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The sickeningly hypocritical thing for me is that John Reid has no problem calling for the resignation of someone over what they lied about. He's calling for the resignation of man who does a part time job on weekends that involves taking control of a game...a game, not life and death. If this is so important to Mr Reid then why didn't he resign when he, and the rest of his cronies lied about why we went into Iraq? Something that has cost over a million lives and yet, by the sounds of things, the former is the thing that keeps him up at night. Sure, the referee lied and then covered it up, but it sounds a lot like somebody else to me.

Since you're so confident that opening the site viewing to everyone will be of such huge benefit to our following, we'll agree to change it if you agree to foot the cost for the next 12 months. If after that time we have hundreds of new fans then we'll refund your money....if we have thousands of new fans then we'll refund you double your money. Contact myself or Scotty via PM and we can arrange for you to deposit the funds with us. About £300 should do to start with, if we look like spending more than that we can get back to you.

The odds on Elgin went from 1,000/1 to 1,000,000/1.

I'm probably going to get some abuse for this but hey ho, I'll just go on strike. Referees get paid (anyone know how much for a top flight ref?) to do a job.If they do that job well they get promoted up to European, world cup games. If they do that job badly (Dougie) then they will get slated. They will get called all sorts of things, they will have their parentage questioned and even possibly get the odd hollow death threat. As far as I'm concerned, if that is as far as it goes so what, it's part of the job and at the end of the day sticks and stones etc. Try going to Afghanistan and doing your job badly, it won't be sticks and stones coming at you and you won't be able to go on strike either. I think that too many people in this day and age are too quick to start moaning and complaining about the way thay are treated. In the old days if a ref got some abuse off a player, manager, fan he would have given as good as he got. Unfortunately there are too many spoilt brats in the game (on all sides of the whistle) that can't take it. All this strike will do is alienate refs even more because it will inconvenience so many people that have booked trains, planes, buses, hotels etc. Man up and get on with it. PS: If the player, manager etc does go a bit over the top (Celtic) Then the SFA should be man enough to do something about it.

It's all a conspiracy, Lennon is so afraid of facing us on Saturday that he wants to heap so much pressure on the refs that they'll be scared to do anything other than ensure a Celtic victory.

I keep thinking back to my days in the amateur leagues ..... I ran a team, occasionally played (when they were desperate), and was also on the committee of the Inverness & District AFA. At every meeting we had to deal with disciplinary stuff after the main meeting finished. Most of it was mundane stuff, but on the few occasions that anything came up that included referee abuse - either verbal or in one case physical - it was manadated from above (the SAFA, and by extension, the SFA) that we had to come down on it like a ton of bricks. The referee report was 'gospel' and unquestionable, even if (as happened on one occasion) it could be shown to be at the very least 'inconsistent' with other witnesses (from both sides). If we went soft on any decision involving referees it would be turned over at Park Gardens (at the time), they would impose a harsher penalty, and we (the committee) would get our own warning from the beaks !!! I have been there when full season bans were given out to players or officials for stuff that seemed innocuous by today's standards and I have heard other stuff from down the road (Glasgow area) where people got 'sine die' lifetime bans. It alway seemed to me that punishment in the amateur leagues was far far harsher than in the professional leagues ..... perhaps we do need to crack down on managers and players who either abuse the refs or who by their words maybe incite some of the less intelligent fans to take action like scratching cars, breaking windows or uttering threats ..... However, by the same token, the refs also need to get their own house in order .... they need to be transparent, they need to explain decisions, and they need to engage both fans and officials on an equal basis rather than clamming shut and relying solely on referee reports. They are not infallible, they have a split second to make decisions using eyesight alone, none of the technical wizardry available to pundits or tv companies, and they can get it wrong. If they can admit that, and be open about things perhaps they would get less of a hard time !!! As for Dougie McDonald. Its cut and dried as far as I am concerned, He officiated a game and lied about a decision. It doesnt matter why, it now puts all his past and future decisions under the microscope and makes his position untenable. If the referees association chose to expel him rather than back him up, the other referees would not get such a hard time as it would show they were prepared to get their own house in order rather than close ranks.. - where did that whistleblower site go ? -

