Scotty

:clapping03: :clapping03: :clapping03:

agree with the above The commentators seem quite impressed with him this season so far and Bill Leckie this past weekend was certainly not the first to mention that Ian seems to have got a handle on the stupid bookings and also on the retaliation side of things as he was getting hit hard quite often but not reacting. It must have frustrated Collins no end as getting him sent off seemed to be a major part of his gameplan. So well done to Blackie, credit where credit is due and all that. The lad is a good talent and if he can continue to keep the temper toned down but retain the (controlled) aggression he will be a tremendous asset for us. He will undoubtedly have the odd rash challenge ... all players do, and he may be booked for them or even sent off from time to time ... but considering most of us last season were complaining more about his petulance and stupid bookings than those made for physical challenges we cant have it all .......

Many congratulations.

Can we have some thoughts for Celtic game ..... would do it myself, biut I would probably jinx it

sounds like Marius had a great game - or maybe Bill Leckie is just a better commentator than the ones we normally get.

The BBC player window usually gives option to use Windows Media Player too -- if it tries to open in real player, click preferences in top right corner and choose WMP.

real player: rtsp://rmlive-events.bbc.co.uk/bbc-rbs/rmlive-events/ev7/live24/scotland/live/spl5.ra or via BBC site at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/t...dio/6354443.stm

cant argue with that really ... especially with Wyness still out.

[li]Discuss the game in this very thread right here :004:[/li] [li]Get to the chatroom HERE[/li] [li]See the subs / bookings / report - after the game starts - HERE[/li] [li]At the game ? - Dont forget to vote in the POLL after the game has ended. HERE [/li] [li]See the stats etc after the game has ended by choosing today's game from HERE[/li] LINEUPS ICT [attach=1] HIBERNIAN [attach=2]

Fortunately, Hibernian are a forward looking club who employ a team of reporters to provide Hibs Interactive with coverage that is specifically tailored to the Hibees faithful and therefore DO NOT block the BBC from broadcasting their games so we should get the game.

this is going a bit off topic, but to answer briefly, Yes I do miss Inverness, friends & family, being able to watch ICT in person etc, but there are other things about it that I dont miss. Canada (or my little part of it) IS an excellent place to stay but I could list all sorts of grumbles that lessen the experience ... we pay a lot of tax (or seem to), house prices are ridiculous, Traffic in Toronto is horrendous, It is hot and humid in summer and cold enough to do the brass monkey stuff for long spells in Winter ... not to mention the foot of snow I had to shovel off my driveway (and "sidewalk") on Sunday. Living back in sneck ... not sure. You never know what is going to happen and it will always be a possibility but right now, its a remote one. We both have good jobs on good money and a good lifestyle and I think it would be hugely difficult to match that in Inverness .....

On the pitch, they struggled quite badly to be honest but with flashes of nice play that showed the skill is there. The MLS system (draft), and the restrictions on how many of each designation of player you can have make it very difficult for a first year team to succeed but hopefully next season will be better. There were enough glimpses to suggest it could be. On the playing front, they suffered a huge list of injuries over the season and I think we missed Ronnie O'Brien the most as he is a midfielder who can put his foot on the ball and dictate play. Without him, there was a lot less control in the middle of the park and he was gone for most of the season. TFC also lost first choice keeper Greg Sutton to a concussion that he got while with the Canadian team and he sat out virtually all of the second half of the season because of complications. There were however a few high points ..... first round draft pick Maurice Edu got better and better as the season wore on and won the MLS "Rookie of the Year", Jim Brennan and Carl Robinson were solid the whole season and for me, the best discovery was just how good a defender Mo had picked up in the form of Marvell Wynne. Would not be surprised to see Edu and Wynne plying their trade in the Premiership or in Europe somewhere in the next year or two ... Aston Villa were supposedly looking at Edu. Collin Samuel did OK ... some fans dont like him as he looks lazy, but in the last 4 or 5 games of the season he was definitely up for it and played quite well. No summary would ever be valid without mentioning Danny Dichio. A bit part player at a "small" club in England but a huge hero for TFC fans. He scored TFC's first ever goal, and its last of this season (in the 91st minute to grab an equaliser). The fans chant his name in the 24th minute of each game as a tribute to the time the first ever goal was scored and basically love him to bits. Danny is a strange one though. He is not a great striker in the traditional sense, but more of a bustling target man that MLS defences dont really know how to handle. He always gives 100% and is just as likely to floor an opponent as put the ball in the net. Unfortunately, he too missed a big part of the season because of injury - a long year for him after playing in England, then coming to Toronto and not having any summer break. The player himself - we are told - loves it in Toronto, and has expressed a desire to become a "permanent resident" if the club give him a coaching role at the end of his playing career .... think that offer is quite likely given his relationship with the fans. As for the fans .... 20,000+ tickets sold for every single game, a very diverse crowd in terms of age/sex/ethnicity/nationality and its huge fun. Season ticket renewals have recently been done and the word is that there was a 99% renewal rate. I was hoping to buy an extra seat but could not get one in the whole of the supporters section ..... A few people on various message boards outside of MLS slag off fans of MLS because its a "mickey mouse" league. While that may be true to an extent, it is certainly improving, and young talent is definitely coming through to supplement the old fogeys who still come here to retire with a fat pay cheque like Mr Beckham. The fans however are as knowledgeable as you will see in any other league, and in some cases moreso. While TFC may not have been that great on the pitch, the fans have been lauded by MLS as amazing and what they hope to encourage in all stadiums. The fervour, knowledge and noise displayed by TFC fans may also help teams in places like Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal be looked upon favourably if they want to join the league. I thoroughly enjoyed my first full season as part of the "U-Sector" and looking forward to next season with anticipation .......

