buckett

Not bad news at all, in my opinion.

Sometimes a result like that galvanises a team - it's happened to us before. It's not the first time Rangers have scored 5 goals against a fellow SPL team (didn't they do it to Celtic not so long ago?) and it certainly won't be the last. Some of the posts in this thread are awfully theatrical. Perhaps if we could maintain a sense of perspective . . .

There is no crisis - that word comes too easily these days. For ten years or so, ICT supporters were used to seeing their team winning most of the time. Eventually we joined the country's elite league and didn't win nearly so often. Many supporters found this hard to take and stopped going to games. Meanwhile a new generation of supporters with less demanding expectations is starting to come through the turnstiles. Give it 3 or 4 years and attendances will start to increase again, if we're still in the SPL. Simple really! By the way, Scarlet, did you get the PM I sent you last month? My profile thingy says you never read it! (not that you would've missed much)

. . . . . especially against Falkirk!

I had one of them sat beside me - thoroughly decent guy as it turned out. From Inverness but having associated himself with Celtic when Caley and Thistle were in the HL, he said he couldn't just switch over like that. Still went to all the ICT home games so I suppose, financially, he was an ICT supporter. Sat on his hands, admirably, when Celtic scored and even applauded when we scored. When you think of it, it's a bit ridiculous that when we put on our "football fan" mantle we become caged animals, likely to rip each other apart if not properly segregated, then later in the week we'll maybe meet up with the same people after work and have a drink. Seems strange we can't all sit together.

I think this thread has maybe run its course. Time to put a lid on it!

Well I agree with IHE and I think his rant was spot-on. I'd also say that we were playing very entertaining football for about 15 minutes right up to the point when Black came off. And that was the defining moment. Up till then we looked the more likely team to score - wave upon wave of attacking football but with an unfortunate inability to finish. Suddenly, with the absence of Black we seemed to lose direction and any threat we may have carried. It was all a bit insipid from then on and I noticed we seemed to favour the long ball "tactic". I also agree about the mature man maintaining his looks. He was ugly back then too. Only, he didn't have a beard. That'll be Gerry Adams. :thumb04:

Aye, you could say that. Funny thing was, he looked vaguely familiar from my old IRA days - ugly fellow with a bit of a beard. But they didn't have eejits in the IRA in those days, did they?

I really wanted the substitution of Black for Wilson to turn out to be a tactical masterstroke, just to get it right up the eejit sitting behind me who started ranting at Brew as Black came off. As time wore on, however, I realised the eejit behind me was right, and probably not an eejit at all!

That's right IHE, and if ya fling a barrow-load of darts, yer bound to hit the bull now and again! :016:

The name is Ross COUNTY - it represents the county of Ross-shire, with a population considerably more than 4000. Unlike Gretna, Ross County frequently had gates of 2000+ while in the 2nd division. Who's to say they won't draw considerably more, including a fair few from Inverness, should they reach the SPL?

On the other hand, if more of us turned up on matchdays, providing bigger gate receipts, perhaps we'd have the financial clout to build on promotion to the top flight. As things stand though, we've probably gone as far as is financially viable.

Noticed the 'Sports Comment' column in today's Courier in which it was suggested that County could be serious contenders for this season's 1st Division Championship. I'm sure we'd all be delighted for our neighbours if this were to happen, especially if we were to survive yet another season in the SPL, but more importantly, how would such a scenario affect us? I'd always believed that whichever of the 2 teams reached the SPL first would thrive to the detriment of the other, and this seemed to be the case when County were relegated to Division 2 while we had consolidated our place in the SPL. But now County are back in Division 1, knocking on the door of the SPL if this article is to be believed. Can the Highlands sustain two SPL teams? Would all the neutrals flock back to Dingwall, given the choice, for SPL football? Would our pitiful home attendances become even more embarrassing as our neighbours report weekly gates of 6,000+, and thrive to our detriment? Just a thought! :014:

