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The point I was trying to make that signing Shankland guarantees nothing. If you rely on only one player for goals, if something happens to him, you have a problem, as happened to Ayr last season. Last season, Utd also had Safranko, who I think is a better player than Shankland and offered more to the team. Utd have been favourites for the last 3 years and hugely under achieved and I don't see anything yet to indicate to me, that they are guaranteed to win the Championship. You need a good manager to do this and I am not convinced Neilson is a good manager.

ok. I am going to close this thread now and start a new one with the details for this year's sponsorship. As no-one has objected then I think it a good idea to stick with our policy of sponsoring the kit of up and coming local lads through their ICT career. We have got lucky with Grant Munro and Liam Polworth, both of whom turned out to be very important and influential players for our club so lets hope Cameron Harper can develop in the same vein .....

Rooney did his ankle and shouted fuuuuck at the top of his voice as he went down the tunnel, emerging later in crutches. We brought on Coll and the back 4 looked decent for an hour with MacKay performing well behind them. We played the first 20 minutes with a lopsided system in which Trafford and Brown held with McGregor hugging the right touchline. On the other side Doran moved up alongside Curry and White whenever we had the ball. Curry was central with White shifting slightly to the right. We soon switched to 4-2-3-1 with Curry going wide and MacGregor playing as a 10. Both of them were being coached very intensively by Robbo throughout the game as they struggled to impose themselves. Doran came off with a groin strain before half-time - it didn't look serious. Walsh came on and played quite well. Todorov came on for Harper and played centre-half with McCart moving to left-back and gave away a penalty before he'd touched the ball. Later in the game he let a straightforward high ball bounce off the top of his head and Aberdeen should've scored. Todorov redeemed himself by getting a flick onto a corner for Brad to pop up with his trademark back post tap-in. As the subs rained on the game opened up a little and there were chances at both ends. Machado offered more penetration than MacGregor, and Keatings played centrally alongside White when he came on. Chalmers had replaced Brown by this point - we need to get some growth hormones into those boys. It was really depressing to see Trafford taking set pieces - there was a gaping Liam Polwarth sized hole in the centre of midfield throughout. We desperately need the dynamism of a Sean Welsh to give the attacking players a platform. No sign of him, Carson, Vincent or Tremarco today.

I just wanted to add some comments about the lovely service put on for Ken (and in many respects planned by the man himself before he passed !). Sadly my own mother died the day after Ken so I had to make an impromptu trip back to Scotland to take care of things. Her service was the day before Ken's so I was able to pull things together and go along to pay my own tribute to a man who many people knew even if they didn't realise they did. As many have said, Ken was a lovely man who was present in many lives through business, sport, or other interests (tatties apparently) and you could see that by the sheer number and diversity of the people who attended. There were representatives from business, from shinty, from football, including several former chairmen of ICT and the current one, and from his personal life. Ken was a man with a sense of humour and his casket was brought into the chapel to the strains of Wild Rover ! Ken did love his Guinness ! (and tatties). Bill McAllister presented the first eulogy for Ken and had people chuckling and feeling thoughtful in equal measure. Ken had apparently offered suggestions to Bill for stuff to include in the eulogy while his condition deteriorated . Not sure if Bill actually used any of it (although the story about how much Ken loved tatties may have been part of it) but Bill spoke both beautifully and emotionally to honour his very dear friend. His words came straight from the heart and the big man would have chuckled, nodded his head and agreed with most if not all of the comments and anecdotes. I dont think there was a dry eye in the house when the musical interlude was played and a powerpoint of pictures of Ken from very young age, through his university, shinty and football days was played, culminating in pictures of his most recent images enjoying some of his final days with his wife and children. The big man would definitely have approved of this service (even the bits he didnt organise) and I think and he would probably have been flattered by the guard of honour made by the shinty lads from Strathglass and others who joined the line. Goodbye Ken. and to borrow words from Don above - the best chairman we never had ... He worked tirelessly for the club without fanfare .... so much so that I missed the fact in my original post that he was around the club well before 1999-2000, but mainly in the background. I would finally make the point that if we can (deservedly) have a 'Jock MacDonald' stand then knowing now just how much Ken Thomson did for our club and to ensure its survival, what kind of legacy can we have for him? He has well and truly earned that and his place in our history. (and even though he would appreciate it, I don't think we should name the pitch the Ken Thomson tattie field).

If you are not going to play young players in this competition when are you going to play them? a SC quarter or must win league match, I don't think so, we need to know how the youngsters handle competitive matches against men and that takes games a run of them so do it in all the group matches then you know who can cope at this level and who can't. If we can't play them in these matches what's the point in the U19s. If we even find one or two who can do it that would be a huge step forward.