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Inverness away


Lenziejag
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It’s been awhile since we got a win up there, so we are probably due one. Need to get our heads up after the last minute defeat last week. I wonder if there will be a place for O’Reilly yet. Need to take advantage of either Utd or Raith slipping up, or both.

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A poor show by ICT on tickets today (Friday). To purchase online, you need to register (why?), but after doing so, it refused to accept either of the two cards I tried with.

On to plan B - phoning the ticket office. Only a message to say there would be no answer.

It really is about time that the league sorted out the pantomime of inconsistent ticket prices, conditions and sales. Of course there is an incentive to ICT to make tickets unavailable beforehand: they get £2 more on the day. As for who is entitled to concessions...that's a closely guarded secret of each club.

All ticket prices should remain the same for as long as they are on sale, and the definitions for payment should be the same for the same level, even if clubs feel their ticket prices should vary from other clubs'.

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19 minutes ago, Fearchar said:

A poor show by ICT on tickets today (Friday). To purchase online, you need to register (why?), but after doing so, it refused to accept either of the two cards I tried with.

On to plan B - phoning the ticket office. Only a message to say there would be no answer.

It really is about time that the league sorted out the pantomime of inconsistent ticket prices, conditions and sales. Of course there is an incentive to ICT to make tickets unavailable beforehand: they get £2 more on the day. As for who is entitled to concessions...that's a closely guarded secret of each club.

All ticket prices should remain the same for as long as they are on sale, and the definitions for payment should be the same for the same level, even if clubs feel their ticket prices should vary from other clubs'.

Several important points there! Hope that somebody with influence will take note. (But not holding my breath...)

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I would like a Dundee Utd win tonight.

Raith appear to be having a difficult time recently.  A defeat tonight and a win for us at ICT  will cut their lead over the Jags  to 4 points. This might make them feel the pressure building.

I think we will beat ICT 3-1 with Graham scoring 1 or 2. 

Would also be good if Morton lost away to Queens Park.

My forecasting has been poor this season so expect wins for Raith. ICT and Morton.

 

 

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In all honesty is finishing 2nd good or bad? I know it’s 2 less games finishing 2nd but I think Ayr’s gap between games last season hindered them while we built up momentum. ICT beat Arbroath who were 2nd the season before too.
 

Also if the top 2 finish quite close the runner-up might be a bit deflated (see above for Arbroath)

Just my thoughts 

 

 

 

 

 

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I was only able to watch the second half but saw the first half goals in HT highlights.

Nice to see Rudden score but he was offside. Goal should have been disallowed. Raith got a break there. The winning goal was a beauty. A goal of the season candidate.

One thing that was confirmed for me tonight is that we aren't as good as Raith or Dundee Utd. I don't think we are able to play at the speed or intensity of either of these teams. If budget allows I hope Doolan can inject some pace, toughness and resilience into our squad for next season.

We are capable of beating both RR and DU in a game of football but I don't think we can live with either over a season with our current squad.

We may well have a fight on our hands to stay in 3rd place holding off Morton.

Sorry to be so cheerful tonight.

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44 minutes ago, jaggy said:

In all honesty is finishing 2nd good or bad? I know it’s 2 less games finishing 2nd but I think Ayr’s gap between games last season hindered them while we built up momentum. ICT beat Arbroath who were 2nd the season before too.
 

Also if the top 2 finish quite close the runner-up might be a bit deflated (see above for Arbroath)

Just my thoughts 

 

 

 

 

 

The main positive of finishing second is the substantial extra prize money.

Although last season reaching the play off final made us feel like we had finished second, the reality is that we picked up only fourth place prize money.

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3 minutes ago, partickthedog said:

The main positive of finishing second is the substantial extra prize money.

Although last season reaching the play off final made us feel like we had finished second, the reality is that we picked up only fourth place prize money.

Very true. Unfortunately we chucked away a lot of money last week too 

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15 minutes ago, jaggy said:

We might be capable but have been unable to beat either of them yet in the in league or we wouldn’t be so far behind them

Spot on. I think we're level with Raith re points against the seven teams below us. Prior tonight a mini league of us, Raith & Dundee Utd would read Raith 8pts, United 7pts, Us 1 pt. 

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There is no doubt finishing second is financially significanly more beneficial that finishing 3rd or 4th.

The benefits of  playing 4 play-off games though instead of 6 should  not be underestimated. I did not detect any signs of fatigue in the 4 games we played beating Queens Part and Ayr. I did detect fatigue in the second half of the 5th game against Ross County at Firhill.  I believe this is why we failed to build on our HT lead..

Had we finished second instead of 4th then I believe we would have won the play-off final  by virtue of being required to play only 4 games and been promoted to the SPL ( inspite of the referee's performance).

