Huisdean

They are there as can be witnessed in the attendances for the bigger games such as Celtic, Aberdeen and County. The trick is getting these people along for games with hamilton, Kilmarnock etc. Don't know if the cllub has details of who these people are, and maybe the club do this now, but worth contacting these people with special offers, incentives to try and attract to more games?. Would 6 game season tickets, or something similar be an option to try?. Even Celtic Aberdeen and County crowds are going down. Less than 6000 at the Celtic game. A few year's ago that would have been over 7. but only looking for another 500 to make a significant impact on finances. The fans are there if we can somehow make it more attractive to attend.

They are there as can be witnessed in the attendances for the bigger games such as Celtic, Aberdeen and County. The trick is getting these people along for games with hamilton, Kilmarnock etc. Don't know if the cllub has details of who these people are, and maybe the club do this now, but worth contacting these people with special offers, incentives to try and attract to more games?. Would 6 game season tickets, or something similar be an option to try?.

There are a couple of issue here for me. The latesness of the decisions on which games to screen are the most annoying and frustrating for fans. Surely the SPFL and the broadcasters could come up with a better minimum period of notice for changing games which would then help fans plan better. This may also help the club sell local hospitality packages which must be a bit of a nightmare to do when kick off days and times change. This is another important source of revenue for us. With regard to TV in general, I think that with so many games on TV now, we have a generation who would rather watch a game on TV now than actually go to a game. Removing games from TV, which is never going to happen TBH, might result in a few more fans through the gates but not many. What would annoy me if some fans say they would rather watch the game on TV then they turn around and say it is too expensive to attend matches. It certainly is not if you compare witha few drinks in the pub. Bottonm line on gates, and I know I am way off topic, is that we need to try something, I don't have any brilliant ideas as yet, that encourages people who do not attnd currently or are irregular attenders to come along. Only then will be see gates increase.

Think the club should bank the money and wait a few days in case administration strkes again for Rangers!!

While I agree with you on these two games, point I was trying to make, and TBH, not very well, was that there should still be enough "locals" to attend the game and keep crowd numbers up. Then again, who knows how many of apathetic Invernessians will turn out for this game to boost the attendance. If we cannot get the "loacls" to turn out for these games then we are in trouble.

While I appreciate this impacts on supporters who travel from the central belt, surely there should be enough home supporters to not dent the crowd a huge deal or the atmosphere. When game was on a Friday night, it didn't impact on crowd or atmosphere and final Sunday game two years ago at Dingwall did not impact hugely on the crowd. The endless negative postings on this feed through to people who read this and have an impact on the crowd. Sure it would have been better to be on a Saturday but so say this will kill crown and atmosphere seems a bot OTT.

Or how about Poundland Stadium

I disagree. It may be more difficult to compete over a whole season but that doesn't mean we cannot compete. The defeatist attitude of many of the SPFL clubs in this matter makes iteven easier for Celtic to win the title by maybe 20/30 points. If every team had a go at them at home, difference may be closer than everyone thinks because, to be honest, Celtic are not a great team and have weaknesses especially in defence.

Couldn't agree more Hawkeye. He seems to take no time to think about things (the sign of a good referee)and flashes cards automatically. Dreadful dreadful referee but the majority on the list, who still are referees are not a huge lot better.

Hard to disagree with the majority of what has been already said. Only positives from me, over last season is that we did a much better job of closing down and harrying Dundee than we did last season (Draper was excellent at this last night) and that ball retention was a lot better than last season. Major concern is that we were very slow to support on the break at times so good breaks came to nothing as not enough players far enough up the field. Best moments came when Raven got forward and put in some decent crosses which strangely, in the first half especially Graham Shinnie seemed reluctant to do when he had the opportunities. Both full backs had plent of both space and the ball and I was surprised Dundee did little to stop that. To sum up, a bit betetr than last season but passing has to be sharper and quicker in the final third, the problem is that i don't think we are good enough to do that.

