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Indeed that we can agree on. From the games that I've attended and highlights I've seen on SHFL Tv on youtube i would summarise so far: They played almost all of the top 6 of the HL in the first set of games and struggled initially. Its important to point out that the struggle is largely represented in the early scorelines. For those that attended the games its evident that technically they aren't struggling. The guys are all capable players who are comfortable on the ball. The large majority of the goals conceded to date have been from set pieces. The physical side of the HL was always going to be the biggest challenge for them to adapt to. Defensively they need to adapt from playing against other under 18s and adults and are beginning to do so which is represented in the goals against now lessening. Going forward again the same Jack, Kieran, Ross and Roddy are all small players by the average height of HL footballers. They are improving and adapting to the physical sides of the games. They play good passing football around the back, counter attack quickly and press the ball. Club officials have certainly attended midweek games and id imagine that reports are provided each game.

Quotes wrong way round but have some board members already made substantial investments. The issue here is that not enough fans can be bothered to turn up each week and, in the Championship, that makes full time football difficult to sustain. Dunfermline, the Dundee clubs, Patrick Thistle and even Falkirk all attract substantially more fans than us. If we cannot attract more fans then part time football is the only solution. If that happens, the fans have only themselves to blame.

As stated before our lack of attendance has been discussed at leanth and how to get people through the gates is the issue we can't seem to overcome I've seen some great crowd's before but we just can't seem to hold on to them for whatever reason. It's heart breaking to see the sparsely populated stands now and without a rich sugar daddy to bank roll us like other clubs have it's hardly no surprise we will probably end up announcing even more losses. I for one love this club and even if we ended up back in league 2 I'd still be making my trips over. Only wish more people could see what I see in this club. Flying out tomorrow for the QOTS game and I'm really looking forward to it as I always

You mean the 'fans' who can't be arsed coming? Guess they'll not be that bothered.

They are driven on a bus to fort william and back and aren't having to utilise own transport.

Great idea, just a shame that the club haven't sent out any proxy forms 🤷‍♂️

Quite an honour too for ICT to have him leading the club as Manager.

And no bookings. BBC match stats suggest it was comfortable. Is that right?

There is allegedly a rumour, among some County fans, that Uncle Roy is now also putting money into ICT. Something to do with him divorcing his wife and her wanting half his fortune. I have no idea as to the validity of this.....im merely relaying what i heard.

In my opinion - now that it seems to be running more efficiently - the best thing any of us can do, especially if we have shares and cannot go, or have not setup a proxy with someone else, is to proxy them to the Supporters Trust in case of any voting. I already have a proxy setup or I would do that myself. With a 10% voting right on its own, bolstered by however many small individual shareholder proxies, I would be confident they would have to be listened to, would do what is in the best interests of the club and its supporters, and could certainly have some influence in any decision making. I said it a couple of years ago, but we need them more now than we ever did at any time in the past !

The issues of footfall have been discussed to death elsewhere on here (some really good threads and posts worth searching for), but the reality is that even as you suggest the club get established and challenge for Top 6 every season there wont be a significant numbers increase (remember when we were in the Premiership) - the big issue is the lack of connection between the fans, club & city and the inability of the club to effectively take advantage of success and positives to use as a marketing tool to draw 'new' or 'lapsed' blood into the stands.

The players that travel on said bus. The one I have seen them get on and off.

Ah well, there's always Fort William FC

We recorded a Pars special yesterday with some chat about the game on the way to Fife, got the views of home and away fans and bundled it all up into a neat 20 minute bonus package for you to enjoy to round off your weekend in style. https://thewynessshuffle.podbean.com/e/the-paralytics/

...Five... Christ on a bike, have we given the Fort other things as well as our weans?

FT 2v0 That'll do nicely, 3 points in the bag and our wee run continues

Utd 0 Arbroath 1 - we are currently in 2nd position 🙂

Welsh sits no matter what, imo he's far better there and can control the midfield more. Doran doesn't have the legs to sit in the middle anymore and if he needs a rest or a breather it's not as noticable when he's in his normal wide position. Storey for Keatings is the obvious choice and hopefully he'll add drive to the attack from the middle and be a perfect runner off/behind White

Here’s to an enjoyable afternoon in the sun! Hopefully Welsh starts today. Will be interesting to see the front four. Will Storey play the Keatings role or wide? I’d give MacGregor a chance in the Keatings role, but suspect he will be on the bench. Roll on 1500!!