If we were to take anyone on loan from TFC, for me it would have to be Marvell Wynne !!! solid solid defender but probably unavailable as he will be training with the US National team for most of the winter I believe.

think its just a loan deal as CS is a 'protected' player in TFC's squad .... but MLS season doesnt begin again till April.

sounds like he already has enough problems

yup - shows you what I know eh :015:

Agreed, you don't see intervews with Smith in the Record saying how close Brown is to the squad anymore (granted Smith is isn't in charge anymore :029:) point being though ... he is only one injury or bad performance by the normal keeper away from getting a starting spot ... if he starts a few games, and plays like he can, he will get called up ... and all the while he is hopefully building himself a nice wee nest egg as well. Good luck to him, he served us well, I just hope he has a bad game on the 16th if he plays.

If Proctor is playing well, then perhaps not .....

:rotflmao: :rotflmao: - That has potential :001:

It could, and you cant really fault him for that as he is a coach not a PR guy. However, it is high time that the club did employ a professional PR/media person at the stadium to handle this kind of thing. Right now, PR seems to be done on an ad-hoc basis, with anyone saying what they want, when they want, and the "professional" only stepping in to do any mopping up of problems. It seems that no-one has the benefit of a professionally trained person on site to tell them how a particular statement or comment they wish to issue might look when viewed at the other end - by media and/or fans. Its ridiculous. Not that i think the Malky story is a huge deal, but a properly trained person might also have noticed comments on the BBC and/or Chester's website and been pro-active about organising a response or rebuttal. If the club can get its PR right, even on little things that niggle some people, it can repair so much of the damage that is currently being done by the veil of secrecy that shrouds them and the varying stories containing both information and misinformation that seem to have been circulating over the last year or two. I know Bill McAllister issues some statements on behalf of the club (usually firefighting other PR blunders) and although his are usually structured well and less likely to cause a problem with their content they pose a different problem ... I mean no disrespect to Bill, but unless you are from the Highland News, Courier or one of the national newspapers you dont seem to get the press releases even if you are supposed to. I accept that some people at the club might not want to send information to us right now as they think we are over-critical of absolutely everything, but even when we were the official site and the chief executive was asking him to send stuff to us we didnt get it. I have archived copies of dozens of emails asking why I didnt get this or that press release so it could be released on the club's official site at the same time as it hit the rest of the media. A professionally trained PR person would likely make sure that old media and new media alike as well as related websites (official or otherwise) would get all the releases, on time and with details of any publishing embargoes etc. They may not like what we say all the time in our own editorials or what fans say on the message boards but lets face it, as critical as we might be at times, we are far more likely to be supportive of the club than some of the nationals when they get a whiff of a scandal ....... ICT .... As fans, we want to love you unconditionally, we want to support you, we want to believe everything you say, we want to say you are getting it right all the time on and off the park ....... but the reality is that we just cant do that right now as you are making it very difficult ...... the good news is, you can solve that ....... if you really want to.

nope. I know of at least one other marriage that could be attributed to the people first meeting because of this site, and a fair few relationships too

Thats done it .... Tommy will be prowling the streets of Ardersier now .... remember, he does know who you are !

Charles - I hear you, and the others that talk of dotting the "I"s and crossing the "T"s ... and I tend to agree with the damned if you do, damned if you dont scenario. The unfortunate thing from a PR perspective seems to be that Malky had already given a quote to the papers confirming his appointment on the same day that quotes from Grassa appeared in the Courier saying nothing had been decided. Having written Pool reports on a weekly basis for years, and at times amateur football blurbs for the Courier, I know that the deadline for Tuesday's courier is (or was) late Sunday night so its quite possible that Graeme's quotes were spot on at the time they were made to the reporter and because Malky spoke to a daily, with a shorter deadline, the conflicting comments appeared on the same day. At the end of the day, its no big deal in my eyes - we knew he was coming, but ICT couldnt confirm anything until the paperwork was done. Perhaps they could have told Malky to issue a "no comment" statement rather than confirming it though if they wanted to hold a press conference on Thursday.

Hopefully at a **** good rate for someone who travelled regularly from Coventry to Inverness and other sporting cauldrons like Recreation Park, Starks Park, Gayfield etc from 1994 until he finally moved into the area just a couple of years ago. mind you - I hear you also get Tommy thrown in and he will come out and yell at you to get off his ***ing pitch :rotflmao:

The source code for each story is timestamped automatically by the server or site software. According to the club, the stories were published at the same time ..........