snorbens_caleyman

No close marking (so no change for us :)) Choreographed elbow-bumping to celebrate goals. Bring your own toilet roll, but certainly no wasting it by throwing it onto the pitch.

Not if he has had a test and it definitely shows that he doesn't have it.

As a postscript, all of this was made redundant when we decided not to travel. The reason for our trip was to see my Mum - next Sunday is Mothers' Day. But she lives in a care home in the town, and we decided that there is no way we can take the risk of introducing coronavirus into a care home. The likelihood is probably still low - though increasing - but the possible consequences are too awful to contemplate. Thought we were going to lose money on flights and hotel, but we see that Easyjet and Premier Inn are now allowing customers to amend "non-flexible" bookings. So I'll be doing that as soon as we have picked another date, well into the future!

I do think that something needs to be done, and would welcome larger divisions, whilst noting the consequent problem of teams being marooned in mid-table with little to play for except position. However, I can't see any changes being made for next season. The reason I say that is this season would then have started under one set of rules, especially those governing promotion and relegation, and ended, albeit unexpectedly, under another set of rules. Can't do that. For example, those teams which still had a chance of promotion, but which would miss out if you changed everything, would cry foul. In the Championship, that could be everyone beneath us except Partick. Can't start a competition under one set of conditions and end it under another. I think they will have to declare the season null and void.

https://premierleague-static-files.s3.amazonaws.com/premierleague/document/2020/02/06/5767eccb-b0b6-40fb-8101-7f25f3f7f73f/2019-20-PL-Handbook-060220.pdf I just had a quick look, and I think he's havering Can't see anything there about a premature end to the season. I also had a quick look at the SPFL rules yesterday, and there is absolutely nothing in there about what happens if the season cannot be completed. We are boldly going where no man has gone before. (In peacetime, anyway.)

Depending on how things go, it could be played as a curtain-raiser to the start of next season. A bit like the Community Shield in England, but classier

I would have thought they would attempt to play behind closed doors. There are competitions to finish, prize money to be awarded, promotion & relegation to be determined, contracts (eg TV) to fulfil, etc. That is unless there is a travel ban, or sufficient players and officials become infected to make it unfeasible.

Which is exactly why I was hoping to speak Inverneesiun mun-to-mun with the local office Easyjet always in the past had an exclusive arrangement with Europcar, and I had no complaints with them. In fact I joined their loyalty scheme, and was getting free upgrades when available - in one case from a Corsa to a VW Passat estate! My booking is now with "Keddy by Europcar", which seems to be a new brand which they have introduced since I last used them, some time last year.

Just to wrap this up. Focus Car Hire couldn't give me a number for Sixt, but were very pleasant. I couldn't change the booking using the Sixt website, because it was booked via Easyjet. I gave up trying to get through on the phone to Sixt. Endless plinky-plonky music, no indication of where I was in the queue, and they didn't even tell me that my call was important to them. If you change date or time on the Easyjet booking, it does a complete new search of all the car hire firms that they have deals with. So I now have a car for all the time that I'll need it. The extra cost is about the same as a couple of (St Albans) pints. And Sixt have lost the business. If only there was some way of telling them.

Romans never stay this far north for long

Currently have 42 points from 26 games, so 6 or 7 from the next four.

Logic would suggest that injuries could decimate a small squad with a congested fixture list - with key players missing more games than they otherwise would have. Less so with suspensions - if you are suspended for a number of games then you will miss that number of games, regardless of the time period. Though suspensions could well exacerbate the problems faced by an injury hit squad. Even the amount of travelling that ICT has to do - compared to a Central Belt club - works against us. I don't remember the friendlies, but would guess that players would have been less likely to get injured or suspended, and that there wouldn't have been long-distance travel.

Thanks, guys. I had forgotten about sites like https://www.saynoto0870.com/ . It doesn't have the number I am looking for, but I'll have a look for other, similar sites. Don - yes, I have the number for Focus and have seen that they used to handle Sixt as well. Don't know if they still do, but will give them a ring. Maybe if enough people have done that, they will know the Sixt number.

Thanks, IBM. That's the sort of search that I was doing, and I couldn't see any local number. They don't publish email addresses either. I have a while to sort it out. The cancelled flight was the 12:45 Easyjet to Luton on 24th March. No reason was given, but one wonders if they are already seeing a downturn due to coronavirus. (See Flybe.) We were able to transfer onto a later flight to Gatwick. So if anyone has flights booked in the near future, it might be worth thinking about what your plan B would be, if your flight is cancelled.

