DoofersDad

Digging up old thoughts and passing them off as exclusive new ones - you should try journalism - or politics.

...and Hayes is likely to be injured before the end of the game

Selecting the side with 2018 World Cup in mind, eh, Luke? Now there's a new optimistic spin on a disappointing performance in the first qualifying match. There should be no planning for the future here. You don't reach the finals unless you qualify. You qualify by being top (or second) of your group and Scotland will not be top or second unless the best team available is picked for every game. Qualify for the finals in Brazil and the future will take care of itself.

Doran got on for the last 20 minutes against Hungary but couldn't help the Irish avoid a 2 -1 defeat and fail to qualify for thge European U21 championships.

This is simply cut and pasted straight out of "The SNP tartan book of stories and myths to make feel Scottish people feel disgruntled at the English." One of the main events in the immediate run up to the Treaty of Union was the abysmal failure of the Scots to start an empire at Darien in Central America. It was only after they sent two fleets in an attempt to sell woolly bunnets and Bibles to the Central American indians that they realised that they had committed the biggest act of collective incompetence since James IV tried to invade England and got a right kicking at the Battle of Flodden for his trouble. Darien bankrupted the country which then needed financially baled out by the big boys next door. And the arrangement, now known as the Barnet Consequentials, has worked more than well ever since! Well, there was me thinking that the Barnett formula was the invention of Joel Barnett who was Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the 1970s when actually it dates back over 300 years with a misguided attempt by the Scots to sell bunnets to South American Indians in order to cover their barnets. Charles, I bow to your superior knowledge

Thank feck for that. Although by denying the fact in a public act of denial you display a barely hidden subconscious desire that you wish you actually were Doofers Dad. Such feelings have been explored in depth in the psychological literature since the early days of social science and before that in the literature of the ages. "Methinks he doth protest too much" as me old mucker Billy Shakespeare used to say. Such feelings of wishing to be someone who you are not frequently manifests itself in a focus of other people's opposite feelings of self adoration and results in an unhealthy fixation on narcisism. Fortunately there is a cure. Large quantities of voddies and coke either side of a football match should do the trick.

It is an unreliable sh*te site. It has Port Talbot Town ranked above Wolves. Nearly as absurd as ranking County above us. Terry, forget about top 500 for freedom of the city - just stick to winning the Scottish Cup - that should do the trick.

Ross County are ranked 730! Obviously an unreliable sh*te site.

According to http://www.footballd...lubs.php?Id=194 ICT are ranked 935 in the World. Terry will have to go if we drop out of the top 1000 but he can have the freedom of the city if we break into the top 500.

Played 96 minutes for Swindon today in their 1 - 0 defeate by league 2 side Oxford (for whom Cox was not playing) According to the BBC live updates Rooney did not make much of an impact. The only mention was. "Adam Rooney has an effort at goal from close range which goes wide left of the goal." Oh dear! Not the best way to grasp a new opportunity. Sounds as though he will struggle to get a game after that.

The success of the SNP in doing a good job in a devolved Government has put the SNP in an impossible position in my view. Devolution has worked well for Scotland and part of that success is that we get a good deal out of it. The Union works for the rest of the UK and they do not want an independent Scotland. The underlying threat is that unless we can see that we too are benefitting from the union, we all just might side with the SNP and vote for independence. As long as the devolved Government was not an SNP Government, no Scottish Government was ever going to call for a referendum and the tactic of keeping us relatively sweet has been in everyone's interests. However, this all changed once the SNP came into power in Hollyrood. The SNP is the party of independence and had absolutely no option but to seek a referendum on the issue. It would have been political suicide not to. The paradox for Salmond here is that he knows he is very unlikely to win the referendum vote because we do reasonably well out of the union. He knows that there are large numbers who have voted for the SNP simply because they are doing well in running a devolved Government. These people will not vote "yes " in a referendum and relatively few who have not voted SNP in the Hollyrood elections will do so either. Salmond also knows that if Scotland votes "no" he will lose his trump card around the negotiating table and Scotland will get a poorer deal within the union. Salmond's success at Hollyrood has therefore pushed him into a postion where he is forced to take action which almost certainly will make Scotland worse off. Salmond is an astute politician and he will do all he can to win the vote. He has done well to delay the vote as long as possible and the seriousness with which he will fight the campaign has been highlighted today with the announcement that the very able Nichola Sturgeon will step down from her Health brief to oversee the campaign. I am sure they would rather have the vote when the country was in more of a mess than it is - but don't write them off. For me the question in not whether independence will see us better off than we are now, it is whether it will see us better off than if we vote "no". I've yet to make my mind up on independence but I do think that up to now, devolution has worked rather well for us. I'm just not so sure it will work so well in the future.

