The Mantis

In Lennon's case his legs go numb and he falls to the ground. Before it switches off, his brain tells him to clutch his face.

I meant to say, like HE, last time I was there (dec last year, 0-0) the fans were mixed in the back room and it was good banter. When did we ever have enough fans so it was 'stowed out'?

Fortress Longman used to do that to everybody :015: :015: :015:

Finger oot the dyke time gudge. What's your club again?

Remember Brewster's Millions is on FilmFour tomorrow night :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015:

Nae bother :clapping04:

Don't really know what to make of this post. 'Unintentional thoughtlessness'- somebody has a way with words :017: I think the reason ICT fans gravitate towards the Diggers is BECAUSE it allows kids. That's been stated in the past. Last week we got held up and didn't get there till the back of two. The place was so mobbed we couldn't get in the front door, never mind the back room. BTW since Naelifts had just come off a nightshift he was gagging for a drink, so we went into a newsagents in Gorgie Road and he mooched a pound off me for a coke. While we were in there a jambo with a young daughter went past me and said, presumably to us, 'cheating scum'. Now what was that all about?

Transcript from Aussie Weakest Link..... CORNELIA (the hostess): "Michael, why Robin?" MICHAEL: "Well he struggled with a few easy questions and missed a really simple one." CORNELIA: "Graham, why Robin?" GRAHAM: "He's about the dumbest bloke I've ever met." CORNELIA: "Claire, why Robin?" CLAIRE: "He's a total goose." CORNELIA: "Well Robin, you missed three questions in the last round, and didn't bank a cent. You really are a complete moron aren't you? I hope you're proud of yourself. What could you possibly have to say for yourself........? Here's what

Tesco and C(o)unty deserve each other :clapping04: :clapping04: :clapping04: :clapping04: :clapping04:

Jake- Apart from asking how we survive on shite crowds I can't see the point of your post other than to sound smug. I don't know how you can say anything is more entertaining. That's subjective surely- some people think Barry Manilow is entertaining. I've actually been at a few lower league English games in my time and some were downright dire. A shite game with a good crowd is still a shite game. Anyway I've got more reasons to live than just fitba. Maybe that's the only thing that makes it bearable for you living down there- that's me being smug :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015:

:015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: Get out of that Johnboy..... Mind you, whatever quality it is, I'd rather be at an ICT game once a week (or even a Junior or HL game for that matter) than watch anything on telly. Football on telly is shite no matter how many cameras, replays, interviews etc they cram in.

You certainly never heard me saying the gap between the OF and the rest was closing. I was just trying to answer what the original poster asked, ie if we were in the Prem we would hardly need a support with the amount of TV money they get. While it's true the tims probably made an exception for Graveson (Strachan's final part of the jigsaw, let me have Graveson and I'll let you have the league, and all that shite), the fact is the OF are both offloading the big earners such as Balde and Lovenkrands. Maybe £8000 was a bit on the low side but that's the kind of money they offer their native Scots and players from smaller nations. I bet Hutton, Steven Smith, Wallace, Pearson etc, even Maloney, aren't on big money. Most of Scottish football is fecked, and I've been going to games since that year the English keep going on about, so it's obvious to me. I think ICT will (slightly) buck the trend of falling attendances due to the unique circumstances at our club. As for us ever filling the stadium for run of the mill games, not a chance.

Aye but he doesnae start! Anyway he speaks the Queen's Invernessian as well as anybody :015: :015: :015: :015:

:015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: That was quick!

I thought it was an eclipse of the sun.

Same here. I was at the game but I recorded it to see again how we flogged them 4 goals and whether we did create that many chances or was I just imagining it. No surprises that the pundits did not mention ICT once. Just talked about Hearts the whole time. Hearts started with 6 Scots, big deal- we start with 11 every week. I include **** Hasteens in that BTW :015: :015: :015: :015: :015:

What, so you can go and then it gets postponed :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015: :015:

That's what I mean though- they must have finished above Falkirk then, cannae remember how the table was. So Falkirk was the hardest draw we could get....?

I take it we were seeded 7th from our league position, so on paper that was probably the hardest draw we could get. Falkirk were 9th in the league last year were they not?

It's not just the numbers though, it's the massive TV deal the Premiership has. So even though the Old Filth get bigger crowds than nearly anybody in England, they can only dream about paying >£10M for a player, and they are now restricting their wages to about £8000 p/w. I'd rather watch crap football every week than live in Engurland though :015: :015: :015: :015: :015:

January it was- 4-1 going on 8-1 :clapping04:

At least it's not a wee team like Alloa where we can't cope with being favourites. Can't see me travelling up for that one in midweek though. I must admit I'm a wee bit tempted to watch Hibs/Gretna.

I know what C100 means though. Against St Mirren Caff could defend but we didn't really need that for the first hour as St Mirren were pretty gash. We needed him to get forward or at least play a forward pass. St Mirren pressed and Caff just kept lumping these diagonal balls from his own half. Rossco would have asked them a lot more questions. I'm just getting frustrated remembering that game, if we played at all we would have gubbed them. When Dargo scored the first it should have ended 3-0.

