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After my earlier rant on here I thought it would be more constructive to rant to the SFA as they are, after, all, the governing body of football in Scotland. So I wrote to the compliance officer saying that I thought the premeditated and dangerous nature of Ciftci's actions, which appeared to have been made with the intent to harm, warranted a much more serious penalty than the standard red card offences which occur in the heat of the game. I also pointed out that if they fail to distinguish between this type of incident and the more usual type of incident then they will be failing in their duty of upholding "the dignity and reputation" of the the game in Scotland. I don't suppose it will make any difference although if enough people from all clubs took the time to write to request more robust action in stamping down on the worst aspects of cheating in the game, we might just get somewhere.

You really got me with that link.

Well said DD whilst on the subject of complaining we could start a petition on line to regionalise round 1 & 2 of the Europa league. With 14 days notice, arranging travel and work visas for players it takes the gloss off the achievement slightly. If fans in all teams in all countries signed up surely it would reach 1M

Was at the game today and I felt that the first half was a non-event from our perspective. Our passing was not slick at all and very sloppy and slow. If we want to dominate next week then we need to pick up in the intensity especially in the first half. Second half, they started well and there was no chance that Esson was getting anywhere near that bullet header from Laing. After we scored our equaliser, we sat back to try and defend the point but when they brought on Ainsworth we couldn't cope as Ainsworth is a very pacey player but I need to see the second goal as I think it took a wicked deflection. In terms of Ofere's debut I thought he done well considering he was only brought to the club 24 hours before today's game. I felt he added a good bit of strength up front to hold the ball and interesting to see him drop very deep at times to defend but I could see the logic when defending set pieces because of his height. Anyways fair play to him getting a goal today and from today seems like a very welcomed addition but I agree with Yogi that he is a few weeks short of match fitness, once he is training with the lads and settled in the team, we could see a decent player on our hands. Credit to Motherwell, despite being the 'Whipping boys' they put up a great performance today. A must win game next week - very important to get to the next stage of cup!

Absolutely agree but there are a number of things that stands Hillsborough out that should take this all terracing is dangerous debate. It was a tragedy that could have been avoided as we all know there was major flaws with the ground and the policing. The actual terrace in question the leppings lane end had hosted plenty of games including the same fixture in the same competition and round 12 months earlier and it went off without a problem. The biggest issue was when the exit gate was opened to stop the pressure outside the turnstiles the gates to the tunnel to enter the terrace should have been shut as it was already very full that would have stopped any problems. Also the presence of the perimeter fencing because of the era of hooliganism caused it. Had that not been there fans would have spilled onto the pitch and simply move into the areas where they was more space. So it was less the fault of the ground but the issues i have highlighted but what it did do was allow English clubs to sort out its stadia with many in a major state of disrepair. The taylor report finding only made it law in England so in theory Scotland dint have to follow but they did because grounds in Scotland were also in major disrepair and needed to be improved. The 10,000 seater rule which almost crippled many clubs was the most foolhardy piece of legislation in Scottish football but I don't understand why clubs our size couldn't keep the terracing. I think both us and county have suffered because of it i mean if you look at the videos of the Caldonian stadium before the stands the atmosphere was better. The terraces we had we not dangerous and lets be honest they wouldn't be hard to police. Anyway that is history we have the stands now but i think we could improve our atmosphere if we could have a form of terracing back.

Whilst it's been a while since I've sat/stood in with the rest of the fans at a game, I do get the impression that stewards aren't getting on people's backs so much and forcing them to sit (home or away). If that's the case and fans aren't being hassled over it, then that's a far more sensible solution than forcing clubs to spend a fortune on rail seating.

I've never understood why you can have the old style terracing in in the lower league but not in the top tier. Especially after some of the 'bigger' teams have been down there. What's a bigger match: a cold Tuesday night match between ICT and Kilmarnock with 2,500 in attendance or a sold out Edinburgh Derby title decider at Tynecastle. One allows standing and the other doesn't. Madness. If standing areas are so bad, why do they allow them at concerts?

What a potential forward line - Marley O'Fairy Pink

At the time it was definitely frequently credited as an OG but I now see where you are coming from Sneckboy. I have just checked Ian Broadfoot's book and he somewhat sits on the fence saying that the official record gives it to Herchie although several other sources credit it as an OG. I have to say that 20 years on that's the first time I've seen it credited as an OG, but that's now what the official record says. No point in asking Herchie... he will claim it for sure!! PS - official records can be wrong and this pedant would point out that the official record in the previous post refers to the club as "Inverness CT" whereas at that time it was simply "CT".... Caledonian Thistle PPS - I'm glad that the uncertainty is about Caley Thistle's second competitive goal and not the first which was definitely Wilson Robertson. Herchie then had his 15 minutes of fame (or rather 19 because that's what it took him), when he got the club's first SFL goal and hat trick v Arbroath four days later.

What's with the 'they' ? Surely we are we.....

Warren's suspended!

