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Thats why it is important to create a home for ICT fans and a sense of belonging, we are the fans, we embrace the wind, hail and snow, its our home and onward we shall go. We are the Pride of the Highlands and that is what WE are. Caley always were !! Doubt if the Howden End will ever come near to being recreated.

To think of this in terms of numbers only is to accept the limited perspective of a science teacher. Just as important is type, the kind of supporters lost, dismissed by some as riff raff and deadwood, but who were the actual fans who went out and supported the HL teams and kept them going, and without whom there would have been no viable bid for senior league status. If the new club lacks character and the new stadium lacks atmosphere, it is because of the loss of these kinds of fans. For all the smugness and condescension of some on here the loss of those fans has fundamentally weakened the club.

Well, Caley were a local team. It's a pub parlour game now, and anyone can bandy their speculative figures around with little or no likelihood that there is any way of determining an answer. Personally I believe we lost maybe a couple of hundred or less, but whatever it was it has been more than made up by subsequent new supporters who wouldn't have been died-in-the-wool Caley fans anyway. So we lost some, but gained a lot more. I think it easy to mistake the depth of feeling of the refuseniks with the breadth of their support - a diehard minority who, incredibly, still harp on, having missed out on an incredible journey which many old Caley fans, who have swallowed their reservations, have thoroughly enjoyed. The success of ICT has just embittered a few Cassandras who have taken great pleasure in pronouncing the imminent demise of the team for a long time now. I also don't buy the attempt to round up their numbers by visiting the sins of the fathers on their sons, as if they can influence the next generation by harping on about the 'war'. It's a kind of reverse engineering to fight a battle that was lost long ago, and rewrite the script in favour of the underdog - not an unusual occupation in Scottish football!

Not sure why these guys want to be chased down the street by beasts who are clearly bigger and heavier than them. Mind you, it happens to guys nearly every weekend outside Lauders!!!

It's my birthday on Thursday and if it's not released by then, gosh darn it I'm gonna be so mad.

4 weeks from the strt of the new season and no sight of the new strip yet = disgraceful!!

Billy Mckay Greg Tansey (made by a friend)

Maybe we already have that quality striker in Ferguson. After all he was good enough to be called to Canada U-19's

I'm willing to pay more than £11 if we go for another item

Yes we did. I am now marking this group as complete and 'membership closed' and will ask the club to invoice us for the sponsorship.

Wow. Three defunct institutions in one sentence!

Translation - I agree with everything that you say IHE

I doubt that my healthcare world is much different from yours. That is unless yours is an entirely state operated structure where the private sector has no place. That's been tried in the old Soviet Union and Cuba without a great deal of success. My point is simply that the state funded NHS has always operated with a significant level of private sector service delivery. As far as I am aware no political party is suggesting that the state will no longer fund the NHS broadly as now but there is undoubtedly an argument for greater input from the private sector in service delivery if they can do it more cost effectively. Personally I would rather see service delivery provided by the public sector than the private sector, but if it is a choice between the public sector providing an inefficient service or the private sector providing an efficient service then it would surely be foolish to insist on the inefficient public sector service delivery. If the private sector can provide the service more cost effectively it either means we get better outcomes for patients for the same money or the same quality of outcomes for less money. We either get better patient care or release cash to spend on other things. I think that is a good thing. If you disagree with that I would be fascinated to understand the reasons why!

What were the circumstances that saw Benni McCarthy turning-out for a cameo with Whitehill Welfare? I hadn't heard about this! Great photo capture, if that was you, Mantis! Although it was a pre-season game, it's still quite a coup - he was internationally, very well respected, in his prime. Just checked, he's still 'only' 36. It's likely one of those bizarre scenarios that sees players of repute turn-out for an unlikely club. Didn't Latapy have a game or two for one of Whitehill's rivals, Edinburgh City? Then there's Brazilian legend, Socrates, playing for an obscure English non-league team. Peter Bonetti, who has a World Cup winning medal, turned out once, allegedly, for Caley - mentioned on another thread. There are a few instances of this type of thing (Caniggio and Ravanelli at Dundee, for example) and George Best at Hibs. Fair play to Whitehill for getting Benni McCarthy to play - even if it was a commercially driven, publicity stunt.Whitehill haven't got any dosh for a stunt As Alex kind of hinted, his wife's sister is the fiancée of WW's Right back John Hall. He's been at a couple of games to watch so we finally managed to get him to play a half. It's gone pretty viral on twitter and f/b although it couldn't be confirmed till the night before so it hardly affected the crowd... We've also had the odd visit from Christophe Berra and last summer, John Collins turned up with........Yogi Hughes Yes, the shot came courtesy of the good ol' Mantis right index finger. More photos at https://www.facebook.com/WhitehillWelfare and http://www.whitehillwelfare.co.uk/

