Leaderboard

It took 10 years from Highland league to SPL. Looking back over the last 10 years. We have spent the majority of it in the SPL, we have a professional youth set up with home grown talent emerging.The stadium now has its own bar, a competent and well respected manager and a great squad of players. 10 years ago I would have classed many 1st division clubs as big clubs but as ICT have grown in size and stature that is no longer the case. Looking ahead what can you see instore for the next 10 years. I think we will definitely be in the top six, if the split remains over the next decade. More visits to Hampden. (a top 8 league finish means we dont get drawn to play a team above us till the QF in the Crime cup) A fan base between the size of Kilmarnock and United. Additional seating And continuous local quality emerging from the youth set up. Building on what ICT have achieved so far I think the future is looking good for our club.

1. But what exactly is a conflict of interest? Is it one when they are a card carrying supporter of a particular team? if so, then yes I agree, they should not officiate a game involving that team. However, if you start to base it on the fact that they were born in a particular town/city or that they may have once - perhaps in their youth - gone along to watch a particular team then I dont think its needed. What type of service they go to on a Sunday would also be irrelevant ! 2. I believe Celtic did try to get refs to state certain things publicly this year and it was quite rightly shot down in flames. It does not matter whether they go to mass or go to a sunday morning service ... As far as I am aware no-one has proven any ref in this country to have an ongoing bias towards or against any team. As far as I see it, the biggest issue with refs is lack of ability and lack of consistency. For me it is the inconsistency that is more worrying. Whilst there may be the odd ref who truly is awful, I do not believe every single ref in the country has a lower level of capability than his predecessors, instead I believe that we the supporters have vastly increased expectations of them. With the increase in TV coverage and the advance in TV technology to a point where you can pause or rewind live TV, every armchair pundit now knows the ref made a bad decision almost before he does. Whats more, the ref is no longer allowed to make an 'honest' mistake in a situation where he has a split second to make a decision based on a view of the action that (unlike fans at a higher elevation in the stands) may be blocked by other players .... Refs dont make mistakes any more - we have seen to that .... according to us they make decisions based on a conspiracy of their support for the other team or because they are a certain religion !!!!! When it comes to consistency, thats the bugbear for me whether it is in the SPL or the MLS. We read it on here every week and it is multiplied across almost every forum for every team, and its not exclusive to Scotland !!! ... crap ref this, bad decision that, but most of peoples arguments are 'Player A' did this and got away with it while 'Player B' got a card for a lot less. Its the inconsistency of decisions rather than the actual decisions themselves that should be the first thing addressed but that will never happen until the referees association (and the SPL/SFL/SFA) stop regarding referees reports as 100% gospel and 'protected' and until certain teams stop going several steps further than criticism and into vilification of the refs. For me, the answer is to find a balance between what we can do in terms of technology and what we cant do. Our expectations are higher because of technology so I dont see the issue in using it to increase the performance of officials. I do not want to see football end up like American Football with all the stop-start stuff but if we can equip officials with headsets to talk to each other during a game then thats one way to make sure decisions are quick and easy, and if we can install goal-line technology that works, then thats another. If a ref is about to award a penalty or red card to someone I also do not see the problem in the 4th official (or perhaps a 5th official) having a simple tv box in the press area that he can be reviewing as the decision is being made so he can say "no red just yellow" or "yes penalty". It wont slow or stop the game and may help confirm a decision from a better vantage point.

12th Man and CaleyD have both made great posts .... our hearts like only one of them but our heads realise the other is also true. We have made huge progress since 1994 and that is a testament to literally hundreds of people over the years who have worked diligently and often without any reward other than seeing that progress. Lots of unsung heroes in the ICT story. I still sometimes marvel at the idea that in the late 80s or early 90s we would be talking about maybe getting past Airdrie or Raith Rovers in a cup game as a huge achievement, yet now losing to either would be an embarrassment. Our biggest hope in those days was a money spinning tie in the 3rd or maybe 4th round of the cup against Celtic, Rangers or Aberdeen and if we lost by anything less than 3 or 4 goals that would be a good result yet now we go into these games - home or away - thinking we can get something out of it and are currently several places above Aberdeen in the league table !!! Look at us now - A manager who is instantly recognisable on a world stage, a team that has spent 6 of the last 7 years (or more than 35% of our history) in the top flight, a decent group of fans, a board who we dont always agree with but who have - for the most part - steered our ship carefully around many financial icebergs and a set of players who consistently give us 100% (apart from the odd off-day). But we dismiss CaleyD's reality check at our peril. We saw ourselves what a devastating effect relegation had on the club and we made a huge push to get back up in one season. It had only been done once before (i think) and we managed it thanks to the bottle of Dundee collapsing and the backing of the board not to mention Terry, Mo and the lads. If we hadnt done it then we would have been well and truly screwed ! Destined to life in the 1st (or lower) for a few years as we struggled to regroup and rebuild - look at Dundee, Dunfermline, Partick or any other team in the lower leagues who were once in the top league. Going forward, the reality is however that we will almost certainly be one of those teams who always skirt with relegation, especially if the nonsensical 10 team league comes into effect so we have to keep one eye on that and another on the SPL. Enjoy being and ICT fan, and enjoy our moments of pride, but please, lets temper all of this with just a pinch of reality that keeps our feet on the ground and ensures we dont become 'entitled' like supporters of some other teams I love being an ICT supporter. This is real football. We are not expected to win anything which makes it all the sweeter when we do. Its definitely an adventure (and a roller coaster) but its one we enjoy most of the time...... I can say the same about following TFC in MLS too - in the space of a week TFC are snuffing out Beckham and associates in one game with some nice silky football, then 3 days later laying down to DC United as they steamroller 3 past them while the fans are heartily doing the bouncy .... football - you gotta love it

Oops couldn't see the original listing details until now. Thought the details in the new listing were similar to what was being said on this thread.

He was utterly atrocious. If I performed that badly at my job then I would be fired. It took Skacel crying like a little girl to convince him to book Tokely for that first "challenge". No complaints for the second yellow but his first booking was wholly unjustifiable. For the record, it took Ian Black 6 (SIX!) fouls and a mouthful of abuse to Allan to get himself a booking. Where's the consistency? The throw in farce in the second half involving the stand side linesman beggared belief as did the subsequent handball which he somehow missed. I did also enjoy Hearts taking that other thrown in a good 10 - 15 yards further along from where the ball went out. If these guys can't be consistent and good at their jobs then just f**k off because you're spoiling the game for the fans and players.

This pretty much sums it up for me too. First half we looked confident and really looked like having a go created good chances, with a well taken goal to boot. Second half Jambos came out of the trap better and we were second too most balls. We then started to get into the game again and the referee lost the plot and they scored, the ref's/linesman;s performance then decended into what I can only describe as like a scene from the 'Chuckle Brothers', a complete farce. Not to mention a sending off and several bookings in a game with no nasty challenges that I noticed. I have to commend the Caley players cos if it was me I would have had a hard time not punching Crawford Allan in the face. If I put a performance like that in at my place of work there would be a P45 waiting for me at the end. :annoyed: Rant over.

Without some major intervention I predict the worst within the next 3 seasons....on the positive side, it gives us 7 years to re-establish what we have now (and hopefully on a firmer footing).