Scotty

Shane Sutherland scores for Elgin - his second just as Eric scores for us :D

its was also in the very first post !!!

ICT lineup: Esson, Tokely, Bulvitus, Munro, Golabek, Cox, Odhiambo, Duncan, Foran, Rooney, Hayes. Subs - Allison, Proctor, McBain, Eagle, Sanchez. Dundee lineup: Douglas, Paton, Malone, Lauchlan, MacKenzie, Harkins, Kerr, Shinnie, Forsyth, Griffiths, Hutchinson. Subs - Bullock, Higgins, McKeown, Klimpl, McMenamin.

.style2 {text-align: center;}.style6 {border: 1px solid #FFFF99;text-align: center;}.style8 {text-align: center;border-style: solid;border-width: 0;}.style10 {color: #FFFF00}.style12 {font-size: 18pt;font-weight: bold;} THE MATCH Dundee -V- Inverness CT PREVIEW Dens Park, Dundee 3:00 PM ...follow us on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/ICTOnline ...discuss it during the game in the CHATROOM Live Match Coverage AUDIO: BBC Open All Mics (browser) BBC Open All Mics (Real Player or Windows Media Player) Moray Firth Radio (browser) [uK/VPN ONLY] TEXT UPDATES: BBC Sportbox SKY Dundee FC Live Text TEAM LINEUPS TO FOLLOW

I dont kow about that ... there are a few things in there that were interesting .. for example, didnt realise he and Barry Robson went back so far.

The poster named Sophia was not Bobby Mann's mum, at least, not as far as I know. I met her at a Livi - ICT game once (the classic game that ended as a 4-3 loss) and remember she told me that she tended to watch his career from afar rather than be involved directly for personal reasons. However, Bobby's wife did post on here for a while - especially after a glass or two of the old vino - but I can't remember what her posting name was, but again, it was not Sophia. I have no idea whose Mum worked at Dens until retirement but I would hazard a guess that it was not Bobby's. I will however say I am speechless at Google because when i threw a couple of queries into the search engine to see if it could help with a guess, this thread came up at #2 in the list ..... thats bloody quick indexing for a 70 minute old thread !!!

LOL - should have read the rest of the thread .... my bad ;)

We got a message into our contact mailbox ....... not sure if this bar is any good or fans are expecting to go to a certian place ... but here it is : Ally Murphy has just sent you the message below via the contact form on Caley Thistle Fans Forum: We would like to invite all you Inverness fans to the Centenary Bar in Dundee(DD3 7UE) for pre-match shenanigans. We are open from 11am on Saturdays and are only 2 mins from Dens Park. We can accomodate upto 400 fans and have safe FREE parking for buses/cars at the back. Centenary Bar 231 Clepington Road Dundee DD3 7UE 01382 827719

It is some posters who do the slagging (at times), not the site ... the site is merely a conduit for people to express their varied opinions .... sorry, but I do get on my hobby horse when the site and ergo, everyone who is a member of it, is accused of something as a collective group or entity. PS - Happy Birthday Latviaman

Why not ? If they play it right, each matchday can be classified as an "event" and they can choose which vendors they will allow to have (pay for) a "stall" at this event ! Even if they didnt make a profit from the vans, they would potentially be enhancing the fan experience and happy fans buy more programs, merchandise, raffles etc etc etc ...... so the indirect benefits make them some money too ! TFC have various serveries around the stadium. These are pretty similar to what you see in bigger grounds like Celtic Park ... a large area with multiple queues serving the usual fare - hot dogs, pizza, chips, nachos, soft drinks etc (not much need for coffee at BMO field in the summer). On top of that, there are also numerous "specialty" carts dotted around the stadium concourse serving beer or other types of food - Souvlaki, Pitas all sorts of things. There are also burger and Ice Cream vans outside the ground and this year a new venture that will be the dogs dangly bits will be a "Smokes Poutinerie" outlet which I believe will be outside the ground too. You also have runners coming up and down the aisles with beer, popcorn, pizza etc ....... All TFC tickets are barcoded (whether you use your original ticket or a printout from ticketmaster) and to enter or leave the ground you just have one of the bods at the gate scan your ticket. At half-time there is always a major exodus of smokers (Ontario law prevents smoking inside buildings or stadiums) and they just go outside have their smoke (and maybe go to a burger or ice cream van) and then come back inside .... it works well for the 20,000+ fans at every game. Obviously ICT cant do it to this scale, a crowd of 2-3000 just wouldnt support the cost or logistics of this but if TFC can manage an exodus of smokers at half-time that is probably equivalent to the entire ICT crowd then it shows it can be done. Incidentally, the road outside BMO field is way busier than Stadium road and there are no issues with traffic which is not diverted during a game !