We weren't beaten by Ross County we were beaten by a play-off system which is fundamentally unfair, lacks football integrity and is stacked in favour  of the SPL club which finishes 11th.

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9 hours ago, exiledjag said:

We weren't beaten by Ross County we were beaten by a play-off system which is fundamentally unfair, lacks football integrity and is stacked in favour  of the SPL club which finishes 11th.

Much as I detest the SPFL I understand the reasoning behind the play off formula. We came 4th in a league of only 10 clubs and 4th is nearer to mid table than being runners up.  So imo the play offs have to be designed to make it hardest for the 3rd & 4th clubs to win thru. More to the point the club finishing 11th in the top tier will have played 38 games against 36 matches in the 2nd tier. The 2nd v 3rd/4th fixtures balance the books so to speak assuming the 2nd placed club wins thru.

Put another way if the play offs didn't exist I don't believe any Jags supporter could claim that finishing 4th in a league of 10 is worthy of promotion. The fault lies in having such stupid wee leagues in the first place that in turn have given birth to such a convoluted play off structure.

Where we can feel rightfully miffed with last seasons play offs is by reaching the play off final we were hamstrung regarding the signing (re-signing) of players. Other clubs were weeks ahead of us. We were severely disadvantaged ironically due to the good football we played during the play offs. Now that is unfair.

 

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47 minutes ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

Much as I detest the SPFL I understand the reasoning behind the play off formula. We came 4th in a league of only 10 clubs and 4th is nearer to mid table than being runners up.  So imo the play offs have to be designed to make it hardest for the 3rd & 4th clubs to win thru. More to the point the club finishing 11th in the top tier will have played 38 games against 36 matches in the 2nd tier. The 2nd v 3rd/4th fixtures balance the books so to speak assuming the 2nd placed club wins thru.

Put another way if the play offs didn't exist I don't believe any Jags supporter could claim that finishing 4th in a league of 10 is worthy of promotion. The fault lies in having such stupid wee leagues in the first place that in turn have given birth to such a convoluted play off structure.

Where we can feel rightfully miffed with last seasons play offs is by reaching the play off final we were hamstrung regarding the signing (re-signing) of players. Other clubs were weeks ahead of us. We were severely disadvantaged ironically due to the good football we played during the play offs. Now that is unfair.

 

I suppose your last point is true for the team in the playoff final every season. 
It may be partly coincidental that Raith had the longest time to plan of any Championship team as they knew before the last game of the season which division they would be playing in.

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1 hour ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

Much as I detest the SPFL I understand the reasoning behind the play off formula. We came 4th in a league of only 10 clubs and 4th is nearer to mid table than being runners up.  So imo the play offs have to be designed to make it hardest for the 3rd & 4th clubs to win thru. More to the point the club finishing 11th in the top tier will have played 38 games against 36 matches in the 2nd tier. The 2nd v 3rd/4th fixtures balance the books so to speak assuming the 2nd placed club wins thru.

Put another way if the play offs didn't exist I don't believe any Jags supporter could claim that finishing 4th in a league of 10 is worthy of promotion. The fault lies in having such stupid wee leagues in the first place that in turn have given birth to such a convoluted play off structure.

Where we can feel rightfully miffed with last seasons play offs is by reaching the play off final we were hamstrung regarding the signing (re-signing) of players. Other clubs were weeks ahead of us. We were severely disadvantaged ironically due to the good football we played during the play offs. Now that is unfair.

 

I agree with your views about the size of the leagues and the timing and the ability of the 3rd or 4th place club when it comes to planning and signing players for the following season.

As far as your other comments are concerned we remain apart.

The 36 v 38 game comparison just doest register with me. By completion of the play- off games Ross County would have played 40 games, the Jags 42.

I don't see any detriment to the SPL club in the number of games played. In fact there is a  definite advantage for the SPL club especially when the timescale over which the play-off games are played Is taken into account.

I would find the system a bit fairer and therefore more acceptable if the play-off final games were played a week apart rather than 2 or 3 days. This should give the Championship team enough recovery time to complete for 90 mins and not 70 mins. We also have to consider if the SPL Club in 11th place is worthy of retaining their place in the SPL in addition to whether  or not the Championship Club is worthy! I have no doubt the Jags team that played Ross County was more than worthy of SPL membership as we outplayed RC for 160 minutes of the final until fatigue and the referee intervened.

I agree with the Brechin Chairman who has stated the Pyramid System is past its sell by date in its current form and that for Non-League Clubs, League 2 should be more accessible. This would I  suspect mean reconstruction all the way through to the SPL. Try getting clubs like St Mirren and Ross County to vote for this!  

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