Tree

I dont see the Police shutting down Tesco Extra or the Retail Park and people travel long distances to these, could it be because they have more financial might?

Or just perhaps it may be that people need food from Tesco to survive whilst football...........? :002:

I expect that IF we manage to offload a few players from the fringes THEN we can look to bring in a couple of new sigings or loan deals. We really still need to reduce the wage bill and strenghten the squad at the same time. Quality vs quantity. I only hope we will be looking closer to home for players that will add quality to the team and that will stay for a few seasons.

I think you are correct in relation to the quantity versus quality balance.

At the moment we have a large pool of in too many cases average players. This needs to be trimmed down to reduce the wage bill and also to allow a bit more quality. The reality is however that we simply do not have the cash to simply buy our way into promotion (we need to be sensible and put this season behind us - even if Dundee were to lose four games between now and the end of the season do we really believe that we will effectively win almost all the remaining games?).

This means making sure that the yound guys like Shinnie are ready for playing at this level next season (whether getting games against the lower half teams over the next four months or going out on loan).

We also have to solve the fact that mentally we are not strong enough as a team.

Examples

- We almost avoided relegation last season before effectively 'bottling it' in the last 3 or 4 games

- Twice against County we have not been up for the game

- We go in with a 2 goal lead in the cup final before capitulating

In addition to the garing need to improve the quality of players in some areas, we must also address this issue of players not being mentally strong enough either.

Its more to do with what the ref can see, can he clearly see his assistants etc, mind you some ref's dont see a lot of things, fog might lift later it did for a whi;e yesterday.

:D ..........yea

Hope it will lift but it's the frost I'm worried about :(

Not sure if we will use the undersoil heating in this division? Anyone know if it was on overnight (a plume of steam from the boiler is a clue)?

Cup final next Sunday and I think it is disgraceful that there are still tickets available. Time the people in the Highlands started getting behind their local teams instead of blindly and moronically following the old firm.

I suspect that the fact that the game is live on BBC Alba has impacted on the crowd significantly.

Christmas is not far away and every club in Scotland has suffered from low crowds in cup competitions (even Celtic only opened the lower tier against Hearts.

Oh, that and the fact that we are god fearing and would never consider going to a football match on a Sunday

the Fluke is my local too...but am financially embarrased till after xmas......plus.....Im bound to win the Kareoke...coz i am an as yet, unearthed singing genius!

:dancing03:

The reality is that we are not in a financial position to be taking new players in, and indeed I would not be surprised to see a number of players moving on in the January window.

The situation is that Roy, Zadi and Eagle are unlikley to feature in games unless there is injuries (I would like to see Roy more involved but none of us would lose any sleep with the other two). We also have cover in Shinnie and Ross with Eric also coming back into contention (for two weeks before his next injury ).

In an ideal world both Shinnie and Ross would be loaned to a 2nd or 3rd division team to get experince of playing in competitive games, and be hardened up to an extent. Shinnie is one for the coming seasons however he needs some experience of playing against seasoned pros.

The wages of the younger players are a fraction of the other three and this may well be the deciding factor (before even considering the ongoing court actions!).

With some of the other players, we would be looking for transfer fees, and some of the teams at the lower levels of the SPL may well make an offer for some of the players. If Foran or Rooney continue to score regularly then they will attract interest.

I just looked on the Online booking for the tickets and i cant find where to get the cup final tickets!

Any help?

According to official site online booking is only available to season ticket holders at www.eticketing.co.uk/ictfc

I am a season ticket holder but it still isnt there.

Have you followed this instruction:

If you are a regular purchaser but this is the first time using our online booking system-register your account by clicking the button marked 'Activate an Existing Account' above. Enter your client reference number (found on your 2008/9 season ticket) and surname, update your personal details and follow the on screen prompts.

I did that and its not there......Feck it, i will buy them on Satuday before the game.

Dornoch - Check the Season Ticket number against the number registered on your online account. On occasions your registered account can be under a different number and does not automatically pick up the fact that you are a season ticket holder.

You may have to add your season ticket to your account (just Name and Number required) once you have logged in to the eticketing site.

We should've played 11 up front in an attacking pentagle formation with Rossco practising shotput in the middle.

Have you been taking tactical lessons from Renegade :024:

Tokely was as slow as ive ever seen him saturday, he didnt care to try and get back.

