Leaderboard

Alan.... for several years now, ICT has had two basic sources of income and relies on them BOTH to maintain its ongoing business (ie keep its head above water) - 1) regular earnings like league gate receipts, TV money and SPFL dividends and 2) Windfalls. These include the likes of transfer fees, cup runs (not, as Don says, Europe though), an exceptionally high league placing, one-off investments and even on one occasion selling the club's last significant tangible asset, the Social Club. Unfortunately there has been this misapprehension that any time one of these windfalls comes along, the purse strings can suddenly be loosened and the club can start splashing out on extra players. It doesn't work that way. All the things I mentioned in category 2 are part and parcel of basic operations and if there's a period when they DON'T happen then I would imagine that a bit of financial concern materialises. For instance I have always understood the sale of the Social Club to have been made to fill such a gap. As a result, it's a non-starter to suggest "pushing the boat out". There is no boat there! What you said about ambition was "if the board had matched (Yogi's) ambition.... I believe we'd have been pushing for Europe". That cannot be construed as anything other than an implication that the Board's ambition is inadequate or lacking. It also, however, implies that Yogi's expectation of how much money should be available was the realistic one and the Board were in some respect falling short in some way. It could instead be argued that Yogi did fine with Butcher's team but when it came to having to sign his own players, he was unable to do this in as financially efficient a manner as his predecessors.

Thought Laing was steady enough, him and Mccart seemed to acquit themselves well. Anier was uninspiring when he came on...I'd rather of seen Ebbe on for King Billy. And I'd hoped that Draper would get hooked when I saw Doran warming up...kept thinking he was gonna pick up a red card! More yellow cards though!! Grrr much better from Jake, with an end product. our team press for the first 60odd minutes was immense. Coley and Polly had wonderful performances, workrate was outstanding. A very promising performance all in all, and a much happier drive up the A9 than normal. Gladly of taken a point when I set off this morning, so yeah, delighted. Another 4 points from the next two games..... Thats us two games into an unbeaten league run.... MON CALEY EH!!!!

The use of inverted commas around 'support' is a particularly classy touch here.

What contradictory sentences! If Hughes' success would be the club's success why on earth would the club deliberately try to thwart his ambition? I am sure the Board's ambition is no less that Hughes', it is just that they behaved far more responsibly. Kingsmills is quite right when he says it was wrong of Hughes to try to pressure the Board by going public with his demand for funds beyond which he already knew the club could afford. If the Board had bowed to Hughes' irresponsible media campaign and if Hughes had managed to bring success to himself and the club as a result,then you can be assured that he would have moved on and left the club to deal with the resultant debt. The club's success may have been Hughes' success but the club's overdraft would not have been Hughes' overdraft. Of course, there is also no guarantee that had the Board borrowed money to fund his demands that Hughes would have been able to recruit players to deliver success in any case. Don't forget, that despite being given a bigger budget than his predecessor, he left the club with a significantly weaker squad than he inherited. Hughes' actions had made his position untenable and he simply had to go.

Come on we are wanting 3 points from The Rangers on Friday

*bump Ladies and Gents, today was a great result against Hearts. There have been many times in our history where a draw against one of Scotlands biggest clubs would have been headline news, so let's celebrate that achievement. Let the great result today reinforce the belief in Ritchie and the lads. We have games against The Rangers and Celtic where we have no expectation at all and we already have one point in that bag more than anyone gave us credit for. Hamilton have: Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts, The Rangers, St Johnstone in their next five games. I absolutely believe we can make up the two points difference to overtake Hamilton in at least these five games!

Spot on DD. The evidence is not there that Yogi would have had the ability to recruit wisely even if a bigger budget had become available. He was a decent coach but his recruitment strategy was never as good as Terry Butchers. His time was simply up. I saw his man management at first hand when he totally blanked a player at my table at sponsors night. That was in front of everyone and it then transpired that he hsd not spoken to said player in months!! I will forever be grateful for the glory days under Hughes but he knows that he also was lucky in landing our job with such a talented bunch of players. As for the board well they were never going to give into his ever increasing demands and thats even if we had the ability to borrow money which I doubt. If they are at fault there is maybe an argument that was in not withdrawing the offer of an extended deal when he started playing games in the press before finally signing it. This is of course only my opinion and others are entitled to theirs.

Best day we've had for months, taking into account our own result away to a good side and the favourable way results elsewhere turned out.

With Rangers in a shambles, on and off the park, why not expect at least get a draw from them? Yes, how did Anier and Laing do? And five stars to OFW for what must be the save of the season. After all, no loss and one point is a real spirit lifter for our team and the fans.. And I hope that this means his injuries are finally beginning to clear up because his record up to the point where he suffered greatly was fantastic. Meantime top marks to the team for their fighting spirit. Interesting report....... http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/38940471 S.P.

