Huisdean

John Hughes fell into the trap that he thought he was a better manager than he actually was. You can see this trend at Hibs and Falkirk when he managed there and thought he could do no wrong but was proven, in the end, to be not as good as he thought. After we won the cup, we then started the next season without a recognised forward and he failed to sort that issue out. Sure we had injuries but a managers job is to manage when things are both good and bad but Hughes vision was that he needed money, and lots of it to improve things with no Plan B when he obviously knew we could not provide this. Don't any of the Hughes supporters posting think it strange that if he is as good as they and he thinks, that he is no longer managing. Hughes's solution to everything, when things went wrong was that he needed more money.

Sad to say, we have had a nasty element amongst some of our younger supporters for a couple of seasons. I have seen some of them challenge away fans to fight, use disgusting language and generally behave badly. I have challenged them, and bear in mind I was wearing a club scarf and baseball cap so they knew I was an ICT supporter, and was threatened by them. Upon telling them to basically go away or else I would literally take them apart, they backed off showing what cowards they are. We have also seen fighting at Elgin and damage done to Brechin's ground by some of our younger so called fans who, when banned by the club, had posters on here saying that was harsh. At some point, these so called supporters have to be made of an example of and a true deterrent set. Just banning them for a season is, in my opinion, unlikely to cut it with these morons.

We deal with it by the defence doing their job correctly and the defensive midfielders providing support when required. We have no need to fear Ayr and need to put them under pressure to see how they cope with us.

Crowd was around 4500. If only we could get gates like that on a regular basis, what a difference that would make to our finances. Great result though.

Lots of places to park in and around the longman with a 10 minute walk to the stadium at most. I always park in the Longman and do this to avoid any car park issues at the ground.

Are new memberships available now and if so, how do you apply?. Thanks.

As I have said many times before, the biggest investor we could have would be 1000 extra fans each week but they will just not attend, or regularly at least. In the long term, this makes the task of getting promoted much harder for us than some other teams in this league with greater support. Over to you fellow Invernessians.

Well said Johndo, some posters really do need to take a reality check on this situation

At least 3, if not 4 of these teams have larger average attendances than us. If ours were at the same level, then perhaps not all of the financial savings would be needed. The spend of some of these clubs, especially Dundee Utd is not sustainable long term if they do not get promotion. As I have said before, an extra 1000 fans at each home game would make a huge difference financially. Bottom line is club cannot spend money it doesn't have although many fans appear to want to do this.

And often the chance of balanced debate as well.

Agree with the first paragraph but not your second. Jake did not show consistency, and he had plenty chances to do this so he is culpable as well in the club letting him go. Had he played, as he showed he can on a very few occasions, more frequently, he would have proved to be irreplaceable to the club but the plain fact is he did not. Your second sentence seems to allude to the fact that he was treated badly by the club, care to elaborate further?

But what you are trying to do is give previous boards credit for the good stuff while ignoring the bad and, it seems, trying to indicate the current board are much poorer than previous boards. The current board have had to deal with a lot of issues arising from mistakes/decisions from previous boards who have now long gone but have significant impacts on the club as it currently stands. While they perhaps should have been more aware of some of these issues, they didn't cause the majority of these (stand rentals, player/manager contracts etc.). We have all enjoyed the good times at the club but a more reasoned view of previous boards, and this board ultimately is required by some.

There is no room for sentimentality on this. Would Warren be a first choice pick for me next season, no he would not. If he is happy to be a squad player then fine as the club is not forcing him out as he will still be paid and used if he does not find another club. The ball is therefore in Warren's court as to what he wants to do. I agree with Doofers Dad that he has not been the same since his leg break and he has not been the same player since then. I also think the loss of Josh Meekings has highlighted how good a partnership they were as separately, they have not been as good players. I would also dispute that Warren is a good captain, I don't think he is and that shows on the field. Vigurs was a better captain in my opinion and with him gone, I would make Tremarco captain.

And, it could be argued left the club in an appalling position both financially and on the field through their mismanagement in our relegation season. To suggest that the board were as hugely influential in this as you suggest is nonsense. The board, over several seasons, did not show they were capable of building on the good times and moving the club forward.

True but if the league is as competitive as everyone hopes, then if we get off to a good start, hopefully this will lead to increased attendances negating some of the financial pressures. Not holding my breath on that though as it is quite likely Utd, County, Falkirk, Dunfermline and Partick will all have bigger attendances than us which is really sad. If Inverness truly wants a team at this or a higher level then they need to start showing support.

No he wasn't and that goal against Hibs was the only thing of note from him in his time here. He would not survive 10 minutes in the Championship. Why do some people want us to keep looking backwards to sign players?

