The Mantis

I used to nip down to a few English games at the likes of Carlisle, Sunderland, Gateshead, Newcastle, and I got the impression that searching fans, at least away fans, was standard. They often asked you as you approached the ground whether you were a home or away fan, and seemed to struggle with the concept of 'neutral'. At Gateshead 3 of us got no choice but to sit with the away fans - we were turned away from the home turnstiles. Because the away side were high-flying Halifax whose fans had been enjoying a few sherbets on the way, we were aggressively stewarded to a level that made the jobsworths at Tannadice look like amateurs.....

Mantis... put me right on this. Neil happens to be a former pupil of mine, but was Rasper his dad? Pretty sure he is, but not 100%. To my shame I never recognised Rasper the day I took that photo but he was with Roddie Davidson. Neil was playing that day though, so stands to reason.

Rasper was in the same class as Mrs Mantis at the Nicolson in Stornoway (there's a photo of him on my site http://www.caledonianfc.co.uk/players.htm away at the bottom). Neil got a run in the team in div 1 around 2001.

St Mirren's stadium is the worst in the SPL. It may be new and it was bought for them but it's still a dump and it's situated in a dump. Viccy Park will be worse not better if they convert it to seats. Then listen to the cabbagemen having the same moan as we are having now.

Brilliant. Aye feckin right mun, you've made a rod fer yer own back now.

Good idea, and next time we play the green half of the OF at TCS, we get to play with 12 men from the 37th minute

We had years of MacGregor pumping money in and playing a propaganda war to try and make C(o)unty look like a bigger club than ICT. They punch well above their weight but if you ask the real crowd obsessives on P&B like P(a)r(t)ick and Dundee and St Midden they're all very suspicious about how the crowds at Viccy Park are publicised. I love having our neighbours doing just slightly less well than us. But it's a very delicate power balance - if they get up and stay up while we struggle like 2009 it'll be black days indeed for us.

I'm sure they show everything twice but if you're stuck I'll stick it on a disc for you.

Well done that man........ take it from me, your inability to switch off during school holidays guarantees you a breakdown sometime around 2030

Yeah can Hibs sign all these Jets for Wed please.

Well, xmas eve and that's actually the first time I've seen ICT win this season. When we went 2 up it was a good time to get on to the bookies and see if we got a good price to win the game :laugh: However after the Dons got their very cheap goal, the predicted onslaught never happened. They never put us under any pressure at all. Poor game but I'll take the points - we can only be stronger on Wed. Looking forward to it. Happy birthday big man (you know who you are). Hope you enjoyed the Chivas Regal.

Yeah, remember that night when Weir pulled back Proctor and we only got a shy

:clapping: I've been trying (and failing) to put it in a nutshell like that for about 20 years.......

Have a greenie Mr Dee

Disappointing today. Hearts were there for the taking. Excellent first half, dominated possession, faded badly second half. Still in touch at the bottom though. Did anybody else notice the 3 bookings were all goalscorers?

A bit like the Day of the Jackal then. The sniper from Pittodrie 2004 is given a large cash payment to come out of retirement to do another job 7 years later.

:laugh: :laugh: Actually is that no the way the driver would come anyway?

Yeah, wot's wrong with the Diggers?

Simple explanation - he's ICT through and through (almost) but when ICT are playing your 'big' team, something has to give.......

That's Pele's ICT you're thinking about......

Somebody's getting paid too much Ok the team with the worst defence usually goes down. But I did a wee bit more digging and found: Last season the Dons finished 9th with the same goals against as Hackies, while Well conceded 1 more and were top 6. 2006/7 Killie were 5th conceding only 1 less than the bottom club Pars. Well managed 10th despite conceding 6 more. DUFC 9th with 4 more. 2009/10 St Johnstone let in 4 more but managed 8th. I should have looked at goal difference but couldn't be ersed. Yngwie, that's your job for Monday. Don't do it in the morning though, or you'll have nothing to do in the afternoon

All I can see is somebody's put the 'O' and the 'Y' in.

To be fair, living down here I get more people interested in ICT and our setup than moaning about the travelling, just remember recently when all the Jambos were saying how it was their favourite away trip. OK nobody relishes a midweek trip up the A9 any more than we enjoy going down but it doesn't help to get too paranoid unless you're trying to get a Fergie thing going, that everybody's against us. Lets not confuse what the fans think with the business of running a club. My take on it is: back in the 70s and 80s before ICT got in, the wee clubs voted out of self interest. Any club chairman, say East Stirling, is going to vote for Ferranti Thistle rather than Inverness Thistle when he looks at the cost of running a coach. The fans would enjoy the trip but when did the opinion of the fans ever count? In 1994, the Premier clubs got 4 votes, the Div 1 clubs got 2 and the Div 2 clubs got 1. That's how we got in. The big clubs didn't care about things like hiring a coach, and they probably never thought they'd have to play us anyway.

Paisley's a dump though, could live without going back there

Once we get our act together we're staying up. I already predicted C(o)unty's annual April collapse but I have to admit with the experienced squad they have they're starting to look the real deal, especially since none of the others look anything special this year.