It's funny you should mention that actually. From my research, a merged Inverness of some description wasn't just an idea that popped into someone's head in the early 90s. I remember seeing an "On this Day" thing in the Courier I think it was from the early 30s where a merger of Thistle, Caley and Clach (and possibly Citadel) fell through at the 11th hour. Mergers are nothing new and we're far from the only one. Aberdeen are a three way merger - Orion, Victoria United and another team named Aberdeen who played in white and blue shorts, merged in 1903. Ross County are the result of merger between Dingwall Thistle and Dingwall Victoria United. Motherwell are the merger of Glencairn and Alpha. Inverness Thistle were a merger in some ways as well with the incorporation of Inverness Union and Crown. I was told once that one of things the merger did was clear the deadwood. You know, the people who probably had a big team anyway and went to the matches not so much for the football, rather as a vehicle for drinking and having a scrap. They won't all be like that, but I'd guess that a good chunk were and good riddance to them. But how many refuseniks are there? I don't know, but I'd guess not that many, certainly not anymore. But here's the thing - if there's so many of them, why wasn't the merger voted down? If there's so many of them, why didn't they make more of an effort to fight back? Why didn't they attempt to resurrect a Caley and a Thistle in the Junior leagues as FC United fans did years later? The simple reason is, a lot of them probably never have existed and nowadays, they're a very small group, getting smaller and receive far more attention than is justified.

If you look anything like your avatar, there'll no be a shirt to fit you! Eat Fresh? Eat something!!!

I think its a great idea, play a set way, tell everyone you will only play a certain way, then when our back four are being over run by an attacking 2,4,4 as you now expect,meekings kicks a beauty up to Aaron on the left wing combined with Marley on the right opens up the centre backs and Billy scores down the middle.

Certainly, whatever the motivation, on any objective basis, Messi was not the player of the tournament.

I agree that it has been a good tournament. For me Messi was a huge disappointment and whilst he had the odd touch of something special, for large parts of most games - including the final - he seemed pretty disinterested and contributed little to the team. It is illuminating to look at the FIFA stats in this regard. In terms of distances covered most players ran over 1K every 10 minutes - even the much maligned Fred managed that. Schweinsteiger managed 1.26K but Messi only 0.90. Apart from his goals he didn't contribute much. 5 of his Argentinian team mates made more passes than him and all had a better pass completion rate. 9 of the German team exceeded him in both respects. Messi's pass completion rate was 68%. Even Pirlo made more passes than Messi (and with a 90% completion rate) and he only played 3 games compared to Messi's 7. Of course, Messi is renowned for his running with the ball and his shooting but he only had 8 runs into the box in his 7 games and had 22 shots on goal with only 10 on target. The awful Fred had 9 on target in his 6 games. Ronaldo only had 3 games but managed 23 shots on goal with 14 on target whilst chewy Louis managed 9 on target in his 2 games. Messi's contribution has been average at best and to have him named as player of the tournament is a real kick in the teeth for the many players who are far more deserving. Far from getting player of the tournament, Messi wouldn't even be close to my team of the tournament. In fact, he would struggle to get into my Argentinian team of the tournament. Well done to the Germans though. They thoroughly deserved their victory. Their work rate, team work and style of play was all excellent. The only downside is their tendency to appear to be injured more than they actually are or pretending to be injured when they are the ones who committed the foul. The otherwise excellent Thomas Mueller was chief culprit and having got Pepe sent off in the first game he was up to his old tricks again in the final. If they could eliminate that from their game, I could get to quite like them! Of other teams, the Dutch again thrilled but fell just short, Mexico, Costa Rica, Columbia, the USA and Algeria all provided some superb entertainment and excitement. Most of the other teams had their moments and came with the intention to play attractive attacking football. The competition will perhaps be remembered most for the astonishing 7-1 thrashing of the hosts Brazil but in many ways the most significant result was the thrashing the boring World and European champions Spain suffered at the hands of the Dutch and their subsequent elimination at the first stage. The world cup is over and the beautiful game is alive and kicking.

