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Sorry to get into this DD, but having spoken to Yogi after almost every game of his tenure thus far, he hasn't changed his philosophy one jot. It's simple - if we keep the ball the opposition can't hurt us. It's also pretty effective, we've scored a lot of second half goals as teams tire after being moved around so much. Under TB, we would increasingly put long diagonal balls into the channels for crosses but there were times when it really didn't work. Now, that ball is played into those channels effectively. In terms of change from TB to JH, the transition was quite painful as the style of game was changed radically - hence that "slump" at the end of last season. The first bit of that was to teach players that they were good enough to play this type of game ( and not hang them out to dry for their mistakes) and then get them to do it. They never had that type of approach under TB. Look at Hughes's interviews and see how often he uses terms like "teach" "educate" "learn" What you are seeing now is a group who have outgrown TB's legacy and surpassed it with some ease. This is due to Hughes & Latapy. Please bear in mind that the players you refer to were identified in England's lower leagues by Steve Marsalla for their low price and potential and it's under Hughes that they are realising it and increasing their value. This is no more Butcher's team than anyone else's - it's Caley Thistle's team but it's Hughes that is taking it forward.

At the moment, County don't have a single player who is of sufficient quality to command a place in our team.

I wondered if I should have started this thread in the Olde Inverness section which is going great guns just now, but since it refers to one of ICT's predecessor institutions, I thought I would put it here. Today's Courier has in its "From the Archives" section a feature on the garden business Howdens which has reminded me of the period (apparently from 1961-65) when Howdens was on the corner of Union St and Church St where that coffee shop is now. Since I was pretty young at the time, this is something of which I was only vaguely aware at the time and of which I have now been reminded. However what is relevant about Howdens on here is that I never really realised that the company didn't move to Telford St until 1965. I started going to Caley games in about 1964 so this "new place" called Howdens obviously set up shop next door to Telford St Park quite soon after that. On the other hand, a new plant nursery isn't exactly something which would catch the eye of an 11 year old going to a football match. So the point is that at this stage in the mid 60s the legend of "The Howden End" didn't actually exist and I would suspect that it must have been the late 60s at least before the name caught on. As a result I have discovered today that The Howden End is a rather more recent feature than I actually realised. That will probably be appreciated by the over 60s among ex-Caley fans, but I'm not sure how aware the relative youngsters are that The Howden End had not been a feature since time began and in fact only existed under that name for a relatively small portion of Caley's histort, right at the end. I suppose this also calls into question just how Immortal any Howden Ender could be

ICT Roughi Quite an ambitious thought that you have there. Another Juanjo would please me . ...

They caved the moment they realised that if they kept me any longer then they'd face the expense of feeding me.

Such great publicity always welcome, It was a success ! Al Jazeera transmit to 270 Million homes in over 140 countries, so it truly is one of those "money can't buy" type deals. I'll also add the Lee Wellings and his cameraman (who's name shamefully escapes me right now) are the nicest reporters I have had the pleasure of meeting. They showed a real interest in, and total respect for, what ICTFC are achieving....and had clearly done their homework....more than can be said for some of those who are more regular visitors to TCS! Granted, they did keep me hostage until 1:30am due to a tech glitch, but they were such great guys to chat with that it was far more of a pleasure than a pain to spend time with them and they have an open invite to return whenever they like.

What is relevant here is last night's crowds. St Mirren, boosted by their victory OTB in the last match, had their lowest crowd of the season. Partick's previous season's low was 2914 but last night only 2138 turned out to watch them thrash Hamilton. There is no doubt that crowds are reduced on a cold January evening and on that evidence our crowd was clearly 500-1000 better than it would have been had the pay what you want initiative not been in place.

I think looking at county players is selling ourselves short. Yogi has contacts and with the positions we have finished we are making more of a name for ourselves that players want to come to the highlands. Remember yogi plucked Kasper Schmeichel and Anthony Stokes to Falkirk so if and when Billy and whoever do leave us I am Sure Yogi has contacts tht will get some quality players to replace them.

Can anybody lend me 5p.

Interesting post C.B. I started going to the Caley park about 1953 or 1954. At that time there was definitely a nursery there because I do also remember the Italian prisoners of war that worked there, probably from about 1942 to 1945, to whom my mother would give the odd cup of tea over the hedge separating the nursery from my back garden on Dunain Road. I also remember the name as always being Howdens and nothing else. Now, maybe some other outfit did own the ground that stretched right up to Fairfield Road and bounded by the Bumbers lane but what their name was I really could not tell. I think quite a few of the prisoners (of which, frankly , there were not that many as I recall) remained residents of Inverness? A list of names would be great to see and what contribution they made to the town would also be very interesting to learn about.

A tipsy Slovak, a sailor boy, goes into a pub in Hamburg, Germany, sits down at the bar, looks at the guy sitting next to him and says... "My name's Vyshinski - Vyshinski, with a hyphen. What's yours?" The Scotsman, also a mariner, looks him up and down and replies " a whisky and a steiner of good beer, laddie."

