Scarlet Pimple

Do-able! And hopefully a good pay day for the club.

One win proves nothing. Complacency should not be allowed to enter the door. But if the win means the boys are tuning in to JH's philosophy and all of them are now on the same page then that is topping, dream topping. The big question is : how good or bad are Hamilton? I mean,is the transition to the Premier League now a severe challenge or is it just opening nerves from Hammy and they need time to tighten up and adjust. OR : Is Caley Thistle now a far stronger team than we had previously thought?

Very poor and disappointing crowd. The transition from the lower league to the Premier Division might prove to be a real challenge to Hammy. They look like a good, solid-looking team though so maybe they will get it all together. Good competition is important to get the best reactions from teams so we wish them well. Good win for us to instill and re-inforce confidence in our team.

I very much doubt that JH is deliberately not trying to find Billy a proper partner, Dougall., There is no logic in that --it's like cutting your nose off to spite your face. If Billy does not up the ante and score more goals soon then his value will dip, I think, but right now Fleetwood's offer is very speculative and obviously what they consider only to be an opening bid, nothing else. However, it is rather stupid and insulting and, for Mr. Cameron, I would warrant he is not enraptured by what effectively is a rather pathetic opening bid and must have depressed his evaluation of Fleetwood as a really professional outfit. They are, after all, only a 3rd division outfit, basic nobodies actually.

whee!

Well, not everyone is a happy clapper just because they favour the positive viewpoints rather than the negative ones which usually end up irritating or depressing us standard balanced folks, The jolly Joes in raincoats having reserved personalities and possessing reserved judgements no doubt are , in the eyes of the critics, also happy clappers but why any fan at all should be objected to because he claps his hands and are happy is a complete mystery to me. Are we all supposed to be miserable until the Great non-happy clapper Chief gives a signal ...? The old saying ''Oh,wid the guid lord the gift tae gie us tae see oorselves as ithers see us"springs to mind as something the non-happy clappers and negative criticisers could ponder over.

JH needs to get the message that the average fan shows up for entertainment and excitement. Some also show up to watch very pleasing, fast, skilled moves. That means attacking footbal no matter which way you slice it . And playing tippy tappy football in our own box, as some fans say is happening more and more, would not appear to me to be exciting unless you are willing to risk a heart attack to get your jollies!. Let's say both teams come out of the tunnel dead set on attacking then thrills and spills will almost certainly result, regardless of the outcome, and the average fan will leave the stadium going.."phew that was some game, man, I am sure glad I came today. Show business is entertainment ! That means variety and energy.

Show-business moguls say ..."there is no such thing as bad publicity, whether it's good or bad, it's all keeping the spotlight on us." Without the black to contrast it, you can't see the white ! Fair people use their own judgment and try to find the balance. If you obliterated this website for 6 month then all overseas members would wither and die on the vine. How dare you make such a suggestion . Even old fogies and emigrants need their footie to avoid losing touch with reality in a world basically about to implode....

I hope Yogi sees the situation through very accurately-focussing glasses. The team needs a strong, determined front runner both as a foil to Billy and to take some of the pressure off him so that he, Billy, remains sharp and hungry for goals. If Billy feels complacent,he(Yogi)needs a deputy dawg to scare him out of it and if he is left to plough a lone furrow how long will it be before he again runs himself ragged? Billy seems to me from afar to be an opportunist rather than a hard-working forager? Thoughts?

Why don't you meet the guys off the train Muka1? You will be the most feted fan in town when your team comes back up North one day! The cops will have to hold back the crowds at Inverness station, begorra! Oh by the way, ...Laurence, if you are now 71 is it not time to change yer photie on yer Avatar, like.? I can send you a pair of pipes and slippers to just set the tone of a devoted ICT fan frae elsewhere. entering those fun-filled sunny days of your dotage......eh?

Good shot though, Bughtmaster? Now that Butcher is no longer the favorite target IHE will be out looking for the Narcissist S.P. for sure --now observed girding his loins I front of the mirror, prepping for the imminent assault Have a nice day you-all...

And Barry did a good job at the Vancouver Whitecaps, basically showed how to do it in midfield and came close to getting goals on more than one occasion. But , back at the ranch, if what you are saying is that Doran showed up for pre-season training not in excellent shape, that's a basic no-no....and it's disappointing, because unless he pays attention to this then as he grows older his career will start to stumble. Comments?

Sometimes these guys are dynamic, IHE. Like...the first atomic bomb that was dropped in anger in Japan--wasn't that called Little Fatboy or something? And he was something else when he was naked and shirtless wasn't he?

Well, sound good. But I have the feeling that Birmingham on their own turf will be a bit of a handful. They are a step up from Fleetwood and if ICT are wiling to work very hard and keep the defence tight then a good result might be there. Looking forward to hearing what J H will say in his after the match interview.

If changes every single season are required to keep the money rolling in then we are in trouble because it means that the fans are still not trundling through the turnstiles to keep the club alive, functioning with energy and building the rainy-day funds. Of the three tops shown I Iike all of them but those in the two heavy red accents would look a lot better if they were narrow stripes instead of block ones ,IMHO. When a color is used as an accent, especially when it is a color of energy and vibrancy (red) it is better to use it strictly as an accent for the club colours, namely blue and not as a predominant one competing for a place in the scheme of things against the ICT blue. You can see the neat contrast on the dark coloured strip except for the fact that there are, IMHO, still too many red stripes. Cutting down on the number will make this away kit look very classy indeed. Just a thought or two.

