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To a fair extent, you are right, bdu, but I think you also highlight the fundamental, possibly intractable issue of professional football outwith the absolute elite. When you take your well resourced upper English leagues and the Old Firm (well actually maybe not Rangers since they can't make ends meet either) out of the equation, you are left with a substantial rump which struggles to make full time professional football viable. What boards have to do is to maximise ticket revenue - indeed maximise every kind of revenue under the sun - simply in order to pay players at levels well above their realistic market value. Presumably enough market research has been done to show that the price levels in question are the ones which maximise revenue (= ticket price x attendance). The modern day football market directs the vast majority of fan expenditure, and hence club revenue, towards a tiny elite of bigger clubs. The added, artificial effect of Scotland's ongoing failure to come to terms with the Reformation allied with the preferential policies of the Scottish governing bodies pushes this on another step still. This gives us the Old Firm duopoly and then the rest who continue to subsist on the scraps and leftovers. The rest of Scottish football is trying to chase its tail finding resources to pay A - sometimes not very good players B - far more than their market value. This, unfortunately, appears to have been taken to extremes in both categories A and B over the previous couple of seasons at ICT.

If the highlights are indicative of the game it looks like two points dropped, need more composure around the box.

Good appointment. Bound to be an improvement on the media and PR front compared to the well intentioned but ineffective and amateurish efforts of the self styled 'media team' over the past two or three seasons.

A quick tally up shows that this is our lowest scoring start to a season (or rather after 15 games) since 2008/09 with just 17 goals scored.

I was speaking to someone a while back who told me they'd been speaking to a former member of the board (I think) around the start of last season. He asked said former board member how they planned on taking the club forward. The response was - 'We won the Scottish Cup, everything's fine'. There was no desire whatsoever to try and capitalise on the cup win. Nothing to try and really push the club forward in the community and use the time we were at our highest to truly take the club forward. We've hugely paid the price.

While I accept that books have to balance and there is a trade off between pricing and footfall, it is also true that pricing cannot be continually increased or kept at inflated levels just to compensate for negligence in building a business and expanding the customer base. The citing of market research is fine, but is it ever listened to? Fans can sit inside any night of the week and watch domestic or foreign football on TV in a warm atmosphere instead of venturing out - we (Scottish football) need to find the niche, which is summer football with a focus on accessible kick off times - make it an fun atmosphere to draw fans, kids & families along. The fans have been saying this for years, surveys conducted and results presented but nothing changes. Yes, research is done but sadly nobody in Scottish football really gives a sh1t unless its the OF calling for it.

Spot on. Being run by a group of plonkers sitting round a table talking about a product they new nothing about has murdered this club.

Poor value for money and failing to capitalise on previous success. Asking fans to pay £20+ for a ticket to watch lower tier football in the middle of winter is what's killing the Scottish game. As a club we were playing attractive football, winning and storming up the league a few seasons ago yet the club never put together a strategy to get a bounce in crowd numbers - never used the winning of the cup as a strong marketing tool and never looked outside the 4 walls at what being part of Inverness & the Highlands could bring for local and external investment. Too much time patting each other on the back and in-fighting with management than looking forwards IMO. If we want crowds to increase now, we need to improve the quality of entertainment, style of play and the overall match day experience. We need some young players to be near the team that fans can get excited about and look forward to investing in their development - not like we usually do and freeze them out before scrapping them off - this does not help.

Cleary there is a plan to reduce the wage bill and the playing squad age. While signing Raven would be of benefit we probably cant afford it with there still be being some high earners and some hopeless jobbers brought in on long deal - oh and paying for a departed manager. Next up will be Warren, OFW to depart - possibly followed by Vigurs,. Polly & Tremarco. The concern is that while we could put Brad back into the RB slot, that then leaves an issue in CB otherwise we will need to hope one of the under-performers so far can step up to RB - which I haven't much faith in. Much like the turn over previously when we moved on Tokley, Munro etc, the time has come through circumstances to make sweeping changes so best to just accept it. Everyone associated with the cup squad will always be held in high regard for what they achieved no matter where they end up next.

A very under-rated player. Easily one of the best defenders in Scottish football over the last 5 years. I suspect he's been overlooked by scouts and undervalued in contract negotiations due to his only weakness - looking 20 years older than he actually is.

Good luck David and thank you for all the great memories, especially semi final goal, a day i will never forget. Would love to see you back up here as a coach in the future.

Manfer nailed it! It's common sense really.

Why would you need to operate machinery? If anything it's a matter of being able to play without a disadvantage.

Unfortunately all good things come to an end some time.

I suspect that there have been times in our history when we have played (and won) despite players not getting to bed until 3am and waking up feeling dehydrated!

Don't think anyone who's had to work for a living would be very sympathetic to Robbo's argument for having the match postponed. I think it's more likely a bit of psychology. Anyway, Robbo as manager continues to impress. I don't think promotion is out of the question yet!

I hope we find out the reason for the Board of Q. of the S. to act as they have done. It may be legal and acquiesced-to by the wonderful SFA, but clearly the element of compassion and common sense is entirely lacking on both parties. Was it therefore money that motivated Q of the S? Or WHAT? Of course the situations with Rangers and Celtic need not be used as a comparison because when dealing with these two pampered clubs we all know that their interests, at all times, are first and foremost in the minds of the SFA and a few others. I'll bet your bottom dollar that had any one of these two clubs been involved instead of ICT, the request for a postponement in these circumstances would have been granted by all at the drop of a hat. And, lest we forget, ICT have been the daring upstarts who had the will and the way, against all odds, to take the Scottish Cup away from more deserving clubs don't you know? If more people like John spoke out like he did there would be less crappy behaviour in the world, and more kindness and consideration and more happiness. As for John Robertson, to be perfectly frank I think in view of the terrible ordeal the whole team had to suffer in so many ways he was remarkably restrained. He stuck to the facts and did not introduce hyperbolic histrionics. He just told it how it was and well done for speaking out John, I say. You have my vote anyway.

Keep him yes, but at what cost? Double the wages of the rest of the team? A wage that prevents us signing a good striker? He was offered what the club can afford or consider him to be worth at this level, and turned it down. Time to go separate ways, unfortunately.

By now that European large payment must have reduced the debt considerably. If that allows them to now start to save some money so much the better. However, I doubt that the Board can achieve that so the future is uncertain for sure. at the club will be able to slot in sooner rather than later. Cents please?

I see they all went to Newcastle for a night out post match. Can't have all been in that bad a shape then...

This is exactly the kind of response the club will have been hoping to see from more fans. "Can't blame us at least we tried". Fact is that Raven has been treated pretty shoddily by the club for a long time now and to offer him a contract knowing full well it wasn't even close to what he was looking for is another insult as far as I'm concerned, a piece meal offering. They'd have been as well not offering him anything and just letting him go in January.

Week in week out David earned every penny of his wages, can that be said of all the staff? ......no ransom demand there, just realism on his part.