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Exactly the same could be said if Thistle had got voted in in the 1970's. It's all what if's. If people still cannot get over the merger of 2 Highland league clubs then f**k 'em. They can stay and wallow in their own anger and in the past. We are ICT. We are here to stay.

Not a fact at all - just an opinion! And my opinion is that Caley, on their own could have done just as well as ICT have - possibly better because they wouldn't have had the merger baggage. As the only Scottish League team in Inverness they would have attracted just as much investment as ICT have and would have made it into the SPL in a similar timescale, attracting larger crowds as they progressed. Don't believe me? Look at Ross County!!

The reason you are surprised to hear this is that the merger has NOT actually kept very many fans away from supporting ICT at all. This is and always has been a complete myth which a tiny rump of Cyber Rebels attempt to perpetuate through various social media, including on here, and when they occasionally meet face to face in plenary session in a phone box on Telford Street. It's a wee bit like the myth about Celtic supporters in Seville, except about 20,000 times smaller. If you are one of the younger members of the ICT fan base, let me summarise what happened from the autumn of 1993 in a very few sentences. (A more detailed account can be found in "Against All Odds" online on this site.) Some Caley and an even smaller number of Thistle fans objected to the merger and the manner in which it was achieved. It is important to understand that attendances at games in these Highland League days was tiny (a few hundred) compared with nowadays since in between a large number of new fans with no interest in the merger in the first place have come on board. In the case of Caley, it is also very important to understand that in any case, no more than 226 people ever voted against the merger, even though recruitment by the anti merger faction was exhaustive. Of these:- * Very many still came to games and even helped out behind the scenes when the club got under way. * Some more have drifted back over the years. * Some more have left Inverness as would have happened anyway. * Some more have died in the intervening 19 years, as would have happened anyway. The numbers in Thistle's case were a good deal smaller than that. So, almost 20 years on, this residual small fraction of what, by modern standards, was a very small number in the first place, is really a drop in the ocean. However the more successful Caley Thistle has become in its transition from the Third Division to the top quarter of the SPL, the more and more bitter this tiny awkward squad has become and also the more laughable their cyberfiction. As a result, this Christmas, with this highly successful team sitting where it is, there will rather more "Bah Humbugs" than usual in that phone box on Telford Street. The merger, fascinating though it was to observe, is long gone and its product is now riding high in the very top tier of Scottish football. So this Yuletide, beware men with "predominantly blue" Santa hats, telling fairlytales, bearing grudges and with back numbers of LSM sticking out of their predominantly blue santa suits!!! EDIT - and I thoroughly agree with Caley D who posted as I was writing!!!!!

That sort of mentality is how I ended up getting married. :D

I know of 4 supporters, 3 Caley and 1 Thistle who never went back to a game while I would have prefered Caley to have gone it alone ICT were and are still ahead of our shadows and have a Premier Team to follow which is great for the youngsters of Inverness and surrounding areas. You are right in saying quite silly, they are the ones that are missing the great football now! If only the Jags had been voted in ahead of Ferranti Thistle we would be red and black champions of the world by now !

As one of the younger members of the ICT fan base I don't know a lot about the merger but ive been surprised to hear that it has kept many fans from both teams away from supporting ICT? Find it quite silly TBH

Isn't the purpose of a forum to enter into discussion on a relevant subject which interests you? And put your views and opinions across? Whenever the subject of the merger comes up, a lively discussion always follows, and Mr Bannerman is perfectly entitled to share his views, as are you and everybody else!

And for each of them, people still ask where their balls ended up.

Two items of archaeological significance in one photo - interesting....

Best feckin merger post EVER - it is only the sad old cnuts that bite and contribute to this - and as fer a once bitter, stay away Howden Ender - 02feckinB.

Quite frankly who gives a flying f**k about the merger, we have been a successful club putting the highlands on the Scottish football map and I am happy for it. It's a bit like 20 years after marrying your wife still obsessing about the the guy she pumped before you met.

I personally know dozens of ex Caley and Thistle fans that have never set foot inside the new stadium and who rejoice when ICT get beat .