I'm not so sure about Herchie. Wilson Robertson scored in the team's first ever competitive match, a 2-0 Coca Cola win away to East Stirling on 9th August 1994 (the other goal was an OG.) As far as I am aware, Herchie (who was team captain that season) played in that game and then scored a hat trick v Arbroath in CT's first ever SFL match (5-2 at home to Arbroath 4 days later), but his second competitive appearance. If you want to include friendlies, then the first official friendly, in which both Herchie and Wilson Robertson played, was a 3-0 defeat by St Mirren so on that basis neither scored on their debut. On the other hand Ian Broadfoot refers to an earlier closed doors kind of encounter with RAF players as the club's first ever "game", so if both Hercher and Robertson scored on that occasion, some kind of case could perhaps be made. Robertson, by the way, scored not only CT's first competitive goal but also Caledonian's last in the 1-1 draw at Huntly in May 1994.

Spoke to Ryan Esson this morning, he said it could be a couple of weeks for Brill to be ready. But I'm happy with Ryan in goals, he's getting sharper after an 18 month break from playing SPFL footie!!

Alex pointed out* that it seems Warren is unavailable for this game *(on another thread, I think). Although I can't see Daniel Devine 'splitting up' the Meekings-Warren partnership any time soon, I don't 'dread' when he comes in. I think he's capable. Very much under-the-radar when it comes to signing-up for beyond this season, but we need him to remain at the club - we'd otherwise be struggling for a natural centre-half to cover the inevitable breaks in that partnership which will occasionally arise during the season! He did have a 'shocker' at Perth last season at right back, I seem to recall, but he's really pretty decent when called upon, when playing in central defence. Would be disappointed if he wasn't kept.

........continuation of what we saw on Tuesday in Dundee. Our ability to keep the ball and move it about at pace appears to have deserted us, albeit, as Maryhill suggests, in the face of two sides who have been up-and-at-us. Too many players having an off day methinks and the up-and-coming break could be timely. Initially not at all convinced by our new man up front but , as the game went on and on reflection, he did quite well. His was a difficult task, being parachuted into a team of guys he had never even heard of, let alone met and played with. His holding up and linking will be an asset. He won balls in the air. His post-hitting effort looked like a strange contact as it travelled throught he air in slow motion but he buried his goal. Do we get Marley back next week? Motherwells two goals should have been better defended. I left very disappointed. Mrs Naelifts ( bad omen) says " Thats it, never again".but she says that every year. I'll bet she wants to come when we draw St Lucia in Europe! We can't win every game and our recent run has outstripped any sane mans expectations. Still in third place by a margin. So.......keep giving the effort lads.....you can never be accused of not doing that; believe in yourselves; we are where we are on merit.......

Probably the biggest factor in a poor overall performance today was players that have been pretty heroic all season apparently having off days. Draper's passing was very poor; Raven similarly so; Shinnie, in the first half at least, seemed very reluctant to take people on; and Christie's brain seemed to be working just a split second ahead of his feet, so that the ball didn't always follow him to where he wanted to go. The opposition and conditions also played a significant part: Motherwell set up really well against us and stopped us getting into any sort of rhythm, a tactic that worked really well for Partick earlier in the season, and the pitch became increasingly heavy as the game went on, which made it difficult for us to establish any sort of fluency once we came into the game. Apparently there has been some criticism of Ofere on social media. I don't see why. He worked hard, showed a decent first touch and tried to bring people into play, and considering he must know next to nothing about his teammates, I thought he did well. Could be a decent signing as we push, now, for what is a very realistic and achievable third place finish.

on looking back we still have an excellent opportunity because of a couple of factors. Are we playing worse than United? - no we certainly not and although we failed to capitalise on this week we haven't played that badly and still look dangerous and hard to beat. Killie wasn't the best but we scored 3 goals, Dundee UTD we should have been out of sight before half time and then today we may not have had a great day but we got back into it and by the sounds were unlucky with the winner being deflected. Dundee Utd need to win Severn more points than us. Both sides have to play Celtic, Aberdeen and each other twice before the end so certainly very tough for both sides to make lots of points. But if we stop united beating us with either a draw or a win then they cant gain and may fall further back. Their next game is away to Celtic in the league and we go to Partick after a little break so there is a good chance we could still increase the lead. Football is an up and down game which is why we love it and although we have failed to capitalise this week I would still rather this scenario than be a Dundee Utd fan at the moment.

There are 9 teams in our league who would love to be where we are .

What this thread requires at this time is some psychological words of wisdom from a professional perspective. What a poor week. 2 feckin points out of 9, lose a lead 3 times at home, can't beat a team who went down to 10 men and 1-0 after 5 minutes and fail to beat the whopping boys of the league. And then we show more indiscipline and make the squad depletion even worse. What a feckin disaster. But WHOA - let's reflect and take in the bigger picture. Have the footballing gods been with us or not ? We are now possibly in a stronger position than we were before we kicked off against Kille. Just look at the table. And then look at the fixture list. MASSIVE game next week but what a feckin booster a win would be. And then - well time to recuperate, regroup, refresh and hopefully RETURN. It gives us time to get the injured back, it gives us time to get the newbies more aware of the system, blend in and increase their fitness levels. It also serves suspension and highlights the need fer discipline to ALL concerned. This is actually the time to get behind the team and the team to repay the loyalty of 3000 frustrated followers. That is all fer now as I need to let my kilt in the mothballs and dust off my passport. Looks like old IHE will have to don the outfit again, at least twice, show of the tat and embarrass his family.