Maybe that is the answer ??? competing vendors who need to serve at least half decent food so that customers choose to buy their product over a rival ..... there must be enough burger vans or catering type folks around to be able to support this? Thinking a little outside the box, I dont see how ICT cant just close off stadium road between the two car park entrances (home/away) between say 2-30pm and 4-30pm and have the vendors on the firth side of the street. Allow fans to come out and make a purchase and then go back in. This would also allow those fans who smoke to have a quick puff. If the vans are there at 2:30, its no big deal as you make home cars come in via the route they are forced to leave by at the end of match days (under the bridge) and away cars come in as normal from the other side. Alternatively, as this new crowd clearly do not seem to be raising the quality or experience, quite the contrary in fact, you could have 2 or 3 vans located at each end of the main stand inside the ground and use the open spaces there ?

According to the BBC, in an interview with Chief Executive Neil Doncaster, the SPL is open to the idea of changing the way the SPL works (or doesnt). "We have been talking to supporters and there does seem to be some desire to freshen things up. That could mean more teams in the SPL but we have to be open to all ideas. The play-offs in the Football League have been a tremendous success and innovations like that can create much in terms of excitement and revenue." http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/s...rem/8548227.stm Personally, I think it would be a good idea. The top teams in D1 have always been around the same level as the bottom teams in the SPL (even when we were in the SPL and looking down on D1!). Increasing the number in the top division could also lead to less boredom over fixtures as we could theoretically get back to playing each team only twice in the league each season and maybe enhancing one or more of the cup competitions to make sure we still have enough home fixtures each season that teams dont lose revenue. Wonder if the other SPL teams would go for it or would they block it ?

just dont wait for it at the serveries, the ice cream will have melted :001:

I believe that Bryan is/was one of the club's unsung heroes who volunteered his time for the program editor's position. I have no idea if he was ever remunerated on a regular basis by the club or anyone else, but if he was I'll bet it was nowhere near commensurate with the effort he has put in basically since the club began life in 1994. Even now I will guarantee you that despite the rumblings over the quality of the program itself due to the amount of adverts, he will be putting in the same sterling effort to create content, he just wont have enough space available to him ! Bryan is one of the same ilk such as Ian Broadfoot or Peter MacCallum who have been around the club since the beginning and offered up their time and expertise for no financial gain. Ian and Peter ran the club shop (which also doubled as the ticket office) for many years as volunteers on match days when we were in the lower divisions. I cant remember when it was formalised but thats when they gave it up and ICT staff took it over. Ian continued (and still continues) to produce the stats despite retiring and now living in Perthshire. Peter is now on the club staff on a part-time basis I believe.

I find it interesting that Proctor is now a "must keep". It wasnt that long ago that many posters were saying he was useless !!! I would tend to mostly agree with Starchief although I would have Esson in the 'must keep' column along with Tokely, Proctor, Munro, Cox, Hayes and Rooney. I would add Duncan to the important column along with Foran and Sanchez, and everyone else including the likes of Golly and LDZ in the negotiate column. Where I am not qualified to speak, after so many years away from Inverness is in regards to the youngsters. We have had so many over the years that we have been told "have it" ... the likes of Zander and such like, and few if any ever seem to make it so I am not sure about them. I have heard that Duff is good and similarly the same has been said about Shinnie and Sutherland but I had also heard that Gillespie was a good one too and we let him go .... perhaps some of our younger posters on here, some of who seem to have a connection to the youth teams either past or present are more qualified to speak about the potential of the young lads ......

