The Nikolay Todorov Derby - The Caley v Ayr United

[stevep56]

Better team won today.  It is hard to write anything positive about Ayr today - defence looked better than last season but Inverness could have scored a few more. I got the feeling that we could have played another 90 minutes without creating a decent chance to score.  Back to lumping the ball 50+ yards in the vain hope that something might happen.  It is going to be a long season for us, probably in a similar league position as we are tonight

 

[alsy]

Dodds loves a 1-0 win, doesn't he? Deserved result, but we only played well in brief spells. Welsh brought a bit of poise and control into our game when he came on - could have done with him from the start, as he'd have been been more prepared to come and take the ball off the defence than Allardice, who was pretty anonymous in that deeper role. Would like to see him start next week, but the pitch at Rugby Park could be an issue for him. Ayr made it difficult for us, but I'd be worried if I was an Ayr supporter simply because there was so little invention or patience in their counter attacks - they seem to be relying on Adeloye as an outball and precious little else. 

[D'Jaffo]

He’s running out of time now tbh. It’s fair enough having games like last week where we play well and get shafted out of a good result but they are few and far between with Hopkin. The majority of the time is games like today where we basically stifle the opposition so much that the game dies out into nothing and people think we’re actually matching our opponents quite well. However all it takes is a lapse in concentration and to go 1-0 down and it becomes very clear we have no plan for trying to break teams down.

[eez-eh]

42 minutes ago, 1nickydevlin said:

Hopkin out

Aye.

Every time there’s a half decent performance he just reverts to type the next game. Nothing will change.

[itzdrk]

11 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

He’s running out of time now tbh. It’s fair enough having games like last week where we play well and get shafted out of a good result but they are few and far between with Hopkin. The majority of the time is games like today where we basically stifle the opposition so much that the game dies out into nothing and people think we’re actually matching our opponents quite well. However all it takes is a lapse in concentration and to go 1-0 down and it becomes very clear we have no plan for trying to break teams down.

No point changing it unless Duffy leaves as well. 

[PB1994]

3 games, 3 wins, 3 goals and 0 conceded.  It’s a great start to the season but I still don’t have a clue what I think about this team. I still don’t think we have played particularly well in any of the games so far, there have been small spells in each game. Massive positive is that we are still finding a way to win the game which in any of the last 3 or 4 seasons there is no way we would have won all 3 of these games.

On the positive side I’d say we clearly have a good championship squad and if it all clicks together we could possibly be challenging for the title. On the negative I still have this feeling that perhaps we are scraping these wins because we’ve got a bit lucky and the arse is going to collapse out of our defence and it will be a shambles of a season.

Killie away next week is massive and will probably decide if I think it’s going to be a good or bad season. I’m not saying we have to go and get a result, if we lose but put in a decent performance then I’d still feel we can put pressure on them at the top of the table.

[BukyOHare]

54 minutes ago, itzdrk said:

No point changing it unless Duffy leaves as well. 

Totally this but let's be honest nothing will change until we're detached and scrambling for survival. 

The long journey home will hopefully give the decision makers at the club time to take stock of what exactly we're seeing way too often. Though I fear again the thought process will worryingly be along the lines of "we only lost 1 nil in the Highlands, improvement is around the corner, it'll be better next week". Newsflash, it wont. 

I'm sick of Hoppy treating away games like we're taking on a Messi, Mbappe, Neymar led PSG team. Inverness truly deserved to win that match but let's be honest they weren't anything more than above average. It's a massive worry when we couldn't lay a glove on them. 

The "experts" will tell you this is a competitive league with not very much between all of the teams from week to week, everybody can beat everybody etc etc 

I truly and honestly believe that not one of our management team or playing squad thought we were going to win that game today. That's unacceptable for a full time team. Their approach, mentality and formation today clearly backs that theory up. 

I'm sick to the back teeth of the  repetitively negative, back foot, reactive, spoiling tactics. 

 

 

Edited August 21, 2021 by BukyOHare

[TheScarf]

I feel we were dragged down to Ayr's level in the first half but in the second half we stepped it up and forced the issue and got the goal. We created a few more chances and Deas missed a sitter to put the game beyond doubt.

I see what the Ayr fans mean now about Hopkinball. It's not pretty.

[Trogdor]

7 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

I see what the Ayr fans mean now about Hopkinball. It's not pretty.

[Trogdor]

14 minutes ago, BukyOHare said:

I'm sick to the back teeth of the  repetitively negative, back foot, reactive, spoiling tactics. 

Aye, I know we debated this very point in the club thread.

Hopkin seems to set us up far too passively. Did we harry or press Inverness at all today? We seemed content to give them time and space in possession. Which is in stark contrast to last week against Dundee United. Why? 

I am a baw hair from Hopkin out. I expect the post match interview may tip me over the edge.

[itzdrk]

20 minutes ago, BukyOHare said:

Totally this but let's be honest nothing will change until we're detached and scrambling for survival. 