Tend to agree with that..... but there is more than enough blame to be spread around in this complete cluster**** Dougie McDonald actually got the decision right so I am not sure what the hell he was thinking in lying to Lennon. I see no issue with the referee conferring with his assistant ... thats why we call them assistants now and not just linesmen !!! The problem is that for some reason he chose to lie about the discussion and that reduces his credibility to zero. I would even go as far as to say it brings the game into disrepute as both managers deserve the right to have controversial decisions explained to them and referees have, for too long, denied them that right. Saying nothing - or maybe telling the truth - would have been a better course of action in this instance. Lennon and Reid are also bang out of order. It is nothing short of bullying and their actions put pressure on every single official now and in the future. Lennon seems to have been having a right go at refs from the start of the season and for the Chairman to comment on it at the Club's AGM is also ridiculous. I would say that they too are guilty of bringing the game into disrepute. The associations - be it referees or SFA - also have a part to play. The refs association should have dealt with McDonald and should not have allowed Craven to be hung out to dry. for Craven to make allegations of bullying and harassment from within his own organisation is troublesome in the extreme. The SFA/SPL are also guilty of inaction in that they could have warned, fined or otherwise dealt with officials of their own member clubs who were crossing the line and taking the abuse to another level. All in all its a 'perfect storm' of ineptitude, lack of integrity, and bully bhoy tactics that has led us here. So how to get out of it ??? Refs have to be more open. I even experienced it in my amateur days, where refs would hide behind their 'it will all be in my report' statement, and as they were still empowered to include stuff after the game, even a polite request for information could sometimes elicit an after match booking for a player or official !!! That is wrong. Refs should be allowed to explain decisions to managers after a game, and managers should be allowed to ask about them. If it is done civilly then there is no issue and there should be no threat of disciplinary action unless it is warranted. Referee reports cannot be deemed to be 'gospel' anymore. The game could be live on TV and the sky could be blue and the weather sunny and thousands of people might have been able to testify to that, but if the ref said in his report that it was snowing, the SFA would take that as fact over everything else. Again, I have seen it in amateur football where we had to give the referees report a 100% weighting over any other evidence to the contrary. That is wrong. It is what it is and if the refs report is wrong, and provably so, it should be disregarded. The SFA/SFL/SPL have to come up with a code of conduct for club officials ... and quickly. I do not think officials should be gagged but by the same token they should not be allowed to go off on one like Reid/Lennon. There is a happy medium somewhere where officials should be able to say there were decisions they didnt agree with but that they would be discussed through the proper channels .... with the proper channels perhaps being an independent group made up of refs, officials, players, ex-players so all views could be covered .... It would not change anything for any individual match, but perhaps by actually discussing it rather than shouting from opposite poles there might be some common ground and common sense to be found and lessons learned for future matches. and finally ... maybe it is time to look at modern day technology ??? I dont want to see the game stopped for long periods any more than anyone else but perhaps there is something less intrusive to the game that could be employed? Would a '5th' official dedicated to watching the game on a monitor and the ability to instantly rewind and view controversial decisions be a compromise? I can do it on my own TV in half a second so there would not be much if any delay and if refs have earpieces it would be easy enough for the 5th man to say 'inside the box', 'outside the box', 'gimme a sec, looks like a penalty', 'so and so elbowed this one off the ball' etc etc etc. As all incidents would be recorded, decisions could later be shown to be correct ! PS - the malaise is not confined just to Scotland. MLS refs are bad too ... and in Toronto there is a huge screen at one end of the ground showing every piece of the action live .... the refs are instructed NOT to look at it after blowing the whistle. I guess they are not allowed to change their decisions based on seeing what actually happened either ... just got to go with their own decisions !

Having now recovered from the shock of the revelation that you appear to have been in a bookshop no less than twice in something like a week, I do appreciate your update. However I am not unduly concerned since the half dozen or so still on the shelf in Waterstones are the very final copies of the sixth print run which this book has enjoyed since it was first published 15 years ago. Preumably your next episode of crass and naive stupidity will be to start a thread suggesting that I should instead have written it about the High School or Millburn rather than the Royal Academy.