Sadly i have to agree with you there, their top youth prospect wouldn't make our U20's. Nonsense. Tony Dingwall is a good player and has a heck of a lot of potential. To say he wouldn't get in our U20s is laughable. While the English search has been successful on the whole (there's been a couple of duds), I hope we don't start flinging the net too wide. That was what happened with our team in 2011, where we signed quite a few journeymen foreigners and as a result the team didn't really click at all. Had Hibs and Dunfermline not been so poor that season, we could've been in trouble. We've seen Dundee this season make a good signing in Greg Stewart from Division One. I think it'd be foolish not to have a look there as well. There'll certainly be a few players around in Scotland who'll be capable of making the step up.

Theres nothing wrong with praising Hughes's style of football and criticising Butcher's but why weren't these people saying that at the time? In fact, it used to be the case that any hint of criticism of their then Dear Leader, was met with a jumping down of the throat within a matter of minutes. How times have changed...

''..............plummeting to the division below...'' has a nice ring about it and the game on the 31st could be the last we have against them for a very long time although next year's SPFL could be exceedingly competitive if Hearts and Hibs come up. Kiss is potentially a good player but he must be quite demoralised. He would though not fit in at ICT. Even Derek Adams on the radio thinks there is something wrong at the County!! Unlike Yogi, McIntyre and the Wee One, have already undermined the squad by a massive turnover (a touch of the Butcher philosophy). In fact, it would not surprise me to see an advert on Gumtree during this window from Ross County putting the whole squad up for sale and asking buyers to 'pay what they can afford' for each player!!!

It's not naive or short-sighted Roughie (it's me who dismissed all of them), it's recognition that Ross County are currently very, very poor. Boyce is a player whose lack of ability and poor first touch would make him of no use to us. The fact that he can't command a starting place in the league's bottom team says a lot to me, at least. Cardle has not realised his potential at any club he's been at and is an english lower league player of the type that Marsalla probably looked at and thought nah. I can't see how they would improve our squad. In the current County side, there isn't a single player of the calibre of Cowie or Rankin (for instance) Even if the players that Renegade mentions leave the club in the summer, I'd like to think that the (currently) third best side in the country would replace them with better than those of a side (currently) plummeting to the division below.

No it wouldn't. Boyce has been one of the players to actually stand out for County and does seem to have ability, as well as actually scoring and playing regularly at this level. Again, you don't go from playing for Cliftonville to Werder Bremen for nothing. Curtis Allen didn't make the bench once with us for a number of reasons, not least because he was actually pretty hopeless. Considering I've seen both play, I would say Boyce is far superior player. Again dismissing County players outright is naive. Presumably going by that way of thinking, the signing of Don Cowie on a pre-contract from a very poor County side, in the league below and who were later relegated to Division 2, would also be classed as a 'dud'. Let's not get ahead of ourselves when Boyce was signed for Bremen's reserve team 'Werder Bremen II' and only played 3 times for that side. To be perfectly honest if Boyce was such a profilc striker in this league then he would have scored more than 3 league goals at this stage and established a regular start in their first eleven. Just imagine Mckay is leaving ICT and we replaced him with Liam Boyce, the downgrade in that is remarkable. I don't feel I'm being naive, I feel I'm being realistic that Boyce would be a waste of money that would be better spent elsewhere. I'm not totally dismissing all Ross County players as I said in the previous post that Tony Dingwall would be an exception I would be willing to make.

In my opinion if we signed Liam Boyce, he wouldn't be any different to having Curtis Allen back at the club. The only exception I would take if we were to sign a Ross County player would be Tony Dingwall as I have watched him a few times a couple seasons back in the U20 league and always shined and now seems to be a regular starter OTB (currently injured though) I personally feel you get better value for money if you sign a player from the lower leagues in England than signing a couple duds from OTB.

#justsaying ;-)

Nearly 85 mins game time tonight against Honduras. Assist for Canada's first goal and came close a couple of times...his biggest chance looked to have been thwarted by him catching a stud on the horrific playing surface. Good to see him playing up front tonight (he was played on the right previously) and did really well to last 85 minutes in what looked like extremely hot conditions.

It's Mckay....Small "k"

Boyce and Cardle to replace Marley and Billy should they go. I'd happily raid County for them. Both good players that suffer from County's hoof and thump appoach abd who would play better in a team that play good football.

There isn't an ICT in Canada Scarlet and the legend round them gets bigger and bigger all the time, can Canada beat that ?...........Nah nae chance

I confess, I underestimated John Hughes - but am delighted to admit it! Although we've players to get signed-up, I agree with Kingsmills (from an earlier post) that we should be looking to extend the manager's contract. He's proved his worth. I was a huge Terry Butcher fan but the club will always be bigger than any personality. Here's a table to celebrate both Terry and Yogi's time at the club - and Robbo's, of course! But, Paterson (for me) remains the 'God' for improving our then novice club, year-on-year in the Scottish League. Key: Red = best ever Year = season ending (ie 2004/05 = 2005) Any entry = 'best ever' or equalled 'best ever', at the time New nomenclature used ie (old 3rd Division = League Two)

Sorry DoofersDad, but I think you are looking for comparisons to justify your early (and some continued) thoughts on Yogi's managerial acumen. It's far too easy to pick a single match under the old managerial personnel and draw comparisons to one game under the new guy. You have to take a wider view and and there's no way you can say that Butchers philosophy of hoofing balls down the channels is anything like the way we play now. I'm not saying that they way Butcher played was right or wrong, but it wasn't nearly as enjoyable to watch as the football is now...and arguably not as successful. I also think it does the players a huge injustice to suggest they are only just getting back to where they were before in terms of performances. These are guys who have (arguably not for the first time) re-invented the way they've been playing the game and pushed themselves on to another, higher, level. What's more....we are once again a team that is improving week on week, the same team that some thought had plateaued under Butcher.