Bughtmaster...''Billy has his shoting boots on? Perhaps you really mean he had a wee shottie before the match to jildey himself up. Just kidding of course.

12th man--that's a realty old and wise saying but Mantis is a highly educated man and my joining this august site was entirely his fault. But even if he is only half my age he should still address me with a capital P in deference to good social criteria and my exalted age. After all, a pimple with a small "p" is all red, round and looks like Mt. St Helens just down the road in Washington State, U.S.A., a few years ago just before she decided to blow out one of her sides and devastated half the State causing many deaths as well. Now would old Scarlet do a thing like that? I drove the boy round on his paper route because when he came over here from Ukraine he had to spend more time on his lessons and attending ESL classes (English as a Second Language) because he soon realised that using sign language alone often gave the wrong impression. e.g in Ukraine putting the finger up might mean "I would like to answer that Miss." whereas here it might mean something completely different.... ..... especially if the knuckles were pointed outwards. A lad in his young teens in a foreign land and unable to understand the lingo faces many challenges and all members of the Pimple clan are taught at birth "Never fail to help a lame dog over a style." Now, of course, he speaks better English than most and entirely without any accent and, if asked to speak Russian, he would have a bit of a problem whilst the brain switched gears. He has only one fault..he's not interested in football too much..SIGH!

Scotland is doing better than Canada. Population of Scotland is what?---5-6 million now? The population of Canada is about 35 million!.

Aye. Pride comes before a fall--not suggesting too much but just hoping that the team does not take this match too lightly. These Brummie guys have been to Wembley......! And the pictures of them show what looks like a young and fit squad.

Yep! Some years ago when my wife's son came over to this area we decided to get him a paper round. He was just a young teenager and he worked very hard whilst I drove him and his papers round the doors.. It's a tough job in all weathers and the kids are paid a pittance. Here , in British Columbia, the law is that any worker must be paid a minimum wage. For example, when the min. wage was 8.50 per hour the paper people were paying him about $3.50 or something. which for this job is close to slave labour. So I got onto them and told them thay had better pay him properly or else. Finally he quit and I had to demand the back pay which they were glad to cough up since few if any parents complain and that is why they get away with it. Parents probably really don't know what a slog it is in all weathers and some kids don't even have fathers who drive them around. But this is the Wild West, chums, and it's only the squeaky wheel that gets the oil . Some people, the former Mayor of this city, Maple Ridge, once told me in a rather heated argument over trains blowing their Klaxin horns in the early hours (sounded like a battalion of the Ghurka's passing through and waking everybody up.) that "it's people like you that have convinced me not to run again in the next election:." ........ Ha! Ha! Did he quit? not a chance, Gordie liked the limelight and the fat paycheck too much. And the trains no longer blow their 10,000 decibel horns as they pass through..Whee! Grrrrr! then co mplied!

Big G--interesting if cryptic comment. Do you mean he must have had lots of time off as a youngster to practice his early skills?

I felt Ferguson did well in the preseason games I've seen on our Utube channel. Could be a hard working star in the team's future. When Canada didn't qualify for the world cup naturally there was a loss of interest her in Vancouver. A recent article in the local paper by a local pundit expresses the view that Canadian soccer has quite a long way to go to catch up to the rest of the world as far as training of youngers at a very early age is concerned, general training facilities and preparation. According to him there is simply no depth at the moment. Comment was made that the Germans are light years ahead of us and most other teams, in terms of their preparation for this world cup, when every single possibility was apparently considered to ensure they were totally prepared for any eventuality occurring that might either undermine their chances-- or enhance them.

What we have to remember is also that Butcher's stock had sunk very low at the club (lost the dressing room etc.) that retaining his services as Manager was hardly an option. If they did not foresee such a slide in the club , and his fortunes, then management must take a large part of the blame for ignoring this possibility and drafting terms in the contract to cover such an eventuality such as his early failure and demise. It's likely that a negotiated settlement will result because we are sure that Terry Butcher is unlikely to want to be very difficult about sticking to the very letter of his contract since he failed and doing so might hurt his future chances of another management post. He's a talker so maybe the best bet for him is to find a position on T.V. I don't think his prospects of another management job are rosy in the near future, though.

As I watched Messi's face as he mounted the stairs and moved along in front of the top brass not only did he seem disinterested but also disenchanted....almost sullen and disgruntled that he had not been part of a winning team. At least he could have surely, as a matter of manners, put on a brave face with at least a weak smile. I agree with all the above remarks about him. In fact in the finaI I watched him intently and he never made a move to tackle or dispossess players just stood off and looked at them. In short, I agree his contribution was generally speaking in the Final very poor . Where was the inspiration and leadership to his teammates and fighting spirit there?

Ah, but Mantis, if they can't prise the ball off the opposing players regardless of their speed they will stilll have to hang back ...in case.