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T'was I in the layby, and I'm just sticking to my guns that I refuse to put a penny into this club until Scot Gardiner is shown the door (as are many who just decided to dodge the game altogether). I put £400 down to sponsor Niko's shirt, ~£300 for a season ticket and however much it was for the home and away tops (as well as cup tickets and food), aaaand frankly I feel like I've been had on for a jolly, hence the protest(s). Gardiner's torn this club limb from limb and pile drived it firmly into the ground. The Concert Co., the Battery Farm, Clickbait Proponents, WATP55 Kits on the Order's most celebrated day, Dodds and Dunc, Evaporated P&R deals, Relegation, late tax forms, and most importantly, sending club stalwarts down the Ganges. The list goes on. Once that muppet has gone, I'm more than happy to put my money back into the club, but why should I assist someone who has shown nothing but distain for the fanbase and taken us all for a bunch of imbiciles?

I don't get why you keep saying this tbh. Most of the folk I know that haven't renewed are long standing fans not glory hunters. I've supported the club through 2 guises for 48 years. What league we are in is not an issue to me

I just don’t follow the logic of people who choose to deprive the club of cash because they ‘don’t want to pay SG’s wages’. If you buy a season ticket or match ticket, he will get paid. If you do not buy a season ticket or match ticket, he will still get paid. Therefore you are not paying his wages. He will get paid his contractual entitlement whatever happens. Even if he leaves tomorrow, he will still be getting paid until his notice period expires. The only circumstances he does not get paid is if the club goes bust. If you put money into the club by buying tickets, it will boost the player budget, that is the variable, discretionary cost the club has to play with. More money = more players, better players. Similarly if revenue falls short of projections, they will just have to offload more of the remaining players for whatever pittance of a transfer fee they can get, or none at all just to get the wage bill down further. But SG will still be getting paid in full. Your stance is futile and just weakens the team.

I think that oversimplifies the situation. Whilst many will verbalise it as 'not paying towards SGs wages' it is ultimately about getting him away from the club. If he was out the door and still being paid the remainder of his contract I would be more likely to return. I hear the arguments for him being hard to extract and that he is working his notice but nothing is happening and we're not being told how or when that will be. For me the only means I feel I have to try and get the club to listen is by withholding my money and others may be the same.

They must have boycotted the game! About 20 or so in the South stand.

The frustration is I want nothing more than to invest my hard earned cash into the club via a season ticket purchase, but to do so there has to be an acceptable level of genuine communication and transparency from the club to allow me to trust the governance process within the club going forward. No business man would invest in the club until they have completed their due diligence to ensure their investment is protected so this is my personal baseline for financial commitment this season I'm afraid. As you correctly say others may see things differently and what is non negotiable for me may be inconsequential for someone else.

Cry, laugh, do whatever the sod you want. But you have your opinion, and you have mine, but when I (among others) have punted hundreds into the club to be treated like a mound of dugshite on a hot summers day by Gardiner and Co. there shouldn't be any issue when people take up against it

I used to call Butcher a narcissist but Gardiner is a true Personality Disordered Narcissist. Demonstrations and social media abuse will simply go right over his head. He is in full control and he evidently has his own agenda to follow

That's not it at all. They are refusing to buy season tickets as a protest against Gardiner's continued presence at the club. They are fully aware that by doing so, they are not depriving him of his wages. Quite simply, when Gardiner leaves the building, permanently, then they will buy their season tickets. He'll have to get a move on though, otherwise I'll be looking at a half-season ticket a few months down the line.

A really positive and constructive reply LB. I’m in the camp for change and would back additional action (protest) to show there is a (large-ish?) body of supporters that want change at the top. SG gone being a starter. My fear is a lot of ‘my type’ are in the geriatric era and demos are looked on with dread. There has been no clear leadership in my view from the ST on the matter. Possibly the desire not to be seen out of step with their dialogue with the Board being a factor. Nor any willingness to alienate supporters that do not support any from of protest or holding back buying season tickets. I understand that position from the ST but I don’t agree they should be passive right now when the clubs existence is so perilous. I referred in my note earlier that we have insufficient fan numbers to influence change. By extension if we had a larger fan base I would have expected to see a ‘champion’ to the cause of further action / protest. We just don’t have the numbers, much to my angst (to really any serious club approach to build the young fan base for years). As such the natural division of opinion with the current fans is being used by the board to just sit tight and tough it out with absence of any communication. A tough few months ahead still to trundle before some clarity is forthcoming I fear!

