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Far too early to give my opinion yet sooz, I'll wait till the run up to Xmas before i'll comment that way they should all have played more regularly and settled in My real worry is the majority are inexperienced kids while we punted experience(Munro and Duncan) dougal

Can't understand what all the fuss is. Education, including higher and further, comes under the control of the Scottish Parliament. The government that we elected (and unlike the Westminster elections we really did!) have chosen to subsidise fees for Scottish students. It has been identified as a clear priority by those in power and they are choosing to fund out of the settlement so kindly passed sown to the serfs from the laird's table. Now, because all English universities insist on charging everyone who attends their universities (as the body empowered to delivering education in their country doesn't see it as high up the list of priorities as, for example, funding soldiers to abuse Iraqis) some chose to label our government racist when, in reality, they should be praised for starting to reverse some of the despicable damage forced on our nation by Thatcher and her ******* love child Blair! Be clear about one thing. Not a single elected member coming from Scotland to Westminster has every opposed abolishing tuition fees for English students attending English universities. It isn't on the agenda as the English politicians do not view it as important. The LDs (Lib Dems or Lap Dogs you decide) once did but.........the lure of the chauffeur, company car and cosy flat proved too much. Delighted that some pompous individual from elsewhere in the UK is taking the issue to court. If it is ruled illegal, then the ability of any devolved part of a member EU state to vary their policies from elsewhere in the member state boundary must be under threat. It will cause mayhem throughout the territory. It will also stick another two points on the opinion polls for those supporting independence. Gae on yersel Rupert!

I very rarely agree with anything you have to say but you are spot on here Green dot for you 12th Man The longman site is the worst possible site to have a football stadium, I just can't understand how ICT got away with it due to its close proximity to the A9 and the crazy congestion it causes on match days dougal

It is imperative that we stay in SPL and drastically improve our position within it. We obviously need sponsorship. No disrespect to Orion but their contribution just isn't enough to sustain us. We need a big name. Someone with a UK wide if not Global reputation. Flybe gave us that but unfortunately they weren't prepared to put their name to a lower league team. We also need a gate increase but that is unlikely to happen in the short term. We let a number of staff go when we went down and as far as I know these have not been replaced to the same extent. We are operating with a smaller pool of players on smaller wages than we paid previously.We have probably made as much cutbacks as is possible so increasing income is about the only way we can survive. To increase that income to any great extent means we must have a strong product to offer. That product has to achieve results in a consistant basis and get us up the table to a position where we are more talked about and our sponsors name is more widely seen. A product that will have more people wanting to pay for it. We also need to do more in our marketing. Be more frequent in reminding people of such initiatives as 'buy a brick'. Do more to try and increase sales of merchandise. Promote the bar and hospitality more. Remind people that they can purchase shares in the company. Perhaps even look into promoting the Kingsmill Suite as a conference and function venue. St Johnstone utilise their hospitality suite on a daily basis for meals and are always sold out. Could we not benifit from similar. The bottom line........WE NEED MORE MONEY

I haven't done a Poll for absolutely ages so here goes Not sure what forum this should be in so mods feel free to move it if you want but it effects all ICT fans on here IMO Whats everyone's thoughts on this reputation voting system on this site? IMO it seems to have been shamelessly stolen from Pie & Bovril but I stand corrected if i'm wrong What I want to know is what exactly is the point of the whole thing? As far as I can see certain users(me included) get targeted by the red dot brigade, while certain other users and their amigo's just green dot each other no matter what they post Surely it would be better for each individual poster to see who is dishing out the green or red dots, that way there is no secrecy and underhand voting I've voted option 3, keep it going but change it so it lets us see who is green or red dotting each post The mods certainly seem to be able to see who dishes out the green and red dots so why can't we???? Thoughts dougal

I will address those two points as the thread can still be read even though it is closed. It is not "stolen" from P&B shamelessly or otherwise ... we use the same software package as they do, and have done for years. Its a feature of the package not some proprietary coding they invented. Reason mods can see who dished out what and to who is because they are mods and are tasked with running the site. Certain users abuse the system and mods need to be able to see who that is so they can remove the ability to post reputation points.