Sums it up.

Ah, but they might have been adopted by a tycoon like David Murray and then they'd be..............in among the Montroses and East Stirlings.

I'm apolitical when it comes to both clubs, but I think there is a case to say that there is still a bit of a Caledonian bias when it comes to the modern day ICT. The "Caledonian" Stadium with it's predominantly blue seats is one of the first that comes to mind, along with without question the club's shirts. Whenever a new ICT home kit comes out and it's a block colour, it's always blue. It's never red (or black!). Why? Is there still a bias within the inner realms of the club? Is it a technique to try and entice former Caledonian fans and stayawayers back to the new team?

We cant get 4000 home fans to a league game at home. What chance of that many travelling to ER.

Yes you can.

See!? Told you someone was gonna get mad!!!

Indeed an altogether far superior set up if I do say so - oh and not surprisingly it has more likes :-))

His own facebook page is a bigot fest. His activities include 'f*ck the pope,' 'shouting f*uck the pope,' and 'peep o'day boys.' The pages he likes includes 4 f*ck the pope pages, various anti irish pages and a burning the bible page... Would he have even supported Caledonian over his 'big team' if it came to that. He is definietly no loss as a fan!

The greater good. I also was too young to remember but the achievements the club has made speak for themselves...and at present we are only going to keep achieving.

Now that you've had a very brief education on the merger process you might like to amend your username to CaleyThistleboys ??

IHE why did you edit the picture ? from the way your left arm is raised you were clearly holding a handbag

It was Boxing day Mun In the Innes IHE said to me Do you want anither one And then he sang a song Fuelled up with Mountain Dew And the whole bar joined the song Of the famous ICT Got in a minibus Down to the Longman Road I've got a feeling This years the one to see So Happy Christmas We love you Caley Jags We can see a better time When all our dreams come true We've got Tony Riguero Warren Raven and Jones Aaron Doran runs rings round the Paisley defence When McKay gets the ball There's a bulge in the net And the fans are excited, a win they can sense They were stylish They were skillfull True kings of the football When the game started playing Fans howled out for goals As Shinnie was shimmying All the fans they were singing You scumbags from Paisley Then they danced through the night And the boys of the section E North Stand will sing on boxing day And the Buds will travel home having lost the game. Happy Christmas from FPSO PSVM Block 31 200 miles west of Luanda Angola West Africa

True....and I don't think Dargo has scored since, either!

A couple were Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve and the whole place was heaving, packed with other last minute shoppers. Walking through the shopping centre the surprised wife looked up from a window display and noticed her husband was nowhere to be seen. She knew they had lots still to do and she became very upset. She rummaged in her handbag and found her mobile phoned then used it to call her husband to ask him where he was. The husband in a calm voice replied: "Darling, you remember the jewellery shop we went into five years ago, where you fell in love with that diamond necklace that we could not afford and I told you that one day I would get it for you...?" His wife's eyes filled with tears of emotion, she began to cry softly and stifling a sob she whispered: "Yes, I remember that jewellery shop..." "Well," he said, "I'm in the pub next door!" .......

Our local down here in Bristol is one of the best Fish lots I have had in recent times, the guy who runs the place (no pun intended) is a stickler for cooking his fish fresh, he says you wouldnt expect a good steak to be cooked and left in a heated cabinet, a good piece of fish can be nearlly as expensive as steak now adays so why shouldnt it be traeted the same way, so we have to wait 10-12 minutes for our fish cooked freash but its a wait worth the bother.

I would give it to Craig Whyte.

I am sure Mr Bannerperson will be happy and quick to educate, debate, inform, scold , elucidate, possibly obfuscate, interpret, confuse, review , go.."phew", annotate, analyse, conclude, high-falute, dictate and dynamically divide and conquer us all with a daring dash of precise prose, a plethora of parametric, profuse anagrams and terrific, trite, textual tongue-ticklers trimmed to tease and tantalise our epiglottis's. Hold on, let me just draw a wee breath before the onslaught..... And I hear that the cops are bringing in a large Mountie for County..... smile.