snorbens_caleyman

Agreed, although I am sure that there will still be local opposition. I don't know how far back you go, but in HL days it was like George Orwell's "1984", in which there are three superpowers, with two always allied and at war with the third. But the allies and enemies are constantly changing. In Sneck, whichever two teams that weren't doing so well would float the idea of a merger to go into the Scottish League. But the team which was doing best would say "No way! We will do that on our own.". And so nothing happened for a long time, until 1994. I'm sure the idea of Clach as a feeder team for Caley Thistle was around back at the time that CT was created. It could still make sense, although the question of how closely they would "conjoin" would come up. I assume you mean that they would still compete in the HL. Many people would want Clach to retain their own identity and ground. Selling their ground for redevelopment might be an obvious idea, but to me it doesn't appear to be ideally located for either residential or commercial development. I suspect that the current Board at ICT has enough to do in working out how to keep the club afloat, without spending time considering the pros and cons of a merger with Clach. But if someone is working on long-term planning, then it should certainly be an option to be considered.

What would it do to the pitch if two teams were playing frequently on it? And it would require the Highland League and the SPFL to liaise over scheduling of fixtures. OTOH, Clach would want money for a groundshare.... But I've read the P&J article, and it all makes sense. Keeping the lads together instead of loaning them out, and taking part in a competitive league, would be great if we could somehow pull it off.

A friendly gesture would be to include a section for fans of away teams visiting Inverness. Edit: sorry, have just seen you said "could include home as well". First thing I would do would be to look and see if other clubs have done their own guides - might save you some work, although you could add any information particularly relevant to ICT fans (eg "IHE is banned from this pub"). Hmmm - a quick search for "fans guide to scottish football grounds" has thrown up these - don't know how good they are: https://www.footballgroundguide.com/leagues/scottish-spl-premier-and-football-league-clubs.html https://www.scottishgrounds.co.uk/ https://footballtripper.com/europe/scotland/

Scored! Jordan White can walk on water...

He wasn't when he came on - they have just now updated it. 2-1 now. May need to keep that up our sleeve in case we need to claim the match

Ayr have just brought on McCowan (?sp), whom the Beeb say is not listed on the teamsheet. Can someone please check if he was on the teamsheet handed in to the referee? (I assume that this is still done.)

Sounds like we got a break there - but it's 2-0!

Love the way the BBC commentary team has had to change tack and acknowledge that there is another team as well as Ayr on the park.

...especially given our home record. 5 league wins out of 18.

Aye, but how do you interpret that? It's ambiguous. Common sense says that a relegated team goes into the geographically-closer league, but as Kingsmills says, the problem with common sense is that it's all too often uncommon!

Would surely go into the Lowland League, restoring it to 16 teams after Selkirk resigned in August. Leaving the Highland League - not for the first time - with an odd number of teams.

My wife's Stenny-supporting relatives will be having squeaky bum time at Brechin just now. If Stenny win or draw, they end up 9th, and Brechin go down. Brechin win, and it's the other way round. Stenny were 1-0 up, but Brechin equalised and Stenny have had a man sent off. Classic last-day drama.

They are - all just over 5%.

So the obvious thing - I'm teaching Grandma to suck eggs here - is to look at what other clubs do. I've just returned from a visit to Scotland, where my wife's relatives regaled me with tales of how wonderful the new chairman at Stenhousemuir is, and what he has done for the club. Making a small profit, 6 or 7 of the first team squad already signed up for next season even though they may well go down, lucrative advertising around the pitch, shirt sponsors for the next four seasons, and so on. (I'm leaving the artificial pitch out of this, since it's so controversial. It's not new anyway - but it has brought in money for them over the years.) Our new CEO, if he still stays in Edinburgh, is ideally placed to see what Central Belt clubs like Stenny - who have local rivals, just like we do with Ross County - do to keep going. In fact, thanks to geographical distance and also the difference in league positions, the likes of Stenny shouldn't see ICT as direct competition. So I don't see why we can't actually approach the Chairmen of clubs like that and say "Can we come and talk to you?". In addition, the ICT fans who live in the Central Belt may see things that our Board in the Highlands don't. If you see any ideas that might work for ICT, feed them in to the club. (Or to the Supporters' Trust, although I see no sign of what it is doing at the moment.) Some of the things are obvious - bdu98196 mentions some above - but some might not be so obvious. And I think there is a difference between keeping the club financially viable - a problem to be solved every day - and establishing the club within the community, which is a much longer term activity. I hope the Board recognises that and is planning for both.

Well done, lads! Level on points with Ayr, but 5 goals behind on GD. Ayr at home to Alloa next Saturday.

Ayr now winning 2-1, so we need to win too.

By replacing Polworth with Austin?

And Ayr have equalised, so we are now one point behind them. Time to get the finger out...

Partick 1-0 up on Ayr puts us into 3rd place by one point - but it's vital that we pick up all three today.

Duh. Of course. Senior moment here

But when did OFW last play a match of any description?

That's exactly what I thought when I saw it, on TV. Was too angry at it being disallowed to take in any replay at the time - was there one? - and haven't gone looking for it since. However, I don't remember many complaints from ICT about the decision, though the red mist might have obscured them.

That is bad. I just checked the rules, and, yes, they give a medal or souvenir to "each of the players, to each of such substitutes as are eligible, the Manager or Head Coach and to the match officials, in the Final Tie". That last bit is the key - only those involved in the Final get anything. In contrast, each team in the English cup final receives 40 medals, to distribute as they see fit.

I have said this before - how many times have we conceded within five minutes of the restart? I'm convinced they get Mogadon in their tea. We had Hearts rattled for a few minutes in the second half, at 1-0, but then there was the stoppage for Walsh. And then we conceded immediately after that restart.

Have just noticed that the countdown clock on the ictfc.com website is one hour out. Hope that's not an omen.