If done en masse it could become the werther wave

In what way do you think you would be assisting HIM, as opposed to assisting the club, the team and your fellow fans, by enabling us to have a better team? I totally get why you want rid of SG but to me a boycott just seems to be a nose/face thing.

Well done, Jack. In the past I may have concluded that someone was pretty miserly to watch from the layby, but I salute your stand and the reasons why you did it. Maybe I will bring along a camping seat and join you one day, if we don't see change soon.

More fool them if they want to play daft laddie and bury their head in the sand. There are numerous accounts of fans including me who have tried to contact them and not got so much as an acknowledgement.

Interesting idea, Leaky. I am not attending games at the moment - hoping for evidence that SG is gone soon - but I feel that I protest by not putting money into the club at present, so no need for further action. I do feel bad about it, but I don't earn a great wage and work hard for it, so I do not want to risk seeing it disappear into the pocket of SG. The price of season tickets is also ridiculous, but, under the right circumstances I would stretch to pay this for this year at least, in order to help the club out. However not until there is change at the club. Although I do not wish to protest, I felt that the meeting organised by the Supporters' Trust was beneficial and would welcome more meetings like that if there is anything worth discussing. I totally respect the rights of others to have their own views and to proceed as they see fit as far as game attendance is concerned.

I thought 22. Don’t think any Rose fans boycotted the game as only one person on the bridge and he was wearing an ICT top.

Really good performance in the first half. Good, slick passing and looking to get behind their defence 3 well worked and well taken goals with 2 other excellent efforts. Indeed it was the most entertaining half of football I've seen since Ferguson arrived. 2nd half was not so good. Looked as though we set out to keep things tight and not allow Rose back in - which we did well enough but at the expense of ambition at the other end. Lots of subs from both sides resulted in a lot of passing the ball in the middle of the park before giving the ball away followed by Rose passing the ball in the middle of the park before giving it back to us. The starting XI all did well which is encouraging, but clearly we have a very limited and inexperienced squad. Bonnyrigg were awful though. Bigger tests lie ahead. If money for the squad is not forthcoming we will be hard pressed to survive in league 1.

Great first half, I was pleasantly surprised with our tactics and overall play, well worth 3 up at half time. Should have gone back to the Innes at half time as 2nd half died the death, lots of subs some of which showed how thin and young our squad is. Some played like they belonged others will need plenty porridge if they want to compete in this obviously physical league. Oh, young Ferguson... jeez ! Canna jump canna run, hope once he learns to face towards the goal something might happen. Anyway a good win and it will surely boost the confidence.

Well done to the team. A nice win and a few goals will do wonders for the confidence.

So does this mean that Scot Gardiner has been banned from the directors’ box?

Well there we go that just highlights how out of touch the so called local media are then. Dougal

Aye they were checking handbags of two women in front of me the old folks are an easy target it is no surprise that the young ones manage to get in with smoke bombs!

Ah, that explains Saturday. I take a rucksack to every game, it has couple of ict scarves, ict beanies, gloves etc, medication EPIPEN and sweets for us, moams not werthers, we are not flamboyant. In the north stand I get asked by the security team if they can search it looking for bottles. No problem. On Saturday the guy searched it and said he was looking for flags. I said cheekily what are you looking for, the sticks on the flag. he said no, flags. So he meant banners. An old guy with a 10 year old and two 9 year olds I must be looking shifty in my old age. Or maybe not looking my age, seen as a younger delinquent.

https://ictfc.com/ticketing-terms-and-conditions/ Plenty there that they could cite - 9, 10, 15, 22... Number 19 is a good one - "The wearing of colours and/or regalia of any Football Club other than ICT FC in the Main and North Stand is not permitted. Persons wearing the colours of other Clubs will be refused entry to these areas and if already admitted, will be ejected from the Stadium." Presumably directors of visiting clubs are asked to remove their club ties?