The long journey home will hopefully give the decision makers at the club time to take stock of what exactly we're seeing way too often. Though I fear again the thought process will worryingly be along the lines of "we only lost 1 nil in the Highlands, improvement is around the corner, it'll be better next week". Newsflash, it wont. 

I'm sick of Hoppy treating away games like we're taking on a Messi, Mbappe, Neymar led PSG team. Inverness truly deserved to win that match but let's be honest they weren't anything more than above average. It's a massive worry when we couldn't lay a glove on them. 

The "experts" will tell you this is a competitive league with not very much between all of the teams from week to week, everybody can beat everybody etc etc 

I truly and honestly believe that not one of our management team or playing squad thought we were going to win that game today. That's unacceptable for a full time team. Their approach, mentality and formation today clearly backs that theory up. 

I'm sick to the back teeth of the  repetitively negative, back foot, reactive, spoiling tactics. 

 

 

Yeah, I feel that's the approach for away games in general, try and get a draw, why I didn't even bother with the stream today never mind traveling. 

[sophia]

I was rather impressed with young Mr Macgregor today.

He's growing into a player with a touch that intimidates defenders and he seems to have a gift for finding areas to his advantage.

 

Also @Trogdor, he's not the biggest of players

Edited August 21, 2021 by sophia
Sarcasm

[Juanhourjoe]

The 1-0 streak continues. Good points to today's game. Our passing and playing out from the back was nice to watch. And we seemed to win everything. Ayr only got in with a chance when we gifted them the ball, but quickly shut them down again. (Although, Ayr didn't seem capable of doing much damage anyway.)

Gardyne seemed the most impressive early on. However him and Deas, on the same side doesn't work for me. A good ball player, and will create something from midfield, but I think he'd do better in a midfield 3, or having a quick wing back overlapping. Deas can't do that and slows down any attack. Hard to make the case to change the defence, when we haven't conceded yet though. Walsh had a very quiet game, and thought maybe time to take him off. Then he goes and gets the goal.  Mckay and Doran coming on offered more off a threat, than the rest of the team all game. Both should start at Killie.

[diegomarahenry]

Watched the stream today, good quality, the replays were quick and the  different angles were good.

commentator was obviously pro-Inverness but not in an annoying way, Don’t know who the co-commentator was but he liked to give the impression he was a tactical genius. 
Worth the £15 rather than paying for Pixelot and having the commentator forget his mic is off for 10 minutes like last time. 

[PB1994]

5 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

Watched the stream today, good quality, the replays were quick and the  different angles were good.

commentator was obviously pro-Inverness but not in an annoying way, Don’t know who the co-commentator was but he liked to give the impression he was a tactical genius. 
Worth the £15 rather than paying for Pixelot and having the commentator forget his mic is off for 10 minutes like last time. 

Co-commentator was Ross Tokely.

[Finlay21]

7 hours ago, UpInTheAyr said:

Another match preview where everyone is fit and available to not.

3 players only found out this morning that they were unable to travel with team 

[diegomarahenry]

1 minute ago, PB1994 said:

Co-commentator was Ross Tokely.

He was quite critical of the approach by both managers which is strange for a commentary team. Normally it’s respectful powderpuff stuff. He wasn’t vicious but it wasn’t done in a particularly respectful way.

They weren’t being a “personality” like some of the other commentary teams. One of the best streaming packages.

 

[PB1994]

3 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

He was quite critical of the approach by both managers which is strange for a commentary team. Normally it’s respectful powderpuff stuff. He wasn’t vicious but it wasn’t done in a particularly respectful way.

They weren’t being a “personality” like some of the other commentary teams. One of the best streaming packages.

 

That sounds just like Ross Tokely tbf!

Never thought someone would say it is one of the best after last years mess. I’ve not watched a game on the stream this season so it’s good to know it is decent.

[PB1994]

2 hours ago, sophia said:

I was rather impressed with young Mr Macgregor today.

He's growing into a player with a touch that intimidates defenders and he seems to have a gift for finding areas to his advantage.

 

Also @Trogdor, he's not the biggest of players

Yeap, totally agree. It’s maybe not fair to be judging Mcalear after 2 league games but Macgregor looks like a much better option. Still plenty for him to improve on but he looks like a baller.

[scottbamby]

Thought we more than deserved to win today without completely dominating. Probably should’ve scored more than 1. MacGregor was superb throughout, best player on the park. I also thought Kirk Broadfoot was very good (there’s a sentence I never thought I’d type).

Ayr looked like they could’ve played another 900 minutes and not scored. Adeloye looked a threat but support to him was non existent. Genuinely looked like you were playing 8 defenders (I suppose you pretty much were?).

We’ve not really hit anywhere near our best and have 3 wins out of 3. That can only bode well for the season. Worth pointing out that most pundits said our weakness would be a lack of strength in depth, yet we brought Welsh, Doran and Mckay off the bench today - three players who start for most teams in this league.