While we are all naughtily getting ahead of ourselves, with last night's results going our way, a win on Saturday will put us eight points clear of the fifth place team giving us a great chance of at least equaling our highest ever league position which may, in itself, be enough for European qualification this season.

Great video and it looks as if it was a good weather night too. Thanks for that. Tremarco seems like a strong and very determined player and coming on with determination. Boy, there is confidence and verve in this team ICT and they look hungry. I love the colours and professional look of the team strip. Now they are looking like an up and coming, top class, well managed outfit. This team seems as if it is developing well and is becoming stronger and stronger by the minute. I am very glad for John Hughes. This type of performance and attitude vindicates his being hired and also his style of football.

What exactly does a St Johnstone average consist of, I drove to a Motherwel midweek game once because I felt that staying in Dundee was close enough, we dont have the luxury of a decent turnout for away fans to boost the average figures. It was a midweek evening match so wont get a great deal of attention form kids, its just after Christmas and just above zero degs. 1326 turned out to see us beat St Mirren in the cup, I expect well over 1000 extra attended last night that wouldnt have done without the offer, did the club make any extra, probably not but the club has started the ball rolling with cheaper offers elsewhere giving the team a stronger away support at important DU and Hamilton matches. The timing of the 10p for a match offer also would have lowered the mental minimum price that someone could get away with paying to get in. There were faces at the match who hadnt been there for a good while because they got fed up with watching boring football from a few seasons back. There would have been 1st timers too and the club got great publicity. If a mixture of only 100 new and returning adult fans bought adult season tickets then its an extra £35,000 year on year. Was it worth it for an evening match in January then I would say yes. Compare the two home County matches, last one 3741 (it might be the last derby match for a while), then you can see if anything positive has emerged from the effort put in.

Back to last nights game it was a really enjoyable match, the guys got stuck in from the off and sets us up beautifully for the 10p Hamilton match, they must be feeling generous after their bounty for losing their management and possibly netting a potential 2 million for a defender with only half a season left on his contract. Our match is on Alba on Sunday night so hopefully the fans can step up to the mark and do the team proud on the day.

This is (apparently) our highest ever points total (44) after 22 games. Ever. In any division. What happened to football armageddon?! Scottish football needs a strong... nah forget it.

How much did you pay ? both payed 10 quid considering I don't earn enough as it is Well done. you paid what you could and a reasonable sum at that. I hope you enjoyed what you saw and that you both are tempted back.

I sat with a Dunfermline fan who had come from Rafford (Nr Forres) and his mate from Inverness who'd only been to 2 games in the past, both against Celtic. They made a night of it with a curry in town and paid a tenner each. So that's +£20 for starters, and 2 very impressed spectators who said they will be back.

There is no doubt that those of us you were cynical about Yogi's ability have so far been prove wrong and I suspect each and every one of us are delighted to be so. The next big test will be close season when a major squad overhaul appears to be on the cards. How he does with his own players will be the final test. What he has earned, in my view, is a contract extention and at least two full seasons with his own players.

My first game at the stadium for well I don't honestly remember cause 1. I work basically every Saturday and 2. its too expensive so last night's incentive was brilliant. The game was absolutely brilliant dominant performance from start to finish extra crowd as well shame it wasn't more than 2. My other half was more than happy with her first ever caley game so all in all brilliant night out :)

Don't give a monkey's what the pundits say - it's good for us to fly under the radar. Let Celtic, Aberdeen and DUFC take it in turns to be the golden boys, and then we'll steal in at the last moment to take the prize! After that performance, we really must believe that there is nobody at all to fear in this league. What's really pleasing is the strength in depth: a couple of key players out - no problem! And think of those on the bench: Christie, Devine etc! Spare a thought for Liam Polworth - great potential but 2nd or 3rd in the pecking order for midfield. Same could be said of Devine. Smile and wave, boys, just smile and wave...

Rather than compare to previous games v st.johnstone, just compare previous home games midweek at this time of year. January-February-march time. Without seeing the actual figures I'm certain it'll be more and also compared to some Saturday home games earlier in the season we also got more last night. Good initiative from the club and hopefully they'll try it again

While I was hoping that Yogi would prove me wrong when I doubted him never in my wildest dreams did I think he would prove me this wrong!!! He stuck by his footballing philosophies and they have come to fruition big time, great passing and movement and we totally played the Saints off the park, the idea that Billy couldn't play in his system has now also be totally dispelled. Full credit to Yogi and his coaching staff along with players who must have worked so hard to get used to this system.