Leaderboard

There will be plenty of critcism of ICT, and much of it will be deserved, but the first thing I want to say is to give credit to Stirling, who should be very pleased with their solid performance. They were very well organised, kept their shape resolutely and defended very well. Hitting on the break they had chances to snatch a win too.

I see Conor Henderson has signed for Grimsby Town (who he was previously on loan at). Also, the aforementioned ex-Man United striker John Cofie (a big lumbering bloke who didn't do anything) signed for Wrexham about a fortnight after his trial with us. He's since been released. Unbelievably, according to Wikipedia, Man United signed him from Burnley at the age of 14 for £1m! Some people may also remember the pacy winger and striker Toby Ajala (not Ayala as many in the press were misspelling his name) who we had on trial a few months, who scored at a reserve game at Grant Street. Looks like he signed for Dover Athletic shortly after his trial with us and has just signed again for Torquay in the last week or so. Midfielder Oliver Norburn, formerly of Bristol Rovers and Plymouth and was on trial in pre-season and played against Forres and St Mirren, signed for Guiseley AFC in November. They play in the National League (previously the Conference). At the time I was surprised we didn't sign him as I thought he looked a decent player. It was never really announced if it was true or not, but there was talk in the pre-season that we had Petershill midfielder Mark Lamont (who'd previously played for St Mirren and Dumbarton and had also attracted interest from Hamilton Accies) on trial. Looks like we might see him in action this afternoon as he later signed for Stirling Albion!

First things first. Well done to Albion, who had a plan and executed it well. Now to the positives - at least we are still in the cup, and Fisher showed more in half a game than Lopez did in half a season. I was disappointed at our energy levels today. We should have been trying to play the game at a high tempo to try and test the fitness levels of part-time players. Instead, when they let us have the ball, we did our usual thing of passing around at the back like we had all the time in the world. We should have scored in the second half, but Storey managed to clear his own shot off the line. Fisher engineered a chance on the turn, but was reaching for the shot and only really poked it at the keeper. Other than that it was all shots from distance really I suppose Mutombo had a chance in stoppage time, but he may have been better served pulling it back. Stirling had a couple of chances, but I didn't feel we were ever under any real pressure. There was a palpabable lack of width today, which was emphasised when Fisher came on. We need to get that sorted out.

Just heard John Hughes on the radio saying that Dani Lopez is leaving, freeing up his wages helped to secure Miles Storey for the rest of the season.

TEAM LINES

Poor show. Albion did their homework better than us, frustrated our attack and fancied themselves attacking down our left (that will need fixed before the replay). They gained in confidence and often left two up front when we were in possession in the second half. Having said all of that, will surely put it to bed at the second attempt. They can't play at such intensity twice, nor can we be so bad. Can't go, but I still hope it doesn't go on telly as the crowd for a cold January Tuesday night will be miserable enough anyway. Re Craig Beattie - his problem was always injury proneness rather than Riordan-style self-destruction. And he is 35. I thought their starting No 9 put in a terrific shift.

Well that's a good omen, we only managed a draw away, in our first round last season too. The tickets were priced at £15,10 and 5. So not sure if both clubs would agree to a further reduction. Hopefully it won't affect the pay what you want a few days later which strengthens the need to find new recruits for the 2 nd home game in 4 days. Hopefully it will be on TV, that would make some extra cash for both clubs. If it is I hope some pay what you can boards are prominent for the TV cameras. At least we are still in the competition unlike Hamilton, St Johnstone and Aberdeen. So will be interesting to see who we play in the next round if we are fortunate enough to beat Stirling as you can never assume you have the right to beat someone without earning the right.

Agree with the last post, Line up from start looked so ponderous for a cup game vs much lower league opposition! far too defensive, cant wait to hear Yogi's take on the game! Really think he needs to add a winger or two in January.

Given that Stirling were always going to set out their stall to frustrate us our starting lineup looked far too defensive. A back 4 with Wedderburn, Drapes and Tansey in front, 3 holding midfielders for a game of this nature is bonkers. PS surprising to see Craig Beattie sitting on the bench for a League 2 side! Why do so many Scottish international strikers fall off a cliff so young? Another one for the list. The career trajectories of Riordan, O'Conner and Beattie sum up why the national team is in the doldrums. A criminal waste of talent and unfulfilled potential. Depressing stuff!

