Scarlet Pimple

Judging by the fact that IHE is back to his jocular self ,subnmitting admittedly sometimes very amusing funny pictures and now showing a degree of moderation and self control that is unusually impressive, I think it is time for the Pimple to go back to sleep knowing that everything is now HUN-kydory.

Oh My ! IHE. Feel better dearie? These toys you just threw out are expensive. What a vicious attack upon a harmless Pimple. And so expressive. Surely to goodness that's not what you REALLY think is it? Just as well we don't all say what we think then isn't it? Phew! the very thought. Once the Independent Harmless Ejit but now getting into the Ill-tempered Hurtful Empty vessel bracket. Och! If poor Dougall is not attractive enough for you then I can only imagine that he's really happy about that? Goodness, the very thought? Man this is scary stuff. Now be nice and have a good sleep.

One green dot to IHE because I totally agree that the club is to blame largely for Proctor's woes. Why do they keep playing him in the defence when they could try him up front? I remember he was good up there when he first came here. Yet they seem to have a fetish over playing him where he does not seem to fit in. Keep it up and they will damge Proctor. It's not right

Watching the video of the game it seems to me that if Tade can get to the byline and drive that ball hard across the goalmouth he can cause possible havoc in the defence. Not so much high balls, because I think they could go anywhere, but the hard ball on the deck---one touch from a defender and it goes the wrong way into the net and the right touch from a Caley player and in it goes also. Whatever happens it can cause panic in their defence. The opposition will then have to put two defenders on him to cope with his pace and dangerous intentions and maybe he can get away with the same tactic by brute strength and maybe a penalty or two, too. Come to think of it, there is a slight resemblance to Desmond TuTu also.

IHE--what if Dougall believes what he wrote and that is actually his opinion? Surely he has the right to speak it bravely on here in public without us all tearing this young man to pieces every time he appears on here to express his viewpoint? ...give him a break, for goodness sake. Sometimes I wonder if I am listening to a pack of wolves surrounding a vulnerable victim, not fans of ICT willing to listen and understand that you and I, just like him, have to learn whats what over time. If you disagree with him, or me,then speak your piece so we can listen and learn from your views but please do it civilly and respect his right and my right to express what we think without vicious rancour erupting at the drop of a flipping hat. He's a human being and a fan so ease up on him and send him a PM if you are so upset by what he writes and have a personal exchange in private. In this instance there may even be a grain of truth in what Dougall says about Terry because , frankly, old habits die hard and Terry is indeed from the old school. Who are we to claim Dougall is stupid or wrong and none of us know Terry B so well that we can claim anything about whathe thinks is best for this team. Not me, for sure--- and I am 73 ---- Remember..."Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings comes forth words of wisdom."

Terry would probably be interested. He has ambition oozing out of him, wants to make a name for himself and is a tough nut(ter) to crack. If Rangers were to offer him the job the answer is from the question ..."would you take it?". You bet.

IHE You certainly have a good memory. Was Laurence not a prominent figure attracting either derision or disbelief several years ago with his pompous and know-it-all attitude? Wasn't he the guy who posted articles under a nom-de plume and hailed from Dingwall or thereabouts. Was that not in the era when you built HMS Sneck whose dry-docking was a sad end to an illustrious fighting ship's doughty career? Is there any chance we can revive HMS Sneck and get the same crew back on the deck? Captain Candour, alias IHE, will of course be at the helm on the fo'castlebut maybe he no longer has the energy to motivate the motley crew as he enters his dotage? C,mon Captain,an era of fun and frolic lies ahead of us all....

Translation...no one really knows what the position has to do with the actual decision. In or out of the box , up in the air or down on the ground? It's all going to happen at the ref's decision/discretion unless there is a lengthy rule which makes it even more absolutely un-clear.

I give a red dot to red dots. I thought we were trying to clean uip the negativity on this lovely site. ....Och! It never rains bit it pours.

Surely it doesn't matter where the tugging started . If the man does not go down after the pulling starts is it a foul? Only if the tugged player loses possession of the ball as a result or has a scoring chance denied him. If he does go down, the ref can't blow until he actually falls down and if that occurs inside the box the that is a penalty. Tentpole must look like Crouch of the EPL then? No one can be taller and thinner than him in British football..eh?

Tewrry Mo --good supportive post. It looks as if you may be a bit of a find yourself as a poster. Keep up the positive good work.

Wow. Looking brilliant. So colourful and slick. Love it Guys/

"Don't forget the diver"--the poor overseas chaps and chapesses who get nothing live.......

Just hope he is fit. Otherwise, that's great news. He is returning to a team that wants him and I hope that that is really meaningful to him. There is nothing like being needed and wanted. Isn't significance what we all want from life? Yes!

Based on the highlights only I must admit that ICT never seemed to be at the races. The ICT defense refused to get in a tackle, weak or crunching, and watching them going backwards instead of forwards was a real eye opener.If the defense is standing still what do you think is going to happen as the other team's forward comes towards you--is he going to stop and say "after you Claude"? In short Motherwell seemed to be given lots of space and time to run, maneuvre and get into a position where they could take shots. The overriding impression I got was of a bit of chaos, poor communication and a lack of leadership. Some of these players seemed totally confused and did not seem to understand where to go or position themselves and this resulted in groups of blue shirted lads all bunching in the same area. The lack of disciplined older , experienced players showed I fear. I also have concern about what appeared to be a lack of passion ! This is not a team made up of local lads and IMHO the bulk of the players don't feel the urgency that will be needed in the SPL. Hope they get the message and so doe sTerry. Why?---- Frankly ,they are just too young. I simply don't think you can build a solid house on shifting sand and the stability that would have been given to the team by the retention of some of the older players that Terry let go was absent. Is it a shambles? Well, we only have the highlights to view yet but he has his work cut out to get this team to gel so good luck Terry. Hope your big gamble can be achieved.

