RiG

We are in the Chadwick stand behind the goals. IIRC I recall the last time we were there this happened...

Update from Killie - away tickets on sale (online) from 12pm today.

Kilmarnock still waiting on East (?) Ayrshire Council to get their finger out and confirm the crowd capacities for the game on Saturday.

If that's true not too much of a surprise. These temporary stands with a lifespan of 10 years (IIRC) are now 16 (?) years old. Also, Ayr fans are fat b@st@rds.

Yeah by the end of recording I had remembered who it was but it was cut out to see if anyone would venture a guess

Cor - another feature packed podcast for you! We take a look back at the games so far, look ahead to some of our upcoming matches, interview Ryan Esson, Billy Mckay and Kilmarnock fan Craig Anderson from The Terrace Podcast, discuss the role of the Fans Group, announce the winner of the signed Danny MacKay strip and there's another competition giveaway as well with the chance to win a match worn Scott Allardice shirt! Phew! Available from all the usual podcasty places (Apple, Google, Spotify etc). Enjoy!

We've got Ayr next week with Killie the week after. Given the ongoing easing of restrictions there really shouldn't be any reason not to have an area allocated for an away support

Do you have Spotify @Kingsmills? If so I've popped a link to the episode below but happy to send a link direct to the website for the episode as well. Hope you like it!

I haven't used the streaming option but from what I've heard the quality is much better and justifies the price increase. We sit just above the mid point for streaming charges in the Championship from what I can tell. Of course don't forget that streaming of games is a stop gap. Clubs probably don't want fans at home long term. They want them down at the stadiums spending more money on strips in the club shop, in hospitality and so on. Pricing a stream so that it detrimentally affects your home crowd on match day is not a good idea.

Thanks, appreciate the response. Anything that improves communication between the club and fans is good and hopefully it will allow for more effective collection of thoughts and opinions from supporters to funnel through a single point of contact to the club to respond (perhaps through their own dedicated SPoC as well). Fingers crossed it goes well.

There isn't a legislative requirement, as far as I can see, that requires the wearing of face coverings outdoors. Regulation 5 of The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 states that face coverings must be worn by "a person who enters or remains indoors within a place listed in regulation 6" (my emphasis) and sports stadiums are mentioned in this regulation (6(1)cc). Therefore, you only have to wear a face covering if you were to go indoors in a sports stadium i.e. into the toilets or into the "body" of the main stand (if that was even possible) as these would be considered being indoors. Trying to justify that the main, north or south stands are "indoors" is a hard push but of course clubs can go above and beyond the legislation if they so wish but there is no legislative requirement for them to make supporters wear face coverings in outdoor seating or standing areas of the stadium. However if the club make it a condition of entry then that's another thing.

The first home league game of the season is here and we face Raith Rovers who are perennial losers in Inverness but for how much longer? Much is made of our excellent record against the Fife side but records are meant to be broken and they looked a very tidy team last season and they will surely be one of our main challengers for the playoff spots this campaign as well. Of course they will have a familiar face in their ranks in the shape of James Keatings. Other players to keep an eye out for include Lewis Vaughan who missed a good chunk of last season but he has returned to form in a big way bagging four goals in the five or six games he has played so far whilst Aidan Connolly and Dario Zannatta looked like tricky customers in the wide areas against Hamilton in the 4 - 4 draw at Starks Park. So whilst the Raith defence looks rotten their attacking players will be a big threat on Saturday. Information on streaming is available here - https://ictfc.com/ictv-info-raith-rovers-h But the big question is will we be able to buy a pie on Saturday?

As mentioned above by @jamie ictfc there are meant to be other "avenues" for communications between the fans and the club but these seem, at least on the face of it, to be underutilised. I was wondering if therefore the Fans Group replaces these previously underutilised avenues or is another channel between the club and supporters? Obviously any communication is welcomed but we haven't had much of that in the past but hopefully that changes.

Forgive my ignorance is this a replacement for / extension of / addition to the ICT ST?

Ignored.

We're already selling tickets for away fans in Section K and L (IIRC) of the South Stand. Sadly, and possibly to be expected, our season ticket numbers seem to have dropped off the face of a cliff again with last season further affecting numbers.

As mentioned above Arbroath have confirmed that the opening league fixture can be attended by home and away fans.

Must be a new record on CTO to write off the manager and new signings after *checks notes* four games...

Richie Foran is the only ICT manager who has successfully navigated the group stages of the League Cup. We succumbed to Alloa in the first knock out stage.

Fail to beat Hearts tomorrow (or at the very least draw and win the penalty shoot out for the bonus point) and we will achieve our lowest points total for the group stage since the format was changed.

There's your striker in.

With apologies for the double post but that defending for the opening goal is awful. For me it all starts with Harper being sat too far behind Deas and Broadfoot covering McIntosh coming off the right flank. Harper tries to pass him on to Broadfoot and moves out to half heartedly close down Fyvie (which he doesn't need to do as Doran and Allardice could get there quicker) whilst Deas is occupied by a run forward from Megginson, who initially dropped off the front line to receive a short pass pulling Deas out from the back, and then angles his run in behind Harper pulling Deas away from the middle and McIntosh positions himself in between the now massive gap between our two CBs neither of whom can recover in time to block the shot.

Cove put highlights up yesterday by the way. Parental discretion advised.

Alarming comment to make that there has been no work done with the back four. Maybe COVID has had something to do with that I don't know but it's somewhat concerning that after a good few weeks we have, based on this, done nothing to get the defence organised.

That was grim. Despite a first half that was arguably quite even in terms of chances created as soon as Cove were two goals up the game was over. Duku and Sutherland both passed up decent chances for us with Duku perhaps missing the best opportunity when he rounded the keeper and decided to take about 74 touches in the box before having a shot. Neil and Draper looked quite suspect at times. Unfortunately for us our entire defence looked even worse with Broadfoot and Deas really struggle to understand where one another was. Duffy looked incredibly rusty at RB and was continuously beaten by Leitch down the Cove left side whilst Harper, although reasonable enough getting forward, is a little suspect defensively for me. Wonderful opening goal for the home side. nice little dinked ball over the top of the ICT defence and McIntosh sent a superb curled effort beyond Ridgers into the net. Barely a moment later Cove had a second. Another ball over the top found Megginson and he easily beat Ridgers for number two. With this the game was pretty much over as we struggled to get anything going in the second half. Walsh had the best chance when Duku sped past a Cove defender and cut the ball back from the bye line but Walsh saw his effort blocked and then cleared off the line. Cove's third goal looked, from the opposite end of the pitch, a little similar to the chance Walsh had missed. Bursting run into the box, ball cut back and Yule finished well to wrap things up. Although a penalty from Duku saw us get on the scoresheet it did nothing to mask a pretty desperate performance. I don't particularly care about going out of the League Cup, we have been dreadful in it since this new format was introduced, but I am bothered about the poor performances against Stirling and Cove Rangers. The latter had nothing to play for, only had 14 fit players available and were absolute toilet for their first three games yet they cigared past us no problems. I'm also worried that there were evident problems on the pitch which Dodds did nothing to address. The players still seem to be adjusting tot his 442 / 4411 setup Dodds is trying to implement. Last night we were outnumbered in midfield and struggled in the centre of the pitch for long periods yet nothing was done to change it which was a concern. When we did look threatening it was when we had the ball on the deck and were passing it around but too often we were sending high balls up towards Duku and Sutherland who struggled to control them under pressure from Draper and Neil. It was evident this wasn't working yet it seemed to be our main way to "attack". We need to improve and quickly.