The Mantis

I have supported ICT since the first match at Firs Park on 9/8/94, and Caley for several years before that, and I have been finding the whole affair pretty distressing. Haven't commented much on the whole thing other than to call out the CEO several times from the off (and latterly, the manager) and can only echo what Scotty says. Once more I would say that we were well warned about Gardiner by fans of other clubs, notably Dundee, and I have repeatedly said that he has been a toxic presence at those clubs, and that the concert fiasco would be a sacking offence anywhere else. So I would support any formal moves to remove him. Won’t be there in person - I suppose it’s too late to request that the meeting be on Zoom as the Trust meetings at the stadium were? I realise that the logistics will be different at the Caley Club for what is expected to be a far more lively meeting. Although it belongs on another thread, here’s another who, as things stand, won't be renewing. I regard my season ticket as a donation to the club as I rarely come up for home games these days (only 3 times this season). I’m sitting on the fence about the away matches as I would miss the days out, the travel, the pubs, but especially, the loyal people who make #caleyaway such a great experience.

Agreed, and at the same time we need some sort of organised campaign along the lines of withdrawing ST renewals, to reverse the Kelty thing. I hope that anybody who was sceptical about the Supporters' Trust will swallow their pride and stump up their fiver. On P&B we have traditionally got stick from supporters of other clubs previously in trouble, for being too passive and letting it get to this stage. We were well warned about Gardiner as he has been a toxic presence at his other clubs. The concert fiasco, in any other employment situation, would be a sacking offence.

https://www.facebook.com/ICTFC Club Statement As one major part of our planned strategic restructure of the club, ICTFC are delighted to announce an innovative agreement with League 1 side Kelty Hearts which will see the club move our training base to the Fife club’s New Central Park Stadium. This creative partnership will mean that we will hire their excellent facilities which include a 3g pitch, onsite grass pitches and offices for our coaching staff, as our training base during the week starting from this coming pre-season in June. The last few years have seen the geographic challenges in getting players to move to the Highlands become ever harder for a number of reasons. Caledonian Stadium will always be our home, but other factors in Scottish football have changed and where we train should not be an impediment to the quality of the players we can attract to Caley Thistle, or to our potential to progress. The commercial success of the city of Inverness – which will always be our home - both as a tourist destination and a place to live, has led to very high prices for the accommodation we require to house players. In addition to these high costs which our competitors do not carry, the extremely limited housing stock in Inverness continues to be both a challenge and a huge factor working against us. Increased playing budgets in and around the central belt has meant that on many occasions, even when we have offered players more favourable terms than our competitors, sometimes even agreed deals, we have then been told that the player has changed his mind due to challenges relocating their families. Support structures in and around the families of players may all be in and around the central belt, partners will have jobs where they live and moving kids schools to the Highlands and moving home itself can just be seen as impractical for a one or two year contract. It makes it particularly challenging for us to sign senior players, a category which through no fault of our budget, or of previous ICT Managers, we have struggled to attract in the last few seasons. Similarly, our location means that we miss out on the opportunity of signing promising players from the larger clubs in Scotland, on loan or otherwise. For the avoidance of any doubt we absolutely intend to continue to develop our own homegrown Highland boys and we will take the appropriate steps to make sure that by being creative, innovative and practical, they do not miss out on the chance to have a pathway to first team football with their team. We have a proud tradition of introducing local players in to our first team and this will absolutely continue. We obviously never intended to be in the same division as Kelty when originally exploring this concept, but football throws strange things at you sometimes and having reassessed the proposition and judged that the pros still far outweigh the cons, we would like to thank the Board of Kelty Hearts and MD Stefan Winiarski and his management team for considering this unique to the SPFL partnership, and then seeing and agreeing on the possibilities and benefits for both clubs. To reiterate, by moving our footballing department's training base to central Scotland, both the club's Board of Directors and the club's First Team Management feel we give ourselves the best possible chance to attract the highest quality players to the club, allowing some of the players we sign to also live in and around the central belt while playing for ICTFC. We now look forward to taking further positive strides on and off the pitch to address the football and financial challenges we face we believe this exciting opportunity to help us attract players previously not available to us and build a better squad, is one of the first steps we can make and we hope to develop further innovative partnerships. Inverness is and will always be our home. The Caledonian Stadium will always be where we play our football. We hope this venture will help us achieve our goal in giving our supporters a team to be proud of.

Mastering the photos is easy, but I'd be embarrassed to show you my efforts at shooting movies... I was at my Shetland in-laws last summer and I flew it from Mainland to Mousa and back. Total of 7km. A big test, a bit nervous but it was fine. Apparently if you have line of sight it can go about 8km away. Here's the Hebridean Isles arriving at Port Askaig last month.

Lost in thought and lost in time While the seeds of lifeand the seeds of change were planted Outside the rain fell dark and slow While I pondered on this dangerous but irresistible pastime I took a heavenly ride through our silence I knew the moment had arrived For killing the past and coming back to life

One slip, and down the hole we fall It seems to take no time at all A momentary lapse of reason That binds a life for life A small regret, you won't forget, There'll be no sleep in here tonight

Let’s win this tie first, and worry about what shape the club is in afterwards. It may be part time football anyway, which I think would be disastrous, but let Hamilton worry about that. Because of their location, it suits them far more than it does us. We may have no choice anyway, whether it’s home-grown lads or poaching local talent from the HL or the likes of Elgin. The stark fact is, if we’re part time, we won’t get players to relocate here. Not to train two nights a week. The only way round that is to have a wealthy benefactor such as Uncle Roy or the Brora model where they are given ‘jobs’. Stranraer are the nearest club to compare in this situation although it’s a pretty extreme case. Their players, or most of them, train in Glasgow, so the local connection, team bonding, etc, is lost. They have very poor crowds, c300, and tomorrow they could be relegated to the LL. They won’t recover from that and will have massive recruitment problems, ultimately ending up in the very poor SOSL or going amateur or folding. Would we attempt a similar setup with players training in Perth? Better to use Highlands-based players but IMHO the standard is not there compared to the days when we could get the likes of Iain Stewart or Brian Thomson.

