Scotty

From the SPL Website: For ICT this would mean the SPL expect us to finish in the bottom 6 along with St Johnstone, St Mirren, Hamilton, Aberdeen, & Killie. That would give us an expected final 5 (in no particular order) of STJ - A STM - H HAM - A ABE - A KIL - H From the SPL's own 'fixturing golden rules' document ..... the following also applies Each Club should play 3 home matches and 2 away matches or vice versa Where possible each Club should play a total of 19 home fixtures and 19 away fixtures during the Season Where possible and subject to seeding each Club should play the other 5 Clubs in its section such as to ensure that 2 home matches and 2 away matches have been played against these other 5 Clubs No Club should finish the Season with 2 home matches or 2 away matches

1835: Chelsea and Liverpool have agreed a fee for Fernando Torres and the player is now awaiting a medical, BBC understands.

That is a great bit of advice, especially to some of our newer (or younger) posters who get goaded into having a bit of a rant or explosion by those on the wind-up ...

Player profile now up: http://stats.caleythistleonline.com/player.php?id=191

Seems Rio Ferdinand is not happy at no longer being the most expensive transfer in the EPL !!!

The dates for games after the split were announced long ago .... but the reality is that it wont be until the split is upon us that the league decide the make-up of games and the TV companies then decide which ones will be moved for TV. Dates as follows: 23/04/2011 - 15:00 (SAT) 30/04/2011 - 15:00 (SAT) 07/05/2011 - 15:00 (SAT) 11/05/2011 - 19:45 (WED) 14/05/2011 - 15:00 (SAT) As ICT have 17 home games before the split then you should expect only 2 home games after it but that will depend on which half of the table we are in and who is in it with us. The league sometimes give clubs 20-18 or 18-20 if they cannot get a 19-19 split and aim to average it out at 38-38 over two years. By the split we will have played the following teams H/A as indicated and should expect the final fixture against each team to be as shown .... ABE - 2xH, 1xA (A expected) CEL - 2xH, 1xA (A expected) DUN - 1xH, 2xA (H expected) HAM - 2xH, 1xA (A expected) HEA - 2xH, 1xA (A expected) HIB - 1xH, 2xA (H expected) KIL - 1xH, 2xA (H expected) MOT - 2xH, 1xA (A expected) RAN - 1xH, 2X1 (H expected) STJ - 2xH, 1xA (A expected) STM - 1xH, 2xA (H expected)

I used to get worried or take it personally when folk slagged this site off. After all, it has been my 'baby' for the last 16? years. However, over time I realised we cannot be everything to everybody so focused my attention on those who spend a lot of time here and that is far more satisfying. We must be doing something right to be in our 17th year of being the main ICT forum on the web, and one of the longest running Football forums around. Whether you like P&B or not, the same has to be said for them. They are likely the busiest football forum in Scotland and outside of "Big Soccer" which covers the globe, probably one of the biggest/busiest around. Div has successfully turned a 'niche' forum for a single team (which is what we are) into one with a national, if not global appeal and I know from experience that this is not an easy task. Most of the CTO naysayers on P&B fall into one of three categories ... they have had some form of run-in with us at some stage, they dont like the fact that we have certain rules we stick to, or they think we are in the club's back pocket ... They are entitled to their opinions but I am not going to lose any sleep over it. We will continue to have our own standards, we will continue to moderate 'in-moderation' as we do now, and we will never be in the club's back pocket (think that one was well and truly dispelled over the last couple of years). The simple truth about the naysayers on P&B is that the vast majority of them have never had a warning from us, nor been banned from the site (with one or two notable exceptions) and if any of them - bar one - chose to return it wouldnt even raise any eyebrows !

both playing well and getting regular starts for a (currently) top 6 SPL team. Well deserved.

Alex ... see post #12

Yup it is basically a St Mirren board that has grown over a number of years to cover the whole of Scottish football.

Guess its based on the idea that businesses will buy tickets so they may want an ex-vat price. Alternatively, it may have been that they produced the poster a while back and had not decided whether or not to make it a fixed total price (including 17.5% vat) and absorb any VAT increase, or make it a fixed price excluding VAT and just apply whatever rate was in play at the time ....

Download PDF version

Been a member for years and used to read it every day but personally, I think it has deteriorated over the years (some might say the same about us). Now, I read it maybe once a month on average and post maybe once every 5 or 6 visits. I dont hide behind a pseudonym or multiple pseudonyms, I am the same username there as I am here !

