RiG

Seems to be a lot of chat on Twitter. That's the only "source" at present. Selling the guy to County is bad enough but I had hoped for more than £100,000.

Because I don't like the idea of the competitiveness of the Highland League being diluted for us to develop our younger players. I would be furious if we found ourselves in a position where we were playing Rangers B in League One and I can't imagine ICT would be too happy at that either especially if it prevented them from getting promoted.

Disappointing result for us obviously. United didn't seem to threaten much unless it was on the back of an error by our defence, and there was a few of them, or a long ball over the top for McMullan to chase. He gave Elsdon a torrid time. We looked really shaky at the back throughout the game best exemplified by our poor defending for the United goal. Instead of booting the ball into touch Elsdon dallied on the touchline and McMullan nipped in and sprinted for goal. After a few ricochets in the box McMullan seized on the loose ball and a lunging Mckay challenge brought him down after he had dinked the ball over the ICT defender. A clear penalty and a stupid challenge to make. Easily converted by the United player. After that United sat in for long periods challenging us to break them down whilst looking to hit on the break. Their best chance to grab a second game when another mix up in the ICT defence let in Stanton (I think) but with Ridgers sprawled on the ground and an open goal to aim for he lifted a shot over the bar. Before and after this ICT dominated without ever really making Lewis work hard. We had plenty of "half chances" but our final ball or shot was lacking in any real quality. Whislt it was good to see us match United for long spells it was disappointing to see how little we created. As others have noted it's a similar story to the League Cup games we have witnessed so far. Interesting to see Robbo abandon the 4-4-2 he had used for the League Cup games and go with a 4-1-4-1, Vigurs playing in front of the defence and Baird on the right. Some folk seem to be saying Polworth was playing on the wing. Didn't seem that way to me. Worth persevering for another game or two perhaps but maybe not with Baird in that slightly withdrawn role on the right side. Vigurs and Calder were our best players until the latter was wiped out by Toshney in the second half.

Anyone who genuinely thought we wouldn't sell him to County was kidding themselves. If the right offer comes in for the guy of course we would be letting him go, even if Fon Williams and Raven had moved on. That said, £100k is the least I would be wanting to get for the guy but we're not exactly adept at transfer negotiations.

Ridgers Seedorf Mckay Warren Calder Vigurs Mulraney Draper Polworth Cooper Baird

Odd that the Danny MacDonald announcement was made by email and on the club site but nothing on the Twitter account. Is Twitter banned pending the "formal investigation" ( ) into the smutty video issue?

It was cancelled as everyone was heading to Belladrum.

Foran for Hearts!

I suspect caleyboy isn't going to like this...

Quickly tallied it up: Cathro W5 D4 L13, 19 points from his 22 games. Foran W4 D8 L10, 20 points from the same 22 game period. Wow!

The club is still tweeting about other things though it was just the match against Forfar that wasn't covered for some reason. Seems bizarre not to have some kind of update from the game.

Seems to be some Twitter chat that Vigurs was getting some abuse off some fans yesterday and he responded with the wanker sign. No idea how true this is as the account that mentioned it has a propensity for almost seismic shifts in opinions and details about incidents so it might be worth taking with a pinch of salt.

This surely has to come to a climax soon?

I had mentioned this on P & B and a poster there said that apparently Ross was wanting to try his hand abroad. Has this been mentioned in the local press?

Being held to ransom by Buckie Thistle. Jesus wept.

For those that think time is up for Raven is the same not true of Warren who had an even poorer season last year? I don't think Raven would get back in at RB. Seedorf has impressed there but what about playing him (Raven) on the left and move Calder further forward? Chalmers hasn't looked great on the few times I've seen him and Clader has looked iffy defensively but reasonable getting forward to play crosses in.

Is the Victorian Market not pushed as some kind of tourist attraction to some degree? If so, and I am probably imaging it, a wee shop in there could be an idea. Last time I went through the place there was a load of empty units although I seem to recall folk saying the rents are quite high in there. It would certainly tick the "location" box anyway and you wouldn't need to take a massive one (oo er) on.

The whole team will do sadly. It's not just personnel who have changed but our formation and style of football have been altered as well. You could see players weren't quite on the same wavelength at times on Saturday with passes being played in the opposite direction of where a player was running. It's going to take a while for them to click together. The sooner they do the better obviously.

I'd need to look again at more recent figures but the last time we were relegated we lost almost 1,000 fans from the average attendance. Obviously a fair chunk of this will be smaller away supports but there will also be a fair reduction in home support this season as well. I think our average crowd was maybe around 3,500 last season? If we can keep it around 3,000 this season we'll be doing very well indeed.

Getting a sense of deja vu here...

That post from Chris covers a lot of the main points from last night. Completely agree that Calder and Chalmers should swap if they are both playing down the left flank again. For a while Chalmers was playing on the right side of midfield last night and looked pretty ineffective. When he switched back to the left he looked strong defensively but struggled to really get any crosses into the box when attacking. Calder looked like much more of an attacking threat when he went down the left side but was lazy at times when trying to get back to defend. Polworth will be hung out to dry if he continues to be played as a wide midfielder. Hopefully another wide player is being targeted along with an attacking central midfielder to try and provide us with a bit of spark in the final third (so many clichés). We struggled to break down the Albion defence last night with most of our chances coming from long balls forward. A Ryan Christie or Andrew Shinnie type player would have been extremely useful. Even a Doran type figure behind the strikers if not wide to relieve Polworth. Zschusschen did okay but missed an easy chance when Baird cut the ball back from him and he somehow skewed a shot wide from about 6 yards. Hopefully with some game time he will get up to speed. Seedorf did well for most of the game and Vigurs also impressed but wasn't necessarily anything extraordinary. Draper looked increasingly lost as the game wore on. The penalties were probably the highlight of the game simply due to how awful they were.

Might be worth remembering that Brechin played this game without 5 or 6 first team regulars. A solid win no doubt with some good performances but I suspect we'll be facing a very different Brechin side in the future. Mulraney looked a real threat and hopefully he can have a storming season for us. Strange to see us playing 4-4-2 after so many seasons of, well, not. Didn't realise Baird was so small.

According to this piece in the Courier another player has been told that they are free to go. http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/Sport/Football/Caley-Thistle-add-Joe-Chalmers-as-John-Robertson-warns-suitors-off-Ross-Draper-13072017.htm Seems to be a fair few rumours around that Raven is set to leave so perhaps it's him.