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Here's a wee sneak preview of opening day satellite TV line up..... Celtic V Ross County [sky Sports 1] Partick Thistle V Dundee United [bT vision] St Mirren V Inverness CT (Alba) Rangers V Hearts [History Channel]

Feck it - let's just win the league this season eh.

Come to our friendly at Charlton and compete the initiation there.

You'll be welcomed and looked after I'm sure. I've been travelling to see ICT from Coventry Nil for many years. Great people, great fans, great club. But be warned though, its addictive...I went in the Highland League days of Caledonian FC and kept going back for more. There'll be no trouble and you can mix with other fans for sure. We don't get many fans..you're looking at 3500+ for Hearts and sometimes we sing so loud you can hear us from the half way line

Cool mate! We just want a proper match day experience with real fans... cant stand the plastic sort of Manchester United thing... I suppose yours is the Old Firm... there is an Irish Club in Watford that we park in on match days, they still look at us funny if we pop in for a beer after a game if Celtic are playing... and none of them have ever been as far as Im aware. Looking forward to coming now, having a chat about football and stuff and enjoying the game

Not really any pubs near the ground. I stay in Glasgow so tend to mostly make away games but The Caley Club in town is good before (and after) the game, they run a bus to the ground, doesn't take long. Some of the regular home attendees will be along soon to keep you right I'm sure.

"...would it be safe?" Scottish football (excluding the old firm) is very friendly, you'll have a good time. North Stand behind the goals no bother. Just remember don't go over the bridge. Unless you've had your jabs. And watch out for IHE.

What a novel concept! Call youself a fan? I don't go to to football to be entertained. I go to support my team and to belong. I go to bleed and suffer with other members of my tribe as we slip to a lacklustre defeat on a wet and bitingly cold December afternoon. I go to share in the sense of communal puzzlement about the team selection. I go to enjoy a strange combination of frustration and moral superiority when none of my team seem to be able to do the most basic things with a football - things which I, of course, could do with my eyes closed. I go to be part of the mob shouting their outrage at the officials for pulling up one of our players for being offside - when they were - and not blowing for offside against the opposition - when they weren't. I go so that I can join the ranks of the oppressed and feel a sense of righteous moral indignation at the conspiracy behind the decisions which led to our defeat. I go to endure the pain of defeat and that feeling that I am deserving of sympathy for my sacrifice and suffering. Of course its not all about the suffering of losing - there is the suffering involved in hanging on for a win when we are totally outplayed and the opposition have wave after wave of attacks and the final 10 minutes seems like an eternity. It is worth it though for the sense of relief and achievement. It's a bit like climbing a munro in a blizzard - you're as miserable as hell doing it but you get a great sense of achievement when you've done it. The nervy win is also good so that you can rub salt in the wounds of opposition supporters - after all, we know how they feel and our bragging rights allow us to play on their sense of grievance and bewilderment. If we were to play the opposition off the park, their supporters might simply acknowledge they were beaten by a better side on the day - and where's the fun in that? I am a fan. I need to suffer to bond with my tribe. I do not go to football to be entertained. But if I am entertained then that's good too, but remember, it is the suffering that's gone before which makes the victories and the success all the sweeter. Ok, so a bit tongue in cheek (but only a bit!) If this strikes any chords with you and you haven't read Nick Hornby's "Fever Pitch" then give it a go. It is certainly the best football book I have ever read - even if he is an Arsenal Supporter.

Nah, best comeback was the Ayr cup game, 3-0 down and a comeback to WIN 4-3 thats a great result!

Fair play, its a valid question! I am a follower of Scottish football from afar so I was aware of how well your season has gone, Terry Butcher being the boss an all. I remember the headlines (Super Caley go ballistic...) when you beat Celtic in the League Cup back in 2000. Infact that was probably the first time Id heard of ICT. Since the friendly was arranged Ive been reading up on ICT, had no idea the club was formed from a merger... I guess I probably know as much about ICT as the average ICT fan knows about Charlton. I live in London (20 mins away from the Valley) and I get plenty of Londoners who dont know where Charlton is!

Charles B. why do you hate Dougal so much? He's different perhaps, but so are a few others, including Scarlet who is so different when he is on form that even his Daddy Pimpernel can't cope with him, so he shakes his bright and breezy head and just walks away carrying an "I surrender" flag in his right hand hoisted high. What would happen to this site if everybody who had a different opinion than yourself was thrown out at the first statement? I welcome different opinions than my own because that's why I come on here and furthermore, if I can't justify mine without descending to acidic, viperish, vituperative put-downs, then Scarlet is in real trouble. And what difference does it make whether a poster comes from Inverness and does not understand the local vernacular that well or from Germany where, incidentally, I note that at least one intelligent poster comes from and does tune-in to this site very well indeed? Why do you have to go "joupeen over the gate" instead of simply jumping over it ? Is this some rite of passage from intellectualism to common-manism that you feel is necessary to convince other posters that you are just another ordinary guy in the street thus justifying your opinions and language and getting their tacit support. Forgive me Charles, but I get the impression that you only go after those in this way whom you consider to be vulnerable and perhaps not the favorite posters on the site but when up against a stronger opponent you tend to backtrack and joke your way out of the morass that is forming around you that frankly is of your own making. No doubt in your profession, being an icon of admiration from the students, you have a hard time adjusting to the real world in which the average man or woman has to grit it out facing challenges from adults, not children, which tests their will and attitudes to the limit. I have always yearned for a place in cloistered academe as my glorious fantasy but, alas, alack , it has always been Scarlet's fate to have to face the rough and tumble of life's brutal realities and never wear a mortar board and gown to earn respect. As for Dougal I don't know how he has lasted so long on this site in the face of such unfeeling rejections of his views and frankly I admire his persistence and his spirit. And if you study his remarks carefully enough, without allowing your emotions to get the better of you, then there are some interesting references and views expressed by same, de temps en temp. Dougal is a burr under your saddle, Charles, and long may it continue and you should just hope that he doesn't one day come after you with such intense sarcasm and ill-considered remarks by way of riposte or we shall see at that point how long you stay in the field of battle to suffer the slings and arrows....

Quite frankly who gives a flying f**k about the merger, we have been a successful club putting the highlands on the Scottish football map and I am happy for it. It's a bit like 20 years after marrying your wife still obsessing about the the guy she pumped before you met.