Looked up the Jensen. 1972 and 7.2L engine… The Jag is 1952 and 3.4L

Absolutely spot on. Unless the injury situation is even more dire than we know, it's bizarre how the manager can't see what most of us have been seeing all season. No way is Gilmour the new Allardice. He's a wee battler who gets booked every week. He gave the ball away for the first goal too when we were playing rondo in midfield instead of getting the heads up and switching the play. This tie is looking far more promising after the first half where it looked like we were doomed. Who knows how the game might have played out before that fluke goal which settled Accies and allowed them to sit in. Same old pedestrian possession based, safety first, pass it to death nonsense. Raise the tempo, take the occasional risk. I'd be tempted to start Pepple, who caused a fair bit of panic, and keep Billy on the bench till the last half hour. As a striker... If Lawal doesn't start then what's the point. We'll have to wait and see how Devine is (where's Ujdur?) but possibly 4 at the back with Carra starting and Kerr in midfield. And if Roddy makes an appearance, try making it more than 10 minutes ffs. We've got a sizeable enough squad it appears but what do I know... We have enough quality to blow Accies away, on last night's showing, but we've seen that movie many times.

You’re right, I never went back far enough, got bored with all the bus pics

MV Loch Seaforth arriving in Ullapool 12/4/2024 and at Stornoway 15/4/2024...

Don’t think I’ve posted this before… my sons car, a 1988 BMW535 Also he went away to Hull a couple of weeks ago to meet up with some online friends and they hired a racetrack for the day. Here are two of the other cars that went…

I’ve parked at Hamilton West station a few times. No restrictions there and usually a few spaces outside commuting hours. Been in at least 2 pubs but they weren’t remotely memorable

Could almost have written this myself. Despite a poorer support than us, and playing in a stadium which is probably even more soulless, and pretty much in the domain of the Ugly Sisters, as a newly promoted team they reached the playoffs. Rhys McCabe is an intelligent young manager whose star is on the rise. They have a well-defined style of play where they can pass it out from the back but then when it gets to the midfield, surprise surprise, it doesn't go backwards again and end up with the goalie. As opposed to us where Mark is then forced to kick long and it's now a 50/50, or 20/80 if it's Billy against some 6'5" centre back. They don't score too many goals but they have probably got more out of Toddy than we ever did, and have a bit of a spark in midfield with players like Frizzell. From the games against us plus watching the Friday games on telly, they're my team of the year in this division. They won a trophy too.

My first time too and will definitely look forward to next season. Dropped like a stone in the second half and even forgot to get a bet on last weekend

20 years ago today, Clyde 1 ICT 2. Scorers Keogh and Hislop. SPL football beckons.

Seen Spartans a couple of times and Robbie has only been coming on as a late sub. However he got the whole game in the win at East Fife on Saturday and there was another week when the report said he set the game alight. Only seen Keith once, at Bonnyrigg back in midweek in February, where he got about 15 mins at the end, but Elgin were well beaten by this time and probably not relishing a four hour drive back up the road.

If we were the lower league team in a cup tie we would be looking at a possible upset and Montrose will be no different. Never underestimate motivation in a football match. Remember Bonnyrigg back in the summer, and Stirling Albion and Brechin in recent seasons. Unfortunately won't make this one as I have a long standing arrangement I can't get out of. So no return to Links Park since we won there on the way to the league trophy under Pele in 1997. Goals from Trigger and Stewartie made sure we went home happy and the seethe from the Mo fans was formidable

That's the uncovered end. Still, it's forecast to be dry.

That was a memorable win at the stadium in 1997 with the Stewartie treble. Still have the footage somewhere.

I'm pretty sure that the losses in the Premier were marginal and the car crash started in 2016-7 with paying off Yogi and of course being relegated. Although I read somewhere that County, even in the Premiership, have managed to average losses of £1.2M which are underwritten by Uncle Roy. This despite them apparently having higher attendances than we did. Maybe their wage bill is astronomical though. They say Andrew Davies was on about £5K per week back in 2017 although that could be the usual speculation.

You know that The Mantis has been a model of discretion this season. Although I must say that nothing about this story surprises me...

You can add on the chairman refusing to let Yogi speak to Yenitit, in an attempt to avoid showing weakness. If Yogi had gone then, we would have got compensation and been able to afford better than Richie. As for Richie, anybody who saw us capitulate at Hamilton on a Tuesday night in January knew he should have been gone the next morning. Exactly.

What Gringo said. Thanks for all the hard graft you have put in. It's been fun. From leading the table with 290 points at 17 weeks, I wonder which team I would resemble Best of luck to both leaders in the final week.

This comes as a shock. My form has been consistent. For anybody wondering what to avoid this week, I’m going with Partick to win @1.91 .