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ICT have one of the busiest and most successful Community Departments in Scotland and our guys are out doing school visits etc most days (including weekends). A survey was done a little while back that compared community effort by clubs and ICT stood out massively in terms of what they were achieving from the budgets available. Despite that I am sure they would love to be doing more....but that would involve spending more and they just don't have it. You talk about the club doing more to "interconnect with the ordinary people of the town".....how about the "ordinary people of the town" stop expecting everything handed to them on a plate and at least try and meet the club half way on stuff. It does my napper in every time I see one of these threads where it's "WE WANT, WE WANT, WE WANT" or "This is so vitally important"....aye, vitally important until someone asks people to volunteer a bit of time or whatever and then silence and nobody to be seen. I'm not religious, but the sentiments of the saying "The Lord helps those who help themselves" I agree with entirely. Inverness has a more successful football team than it deserves based on what they city gives back.....if people want more/better then they need to play their part in providing the help and resources to make that happen.

Bottom line is that we need more bums on seats, and on Saturday I think anyone could have reasonably expected more to turn up. Smee, the movie analogy doesn't work. Any blockbuster movie (or any globally famous band) has a far greater reach than us, and can set the ticket price knowing that they will get millions buying the product. Comparing a one off ticket price for a concert that would last for an couple of hours to a season or so's worth of football, is curious in its logic. With the greatest of respect to you, for ICT that ain't never going to work. Reduce the prices and the figures just don't stack up. There is a case to say that the match day experience could be better and therefore offer more value, but price deduction, no. There is, by the way, an amazing amount of work going on by the club and others to improve the experience; the football's better, the league is more compeditive, fans are more involved. Maybe you might want to add your ideas.

My post was not intended to be a pop at HighlandCop or anyone specific. It's just that every time we get a thread like this we get 1001 comments/statements from people saying that the club should be doing this, that and the next thing...and never any "I would like to help the club do......" The club can't do everything and they can't be everywhere and everything to everyone....certainly not with the resources they have. Anything I say from here on will just be the same as I've said a hundred times before, so I'll not waste my time and yours. It's quite simple really, if the fans want it, if the community wants it and if the city wants it...then they have to do their bit to help make it happen.

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. (Philip Dick). At this time of the season this is actually the kind of reality check that is required. ICT are,were and always will struggle to meet ends meet. We are,were and will always be a selling club, a feeder to bigger clubs. But somehow we have always managed to avoid significant and crippling debts. That is money management at its best. Lets just pay homage that we aint facing the dilemnas faced by the Portsmouths of this era and never go on a Gretna / Livingston "Live the dream" journey. I would rather endure sleepless nights and nightmares as long as ICT lives on. How do we progress financially this year ? Is that not the same equation as our progress on the football field ? Top six finish and two good cup runs and a smell at Europe next season. Then we start worrying about next season but produce players who may bring in valuable transfer fees. Am I being overly pessimistic ?

This is a little bit of an exaggeration (as nostalgic accounts of football crowds from days gone by tend to be!) but also a little bit "beside the point". The official opening of the Caledonian Stadium v Albion Rovers in November 1996 attracted 3734 while the second game was a the first home Highland derby which had 4562 while the second one in March had 5525. There were also 3000 odd for the winning of promotion and of the Third Division title and around 4000 had to suffer that abysmal performance v Brechin before for trophy presentation in April. So yes, by the very nature of a first season in a new ground with Highland derbies and in that unique situation, crowds were enhanced. But if you look at the bread and butter games of that same period, crowds here were far more commonly on or below 2000. Now even this was great compared with Telford Street, but even this was somewhat helped by the large ongoing novelty of the new ground. Sooner or later, though, the novelty factors would fade away and I am sure that longer standing fans will also remember the years in the First Division where home crowds were typically around 1800-1900. So I really don't think that the example cited is either numerically accurate or represents a suitably comparable context.

CaleyD, I agree with a great many of your posts, which more often than not show good sense so I am surprised at this attack on Highland Cop. This person appears to be in a position of hands on contact in his/her domain yet is not aware of any real interconnection between the Club and that domain, which means that somehow the great work you talk of is not getting through to that particular population. Food for thought dont you think? perhaps a bit of liaison between both parties could well be enlightening. I fully understand your frustrations having done a great deal of voluntary work in my young to middleaged years and realise just what you are saying but perhaps the saying you quoted could have a few words added i. e. But the lord may need a little bit of help himself. Carry on the good work but always keep an open mind.

BTW, has anyone mentioned that we managed 5 league games in a row without a red card ?

I work a lot in a particular housing scheme in Inverness and I have never been aware of any inter action by the club with the community. Engagement is key not just with the kids but with the adults as well. The club really have to identify themselves and pro-actively make an effort to come along side local communities and not just expect people to come along to a game on a Saturday - nowadays that just does not work. I agree that there are serious issues re admission charges; the SPL pricing is no attraction and is excluding many people from the game they love. Just my opinion for what's it worth, but I believe the ICT board really need to look as to how they can pragmatically and consistently engage with the people in the local communities and not for them just to read about the club in the Courier on a Friday and maybe see an advertisement for a forthcoming match. Yes, the club are doing some coaching with kids and maybe odd visits to schools like all clubs do, that would be expected; but to boast crowds the club really need to do so much more to interconnect with the ordinary people of the "town" and that will take a lot of hard work.

Andrew was well off target with three chances that i saw--all over the bar by a mile. Hopefully, if he works on this in training and keeps the ball down, he will also figure in the goals much more. Antonio is showing his stuff. He seems to have very quick reactions. I was impressed with that instant jump out of goal and that very well timed smothering of the ball just under the body of the forward which was really quite a courageous dive as well. He deserves his place if he stays in the team.

But the first to beat them.

He would have fitted in nicely to the current ICT team, was gutted when they let him go. He never fulfilled his potential here.

No real complaints from me. Would have taken a draw before the match but was disappointing when they scored. With both teams cancelling each other out it wasn't very exciting but after the penalty miss we seemed to go up a gear. Poor Andy Shinnie was playing ok till the penalty and then seemed to lose his confidence in front of goal. Trying too hard to make amends maybe? We are so much better than last year and playing with confidence. OTJ had a great game yesterday and MacKay is looking much more deadly in front of goal. Think Mr Raven is coming good at last as well. Well done to the guys at Caley Jags Together for their Halloween promotion in the sports bar before the game. Nice to see the injured players make an appearance as well. Don't think anyone else has mentioned this but there are lots of moans sometimes from fans but there ARE lots of good things going on this season round the stadium!

Is this just another attempt to drum up more support - what we feckin need is : AND

If you are going to do battle in haste tings could get quite arrowing dont you think?

Adam MacLeod scores on league debut for Elgin City