buckett

2 hours ago, STFU said:

If we do go down I'd love to see us go the route of using our younger guys and giving them the opportunity to grow and develop as a squad.  Not all will make it and some will move on but it's our best chance at putting together the nucleus of a squad that might stay together for a few seasons.

I agree with your vision and see Div 1 as a great opportunity to blood the youngsters and form a squad of mostly Highlanders, hopefully capable of promotion to the Championship and beyond.

Trouble is, for most of them, the Championship is just a level too high so Div 1 is a better opportunity for 1st team football.

There's something awfully false about following a team of Englishmen, foreigners and Central-belters, supposedly representing your town, when your own town/area can't produce a team capable of playing at that level. Just look at the cup-winning squad of 2015 - how many Invernessians were in that team? How many Scotsmen?

20 hours ago, bdu98196 said:

Fully expect more of the same next year. Holistically if you consider the options - we are skint and will struggle to finance a team of permanent signings or the chance to go to money bags English clubs who will still pay for their youngsters to get some game time and pick up the costs - essentially free for us but we play them.

I doubt anyone at the club is excited at the prospect of not having any experienced signings of younger players we with quality we can retain to develop and try sell. The strategy is clearly making the best with minimal outlay or long term commitments possible.

Quite so.

Just grateful we got Mark Ridgers and Cammy Harper as regular first team starters - 2 local lads with an obvious passion for their home-town team.

I quite often ask myself, how can I be loyal to a team made up of players who have absolutely no connection to the town they're supposed to represent?

Mind you, they seem to manage in Dingwall!

Perhaps a bit obvious what he's trying to do - hope it doesn't backfire on us!

Although, to be fair to Dunc, he's put Arbroath in a very awkward position! 

31 minutes ago, CELTIC1CALEY3 said:

Looks like Big Dunc has had the desired effect in getting Arbroath fired up. Excellent psychology. Hope are lads are ready for the fight tonight.

The Great Escape???

18 hours ago, bishbashbosh said:

 

raith have been pushing DU all season for automatic promotion to the premiership. But 3-1 down to airdrie this evening as I post this. 88 mins played.

 

And with Airdrie's win last night, it's goodbye to our slim chance of making the play-offs at the other end of the table!

No promotion this season, sadly.    

I like the idea in principle and would be inclined to support it.

However I would like to know the club's view on this.

Would the club embrace such a proposition or would the Supporters' Trust have to force their way in?

Would there be hostility between Club and Trust? If so, I can't see it working very smoothly.

An announcement from the Club, if supportive would, I think, sway a lot of supporters towards this proposal.

3 hours ago, Gringo said:

Sad but true. It'll happen to us all one day. 

Different days would be better!  

Arbroath never really got a look-in in the first half, but pretty much absorbed all we threw at them. We got a lift from the goal and really piled on the pressure for the remaining few minutes, looking to double the lead.

Second half we seemed to sit back and allowed Arbroath the chance to equalise and I really thought "here we go again".

Delighted with the result though - did we really win at home!?

Reality check though - we struggled to get a home win against the basement team, even when they had a man sent off! Hope we can do better next week.

A spell in Division 1 will be a good opportunity to blood our youngsters and build a team from within our own ranks which will hopefully, within a couple of seasons, challenge for promotion back to the Championship.

4 hours ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

So I may be biased and protective of a player who was a real club man and a fighter (in many ways!!). He is getting a load of negative flak at the moment but if there was one person that I would pick to be in the trenches with me it is Dunc. He has been up against it from the off. IMHO scapegoated from the off and now taking hits for the bunch of self motivated morons who are the people responsible for bringing this club to its knees. Duncs main problem is that he has nowhere near the quality of players required to bring any footballing system to fruition. We currently have the worst squad of players that we have ever had - a mottley crew of cheap loanees desperate for playing time to progress their own careers. Unfortunately the ones with potential have picked up the injuries. There has been no consistency and I hazard a guess that most fans would have difficulty in picking a first X1. But what Dunc does bring to the party is pure passion and the Dunkirk spirit. The next two games are must wins and if Dunc can instill the passion and drive we will survive. And I am referring to passion and not from a skill or system perspective. Dunc needs to instill a "dogs of war" mentality and the players have to give the fans a degree of hope. So I am predicting six points in the next two games - however accomplished and escaping in 8th place at the end of the season.

