Bridge_Ender

Cheers L_G. Like I said in the post though, I don't believe individual complaints accomplish anything in these scenarios so I haven't bothered writing to Hibs. I wasn't ejected but I was threatened with arrest after our goal as I bumped into one of the Coppers who had filled the stairwell opposite us. Incredible... When I pointed out he was in a position he shouldn't really be in, that their being there surely contravened H&S and that I was quite sure celebrating a goal still wasn't a criminal offence, he backed down and ignored me for what was left of the match. I'm someone who tends to support the Police in a lot of situations as I can appreciate that they have an impossible task a lot of the time, but yesterdays performance really was indefensible stupidity and rule no.1 in how to create a situation from nothing.

It seems that everyone is in agreement that the ICT fans did very little to merit such attention from Lothian & Borders finest and G4S. I'm not sure how this would be taken further, or whether it would do any good, but it seems like the sort of issue that either the Supporters Club or Supporters Trust should be making comment on and requesting clarification from Hibs, at the very least, as to why these measures were taken and why supporters were treated so. Individual emails are easy to ignore but one from a supporters group surely has to be taken more seriously? It's becoming an all to regular occurrence and as others have agreed, is fast becoming an issue that stops people from attending matches. Is there anyone on here from either group that agrees their organisation should be backing up the ICT supporters who were ejected yesterday and would like to follow that up?

On the way home from todays game, a good point for us and an encouraging performance. However... The stewarding seemed very excessive today, for most of the time there was a mixture of over 20 Cops and stewards hanging around the small section, maybe 50/75 younger fans at the back of the stand. At the time I thought the reaction from the stewards was OTT as almost straight from kick off they were in and pulling people out for standing. Having the local polis up and blocking half the stairways didn't help and all in all it just seemed a bit daft. The unfortunate consequence was that the longer the hi viz presence remained, the more the fans played up to it, which didn't help the situation in the least. Just wonder what people thought of it today, whether the Polis/security overreacted and caused the young guys to play up a bit or whether the young guys should have just complied and done as told? For what it's worth, I didn't see anything that was really a problem and still can't understand why the Police were hanging around on the stairways. I'd go as far to say that episodes like today may well explain why a lot of fans are put off from going to games as it seems it is all too often this is how the authorities treat paying customers.

Esson has done nothing wrong and doesn't deserve to be dropped to give Tuffey a chance! As it stands Tuffey is an ex-First Division, untried SPL keeper. Not belittling his achievements, but he is an International player by virtue of being from a small country with a small professional player pool. He's got great potential and undoubted ability and I have every confidence he could/will be an excellent keeper for Caley, but Esson is the man with the jersey and deserves to keep it until he does something that merits losing it. Michael Fraser as a back up number two? No, thank you. Wasn't good enough the first time around, won't be good enough the second.

Nick is a player who is doing extremely well given his limited experience of top team football, especially SPL standard, and given his age you could say he is way ahead of where he perhaps would be expected to be in his development. If he continues to develop at the rate he has he'll prove to be tremendous player for us and the added bonus is he's contributing and pulling his weight at the same time! The folk who are slagging him off obviously know little about football and have forgotten that they once had to learn their trade too...

A few of us drove down from Inverness for the Scotland - Wales friendly in Cardiff last year. An easy enough drive, motorway all the way, the A9 is the only frustrating bit... Very impressed with the new ground, was a touch surreal wandering past the old ground though, what with it being right across the road with (I think) 2 stands still standing fully intact while the rest were in the process of being demolished! Kudos as well for putting the Jock Stein memorial plaque in such a prominent location, think a lot of the TA appreciated that. Cracking night out though, shame about the football...!

Didn't make the game but it's more than likely it's the same stewards who were at Den's last year too. Complete idiots who cause more problems than they solve with their attitudes, one even 'square go'd' me at the end of the 2nd game as I tried to point out that there were better ways of handling a well behaved crowd than being aggressive and threatening to throw people out... Sadly the Police have no direct authority as the stewards are employed by the club alone and the Police are there as a legal requirement. While they work together in a lot of situation, and often quite well at other venues, the Police can only advise the club if there are any issues. Excessive officiousness, unfortunately, isn't illegal so there is very little they can do. Like IHE said above, technically they are correct and can hide behind the rulebook, in reality they are just jobsworth numpties!

Wasn't at Tannadice today but I can well believe that Mantis, I reckon most fans outside of the Old Firm have that attitude to each other. During the game you want to win more than anything, before and after the football is in it's proper place and the banter pre and post match enjoyed in pubs across the country is proof to that. Having lived in Glasgow for a good few years now I feel I know how elements of Old Firm fans behave and it's for this reason I made the decision a few seasons back not to bother going to any ICT games at Ibrox or Parkhead. I don't enjoy the experience of visiting either ground and pay handsomely for the privilege of doing so, and is not what, for me anyway, going to the football should be about. Scottish football would be a far better and enjoyable place without them.