Looking on the bright side, the fact that Hamilton, Dundee and St Johnstone all failed to win and bearing in mind that St Johnstone still have to play both Hamilton and Dundee, today's results have confirmed a top 6 finish for us

Frustrating but being an ICT for many years you get used to the ups and downs and the inconsistency which is what stops us going the next step. However with United losing we are the one that control our euro fate. Need to up our game next week!

According to Wikipedia (who already have him listed as an ICT player till the end of season) he has played in 3 friendlies for Nigeria so presumably can't be too shabby. At 6'3" he's a big lad and obviously gives us options of high balls into the centre when surfaces are not so great for the passing game. His video of goal highlights is nothing like as impressive as Kinks and some of the goals shown demonstrate schoolboy defending rather than an exciting attacking talent. However, the perceived ability of a striker is often a refection of the qualities of the players around him and hopefully he has been signed because Yogi judges that he will fit in well with the squad we have. Let's make him very welcome and hope his goal scoring feats, if nothing else, are similar to Iain Stewart.

Iain Stewart = Thought fondly of in Lossie - small, Scottish, white guy. Edward Ofere = Thought fondly of in Lagos - big, Nigerian, black guy. I agree, they're almost identical!

I'm actually rather disappointed with the notice of complaint. It only makes reference to the Warren incident and offers a 2 game ban if accepted. Ciftci's actions deserve a far more severe punishment and having been able to view the footage at leisure, the SFA should be able to see Ciftci's premeditated and dangerously violent conduct for what it is. The shove on Shinnie was a forceful one which sent Shinnie sprawling. It was a deliberate, malicious act and seemed designed to send him hard into the path of Meekings. Fortunately they did not collide but they could easily have clashed heads with serious consequences. It was worthy of a red card and how the referee failed to give even a foul simply beggars belief. It also beggars belief that the SFA who will now have seen the incident also feel that no punishment is warranted. The 2nd incident was even worse. This was way off the ball and whilst Warren was watching the play, Ciftci launched into him from behind and sent him sprawling. That was not a foul in the course of play, it was an unprovoked assault and if you or I did that to someone in the street we'd get arrested. Warren obviously retaliated in some manner and whilst I am not defending him, a reaction is entirely understandable. Surely the original offence (which the SFA have seen) is a far more serious offence than Warren's reaction so how can they only slap on the same punishment as Warren will get? Players get suspended following red cards when they bring down a player in a goal scoring position even when genuinely going for the ball. They get suspended for badly timed timed tackles again where there is no malicious intent and they get sent off for raising an arm to push away an opponent who has fouled them or who is threatening them. Fair enough. But Ciftci's behaviour is far worse than that. It isn't spur of the moment, it isn't accidental and it isn't in reaction to being fouled. It is deliberate, malicious behaviour designed to harm an opponent - and on Tuesday night he indulged in at least two such acts of unprovoked thuggery. If the SFA had any balls about them they would be banning Ciftci for the rest of the season. What also disgusts me is the news that Dundee Utd are appealing the notice of complaint. They should consider themselves extremely fortunate that the offered ban is only 2 matches. What they should be doing is apologising for Ciftci's behaviour and announcing that internal disciplinary measures are being taken against him. I would hope that behind the scenes our club has complained to the SFA.and will do so again in the light of the leniency of the offer. By appealing the notice one can only assume that Dundee Utd condone such behaviour. The SFA's response should be to significantly lengthen the ban and perhaps Dundee Utd should also be fined as condoning such behaviour surely brings the game into disrepute. I know this is a bit of a rant but there is a really important principle here. Football is a hard game and we know that when players are giving 100% there will be times when players are hurt by mis-timed tackles and in the heat of the moment players will over-react to incidents. Players will get sent off and take their punishment and that is simply an inevitable part of the game. What is not an inevitable or acceptable part of the game is when players deliberately try to harm opponents. If the powers that be are not prepared to distinguish such thuggery from the normal inevitable consequences of committed competitive play then we have no chance of ever addressing some of the more innocuous forms of cheating such as holding and shirt pulling at set pieces.

We'd probably have to go far in the tournament before that happened! The English Premier League is ranked at no.2 by UEFA so clubs from there enter much later than SPFL teams! I did read that if Celtic beat Inter Milan, then in 2016/17 we (Scottish clubs) will get 5 teams in Europe for the following season. Maybe wrong, the whole system appears shrouded in secrecy! But, as much as it sometimes pains me, I support every Scottish team in Europe. To do otherwise is simply betraying your own club's future opportunities!

Give the guy a feckin break - especially when there are threads about our dwindling attendances and inability to attract new supporters.