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The Supporters Trust did the Feb 8th 2000 10 year Anniversary Dinner and DVD (Still available to buy from Club Shop), so there's some experience there which could be drawn upon...especially for any DVD as the whole process can be a bit of a minefield, and expensive (right to use footage for one match cost in the thousands). I think a couple of "heritage" replica shirts would be a fantastic idea. Good chance to bury this fear that exists about all things "merger" related and for club and fans to view our heritage (from both clubs) as something to be proud of.

I think that's a great idea. It would come nicely between the the World Cup final earlier in the month and the start of a new season. Getting as many of the original teams together and/or having a glamour friendly sound great, although we would need to avoid a clash with our Champions league qualifying campaign

July 30th 1994 marked our first official game against St Mirren, although our first competitive match was August 9th against East Stirling. I wondered with the 20th Anniversary of the club in 2014, is it too soon to talk about marking this anniversary with a series of events. Maybe a replay of the St Mirren game with the original players or maybe a glamour friendly, and with July 30th 2014 is a Wednesday its a perfect night for such a game. Im sure the club have more pressing things at the moment to concentrate on but theres no harm in a CTO debate. What would we like to see? I personally would love a glamour friendly and an anniversary strip being available. Maybe a documentary on DVD about our rise from the Highland League to the SPL. All 3 although a cost to the club could bring in additional revenue! Thoughts?

This, IMO, is part of the problem and one of the reasons for the lack of atmosphere at football matches these days. Everyone is far to "PC". Of course there needs to be boundaries in terms of what is acceptable in terms of songs/chants etc, but does it have to be the expense of having any kind of craic or banter at the expense of the opposition? Rangers screwed up and are in an almighty mess. Nothing any ICT fan sings/chants about that on Sunday is going to make it any worse so...no harm, no foul.

Let me just make it clear that I wasn't talking about any celebration of the merger itself....nor do I think there would be much stomach for that, and rightly so. The merger is an important part of the clubs history, and whilst it is one that should be taught and remembered, it is not one to be celebrated. However, that does not mean that we should simply forget what came before....and in celebrating 20 years of (I)CT you can not and should not ignore the clubs roots. I for one would not be interested in any celebration which served to try and strike Caledonian FC and Inverness Thistle FC from the history books and sought to pretend that we emerged from nothing. As far as I am concerned, the official records may show ICT only came in to being in 1994, but we have a history that stretches back 125+ years.

:clapping: :clapping:

FFS! Wait a minute people! My post was NOT intended to celebrate the Merger in any form, but to mark the 20th anniversary of ICT as a club (1994 - 2014) and nothing else. Please take your Merger chat elsewhere. Dougal! Please for the love of Jesus! Stop highjacking my thread with your " delicate and tender a subject" BS. I bloody well got over it years ago and so should the rest of you! MODS! If this continues with Merger posts, please delete and i will keep my ideas to myself!

How about everyone (players included) wear black arm bands for the demise of Rangers.

I will also be surprised if we don't have many broken seats in the away end. Expect more of this next week. http://www.heraldsco...orance.16793838

This anniversary is an opportunity to celebrate the last 20 years and the 109 years of history from before that. Caley Thistle wouldn't exist as we know it if it wasn't for the merger. If anyone is offended, then that is their problem. As CaleyD said in a previous post: "Good chance to bury this fear that exists about all things "merger" related and for club and fans to view our heritage (from both clubs) as something to be proud of."

Wasn't at the game yesterday but from reading this thread it sounds like it wasn't the greatest of games An ugly point it may have been but possibly a very important point for ourselves I think the important thing was that we left Dunfermline without a defeat I personally think relegation is now between them and a very poor Hibernian Dougal

IMHO the merger is still far too delicate and tender a subject to some and the only thing that an official series of anniversary events would achieve is to re-open wounds that are still not far enough from the surface The best thing for everyone would be to let the 2014 anniversary pass by and maybe wait till 2024 when feelings are more diluted I do think the idea of releasing memorabilia strips in 2014 would be a great idea and it could be a real money spinner for the club Better still maybe ICT could play in the Caledonian strip for all the home games that season and a Thistle strip for away games if they had to if there was a colour clash with the home team i.e St Johnstone,County, Orcs if they are still in existence etc Maybe the supporters trust could put the release of these memorabilia strips to the club at the next opportunity Dougal

Dont think we were ever in thiis sort of mess and if it was the other way round so you think we would be getting the same sympathy? Anyway its not smugness just a bit of fun.

