If you could back in time in the history of ICT and relive a period again, what period would it be, and how do you compare the team then to the team now? For me, I'd love go back in time, just to see the team under Paterson again. I can't give a certain date, but around the time ICT first came into the First Division, that's what I'd like to see again. What I'd give to see an in prime Wyness up front with Paul Richie again, as well as seeing the likes of Paul Sheerin, an in prime Barry Wilson and Barry Robson in the midfield, along with Bobby Mann at the back and Jim Calder in goal. To me that was ICT, and if you compare the team now, I don't think they even do compare, and what I'd give to see one more game and fully appreciate the team back then. IMO the current team would be gubbed had they ever came up against that lot.

As time has gone on, I've felt that ICT has changed. I used to feel back then that it was ICT I was watching, but now it's something else. Even up until a few seasons ago, the lifeblood of ICT was still intact, but over the last two or three seasons, the core has been ripped away.

If you could go back in time and relive another game from ICT's history when would it be and how do you compare that team to the team now?

We should get a friendly organised where players from the past e.g dods, Mann and others made a starting XI and play the team we have at present. Could you imagine what a pumping the present team would get with robson ripping us apart and bobby mann and dods solid at the back with mark brown or jim calder between the sticks.

Get Iain Stewart in there, seen Billy Urqhuart recently aswell looking tip top, sure he would be up for a shot.

In more recent times Rankin, Cowie, maybe too recent but would show what we have lost.

I agree....a team from our last time in the first division, the current team would get torn a new one.

I would go back in time to the final game of last season, and give Rosscoe a yellow card instead of a red.

Edited October 22, 200916 yr by DornochJAGGIE

The Pele years were magical. We may never see those days again. Glad I was there to see them. And, yes, a Pele team would beat the current squad any day of the week home or away.

I would go back to 2000 and relive all the way up to the end of 2007-08 season.

One game i would relive would be beating Celtic 3-2. The team we had that day was brilliant and then Brew went and started to disect it by getting rid of the likes of Rankin and soon after plenty more followed which very much ripped the soul and backbone out of this team.

I would go back in time to an era where the fans appreciated the club and all it stood for. Playing in the big boys leagues and sending Southern teams homewards tae think again. A time when footballers could trap the ball and gain instant control of it. A time when scoring more goals than your opponent was a priority. A time when fans went home happy. A time when our fans saw us winning almost every home game and being the top scoring team in our division. A time when we could defend with applomb and pass the ball from back to front. A time when we had the heart of a lion. A time when you could wander from one end of the ground to the other to watch the second half onslaught at the Bridge end. A time when we were always the underdogs and Scottish cup games were to be looked forward to. A time when the fans got behind the team. A time when we had something to get excited about. A time when going to a home game was not a chore. A time when Bobby Mann was the best defender in Scotland. A time when memories were like this........and the only things we can look forward to were our memories.

Ahhhh, bless. Expectation is a mighty strange phenomenon.

In fact, as Mary Hopkin said to IHE the other day....

Once upon a time there was a tavern

Where we used to raise a glass or two

Remember how we laughed away the hours

And dreamed of all the great things we would do

Those were the days my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd sing and dance forever and a day

We'd live the life we choose

We'd fight and never lose

For we were young and sure to have our way.

La la la la...

Those were the days, oh yes those were the days

Then the busy years went rushing by us

We lost our starry notions on the way

If by chance I'd see you in the tavern

We'd smile at one another and we'd say

Those were the days my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd sing and dance forever and a day

We'd live the life we choose

We'd fight and never lose

For we were young and sure to have our way.

La la la la...

Those were the days, oh yes those were the days

If only we all had one of these then this thread would not be pointless.

Just call me an old sentimentalist but I would like to go back to the autumn of 1995 when, after the inevitable "few games" that it took any Pele team to get going, Caley Thistle for the first time ever in its then short history began to show that this was a side which, under this then new management, was capable of going places.

From that point of view it was a very exciting time to be around because this was actually the first phase of success which ICT (the "I" had been added just a few weeks previously) ever had. There was a string of 5-0s and 5-1s and a 6-1 at home to Albion Rovers where Caley Thistle were 6-0 up at half time.... great results for the team which at the start of that season had switched from its "predominantly blue" B) strip to 25% black and red.

"Home" of course was still Telford Street of fond memory and I suppose that reminiscence enhances the nostalgia factor. I can still imagine the unique smell of pies coming out of the tunnel from the Boardroom on the Telford Street air as half time approached and the crack on which was far more likely than before to be positive.

