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I'm not so sure (that even if they held the correct licence and were promoted) it would have a significant impact on ICT crowds. An impact, yes, but not significant in my opinion. Those who denominate themselves as Clach fans would continue to be, as would those of a purely ICT persuasion. Those that do both would probably continue to do both, and with all teams in the SPFL fixtures would presumably be arranged so that only one Inverness team is at home on any given weekend. Where there are fans who would decide one or the other they tend, on the whole, to go to the one higher up the league.

Honestly, I've had enough of the B Teams experiment. They were shoehorned into the Lowland League under the guise of development, but here we are, 4 or 5 years later, and I still don’t see the benefit. Not once have they finished top of the league – sure, they've been close, but that just proves the level isn’t doing much to push them further. If you look at the league table and add up the points gained by the B teams so far it totals the following: 5 Wins | 3 Draws | 30 Defeats What’s the point? Crowds are non-existent for these games. no one wants to watch Dundee B take on Annan Athletic etc and with crowds of around 100-150 this point has been proven. The atmosphere’s flat, the interest isn’t there, and it feels like a vanity project more than anything else. Most lower league sides don’t field full-strength teams in the early rounds anyway, so now we’ve got youth players facing second-string squads. Is that really development? If this is supposed to be about improving the quality of young players, where’s the evidence? Celtic B have been in the Lowland League for years now. I can't name many if any that have started to make their way into the squad bar Colby Donovan who is only there through injuries to Ralston and Johnston. For me, it’s always been more beneficial to loan these lads out to proper senior squads in League One or the Championship, where they learn alongside experienced pros in competitive environments. Or bring back the old reserve league – let them play with guys coming back from injury or fringe first teamers needing game time. That’s where the real learning happens. Ditch the B Teams please. It’s time to admit it’s not working and focus on better, proven pathways for developing young players

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Well we can add Celtic and St Mirren B to the list of teams that lost this round so I totally agree with ditching them for Highland and Lowland League teams because I'm fairly certain that a team like Brora or even Wick (who are struggling in the HL at the moment) would have given us a harder game than Dundee B 🤔. I also expect a tough game against Dundee Utd B but remember that they lost to Spartans yesterday so maybe I am over estimating how good Utd B are 🤔.

Clach missed the boat with the merger although I like to see them doing well in the Highland league. For me it's anyone but Brechin who fiddled their way into the Highland league as they thought it would be an easier path to get back up the leagues and even with a millionaire backing them it hasn't happened.

Clach do not hold the Bronze Level Licence required to be eligible to play in the promotion play off so there would be no play off. There was no play off in 2024 when Buckie won the league as they did not have the correct level of licence. Clach have turned a corner under Gethins though, built on a strong defence that includes Mark Ridgers and Josh Meekings. The last published licence levels are here: https://www.scottishfa.co.uk/media/12796/190325-club-licensing-awards.pdf

I take your point Mr Hammer about including top flight B teams from a Premiership team’s point of view, but I’d much rather see the top teams from the Highland and Lowland leagues if it has to be one or the other.

At the end of the day, I ask myself a simple question as I am getting way too old for complicated things! Would there have been a club today if we did not go down this route? My answer - and I accept others may have a different or more nuanced answer - is NO. As much as I did not enjoy giving up my shares, I am happy I still have a club to support rather than a historical and worthless document that I could frame on my wall. And let's be honest here, we may have had hundreds of shareholders, but the reality is that only a handful of them truly mattered in the decision-making process. Those of us with anything under 1000 shares simply did it so we could say we were a part of the club or to put money into the club to kick-start our history. The real power brokers were, and always have been, those with tens or hundreds of thousands of shares. A year on, we have Alan Savage at the helm, someone who has pumped money in before and who did so again in the last year. We have a CEO who knows and loves the club and has done so since the very day it was formed, and we have a manager who is winning games again. On top of that we have businesses coming back to a more open club, we have fans feeling the club is more receptive to them, and we have a Supporters Trust who have shown what is possible - regardless of shareholding - when they are allowed to work with the club and not simply have to be one of many dissenting voices. Are things perfect? I am sure they are not. After so much toxicity over recent years, there are bound to be puddles here and there, but we are headed in the right direction. The real proof of the pudding will be when we next face challenges. As fans, we will still have a voice, but we wont necessarily have a say ... but as noted above, did we really have a say anyway when the bigger shareholders all voted the same way?

Now also paid for Mitchell Robertson Home Shirt.