This might actually work out quite well for Gil. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt so far and think he's been a victim of trying too hard to impress in a team that's still finding it's feet while he is still very new to this level himself. A few enforced weeks out of contention then coming back into a more settled squad with defined roles and purpose may be exactly what he needs. Having said that, I'd love to see Roy getting a run in the side. He's still capable of playing that left midfield role, even if he doesn't offer as much going forward as Foran does.

We didn't turn up for the second half and even though we had all the ball in the first 30 or so, I don't really remember too many clear cut chances for us. Can't show what isn't there after all! As for bias etc, that always has and always will be the case for as long as more people in Scotland support either Rantic or Celgers than all the other clubs combined. Fact of Scottish football life I'm afraid!

A pretty scary report and any Falkirk fans reading it must be crossing everything and praying to every God that they can 'do a Caley' this season... I'd imagine the majority of SFL clubs don't even dream of reaching the SPL any more as they are struggling to operate at their own level. The only way I can see the professional game surviving in this country is for the SPL to expand to 16 sides. If you add Falkirk, Dundee, Dunfermline and one from Partick, County and Queen of the South to the SPL mix and you probably have all the clubs in Scotland who can realistically survive as full time operations.

An ICT legend who has always given 100% to the club and never been found wanting. True class.

It's really difficult to choose the best team. Should it be on footballing ability, in which case most of the stalwarts of the lower leagues wouldn't make it, or should it be contribution to the club?? Anyway, my effort is... Brown Tokely Dods Mann Hastings Bingham Cowie Rankin Robson Wyness Stewart Subs: Calder, McCaffrey, Black, Duncan, McBain, Foran, Dargo

Never played for ICT though did he? Played three times for Caledonian Thistle, accoridng to Wiki. Definitely remember him playing in one of the early league games. So technically not ICT but definitely part of the merged club ;)

I would be delighted if Mackay Steven ended up with us. He did really well at Liverpool and broke into the reserve side in only his second season there. From watching a few of the reserve and u-19 games on LFC TV a couple years back he looked a great prospect. Fast, direct, tricky winger who could play in the middle too if required although he probably doesn't have the physical presence for that in the SPL. Not sure about his injury history but he has got to be worth a years contract anyway from what I have seen of him in the past.

The 'moan inn

How can they convert the concourse into a bar and leave the servery where it is...? There isn't much space as it is. Are they going to cut the concourse in half? Or build an extension? Surely the bar isn't going to be a table opposite the servery with some optics hanging behind it!

At risk of going over old ground... TB isn't on these programs because he is the ICT Manager, he's on them because he's the ex-England and Rangers captain. He won't have the opportunity to start waxing lyrical about ICT and I'd imagine if he did he'd find the TV work would dry up as apart from a few thousand ICT fans, no one else is interested. The TV captions will always refer to the link he has with the event he is covering, i.e. Rangers (occasionally!) play Champions League football, he's the ex-Rangers captain, there is the relevance. Same with 'James Cordens WC Live' (what absolute brain damage that is, watched 10 minutes and had to give up) and his previous life as England captain. I'd imagine most people who watch and are interested will ask 'what's he doing these days anyway?' and go google him or whatever and find out that way. It can only be positive that TB is on the telly so much, even if he isn't banging the drum loudly it is still exposure for the club.

Was Juanjo really that great a player? Personally I don't think he was, fairly talented but nothing special. Given the choice between the Juanjo of 6 years ago or the Jonny Hayes of last season it would be Hayes every time for me. As for reasons to beat Celtic, the patronising programme notes from the Feb 8th '00 game wishing us a good visit to Glasgow, apart from a 'painful and humilliating' 90 minutes should be pinned to the dressing room wall before every game against the Plastic Paddies!

or how the exchange rates work and that the euro and sterling are two different currencies.... allegedly...

Nice one! Cheers for the heads up!

Reads like a bit of a non story during a slow time for football reporters to be honest. I'd imagine he was asked something along the lines of 'what effect will the failure of Dundee to achieve promotion have on budgets for next season' to which the obvious answer is a fair bit for the same reasons we'd prefer County in the SPL and by illustrating the point with a couple of extreme examples the reporter has been able to create a piece his editor wants... SPL prices are extremely painful though, the one thing about next season I'm really not looking forward to.

Queen Park at home according to the SFL website

And on one of the best weekends of the year weather wise?

Location wise I think the current site is as good as anywhere and better than most. What it does lack is surrounding facilities and having not seen any plans for the area I don't know if that will be improved or not. One thing to consider perhaps would be to move the gypsy camp to another location (preferably across the Kessock Bridge...) which would free up more land, perhaps for an all weather facility and other leisure facilities. Within the present TCS I think it would benefit from a partial redevelopment of the main stand, i.e. perhaps putting office/hospitality space above the wings with access into the main stand and the knock on benefit of a roof for those areas meaning the seats could be used more frequently or even as solely hospitality spaces. On the West side of the gound a structure of some sort would be welcome, although not knowing the proximity of the gas line to the back of the present perimeter wall and the subsequent impact on development space it is difficult to suggest anything more than a small stand encompassing TV facilities as well as a bar/restaurant for fans to mingle together pre-match. Capacity wise we don't need much more, if any more, than the present level.