RiG

Do we know how long Meekings is out for?

I've long felt that we don't really go for the jugular under Hughes for reasons discussed at length elsewhere (slow build up, prefer to pass than shoot etc.) Using the BBC Sport information as a proxy here are the number of shots on target for each domestic game this season: Motherwell (L) - 0 Saint Johnstone (D) - 3 Partick (D) - 3 Celtic (L) - 5 Dundee (D) - 4 Hamilton (L) - 4 Hearts (W) - 5 Dundee United (D) - 3 Livi (W) - 6 Aberdeen (W) - 5 Ross County (W) - 4 Killie (L) - 2 Saint Johnstone (L) - 2 Ross County (L) - 4 Dundee (D) - 3 Motherwell (W) - 4 Partick (L) - 1 Celtic (L) - 2 Kilmarnock (W) - 3 Dundee United (D) - 4 Aberdeen (D) - 4 Hamilton (W) - 7 Ross County (W) - 4 Stirling (D) - 2 Average of 3.5 shots on target per game. Pretty much every match where we have had more than our (current) average shots on target per game we have won the match bar a couple of fixtures. Anything below that we have tended not to take anything from the game. Not exactly rocket science but if we don't shot, we don't score and don't win games. Really need to improve in the final third to create some more chances for the likes of Storey.

Stokes apparently going to reject a loan move to ICT: https://www.sundaypost.com/sport/football/scottish-premiership/celtic-striker-anthony-stokes-set-to-knock-back-plans-for-inverness-loan-move/ No direct quotes though.

Tends to be the case when the only wide player is your main striker who should be in the box trying to feed off these crosses. When it wasn't Storey actually crossing the ball he was often forced out wide and linked with Raven and was therefore quite out of position. We desperately need a Doran type player in the team right now to provide for Storey.

Praying that we are after some kind of wide midfielder / winger with a creative spark and some pace.

Very poor from ICT. Our lack of creatvivity when attacking, especially down the flanks, was laid bare today and Hughes needs to look at this. Players like Doran and Watkins are missed badly from our current line up which is set up very narrow and quite sluggish to say the least. Far too many times it was Storey who was taking the ball out wide and had no one to cross for or link up with. Fisher didn't do an awful lot when he came on but he will offer something a bit different for us. A striker that looked more like he would be useful in the air rather than another nippy forward like Storey. Stirling were superb defending our rather toothless attacks and coped easily with pretty much everything we tried. In the second half things opened up a wee bit more and Stirling were unlucky not to grab a goal and we had a couple of reasonable chances as well. Can't argue with a draw. Would the replay be a candidate for Sky?

ICT Twitter account has just said that we have signed Alex Fisher until the end of the season with an option for another year. EDIT: And he's available to play in the game today.

Source? Not doubting you but it would be good to know where this has been reported. EDIT: On the STV website - http://sport.stv.tv/football/clubs/inverness/1338256-inverness-ct-boss-confirms-loan-approach-for-celtics-anthony-stokes/

The Hootsman article is just a rehash of the Daily Mail piece. Again, no quotes other than those from Hughes months ago saying that Stokes was a good lad or something like that.

Not a single quote in that article suggests we are making a move. You've got to love journalists some times.

I bet the kids and Ayeseetee go in for free and he makes Mrs Ayeseetee pay £20

Fon Williams required treatment for an injury in the second half which accounted for a lot of that time.

Contact the club to get a refund on the tickets and make sure you get reimbursed for the £2 Royal Mail 'fine'.

Any chance of getting Harry Gows in as a sponsor?

Of course not but it's a tournament that if you go out in the early stages most fans will simply shrug their shoulders and get on with things. Until you get to the latter stages most fans don't give a damn about it.

Seems the most logical place for this post rather than creating a new thread: http://spfl.co.uk/news/article/latest-live-tv-games-announced-3/ Our game v Hearts on 30th January (brought forward to replace the Saint Johnstone fixture which was postponed due to their League Cup S/F appearance) has been changed to a 12:30 kick off. Additionally, our game v Aberdeen on 13th February has now been shifted to 15th February for a 19:45 kick off.

Caley Nod and myself had the same predicament however we were able to get a couple of celebratory drinks in before dashing to Edinburgh to see the MSP. Only missed the first song as well. Good stuff. I think it might have made a good game for TV but the Hearts v Aberdeen match was an obvious choice and with both Celtic and 'Rangers' almost always going to be picked up by Sky it's not much of a surprise that we aren't on the telly. Hopefully the 3pm kick off time will encourage a lot of folk to get down for it. Only a couple of hours on the train from Inverness so it's not exactly a mammoth journey.

Story in the Inverness Courier here: http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/Sport/Football/Caley-Thistle-to-have-new-sponsors-for-2016-17-season-08122015.htm I hadn't realised that we have had Subway as our sponsor for two seasons already. Anyone know how much this new deal is worth to the club?

Ah, I see. It will be interesting to see how the regionalisation of the teams works. Given how few teams are in our 'area' of the country I wonder how much variation in opponents we will get which I think is key for this kind of competition which has normally tended to see similar fixtures thrown up a lot. Look at the recent game v Ross county. A chance to get into the Semi Final of the League Cup final, a derby match and little over 3,000 folk turned up. I guess we will end up pooled with the Tayside and Angus teams.

Fairly on the the fence with this one. Not averse to changing things around but I would prefer to do away with the 'regionalisation'. This would be a good chance to see ICT (for example) playing some teams that we don't often get to face but instead we are likely to be paired up with Ross County (for even more derbies which have long since lost a lot of their appeal), Aberdeen and the Dundee sides. All a bit boring really. Potentially playing the likes of Peterhead, Elgin or Brora would be quite good but I think part of the beauty of any Cup competition is that you could face just about anyone. I think 'fixing' who you can and can't face detracts from that. I also think that having all the games in such close proximity to one another will reduce crowds at a time when a lot of people are on holiday and shelling out for so many games in a short space of time will put people off. And from a selfish point of view, because of the 'regionalisation' of the competition it's unlikely I'll be able to get to most of the games being down south which is a shame especially if we ended up playing a side which is somewhat more 'unique' than most. Excluding the European qualifiers from the tournament until the latter stages is odd too. They need match practice to get up to speed but all the other teams in Scotland will be tied up in this competition in July so no one will be free for friendlies so they'll need to look further afield for matches to get up to match fitness. Getting BT Sport on board is good, however I note again that the SPFL decline to say how much the deal is worth, and I quite like the penalty shoot out after a draw at the end of a game. I'm intrigued by the proposals but certainly not jumping up and down with excitement.

Game is off. Waterlogged pitch.

A clear sign that Hughes intends to release the entire squad.

Cringing at these comments. Can we get one of these guys for Hughes? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or8UhztOSH4