Not really "serious discussion", but please be kind to me. I am looking for a direct local phone number for Sixt car rental in the Dalcross Industrial Estate at the airport. Easyjet have just cancelled a flight that I was booked on later this month, so I need to change my hire car booking by just a few hours. The only phone numbers that I can find for Sixt are for their national call centre - an 0207 number and a 0844 premium rate number. You can appreciate that I'd much rather speak to someone in the Inverness office than to someone at a call centre who cannot deviate from the script in front of them. So if anyone knows the local (Inverness or Nairn exchange) phone number for Sixt, I would be very grateful.

Judging from the BBC texts, that looked like a ding-dong scrap. Looking forward to reading some first-hand reports.

Yes, but we also need good players as well. Having watched the last three televised games, I am now of course an expert And we simply don't have the quality in the team that we used to have. Ridgers is indispensable, so we must hope that no one makes a good offer for him in the summer. Tremarco gets 10/10 for effort. Shaun Rooney caught my eye in these games - get a little more guile into his game and he he could go far. Trafford is a liability, and both he and Carson need to learn about anger management. Our forwards lack skills and penetrative power. Having said all that, until the ref gifted Hibs the chance for their second last night, I thought it could have gone either way. One thing that did surprise me was that I expected Hibs to have a good, well-drilled defence. Yet the number of times that we got through - especially given what I think of our penetrative power - shows that they didn't. That second goal was a game-changer - easy for Hibs then, and impossible for us. Credit to the team for keeping on going, and getting the ball in the net twice. So don't get me wrong. I'd love them to go up. Provided we didn't go on a stupid spending spree or give the existing players unaffordable rises, the worst that could happen is that we would come straight back down with a parachute payment. We might scrape enough points to stay up - we beat Livi, did OK against Hibs for a while, and narrowly lost out to Dundee Utd. But we need a striker or two. Need to shore up the defence. And, most importantly, we need someone who can impose their personality on the game - someone who can really influence things.

Game was done when a stonewall penalty was ignored, and Hibs went down the pitch and scored. TV replays show that it was a penalty. Pundits agreed, and said that if VAR was available then the penalty would have been given. The whole game turned on that. Sickening.

He's on loan. BBC, 31st January: "Wales keeper Owain Fon Williams admits his switch from being Hamilton Accies first choice to joining Dunfermine Athletic on loan has been "a surprise". The 32-year-old drops from the Scottish Premiership relegation strugglers to Championship play-off hopefuls after Luke Southwood returned from Reading." https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51323973

Hadn't realised who the Dunfermline keeper is...

I don't believe there was anyone. If it's all anonymous, then very few will know who was involved, and no-one outside the inner circle will know that no-one has been dropped from the panel. However, you say "whoever was there from the club will know who they are". Just for clarification, are you saying that ICT will know who the three on the panel were? If so, the SFA will have to make sure not to use "the offender" on another ICT case.

Was pleasantly surprised by a very even and entertaining game last night, in atrocious conditions. Two well-matched teams on the night, though difficult to predict how either would get on against a good SPL team. On the night the difference was Shankland, which highlights the glaring deficiency in Caley Thistle ever since Billy McKay left over 5 years ago. We just don't have a predatory striker, and you just can't see where the goals are going to come from. Finding one - preferably two - has to be a priority.

Innocent question - I'm not in Scotland and I don't know the answer, so don't have a go at me for asking. But what does PFA Scotland do? Assuming that Keatings is a member, shouldn't they be offering advice and assistance? Or perhaps Keatings should be asking them for assistance.

If money was not a problem and the club's standing with the SFA was not at stake, then I am sure that there would be an interesting legal case about an anonymous disciplinary panel denying a professional the opportunity to practise his profession, especially in a national final. I don't see how it would be permitted under current good practice for employment, or even law. In fact, there could even be a human rights case there. It won't happen, though. Too much for ICT to lose, moneywise and in terms of relations with the SFA. The SFA would fight it with everything that they have, which is more than ICT has, sadly, because if they lost, then it would be open season on them - it would be anarchy.

He was only a few yards away, level with the players. If he didn't see contact then his guide dog should have barked.