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Mayo? The guy who was on loan at Dunfermline last season? Defender, so would make sense.

I know him from when he played schools football 2-3 years ago. He's a proper athlete, very quick over the ground, strong in the tackle, and very good in the air. Iirc he played rugby at schools international level and probably could have made a career in that, but chose football instead. He was a centre half back then but played right back for Dumbarton in the play-offs and looked really comfortable. Hope you do get him - it would be good to get a chance to see him play when ICT play Ayr next season.

Actually yeah, to be fair, Seedorf did come back into the squad a little more towards the end of that season and started to show signs that he might have something. He was utterly dreadful in the early game at EEP when Dunfermline ruined us, and that probably didn't do much for his confidence, and I think he might have been injured for part of the season too. His replacement the following season was a definite upgrade though...

The signings just ahead of that first Championship season were uncharacteristically poor - you can add Alex Cooper and Collin Seedorf to the list too - but I think that's probably a symptom of Robbo being appointed so late and having to get bodies in the door, and it reflected well on him that they largely disappeared out of the first team squad pretty quickly, with the exception of Baird who, on paper, looked like a reasonable signing. Apart from that, his success rate has been really high, and the same applied to his first spell, when he brought in Bingham, Dods, Black and Juanjo, and the likes of Hislop and Fox too. Only Prunty springs to mind as being largely a failure from that spell. Big contrast with the colossal amounts of shit Butcher managed to churn through the squad, albeit while eventually building a hugely successful side, or with most of Hughes's signings in the aftermath of the Scottish Cup win. Edited to add: the reason for mentioning Butcher & Hughes' signings, btw, is not to argue that Robbo is a better manager but rather to say that his relatively high hit rate with signings makes him a logical person to put in charge of recruitment when we've got so little budget and margin for error.

I don't know if he disliked us, but he always seemed to tip us to go down when we were in the top flight, even when we had a couple of good seasons behind us, which irritated me. Presumably he likes the area though, as he chose to remain up here after getting his jotters from County, so maybe the club has grown on him too. Also, he apparently can't stand Roy McGregor, so he has that in common with ICT supporters. Wait and see, I guess. One of his strengths has always been spotting players - his proportion of successes to duds is far better than most other ICT managers' - so it makes sense from that point of view, and last season McCann and Dodds seemed to get more consistency and creativity out of his players than he was able to do, so perhaps he was starting to struggle on the coaching front. If he's recognised that and chosen to step back from it, then fair play to him, and I'm glad he's still involved with the club. As you say though, a lot will depend on how well he can work with whoever comes in as head coach.

Fair enough. If it's true he isn't in the running, I'm quite surprised, I must admit, especially as he's local and the club presumably isn't in a position to offer all that great a salary.

Out of interest, why such a definite no to Dodds? At the time he came into the club this season, our record under McCann was three draws and two defeats; after Dodds joined the coaching staff, we won six games straight. Obviously there will have been other factors at play too, but that suggests to me that he must have had some sort of positive impact on the coaching, and as we're looking for a head coach rather than a manager, I'd have thought he'd staked a decent claim for himself. I'm pretty much in line with you on all the other names you mentioned.

He claims to be a referee at some level.

That's exactly the team I'd like to see on the pitch, but I suspect that Sutherland will start again, at the expense of McGregor or Allan if, as @ICTChris says, he isn't fully match fit. FTFY In all seriousness, I'd be wary of starting Keatings as I think we need to press Iacovitti and (if he's starting) Donaldson as high as possible from the off. They're both prone to take risks and to commit errors, so the more aggressive we are the better. That's not really Keatings' game. It might actually suit Storey, but I'd be wary of sacrificing Mackay for Storey as Mackay uses the ball a lot better in possession.

I'm another in the John Hartson: good guy camp. I worked at Waterstone's in Braehead when he was at Celtic. He came in looking for the Tony Cascarino autobiography and I helped him find it. He was really courteous and chatted away about having played against Cascarino when he was at Luton. When I took him back to the till he insisted on going to the end of the queue even though it was standard practice that I would just have put the book straight through for him as I was already assisting him. Much more recently @RiG and myself and a few others have interviewed a range of past and present ICT players for The Wyness Shuffle podcast, and they've all been brand new. Obviously there's probably an element of them being on their best behaviour as they know it's going to be a sympathetic interview with a largely sympathetic audience, but a couple have really stood out. Ryan and Charlie Christie gave us about 90 minutes and were really engaged and enthusiastic in talking about the club, and Dennis Wyness was an absolute revelation for someone with the reputation of being painfully shy. He'd never done anything like it before, and had obviously made up his mind that he wanted to do a really good job of it, and he spoke to us for over two hours and had unbelievable recall of his career. He finished the recording lying on the floor behind his sofa, as his phone had run out of charge and it was the only place where he could continue to talk to us while his phone was charging.

Worth mentioning that, bizarre as it seems, we have now played more games than any of the teams above us except Hearts; two more than Dunfermline, in fact. Also that the standard of the league is dogshit. That said, I thought we were good today; superb work rate. The lack of a finisher would almost certainly cost us if we did make the playoffs, but at least there has been a real purpose about the team in the last three games.