bulls*** !!! Relegation was the result of a season-long malaise not one game. If we had had a different outcome in ANY of the 28 games we did NOT win (5 draws, 5 losses for Butcher, 2 draws, 15 losses for CB, + 1 loss for the Doc/Garden as caretakers) we would have stayed up. If we had scored a single goal more against St Mirren we would have stayed up. If St Mirren had conceded 2 more goals against ANY team(s) over the course of the entire season, we would have stayed up. I will concede that the manager did make a couple of bizarre selections and ultimately yes they backfired on him, but he did not go out to lose those games and come the end of the season a league record of W5,D5,L5,F15,A15.Pts=20 was far superior to his predecessor who had W5,D2,L15,F20,A38.Pts=17. Your logic is as flawed as those who blame Ross Tokely for our SPL status because he got sent off.

Havent heard that particular rumour myself although I would be surprised if all of the players liked the manager as that would be a first for virtually any club, especially for those on the fringes who may not be getting a game and feel they should ....

At the end of the day, what he did at <insert club name here> does not matter. What matters is what he does/did at ICT and so far he has a pretty decent record as posted above. That record is comparable to most seasons under Paterson and only Robbo had a significantly better set of stats in our D1 championship winning season. Some will argue that he could/would/should have kept us up but before you blame Butcher for all of that, try blaming the Board for not sacking CB earlier, CB for his abysmal record, the Players for not getting a win in any of our 7 drawn games, or for not turning any of our 21 defeats into draws or wins, or - the real reason - a combination of each and every one of them and probably a few more factors I havent included !!!! At the end of the season we went down by a goal difference of 2 and when he was appointed getting that close to safety was almost unthinkable. Had we scored one more against St Mirren we would have stayed up by virtue of more goals scored. Had Accies beaten St Mirren 0-3 instead of 0-1 on the final day we would have stayed up for the same reason. Had we beaten newly promoted Accies at home on just the second day of the season we would have stayed up ! Had we beaten Falkirk on the last day ..... the list goes on and on and on.

If I could find a hands-up smiley I would use it. Deffo thought he would be away come the end of the season either because we couldnt afford him beyond then or because he would not have accepted a D1 salary especially considering the loss of some of his other income from broadcasting and Scotland jobs. Him staying could be a positive boost in keeping at least some of the players we feared we might lose. I am sure we will still lose a few if we cannot win the title but maybe not quite so many now as some do seem to have a degree of loyalty towards him specifically.

Motherwell ... which I believe is the only other time that he and MM have teamed up and as discussed on here previously, together they seem to make a good partnership but apart, they are both a little lost ! He was there for 4 seasons and although his first full season in charge was not spectacular with a winning % of only 25%, it was perhaps not surprising given that he was rebuilding a side that had to pay off a huge number of its squad due to financial woes. His winning record in 03/04, 04/05, and 05/06 were all above the generally accepted "average" of 33.33% and he finished in the top six of the SPL in each of those seasons and also took Well to the League Cup Final. If he was in charge of ICT and achieved 3 top six finishes and a cup final place (other than Challenge Cup) we would be hailing him as our best ever manager ! His record at ICT also makes pretty good reading so far despite all the mumping and moaning ! Overall: P=50 W=23 D=13 L=14 GoalsFor=74 GoalsAgainst=54 !!! Winning % = 46% 09/10: P=33 W=17 D=8 L=8 GoalsFor=57 GoalsAgainst=38 !!! Winning % = 51.52% So we should not continue with a manager who has been quite succesful so far just in case his current assistant doesnt walk away with him (as happens in most cases) when he decides to go ? What absolute crap ! Dont forget, TB took this job on condition he could have MM as his assistant and if he were to go it is more likely than not that MM would go with him as both are probably well aware that they function best as a managerial team rather than individually.

New Century Publishing = Highland News Group ???

Good news. Well done to all involved. :P Butcher is not perfect - no manager is - but over the last couple of months we have seen his squad gel together better and achieve results. If we can tighten up at the back and start scoring on more of the chances we make at the other end then he will definitely be up there in terms of stats when compared to our other managers.