Are you seriously suggesting that if he said the things you mention, it would encourage more people to attend matches. In my opinion, the people of Inverness just do not want to come out in numbers to support the team each week. Even when we were plating really attractive football, scoring goals and at the top of the league at the start of last season, the crowds did not pick up. Unless people start coming along on a more regualr basis, we will have more seasons outwiith the top 6 than within down to purely financial issues that could be helped if more supporters came through the gates.

As has already been said, if we sign another striker, do we then go to play with 2 strikers. If so much easier to sign someone. If the striker is signed as cover for Billy, much more difficult to sign someone when all you can offer is to sit on the bench most weeks. If Fleetwood do sign Billy, then they will have to pay a fee which, hopefully, we can then spend on a new striker. Don't forget, we may already have the answer within the club (genuinely do not know if one of the existing players could take this role on) but Billy didn't exactly set the heather on fire in his first season and took time to find his feet. maybe that will be the case now for someone within the club if Billy does go.

I do find it hard to believe that if Doran was greatly overweight, the coaches would not have noticed and commented/taken action on this. I have not been to any pre season games from comments, he doesn't seem to be unfit. I agree with IHE that the problem with Doran is that he really could go to a higher level but whether he has the mindset to do it is another matter. Either way, glad we do have him as we are a better team with him than without him despite some of the postings on here.

Don't think Charles was referring to glory hunters in the same way you are IHE. For those of us who did support Thitle, as I did, and Caley, we all know that cup ties against the "big" teams attracted much bigger crowds than league games because of the novelty factor and the possibility of a genuine cup upset. These are the glory hunters I think Charles is referring to, not exiles who no longer live in Inverness and cannot attend games as a result. Towards the end of their existence, cup shocks were much fewer for Caley and Thistle although probably down to both of them having much poorer teams than previously. I well remember local Inverness derbies attracting well over our average gate of 3500 in the 60s and 70s but these days had long gone at the time of the merger.

if anyone has been to baseball games in the States, it is common to see vendors walking up and down the aisles selling food and beer, without any issues. Something could/should be trialled to see if it works and cuts out the half time stampede for food/drinks. The circus is a one off so probably an extreme but we sure could learn about marketing from the Americans. Dougal - if you want things to still be as they were 100 years ago, I politely suggest you stop using the internet.

I thought he died years ago !!

And you know this how?. If you are going to make statements like this, I think you need information/evidence to back this up.

Like most posters, I thought we played okay for most of the first half, passing was better and quicker with less time spent playing it across the back before going forward. Though Williams was a revelation at left back and displayed good skills. United sussed out the lack of height in our defence and sent on another tall forward at the start of the second half and then bombarded our penalty area with crosses and should have scored before they did although it certainly looked a foul on Brill from where I was sitting. The other thing about the second half was that we started to sit far too deep which invited United on to us although it does say something about how we played that most of there attempts were long balls/crosses with not a lot of football played. Overall, an improvement on previous weeks in what I thought was an entertaining game. if anyone didn't think it was an entertaining game, not sure what they really expect from a match. I was really disappointed at the gamesmanship displayed by Dundee Utd and not for the first time they have been here. Players going down at the slightest contact to win free kicks, conning the referee and even the keeper at the end who rolled about as if he head been almost decapitated until he found out there was no danger. It truly sickens me that some teams seem to have to do this. The referee certainly didn't help being conned on every occasions and making some bizarre decisions. I don't think we have had many breaks from referees at home all season. Anyway some encouragement for next week and roll on next season.

Rimet, It was obvious that Christie need to be substituted earlier as while he was good in the first half, he did fade badly in the second half and was guilty of losing possession too easily. That is not having a go at Christie but he is still learning as a footballer and the change needed to be made earlier. The same for Watkins who did fade badly as well and not for the first time this season in the second half. If you think Aaron Dorran contributed nothing in the match, you obviously were not watching the same game.