Cause it was off the ball incident and we dont exactly have cameras watching every angle of pitch.. I think it has more to do with guidelines that state certain incidents should not be shown. Anything that has the possibility to go to appeal (eg. a straight red card for violent conduct) is one of them. From Terry's comments it doesnt seem likely there would be an appeal, but (if they actually got it on tape) the BBC still left the actual incident out. You will notice the same in other matches too !

highlights now up on official site: http://ictfc.com/video

I'll go for option 1 !!!

The more I read, the more this sounds like several different agendas/scenarios coming together in an almighty crash ........ 1. The powers that be wanted AG out. He works for one company and is suing another but it just so happens that both companies have the same owner. Feathers are exceedingly ruffled !!! The fact that the sacking came from the very top seems to support this. 2. AG and RK are were seen as 'untouchable' at SKY Sports. They have been there since launch and wield a lot of power just by that fact alone. They have trodden on a lot of toes with their behaviour and air of superiority not to mention the development and maintenance of the culture of sexism that exists at the channel. People they have p***** off are now coming forward (anonymously) and adding fuel to the fire. In some cases they probably let it go as they thought (possibly correctly) that these guys were too powerful and nothing would be done, in other cases, it seems to be a case of biding their time and waiting for 'sweet revenge' for some slight of the past. 3. A new boss is in charge and wants to make his mark. How better to do this than take down those who have "got away with it" for a long time and instill 'fear' among the workforce. People will now think "if he can get rid of them then no-one is safe". This is helped by support from the very top as noted in #1. 4. Money !!! Gray is on 1.7m, Keys is probably similarly compensated .... I'll bet the new team will be paid considerably less. 5. Media. This type of scandal fills pages for weeks, especially as the TV network owner also owns newspapers and can have his slant/opinion put on the writings. Gray is now a 'sexist pig' so his credibility in his legal case is diluted.

Yup, the point of Kirishima's post was not lost on me either and I tend to agree that we would have heard about it already if what he says was indeed factual. However, on reading the article, I was giving the player the benefit of the doubt and basically thinking aloud about how much progress, if any, we have made in terms of reducing racism in football. I think we have made real progress but lets not kid ourselves, we are not rid of it yet. If the player is not being truthful then he needs to be heavily censured ... As Kirishima says, this is tarnishing Scotland's reputation in Asia and as such is quite serious !! My own question about monkeys was also genuine as the explanation didnt ring true to me and as I know Kirishima lives in that region, it was a real question ... If it were a black player, then given the long history of them having that specific term of abuse thrown at them over a number of years, and continuing to this day, I would immediately have thought the story genuine. However, that form of racial epithet is not one I would say would be commonly used towards an Asian player ... In my opinion, it would be more likely that any abuse would centre on the Prince Philip school of thought and refer to facial features or fast-food establishments !!!

If he is receiving this kind of treatment then it should be highlighted and stamped upon. The "Show Racism the Red Card" movement/group are very high visibility in Scottish Football (rightly so) and I would have thought awareness should be getting through even the most neanderthal of skulls by now !!! Only today there was a report in the HN about a Rangers fan banned from all grounds for 18 months for uttering the phrase "We hate Celtic Fenian B*******" at an ICT - Rangers match. If we can catch and prosecute a single individual for this kind of shout then surely we can identify and arrest/remove individuals making 'monkey chants' or anything else that is truly offensive towards the player(s) to whom it is directed. http://www.highland-news.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/8705/Sectarian_abuse_fan_banned.html One question I did have though, and this is a genuine question that popped into my head when reading the link .... I have never really associated the far east with monkeys? So why would fans go there with those sounds? Is it something to do with the bad martial arts TV series of that name from many years ago or something else? The animals, or at least the most popular species of them like Chimpanzees, Gorillas and OrangUtans - in my mind - are more closely identified with Africa. I know there are species of monkeys indigenous to most continents, but ask anyone "where do monkeys come from?" and 99% will answer 'Africa'. I have only ever heard of the monkey chants and banana throwing directed towards black players and thought that we had largely managed to stamp out that outrageous behaviour in our game but if we are now extending it to Asian players then clearly we need to work harder on the racists and racism .....

Not doubting either of you, just saying that none of the stats sites ... and even the SPL website havent picked up on it in their match reports. Maybe Andy Gray could recommend a couple of female refs ....... Havent got the footage from last night yet, but the guidelines for producing them state that any 'controversial' incidents should not be included. Will be interesting to see if the BBC leave any of the ones debated so far in the highlights.

I tend to agree with a lot of what is said in here. Russell Duncan adds more to the team in terms of bite and 'doing the dirty work' as someone put it, than he takes away from the team with the odd dodgy pass. If the rest of the midfielders are going to be attack minded then his defensive qualities would be an essential part of the team IMHO.