That period also culminated at what is now (for the moment at any rate) the only remaining relic of the "old" Inverness football, Grant Steet Park, early in December 1995 with the genuinely legendary Inverness Cup Final between ICT and Ross County.

Teasdale and Thomson made their debuts, Iain Stewart got yet another hat trick but the real hero in my book (literally because I said as much in Against All Odds) was Daisy Ross as ICT coasted to a 5-2 victory.

However reference to the book also reminds me that it was at that time far from certain that a club was going to continue to exist at all since, although the merger battle was over, the funding of the stadium was still bogged down with the District Council.

Strange isn't it how the human psychology can be so selective in its recollection of the positives.

Edited October 24, 200916 yr by Charles Bannerman

I'd take Caley back to the Highland League days when they visited Station Park for their regular rogerings by the Wee County - Happy days

Beachcomber is just back from the Nairn v Elgin Scottish Cup Tie.

4-2 to Elgin, but they got two soft penalties and County had a goal chalked off for a dubious offside, so I'm claiming it as a moral victory.

I'm sure the ref was John Teasdale !! (I saw him in the P&J looking for a job back in football right enough !)

Big crowd, good crack, City supporters pouring off the trains at Nairn Station, The Vic jumping before the game, snaking queues at the gate, Cowshed hoaching, all in all, a cracking day out except for the official score.

photos from the gurnmeister here

Edited October 24, 200916 yr by beachcomber

I'd take Caley back to the Highland League days when they visited Station Park for their regular rogerings by the Wee County - Happy days

Beachcomber is just back from the Nairn v Elgin Scottish Cup Tie.

4-2 to Elgin, but they got two soft penalties and County had a goal chalked off for a dubious offside, so I'm claiming it as a moral victory.

I'm sure the ref was John Teasdale !! (I saw him in the P&J looking for a job back in football right enough !)

Big crowd, good crack, City supporters pouring off the trains at Nairn Station, The Vic jumping before the game, snaking queues at the gate, Cowshed hoaching, all in all, a cracking day out except for the official score.

photos from the gurnmeister here

That sounds like a nice day out for you. TSNY is on route home from Somerset Park. We were disappointed before entering the stadium as we were not allocated terracing. Instead we ended in in the main stand separated from the home fans by a piece of police tape. What was the catering like at Nairn? Ayr United don't even sell Coca Cola and had no food left at half time.

I've got to admit I enjoyed the ICT pre-season friendly away at Forres. Though my forays to Highland League opposition will be limited to these pre-season friendlies. (Unless we meet a highland league side in a cup competition.)

Edited October 24, 200916 yr by Top Six Next Year

Ashers pies at Nairn - yummmmmmmm - 99% salt !

Ashers pies at Nairn - yummmmmmmm - 99% salt !

I can't fathom why we don't have decent pies down at the bridge.

Pies in Ayr today was the 'Honest Men Centenary Pie' for a pricey ?2.

I'd like to go back to a day or two before Niculae was signed. I'd point out to the powers that be that this signing was going to be the death knell for ICT. That unrest would develop in the dressing room. That power struggles would emerge in the board room. That players would lose the bond that previously had held them together. If they ignore me we'll be where we are now but if they listen we'll be a mid table SPL club in a stadium that all others fear and being managed by Charlie Christie. Crowd averages will be up over the 5000 mark and Black, Cowie, Rankin and Hart would be setting the highlands on fire. Oh! And this season we'd be displaying a new trophy around town.

Wooohoooo

Looks like we turned the clock back yesterday..........twice.

the 'Honest Men Centenary Pie' for a pricey ?2.

At that price, I'd shudder to think what a Dishonest Man would charge for a pie!

the 'Honest Men Centenary Pie' for a pricey ?2.

At that price, I'd shudder to think what a Dishonest Man would charge for a pie!

Was lucky enough to have one before kick-off Charles, worth every penny!!

What gives me "severe indigestion" about our catering (apart from the scabby pies) is no downward adjustment in prices since relegation. The Ayr "special" was a promotional effort, however the rest of the catering prices were refreshingly cheap by comparison to the Dump.

the 'Honest Men Centenary Pie' for a pricey ?2.

At that price, I'd shudder to think what a Dishonest Man would charge for a pie!

Was lucky enough to have one before kick-off Charles, worth every penny!!

What gives me "severe indigestion" about our catering (apart from the scabby pies) is no downward adjustment in prices since relegation. The Ayr "special" was a promotional effort, however the rest of the catering prices were refreshingly cheap by comparison to the Dump.

Big LOLs. They didn't even have coke! 50p for a warm lidl orange it was hardly great! Have to disagree with you. The catering at home is 10x better than ayr's.