauben rather than Doolan. For the short amount of time he was on I thought Moncur looked OK. Good summary from mhs. I'm not too certain that playing Doolan & Taylor makes too much difference. Both are industrious and Doolan in particular gets dragged back into midfield where he's not unsuccessful. On balance I think the real question is whether we required more dig in midfield or not. If we had taken our chances in the first half thru all the pressure we put on ICT and got just one goal I wouldn't be questioning our attack minded line up. The second half tho' indicated we needed to scrap better in midfield. With Bannigan picking up a yellow card in the first half I feel that was all the more apparent. I was surprised when Fraser went off instead of Stuart who had to be so careful not to collect a second yellow. That one substitution aside I really think yesterday was more of a collective breakdown in teamwork rather than too much fault with selection or formation. On the evidence of our three games against them and those two televised league cup games ICT are an appalling team to watch. The fact they're so safely placed in the top six once again can imo only undermine the credibility of Scottish football. Playing the way they do would perhaps be commendable if they were down our end of the table fighting to stay in the division. But for a team not so far off representing Scotland in Europe they're near criminal. Edited March 23, 2014 by lady-isobel-barnett 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaggernaut Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 As mhs pointed out, Caley seemed to win just about every 50/50 ball, and they closed our players down as soon as they got the ball, meaning that we could hardly string more than a few passes together (second half especially). Many of us expected Caley to be jaded, but it was our own forwards who looked jaded. It was actually a terrible game of football, played in one of the most soul-less places to watch football. Though Piccolo had an excellent match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagfox Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 Prince in midfield for me every time. Dools is a very good striker and not a very good midfield player. Square peg round hole rarely works, imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drew37 Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 From analysing the BBC footage I would honestly say that Lyle was in line when Higgy passed the ball, the defender took at good step out just after Higgy released the ball....the linesman got it wrong. Oh well just the small matter of beating Celtic now.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ancipital Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 You can't tell from either the BBC or SPFL youtube footage, there isn't a camera in line or even one with Taylor in the shot when the ball is passed- he looks level but he might also have taken a step back. What is definite is that we didn't bother to mark Billy McKay at all at their goal. He's in yards of space when the free kick is taken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angry gaz Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 What is definite is that we didn't bother to mark Billy McKay at all at their goal. He's in yards of space when the free kick is taken. Yip, very poor defending. That type of defending has cost us all season.Didn't deal with the initial cross at all and then McKay lost his marker. Can't do that against the soap dodgers or we'll lose six. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veejag Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 *cough* Stephen O'Donnell *cough* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king of spain Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 *cough* Stephen O'Donnell *cough* Watching the highlights of the goal and as the ball is crossed how can O'Donnell not notice Mckay about 5 yards in front of him!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veejag Posted March 24, 2014 Report Share Posted March 24, 2014 He just looks like his head is down again and he can't be arsed playing football anymore. McMillan may be limited, but he'll give his all. On current form, I struggle to see what SOD brings to the side, apart from crackin hair. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoda-jag Posted March 24, 2014 Report Share Posted March 24, 2014 i've always thought sod's hair was over-rated. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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