Next week could be very tense. There is a lot of criticism on the web concerning the apparent sectarian singing yesterday. It will be interesting next Sunday if the away support do breach UEFA regulations and Scottish Law to see what happens. For instance, could the referee stop and potentially abandon a game if there is a breach? Chick Young may find our singing silence does not in fact help the away team. This must be a difficult week for Terry and the lads in terms of preparation. Ideally they block out what happens and focus on winning after our disappointing result last time around. Kilmarnock showed concentration is all. We need a result and as Terry has indicated before, football takes place on grass, not on a calculator or in the media. This is a big game for us and we need our supporters to show real support for the club and city.

this.

Having just seen the Dunfermline goal on Sky Sports it doesn't look like Proctor was at fault for the opener as others are saying. Looked like Gillet and maybe Tansey both went for the ball but were put off by each other. Poor defending regardless who it was. And apologies to Proctor!

I'm surprised that either side could muster a single on target pass on that surface yesterday. I really don't want to hear any more central belt pish about our piitch after seeing that. The (occupied) stand side looked like a ploughed field after 5 minutes. No wonder people resorted to the long ball. It was a poor game though. Gnakpa needs time to settle, and proctor wasn't actually that bad apart from a couple of mistakes that could have been crucial. TB couldn't have put Rosscoe up against their nippy wee (Cardle, Buchanan) forwards, they would have turned him all day, so Proctor it had to be. Plus side is that Williams will be back next week so the aruguments become academic. Up front showed how much we miss Tade already, I did have to laugh at the Pars fans booing Gnakpa because they thought he was Tade early on. Hero of the day, however, was the bus driver. Respect.

Not long in from the game, and a fair point to take from a relatively poor game. Neither side played too well despite both having a share of the chances and in the end can't really complain with a point each. We weren't getting going at all really until the much needed introduction of Tudur-Jones and McKay. Gnakpa is not a natural striker and there was little movement at all from him up top which was limiting our attacking options. For what it's worth I thought Shane did alright and looked bright enough in the short time he was upfront before being replaced by McKay. Until we had Tudur-Jones and McKay on the pitch we were playing long ball all the time and just gifting it back to Dunfermline. There was a 10 minute period after half-time where it was so frustrating to watch and even our most creative player in Jonny Hayes got the ball in our half and just hoofed it aimlessly forward at one point. Changes simply had to be made, and credit where it's due, Terry got them spot on. McKay buzzed about creating movement and chances for us upfront with Foran pushing forward to support him, and Tudor-Jones held the midfield superbly well with Tansey. We got the ball down and played some good football pressing the Pars back into their own half. McKay did well to get the ball out to Hayes, who'd made a good run on the left. He fizzed it across goal and Nick was in the right palce to finish it. Well worked goal and I think it's exactly what he needed to get a bit of confidence back after missing a similar chance a couple of weeks back. Hopefully he won't be so hesitant now to have a pop, after the goal v Hibs last season we know he's capable of a good finish. Proctor was poor and shouldn't be near the CB position for us. Whenever he goes in for a tackle in the box my heart is in my mouth convinced he's going to give away a pen. As stated above Gnakpa wasn't effective upfront and was rightly subbed after a poor performance. On the plus side though, good performances from the rest of the team. Hayes, Ross, Foran, Gillet and Tudur-Jones all did well with the latter changing the shape of the game and having a huge influence on the result for us. But MOTM for me would go to Greg Tansey today. Did all the dirty work today in a Russell Duncan-esque performance. Battled for everything, had the head up looking to open up the play and try and create something when he got on the ball and put a good shift in. All in all not a bad result and a decent away trip, onwards and upwards to 3 points against HMRCFC next weekend.

