The Mantis

Dunc (not Big Dunc) was good at the Queen’s Hall last night. Next gig for us is a couple of nights in Glasgow and the Hoolie at the Hydro combined with ICT at Hampden. one of his stories was about playing in Beauly with Ivan Drever. They turned up in the afternoon to see that the venue had laid on a tremendous spread, I.e. 6 export and 6 lager plus a coffee cake. So they laid into this until only half the cake was left. At the interval in the gig, everybody was running around looking for the raffle prize…

Crystal Palace. Jesus wept, there’s two of them now. Go for who put the O and Y. The tune is “What shall we do with the drunken sailor” which is probably meaningless to anybody under 50…

We’re all agreed that the board need to grow a set and sack the charlatans that are bleeding us dry so forgive me my moment of euphoria as I’ve just spent several weeks in hospital and Saturday was a real treat. A real pint in a real pub and a real fitba stadium in a real fitba city. However my comment was aimed at stayaway ST holders of whom there must be a fair number going by the deserted stands which are at odds with the crowds announced by the club. These fans have already spent the money anyway, as I did in a moment of madness, although I hardly ever get up the road these days. They may as well be at the stadium lending a bit of atmosphere laced with hopefully a few anti- Gardiner chants rather than the morgue it is at present. Alternatively, go and back the team at away games where it’s only the players that benefit, not the club. The main thing for me is to compete in the championship. To use your analogy, if the paper stops covering the cracks we’ll soon be part time in the seaside leagues.

Good effort to help the team Gringers. Keep it up

Exactly. Time for the stayaways to dust off the season tickets and get along on Saturday to give Ayr a doing. Not normally a happy clapper and that was the most I’ve enjoyed an ICT game for a long time.

@ymipand I had a problem deciding what formation we were playing too, thought at kickoff it was 3-5-2 but then looked more like a 4-4-1-1 at times. Of course it often changes in or out of possession. That was a classic away performance and some of our passing was superb, back to middle we look a good side but as always we are going to struggle to get goals. Billy struggled to get service unless he came deep for the ball and Shaw was our biggest threat. Not sure what Sheridan is going to offer although maybe he lacks fitness but he contributed very little. The goal was a thing of beauty as Cammy threw off the shackles and galloped forward. Very few weaknesses today and I have been ill and missed several weeks, so was impressed by seeing Ujdur, Anderson and Boyes for the first time. Duffy came on for Carson and did a decent job on Middleton. Louis Moult hardly got a sniff. Their goal came when Holt was given space to head home from a corner but why are we substituting defenders when we have conceded a corner? Apart from the first 10 minutes and the last 15 you wouldn’t have known which team were at the top of the table. Another great day with CaleyAway. ETA: Mark Ridgers MoM Big Dunc

DUFC v ICT DRAW @4.75 please.

Many thanks @Robert. Can’t say I’ve been behind the goals there since it was terracing.

Can’t find any sign of online tickets for away fans for this game. No biggie though…

That’ll be Norrie MacIver aka Tago, a good Carloway lad.

Relied on my Shetland brother-in-law to get tickets but they sold out in a morning, and he didn’t anticipate how popular they would be so he never got off his erse in time. Going to see Duncan Chisholm at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh on Sunday. His premiere of Black Cuillin at Celtic Connections was amazing. 15 on stage including 8 piece string section

We were comfortable against Bonnyrigg with probably a weaker team than now, although they made us sweat a bit at the end. But Bonnyrigg would easily take about 5 off Cowden. A team that’s 9th in the LL and in their other major Cup, the South Challenge Cup, recently beat a tier 7 side 4-2. Just start at a tempo and get it done early.

Quite happy to take the points under any circumstances after the game at Airdrie where we gifted them 2 goals of a start and missed a hatful of chances. They’ve not got a great squad but Rhys McCabe has got them playing in the right way.

ICT @2.50 please

Fancied ICT this week but going for Bonnyrigg v Clyde DRAW @ 3.50. Probably be back in the morning as it’ll likely be off.

No surprises given the climate down on the Clyde Riviera… still, could benefit us getting players back, especially Boyes.

Great stuff. I’m kind of indisposed atm or I would have trekked through for this. Hopefully the boys can emulate the team of 2022 which narrowly missed getting to the final at Hampden…

Wondering what was no 1 ?

Coming after you @Robert, beginner’s luck

I’ll go for Bairns v Accies DRAW @3.4

QoS @2.20 ta

Gardiner’s body language

I’ll go for Dunfermline @2.05 please

Had a quick look at Robbo’ s last spell. He kind of got us challenging eventually but the first 3 years or so we had players that would struggle to break into the current team… the era of Matty Elsdon, John Baird, Susan, Seedorf, Calder, Austin, White, plus Oakley whom some people rated but he couldnae hit a coo on the erse wi a banjo. It got better when Shane & Billy & Walsh came along but they were backed up by the likes of Allardice, Danny, Roddy and Welsh and even Deas.

He managed Clyde against us a few times but wasn’t a very good manager. Think he inherited Alan Mainland’s side who were full of cloggers from the Juniors.