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A little insight into Alan's weekend entertainment right there

I don't get it when people call the league cup a "mickey mouse" competition. I was there when we lost to Aberdeen, and I was devastated to lose that final, and are they saying that a third of the trophies that Celtic won on their historic treble treble are mickey mouse? Every trophy that we are involved in are important to our development and in some cases, our history. I for one, can't wait for the dates to be announced, roll on the new season.

I think had you said it this way first then you wouldn't have got the response you did. No one disagrees that we need to improve to win promotion this year from the top down but it needs brought back to reality and is not as clear cut and black and white as you make out. We are where we are for a reason and it'll be tough again next season. I'm sure there will be a few new faces brought in and one or two may well leave but we have the nucleus of a good team, if we can keep them, so lets see what the next 4-6 weeks brings then pre-season.

Haha I'm collecting them the day no seen as many red lights since the damm last summer

That's strange 2 red dots for pointing out the truth the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over so how the fcuk are players who finished 15 points of the top now minus our stand out player gonna win the league it's obvious the squad needs changing up bin a few few newbies in!

Good lord man if we can't beat that teams there truly is no hope might as well lock up the ground I'd expect Alness United to beat that lot !

The sort of complacency that the manager and the players certainly won't share. Nor will most sensible and realistic fans.

Don't forget the Challenge (Irn Bru) Cup!

It's the third most important tournament in the country and very worth doing well in for all sorts of reasons not least early season momentum and confidence building. I didn't regard it as a Mickey Mouse competition when I was sitting at Parkhead with my head in my hands after losing out on penalties to Aberdeen and I don't regard it as a Mickey Mouse competition now.

Still waiting for date of pre season fixture at Brora - looking forward to fish n chips in The Trawler at Golspie before ko. An annual treat - both the footie and the food.

ICT are notoriously slow starters : need to start on the front foot both in cup and league and not be left playing catch up. We always seem to stick to a Highland tour for pre season matches : maybe a step up in quality of opposition might help the team in these early games?

I'd expect a new look squad with a few of last year's u18's. Get the new players integrated and the young ones experience. I'd hope we could win / compete on most of the games but I'd rather it was a warm up for the league season proper. Mickey mouse!

Whether we should be expected to win the group or not, I always go into the group stage with a touch of realism and tempered expectations all down to the fact that rightly, we'll use the games as pre-season like most do. If it started a month later then I'd raise the bar but see no point in lumping pressure on the team so early on in the season. Looking forward to these games heightened by where the away games could possibly be, certainly easier for us to get to than a home game.

our game against DU is history so why can't we just put it to bed and concentrate our efforts on next season

Gotta say love a cup run no matter the competition and get on an early roll of wins confidence will build important we win this group ! Our slow starts to the season cost us 2 years in a row get them going Robbo ffs

We enter three competitions a season (League, Scottish Cup & League Cup) With aim to do the best we can in each one.

Or who we used to play !!

League cup is still a great cup. Especially for a team like us. I like the group stages as it gives you a chance to play a fair few teams you wouldn’t usually play.

It's the third least important tournament, use it to blood youngsters, no one remembers who won the thing and no European place up for grabs. Concentrate on promotion.. As for confidence building, I seem to remember we got some decent results in this competition in the group stages before Hearts hammered us and we got relegated the same season. We have a small squad, the fewer unnecessary games for first team players the better IMHO. If you want to take this nothing competition seriously that's your prerogative but I certainly would not lose any sleep over going out in the group stages if we gave four or five youngsters a run in these matches.

Not getting at you IHE but frankly ever since the European place for winning the league cup was withdrawn I have zero interest in this mickey mouse competition which was once the worst attended professional competition possibly in the world, I would use it to blood youngsters as AF did at Man Utd.

Would a new business , into pies, be a good investment ? Or is that just, perhaps , a load of pie -in-the- sky, like? If not you could always hire a "pied-piper" to lead a march down the old High Street as a "send-off".

If we have the same squad as last season minus our best player Polly wer screwed these boys fell woefully short in the league wer needing new faces specially up front!