Tichy_Blacks_Back

Although hugely disappointed with yesterday's result - apart from last season's 2-0 win at Falkirk if I am not correct we usually have poor starts to seasons. Tried to find the data that shows our first day results over the last 10 years but couldn't find it in new format but I am pretty sure down the seasons we have had poor opening games and in some seasons 3 or 4 game runs - I am sure someone can confirm this. At the end of the day although disappointing it is only one game so hopefully the players will learn from yesterday's game and we will see a much improved performance against Aberdeen. Still feel at least one new face at the club on the playing side would also help just to improve competition.

Following on from the Kirin Cup success :017: at least one of the home country FAs is having a successful summer :015:

Team squads that were announced to the press were: Inverness CT (from): Brown, Tokely, Dods, Rankin, McCaffrey, Golabek, Wilson, Duncan, Keogh, McBain, McAllister, Wyness, Bayne, Morgan, Parratt, Fraser, Kerr, Sutherland. St Mirren (from): Bullock, van Zanten, Broadfoot, Millen, McGowne, Potter, Murray, Lappin, Sutton, Kean, Burke, Brittain, Hinchcliffe, Brady, Corcoran, Maxwell, Reid, McGinty, Mehmet, Anderson, Balmer.

It appears he joined Reading as a trainee in April 2003 but although has been playing reserve football had only played one first team game (as a substitute against Watford) although he seems to have played twice for Tamworth when out on loan. Released in 2006. Has played for England U-16's, Scotland U-17's and Scotland U-19's

Classic interviewing - Herr Dung did take a while to work out that Walter was not really that happy with the question.... :clapping04:

Ja gut aber wer? ok then who performed the mixes - and don't say Mel Gibson and Andy Stewart :001:

The last track was a Cranberries mix what were the first two?

Ah Berriedale Braes - two student memories - Highland Regional Council and Jethro Tull - Broadsword and the Beast - oh how time has passed.... Sorry - hadn't thought about that for years - cheers CD :024:

Having now witnessed a full season of Bulgarian Football I thought it is time to produce a little travelogue. Sofia has four teams in the top league (i) Levksi (reached the last eight of the UEFA Cup this season) - known as the team of the people and have just picked up their 24th league title this season, (ii) CSKA - the old army team, (iii) Lokomotiv (what can I say apart from they play in Black and Red stripes), and (iv) Slavia (what can I say....). So to get the pain over with early I went to visit all 4 grounds in the first few weeks of the season. Although the grounds are like throw backs to the days when you watched British teams on the TV in the 1980s playing mid-week Euro Footie in large expansive stadia teams like Schalke 04 (Germany) etc have had these monoliths replaced with brand new state of the art stadia. None of this has reached Bulgaria as yet but there are plans afoot I believe for a new Levski Sofia stadium - we shall see. Also if any of the Sofia teams play anybody of a decent standing in European competitions they will probably switch the game to the National Stadium (Vassil Levski Stadium) as the CSKA v Liverpool game (Champions League) and the Levski games v Artmedia, Udinese, Schalke 04 (UEFA Cup) were last season. Levski Sofia Stadium - Georgi Asparoukhov Stadion (built in 1963) Capacity - 28150 Colours - All Blue (H) All Yellow (A) Sponsor - M-tel (large Bulgarian Mobile Telecoms Operator) Out of the four league stadia this is probably the best - at least the seats are fairly clean - interesting atmosphere when it is full - hard core fans are mad and known as the Ultra Blues - have a passion for blue flares and have an ability to throw them a very very long way as Barthez found out when Marseilles came to town for a UEFA Cup game. I must admit though other than Liverpool beating Alaves 5-4 that night was probably the best atmosphere at any UEFA Cup game I have ever been at (not sure whether