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At Aberdeen last Saturday Tremarco dived close to the goal and headed the ball to safety on the ground whilst his face dived into the turf with an Aberdeen player right beside him ready to pounce. Now that's dedication. Whether he was falling anyway or not, the fact is that he deliberately placed his head forward to get the ball before his roll and that was a spectacular bit of defending.

I was playing for Elgin City under 14s in a friendly match v Banff and Watt walked out of the changing room for them, nearly 6ft tall and with a beard. We straight away said to the ref there's no way he's 14... to which he replied "you're right... He's 12". He signed for Chelsea quite soon after that.

I'm confident - not over confident - but confident. Personally I think we can currently win any game we take part in. Some nice spondooliks were recovered from Mr Hill following Saturday's result. I am glad we are the favourites as we should be. If we tackle this game with the right attitude and the players/team play to their strengths then we will be ok. Football though as they say is a funny game but I think we're in with a good chance of making our first major final appearance and to be fair with the progress made by the club over the last few seasons it would be thoroughly deserved ;-)

Let's hope that Caley D is not asked to assist in any offers as he is the only **** who knows how to spell is name !!

It was that spirit throughout the team that won the game. Until Butcher and Malpass were very much on Hibs radar, the team had developed that approach in every game. Then in St Johnston it deserted them. As we know it was just after the Hibs AGM when they sack managers and line up the next 'I can do it Rod!' The team have been a bit inconsistent ever since but the manner of the victory has the potential to refocus the targets. Consequentially the Killie game is potentially much harder and whoever plays in it, must adopt the same 'get my body in the line of fire' approach. It is the difference between winners and losers basically.

They may succeed in making Stevenson available but they risk getting players injured before the cup tie. Not too bothered about this.

Last season Hearts bent the rules to sneak (in every sense of the word) a victory over us. This year I hope we use the fact that they are again manipulating matters to give them an unfair advantage as an addition incentive to stick it to them. I have to say, I can see very little difference to the set of circumstances that led to Elgin being stripped of the Highland League title.

Considering we were once in that league dont you think the description is a bit condescending and unfair to the many part time teams that make up the Scottish league system. Fair comment. Having got into rant mode it was an inappropriate choice of word. "Part time" would have been far more appropriate. In that context it is interesting to consider that lads in the Forfar team would have been more likely to be working in the hotel before the match than relaxing in it.

Fair cop, OCG!

Now this is getting tricky!! Brill Raven Meekings Warren Tremarco Draper Shinnie Doran Vincent Williams McKay Subs: Esson, Tansey, Ross, Polworth, Watkins, Christie, Devine Tough to leave any of these guys on the bench after Saturday, but we look like we've got some options to change things late in games now!

Good - but Hearts would no doubt put in yet another request for special treatment!

Very encouraging interview with Ross Draper here http://sport.stv.tv/football/clubs/inverness/261165-ross-draper-targets-europe-and-extended-stay-with-inverness-ct/

I don't care whether Stevenson plays or not - our approach to the game doesn't change. Either way, we've got to want it more than Hearts and focus on the job - do these things right and it shouldn't matter who they put in front of us. Don't do them and we don't deserve to win....

They're understandably well-up for this. St. Mirren more than happy, I'm sure to play them a few days before their semi-final...knowing Hearts will field a team of (even younger) kids! OK! Hearts have the early lead in the mind-games. But there's another game at Kilmarnock yet before we can think about the semi!

Some good points in posts above and I suspect ICT would accept an offer way below £1M. As with all transactions, "value" is a combination of what one club is willing to offer and what the other is willing to pay. An excellent example was Carroll who went to Liverpool for £35M, simply because Newcastle knew that Liverpool had just received £50M for Torres. The flip-side is that small clubs are always more likely to accept a lower offer (hence if McKay had been playing at Celtic, he would be "worth" several million....look at Hooper). The only way the value would rise were if more than one club were interested and a bidding war developed...

I'm agreeing with that. Tremarco and Raven are both rock solid full backs as well as having a good competitive grafting edge to their game (if that makes sense) Shinnie can then be utilised a little further up. He's great at running at folk and always looks a danger cutting in on his left foot.

Hibs.net are technically correct in a Clintonesque legal point of view. All the other bigger clubs he 'mis-managed'!!!! He was sacked at all of them.

A fair % of Rooneys goals came from the spot too.

Towards the end of the second half, with ICT in command, Ryan Christie "ghosted" past a defender in such a manner that the comment was made "that was just like John White in days of old". It really was great to see - we await much more from young Mr Christie, a future star no doubt. Conor Pepper fought for every ball, like a terrier, a great player and worthy of a new contract - please note Mr Hughes, Mr Latapy and Mr Cameron.

I believe it's true that you don't see an accurate representation of a game and individual performances on TV. Mckay's a far better striker than Rooney IMO, far quicker and has a far better work rate.