First things first - I learned for the umpteenth time today never to trust a BBC weather forecast - so much for their prediction that there would be no further snow shower in the hills after midday. The trek back up the A9 was an interesting experience. I drove past the scene of that accident this morning and was horrified by the lack of any treatment to the roads. As for the game, I guess you can either look at it as a point that keeps us from being dragged into a relegation battle, or two dropped points that significantly damage our top six aspirations. Dunfermline were absolutely woeful in the first half, to the point that their own fans started booing them. This made it all the more horrifying that we went in behind at half-time. Our midfield were dominant in possession, but we had no cutting edge in the final third. Gnakpa had a shocker - not surprising considering the guy is not a striker. I'm inclined to defend Sutherland against criticism, as he put in a good shift, but I would agree that he didn't look like scoring today. Their goal was a catastrophe for all sorts of reason. I thought the awarding of the free kick was a terrible decision - the forward punted the ball miles ahead and then leapt six feet in the air as Gillet ran across him. Hardie's effort crashed off the bar, and Proctor, indefensibly, headed the rebound straight to Cardle 2 yards out, who couldn't miss. Proc was under no pressure at all. After the break, I actually felt the home side looked more likely to score than us. Esson made one particularly good stop from Kirk after another Proctor blunder (there is a theme here). The substitutions changed the game. As stated above, Tudur Jones started spraying passes around and stretching the game, but I thought McKay was just as effective - his lovely reverse pass put Hayes in down the left, and he fizzed a ball across the face of the goal that Nick Ross slammed into the roof of the net from point blank range. TB deserves a fair bit of criticism for his selection today. It was clear from even the first 10 minutes that Gnakpa up front was not going to work - certainly there was a case for just swapping him and Sutherland around. As for his decision to play Proctor? Well, Gillet is quick, has good positional sense, and times his tackles well. But he's not big, and he needs someone who can dominate in the air to play alongside him - like Williams, Golobart or Tokely. The former two weren't available, but instead of going for Rossco he picked Proctor, who struggled against Andy Kirk, a guy who isn't any bigger than he is. I could list his every mistake today, but that would take a while - so I'm just going to say he was dreadful and that you can be certain he won't start next weekend. The big positive today is that our midfield played very well. I thought Nick was our best performer even before the goal. Jonny had a quiet first half but was electric in the second. I was impressed by how willing Tansey was to get on the ball, and his passing was pretty good. Foran maybe wasn't as great as the rest, but moving him up front in the second half gave us far more firepower. Credit to our support, who made an impressive racket. That attendance today is a shocker, and the home crowd were as quiet as ours at TCS.

Jones looks a very tidy player. Not particularly remotely mobile, but never once lost the ball.

Listening to the commentary I nearly choked when I heard the commentator mentioning Nick Ross' goal. It went something like.........Hayes fired a ball across the box and Nick Ross could not miss from there I beg to differ, Nick Ross could and has missed from there. Still, good to keep the status quo. And well done to Nick for scoring. How embarrassing would it have been to be the first side to lose at East End Park this season. Rossco must be particularly gutted to be second choice to Proctor. Butcher needs to take a wee look at himself just now. Once again no recognised strikers on the park, second rate defenders playing ahead of Rossco and agree about the subs, when chasing the game a midfielder for an attacker. Wakey wakey Terry.

When it began,it was 94 back then. And now I know were growing strong It, wasn't the spring, whooo It was in fact the summer Who'd believe you'd all come along Hands, touching hands, reaching out Touching me, touching you Oh, sweet Caley Thistle Good times never seem so good I've been inclined to believe it never would And now, I look at the stands, whooo And it don't seem so lonely We can fill it with just a few, oh And when I hurt Hurting runs off my shoulder How can I hurt when watching you Oh, one, touching one, reaching out Touching me, touching you Oh, sweet Caley Thistle Good times never seem so good Oh I've been inclined to believe it never would Ohhh, sweet Caley Thistle, good times never seem so good

1st Division Dougie Imrie (Hamilton Accies 1-6 Dundee) 3rd Division Rory McAllister (Queens Park 1-1 Peterhead) Highland League Zander Sutherland (Buckie Thistle 3-2 Clachnacuddin) Dale Gillespie (Nairn County 6-2 Rothes)