Hi guys, my first post and no doubt a controversial one.

Watching the semi on Sunday(couldn't make the game!) Charlie Christie in the studio made reference to the lack of fans following Inverness being dissapointing, and how making a final could attract more into the stadiums on matchdays. I know he didn't mean it in a derogitory way but part of me felt let down by that.

It really annoys me how the small(by press standards) following who show up to the games keeps getting a battering when I think we should be celebrated, this is a team which has existed for 20 years, that is a tiny amount in football terms, any team in that situation would struggle to attract over ten thousand even. In Britain football is a nostalgic affair, standing on the terraces as a youngman with your dad and grandad just as they did with their grandparents 50 years before, that type of support is ingrained into your being, the working mans weekend passion and relief.

For us we have made a choice to go against the grain, it would be easy to support the big teams with all the history but no, we have chosen a team who are writing history, we have decided to support and invest in our local team and watch them flourish through the leagues despite our friends and families sticking with their Rangers, Celtics and Man Uniteds. And boy the results are so sweet, I am a proud Caley fan and have been going to games since I was in primary school and there is definitely a connection between these players and the fans...despite what's written in the press.

I of course have the utmost respect for Christie and it must be very frustrating that the clubs success is not getting bums on seats and I would question a few things around that, but that's for another post for another day.

My point here is that despite so many factors we do have a strong support and one that should absolutely be celebrated, on national tv he had an opportunity to aknowledge that but instead focused on the negitive, it was over in a second and I'm making a fuss about nothing I know but I am getting bored of us being embarassed about it.

What are your thoughts?

_{I was one of the locked out and to this day I still blame one of my pals (InvernessThistle Fan) for delay tactics before leaving the "Sneck" by car! No urban myth just 200 or so peeved off fans unable to get into the ground! Think we'll get over 10,000 to Parkhead no problems!}

I too was one of the Caley fans who did not get into the St. Johnstone game. I had written the chairman, geoff brown, i think to ask if the game was all ticket as i had work commitments and knew i would get there just on kick off time. He actually wrote back saying that they anticipated no crowd issues. Following game i wrote him again to complain. He refunded my car park fee and explained that the only club who had EVER sold out their ground were Glagow Rangers. He was most apologetic and pretty awe struck by the Inverness attendance that night. How i managed to get into the car park and not the ground remains a mystery.

On the subject of home attendances. I challenged Charlie Bannerman on this very subject a few weeks ago. Like CC he had the cheek to suggest that we have small crowds. As a percentage of our City population we probably have a larger support than Aberdeen. If you factor in that there is another Premiership club only 12 miles away from us then we are doing just fine.

Incidentally St. Johnstone took 7% of their population to the semi as opposed to only 5% of Aberdeen's population.

Fully agree that we will never have a better marketing opportunity than 16th March.

Theres always going to be discussions about attendances etc but lets forget percentages etc, lets be realistic how many will be at the stranraer replay on the 18th, i will be along with maybe a couple of thousand others, its not the greatest for sure and maybe cc is right but lets hope some that come along to the final might end up coming more regularly to tcs, maybe even get a few more season ticket holders

Sorry but I disagree with givemeaccccc and one or two others on this. CC did not make a derogatory comment on the crowd who attended the match - quite the opposite in fact. What he did say is that the club DESERVES more fans at the games and I doubt there is any ICT supporter who would disagree with that.

I also read Christie's Inverness Courier column last Friday where he compliments every fan who made the effort to get down to the semi final and even makes the point that the club must look after the regular season ticket holders for the final as well as attempting to engage new supporters in the club.

Many People have to pick and choose their games due to cost of admission, and will obviously pick the "bigger games" if Charlie Christie was complaining about backing from fans it would seem a bit poor as I would not imagine he has paid to watch many games of football.

It's about quality, not quantity.

Trust me it was BOTH

If 5,000+ Caledonian fans existed then more than a couple of hundred would have turned out to stop them being voted to death.

 

Anybody who disagrees is living on another planet.  You cannot silence, block or deny thousands of people from putting themselves in a position to vote.  Does a single piece of footage exist of the rebels numbering more than one bus load?

 

The majority of football fans in Inverness at the time would have traveled in numbers to see any of the three Highland League sides in what was pretty much a cup final.  As a kid I was taken to Scottish Cup games for all 3 sides and we were seeing the same faces at all of them.

 

If we sell 12,000 or so tickets for this final in Glasgow incoming, it would be naive to think that 12,000 of the people buying those tickets are ICT supporters.

What with the Straneraer game  being a virtual freebie and, hopefully, thus with a big crowd,  and the final and the Scottish cup  looming up. ICT are going to do quite well financially. All we need now is a TV contract......sigh! Wouldn't that be nice for the club?

 

Fantastic.

Even with the reduced admission prices for the Stranraer game, I doubt we'll see a big crowd, Scarlet.

As a gauge, we had 2,100 for our midweek League Cup quarter-final against Dundee United. Stranraer won't take many fans anyway, let alone a Tuesday night, so I'd estimate we'll have around 1,700. And as it's probably the only Scottish game that night, it'll be noticed and we'll get roundly slated by the media. I can see it coming!

I'd be surprised if 1700 turned up.