Think the way Celtic, Neil Lennon, John Reid, Gary Hooper etc etc have behaved and spoken has been an absolute disgrace. They should each be heavily fined and banned with a points deduction suspended pending their attitude in the future. THEY HAVE ONLY GOT AWAY WITH THIS SO FAR BECAUSE THEY ARE CELTIC, Can you imagine what would have happened if this was Terry, George and Adam that were crying cheat. Why do Celtic not get the decisions - when over the years they have won free kicks and penalties because the opponent had a curry the night before. Some of their now previous players would go done like Gillian McKeith, but hey did Hooper not blatantly dive 3 times in the Hearts game, but got booked for the first simulation and the other two in the hearts penalty box were ignored. Cheating! Saw the spl highlights tonight and should Mastjovich not have been sent off for this blatant block on Goodwillie as last man, not cheating in this case but a ref mistake in Lennons favour, but no word about that one from Mr Lennon. However, although Celtic have gone way way over the top about this, a lot of Celtic supporters will believe the hype, and this then becomes a very hostile situation every time a ref does make a mistake or misses a foul etc. Cant imagine what could happen at Ibrox if the ref misses a Celtic penalty at the away end, or Rangers get a pen for an act of simulation. The ref who takes charge of that one will need elephant like skin because he will be in a no win situation. Again however, the sfa should have acted sooner and more severly to punish the lie from the ref McDonald. His decision was right to reverse the penalty, but i bet he wishes he didnt scribble that white lie. He has to go, but so should the refs decision process be changed for after the games. After all that with the Utd game we then got Broadgate, with a player already on his way down winning a penalty in Celtics own back yard. If Broadfoot wasnt diving early, Mastjovich was going to catch Kirk anyway, as he did with his left knee, but its really down to the fact that Broadfoot wasnt waiting for the genuine foul. But waiting for the genuine foul doesnt always get you a penalty - ( Broadfoot when he was taken down in the Man U box at Old Trafford ) Crux of the matter a lot of the time is the lack of honesty in players these days does not help refs. Players with bags full of talent dont need to go diving ( Ronaldo ) and we should be able to admire those who apear to not simulate death on the pitch like Messi. Time for football to get tough with the cheats, and get the game clean again. Kick out McDonald, throw the rule book of eticet at Celtic and start to ban players for cheating after the games. Only way to get the respect back and stop all the simulation

As Scotty says, it has to be a two way street, and I think Refs have brought the current situation on themselves by operating the way they do. I don't agree with them having to endure any abuse, but what constitutes abuse and when is the line crossed? IMO, a manager stating after a game that he thinks a Ref got decision/s wrong is not abuse and should not be subject to punishment/sanctions. It's when Managers, Players or Club Officials take it beyond that with suggestions of deliberate cheating, bias and conspiracies...in effect where they start calling a Refs character and integrity into question...that the line is crossed. If they truly believe a Ref is corrupt, then ranting in post match interviews and to the press is not the way to deal with the problem...but in saying that, if the Refs Association is not dealing with things properly when reported to them then I can understand the frustrations and when you let the problems and pressures build up then it needs to find a way to escape (voice of experience). Players surrounding Refs or pushing their luck when on the pitch should not be a problem...the Ref is in control of that situation and if someone crosses the line they get booked...simple as. Nothing more needs done and it's not a situation that should be allowed to cloud the main issue. I don't necessarily agree with Refs striking as they are, IMO, as much a part of the problem as everyone else right now. Although, again, if the beaks are not doing enough to change things on the officiating side of the process by having a more proactive and transparent system then the Refs are, in effect, stuck in the middle and something has to give. Get everyone in a room and start banging heads together till they all learn to grow the feck up.

The SFA have to take a long hard look at themselves amongst all this as well, they fanned the flames by not coming out and backing their ref's throughout the whole situation and the way that Steven Craven left was a joke, he was left to hang out and dry. All they had to do was release a statement saying that it was being dealt with in house and the ref's had their full backing. Nobody should have been coming out and speaking to the press the way they did. Everyone makes mistakes day in day out and like a lot have already said lets not forget these guys do it part time, love the game and officiate for this reason and more often than not because they can't play the game themselves either through injury or not being good enough. It's about time they were backed. Mistakes happen all the time in games, look at England, they made their ref's go professional and it still happens down there and will continue too. Without controversy what would we speak about in the pub? I know that if I went to work and made a mistake and my boss openly criticised me in front of others I would be affronted, shocked and angry. John Reid and Celtic have acted shamefully throughout and their actions both in the media and on the touchline are a disgrace to the point of being detrimental to the Scottish game. For Reid to demand the resignation of a man for one lie after all his lies over the years is completely hypocritical, hopefully he will take heed of his own fans reactions and either shut up or get out. Scottish football doesn't need a man like this involved nor do we need to listen to the p*sh that comes out of his mouth. This is not politics it's a game, a game that everyone loves and unites people of all cultures and classes, someone should remind him of this.

I'm with the refs as well. I hate it when players surround and intimidate the referee when a decision is made they don't like. Being verbally agressive to the referee should be an automatic yellow card - at least - and a free kick to the opposition - or move the ball 10 yards further forward if they already have one. What a contrast to Rugby where the referees are held in great respect and decisions are accepted without question even when they are blatently wrong. Part of the reason there is that referees can penalise teams distance for backchat and referees are supported by the authorities. One can, nevertherless understand players reacting in the heat of the moment but there is no excuse for the abuse referees have been given recently from some managers and club officials. It is time the SFA took sanctions such as the docking of points for these outbursts. A 10 point fine would soon shut Lennon and Reid up.

