Scotty

P&J paywall - yes indeed, a pain in the posterior !!! I used to work for Canada's biggest newspaper and paid content did not work for them, and even the NY Times is struggling with theirs which was heavily promoted alongside the iPad, heck the News of the World also put one in and we all know what happened to them too !!!! Not sure how it will work for a small regional newspaper with limited appeal but I suspect their website pageviews will decline significantly and it will hit their bottom line with digital subscriptions not making up the shortfall. Already unsubscribed from my morning newsletter from them as I cant read more than a paragraph of each story and we will probably remove their RSS feed from our main site as the articles it links to are worthless without a digital subscription ..... Twitter is great ... was not convinced at the start of twitter but our @ICTOnline account (and our Facebook page) all get automatic updates every time we publish a story on the main site and this not only drives traffic to this site but puts CTO out there in the social networks too. The club does have a twitter account @ICTFC which we set up for them along with a Facebook page and the same logic is going to apply there. All website stories will be automatically published to Twitter and Facebook and other content will be added to both as and when the opportunity arises. This would hopefully include all of the uses mentioned above as well as commercial opportunities (sponsorship, hospitality offers, perhaps even some competitions). The account is quiet right now (no tweets) but when the new website launches it should all be good to go. The club are listening to the fans in terms of what they want to see from them online and with the directors and the management team onside and pulling in the same direction in terms of wanting to make the online portion of the business a success, I think people will be pleasantly surprised at the things that may happen this year.

I am cautiously optimistic !!!!! Someone asked on another thread whether we had played the ball on the deck or resorted to hoofing it against YT .... the answer came back that we had played some very nice passing football ....... (after going a goal down) I have always maintained that ICT are at their best when playing attractive passing football as opposed to the route 1 stuff. We have always had a smattering of skillful players (sometimes more than a smattering) and in every single division we have been in, I would argue that our best performances came when we kept it on the deck and played a passing game that involved slow or patient build-ups and good interplay between defence, midfield and attack. The decision to dump Grant (a 'hoofer') and Russell (a battler but with sub-standard passing at times) may not have been popular, and I personally would still have kept them at the club, but along with the re-signing of a player like Doran, it all points to an emphasis on passing and for that reason I think that we will surprise a few people this season. My only concern, and it is one echoed by quite a few on here, is that we dont really seem strong in defence .... YET. However, I have faith in TB/MM .... the signing of Doran was "off the radar" and he had nothing to prove by coming on trial so hopefully he also has defensive targets and like the rest of the signings is playing his cards close to his chest until the deal is done or almost done ........

finally updated this. can confirm Doran is a signing and not a loan.

yeah, i really should update this page !!!! will try to do it later.

very positive news. agree about strengthening the defence but other than that the new squad is shaping up nicely.

that is pretty spectacular ! funnily enough, there is a big push this year in Toronto to "support local football" and go along to the TFC Academy games which are usually held at a small stadium about a mile or so away from the main stadium sometime after the main game has finished ..... I havent been to one yet but friends who do go tell me that they really enjoy it .... They bring a carry-out, flags (they had at the TFC game), and flares and pyro which they dont get hassled about in that small stadium but which would see them get ejected from BMO field if they lit them there ..... Its maybe only a couple of hundred fans, but supposedly (according to Danny Dichio -- the coach) the kids love the attention/support it is bringing. Dont think it is quite to that Polish level yet though !!! wow.

Automatically generated message This topic has been closed by a moderator. Reason: there is nothing more to discuss really ..... believe whichever set of comments you like but it is no longer an "ICT" topic ! If you disagree with this action, please report this post, and the moderator team will review it.

Spoke with the club on this today and the comments passed along to me from Duncan Shearer were as follows: going to close this thread now as I think Big Dunc has basically provided the epilogue.

updated. cheers. definitely got Shane's shirt covered now .... onwards to Gavin's training kit and then Rossco's boots :)

yup not sure why it was embargoed, it makes no sense at all, but that's the SPL for you !