But isn't this part of the dilemma?. Some posters state that players seem to be playing to a very rigid sysytem instigated by Hughes ( I would argue that the players have to take some respomsibility for how things are going on the pitch, it cannot be all down to Hughes). When Christie and watkins came on against Motherwell , increase in tempo from us and better attacking play and similarly to when Watkins came on against St Mirren, there was an increase in tempo. Are Christie and Watkins being told to up the paceby Hughes or are they just playing the game the way they want to. Hughes must see this and what works/what doesn't so who is pulling the strings?.

If we are going to continue playing the way Hughes states in the P & J today, it has to be done much quicker than we are doing now and even Hughes sees that. We are so one paced in midfield. So if this is to work, playrs have to take some rssponsibilty and move the ball quicker, which would really be a help to the side or if players are not capable of doing this (which i suspect the majority are not), then the syle has to be changed to one that suits the players we have. Simple when you think about it.

Firstly, last night was a dreadful game from both isdes and Motherwell were no better than us, what that says about Scottish football god only knows. I will come to the style of play in a minute but yet again, our defence has gifted two goals, take away those and probably neither side had any shots of note in the box. While much of the critiscm on selection and tactics is rightly down to Hughes, the players do have to shoulder some of the responsibilty for this as well. They do not have to do everything the manager says when on the pitch and an example last night was Gary Warren especially dropping deep to get the ball fromm Esson, pass it across the park a few times then it goes back to Esson to hoof it up the park. That may be the managers tactics but surely the players can make their own decisions on the field. We were pretty poor defensively last night and have been generally for the past few weeks and there i a lack of form being shown by our defence just now. This may be down to tiredness with the number of games in a short space of time as, by and large, we have played the same team in these games. In short, we lack a leader on the park to sort things out as we do not appear to have one off the park at the moment. I have been, what may have been described as a "happy clapper" but I have to admit my patience snapped last night when it was obvious we were playing far too narrow. Any success we did get was when the full backs did get wide and get some decent balls into the box. The other thing that is obvious is the lack of pace in midfield especially when we are breaking. Very few players seem to bust a got to get forwward, whether that is down to tiredness again, I do not know but is very noticeable. The team as ever will get my support but I do not believe Hughes is stupid enough not to hear the alarm bells ringing about what is happening. The test will be whether he reacts for the rest of the season but if he wants to win those fans over, who didn't want him in the first place, then he has a big job on his hands. A win at Dingwall would be a start as was it only a few weeks ago, everyone was raving about our performance there.

After last nights display from some of them, he would be welcome to them!

For me, the team is basically running on empty in many positions just now. Mackay for one looks dead on his feet and maybe Meekings/Vincent as well. Again, it has to be remembered that several of these players are probably playing their first full season at this level and may now just be starting to struggle so giving them a rest and playing other players may ne necessity IHE, not giving up on the season. I thought the changes yesterday gave us more energy and pace in the team and we looked well worth the 2-1 lead. However, when Tansey went off, we definitely started to sit back, again is that due to tiredness, either mentally or physically, I don't know. Sending off did alter things although I thought Watkins did okay playing at centre forward and worth a try to give Billy a rest. For those moaning about having 2 wingers and not playing them, Watkins and Williams, lets be honest, neither of them have really set the heather on fire recently when given the chance so I think the suggestion that playing both of them would be beneficial us not proven by the evidence. I know I will be shot down in flames now but some posters but I think some of the postings just now are amongst the most negative I have seen on this site, and this is causing division amongst posters on the site. It seems to be that those posters who did not want Hughes are seeking any and every opportunity to be negative, that is their right, but this is not helping. Had anyone suggested the current scenario for ICT at the start of the season, Top 6 and reaching a cup final, we would all have grabbed that with both hands. Yes it has gone a bit pear shaped but let's not kid ourselves, we have been punching above our weight and it is now coming home to roost.