United Fail To Beat Ten Men ICT

United travelled up to Aberdeen last night to play the hastily rearranged fixture postponed from Saturday. Strangely, due to the SFA’s bizarre ruling that ICT have to play their games in Aberdeen, the home fans had further to travel than the away fans, and this fact, combined with the short notice, roadworks near Stonehaven and inclement weather conditions contributed to what will surely be one of the lowest crowds in the SPL this season at 1125. It’s not the season’s lowest however, with ICT v Motherwell fetching a mere 1117 on Sunday 3^rd October. How ICT are surviving with such paltry attendances is a mystery, but hopefully they will stay up and get back to the Caledonian Stadium. I mean who would rather go to Aberdeen than Inverness for a game and a few beers? Not me.

United could have done with three points last night, and despite us having the greater possession, it’s fair to say that ICT looked the more dominant team – more dangerous when they had the ball – more likely to score, and it wasn’t until Tokely was sent off on 66 mins for a second yellow, that United looked anything like dominant.

Again Dodds was played in midfield – not a popular choice with the fans. The starting line-up was Jarvie, Ritchie, McCracken, Archibald, Wilson, Brebner, McInnes, Dodds, Robson, Scotland, McIntyre. It wasn’t a strong performance from us, and if we perform as under-par as we did last night on Saturday when we play Aberdeen at the same venue we will be in for a footballing lesson. I’ll not go too heavily into the match as there’s a separate match report on the front page of this site – suffice to say we were not brilliant, and no player in Tangerine deserves special praise, with possible exception of McIntyre, who again pulled us out of trouble with a vital goal.

United have had a poor start to the season despite signing, in my opinion, some ‘better’ players. Tactics play their part, and one has to look at the manager for team selection and positions of players. Plenty of fans (managers in the stands of course) don’t agree with IM’s selections, and if they don’t start working, that unified voice of discontent will only get louder. When a team is doing well and winning the manager is hailed - unfortunately we aren’t, and McCall has to shoulder the dissatisfaction of the fans, and, if he’s worth what United are paying him, put the matter right.

We have Aberdeen on Saturday, one of the SPL’s stronger team’s this season, and we have to compete there.

McCall has been in the job well over a year now, and at the end of last season we were optimistic of a decent season this season – so far that’s not happened, and some fans, though not me, are calling for McCall’s head. It’s fair to say that Arab opinion is, at best, divided on the manager, and only results and performances will correct this.

This of course brings on to the question of time – how long will United give McCall? Personally I’d like him to stay until at least the end of the season, and then from there he needs to pledge where it is, in terms of success, he wants to take the club. We may also of course sign some new players in the January transfer window. We may improve before then, we may reach the final of the CIS Cup. Who knows? What is known is that there is considerable dissatisfaction among the Arab Support, and more lacklustre performances like last night will see that ire grow.