How about channeling you energy into the future and thinking about how you can help galvanise the club, fans and community. After all one half of your club is you child, the other half is your stepchild. How about looking after both of them. With the same interest. They are growing up fast, so what can you do to help them on their way.

I'm not sure whether I've commented on this sad and negative thread before, but as it is now over 600 posts long I think i'll say my bit. Not having been born and bred in Inverness I never developed a particular alleigence to any of the inverness teams. When I moved to Inverness in 1975 I would watch any of the three teams to fit in with when I was free or if there was a game that had a particular attraction. For me, supporting the merger with the prospect of entry in the Scottish league and progress within it was an exciting prospect. From a purely footballing perspective supporting the merger was a no brainer. On the face of it, it seems absurd that over 20 years later this is still something people feel compelled to talk about. I can well understand that at the time many people were very unhappy with the prospect of a merger and about the way things were handled. But whatever issues may have caused hurt then are over and done with. What we now have is a new team which is far more successful than either of the merged teams ever were and which deserves the support of all local football fans. I am not going to speculate on how many refusniks there are because I neither know nor care. Whilst I can understand the passion these folk may have had for preserving the identify of the team they had supported over the years, I fail to understand why, if they are genuine lovers of football, they don't give their support to ICT. OK, so they were deeply upset about the merger but ffs, get over it. Just what is the point of denying yourself the pleasure of supporting the local team as it progresses over the years? These are the sort of people who, if a Marathon bar had been their favourite chocolate bar would refuse to eat a Snickers because they didn't think the name should have been changed. But I suspect that many of the so called refuseniks were actually never particularly keen on the football. For them it was an identity thing and supporting either Caley or Thistle was like being in a big gang. When the gangs disappeared there was nothing for them but to mourn the loss of their gang and they are mourning still. Asking them to come along and watch ICT was a bit like expecting gang members to trot along to the boys' brigade (if it still exists). Refuseniks. Either stupid or not interested in football. Yes, they may influence their offspring (if they're allowed access) but youngsters are also influenced by peer pressure and increasingly this pressure and the good promotional work done by the club will reduce the impact of any refuseniks on the youngsters to an insignificant level. Of course, this continual obsession with the merger merely keeps the poison flowing. The refuseniks have cut off their noses to spite their faces and they aren't going to start supporting ICT now. There is nothing productive to be gained by continuing to speculate on their numbers and the potential loss of support they represent. We will progress better as a club if we ignore them - just as they have ignored us for the last 20 years. Hopefully I'll do my bit by not posting on this thread again but it would be much more productive if Dougal stopped posting his nonsense on the subject.

It's what we'll all have to wear if the yes vote wins the referendum ! What a complete load of drivel Anyway independence thread for that

Now there's a point, does Dougal's owner stick to the letter of the law and clean up his sh*t behind him?

Seriously wouldn't bother with that place the area around St Andrews isn't the most salubrious of places. Go to a Premier Inn in the city centre or somewhere like Solihull. For drinking go to Hennessy's or The Anchor in Digbeth, The Wellington on Bennetts Hill (Make sure you get the right Wellington!!!). There's a few pubs around the ground but most aren't up to much, the Cricketers on Little Green Lane is prob the best option. There's loads of street parking or a church run car park on Coventry Rd just before the ground on the left if your coming from Bordesley Circus and one just past the ground on the right on Cattell Rd, providing they're open.

Train from Solihull to Tysley from memory, 10 mins

£29 a night for a room at Premier Inn in Solihull

The interest was obviously there, it just needed stirred up. FACT, Caley in the Highland league days of the 50s and 60s enjoyed support that easily matchs todays ICT support and the twon was a fraction of the size it is now. Caley had a lot of sleeping support, some of whom, now choose to follow C*unty because of the merger Fact...East Stirlingshire, who's average attendances over the last ten seasons have been below 500, could, during the same period you mention, enjoy crowds in the thousands. Hundreds of thousands of people enjoyed the release of the saturday match after a hard weeks work back in those days from war ending till the hooligan element spoiled it all.