The Mantis

He strikes me as a grafter who has a good eye for a long pass and a cracking shot. I think we'd need somebody more creative than that to replace Shinnie. But yes, if jones left. He's even got the lugs to replace jones...... As Rene says, some seriously hacked off gudgies if that happened!

Sadly, ol' CB (central belter!) is right, and he should know as he's even older than me! The only possible way out is for all the non- OF clubs in Scotland to grow a pair, resign en masse from the SPL and SFL, and form a new structure while leaving the twins of evil to play each other 38 times a year if they like. Of course, that scenario (I mean the part about growing a pair) is about as likely as Deek Adams dressing up as Santa at the next ICT Xmas party.

I think the travelling was an issue for them though. Whitehill beat them 5-1 in pre-season which is not always a great guide, but the South teams regularly get hammered by East teams in the South Cup or Scottish. However we'll see what happens on Sunday and I hope these comments don't come back to bite me on the bum......

Smaller lugs than Richie Brittain too.

The thing is, with Pele Paterson's team, instead of leaving, we just stood around at half time asking each other if we could still do it!

How come his brother looks like Wallace & Gromit though?

I suppose I should report that Whitehill defeated Edinburgh City 2-0 to move into second place, 6 points behind leaders Spartans with 3 games in hand...... Also for the benefit of Charles, they have a final next weekend, the South Challenge Cup, the equivalent of the old Q-Cup. This will be against Dalbeattie Star from the South of Scotland League and will be played at Galabank, home of SFL club Annan Athletic!

Was it Whitehill who had the temerity to score first at the Caledonian Stadium in the Cup several years ago before losing 8-1? I always get mixed up with these non league teams down there - apart from Gala Fairydean because of Chairman Matt Hall's intransigence when CT was in its infancy and Spartans because everybody remembers Spartans! No, that was Annan. ICT beat Whitehill 3-1 in round 1 and Queen's Park 2-0 in round 2 before meeting Annan, who had mysteriously survived to round 3.... This season WW went out to Locos 4-2 but had beaten Lossie and Wick the year before. Darran Thomson got a few games at LB for WW last season but of course wasn't good enough WW have won the EOSL a record 15 times since entering it in 1979. Spartans have only won about 6 titles.

It's getting far too expensive to come up for ICT games these days unless you make a weekend of it Far less Clach. Last time I was there with caley100 we saw ICT lose 3-1 to Hearts in a noon kickoff before heading down the Ferry for Clach v Locos. We only missed the first goal and it ended 3-3. Edinburgh based fans are welcome to come along here tomorrow. Only £5 admission and I'll buy you a pint.

I'm old enough to remember the 18 team league being scrapped in 1975 and as Charles says Scottish football will continue to try various models. If there was a fix we would have found it by now. BY FAR THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE SHORT TERM IS TO GET RID OF THE 11-1 WHILE RANGERS ARE DENIED A VOTE. THIS HAS BEEN THE MOST DESTRUCTIVE THING FOR SCOTTISH FOOTBALL IN RECENT YEARS.

Their fans are jubilant....saying it took ICT 8 seasons to reach top 6 and they did it first attempt. Well...bottom line is....we got there first...as usual....so...they are still, forever in our shadow lol Nah, it took Cownty since 1929, we're the mongrels remember! Of course ICT reached the top 8 after 11 seasons....... Cownty took 5 years to win div 3, got out of div 2 by reconstruction, got relegated back to div 2 by Gretna (a team ICT trounced every time they met btw), took 18 years to reach top 12, got lucky this year with oldco going bust....... I wonder how they would have got on without Dundee. Possibly detached at the bottom by Xmas although they did improve their squad after the year, you have to give them that. Dodgy bit of pitch sabotage at new year of course, to avoid a hiding!

I had sent a query regarding County's evening match with Hibs (attendance announced as 3055 or thereabouts but somebody who was there said it was probably about 1800). It was sent on March 4th but went to the wrong department. A very helpful woman sent it on. However no reply as yet. Also any future requests will now have to go to Scottish Police as there is no longer a Northern Constabulary. A couple of points arise from this attendance palaver: Firstly, this inclusion of season ticket holders is all very well but only if all clubs do it (and tbh I think most of us would prefer to know the actual crowd that turned up on the day). Secondly, unless season ticket holders enter by a distinct turnstile (which doesn't happen at TCS) then it's surely impossible to calculate anything other than the true crowd, so any crowd quoted would be just made up anyway. Thirdly, maybe the SPL should make it clear that counting of heads, not eyes, is how their rules differ from the rules of the SFL.

Fixed it for you good buddy

Wishes we get second. So: a celtic fan with Hamilton Accies as his wee team then.......

What he said...

The BBC is paying £180M to the EPL to screen Match of the Day for the next 3 years. I can't find how much it pays the SPL, but I would hope that it was in proportion. We all know the EPL is much better entertainment value than the SPL and I hardly ever miss MotD, but the point is that the BBC has a cultural responsibility to the whole of the UK and its license payers, it's not in the free market with ESPN and the rest, and the EPL hardly needs the money anyway.

Aye you've never witnessed a man foaming at the mouth till you've sat beside caley100 when Hastings is having a mare..........!

Barrowman Barrowman Barrowman Barrowman Barrowman Barrowman Barrowman Barrowman Barrowman Barrowman Barrowman Subs: Barrowman Barrowman Barrowman Barrowman Barrowman Barrowman Barrowman

So Deek's been asked then?

Never had much time for the Midden, but Killie losing to them on Wed will be a good start.

MFR every time.

Deekwatch: Adams on the BBC sport site: "We could have been here until tomorrow and not scored. "But in the end, we're a step closer to top-six football after the other results." What other results would that be then Derek? 2nd placed Motherwell beating bottom club Dundee perhaps? Or Aberdeen (chances of making top 6 as slim as a gnat's chuff) beating Hearts (already condemned to face bogey side Dundee for a fourth time) maybe? Any other games on today I might have forgotten?

Decent performance, better team won I thought. Fenlon's having a moan but they never really put us under any pressure. Says we never had to work hard for the two goals but never mentioned their goal. Seemed to us away up the other end that it took a deflection but maybe it was a brilliant finish by Griffiths. Also a hint of offside but we'll see it on the highlights anyway. If they hadn't equalised when they did, the ground was about to start emptying 10 mins later. Thought it was men against boys at times with Draper and Jones in the middle and a mystery how Kevin Thomson got MoM.

Yeah they haven't really dealt with the FoI within the scope of the request but they have provided what was asked for so there is no real reason for the enquirer to be concerned. Watch this space I've just sent one in! In the interests of fairness I did one for both ICT and Ross County. I deal with FoIs at work quite a bit so it's a change for someone else to have to deal with it! Wondered if you got any response yet. I think they're supposed to respond within 20 days.

So is Jnr changing his username to Geoff Hurst?