I have no problem with the way it is Dougal. Quite like the fact that the 'mods' can tell but we can't. Strengthens the rebellious nature inside me and feeds my paranoia .............. Good idea for a poll!

option 3 i gave you a green dot for this as i have had red dots for posts that are seemingly innocuous (sp) but i do tend to find that i don't agree with alot of your posts im afraid

Field of dreams ?? Put it on peoples doorsteps and yes we will have extra bums on seats. Sea to the North and West, Dump to the East and an industrial estate to the South. we have zero residents. It wouldnt be hard to lure in extra support if relocating.

It's not all about asking people to spend money, be that the fans, investors, local business or whatever. That is only a part of the solution....and you would be surprised how few actually do buy a 50/50 ticket or a programme etc. It actually costs money to have the matchday programme because sales are so low...and we have one of the top programme sales levels in Scotland. It costs nothing for someone to pick up a paint brush and do a bit of painting, it costs them nothing to hold a bucket for an hour or whatever. 20 people do a half days painting each and that saves the club £5000 or £6000 that they can then spend elsewhere. 10 people with buckets can collect twice as much as 5 people...15 or 20 would be better, but that seems like a pipe dream right now. Why is it they can get some people to clear the pitch on a matchday morning? My theory is that it's because they can see a clear link between getting the pitch cleared and seeing a game of football. When it comes to other things then that connection is not so apparent, but it's every bit as important. We have a core fanbase of maybe 3000...if even 1% of those gave up a little time every now and then to get more involved then the club would be the better for it. I think it's St Johnstone that have something like 70 or 80 volunteers who regularly assist with community projects and getting things done around the club, so it is happening elsewhere. As I've already said, the club have their part to play as well. They need to be making sure that every penny is used wisely and that fans are confident they are doing that. They also need to be willing to accept that they don't have all the answers and that listening to the fans is vital in being able to understand the issues and formulate solutions. Improvements have taken in place in that, but there's more to be done, but it can only happen if everyone works and pulls together. Moving the stadium is not the magic fix....look at St Mirren, they thought it was the answer to all their problems....only a couple of years down the line they are quickly realising it wasn't. It got them out of the hole they were in at the time, but they've quickly found another hole. IMO, the Stadium will move at some point in the next few years, but the whole "Field of Dreams....Build it and they will come" thing is pure fantasy.

The club are already doing a lot to improve things. Stuff like the use of the stadium for conferencing etc has increased and they are trying to find things to bring more people in on a matchday and also to encourage them to spend a little more when there. However, it must get a little frustrating when the reaction to these things is one of apathy. Some examples.... The recent hospitality offer for the Killie game...lot of complaints from people that they can't afford to do these things, the club give them a chance for a very reasonable £15 and take-up is so low they end up having to cancel it. Legends v Curry Hoose night...complaints that it clashed with a Clach match, moans that the club got other people from other parts of the ICT community involved in the squad and it was "falsely advertised" and only a couple of hundred turn up on the night...and it was a free evening with no need for people to spend a penny. Some painting needed done a couple of summers back...we couldn't muster a dozen people to pick up a brush and help for a couple of hours, so the club ended up having to pay someone to do it. The Supporters Trust put out a newsletter recently looking for assistance this coming Saturday to do a bucket collection....I don't think we've had a single volunteer outside of those on the Trust Board. The club have their bit to do and nobody is saying they have got everything right and don't have more they can do, but Inverness as a city (as well as the fans) could be doing a lot more to pay back ICT for the benefits they have brought to the area. I sometimes wonder if Inverness actually deserves an SPL team.

Is it only "party liners" that post on this website?

Just like we do not expect you to dish out red dots to the same user time after time after time for innocuous posts. The moderators have removed this feature from your account as we felt the system was being abused and we will do the same to any other user we feel is doing the same.

