The Mantis

Aye aye Alan, shame I couldnae meet you at the final, had to put up wi some other erseholes, cannae mind their names, Jimdo McSporran or something. Where were your folks brought up?

Well just before I was called away for my tea, I was going to post something generous about England's chances, wish them well, hoping that they could play some good stuff and entertain and so on (OK I would have to stop short of hoping they actually won, you understand, but nice to keep in with Oz, Guzz, Yompa and all the rest). However after seeing the 6 o'clock news when we got the newsreader saying breathlessly 'well the World Cup draw is taking place as we speak, so let's go over to (insert name here) to find out about England's chances', I started to hae ma doots. We then got about 5 minutes of Group C while I wondered when they'd get on with mentioning one or two of the other 28 teams, which, of course, never happened, but they did say we could find the rest of the draw on their website. And we've already had Capello being asked on behalf of the good old BBC 'can WE win?' Give me a wee nation to support (actually I love Slovenia - it's a wonderful wee place just like Scotland). Is that so hard to understand? England are like Rangers - all the resources, they're an absolute giant, but put them up against similar nations like Germany and Italy, or even Netherlands, and they punch BELOW their weight. Of course both also have travelling supporters whose attitude to foreign culture is a bit like that of Genghis Khan :011:

Not picking your quotes deliberately Renegade, but I said earlier that I'm not massively pro-Gaelic. However from the sidelines, as it were, I can understand the Gaelic lobby wanting to defend something they're passionate about, while all the hatred and aggression seems to come from the other side IMO. Mentioning Gaelic on this forum is like a red rag to a bull. If it's dying out what are people worried about? Yes, there was talk that some people eat their children too, but that's all it was: talk. Or was that Easter Ross maybe :011: :P :D

Waif Internment Operative, with specific responsibility for Alphanumeric Enforcement.

Aaaah, it's sweet and touching, the naivete of youth...... You weren't alive in 78 (insert self-destruct smiley here).

Summer Wine crew in full attendance.

Stay off the memory destroying substances. You went out on 12th Jan 2008 in 4th Round, we stayed in until the 12th Feb 2008 in the 5th Round. Ha! You actually checked :009: :( :D :D :D :D Priceless.

Shocker. Got to beat the Well now or it will be the first time in living memory the C(o)unty last longer in the cup than us.

Where did you find that? Poorish draw you have to say - would have preferred an awayday- I suppose we can start being giant-killers again.

Sure thing, Scottish Cup 2001-2. The thing is, at half time, many of us were asking if we could still do it. That's what it was like in Pele's day.

Viccy Park, Dingwall.

Pretty disappointing numbers from us though. Can't remember last time it was as low as 120. Probably as many as that at the Alba Cup and that was a Sunday.

Well we came, we saw, we, er, lost.

Can't understand why I've never seen you at the games Hearach. All I need to do is look for a sort of ginger version of Jabba the Shed. Jabba Ruadh gu dearbh.

Hey! It's oor party and we'll greet if we want to :( :( I take it that's you relejags, lost your password and had to sign up again..... On second thoughts, cannae be relejags - no boring enuff.

I've gone from being a guy who HOPED we could bounce straight back, to realising that we're not going to, accepting that we've got TB till end of season, enjoying trips like Firhill yesterday, Viccy Park the other week and Palmerston next week, hoping the muppets, as Johndo calls them, can put somebody in place next year who bleeds ICT. To me this would mean some combination of 10CC, Bazza, possibly Peanut, even Pele. Assuming the club's finances could stand it for a couple of years I'd be looking at bringing on some of the youngsters such as Nick Ross and building a side that was decent to watch, even if we didn't present any kind of promotion challenge till about the season after next. That's what ICT is all about IMO. Butcher was appointed for the short term and it looks like a fairly bold gamble that has failed.

Can't understand who you're replying to here - but I will say that even though I dislike the wee paint pot kicker, who has a massive sense of his own importance, it's obvious that he's usually managed to come out on top over our teams over the years. The only exception has been with clubs like Clydebank where we had vastly superior players at our disposal (plus Pele) and McCall's's influence was slight. In games like yesterday, and the Alba Cup, when there's not much between the sets of players, I'm standing there at ht knowing we should have had the game buried, that one goal would never be enough, and feeling that while TB was inside shouting and rousing the troops, McCall would be making a few changes, and quietly, confidently and assertively explaining them to his players.

Neither: you're just camp.

Thought he had a decent first half today. Can't speak for the second half as we could see feck all.

Looking for positives, it appears that TB has more or less settled on his best team, after wasting time with untried players (insert names here). On the negative side, we always get shafted after half time when the other manager works out how the game is going. Or if we're behind at half time, it appears that TB shouts a bit and they try harder for 20 mins before losing another goal. The reason people are not unanimous in wanting him out Stevico, is because we still have an outside chance of the league and in any case we're not going down, and he will probably be off in May. Maybe some people also feel that div 1 is our natural level? I certainly have found it more entertaining this season (though it could not have got any worse after 18 months of Brewster). As for Brewster, it's not true that everybody wanted him out- there were still some (misguided) people who thought Brew could keep us up and the two opposing camps probably set the tone for all the crap that's been flying around this forum for the past year or two.

We just get them in the garage, not the hoose. We catch them all throught the winter and hardly any in the summer. The poor wee buggers probably just want a heat. Peanut butter, chocolate sauce etc, but even no bait at all if there's a trace of something on the trap for them to sniff.

I remember thinking we were a wee bit lucky that big clubs like P*r*ick, Pars and Dees were not in our league. I also thought when we came down this season that the standard was poor but maybe that's just natural after 5 years in the SPL.

Not much you can say about that that we didn't know already. Just like the Alba Cup game, dominated the first half and could have been 3 up, but 1-0 at HT was never going to be enough as the paint pot kicker (that's McCall for you youngsters) was always going to outwit oor Terry as happens every week. The fog was so thick second half that we never saw much of their two goals down the far end. The equaliser went in at Ryan's right post but feck knows about the winner. After that we saw a fair bit up our end as we dominated in search of an equaliser but never really tested Tuffey. I thought after Sanchez went off we lost the plot and had a load of long punts till we went behind, then we started to play it on the deck as P*r*ick sat in and tried to hit on the break. Once again ICT fail to protect/build on a lead and blow a great chance to climb the table.

Maybe we're seeing him as fit as it gets. However today he drew a foul in a dangerous area, then hit the bar from distance, then was repeatedly fouled late on till the ref finally produced a card.