snorbens_caleyman

So the gate money from home games won't even cover the players' wages. Then there is NI, player insurance, and possibly pension payments. Then wages and other costs for manager, coaching staff and all other employees of the club. Running and maintenance costs for the ground and stadium - everything from the electricity bill to the upkeep of the pitch to the laundry bill. Contractor & third party costs - security, catering, legal, transport etc. And possibly the big one - I haven't looked at the accounts recently - servicing debts and loans. Other sources of income - hospitality, the shop, sponsorship/advertising, TV, cup runs. Won't come close to meeting these costs. I have left transfers out because that's simply not an option right now. So then you are down to directors or other parties putting in money with little expectation of return. Or finding something else to generate revenue. Last November, the Chairman of Halifax Town - now in the National League - revealed that it costs £150,000 per month to keep the club going. Our 2,289 attendees, going to 2 home games in a month, would provide ICT with no more than £80,000 before costs. Halifax - https://www.nonleaguematters.co.uk/forums/threads/cost-of-running-a-step-one-non-league-club.11807/

The point was that once you are outside of the top flight and don't have a well-connected big name like Butcher, then, certainly in Inverness, football revenue alone is nowhere near enough to get back into the top flight. So money has to be found elsewhere. Do you have any constructive ideas for recovery?

Aye, the Montrose tactics against the "bigger" club Don't lose the first leg, then hit them at home where their form is abysmal. 1-0 is all that's needed.

> Please note that there is no commentary included with this facility which is available at £15 ppv. I presume they're charging extra for no commentary?

I suspect that at that point we may have been financially OK. It was after that - paying inflated wages, paying Yogi off, paying Foran off, etc etc - that the financial slide started. Football-wise, we've never really had a reliable, consistent goalscorer since Billy Mckay first left us in 2015. I know they don't come in six-packs at the supermarket, but we really should have done better. As folk have said, look at our goals for and goals against this season, and that will show which end of the field our problems are at. Club management and directors - I only know what I read here, so I have nothing to say.

Disappointed that I can't. BBC are showing the meaningless Dundee U vs Partick. Yes I know they'll give updates from elsewhere, but couldn't they have sent cameras to Hampden and to Inverness, to cover the important matches? Or, since it's not Saturday afternoon, PPV?

But will there be anyone else there? That's the question!

If I was managing Airdrie, I'd put out the weakest team I could get away with. Avoid risk of injury to or suspension of my best players. If QP win, then it wasn't Airdrie's top team, and there should be no problems motivating them for a promotion playoff. It has to be three points for us tonight. But that may well not be enough.

Can't even score from the penalty spot

Aye, that would do...

Queens 3 up, we are 1 down. Big Dunc, time to deliver the halftime talk of your career....

Well I can't! How many times over the years have we seen them concede a goal immediately after the break? As soon as it was clear that Raith had come out of the blocks invigorated and fighting, I said to my wife that they were going to score very soon. And so they did. Teams and managers have changed over the years, of course, so it can't be blamed on any one thing or on one person. But surely the last thing to be said before they go out for the second half should be "Stay extra sharp out there for the next few minutes, until you get back into the rhythm of the game!". Statisticians and historians may well point out to me that we are no worse than other teams in this respect. But it sure seems that way!

He's not playing. P&J reported earlier this month that he hopes to make a comeback next season. Apparently he came close to signing for a club "a few weeks" before that report, but it fell through.

Far from unusual. I can look at the lower three divisions in England, and in each I can see teams that were in the top tier in the recent past. Not saying that it's good, or acceptable - just that it's not unusual.

He could tell them that unless they do something, they will be playing the Warriors next season!

It really isn't. More like "attempting to influence one or more decision makers". Far more likely nowadays to involve backhanders or freebies than "intimidation".

From "The Knowledge" column in today's Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/mar/13/the-knowledge-have-any-footballers-refused-to-play-second-half If you were going to buy it, you'd have done so by now, so I don't think this will deprive them of any money "“Have there been any situations where a player has refused to come out for the second half?” asks Peter Clarke. “If so, what retribution was taken by the club or country?” There are plenty of examples of entire teams refusing to play the second half, the majority in response to racism, but it’s quite rare for an individual player to do so. Let’s start with a famous night in Glasgow: “Back in February 2000, with John Barnes’s Celtic trailing Caley Thistle 2-1 in a Scottish Cup tie, striker Mark Viduka refused to play the second half,” begins Stephen Toal. “Viduka took offence when he was asked by Barnes’s assistant Eric Black: ‘Is it too cold tonight? Do you not fancy it?’ “Celtic went on to lose 3-1, and within 48 hours Barnes and Black were sacked (Viduka kept his job). Perhaps more significantly, the match spawned the greatest newspaper headline of all time: Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic Are Atrocious." Click on the link above to read the rest of the column.

Dougal seems to be carrying a long term grievance

Jeremy *unt?

At a superficial level, it's actually very easy for me, in a densely populated and cultivated area 20 miles from the centre of London, to be amused at concerns about "loss of green space". It's the Highlands of Scotland, FFS But, yes, I do understand - it's loss of readily accessible green space.

4 players booked on each side. That plus the injuries would suggest that the referee didn't have much control of the game.

Just tell Big Dunc not to disrupt the team by bringing on subs....

Yes, but the problem, as CB states, is that there are two such clubs. Very close to each other - Bing maps says it's 13.7 miles between the postcodes of the two grounds. And the roads are half-decent. Long gone are the days of my childhood when it was a slow trek round by Beauly and Muir-of-Ord. In terms of pulling power, ignoring those of us who have history before 1994 - and who are inevitably becoming a smaller proportion of the support - then I don't think it's unreasonable for someone, especially an incomer, to choose which of these local teams to support. In which case County, at the moment, will win out. And Dougal has already pointed out the differences in the companies that support the two clubs. Even there we see that Uncle Roy is keeping them going to the tune of more than £500K a year. I suspect that when he pulls out - he's 71 now, so who knows what his plans are - then if there are no similar sugar daddies for either club, then a merger/takeover will follow soon after. And that's before we look at the problems of attracting the best players and coaching staff to the north, where, unlike the Central Belt, there are no other top clubs within 100 miles. I wish it were otherwise, but it's difficult to argue with geography!

BBC stats say 12 shots in total - 6 each - in the game. And only 1 on target - presumably the missed penalty. Commiserations to those of you who were there.

Have a scramble on the pitch at half-time tonight? Should be lucrative for the few spectators there, and will possibly be the best action on the pitch.