If only the club did something positive to temp fans to put money into the club!!! For instance, ask Scot Gardiner to announce his final day of employment but at least confirm rumours about him staying are false. In the light of the IT meltdown extend the date for discounted season ticket sales by two weeks. Innovate by saying season tickets will be discounted after each home game to reflect remaining fixtures.

Oh Leaky, I just love that phrase, and the vision it conjures up. I hope always to be someone who opens my werther in a flamboyant manner (not a euphemism).

Hi LB, I understand and like the multi-choice of where fans can select there preference on how they support the club. For me, it’s a simple ‘fight’ for the soul (if I can use that term) of the club. There are three support ‘groups’ as I see things:- 1) Attend the games as it’s the club you support irrespective of the team performance / results and who runs the club. 2) Attends and support the club, would like a stylish team and results, but indifferent about off-field ongoings to get involved. 3) Supports the team, but consider a new approach and set of leaders is required. Willing to promote change. I don’t differentiate between the home or away games support. Irrespective of which camp you fall (I change my leaning sometimes), I believe the fan base is too small to the have any real effect. The future direction of the club imho will be decided by who (individual or group) puts up the money to gain control of the board. There are few, if any individuals in the highlands willing to dig into there pockets to pay of the ‘leavers and debt fee’ before looking at stadium or team investment, (really can’t blame them). If there was 5 or 6 thousand supporters the decision would be more appealing from a financial position. Alas they are not and having supported the club from its conception, I don’t see any signs of increase in core base support in the numbers needed to effect change. So whist we the fans may pick and chose where we place our badge on how we support the club, we may have to just accept the level we have reached is where we actually should be. Ultimately what I think I am saying (poorly) is, we are all supporters of the club and want it to do well, but as things stand, with the exception of ‘Kelty’ have little influence on how it is controlled. Just my tuppence worth!

Noted, but your position may not be the same for others. For some the social and economic situation wituin society there may be less stigma using the current club issues as reasons not to return rather than costs. For others simply seaside leagues and lower levels do not appeal (other entertainment options or pressures provide perceived betrer value) - when we dropped from prem to champ there was a fall in attendance so why is it unrealistic to expect the same? Simply my point is that you now will never be able to attribute the drop in attendance to any single factor however it will mostly be spun as due to Gardiner which may or may not be the reality.

Where are we covering the that a seaside leagues caley doesn't appeal that much but off-field events just provide a useful narrative to stay away?

I reluctantly attended today’s game to support the players and I’m glad I did. I was impressed with the first half performance where we actually had an end product after 1 million passes. We never looked like an attacking threat in the second half but defended very well. Special mention to Matty Strachan first half, Keith Bray who looked a threat going forward and Jack Walker who replaced Danny. It’s great to see so many talented local players involved. Why are we not wearing the new strip??

NPL Review for Game 02 First home game of the season and a great start albeit in the cup. A win is always a confidence booster so let’s hope things are starting to look good on the field. No points awarded in the Correct Score section for this game. Just under half the entries got the ICT First Scorer. Joonya got the Crowd Section bonus – 13 under. noho makes a first appearance in No.1 slot in the table. Total Entries 20 Predicted Match results H – 10 D – 5 A – 5 The Results HT: 3-0 FT: 3-0 1st ICT: Brookes 1st Opp: -- Crowd: 682 Correct Predictions HT: 0 FT: 0 1st ICT: 9 1st Opp: -- Crowd 5 pts: 14 Crowd 10 pts: 0 Crowd Bonus 2Pts: 1 Bragging Rights Joonya 13 Jokers Played None Your Points Joonya 13 Doofer 11 CDN Girl 10 Caleyjag 9 noho 9 CaleyCanary 8 Ictross 8 Jodie Carnie 8 Scotty 8 Lmclmm 7 caleycalum 6 MrCaleyjag 6 old caley girl 5 SOS 5 Jock Watt 4 Robert 3 Gringo 2 Mrs Gringo 2 big cherly 0 TABLE - 02 01 - 21 - noho 02 - 20 - Joonya 03 - 18 - Ictross 04 - 16 - Gringo 04 - 16 - Lmclmm 04 - 16 - Caleyjag 07 - 15 - caleycalum 08 - 13 - CaleyCanary 08 - 13 - DoofersDad 08 - 13 - MrCaleyjag 11 - 11 - Jodie Carnie 11 - 11 - Doofer 13 - 10 - CDN Girl 14 - 9 - old caley girl 15 - 8 - Scotty 16 - 5 - SOS 17 - 4 - Mrs Gringo 17 - 4 - Robert 17 - 4 - Jock Watt 20 - 0 - big cherly

Oh, no sign of Gardener.

