The Mantis

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! Scottish Cup it was Trev...... I was in with the Charlton fans at Newcastle a few years back, one of my mates supports them, unfortunately it was the day Alan Shearer set all those records. Do you remember Jorge Costa ooooh Jorge Costa ooooh He comes from Portugal He feckin hates Millwall

Yeah right as always Coinneach Odhar..... As long as the boys turn up and don't do another Burnley cringe.

I think it's unfair on Trev as he's making an effort. However if you look at the first page of the CAFC thread about us, they don't know sod all: rather than see us as football fans, all the usual stereotypes are there: haggis, bagpipes, alcohol, deep fried mars bars, kilts, meanness, sweaties. Depressing picture of Londoners' notorious insularity......

Is that beside the tower of London? cant wait to share a meal with the beefeaters - althoughi'm vegetarian... I want to get my photie taken with all them pearly kings and queens. Oh! Jellied eels. Deep fried like.....

A well-Kent face then. Kent Kant even. Speaking of Kent, I hope we can visit Stonehenge when we're down there!

Don't you just love the stereotyping........... Hope they lay on some Morris Dancing for us! Do Charlton not have that guy Farage playing for them?

Meight- what a jolly fine word!

Cownty figures will be pure fiction anyway.

Exeter and Carlisle are full time though. I don't think there are any part time clubs above level 6 in England.

Sorry but I think you're just making it up as you go along!Gala and Whitehill both have the minimum of 100 covered places (seats too as it happens but they are not compulsory) for entry level license. Both are heading towards a license right now but it's not stands or terracing but other things such as first aid, disabled access, perimeter fence. On the other hand, Spartans and Preston have their license. Each has a stand just as Gala and Whitehill do, but no terracing whatsoever! Whitehill actually have more terracing than any of them (but uncovered so it counts for no more than grass banking does). The trouble is, what fans think makes a good football ground is not the same as what the SFA does. At the higher levels you need things like a media room,press box with wifi,space behind the goals for photographers, etc. At entry level, I can tell you the kind of things Whitehill have had to spend money on: increasing the number of showers from 4 to 5 in each dressing room; replacing the chain link boundary fence with a 2m palisade with gates; first aid room with a sink, etc. The standards for all levels can be found here: http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/resources/documents/ClubLicensing/Part2:National/Part 2 Section 5 - Ground Criteria (2).pdf

Let's not forget that other table which shows Cownty with more league points than ICT. Oh how we laughed......

That's really no different from what we have now - the top juniors still turn their noses up at the SFL3 clubs. If a pyramid comes about, it won't matter whether the SOS clubs are garbage, they will find their level. You can't 'fill it with Juniors' as long as they resist. Neither can you criticise clubs like Dalbeattie and Threave for showing ambition. The feeling on P&B seems to be that once a few top Juniors jump ship to the LL, the Juniors will more or less implode. As much as playing standards are high in the Juniors, the organisation off the park is antidiluvian IMO.

Spartans are sooo yesterday

He was a fringe player with us and bearing in mind we were an SPL club he might never have got the game time, a bit like Gav or Shane. By stepping down to div 1 he got a chance to be more central to the team. TB is notorious for not tolerating 'non-conformers' and despite his talent his attitude would have made up TB's mind.

I remember a certain young Mr Dickov away back in the 80s. The coach of Lothian schoolboys at the time was a certain teacher who went on to manage St Mirren ( and was a particular favourite of the posters on here!). The certain teacher tried to advise young Dickov to stay on at school to gain a few Highers. However Arsenal were offering the lad £50k to sign on.

C'mon Bannerman, answer the man (unlike DougieDanger I can't get this device to do smilies)!!!!

You mean 'The Tin Shed'

Very slow connection here in the Hebrides so this post will probably appear sometime tomorrow....... maybe while you're doing registration Charles. By the way Charles, can't help pointing out that in post #387, by referring to 'normal standards' on p4 of your book, you're contradicting post #386 somewhat (can't find my favourite 'whistling' smiley!).

Not entirely true......I'm on holiday so doing this from memory (my memory not being what it was but I still have a few years on ol' Central Belter). Caley won the Q-Cup in 1991-2 and went on to have a superb Scottish Cup run, ending in a Round 4 replay at the end of February at McDiarmid Park. While County had been humbled 7-4 at Berwick in their first tie, leaving them more or less free to concentrate on the league, Caley suffered a bit of a backlog which probably cost them the League title. A tired-looking Caley team lost 3-1 at Dingwall, leaving them with the task of winning their final 3 matches to take the title. As I recall they lost at home to Fraserburgh in midweek which put paid to that.

Would have been more bothered if it was Draper leaving.

I see that Hooper doesn't even make the top 10 in shooting accuracy. No wonder lennon's telling him not to go to Hull or Norwich - he won't get many goals unless he's playing for a team that dominates......

Aye, twitter are a good side. Aye they like to use both wings.

A real test of the seethemeister's ability. Can he replace those 3?

I suppose from a hamster's perspective, I'd be a bit miffed if one landed in my cage.