Sweeper. We are shipping too many goals. Part of that is because we are getting caught on the flanks and because there is a lack of leadership within the back four at the moment. We are good going forward and having Foran as sweeper would allow the defence to press a little higher and for G Shinnie and Meekings to adopt more attacking roles. He's had his chance up front and doesn't do enough for me in that position. I'd rather see Shane given a proper run up front and failing that we could always try other strikers we've signed. Billy works hard but he's never going to score 20 goals in a season.

Hi Terry! It doesn't sadden me at all because I think there is generally a balance on here. There are a handful with extreme views at either end of the spectrum but the majority give a range of opinions somewhere in the middle ground. I would like to think that the management of this club do look at this website from time to time and give a bit of consideration to what is said so that they get a flavour of what the fans feel is good and bad about the club. Of course, those of us that post here represent a very small proportion of those who go to watch the team but nevertheless it probably gives a fair enough reflection of what folk think. And as a football manager he will not be suprised that there are some amongst the faithful who would like to see him gone but he will be encouraged by the general tone this season. Things are far from perfect but he has responded to the calls for a more attractive brand of football. We are playing some good stuff and this team is not far short of being a very good side indeed. If some of the defensive frailties can be ironed out we will start winning - and with some style. I think Terry will see that most on here appreciate what he is trying to do but will lose patience if we continue to ship goals and lose matches due to sloppiness at the back. The club is in much the same position in the league as when he took over and it is clear we want a little better than that. He would expect no less from the fans.

Yes.

Barrowman - already more this season for the Pars than in 41 matches for us.

No. I'm saying that I hope that by January we will be scoring enough as a team not to be requiring a loanee as good as Rooney was. I'm also saying that come January he will probably not be the player he was in our promotion season.

Motherwell v Newco! Now that will be interesting.

If he can't make it at Swindon then he is not going to get the breakthrough he would have been hoping for. As many have found out before, if you don't kick on when there is the opportunity then nobody wants to know you. He started off pretty well at Birmingham but was not able to get a run in the first team and has now dropped down the pecking order. His confidence will be gone and if he comes back here he will struggle. He should have stayed here for another season in familar surroundings. A good season in the SPL would have made him a a much more marketable commodity. A two year contract with the intention of selling him on after one would have done both him and the club a lot of good. Having said that, I can't say I blame him, it is difficult for these young lads to turn down offers of significantly more money especially when they probably have unrealistic expectations of what they might acheive. As for having him back here, I would hope that with the options now available to us there would be absolutely no reason why Terry would feel the need to take him back.

Sorted it for you.

Whilst County remain unbeaten having still failed to score a goal from open play. They have only concended a single goal - and that against Celtic. Strange indeed. The fact that a lot of results have been strange is clearly evidenced by the fact that Doofer's Mum sits proudly on top of the Prediction League.

An Independent nation of the Scottish Highlands and Islands would require a separate National Football League of the Highlands and Islands. And as annual champions that would mean European football every year for ICT! Bring it on!

Great news. Congratulations to them all and I hope they all feature on the field and come back to Inverness safe and injury free. We've probably made these new signings in case they don't.

Let's hope he does better there than Lee Cox. Cox just got 2 starts for Swindon and is now out on loan at Oxford. It's a funny old world - whenever we sign players struggling in the nether reaches of the English league folk moan about lack of quality yet Cox is a player most of us would love to have kept. There are very few who seem to do do better once they leave ICT. There is something about ICT which brings the best out in players. It must be the great atmoshere inside the TCS and vocal support of the massive crowds.

Arbroath have shipped 15 goals in 7 competetive games this season so their defence is not good. I would expect the likes of Sutherland and Shinnie to look good against that kind of opposition. Neither looked good against Celtic so let's hope the performance against Arbroath gives them the confidence to dominate the Motherwell defence. One worry about Sutherland (a player who I have always liked by the way) is his ability to give goalkeeping practice to fans in row R rather than the opposition keeper. Keeping the ball down is a basic skill which he surely must practice in training. On match days I have seen him smash the ball into the back of the net during the warm ups but when it matters it usually goes over the bar. It's frustrating - he's capable of being a very good player indeed.

According to the Arsenal website deals with both Roberts and Brislen-Hall are confirmed. http://www.arsenal.com/news/reserves-news/roberts-finalises-inverness-loan-move