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They were pretty unlucky not to beat Newcastle Reserves last Saturday at Ibrox.

Hats off to the ICT board for that. Roll back to when Terry left and many fans were concerned about whether we could maintain progress. At that point we were riding high in the league and looking forward to a cup semi thanks to Terry and his backroom as well as players. Yogi's appointment was a surprise and questioned in many quarters (me included) especially when results initially went south. 18 months on and we are playing attractive passing football, in with a great chance of Euro qualification (even with faltering recent form) and looking forward to our 1st Scottish Cup final against a tricky, albeit slightly less fancied opponent ... Who'd have thunk it?! Well done everybody.

Plus Points Given time to build his own team, can be successful while playing passing-based attacking football. Can motivate given the right players. Will bring attention to the club and the area given his status and will also attract players. Seems to have a good knowledge/contacts within the lower Football League and non-league. He has charisma and can be a real showman. I kinda miss his end of game away match routine. Will get rid of deadwood, players not pulling their weight and he anyone he perceives as a threat to his 'I'm the boss' attitude, even if they're your better players or club legends. Will attempt to talk the club, the area and the fans up as much as possible. Can work well on a tight budget. Negative Points Rules with an iron fist. Some players simply won't take to his tough love approach. He's by no means a tactical maestro. If his set-up/line-up/formation works, then he's fine. If it's not working or a team have found a way to counteract it, he hasn't a clue what to do. Hasn't a clue about substitutions and often makes them after the 85th minute, where they can make no impact at all. Prior to building his own team, expect about two seasons of a long ball borefest. Seems to have favourites, who he'll pick no-matter what. His record without Maurice Malpas is very very poor. If he can bring Malpas with him and/or Steve Marsella though, it might counteract this. Doesn't take well to criticism at all. Expect a few shouting matches with supporters. Blows must win matches. His record in England is appalling. Brentford in particular was an absolute disaster. His time in Australia at Sydney was also pretty poor. Hibernian out did them all though! Things to be wary of As mentioned, Butcher will talk up the club and the area as much as possible but he doesn't mean it. He can play the fans and the press like an piano and can come across as a lovely bloke in the press. Behind the scenes though, it's a different story. I saw a few times him act absolutely appallingly. In short, he's not a nice man. Expect him as well, as soon as a bigger job comes up as well, to be down the road to take over elsewhere as fast as you can spell Valley Parade. As mentioned elsewhere, on the whole, Butcher was a good manager for ICT. That doesn't change the fact though that his antics at the end were absolutely dreadful. Turning up in the Hibs end and being introduced in hospitality as the 'new Hibs manager' said more about the man than any interview ever could and led to our former chairman David Sutherland to refer to him on TV as 'disgusting'! Butcher felt he doing us a favour the whole and that we should be grateful for it (expect him to think of himself as the King of Newport). There was a time when Butcher could do no wrong, but he's got no-one to blame but himself. He could've had a job here for life but the fact he threw it all away says it all. If he does get the Newport job, get ready for either a big success (if given time) or a dreadful failure. Be wary of him at all times though. His ego's as big as Wembley.

Players to use some of their Semi-Final Bonus to fund free kids tickets for Cup Final. http://ictfc.com/news/club-news/1534-2000-challenge

Disappointing to lose the equaliser but the Super J's probably deserved a point. We could have killed it off before that though. Ref Dallas completely spoiled the game. Booed by both sets of fans which sums it up. Strange one, Yogi still persisting with Marley up front and Eddie lying much deeper. Surely better the other way round or play them as a pair.

http://radioplayer.tay2.co.uk/live/ Live, slightly biased, commentary available here

Not good. For once I want Dons to win.

190 for me. Won 85 Drawn 47 Lost 58 For 331 Against 240 First game was way back on Sat 20 Jan 1990. An FA Cup 3rd round tie at promotion chasing Airdrie. This was in Caledonian's Highland League days. The match ended in a 2-2 draw - Airdrie equalising in what was possibly the 97th minute.

How the feck am I supposed to remember that ?!!! But I bet that I have been ejected from more grounds than some have been to !!

The peccadillos of his pontificating personality are of no consequence to me since we are all human and different. More often than not, these can actually be quite entertaining or amusing. But what set my fuse alight was when it became very apparent that he had crossed the line by contacting the HIbs before (in one way or another) he had informed the club of his strategy or intentions. That was against the rules and if any fan thinks that is right then welcome to a "no rules" environment and chaos wrapped in the dissipation and subsequent dereliction of duty and loyalty etc.. Especially when the Management of the club had treated him fairly and squarely and rightly would have expected to have been taken into his confidence as a minimum. The flaring match that set alight my second fuse was his insults to both the Management and fans of ICT by sitting in the stand with the Hibs' management at the first game against ICT at Easter Road as if the ICT people had never been fair to him or guiven him his chance to shine in the sun.