Tokely was clearly not fit enough to play the full game. After an hour he should have been taken off and replaced with Proctor.

It was clear that he was tightening up and on a number of occasions was trying to stretch the back of his legs. It appeared obvious to everyone sitting near me that this was the case and was physically unable to get back, however for whatever reason he was left to struggle on.

Frankly I'm baffled as to how some are trying to justify what has apparently been said by Butcher.

I agree that there is too much negativity from a number of fans with critisism of every error (the best was from a female fan sitting behind me who critised Esson for "just kicking the ball anywhere!" - at the time he was returning it to the middle of the park so that a free kick could be taken :angry:)

The level of critisism against players has perhaps reached an unreasonable level, however is understandable given the circumstances of our home form over the past few seasons.

This does not excuse or justify the actions of Butcher.

Exactly what does the manager think will happen in future games? Now that he has called the fans behind the goal f****** a******* (allegedly at least) I suppose he will be willing to accept the same sort of abuse back from the fans, possibly leading to a continued deterioration in the relationships.

The alternative is that many fans will stop coming to games. Under the current circumstances I suspect that Ticket renewals for next season are unlikely to be close to the current levels, even if we are promoted (as highly unrealistic as this seems at this moment). This situation is going to create an even greater problems in terms of the budget that is available.

I'm convinced Statler and Waldorf have been sitting behind me for the past few seasons B)

I think we laked defence.

They just sorta stood of the ball and watched it.

Rossco and Golabek were big misses!

I understand that there was a massive effort before the game to try and get Rossco fit enough to play.

Anyone being to it?

Are you Borat?

Are you a muppet ?

What is this fixation you have with muppets. Did Miss Piggy turn your advances down leaving you bitter and twisted towards our puppets pals

I hope I am wrong but I am not so sure his managerial abilities are much better.

Whether they (his abilities) are good enough only time will tell.

My point is that we do not have a Manager who has lost the dressing room, nor do we have an Assistant who is ridiculed by most of the players as being, to quote one, a "joke".

What are you seeing in him that makes you think that, I am not saying he is not the man for the job, just failing to see it myself, in fact apart from his PR skills I am failing to see what makes him any better than Brewster

To be critical is fine, however we are not playing like we where under Brewster.

Yes we got beat, however out with the last 15mins of the first half we were by far the better team.

We are suffering badly from injuries at the moment, particularly in defense.

the boys were awful today. esson gets pass marks, great save from the pen but the rest were well below par. butcher needs to realise some of his signings are not up to it. eagle is a nightmare, like playing with a man down, when proc came on he at least threatened to do something. mcbain and duncan must be wondering what they must do to get a game. if i were butcher i would play the following team going on the basis that everyone is fit

esson

tokely duff munro zadi

imrie cox duncan mcbain

foran sanchez

subs: allison, proctor, hayes, barrowman, odhiambo

ive based this on that fact that duff did well last year. zadi at least tries to play he ball out instead of golly who just hoofs it clear, despite adding some dig to the team. midfield goes back to last years players as opposed the new guys as they have the dig to get stuck in and try grind out results. the midfield today seemed to go missing in periods. upfront foran needs to realise that the world doesnt revolve around him, complaining when balls are slightly off him, losing possession of the ball. he is a vital assest to the team and if he knuckles down and battles hard the goals will come for him and the team.

what the rest of you thinking?

This will be the same Duff who is unlikely to play again this season due to his injury?

John Stewart (former Falkirk striker) and Jonathan Johansson (Hibs) are the strikers released today from what i read on Sfl website and Joe Keenan and David Van Zanten from Hibs have been released so what about any of these?

I would like to see Stewart here as he did a good job at Falkirk but not sure about Johansson.

This is the same Stewart that has just been released by County for not being good enough?

This sounds very much like a late move by Hamilton for Hastings with Butcher having limited opportunity to find a replacement.

I suspect that Hamilton offered a fee for Hastings which for a player not getting a game (and not necessarily adding something to the team if he was!) is always worth considering.

In Golly we have a player who has played SPL and knows what the 1st Division is about. For those saying Golly is fatter than before, he was considerably slimmer last season than he was in his final year before moving.