The UK has not competed in football in the olympics up to now because they had previously been told it would jeopardise the individual identity of their own associations if they chose to do so. The permission to compete with "special status" as 4 separate home nations was granted to the UK in 1947 as part of FIFA's constitution but many (including some at UEFA/FIFA) have commented that participating together may make that right disappear. With the olympics being in the UK in 2012 the UK has an automatic right to participate and Sepp Blatter (verbally) confirmed that a UK team would not affect the rights of the 4 individual nations in future World or Euro Cups. Both Scotland and Wales opposed the idea and Northern Ireland, initially supportive of the idea pulled out later as they could not be given assurances that once Blatter left office this decision would not come back and haunt the associations. The FIFA executive committee eventually confirmed that for Olympic games the UK could compete as one unified entity as they had no other choice under the rules of the olympics and this would not affect their individual memberships of FIFA but Blatter seemed to backtrack a bit and said it could, whilst David Taylor said that the unique status of the Home Nations had come under attack before from other FIFA members, and that it was "difficult to see what guarantees could be given" to protect that status so everything was as usual, as clear as mud!!! Eventually a compromise was reached, and the FAs of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland sent a letter of support for a team made up of only English players to play under the UK banner in 2012. Personally, although not a Tory, I do like the suggestion that came from David Cameron about 4 months ago ..... He said he would not back the creation of a UK squad, favouring instead a home international championship to decide which team should represent Britain at the Games ... that kind of puts it on a par with curling as far as I can see where various rinks play off to decide who represents the country and we all get behind them. It will be interesting to see whether "Team UK", full of Englishmen, gets the support of Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish supporters given that all our associations were offered the chance to participate but decided to support a UK team made up from English players only. Interestingly enough, despite no involvement from the other three home nations, early rounds of the "soccer" tournament in 2012 will be played in Cardiff, Belfast, Glasgow, Manchester and Newcastle. And that, to me is the crux of the matter. Forget about the English people as a nation/race ... Britain is such a small island that we are all intertwined regardless of where we live. There are Scots all over the Island just as much as there are English all over the island and for the most part we just get on with things in our daily lives. Where I do get a bit of a red mist is from the media portrayal of all things English, especially in sporting terms. It is not your average Englishman (or woman) who thinks their team has a divine right to win every tournament they enter, it is the English commentators and the media. They consistently hype everything up and have no qualms when they step all over other nations to do so. The French are garlic/onion munching idiots with stripey shirts riding around on bikes or they are striking farmers or truckers blockading ports, but either way they are lazy so-and-sos who need assistance from good old blighty when they get in trouble. The Germans, often the thorn in England's side - at football tournaments especially - are the warmongers who bombed our grannies, The Argentinians invaded the Falklands and Maradona cheated (despite his second goal being one of the best ever individual goals witnessed on the planet). The Scots, Irish and Welsh are second rate when compared with Team Engerlund .... and that same media then wonders why Scots or any other nation they have ridiculed will not get behind England ! Scotland did have its own attempt at this kind of media hype in 1978 with Ally's Tartan Army "representing Britain and we've got to do or die, cause England cannae do it cause they didnae qualify ....." but on the whole, we are just happy to qualify and our media dont go overboard as much as the national tabloids, or they do but are so insignificant that it goes un-noticed ! For the record, I am not supporting England in WC2010, but I am also not supporting ABE. I will watch the games with a level of disinterest for a number of reasons. The first is time-zones. Most games will be on during my working day, and the second is because neither Scotland or my adopted domicile of Canada is there. What England do, or how succesful they are is immaterial to me. Interestingly enough, I am guessing that England will be well supported in Canada ! Apart from the many English ex-pats out here, most Canadians also get to see live EPL games each weekend so have an affinity for clubs in England. Fans of Toronto FC will also likely support England as we also have a similar cross-border rivalry/banterfest going here during the MLS season with every other team we play being from the USA. TFC fans hate the likes of Landon Donovan (in particular) with a passion so will probably support ABUSA. Hopefully CL can pick up where Smith and McLeish left off rather than where Vogts and Burley did ! As I said above, no real interest in WC2010 but unofficially supporting Nigeria as my wife's heritage is part Scots, part Nigerian.

Final Round-Up

if we could finish half our chances we be banging in 5 every game. need to work on our finishing.