Before McCann came in we were already lacking invention and anyone capable of putting the ball in the net, and we were always prone to lose opponents and cheap goals at the back, but it does feel like there's been a further draining of confidence since he arrived. Scott Allardice, who's been our best player this season, looks like he doesn't want the ball any more; David Carson, who lifted the whole team when he came back against Ayr a few weeks ago, has been a headless chicken the last couple of games. In terms of McCann 'imposing his style' on the team, that seems to have amounted to asking two flat-footed, error-prone centre-halves to play tippy-tappy passes with a keeper who's a good shot stopper but has never looked confident with the ball at his feet, before launching it; I can't see how that inspires any of the players' confidence in themselves or in the manager. Any team in this division watching a tape of tonight's game would feel entirely confident that they could beat us, and given that we're now sitting in ninth, have made a c**t of just about all of our games in hand, and have 1 win in 12 league games, relegation looks the most likely outcome. I'd be happier if McCann just cut his losses, accepted it hadn't worked and let the players get on with it under Barry Wilson, Ryan Esson and Charlie Christie, but I've a feeling we're going to have to put up with him and his raincoat and furrowed brow telling us that he can't do anything with the shite he's been asked to work with for several more winless weeks, as we slide towards the seaside and part-time football.

He's still there, and hasn't improved much, although tbf he doesn't ever seem to have been offered the support of a summariser. He's obviously well aware of the abuse he takes on social media - in the commentary on Wednesday's game he introduced himself by saying 'I'm back to annoy you', which quite nicely captures how seriously the club seems to be taking its responsibility to provide a good product for its supporters.

Robbo wasn't messing about for that game, making four changes to the starting line-up, and it paid off really well. A central midfield of Allardice and Carson looks to have far more definition than Welsh and Allardice - Allardice sat and anchored really well while Carson was able to close down and win the ball further up the park. He linked very well with Roddy McGregor, who sees passes and links play better than James Vincent. I've never been that impressed by Todorov, but today the ball stuck to him far better than it has done on previous occasions, and Sutherland and Mackay were able to run off him. Great composure by Mackay for his goal too, and on the back of a really well-taken finish at Cappielow a couple of weeks ago, perhaps a striker is starting to emerge there. Obviously the wind must have made it really difficult for both sets of players, but thought that for most of the second half we looked pretty after comfortable once we'd managed to get closer to McCowan; he was a real danger in the first half. Enjoyed the commentary and summarising too - even-handed and knowledgeable. 'ICT TV' is sorely in need of that.

I don't think there's any doubt about that. He pretty much acknowledged that in his commentary tonight when he said 'so I'm here to annoy you'.

Starting to think we could be in real trouble now. We seemed to have far more of the ball in both halves but did f**k all with it in the final third; by the second half it looked like Queens defenders knew that we had no-one capable of really stretching them or breaking their line and that they could sit back and wait for the chance to counter. And of course, when it happens, we have no-one tracking Nortey's run. Anyone watching that will know exactly how to play us.

Todorov does fucking nothing in any game he appears in, apart from very occasionally sticking the ball in the net. Any ball played into him seems to come off him at a faster speed than it arrived at. His cameo today was fairly typical of any of his performances for us.

Andy Ritchie calling it there. We absolutely asked for that - have looked like we can't be arsed this half.

Without McGregor or Keatings we've gone pretty direct tonight, using that ball in to Sutherland and then trying to pick up from knock downs, but it has worked well and we've had some decent pressure. Both the disallowed goal and the sending off looked on the soft side though. Morton TV set-up is light years ahead of ICT's - cameras that have a zoom function, replays and a commentator and summariser who know the game. It's revelatory.

Not crazy about the look of that ICT side. With Kennedy away and Keatings and McGregor on the bench, there's very little creativity going forward.

Despite the absolute shitshow of his attempt to keep Raith up, you could argue that there was maybe some sliver of logic in appointing Hughes to manage a squad containing a few players he'd managed before, who would probably run through walls for him. But seriously, giving him a fucking transfer budget? You_let_Dougal_do_a_Funeral.mp4

Storey channeling his old mate Ryan Christie there. Just about deserved, tbf - we've pressed much better and played far more inventively since Kennedy came on.

Seriously fucking disappointing. Pretty consistently since the previous Dunfermline game, perhaps with the exception of the Hearts game, we've tried to press high up and play our way through teams. We haven't always been able to sustain it, but at least we've set up that way and we've seen some excellent football in patches. With this line up, we're inviting Dunfermline onto a defence which has proved it can't cope with people running at it or track runners effectively from set pieces or cross balls. The goal came originally from us leaving Wilson in too much space on the edge of the area then not clearing our lines properly, and it was fully deserved. The stats will show that we've had chances, but they've pretty much all been shots from outside the box or harmless flicked headers from Sutherland, the one that hit the bar immediately after the goal being the exception. Vincent offers nothing going forward, and Doran hasn't done much either. Hopefully Kennedy and McGregor make early appearances in the second half.

Surprised to see Kennedy, and to a lesser extent McGregor, dropped to the bench for us. Not everything Kennedy tries comes off, but he's the player most likely to absolutely flat-foot a couple of defenders and either lay the ball on a plate for someone or take it on himself, and while McGregor was kept quiet by Alloa last week, he has a couple of goals under his belt already and is more dynamic on the ball than Vincent. Keatings drops out altogether, so suspect we will see ICT start with Storey furthest forward through middle with Vincent behind him and Doran and Sutherland either side, although Robbo could change that up and switch Sutherland for Storey. Welsh and Allardice is a very solid central two, but Devine and McKay on the right Side of defence continue to give the fear.

I sold Nacho Novo a book on Rottweiler care while working in Braehead Waterstone's.