What A glorious day for picking up three points lets hope for a good game.

Sitting in the airport treating myself to a liquid breakfast. Hoping for a big 3 points today. Hear the caley club calling my name

He’s been best playing wide from what I’ve seen of him so far. Against Morton in the cup he was quiet until he and MacGregor swapped and he was then playing wide on the right. I think we need to keep a main striker and play to Storey’s strengths by utilising his pace.

I'm normally of the opinion why worry about something that you can't influence and while what happens at the EGM, or the outcome of it, can't directly be influenced by me alone, it's not an attitude that sits well with me on this occasion but then what can I do. Indeed if everyone had that attitude then we would be in a far worse situation than we currently are. I like to think that I contribute as a fan when I can all-be-it would love to go to more games, probably all I could do is buy a ticket for each game even if I couldn't go. I would say that's an extreme measure though. That aside it'll be interesting to hear what the content of the EGM is and what it brings in the short and the long term, I'll reserve judgement on why it's been called until I know more information.

There are lots of factors at play here. For a start, the dropoff in income compared to being in the Premiership is huge - the difference in prize money, TV money, sponsorship opportunities and attendances (both home and away) is enormous. I'm pretty certain that most of the full-time clubs in our division either made significant losses (us, Dundee United, Partick Thistle) or relied heavily on handouts (Ross County, Dunfermline, QOS, Morton) to get by. Unfortunately the nature of things is that if you spend beyond your means and don't get promoted then you're in financial trouble, but if you balance the books you're probably at risk of getting relegated to League One and losing further income. Moreover it's all very well complaining about poor attendance but the fact is that people clearly would prefer to spend their hard-earned cash in other ways. Cost, apathy, inconvenience - for whatever reason people aren't coming to games and no other club has found a magic fix to this problem other than success on the pitch (which as stated elsewhere didn't exactly lead to a hike in our crowds either). The bottom line is that the club is not currently sustainable without investment from outside (I say 'investment' but it's basically handouts) and we're not unique in that respect. The difficulty is finding someone wealthy who is willing to waste their money on such a venture. That I suppose is what the EGM is about.

well done Robbo 👍👍

My prediction HT: 0v0 FT: 2v1 1st ICT: White 1st Opp: El Bakhtaoui Crowd: 2136 Caleyjag's prediction HT: 0v0 FT: 2v1 1st ICT: Doran 1st Opp: Dobbie Crowd: 2134 *** Caleyjag and I predicted separately, honest 😲 ***

If it cheers you up I posted odds but wished I hadn't as my prediction was again rotten 🤣 Peterhead @ 2.25 please

It's a well travelled road, by young and old all year round - yes it can be hazardous but these situations can generally be assessed as and when the need arises. The A96 isn't much fun either and the traffic on that is way worse...wonder how Daniel gets to Elgin in the winter??

Cheers Gringo - that gives me a 50/50 chance of getting this one right... Forfar @ 2.05 please

The Supporters Trust will attend on fans behalf as custodians of the 10% voting right. Other fans on here are shareholders too.

You're fired No worries CB...all was well. And I still lost. Forfar v Montrose draw @ 3.40

Lets hop for some positive outcomes from this meeting which gives some answers and avoids - another badly constructed thread on here from a 'board member' begging for money as part of a fans scheme without having any structure or competence to answer basic fans questions - that was frankly embarrassing for all parties - lengthy fan debate whether complementary tea/coffee or cola is a good use of club funds - explanations whether opportunities tendered such as the catering (or any other club service) gave peak return or whether due to nepitism the club got screwed to help a fellow board member or associate (at that time) potentially benefit That's some of the 'peak' banter I recall from the last financial discussions the club engaged with fans

Hey folks, happy to confirm that we'll be broadcasting free live audio commentary of Saturday's game. It'll be the same process as before, using a periscope link that will go up on the club's Twitter feed shortly before kickoff. Hopefully it'll be a good listen and a good result!