UEFA would agree though). CSKA Sofia Stadium - Balgarska Armiya Stadion (built in 1951) Capacity - 22015 Colours - All Red (H) All Black (A) Sponsor - Vivatel (large Bulgarian Mobile Telecoms Operator) If there is such a thing here in Sofia they would be classed as my local team. There stadia is fairly close to the city centre a stone throw from the national stadium in one of the many parks. Played all their group matches in the UEFA Cup here and its interesting that only 2 to 3,000 turn up for a league game when the tickets range from £1 to £2 but the stadia is full for all European games where the tickets cost between £5 and £12. Also nearly left my fist ever game before full-time at this stadia. Just before the winter-break at a mid-week league game I experienced the coldest football match I have ever been to - only going for a walk around the stand for the 2nd half generated enough heat to keep the early signs of Hypothermia at bay. Hard really to describe how cold it was but the monkeys had all scarpered by the time the full-time whistle blew. Lokomotiv Sofia Stadium - Lokomotiv Stadion (built in 1985) Capacity - 22000 Colours - Red and Black Stripes (H) Sponsor - Delta G (????) Club assocaited with the Railway. Must say although it looks the best of the stadia on all photographs I had seen in reality it was something else. Many of the seats were encrusted in about two inches of bird droppings (not bad for an area with a worry about Bird Flu) and it looks like somebody has stolen large parts of the outside of the stadium (i.e it had been looted). Considering it is only just over 20 years old it has not fared well. Depeche Mode are playing there in June - that should be interesting.... Oh and some worrying Swastikas and other such like memorabilia worn by their Ultra support. Slavia Sofia Stadium - Slavia Stadion (built in 1932) Capacity - 18000 or 32000 (depends who you believe) Colours - All White (H) Sponsor - None on strip Known as the 'White Pride' this is the most relaxing ground to watch football in on a Saturday afternoon when the sun is out mostly because the crowds are so small and it it feels more like a cricket ground than a football ground. League Levski won the league for the 24th time after being 5 points behind CSKA at the winter break so will be in the Champions League next season. Most of the league was played with only 15 teams as Pirin Blagoevgrad were expelled after 2 games for fininacial irregulatities and lost their licence. Both the Levski v CSKA derbies were played at the National Stadium as they do too much damage to each other's stadia. Bulgarian Cup Final - CSKA Sofia V Cherno More Well I thought I had seen it all but I recently have just been to the Bulgarian Cup Final. I spent my 3 Lev (£1) and went along with a few mates and went to sit in the sun to watch what should have been a nice relaxing day of football as there were only about 7,000 in a stadium that holds 44,000. CSKA went 3-0 up by half-time and after losing the last two cup finals their fans obviously got bored and a full scale battle ensued with the releasing of about 5,000 CSKA fans from their caged area who ran the length of the stadium to get at the 100 or so Cherno more fans (you have never seen so many stewards just dissapear). It was like the days of Luton all over again. The good old riot police were called in and after a small delay order was restored and the game was played to a finish. It was one of the hottest days that I have ever watched a football match and the 2nd half was pretty pedestrian. A far cry from the sub-zero temperatures experienced at the CSKA stadium a few metres away only a few months previously. Europe Next Season Levski Sofia - Champion's League CSKA Sofia - UEFA Cup Litex Lovech - UEFA Cup Lokomotiv Sofia - UEFA Cup Lokomotiv 1936 Plovdiv - Inter-Toto Cup (2nd Round) Having said all that the experience was a good one and I am looking forward to the World Cup, the new Bulgarian season starting on the 5th August and the Euro 2008 qualifiers against Romania :017: .