Hypothetically, yes! Glad to see IHE is back on track now. That staid stuff could get to be a habit. Ha! Ha!

Och! This is just one of IHE's trial BALLOONS. His post really was meant to read loyal and DERIGIBLE service not loyal and diligible service. And just look at the number of posters who bit?

I am getting seriously concerned about IHE --his posts on here recently have become solid, staid, and filled with too much undramatic common sense so what's going on here? The cloak of Regularism does not fit on this avid supporter very well, hides his true personality and I think he is entering either his dotage or is in some form of decline. Wheest!!! Anybody else as concerned as I am?

Tansey seems to be the ticket--why not play him in a centre-half role to see how versatile he actually could be, put Tokely in at right back temporarily until the new Swiss lad gets parked there and move Proctor right up field, say as an out and out right winger.Then tell him to run at the defences constantly to draw their defence out of the middle to allow Tade to also scare the pants off them by running at the defences in the middle. This will at least hopefully keep the ball in their half where it cant do any danger and maybe a lurking Hayes canthen do the business ? At least Proctor gets out of the cauldron where he should never be forced to play at all and has a chance to show his usefulness away from danger and we all remember the good work he did for ICT in the past instead of constantly berating the poor fella.....eh? So, I may not exactly be on the ball but ah'm tinking, ah'm tinking.

I agree with Manfer, let's getr off Proctor's case. He did well in the past and should not be playing ithe right back position anyway. Obviously. if he is not comfortable in that position then Terry should not surely be playing him there.

I have been watching football for a long time. The refs have always been the target of shouting and the fans' displeasure. Only rarely have I heard any fan shout out .."great decision, ref". ! I used to clap smart decisions by them but not too many people would ever do that as I recall, more's the pity. The above post is definitely a good one. We have to cut slack for these folks; although I do agree that at the current salary levels now mooted or agreed upon, they should become full time and undergo training and reviews on a regular basis, not to put them down or to reduce their confidence level but to strengthen their understanding and improve their performance. All aspects of this type of training should be fuly supported by all persons in the game., including players who often are the sole source of the troubles refs have to face by diving and initiating professional fouls . If we could stamp out the is type of action by players the game would be abetter to watch, anyway. Years ago, say around the 1960's, there were quite a few ref "characters" in the A Division of Scottish Football. One of these whom I will never forget was one, J R P Gordon of Newport on Tay, who was an extraordinary fellow. J R P made as many mistakes, some rather farcical,against the opposition as well as against the home team so all evened itself out at the end of the day. His physical style of dominating the game included not quite keeping up with thwe play and when he detected an infringement he would race at full tilt to the spot where the alleged offence occurred all the while with his body bent forward at a distinct angle and with his arm out at full length pointing to that spot. This made for stirring theatrics almost like his whistle was a bugel anf he was charging forward on horseback with the Light Brigade with his sword way out in front of him. Amusing as all this was nobody seemed to hate the guy; in fact you could not but like him because he was so human and of course it was palpably obvious that JRP was always doing HIS best to be fair.And the word "diving" had not yet entered the dictionary in these days. So, the bottom line is, IMHO, that if we are going to shout dog's abuse at refs then we must take some of the load off their shoulders about taking responsibility for all the decisions in these highly technical and emotion-charged days. i.e we MUST introduce video technology along the goalmouth lines, etc., so that he /she can consult the images or, as in North American ice hockey, let the judges make instantaneous judgements in the booth upstairs based on their review of the video on controversial incidents. For me , this is a no-brainer and why this has not yet been implementeed is astonishing.

Alex , you are a funny guy. Ha, Ha. Ha! The shirt is the only resemblance. Ha! Ha! Give me a green dot for my efforts. Ha!

Vancouver Whitecaps played Manchester City in the city two nights ago. It cost the club over $200,000 to LAY TURF ON TOP OF THE PLASTIC PITCH. There was torrential rain in the morning and afternoon and loads of chaps were out with squeegees pushing the water off the pitch as best they could. They did lay a tarp beneath the top turf but that only added to the moisture. However, the sun came out , there was about 25,000 folks came to the game and the atmosphere was great. Vancouver scored a bit of a flukey goal first and for long spells hadtcomplete possession of the ball. After half time, however, Man C started to get serious and a well-worked goal brought them even . Shaun Wright Phillips was the man of the match and won the game for them with electrifying runs and an absolute cracker of a goal from at least 33.2 yards that Jolly, our goalie, simply could not get to. Everybody had a ball but the visitors looked not quite fully fit and obviously saw this game as a warm up and nothing else.They are off to play L A Galaxy I think next.They had many first team players out at Empire Field and Vancouver also seems to have a lot of good players in reserve so maybe next year they will be much better. The weather here is the absolute opposite of what Toronto is experiencing --continuous cold and rainy every blinking day. Me bones are really aching with all this water which never seems to stop. Last week the mighty Fraser river was getting to alarming heights but has now subsided and we hopee the danger of flooding has passed. The depths of this river appear to vary quite a bit but in the areas where it is recorded its about twenty feet . A year ago at least, the salmon run was the biggest for years being over 20 million fish.The year before it was more like 4 million.The fish go out from their birthplace upstream into the Pacific ocean and come back to spawn at tehir original birthplace about every 4-5 years. The Adams river which I understand is a tributary of the Fraser way up in the North of B.C. has the largest salmon run in the world. At Steveston fishing village very close by there once was a salmon cannery which was the largest in the British Empire and probably in the world but the gradual decline in fish eventually took it's toll and now it is just a museum.