Haven't really found the transfer activity particularly inspiring - however, we do have the makings of a decent team. I felt what we seemed to be lacking last season was leadership both on and off the park and I don't think we really recovered from the instability caused by losing a manager so early in the season. I wonder if Brewster has now been able to stamp his authority and mould the team into something approaching cohesion. Since we entered the SPL, I've been looking forward to the season where we start full of confidence, optimism and expectation, where a cup win or a European place is a realistic possibility. So far I'm still waiting, and I don't have any such optimism for the approaching season. Once again, survival will be the main aim and I think once again we'll be looking at 8th or 9th - pretty sure we'll survive another season, but no spectacular achievements. Just wondering if anyone has any greater expectations this season?

I agree with Scarlet Pimple!!!

The trouble is kids get bored awfully easily. They need to see goals and unfortunately they need to see big-name teams i.e Celtic and Rangers. I took my 9-year-old to the Falkirk game and he was bored to tears after about 20 minutes. Fortunately I didn't take him to yesterday's game, which lacked both of the aforementioned qualities. I just wish I'd taken him to the Gretna game. Taking young kids to see 0-0 draws or 1-0 scorelines against the likes of St. Mirren or Falkirk may not be the best way to indoctrinate them into the way of supporting their local team - in fact it may have quite the opposite effect. All kids are different of course, but I know I'm walking a fine line between encouraging mine to support the team and driving him away from it, having to carefully ration our joint visits to TCS. Having said that, he is keen on supporting the team and I think if I'm careful, he'll want to go more often when he's older. And he's got a healthy hatred of BOTH Celtic and Rangers, which is unusual in this north western corner!

Yes, I've often thought that these folk have a very poor view of proceedings from their "technical area".

Whoever our next manager should be, if he's any good he'll soon get snapped up by a bigger team. If he's pish we'll be able to hang onto him longer. Somewhere in between there might be a manager who can keep us in the lower quarter of the spl indefinitely - not good enough to attract the attention of a bigger team but good enough to keep us in the spl. Sounds familiar? But I really wish Charlie Christie had made the grade - couldn't see him ever leaving for a bigger team.

Yes, ideally Bristols should come in twos! :015:

:012: This is getting ridiculous!

We are in a much better position now than when Brew took over. Similarly, when he left last time, we were in a much better position than when he first joined us. Although I don't always agree with how he goes about his business, I am well aware that he is better qualified to manage a football team than I am. And indeed better qualified than everyone else who posts on this forum. I, personally, am prepared to give him a chance to prove himself and will not fall into the trap of baying for his departure before he's even fully settled into his job. And I would expect the club to have a similar view. He's gotta have a chance to prepare a team for his first full season in charge. Come January next year we'll be in a much better position to judge Brew the manager.

Perhaps I'm stating the obvious here, but a poll on an internet fans' forum is hardly likely to give an accurate cross-section of fans' opinions. The silent majority, unmoved by anti-Brew hysteria seem quite prepared to give him a chance. (according to a poll)

Say what you like about Brewster, but we're higher up the league table than we were when he joined us and I would suggest that he hasn't yet been given sufficient time to prove himself. If we're struggling come January then perhaps we can start calling for his resignation, but give the man a chance. Also I think those who have been given a mere 5 games to prove themselves have been made a pretty generous offer, especially those who have been pish since October!

Only the hard-core supporters will attend the remaining games - lowering the prices would only attract an insignificant number of new supporters. As a shareholder, I therefore applaud the club's decision to extract the maximum amount of cash from the few people who will attend the remaining games. :001:

Well I won't be there, and I'm pretty positive about that! It's a long journey to home games for me (even longer to away games) and I've been getting really pssed off mulling over our recent pss-poor performances over the 3-hour journey home. It's not a personal, one-man boycott or anything like that - I've just had enough for this season. Falkirk was the final straw. But I'll be back next season, full of positivity and hope. We never learn!