Hartley papers over the cracks Hearts 4 / Inverness 1 Alan Campbell at Tynecastle WHATEVER Hearts pay Paul Hartley it’s not enough. The Scotland midfielder continued his recovery from injury by cementing the cracks in a patched-together Tynecastle side who, despite his massive contribution, did not deserve this flattering scoreline. Hearts got away with it yesterday against an Inverness side who, on many occasions, just failed to find the final touch in front of goal and also encountered Craig Gordon at his solid, dependable best. Six Hearts players made their competitive Tynecastle debuts yesterday, but if the selectors believe they can get away with such wholesale changes on a regular basis they’re kidding themselves. Two late goals gave the scoreline a gloss which looked impossible when Caley had the home side pinned back for long spells of the second half. Still, the three points and similar boost to the goal difference were gratefully accepted by manager Valdas Ivanauskas as his side went second behind Celtic. With Robbie Neilson suspended and his deputy Ibrahim Tall injured – how that statement sums up Hearts’ season so far – the Tynecastle club were forced to bring in Tiago Costa at right back. If that was enforced, few were prepared for the other widespread changes in the home side. Takis Fyssas, who has made an unconvincing start to the season, was replaced on the other flank by Lee Wallace, while inside the young left back was Greek defender Christos Karipidis. He replaced Christophe Berra, who wasn’t even on the bench, leaving captain Steven Pressley as the only established member of the back four in the line-up. In midfield, recent Lithuanian signing Marius Zaliukas was introduced in place of Julien Brellier, sent off against AEK Athens in midweek but eligible for domestic football. He wasn’t on the bench but Bruno Aguiar, who didn’t play in midweek, was. Completing the all-change Hearts side were strikers Jamie Mole and the Chilean Mauricio Pinilla. In all, five of the starters were making their debuts at Tynecastle, while Costa and Zaliukas were playing their first games for the club at any venue. Later, Ivanauskas, while pleased with the result, refused to say if Brellier, Berra or any other player for that matter, had been injured or rested. His refusal to reply, even when pressed, will fuel speculation that the French midfielder was dropped. Inverness fielded their usual, settled side, and it was hardly surprising that their play was often more cohesive and joined-up than the home side’s. But on a day when all the breaks went Hearts’ way, Christie’s side got no reward. An early indicator of how the Gods were smiling on the home team came in the seventh minute when a harmless-looking free-kick taken well inside his own half by Gordon was allowed to bounce in the Inverness box and nearly caught out Mark Brown, who had to desperately tip the ball over the bar. While little else looked promising for Hearts, who were lucky to escape when a Dennis Wyness shot went just wide, the most pleasing aspect for the home supporters was the bright play of Pinilla and Mole, his young striking partner. The latter had run himself into the ground in Athens but showed no sign of tiredness, while the Chilean internationalist, who has failed to settle in Europe, looked like he could be a very dangerous addition to the side once he is match fit. That this pair started the match while Calum Elliot had been released on loan to Motherwell is just one of many mysteries swirling around Tynecastle, but both will now provide genuine competition to the first choice pairing of Edgaras Jankauskas and Roman Bednar. By the end of the first half both had scored, the first going to Pinilla in controversial circumstances. Neil McCann appeared to have passed the ball back to Gordon, and when the goalkeeper picked it up Caley howled for a free-kick. Instead, referee Steve Conroy waved play on and Zaliukas, whose general performance did not inspire confidence, fed McCann. The winger, who has been under pressure from the Hearts supporters, swung over a cross which Pinilla, to the delight of the same legions, side-footed into the net. Inverness manager Charlie Christie, who said he was told by the fourth official that McCann’s pass-back had been intended for full back Wallace and not Gordon, was furious. “If that was at the other end, then 99 times out of 100 it would have been given as a pass-back to the keeper,” he said. “It was a lame excuse to say it was a pass to the full back – maybe it’s the Tynecastle crowd.” When Caley equalised, it was no more than they deserved. Gordon had already had to prove his worth by saving from a Graham Bayne header and a Barry Wilson 30-yard shot when the latter, having switched out to the left, crossed to the former and he took advantage of poor marking to make it 1-1. Throughout all this, Hartley, with his chest jutting out, had been holding things together for Hearts and three minutes from the interval a trademark free-kick from the right of the box found the head of Mole, who put his side back ahead. The lead often looked fragile in the second half as Caley pushed forward for their second equaliser of the day. They deserved it, and should have got it when Wilson missed a sitter, but were made to pay heavily when substitutes Andrew Driver – the sixth player of the afternoon to make his Tynecastle competitive debut – and Aguiar gave the scoreline a scarcely believable look. 27 August 2006

Aye, paint half of it white to keep that cnut happy :015: