buckett

Personally I'd prefer to see a few more Highlanders in the first team.

Careful Alex - some of us ex-mariners are still quite fluent in dots and dashes!!

Ha! What a team!!

Don't see how that would make much difference in that particular part of the world!

County always seem to have better gates than us when we're in the same division. Generally we have better gates than them when we're in a higher division. If County do go up (and we stay up), there will no doubt be a wee bit of interest in the first derby or two, so there may well be a record attendance. Sorry to sound gloomy but I can't see subsequent derbies breaking any records and I can see a general drop in our attendances as a result of both teams being in the SPL. It won't do them any harm though.

Ha! I remember that well although I couldn't remember the name of the County player. Reckon Hazza dived both times too - sheer magic! :lol:

Well, I wouldn't put it as harshly as that but it is true that there are many followers of football, rather than of one particular team, attending TCS on matchdays who would maybe prefer to watch Ross County vs Hearts or Rangers than ICT vs. St Mirren or Dunfermline. At the moment the only high profile games in the Highlands are going on in Inverness but if they were to happen in Dingwall too, and perhaps only in Dingwall a year or two down the line then our support would certainly be diluted. Best keep the upstarts in Division 1 or 2, where they belong!

I'm really quite surprised at how many people on this forum view County's elevation to the SPL positively. Make no mistake - such a scenario would be to our detriment and could quite feasibly lead to part-time football in Inverness. Don't underestimate the dangers (to ICT) of County entering the SPL, which fortunately, as Smee points out, is actually quite unlikely.

I dunno - saw an even more blatant one the other week - big Greek fellow went down like a sack of tatties.

It's just P.R., posturing, brinksmanship - call it what you will, but I just can't see TB starting from scratch again in January. Maybe the defence is taking a while to gel but I would hate to see a new group of strangers coming in in January and effectively guaranteeing us 1st Division football next season.

Fully agree with IHE here. Some people find it very hard to admit to making a mistake, and I applaud Mr O'Reilly for coming clean. Pity about the lost points though.

So what's the punishment for feigning injury to get a player sent off? :irritated:

There's hope for Fort William then.

They Don't

Absurd maybe, but it is the raison d'etre for the old firm. And they are interdependent - without one, the other could not have existed.

Yes, I know exactly where you're coming from and it is a scam - no doubt about it. Normally I'll take a chance and buy my ticket(s)on match-day, however, in the more high-profile games it's safer to buy them in advance and pick them up on the day of the match. So when you buy them by phone and pay by card, a booking fee is applied, which, when added to the cost of travel (nearly a 300 mile round trip to a home game in my case) makes the whole package less attractive. It all adds to the cost of supporting your local team, I suppose.

To wind up the opposition. And it clearly works!

Just back from the match (OK - there were a few diversions on the long road home) and just in time for the BBC highlights which did not do us justice at all, although the pundits agreed the red card was rather dubious. The majority of times we are outplayed by the old firm, but occasionally we've been lucky and managed to get a result - put it down to brilliant tactics, or luck, whatever. Yesterday, however, we were right on top. We held our shape and dominated the first half. Throughout the game we made Celtic look very ordinary. I was most surprised that Tansey was sent off for a fairly innocuous challenge - what surprised me more was the apparent anger of the referee when he made his judgement, and the impulsiveness of that decision. The stand-side linesman looked uncomfortable with the decision, but chose not to intervene. Even after that appalling decision the heads didn't go down and we continued to look dangerous right up to half time. Into the second half and the extra man started to show. We still looked dangerous in attack, and we still kept our shape, but Celtic started to come into the game. The balance shifted after their goal but we still looked capable of scoring and I was quite optimistic. Sadly when Celtic got their second, the heads went down and there was no going back, although a late rally might have got us a consolation. Standouts for me were Davies and Tokely who were pretty solid. Also Tade and Hayes who caused their defence a lot of problems. I can't remember when I last felt such a deep sense of injustice at losing a game - I'm not in the habit of slating referees but there was something seriously amiss yesterday.

A breath of fresh air - people are too willing to be offended these days.

I do hope you're right Scarlet, although I'd prefer to win by more than one! Looking forward to this one anyway. Just setting off for the big city now - hope to return happy tonight, or even happier tomorrow!

Perhaps it would be beneficial to the Highlands to have two SPL teams. However, it won't happen - County ain't going up.

Pure class!!!

Couldn't have put it better myself - well done sir.

Ross Tokely "scraped into the list" too, so we didn't do that bad really, considering we're bottom of the league!

I think the frequent reference to journey-men in this thread and similar discussions is quite significant. What we have here is a Highland-based team largely manned by players with no real passion for the town they supposedly represent. And why should they - they weren't born here, they don't belong here and they have no intention of living here any longer than their loan spell/shop-window time. They must clearly be motivated as it's in their professional interests to perform well on the pitch, something which, as yet, doesn't seem to be happening. To my mind, that is the nature of our current problem and it's the manager's job to sort it out. I'm certainly not calling for Butcher's head - I am confident he's up to the job. Just wish he'd hurry up!