I am evidently cheesed off by much of the off the field shennanigans this season but I have reflected on my thoughts and feelings and can summarise my present concerns as folloes:

I have continued to be a regular contributor to this board as it has always been a cathartism for me from work, allows me to be an alter ego and I still enjoy the banter. I have met many new friends through this medium - evn those I **** off - and I love it when peeple cannot figure out whether I am being serious or not - especially the wind up suckers.

I will follow ICT to my dying day, irrespective of what league they are in - it is as much a social thing for me. I am not unhappy at being in the SPL and year after year mid tableness. I would die a happy man if we could hit the Top Six and play in Europe - my main frustration is our Cup form of the SPL - I really thought that we would be hammering on the door of Hampden on a regular occasion and lifting a cup was our birthright. I really miss the cup days and I think that is the mot frustrating aspect of being an ICT fan.

What about you ? - Seriously - or am I ?  :023:

Spot on!!

The game against Falkirk is the first of 4 critical cup games. If Barnsley can do it so can we but we must respect Falkirk, Kilmarnock, Aberdeen and Gretna as if they are the same quality as Chelsea or Liverpool. In our last 7 games we ended treating Hearts as an easy home win.

All is not lost if we rediscover our roots.

I?m not the biggest fan of the SPL and probably never will be. I too miss the Cup days and also those treasured moments of the lower leagues. After seeing Queen of the South?s score yesterday I couldn?t help thinking that was us a few years ago and fully understood what those excited fans will be going through right now.

Agree we should be lifting silverware on a regular basis by now and be regular top six contenders but, as long as we don't finish 12th then I guess all is well.....maybe. :023:

personally the cup form is more annoying than the league form. been watching ict all my days (im 22 so thats not that long) but in my lifetime we've risen from the Highland league to the SPl and in doing so we have completley bypassed 20-25 teams who constantly linger in divisions 1-3. i cant imagine what it must be like to be an Arbroath Alloa or Ayr fan (and thats just the A-teams!), no real hope of getting to the big time.

We get regular trips to 2 of the best stadiums in the world, a few games a year on the T.V. and generally being ackgnowledged in the media. Granted our cup from has been sh!t since we came up but we allready ahve the most famous shock in Scottish cup football under our belts! Im sure in the next 2-3 years we'll sneak a trip to Hampden an possibly the top 6 as well. Im not suggesting we dont try to progress but i think people underestimate how hard it is to continue to progress in what is a tough league and tough cups, our time will come

:rolleyes02:

I'm with you, Johndo.  It's good to be in the SPL and it's been satisfying to prove a lot of people wrong, not least Graeme "I'll eat my hat" Spiers.  However, I do miss the excitement of the cup, taking on bigger teams and causing cup shocks, and getting those memorable days out at Hampden.  Wish there was some way we could bring that feeling back again.

Wish there was some way we could bring that feeling back again.

There is - it's called Europe and we'll get there one day

I certainly hope so, beachcomber!

I've seen us play at Hampden twice and neither time was against the Old Firm, I've seen Paul Ritchie and Brester score at Hampden FFS, I'm satisfied with that.  I wouldnt swap being in the SPL with anything, even being in division 1 and winning a Cup, in this tiny country it really is the only place to be.

I think its about time the club started to take itself more seriously, theres a **** of alot wrong and I'm happy not to know any of the gory details, it'd probably scare the pish out of me to find there was a reason other than the standard of players Brester keeps picking holding us back. 

Change is required right across the board.  We all suspected Gretna would give us a lifeline no matter what happened this year and its proved to be the case, preparation for next season on and off the park has to start now if we're to stay in the SPL and build a foundation to make it stick.  Big summer ahead I hope, another one like last year will kill us.

There is - it's called Europe and we'll get there one day