Ahh massive aplogies for forgetting to post last weeks Naps odds - that International period really throguhh me off , I was ready to do it but was a week early and full of games like Scotland vs Belgium...... Sorry !! Even forgot to enter my NPL too..... Morton @ 3.20

This is the letter and agenda sent to shareholders. Rumour has it we are going to announce a significant increase in our debt .... the letter seems to give clues on the potential numbers and that seems pretty close to the figure I have heard on the grapevine. The other rumour is that we may see a similarly significant change in the boardroom with several departures and some new blood. Letter 18.09.19.pdf 2.pdf 1.pdf

Not sure Hearts, or Robbo for that matter would go down the same route again. When he went there before he said something like it was the only team he would have left ICT for and I dont think any of us could really begrudge him given the connections. It may be different folk in the background now but despite having a decent run as manager he still got sacked unceremoniously and most would say unjustly .... His later stints and experiences at County, Livi, and Derry likely did nothing to make him feel good about management and his tenure at East Fife was also pretty short. We tempted him out of managerial retirement in 2017 and despite our own unfortunate experience of having someone manage us more than once he has also been reasonably successful second time around given the financial constraints he has to work within. We often talk about players being the right fit for a team .... the same applies to managers and I think Robbo is the right fit for us and he knows it as do our directors and board. Why would he leave one of the safest jobs in football and go back to the potential managerial merry go round that the Hearts spotlight would bring.

If I were Clarke I would announce now that if we fail to make the Euros the players will be expected to make themselves available to attend a summer camp during the finals. Anyone refusing to attend automatically rules themselves out of the squad for the future (print their names in the paper), they would be away from home for three weeks anyway if they qualified for the euros. He needs time with them to work on formations and a style of play that suits their ability, you can't do that in a couple of days before a match. I would also arrange three closed door matches against teams from outside Europe to put these ideas into practice, if we go into a world cup qualification group without this kind of preparation it will be more of the same.

I don’t think the issue is how many people who play football don’t get paid, because that is common across all sports. The issue is the extremely and uniquely large number who do get paid for playing football - where it’s possible to receive a regular wage, never mind simply payment by results, at remarkably low levels of competence, fitness and commitment compared with other sports. And below the top tiers, I don’t really think popularity is an overwhelming factor because there are plenty of teams paying players to perform in front of quite small crowds in relation to their wage bills. This is something often made possible firstly by the willingness of wealthy people to subsidise these clubs with large donations, often in return for perceived prestige..... and secondly due to the clubs supporting their excessive wage bills by charging the kind of ticket prices which the Original Post was about and which fans frequently find burdensome. .

The Supporters Trust has taken this matter up with the club. CEO Scot Gardiner was very aware of and concerned about the problems with the Morton "fans" and explained the very specific circumstances of this incident. Because of the game being on TV with an early KO time as a result, and given the distance Morton fans would have to travel, Morton supporter groups told Morton that they were asking fans to adopt a 100% boycott of the game. The club gave its support to that stance and informed ICT of the situation. Opening the South stand involves significant extra expense with a separate servery, extra cleaning etc., and the decision was taken not to open the South Stand. However, recognising that despite the boycott, some people may still come to the game, the club set aside the South end of the main stand to accommodate any who turned up. In the event, more than expected turned up and unfortunately, amongst these was a group of around 20 whose behaviour was very poor. Scot recognises that the situation must not be allowed to happen again and therefore they have taken the decision that, despite the financial implications, the South Stand will be open for away fans for all future games this season. This includes the game on Saturday when it is anticipated that the crowd will be even smaller than last Friday. As Fraz rightly says above, this is the sort of issue you might expect an SLO to deal with, but the club does not currently have an SLO. Scot has agreed that it would be useful to have a separate meeting with the Trust to discuss what elements of the SLO role, as defined by the SFA and Supporters Direct Scotland, need to be carried out and to identify how that might be done within the financial constraints faced by the club. We'll update you with progress on that in due course.