In terms of pace, technical ability, tackling, aerial ability and presence LDZ is the better player by far than Hastings. Unfortunately when he has to make a decision or engage his brain it all seems to fall apart!

Shinnie offers a lot in the LB role, however he stills needs to be hardened up and even against Stranraer (where he was a possible MoTM) he was caught out a few times by bigger stronger and more street wise players.

Would we have liked to see a younger player coming in? Clearly yes. Is this the disaster some are making out? I suspect not.

In all the histeria regarding LDZ on Saturday, he was not responsible for the debacle (or indeed missing an easy header to clear in advance of the third goal).

Frankly this games questions Butchers tactical abilities.

As mentioned in earlier posts, we did not even turn up.

So, do we try and sort out some of the problems. N0! We wait till we are two nil down.

Stratfords performance was an absolute shocker. The fact that he stayed on the park for longer than 15minutes is impossible to comprehend. I assume that as one of Butcher's signings he is immune to being removed when having a shocker (although to be honest I cannot recall a game where he has looked anything other than ordinary).

We were crying out for the central midfielders to get closer to their men. Even Duncan's harshest critics cannot deny that he showed how this was done when he came on.

Removing Procter when Zadi is being at best 'Random' (sorry this is a term which my 10 year old daughter has introduced me to)???

County deserved all three points for at least turning up. Butcher needs to sort out the tactics, and a lot of players need to look in the mirror.

I do not know what McBain and Duncan make of being left on the fringes in favour of some of the new guys.

At least Bulvitus and Hayes look as though they have something about them.

What gets me is the fact that if you want a pie at half time you have to miss about 10-15mins of the first half and if you go at half time its 10-15min of the second, this is why I dont get one at the game, I cant see anyway really to combat his other than have 10 counters open and staffed for that 30 min rush.. Im sure the exspence will not cover itself... Hotdogs and other Item for sale wont get me to change my mind on going to grab somthing.

Some grounds around the country have TV screens visible from the queue which show live action from the match.

Obviously there is a cost (and logistics) associated with this, however the point relates to the fact that this solves the inevitable problem of people missing parts of the game through standing in long queues. Even having Sky TV showing Soccer Saturday would help.

Does anyone know if this will be tried again ? Or was it a one off ?

Are you referring to someone with Caley D's figure (no personal offence meant ) having the balls to wear a shirt like that......... :P

Cringeworthy, gaudy and tasteless. I'll let you decide if that is Caley D's patter or shirt :003:

On a more serious note, well done to Caley D. Even if some of the dialogue verged on downright awful, it is pleasing to see some interaction with crowd and an attempt to stimulate an atmosphere.

There still needs to be some fine tuning of the content and possibly an increase in the amount of music played, however I know from going to a number of Premier League venues in England, there is a huge amount of effort put in to provide pre-match and half-time involvement with the crowd.

Better than listening to Grassa And Mikey Noble screeching out "Bring it on Home" and watching to see if any penalties at will actually get scored in the Flybe challange with Jim Calder accidentaly going the wrong way!

There is a statement on the Official Site which also covers this.

I have to say, the standard of both the food and the service has never been adequate from our current provider. I know that a lot of us are fed up with barely edible food and Cups of Coffee where the tide is well and truley out.

We were discussing at the Clach game how embarassing it is to have a Highland League team providing top quality (indeed Award Winning!) food at better prices than ICT.

I think that a phone call from Mr Smith to "Dougal's" agent with the offer of a lucrative transfer across the City is needed.

Proctor and Imrie will be good enough for Division 1. Centre mid is the problem area.

A right back and a player who doesn't turn up for half the games???

We spent most of last season with poor service for the strikers from an inability to have wide players who can cross a ball.

In Rooney and Barrowman we have players who can finish, but not create. Again Foran can get on the end of crosses.

The team is crying out for wide players to provide service and improve our ability to score.

We seem to be in the situation where our options for right midfield consist of Proctor or Imrie, neither of whom are the answer.

Is there any thoughts or knowledge on how we are proposing to fill this position.

I suspect that TB was less than happy with Cowie being sold a couple of days before the transfer window following Barry being released. We never really found an answer to this and in the SFL there seems to be little need to have a defensive wide midfielder in the way in which it was necessary against the better teams in the SPL.

This is possibly the weakest area of the team at the moment, although it could be argued we are also short of a forwarding looking central midfielder.