Business as usual in the main stand then.

That works both ways.

Camera not the best, not a demo, just a refusal to pay gardiners wages me thinks. next to the sign post on the bridge.

Great to get a win. Hopefully give some confidence to the younger players. Wasn't aware there was a big (or any) demonstration planned.

Delighted to see the score. Well done boys.

Don't think there's anyone here who wants to see the team do badly.

Scotty, I agree 100% with you. When I said "surely many will remain", I meant that I just can't see a complete clearout and replacement happening. Though I would indeed welcome that. If we survive, then a complete reset - new board, new management and new attitudes to players, fans and community - is desperately needed, even if it means some time in the lower leagues.

Many of them should not. They are complicit in everything bad going on around the club, either directly, or by their inaction and silence. Not one of them broke ranks and spoke publicly over the atrocious treatment of staff, players, fans, sponsors or shareholders over the last several years. If one of them had, then perhaps that person could or should be the one that fans could galvanise behind as we try to rebuild our club. 100% that is the way things will be spun, but we know the truth, as do those in power and any one of them that wants to blame shift should hang their heads in shame.

…joins Buckie Thistle. What a signing! Wishing him all the best.

Echo the thoughts of others and wish Mark, as well as any other players pushed out by this Junta the very best for the coming season and beyond. Hopefully, some of our most loyal servants can be tempted back to a coaching or other role within the club at some point in the future when we re-establish a forward-facing community club ethos.

Scot Gardiner effect in full swing. Can count the fans on a Dingwallians hand...

Slightly off topic but is it true that Billy McKay is the new coach of the Under 18's. Another cost cutting exercise to give him two wages to be closer to his previous one

Not really. 'The club' provide no real support, financial or otherwise (maybe some 'in kind' like an occasional home strip or the use of the pitch once a year) that I'm aware of to the women's team or academy. All the organisation and management is done by volunteers. In fact I believe that the women actually pay so they can play and cover some the costs of pitches, ref's etc.

At present we are heading for relegation survival in league1 with the current squad would be a quite remarkable achievement. A torrid season ahead and the fans that are still going should go easy on the kids who will be turning week in week out remember it’s not their fault. Dougal

This comment from Ferguson " if you don't want to be here don't come" swung my decision today not to attend with my daughter. I was going to pay game by game but this gaslighting approach towards fans they have ignored all close season I find unpalatable. No one understands the reality more than the fans. Ferguson couldn't even define owner of a football club as opposed to investor and we're supposed to hang off his every word. Noone expects him to be a financial guru but a modicum of research before he lets his belly rumble would go a long way to convince fans he ain't just winging it, which he clearly is. Like others I 100% agree Gardiner needs to be gone but Ferguson is part of the problem now not the solution. When his focus regarding the "new owner" is burning through cash he doesn't have nor in all likelihood will see before the transfer window ends ( I refuse to slam the window) Here's a thought .. if the club were properly engaged with the fans they could have requested anyone living within a drive by of Bonnyrigg to do a wee bit research for them at their pre sesson so they didn't go in "blind" Building a picture of their opponent needn't involve sitting in a stand with a club tie, pad & crayons looking all important. All the forward planning skills of Sunak on a wet day in London.

That's a total rewrite of what played out. Fans were consulted at the meeting and the trust then went against the majority view that there should be a coordinated boycott. It was only more recently that the trust changed their stance on this. As I already said in another post they were going to organise/back a protest but that never transpired. This seemed to be offered as an alternative to supporting a boycott. Right now it does feel like the trust are no better than the club in promising one thing and doing another and that's not good. We both appear dissatisfied with them but for different reasons and that is telling in itself.

Madness that a keeper of his ability is now playing Highland League.