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No goals for six months then nine TEN in the opening pre-season fixture...... ELGIN CITY 3-7 ICT FC (Keatings 3, 54pen. Todorov 22, Storey 75, 83. MacGregor 77, 85) 3: GOAL! We have the lead through @jameskeatings as he unleashes a great strike from about 25 yards and into the top corner! Screamer..... 12: Scott Allardice goes close for the Caley Jags but his effort is just wide after a corner made its way to him at the back post. 22: GOAL! A low finish from @NNTodorov from just outside the box makes it 2-0 to the Caley Jags! 29: Goal! Elgin have one back as Hester cuts inside and fires a low strike past Ridgers. 45: Almost a second for Nikolay Todorov but his effort at a tight angle is just wide. Half Time 1-2 54: GOAL!@jameskeatings makes it 3-1 from the penalty spot! 70: Goal Elgin grab one back. Hester has second as he finishes from close range. 75: GOAL! Miles Storey makes it 4-2 to Caley Thistle. Great pick out from Cammy Mackay as his pass send Storey clean through and he made no mistake in front of goal. 77: Good save from Cammy Mackay as he keeps a powerful free-kick from Kane Hester who is on a hat-trick. 78: GOAL!@MacgregorRoddy gets Caley Thistle's 5th goal of the afternoon. Good play from Shane Sutherland in the box and his shot is deflected into MacGregor's path for a tap in! 80: Goal, Elgin get another back. Stephen Bronsky heads in from a corner to make it 5-3. 83: GOAL! Miles Storey gets his second of the afternoon after Shane Sutherland plays him through on goal. 85: The Goals are flying in here! A second goal for @MacgregorRoddy as he cuts inside in the box and finish well! View full article

The £1,500,000 Hearts pocketed today from the sale of Aaron Hickey will go a very long way to plugging their financial gap for the season. They were already the most formidable opponents in the division and will be all the more so now. However, they are not as familiar with life in the Championship as we are and may take time to adjust which could be an Achilles heel in this fordhortened season. If we can be fully prepared and hit the ground running in terms of the league season then we still have a decent chance of direct promotion.

I find this slightly odd, given that watching a football match is an outdoor activity, and the current thinking is that the risk of passing on the virus outdoors is low. I would have thought that a well-supervised and socially-distanced crowd - which might simply mean spreading out a normal crowd for the Championship and League 1&2 clubs - should be OK. Especially if they are self-policing as well - i.e. calling out anyone who is being stupid. Doofer's Dad posted his message above whilst I was typing this, but I thought I'd give you my tuppence-worth anyway.

Even with no restrictions, there would be a good number of folk who would not feel safe attending and therefore crowd numbers and gate receipts would be down. But obviously there will be restrictions on numbers whenever fans are allowed to come back and therefore any likely scenario is certain to see a major drop in income for the club. Sponsorship money is also likely to be down as local businesses struggle to keep afloat. We are being told that the main cause of spread of the virus is having people in each others houses. This is because in the home environment there is not good ventilation and people do not follow the same hygiene, cleaning and social distancing practices which the indoor hospitality sector has to follow. It seems to me that in an outdoor environment of a football stadium where there is socially distanced seating, people are required to wear a face covering and there is controlled admission and exit procedures, the risk of transmission is pretty low and probably lower than in pubs and restaurants. Unless the Governments have evidence that the pilot games for allowing fans to attend has led to virus transmission, then it seems a bit perverse to put the pilot programme on hold. Surely it makes more sense to continue with the pilots in order to get firm evidence of whether allowing limited numbers of fans into grounds leads to virus transmission or not. If it doesn't, then fans could be allowed in more generally and further pilot programmes could then look at the impact of larger numbers being allowed in. It is likely that some clubs are not going to survive this crisis. If there is a prolonged delay in getting fans back into grounds then the impact on Scottish football could be catastrophic. When governments are telling us they are trying to get the economy moving again, they need to explain why they seem hell bent on preventing football clubs from generating any income.