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Legs are a bit stiff this morning........Never mind. Left TCS at 3.20pm, under very grey skies (the same ones that have followed me round all holiday) that promptly emptied. Managed to confuse everyone by leaving the "wrong" way, but I was not going on the A9 on a bike. Not again. Went out through culloden and then down past Castle Stewart to Ardersier and on to Nairn. Then took the road through Kingsteps to Brodie and across the quagmire that passes for the cycle track to Forres. Down through Kinloss and acroos to Elgin via Lossie brae. Quick intake of breath and on to Fochabers on the A96 and thence to Buckie. Asked the chappie at the gate for the exact time - 7.03pm. Downed possibly the sweetest pint of cider of my 53 years in Buckie's very pleasant social club and went to the game. Met Caroline Strong and her wee boy, answered all the usual questions about the bike and watched the first half. Didn't expect that first goal at all, had to double take on it. There's ?165 pledged on this thread, and a few more quid that I know of that should take us to a total of ?250 or so. No bad really, the charities will be grateful for every penny they get in these tough times. Thanks to Scotty & Don for allowing this thread, to all of you who have donated and to Peter Paul for transporting my carcass back to Inverness. The nearest guess on the time was TM4TJ at 4.15 (oh ye's of little faith!) and my pressie for him is a choice - a signed ICT shirt with signatures of the present team OR a signed fitba with signatures of the vintage ICT team that included Mann, Wilson, Robson etc. You could put it behind the bar in the Innes! PM me with your choice sir.

Delighted that the recruitment drive is continuing.

It always amazes me when people complain about referee performance and pay. We have a situation where football is professional where players are identified at 10 years of age, nurtured, placed in special programs so they can be ready for professional football. A simiar program should be in place for referees. What about targeting players that don't make it as professionals. Nurturing them, build refeering programs - in essence build a career path for them and then pay them appropriatly as professionals. The result would be professional players being refereed by referees of at least a similar standard.

We were quite poor this evening but lets have a bit of realism here we were a team made up mostly of U19 players up against a big spending, very good, experienced and hard fighting (stupid phrase but lets say the Buckie players weren't playing a 'friendly' match...they kicked us off the park at times) Buckie team who have won the Highland League two years on the bounce. As soon as I saw our line up I feared we may be in for a hiding but you have to praise the lads in battling back to get the draw and ensure we finished pre-season undefeated. Our players showed their inexperience against what is basically a Highland League select team the way Buckie have been spending in recent years. Shane was getting battered about by Buckie's centre halves (one of which being ex-ICT man Lewis MacKinnon) I thought Tade was good, nice to see a bit of pace and strength in our side. He had one absolutely beautiful turn (Shame about the finish...infact since it was a game for Daniel Strong, we'll put that down as a good save by his dad) It was also good to see him beating people and cutting the ball back just a shame no one was ever there tonight except when Shane blazed over but we all know his right foot doesn't function properly haha. Shinnie made a big difference when he came on and took his penalty well after being brought down in the box. The best of our youngsters was probably Jack Sutherland who at the moment is probably the only man associated with ICT hoping we don't buy another RB. Craig McMillan started for the Buckie Jags and Zander came off the bench in the second half (that shows the strength of the Buckie squad). Other ex-ICT men on show were Lewis MacKinnon, who I already mentioned, and Graham Stewart.

Left Caley Stadium at 3.20pm, arrived Victoria Park 7.03pm. Total transit time 3hrs 43 minutes. Too knackered to post a full account but will do tomorrow. Thanks to everyone, yon wee Daniel's a lovely wee boy.

He's been injured all pre season - that may be why he isn't getting picked.

We need a decent right back

A lot of relevant points there Oddquine. Interestingly enough, Orange Order rules state that an Orangeman - should strenuously oppose the fatal errors and doctrines of the Church of Rome, and scrupulously avoid countenancing (by his presence or otherwise) any act or ceremony of Popish worship; which as far as I am concerned confirms that the very purpose - indeed, if you look at ther history, the sole purpose - of their existence is to oppose Catholicism. Up here we don't have the Orange Order and have nothing more than the odd abortive Orange Walk and the annual Apprentice Boys pilgrimage to the Portland Club (via, inexplicably, the War Memorial where they have the affrontery to try to gain credibility by recognising our war dead.) But we do on the other hand have the Free Presbyterian Church (the Tartan Taliban) which is just about as bigoted as the Orangemen. This was the highly distasteful and outrageously self righteous organisation which in 1989 banned the Lord Chancellor Lord MacKay of Clashfern for attending the Roman Catholic funeral of his colleague Lord Wheatley. It's also an interesting observation you make about the Battle of Culloden which brought to an end the 60 year conflict which began when James II was thrown out in 1688 and of which the campaign which included the Battle of the Boyne and the Siege of Londonderry marked the start. And yes, it's completely absurd that the Act of Settlement of 1701, banning Catholics from the throne (whilst welcoming foreigners!), should still apply. Mind you, if i had my way, I would simply extend the Act of Settlement to ban EVERYBODY from the throne! But 300 and odd years on, they still make a triumphalist fuss about the Boyne etc but the attitude to Culloden is totally different. So what's the dinstinction? In a word - Ireland. What's kept the Orange nonsense going has been Irish politics and the vexed question of the early 1920s of what to do about the island as a whole. The problem is that the settlement - which was the subject of the 1921 Cabinet meeting in Inverness Town Hall -resulted in a Catholic south and predominantly Protestant north. The southern part fought among themselves in the Irish Civil War and, apart from a few ultra IRA extremists, the pro Treaty view has since become accepted. Now they're more than happy to make their way in the world by providing players for Inverness Caley Thistle. But in the north, the Protestants still seem to feel the need to go around like dogs urinating on lamp posts to mark their territory. Unfortunately this rubbish has also been imported into Scotland and, worse still, has become incorporated into support for the country's two largest football teams - which, I would argue, have become larger as a result of being (albeit invountarily) the focal points for this political and religious divide. In consequence all the other teams in the land find themselves correspondingly impoverished. So Inverness Town Hall in 1921 maybe has a lot to answer for. If the decision on that day had instead been to let the entire island of Ireland go its own way and sort out its own problems, a lot of this nonsense might have been avoided.

GK - Ed Baldy RB - Jack Sutherland CB - Matty Murphy CB - Andrew Skinner LB - Tom Smith RM - Andrew Greig CM - Gavin Morrison CM - Liam Polworth LM - Martin Laing ST - Gregory Tade ST - Shane Sutherland