The latest odds for next season's SPL championship are: Celtic 4/5 Rangers 6/5 Hearts 9/1 Hibs 150/1 Aberdeen 250/1 Kilmarnock 250/1 ICT 750/1 Motherwell 750/1 Dundee United 1000/1 St.Mirren 2000/1 Falkirk 2500/1 Dunfermline 5000/1 So it would seem that Dunfermline have been chosen as the bookies favourites for relegation for next season. Only two years ago we were in that position as strong favourites for relegation. Very interesting that the bookies still think Hibs are the top of the bunch outwith the current BIG 3. So to reflect the bookies new found confidence in ICT lets hope most of the team remains intact for next season and that one or two new faces arrive before the start of the season and we can get off to another good start as traditionally that has not been our strong point. I personally would like to see the club make the top 6 next season (or at least be still challenging for it come the split) but I still believe the main aim is consolidation so that the club is given the stable footing it requires to move onto the next level. All in all not bad for the first 12 years - at times it has been like watching a child grow up. Let's hope it is lucky 13 - ON ON. :021:

Info above is from a French footie site. Details on Wikipedia also - type in Intertoto Cup 2006 and same info but with flags :001: the UEFA site is poor

Dungannon in Inter-toto Cup :001: Latest draw - with final 11 winners qualifying: 3eme tour : 15/16 juillet 2006 - 22 juillet 2006 1 US Palermo (ITA) B 2 Atromitos FC (GRE) A 3 Villarreal CF (ESP) C 4 D E 5 F KAA Gent (BEL) 6 Olympique Marseille (FRA) G 7 Hertha Berlin (GER) J 8 H I 9 Newcastle Utd (ENG) M 10 N FC Twente (NED) 11 L K 2eme tour : 1/2 juillet 2006 - 8/9 juillet 2006 A HUN Kayserispor (TUR) B MKD - ROM BUL C Zeta Golubovci (SCG) SLO - St Julia AND D Maccabi Petah Tikva (ISR) Zrinjski Mostar BIH - MLT E NK Osijek (CRO) CYP - Partizani Tirana ALB F GC Zürich (SUI) FK Teplice (TCH) G SVK - CS Grevenmacher LUX Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (UKR) H SV Ried (AUT) Kilikia Yerevan ARM - GEO I AZE - FC Tiraspol MDA Amica Wronki (POL) J FK Moscou (RUS) Shakhtyor Karaganda KAZ - Ripo Minsk BLR K Hibernian FC (SCO) Daugavpils LAT - Torshavn FAR L OB Odense (DEN) Vetra LTU - Shelbourne IRL M Lillestrom SK (NOR) Keflavik ISL - Dungannon NIR N Tampere FIN - Carmarthen Town WAL Trans Narva EST - Kalmar SWE 1er tour : 17/18 juin 2006 - 24/25 juin 2006 1 MKD ROM 2 SLO St Julia (AND) 3 CYP Partizani Tirana (ALB) 4 Zrinjski Mostar (BIH) MLT 5 Kilikia Yerevan (ARM) GEO 6 Shakhtyor Karaganda (KAZ) Ripo Minsk (BLR) 7 SVK CS Grevenmacher (LUX) 8 AZE FC Tiraspol (MDA) 9 Keflavik IBK (ISL) Dungannon Swifts (NIR) 10 Dinaburg Daugavpils (LAT) HB Torshavn (FAR) 11 Tampere Utd (FIN) Carmarthen Town (WAL) 12 Trans Narva (EST) Kalmar FF (SWE) 13 Vetra Vilnius (LTU) Shelbourne (IRL)

Skills similar to that of Jeff Skilling (ENRON)?

Yeh - pretty unlucky - should be a good bet for the title next season though

Partick win on pens again 4-2 PAUL RITCHIE with the WINNER

Until the new format there was even a trophy for the winning teams

Quite a weekend for pens :001:

Penalties then :017:

Nice touch :003: HIBS will give 7500 season ticket holders a free ticket for the Easter Road club's first InterToto Cup match. Fans had been promised that if they bought season tickets before May 7 they'd receive a ticket for a pre-season match. And with the InterToto Cup likely to provide Tony Mowbray's side with their preparations for the new season, the club have decided to fulfil that obligation by giving free tickets for their opening match of the competition on July 1. As yet Hibs don't know who their opposition will be, the draw having paired them with opposition from either the Faroe Islands or Latvia, the representatives from those countries most likely to be TB Torshavn and Dinaburg Daugavpils respectively.

Oh dear - 1-2 Partick (90th minute)

Cerro Pontero Home Kit 05/06

They weren't showing the Scottish Cup Final here so watched the Pool West Ham game. It was a cracker but with the World Cup coming up I was amazed how many of the players suffered from cramp. I know it was a hard game (non-stop really) but the weather can be pretty warm in Southern Germany and after a hard season (especially those at the bigger clubs in England) then some of the players may well suffer further - as well at the start of next season. I suppose though they can have the benefit of looking at all the 1,000's in their bank accounts and feel a little better.... :015:

Good luck to the Blue Toon - hopefully see County v Peterhead on the SFL1 fixture list next season :003:

Oh and PS the total number of people who came through the turnstiles last season was 99,346 (91,000 of those for SPL games) just 654 short of the big 100,000. Hopefully we will better that next season.

Looking at attendances for last season and whether we need additional seating etc Home games last season = 22 SPL Games = 18 Scottish Cup Games = 2 CIS Cup Games = 2 Highest Attendance = 7,512 v Rangers (SPL - 0-1 - Saturday 6th August 2005) Lowest Attendance = 917 v Alloa Athletic (CIS Cup - 6-1 Wednesday 24th August 2005) Highest SPL Attendance = 7,512 v Rangers (0-1 - Saturday 6th August 2005) Lowest SPL Attendance = 3,121 v Falkirk (2-0 - Wednesday 3rd May 2006) Our average gates were: ALL GAMES (2005-2006) = 4,516 SPL GAMES = 5,061 SPL GAMES - OF = 4,588 SPL games with attendances: >7,000 = 4 (Rangers(2), Celtic and Aberdeen) 6,000 - 7,000 = 3 (Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen) 5,000 - 6,000 = 1 (Hearts) 4,000 - 5,000 = 2 (Kilmarnock and Motherwell) 3,000 - 4,000 = 8 (Falkirk(2), Dundee utd(2), Livingston, Motherwell, Dunfermline Ath and Kilmarnock) Therefore last season there was 4 occasions where we could have done with addditional capacity to house more fans. Is this enough to justify the expenditure on additional seating? There is no doubt something needs to be done about the wings on the main stand but I would far prefer a low cost stand on the far side first even if it is only a few rows deep. In my opinion there is no need for a new structure to run the whole length of the pitch but the first Phase of it can be either side of the centre line with additional segments added when the monies are available. As previously said we have construction experts at the club and I am sure they are doing the same cost analysis and will decide on the best way forward but irrespective of crowds etc in my opinion a football ground needs fans on all sides.