I support the refs on this one..good on them

The wee man is growing in every game and thought on saturday he was outstanding for us. However when he was subbed off i felt it was a real shame like foran and hayes he was only greeted with clapping where as hayes and foran were greeted with a very focal support. About time the boy gets some real vocal backing for the more creative of people on the site please make a song for the lad he deserves it.

Both. History has shown us, that ICT always, without a shadow of a doubt do better when they play attacking football, using speedy effective wingers and keeping the ball on the deck. There's no two ways about it.

MissICT I'm not sure where your negativity stems from. First of all why do you doubt that it was supposed to be played against County? It was there progression to the Alba Cup Final that caused their call off. Who says we won't be playing our first team? Who says only 1500 will turn up? I'm sure we won't play all of our 1st team, but I'm equally sure that a number of them will feature. You might not be far away with your crowd prediction, but I hope people will come out to support Roy as he has served the club well over the years and deserves his night. The opposition shouldn't matter.

I have the utmost sympathy with referees. They are ordinary guys like most supporters and yet week in week out they get abuse. There has to be far more respect for them with severe punishments handed out to clubs who seek to impose their own rules on the game. Mistakes by players and officials are an historic part of football's history. The ruling bodies should begin by insisting that demented managers or players who abuse fficials with foul or abusive language should be given automatic 10 game bans. Repeat offences would result in a double punishment. Such disgraceful behaviour as we have recently witnessed would then result in 'offenders' being isolated to prevent them repeating their offensive behaviour. Finally, officials should receive fixed sum compensation for abuse. We do not have to put up with this in our workplaces. As an aside it would be great to make 12 months without an away defeat - is there another club near that record in Britain?

You Say ICT..I say Caley so what His book is for the dons not us end off

It's also on the same night as Scotland v The Faro Islands at Pittodrie Stadium

A mere 46 posts, and already the best poster on here.

What is wrong is you are disrespecting Alex by saying so Can you please refer to the team as ICT or Inverness in the future, as far as i can see you are just trying to get a rise out of the ex jaggies which achieves nothing other than splitting the support :irritated: dougal

I can't say I'm surprised by this tbh, the criticism this season has been awful and hasn't been helped by Hugh Dallas' comments that appear to be in the Sunday Mail today. Not sure if I'm happy about it or not though, we're on a great run of form and I genuinely believe that we have a great chance next Saturday of taking something from the game. It would be awesome to keep the record going but wouldn't we want to do it ourselves rather than having outside influences helping us?

While you are absolutely right about our service men and women and what must be unbelievable pressure, football shouldn't be compared to a war zone. It's a sport for goodness sake and there must be something far wrong with society when referees and their families can be terrorised in their own homes. For what? Having the audacity to make a mistake that some paranoid a*****le sees as part of a hidden agenda. The clowns at parkhead should hang their heads in shame. All they are doing is helping the morons feel justified in their paranoia. I wish they would all grow up. Shankly was wrong.... football is not more important than live and death. Oz , i take my hat off to you sir . Perhaps you could round up some of these morons and teach them what really is important in life and it sure as **** ain't football. Robbylad, Sorry if I came across wrong in the way I wrote my rant. I'm not comparing Football with a war zone merely pointing out that there are more high pressure jobs than reffing. It seems that people are all too quick in striking when something happens that they don't like. If we all did that the world would come to a stand still. Now don't get me wrong, the refs shouldn't be subjected to the **** they are and the morons that are guilty of the abuse should be taken care of by the FA or if need be the police. Having said that I've stood on the streets of Belfast and had people question my parentage, thrown rocks and petrol bombs at me and eventually been shot at. Unfortunately I couldn't go on strike and no I'm not looking for sympathy. You just get on with it. I think the problem is the mentallity of today, the compo culture. The way we think that if someone upsets you, you should be due something in return. On the flip side, if someone is found to be breaking the rules/law then they should be dealt with. Unfortunately because of the softly softly culture that has been adapted in Britain, nothing will happen because if it did the scroats would complain about their human rights being restricted. I have to stop now, I'm building up to going out and smacking some poor innocent person just for the hell of it.

One word to describe the action taken by these so called Top Refs ---- PATHETIC!!!! ?800 + a game and as soon as they get a bit of criticism they throw the toys out of the prams Dougie MacDonald should have been fired or at best downgraded to officiate lower league games for his part in the shambles Celtic should be hauled into the SFA offices and severely fined or get points deducted for their part As Scotland is a very small country refs should be made to declare what team they support before they get the badge, although we all know the majority will say Rangers The standard of refereeing in this country is at an all time low and i would fully welcome refs from other countries officiating as it will highlight how bad our numpties really are dougal