Much as I admire your optimism, I just wonder if you've managed to attend a home game recently?

16 hours ago, tm4tj said:

 

We are where we are, not because we are "excellent" or "brilliant throughout the game", or that we didn't get a penalty.

We are where we are because we are consistently sh!te.

The table doesn't lie.

I think we all thought the new "celebratory" manager was going to be our saviour, once he'd settled in.

Now we have to accept that the best we can do is get a result against Hamilton or whoever in the playoffs.

And our celebratory manager is just a celebratory. He ain't a manager!

41 minutes ago, Duke of Inverness said:

Aye, we need someone in the dugout who actually cares about ICT and where we will be in a few weeks time, as Ferguson and Bollan will be off into the sunset pronto after the Morton game.

Think Ferguson is on a 2-year contract.

We can only afford to get rid of him if some other team wants him, which is most unlikely.

No the first time Ridgers has been caught off his line!

Seen some great saves though, so I suppose it balances out.

26 minutes ago, Gringo said:

I can't see him staying beyond this season even if we do stay up. He will be wanting a half decent wage and he probably won't get that at ICT. 

Can he commandeer a higher wage though?

He hasn't really proved himself as a manager. Would anyone else be willing to take a punt on him with his current dismal managerial record?

Unless he has other talents !!!

Ok so the doomsayers have got their way and our beloved ICT has gone to the wall.

Where are you gonna go for your fortnightly football fix?

Is Clachnacuddin going to see an unprecedented surge in attendances?

Will Ross County benefit from our demise?

Aberdeen maybe?

St. Johnstone?

Or perhaps one of the Gruesome Twosome?

Cast your votes here!

5 minutes ago, Satan said:

Fleetwood!?

Thats Scott Browns managerial debut.

There's irony in there somewhere.

Ah yes, wrong team.

Of course I meant Forest Green!

I suppose I should edit it, but I agree there's a sort of irony there!

6 minutes ago, Fraz said:

He got the job off the back of his name and 'fame'. The type of football he seems to want us to play (thank God I missed the game yesterday) we don't have the players capable of executing. It's also utterly mind numbing to watch. We keep hearing to 'get behind the team' but FFS it's an uphill struggle as we've not won in 4 months and what we do see at home is utter dross. 

Exactly!

Attendance at football matches is a balance between loyalty to your team and the entertainment gained from the match.

Having witnessed so many tedious, unentertaining draws and defeats at home this season (fortunately giving yesterday a miss!), it's hard to build myself up to face another home game, as the lack of entertainment has now overtaken the 'loyalty' factor for me.

I'd love to "get behind the team" if it wasn't such a tedious chore.

Sadly, as things stand, there's nothing worth seeing at Caledonian Stadium, and I can think of much better ways to spend my time and money!

Hopefully I'll have recovered from my current negativity by the next home game though!

Echoes of Fleetwood . . . 

(Edit - Oops, I meant Forest Green!)

Actually feeling quite smug because, having been to all the home league games this season, I gave this one a miss.

Just didn't fancy the long journey home on the back of yet another draw!

But really hoping I'm made to regret this decision by missing a stunning 2nd half performance and convincing victory!

Another of my expectations is that we'll go into administration.

Having witnessed yet another home draw, one of my expectations is that attendances will continue to drop gradually until we get a home win.

However, so long as we keep climbing the table, a point at a time, there is a possibility we'll escape the play-offs.

I can't help feeling this squad of players is yet to click - hopefully that'll happen before the end of this season.

I think we'll peak on the last game of the season at 7th place!

(and ffs get Cammie Harper signed up for another 2 years!)

18 hours ago, dougiedanger said:

Of course a decent-sized place with a long and proud football history like Inverness can and should be able to support a competitive, full-time senior football club.

And it does - the club is called Ross County!

3 hours ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

Is there a reason for injuries occurring every feckin season??

Just wear and tear - it affects all clubs, just that we seem to make an issue of it!