The delusion that the Board has some obligation to conjure up money from where it doesn't exist is becoming quite tiresome. What perhaps also needs looked at is Hughes' ability (or lack of it) to produce credible teams on an obviously limited budget. I have already said in another post that a certain amount of what he did was on Butcher's signings while his own signings may struggle to survive a critical look. Hughes' second year at Raith could be interesting.

We're due a win...I'm sensing a draw on Friday then al three points against you know who and I'm up for that one

Never mind the 2 points dropped they're gone now. Good to come back from Tynecastle with a point and a penalty save too. Now hoping for a point against the Gers as we build momentum to take on the smaller clubs.

Sat 18 Feb 2017 EL2 T Aldred (Blackpool 2 - Crewe 2) SL1 R McAllister (2) (Stranraer 3 - Peterhead 3) SL2 S Sutherland (Elgin C 4 - Clyde 1) Highland League S Soane (2) (Cove R 3 - Forres 2)

Well, most of us would have taken that before the game. Well done OFW, maybe that will settle you down for the rest of the season. A glimmer of hope remains....

Well done lads.The fightback has begun!

Mackay is on loan at Elgin....and putting a keeper up front is a bold move.

JH was the author of his own downfall at ICT. Managers will invariably push their chairmen for more money but that should have been kept in house. The moment he went bleating to his friends in the media he was acting entirely in his own interests and against those of the club. Richie has obvious shortfalls in his ability as a coach, at least for now, but there is no doubting that he has more class in that respect than Yogi.

Ryan christie transfer fee money for reaching europe ! Inever said the board lacked ambition i said they never matched his which may have pushed us in to a best of the rest fight we were a decent side under hughes! What sort of $$$$ was yogi asking for?

Nor should he show any bitterness towards ICT. He was more than happy to sign a 2 year contract extension with us. I cannot for a minute believe that at the time of signing he did not know what the likely budget was going to be. Yet within a very short while he is complaining openly about it, and I for one believe, deliberately engineering his exit , at great financial cost to the club. This I believe led to us making the risky, possibly 'cheap option', of promoting Foran, which many folk will now see as a mistake, and who knows what longer term financial problems lie in store, especially if we go down.

Fair play to yogi if the board had matched his ambition ie push the boat out for storey i believe wed have been pushing for europe rather than a relegation scrap true saying u only realized what u had when its gone

I happen to think there was a basic misunderstanding between JH and the board. The board made extra money available during JH's last season to cover for the players that went out and the injury list at the start of the season after the two Astra games. When they said the budget would not be reduced, they meant the basic budget without the emergency signings JH I think interpreted the budget as being the basic plus the cost of those signings. This is why both could make the claim the board (the budget has been maintained) and JH (the budget has been cut) both statements were actually true depending on your understanding or misunderstanding of what the basic budget was. I don't go with the line that he engineered his way out I think he genuinely enjoyed his job and from my previous experience of him and his reputation he was always regarded as a straight hitter by all the people he worked with, I know the Falkirk people held him in very high regard.Yes he tried to put pressure on the board by speaking to the press which was his only lever. From my perspective the board lost the rag and sacked him. His legacy I think is being unfairly trashed by some on the forum, we played the best football since Steve Patterson's days finished 3rd in the league won the SC and played in Europe. I don't expect to see any of that repeated in my lifetime.

Well that was more out of need than design but wot a Feckin point BUT will lessons be learned

Unbelievable, I am supposed to accept your word that you are right, that you know the ins and outs and that my thoughts and theories amongst others are delusional. Do your egotistical views Charles, for which you are a master at, hold no bounds ? Surely having been shot down in flames so many times in so many threads it is time you realised that you are not the be all and end all of subject matters, that you can be and often are wrong in your assumptions, generalisations and opinions. Time for a bit of modesty young man and time to listen to the other fellas' points of view.

Hear Hear, glad you read things the way I do, I will add to that, that the board had already set their minds on Richie as J H;s successor and took the opportunity to make things difficult for the man, they played on the fact that a proportion of the 'support' saw John's style as being negative football, to some extent it was but John was looking to build on that and was frustrated that he couldn't get the money to 'keep the players he had earmarked for the Club's future success. Remember the Club's success would be his success so no wonder he spoke out when he realised this was slipping away through lack of the board's backing. Any manager worth his salt would decry anyone who would deliberately try to thwart his ambition. John also knew from the outset of his stay with us that Richie was the manager incumbent and said so on numerous occasions. He knew too that he was fighting a losing battle to better his career at the Cluib and that I believe is why we lost our most successful ever manager. Now Richie is in post and I have backed him from the start, He can still keep us up he may even close us in on top six, regardless of some of the opinions on here. I hope so anyway for the Club's sake. Today's point is so important it is a first step to confidence enhancement. Small steps can lead to a very long jump.