Four-nil to Partick Thistle!
It was a scoreline that no one saw coming, a result that saw ICT lose their unbeaten record at home and bust many a coupon up and down the country. Some punters were so agitated by the result that they took to phoning up Caley Thistle to scream abuse at their staff!
Partick Thistle just seem to have the edge over Inverness. The result on Saturday made it an "aggregate" score of 7 - 1 in favour of the Glasgow Jaggies after two meetings this season. In both matches Partick have been nothing short of magnificent. Why don't they play like this against anyone else?
Partick stop ICT playing by pressuring them, and they do it far better than any other side in the league. The style of football John Hughes likes to play is well known but ICT have been so good at passing the ball about, and doing it quickly, that not many sides have gotten near them. Partick however were not just pressuring them when they had the ball but they were on top of them almost before they received the pass.
At goal kicks Dean Brill likes to play it short to a centre-back or knock it wide to a full-back. Thistle knew this and kept no fewer than six men inside the ICT half to stifle them. The second goal for Thistle typified this - ICT conceded possession high up the pitch thanks to the harassment, leading to Ryan Stevenson's second of the day. ICT seldom had a chance to release the ball from defence and start an attacking move with their opponents swarming all over them.
It is almost impossible to maintain a high tempo pressing game as Partick did on Saturday, certainly not for 90 minutes anyway. But if sides can force errors from ICT and capitalise on them to score early to build a respectable lead before half time then Caley Thistle will struggle to recover. AS
Dundee United are not title challengers
There were some crazy folk out there who said last week that Dundee United might be good enough to challenge Celtic for the league. These people probably also believe Elvis is still alive and wear tin-foil hats to prevent the government reading their thoughts.
United have been scintillating at their best, but had lost four league games even before they crashed to Aberdeen at Tannadice. In fairness, they were put on the back foot early on by Radoslaw Ciernziak's early blunder (if I had dropped that shot during five-a-sides, I'd have been slaughtered), but they managed only a single shot on target. Hardly the efforts of title challengers.
But, when you look at the teamsheet, there's remarkably little to choose between the sides. Aberdeen, certainly, are as worthy of labelling as 'dark horses'. That is, they're not worthy either.
Jackie McNamara will be concerned by his side's second half performance though - at 2-0 down, they offered nothing. This comes only a week after they downed tools with 20 minutes left in Dingwall and nearly squandered a 3-0 lead. They don't seem to realize that matches last 90 minutes, and too often this season they have given up when the going has got tough. That's got to change if United, and not Aberdeen, are to finish second, which is a very realistic ambition indeed. LS
County can't afford such profligacy
Surely events at Fir Park on Saturday were enough to make a nominative determinist out of even the most ardent skeptic. By all accounts young Tony Dingwall was the outstanding player on the park, and two goals against relegation rivals will do more to ingratiate himself with the fans than sharing a name with their home town ever could. With a clear bottom three beginning to emerge, earning a point away to one of your rivals with a last minute goals should only be really looked at as a positive.
Yet County really should have won this game quite comfortably. I imagine professional footballers have nightmares about missing open goals against their former clubs, a nightmare that Paul Quinn lived at the weekend. Who knows how Michael Gardyne managed to smash the ball against the keeper from two yards out, and those were only two of the twenty shots County had in this game, eight of which were on target.
And they weren’t much better better at the back where some very stand-offish defending allowed Motherwell to score from two of their meagre three shots on target. New ‘Well manager Ian Barraclough was watching from the stands before taking charge of the team this week and no doubt would have been disappointed to see his new team come back from a goal down only to concede an equaliser with the last kick of the game. But what should be of much greater concern to him is the fact that they were so comprehensively outplayed at home to one of their closest rivals.
Both these teams know that every point will be precious over the next few months, especially now that they can’t rely on the one things that will have helped them sleep at night so far this season - for Tommy Craig is no longer the St Mirren manager. IM
St Mirren aren't worth getting out of bed for
You can only beat what's in front of you. St. Mirren had pretty much given up on this game already, given that they chose last midweek to sack Tommy Craig and start looking for a replacement; if this match was an audition for Gary Teale, it would be like asking an actor to play the role of Hamlet without a script in front of him.
But whilst Thursday's defeat in Zagreb could be partly blamed on rather mediocre motivation amongst the Celtic squad, this was a fully professional performance - though scoring three times in the opening twenty minutes helps. Those who turned up to cheer them on were treated to yet another virtuoso performance by Norwegian midfielder Stefan Johansen, an excellent turn by James Forrest and a standout effort by Anthony Stokes, who is beginning to revel in his 'wide forward' role.
Unfortunately, not very many turned up. The official attendance figure was 44,827 - absolutely laughable going by the TV pictures, unless everyone was sitting on the roof. Maybe half that? At most? The apathy is worrying, particularly given this game wasn't even on television. And it's a shame, because Celtic are playing some very decent football right now.
What will it take for the seats to be filled again? Sadly, I suspect only the return of their beloved Rangers to the top flight will do it. And that might be a while yet... LS
Killie in a tailspin
It's now one point out of the last eighteen available for Kilmarnock (which of course doesn't include their humiliating cup capitulation at Ibrox), who dropped out of the top six and below St. Johnstone after losing at home to them. Going by Killie's current form, it's hard to believe that we ever contemplated that they might finish higher than the Perth Saints, who have dragged themselves up the table in recent weeks.
Allan Johnston picked an experienced side for this one - a recurrent theme whenever his side hit the rocks last season - but one wonders if he would be better going with his youngsters. Robbie Muirhead, unquestionably their most dangerous player in this match, was the only Academy product to start, with five others on the bench. Certainly there's no discernible reason why Johnston prefers the likes of Darryl Westlake (who gave away a penalty) and Manuel Pascali to the youthful Lee Ashcroft and Ross Barbour, or why Craig Slater, outstanding last season, can't get a game.
Of course, the current absence of Alexei Eremenko doesn't help. With a busy but limited midfield duo of Jamie Hamill and Sammy Clingan, the team inevitably become more direct, but the inclusion of Lee Miller as a target man hasn't made them more dangerous. They've scored only three goals in their last seven matches.
Certainly Kilmarnock are a bottom six side. But they do have enough points on the board to avoid a relegation battle...don't they? LS
Neil provides some steel
Accies' player-manager Alex Neil has been more manager than player this season - the win over Dundee was only his fourth league start of the campaign - but I imagine that, with his side going through a rocky patch, he might have included himself for this one even if Jon Routledge hadn't got stupidly sent off at Pittodrie last week. His young team needed a bit of experience and know-how in the centre of midfield, and Neil certainly provided it. At 33, and with a lengthy history of injuries, he won't be involved every week, but he's still good enough to do a job at this level.
As an aside, is it just me or does Mickael Antoine-Curier only ever break into a sprint when he's celebrating a goal? He never seems anywhere near as quick in open play. Mind you, his volley was a strike worth celebrating... LS
Andrew Sutherland (AS) occasionally writes for When Saturday Comes. He would never miss an ICT match unless he was offered a date with the lead singer of CHVRCHES...who he would then take to said ICT match.
Iain Meredith (IM) is technically a Rangers fan, but these days he tends to support them ironically. He only agreed to help with this blog because now he can tell his wife that he's "only watching the game to help a friend out".
Lawrie Spence (LS) has ranted and spouted his ill-informed opinions on Narey's Toepoker since September 2007. He has a life outside this blog. Honestly.
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