If he is indeed injured, then I think the clue may be in the response .... "It?s a small calf strain but it?s going to rule him out of action for a few weeks ....... He?s now got to go away and get some rehab because it could develop into a chronic problem" The simple fact of the matter is that we cannot afford to have a player signed who may be out for an extended period of time before a ball is even kicked ... our budget (or lack of it) will not allow that.

It is a Firth (ie. an inlet of the Sea) rather than a loch, but other than that I do agree with you MrCaleyjag ... St Andrews is also a good example of a course with extremely wide fairways but due to clever placement of hazards such as bunkers, streams and rough ... and even buildings they make the most of the course.

naughty SKY TV ... the SPL embargoed the kick-off information until Monday morning, but yes, we can confirm that the press release from the club stated it would be a 12:45PM kick-off on August 13th and as noted, tickets went on sale today for priority groups.

Up until about a month ago Kevin McCann was still an ICT player according to ICTFC.co.uk so wouldnt be my first port of call to check. As previously stated on numerous occasions, the player info and stats on the official site are taken care of by a third party via the website provider. They are frequently inaccurate and almost always not up to date. This is currently being addressed and should be sorted in about 11 days and 23 hours time !

confirmed as paid, now showing as such on first post

The coverage I saw was a mixture of Golf Channel guys and .... Dougie Donnelly !!! Donnelly was fairly talking up the course and the area so fair play to him, but a few of them mentioned the perceived simplicity of the course due to a lack of rough, wide fairways, and the short par 4s, especially on the first day when there was very little wind. Although Dougie did also try to play that down by mentioning that "normal" people could actually play and enjoy it without having to have the pinpoint accuracy of a pro (just about the time every pro was going wide to the right and behind hoardings on a particular hole - cant remember which one). I think the whole principle of a links course is that the pros expect to be battered by sea winds coming in and that the actual course itself can be simple. The combination of clever hole design, pin placement and the elements are what sets it apart. Take the wind out of that and it becomes a little too easy for a pro. Here's hoping this new course adjusts a few things for next year's competition and maybe even toughens the course up a few weeks before the competition by letting some rough grass grow, maybe adding a few hazards at the typical pro driving distances and more clever pin placement.

Tickets go on sale on Monday to priority groups (season ticket holders, members of Supporters Club, Trust and Centenary Club) and I believe the kick-off time will be confirmed at that time.

I cant remember where I saw this - think it was SPL site but cannot find it now - but I think Aberdeen have won "SPL Programme of the Year" every season for quite a few years ....

I have actually set my PVR to record todays coverage on the golf channel ...... not so much to watch the golf itself, but to get a look at the course and to hear what the commentators are saying about it and the area ...... It was kinda nice to pull up the programme listing on my cable box this morning and see the description say : "Live coverage of the Scottish Open Golf Tournament from Castle Stuart, Inverness, Scotland"

Buy a cheap cabinet from the DIY/Furniture shop with a nice glass door and some internal lighting and display them and any other memorabilia you might have in it ..... thats what I do with my ICT and TFC stuff that I have in our basement (my "man cave" as it were)..... it looks pretty good. I also persuaded the missus to let me put up a 'shadow box' on the wall containing my signed (actual) first-team shirt from the Feb8-2000 game and surround it with a few other bits in other (smaller) frames - my program from that game, my ticket from that game, a couple of other tickets from Hearts cup game at Tynie as well as Hampden tickets ... and another big frame with the "SuperCaleyGoBallistic...." headline from the paper and a poster from the Feb8 game ..... looks good.

shame you got to gloat before he went to the car .... he probably came back with a dodgy box instead of a good one !!!!

congrats to the Paulibee family

Ok folks ... just bumping this topic to make sure everyone remembers it !!!! Assuming the 10 unpaid users stump up, it is 5 more memberships required to meet our first target (Shane's home shirt) and although we are confident that we will meet this target as we have yet to get the Innes Bar customers who are not site members, CTO will cover any shortfall should it not happen. After that it will be a further 12 memberships to meet our second target (Gavin's training kit) and 12 more after that to get to Tokely's boots ! so the target is 29 ..... can we do it before the start of the season?