Tom Parratt, born in Inverness but moved away at the age of 3 to according to Wikipedia, after playing for Hamilton, Queen of the South and Airdrie United he's back in the States playing for the brilliantly named Wilmington Hammerheads

That was Jamie Hamill. Ryan Stevenson looks like the kind of person who'd shag your wife and steal your microwave.

I think that's a very good point. However, I think it is a question of timing for me. You've got to get the balance right between having the player contributing to the success of the side and selling them so that the club picks up a profit and you're not seen as holding up a player's career. In my view it is too soon to sell now although if the offer was significantly above the club's valuation they would be foolish to turn it down. It is such a gamble though. If he keeps scoring at his current rate his price goes up but if the goals dry up it goes down. Not too many players keep scoring well season after season, so there would be a strong temptation to cash in. Another factor here is what is in his contract. Players have all sorts of weird and wonderful things in contracts and it might be that he agreed to a longer term deal at a certain pay level provided that if an offer above a certain amount came in, he could go if he wanted. Contractual agreements can be the reason for otherwise strange decisions. I've voted for the million for this transfer window but I would expect the club to accept significantly less if Billy wanted away. Mind you, I would hope Billy would want to stay. We have very strong attacking midfield options and it is clear that the new manager wants to play an attacking style of football that plays to Billy's strengths. If he is going to score a hatful of goals anywhere, it is going to be here. He should stay put for a while and really make people sit up and take notice.

With luck it'll rain for the opening and closing ceremonies and the tartan will be covered up by Inverness capes. Pink in a kilt..........yer havin a laugh.

I'm quite sure Hughes will welcome that selection head ache and it will also make the players work all the harder to stay in the team which can only be a good thing. Play well or get dropped.

I'm now feeling very optimistic about the rest of the season after today's win at Pittodrie, no more negativity from me as far as the strength and depth of ICT's squad is concerned given that we still have Draper/Foran/Warren to come back into the mix (An additional striker to would be great though!) nor any more negativity towards Yogi until the end of the season at least, he's now coming across as a decent guy and has not "rocked the boat" since taking over from Butcher indeed he's already given youth a chance to shine with both Polworth and Christie now seen as regular first team players (would Butcher have done the same, doubt it!). With Lattapy arriving next week there's a lot to be positive about and of course we have the semi-final to look forward to. It'll be no surprise if this is going to be ICT's most successful season ever! Oh I forgot were still in the Scottish Cup and almost guaranteed at least a place in the last eight! Been a season ticket holder since 94 and things have never looked so good for ICT so come on no more negativity on the message board until we know how the season pans out! (Worth a try I suppose!)

Just checking back on highlights, and I think I see the selection change made for this match that has changed our fortunes. Dean Brill's choice of jersey, it is something I commented on to my brother and daughter at the last few games. Including and since the win over St Johnstone the game before Yogi took over, Deano wore the grey top against St J, St Mirren, Partick, a win and 2 draws, all clean sheets. In the other games he wore the yellow jersey, and we either lost or Deano had a nightmare game and no clean sheets. Grey top yesterday, win and clean sheet. I say, Deano, bin the yellow jersey.

Our starting line up had an average age of 23.7. United's was 26. Our full squad today had an average age of 23.3. United's was 24.2

He should be in the scotland squad and it annoy's me when the pundits talk about how Scotland have no replacement LB's!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25788497 It seems its offical :)

Fair enough Davie, I appreciate the effort you and your entourage made on your pilgrimage to Hampden but in all honesty I could have told you the outcome long before you even made the journey The Scottish Sun saved the day and if that was a knock on effect from your meeting then fair play Dougal Don't forget to book your bus Dougal, or are you getting a hotel on Saturday night in Edinburgh on your way back from the County game in Killie?

Dougal......You're an ICT fan.....

I've made a few enquiries about rescheduling our preliminary plans for July, and the draft fixture list looks quite tempting. Sun 6 Friendly Clachnacuddin Kingston Tue 8 Friendly Fort William Nevis Sat 12 Friendly Montrose Montserrat Tue 15 Friendly Brora Barbados Wed 16 Friendly Muir of Ord Port of Spain Sat 19 Friendly Arbroath Aruba Wed 23 Friendly Elgin Holguin Sat 26 League St Johnstone St Lucia A luxury cruise liner has been provisionally booked to accomodate and transport the team and the fans between islands, to be paid for by the same long queue of sponsors who are donating to the scoreboard fund. However, with the SPFL insisting that the first game kicks off at 12.30pm on a Sunday, long before even the first Megabus gets in, a fleet of jets is being arranged by CaleyJags Together to get us all over there in time. Red Stripe have kindly offered to subsidise the transport cost of this down to a very reasonable £10 per head. There will of course be a toilet stop at Broxden.

What positivity on this news ....What a lovely refreshing change. I remember dreading when he was playing against us due to his ability as a player ,so if he is half as good as an assistant he will do well. I am looking forward to confirmation of his appointment and him starting as I do believe we need some stability now.