Oh the joy of being in the North Stand and far far from away fans objectionable behaviour. After trying various areas, for view, for out of cold wind/rain/sun/whatever, I chose a great seat for my season ticket, so many years ago. Great craic, lots laughs every game, and I have made great friends who return to the same seats season after season. Such blessings not to be in earshot of away “fans”. I find the view from Main Stand strange (if in hospitality) and atmosphere so different. The North Stand is great for goals at “our” end and I can use my binoculars for those at the other! The North Stand is top class for umpteen reasons.

Hearts and Aberdeen have both relied on waking up a large sleeping support who had become disillusioned. Hearts foundation are not funding the team or youth...they are paying back Ann Budge and will ultimately have majority ownership in return. The club itself is currently running within it's means without that funding going to it. Aberdeen have the carrot of a new stadium/facilities to get people interested and involved. Motherwell and St Mirren situations are more on a parallel with ours...but both plans to move towards fan funding involve fan ownership. All if the above 4 scenarios have relied upon an element of cash up front and/or assistance from a wealthy benefactor to become a reality before any additional fan funding is/will kick in. Setting aside my own personal views (which you are aware of), I don't think there's any route towards the kind of community funding you're talking about without a move towards fan ownership...and I don't mean the half baked community ownership model that the Chairman talked about at the last AGM which seemed little more than an attempt to cap everyone elses voting right, whilst maintaining their own. Perhaps Muirfield Mills could make a gesture of goodwill, and demonstrate their involvment is not about ego and power, by passing back the 700,000+ shares they got control of for £1 (and which were previously tied up with the stadium ownership) to the club. I think that could/would prove every bit as vital to securing future investment as Tullochs gifting back the stadium itself.

I have to admit having lived in Aberdeen and now Angus for past two years this is similar to the aberDNA idea Aberdeen fc introduced at the start of this season. Over 11000 AFC fans signed up to a 2 year commitment and got certain benefits like season ticket discount, merchandise discount entered into a draw for hospitality chance for juniors to win a mascot package discounts to cup games and they were given different levels they could donate monthly from £10 to I believe £50 a month those on the higher donations were also given a free home shirt. Yes we are smaller, we are not going to get the 100,000 + quid this generates for Aberdeen but it has been ring fenced for the Aberdeen playing budget. If you could ask the fans what they would like the money to be contributing towards, what they would like to get back from the scheme and what level of contributions could be made, then devise a plan and present that to the fan base, hopefully It would invigorate many among the not only regular attendees but folk like myself who live large distances way to help contribute regularly towards the success of the club in the future?

So you'd be happy to lose the youth?. Go part time ? Please also if you could quantify and clarify your boardroom points I'd be all ears. Along with the long term plan. Personally I don't have an ego that needs boosted and I m pretty sure none of the others do either but if you think you can do a better job by all means get in touch . My email.is [email protected] I do this for nothing. I've put a bloody fortune into our club to keep it going so glib remarks like that **** me right off.

Even as an OAP on limited income, I would be prepared to contribute to such a scheme, but only direct to ICT - not to any intermediary such as the Supporters Trust/shares/whatever. As a Caley supporter for over 60+ years and ICT supporter since inception, I would want my cash, little as it may be, to go to ICT to use for the good of ICT. Where do I sign up?

I’d be interested in something like this possibly. I’d actually like there to be a kind of kids club for the younger fans, pay a certain amount each month and they get a little in return. It wouldn’t need to be value for money but just some sort of interaction for the kids, a personal message from the mascot, stickers, badges etc and free entry for kid and adult to something like a summer friendly etc.

Me please.

Tops off his hard work and endeavor for all those years as a player, top striker in his day who justifiably deserves his place among the greats. Everyone connected to ICT should be proud for him and also proud to have him leading the helm, any little bit of positive exposure that anyone connected to the club gets can only be good for our profile generally.

Well from a psychological perspective trying to bring about unison can often increase separation.

Would give Storey the nod over White he needs a good run in the team brings a bit of pace to our attack