While I knew of this relationship several weeks ago, your comment on nepotism seems a bit harsh at the moment. Give the lady a chance to see how she does, if she fails to perform then your criticism may be justified.

Nor a "dedicated follower of fashion"

Why is this scaremongering when both statements have already been made?. Everybody knows finances will be tighter next season not helped by poor crowd numbers this season especially if they continue into next.

Don't agree entirely with this. Sure the board does have to have a plan, financially, for the club but given the huge variable that is the fans who turn up week to week, that is difficult. We all know we need more fans to attend each week but nobody has worked out how to do this. The board cannot make people attend, and it is unrealistic to expect them to continue using their own money to subsidise the club unlike over the bridge. Where however the board need to do some work is improving fan engagement/involvement as only by doing that can we have any attempt to grow our fan base. Fans need to play their part too as do we, as fans, need to look at a community owned club in future as the way forward?

The reality is that 2 more wins, over the course of the season and we would be in the play offs, such is the slim margins in this league. Agree that no stand out team in the league, including St. Mirren, but this is a difficult league to get out of, just ask Hibs, Rangers and Dundee Utd. Some fans would have us believe we would either challenge strongly for the title or make the play offs easily but that was never going to happen with all the pre season turmoil. Even when we won the league before with Butcher, we had a slow start but our winning run then started, earlier than this season, which got us promotion. Maybe we have found our true level at the moment until we can regroup both on and off the field as the consequences of spending money we didn't have over the last few seasons have come home to roost. The other thing that works against us hugely is our attendances which have been truly awful this season. Falkirk, St Mirren, Dunfermline and Dundee Utd all have greater attendances than us and until we can solve that issue, if it can be solved at all, then we will continue to struggle financially. An extra 500 fans a week next season could make a huge difference to the club's finances.

Very harsh and not accurate, in my opinion anyway. We hardly had a board to start with at the beginning of the season, late managerial appointment left little time to get squad in place. Most of the recruitment, given the time constraints, has been okay and no football manager will get it correct 100% of the time. An increase in season ticket prices, as long as not excessive, cannot surely be seen as a negative or exploiting fans if it keeps the club solvent and helps recruit players. Obviously not everything in the garden is rosy at the moment but the constant negativity, dare I say cynicism of some of your posts doesn't help. Cue happy clapper insults.

Probably Doofers Dad's post sums things up best for yesterday. Dunfermline were there for the taking and had Daniel McKay taken his chance, which nine times out of 10 he will, we would all be much happier today. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Some posters are alluding to rumours about players leaving and not being able to maintain the squad which would be hugely unfortunate if that were to happen. However, we found players who, while taking a while to settle, came on in leaps and bounds so who is to say JR cannot do the same next season with more time to do so. The worry is the financial situation, again, I have no insight into this, but this is where we, as fans, can help by renewing our season tickets, turning up to games in increased numbers to try and mitigate the financial impact. Finally, I have to comment on the refereeing yet again. Finnie was astonishingly poor yesterday along with the stand side linesman. The inconsistency of Finnie, where he would give some fouls and ignore similar ones was really poor. The fact that both he and the linesman missed clear shirt pulls on Oakley and Polworth on numerous occasions, shouldn't say missed as they must have been seen but just not given, was just pure incompetence. As the game wore on , the number of soft or non fouls given to Dunfermline increased leading to the possibility of them scoring and that was what happened. Ref didn't score the goal but certainly gave Dunfermline a helping hand as if the foul that led to their goal was given, why weren't the shirt pulls on Oakley and Polworth?. That isn't paranoia, just fact. Even our bookings today were incredibly soft compared to other incidents in the game. I am not saying Finnie was biased, just totally incompetent and not for the first time. I have also read today that Hamilton were denied a stonewall penalty against Partick and the referee stated that he hadn't given a penalty as the Hamilton players didn't seem to appeal enough. If that is true, it just sums up the dreadful state of refereeing in Scotland.

Maybe as a 96th minute sub

Having just watched the highlights, they have confirmed what I thought at the time. Second St Mirren penalty was not a penalty and referee, in my opinion, saw the St Mirren player fall and guessed he was pushed. There seems to be a trend of referees guessing decisions these days, and not just at this level. I find that incredible as they cannot give a decision unless 100% sure. What would help is if refs would come out and say this after games but by not speaking, they just compound the poor decisions they have made. The foul that led to the second St Mirren goal was certainly never a foul as the player clearly dived ( I was right in line with this in the main stand and thought this at the time). Why a foul can be given for this, and a booking, when the tackle on Doran went unpunished is beyond me. No doubt refs will complain that they cannot win but they need to understand that a lack of consistency in decision making harms their cause more than anything else.