As far as 2012 is concerned, I think we are sunk. There's a slim chance and we can hope to beat Spain on their own patch but realistically that would be a freak result. They are head, shoulders, and probably several full torsos ahead of us. We can but dream though ! As for 2016 - definitely hope there ! Holders do not qualify automatically, only the hosts, which this time round will be France. A prominent stats website has suggested that the two most logical formats to get the other 23 qualifiers from the 53 nations of UEFA would be ..... 9 groups: 2x5 + 7x6 (52 nations). In this scenario the top two from each group and the best team in third place would advance. The other eight play-off for the final four spots. 10 groups: 8x5 + 2x6 (52 nations). In this scenario the top two from each group advance. The best six teams in third place play-off for the final three spots. It is thought that the 9 group option is clear favourite to be chosen but UEFA has not confirmed anything yet. The current (Aug 2011) UEFA co-efficient would see us in Pot 4 regardless of the format so trying to get ourselves up from 34th to at worst 27th (in a 9 group draw) or to 30th (in a 10 group draw) is what we need to work at between now and the draw (no idea of date but presumably somewhere between August 2012 and the first qualifying game in August 2014) ..... The next list is released on Sep 9th so I wonder if we go up a little or down ? Current monthly co-efficient (and possible pots based on that. France excluded [hosts]) columns as follows: current rank - previous rank - country - points ------------------------------ POT 1 ------------------------------ 1 1 Netherlands 25755 2 2 Spain 25525 3 3 Germany 24627 4 4 Italy 21455 5 5 England 20264 6 6 Sweden 20148 7 7 Greece 19554 8 8 Russia 19309 9 9 Croatia 18961 ------------------------------ POT 2 ------------------------------ 10 10 Slovakia 18906 11 11 Portugal 18524 12 12 Ireland 18226 13 13 Denmark 18152 14 14 Ukraine 17951 15 15 Israel 16815 16 16 Montenegro 16671 17 17 Czech Republic 16631 18 18 Norway 16606 ------------------------------ POT 3 ------------------------------ 19 19 Slovenia 16523 20 20 Hungary 16221 21 21 Bosnia-Herzegovina 16151 22 22 Turkey 15764 23 23 Belarus 15622 24 24 Serbia 15524 25 27 Northern Ireland 15174 26 25 Belgium 14360 27 26 Switzerland 14201 ------------------------------ POT 4 ------------------------------ 28 28 Romania 13741 29 29 Finland 13601 30 30 Austria 13458 31 31 Poland 12751 32 32 Bulgaria 12681 33 33 Albania 12597 34 34 Scotland 12388 35 35 Armenia 12074 36 36 Latvia 11964 ------------------------------ POT 5 ------------------------------ 37 37 Georgia 11623 38 38 Lithuania 11390 39 39 Estonia 11336 40 40 Moldova 10414 41 41 Macedonia 10242 42 42 Cyprus 9631 43 43 Kazakhstan 8587 44 45 Azerbaijan 8467 45 46 Liechtenstein 8310 ------------------------------ POT 6 ------------------------------ 46 44 Faroe Islands 8225 47 47 Wales 8020 48 48 Iceland 7735 49 49 Luxembourg 7019 50 50 Malta 5573 51 51 Andorra 5240 52 52 San Marino 4597

Think you need to take a closer look at the GERS reports for the last few years to see who is subsidising who. It's always better to take your information and form opinion from the source instead of relying on how one or other side spins it before putting it to press. There is also the matter of taxpayers in Scotland paying more to subsidise expensive education for future fast food retail managers. If we must payroll the free education for universities, instead of a gap year which many take introduce a community service program where they can make a genuine difference to their communities doing whatever their chosen career path dictates. Yngwie, sign here. Not a fan of university education then? Last time I looked tax payers in Scotland pay their tax to Westminster at the same rate as the English, Welsh and Northern Irish and from there Westminster decide on a budget for each countries government. If the tax went straight to Holyrood I would agree with your point but it doesn't.

Bit of advice sotonict I wouldn't put your mobile number up on here, ask folk to pm you that way you hopefully won't get targeted by weirdo's I'd steer clear of IHE if I was you as there is always a danger you'll either not get into the ground or get ejected not long after the game starts Get a ticket for the main stand as there are a lot more knowledgeable football fans in there like myself dougal

Speak to me :biggrin: What would you like to see?

You are starting to sound like a Septic fan Alex I'm certainly no fan of said referee but its wrong of you to say he has some sort of anti-ICT agenda dougal