When admin put up man of match poll, can we have an option for crowd? Singing, the sound and passion, was constant for 90min, (and in molly's pre match) Not 1 player was worthy of a vote!

It really is a poor result from our point of view no matter how well Stirling played. Let's not be distracted too much by cup dreams etc. we should be able to beat a team that lost last week to the bottom club in four tiers of Scottish football. Dismal stuff by all accounts, and well done Stirling Albion for taking us down a peg or two.

That lads obviously wanted to score the 1500th goal at home. At least we are still in the competition and have not suffered the kind of humiliation that Hamilton have. I am sure we will take care of business in the replay.

Regarding the IHS roll, that's low due to a combination of the population of the catchment area and a lot of parents exercising choice and sending their kids to Charleston or Millburn. And yes, Fortrose is consistently high in the ratings. Apart from whatever is happening within the school, the demographics are indeed a major factor, with a large middle class enclaves in the likes of North Kessock and Fortrose itself (although they do also have the Avochies and the Croms) You also tend to find that rural secondaries get fairly good stats although with small schools, small sample sizes often give unreliable and hugely variable outcomes. However I think Fortrose Academy is big enough to avoid that. It is also true that not everybody that attends Millburn is from a middle class background and over the years they have had not a few Army kids who can be notoriously problematic. However the Millburn catchment area does have a rather bigger middle class presence than any of the others so when you add in "free transfers" from other catchment areas and tutoring, there is a big advantage there. Indeed I remember some years ago, someone in the Royal Academy staffroom commented that Millburn's results appeared to be better than ours, to which a member of senior management retorted "What do you expect? I think we've done pretty well considering we've got bloody Hilton!" In response to Dougie's query, the High School's fate was sealed when Inverness's five catchment areas were fixed in the late 70s and parental choice of school was introduced in the early 80s. As a result, 30-35 years ago roughly corresponds to the early days of that current arrangement and hence the early days of the High School's demographic challenges. There would have been a few years in the mid 70s, pre-Charleston, when the High School was taking everyone from West Inverness/ Beauly/ Kiltarlity and parental choice didn't exist and the IHS would have done OK. Before 1971, it was the old selective arrangement when the "Tecky" took the middle ability slice for the entire area and the lower achiever from the West. Perhaps it's worth adding that over the last 40-50 years the demographic factor has polarised considerably with many of the middle classes moving out of council estates like Dalneigh and Hilton and into newly created private developments like Lochardil and Drakies. When I was a kid in the 60s, within a couple of hundred yards of my house we were mob handed with teachers including a head teacher, quite senior civil servants, senior firemen, managers and other professionals. By the same token, Dalneigh FPs figured pretty prominently when relatively large numbers of them went to the selective Royal Academy and the same could be said of Merkinch. Intervening demographic changes have correspondingly altered that situation.

ICT Twitter account has just said that we have signed Alex Fisher until the end of the season with an option for another year. EDIT: And he's available to play in the game today.

Verb. verb 1. provide (an illustration) with a title or explanation.

Laggan Dam in full flow into the River Spean. Here is a close up.

Ach well I do remember when Caley drew at home a few times against the bigger teams in the cup !! Cant deny Stirling their wee chance but surely we`ll see them off on the 19th

Looking at his stats, he could be just the person we need to play just behind/in front or along side Miles. Has quite a few goals in him and at least he's match fit having played 22 games for torquay this season. Also it seems he's trained at the glenn hoddle academy. Quite a few decent players have come through there, ikechi anya is instantly one that springs to mind

6 foot 3 old fashioned centre forward. Now let's hope Helen Chamberlain follows

I hope the Chairman has the sense to say no chance, we don't need Stoke's baggage at our club. This is a guy who because of his attitude can't get a place in a really poor Celtic side. The Hibs fans were not exactly distraught to see the back of him despite his goals and neither are Celtic. http://www.hibs.net/showthread.php?251689-Tom-English-on-Anthony-Stokes