Scotty

Gotta love SKY SPORTS 'live commentary' on the web go to http://home.skysports.com/livescores/football/ and click on the LIVE COMMENTARY link on the ticker for gems like this ...... 68: I'd love to be able to report a chance or even a move of some significance but it's just not happening here in Cologne. There's plenty of niggly fouls and overhit passes if that's any consolation. David Quinn, bored in America, asks if this a real job. I'd like to think so sir....... 77: Barnetta has just left his foot in on Vashchyuk but he has escaped the caution that would have meant a red. Thanks to Rich Englert, who informs me the Mexican wave is not in actual fact Mexican. Apparently it was conceived in Washington during an american football game. From now on I shall refer to 'Washington waves' only. 81: Alexander Shovkovsky has punched a corner away from under his own bar. Ukraine's keeper is not too keen on catching but he does get quite a distance with a clenched fist. 84: Switzerland left back Ludovic Magnin shall now be referred to as 'Mental Magnin'. Every time he picks up the ball for a throw in veins pop from his neck as he waves his arms frantically and demands extra support. He makes Julian ***** look mild mannered. And to think he's Swiss - home of the clock. 85: The whole crowd are united - in whistling. It's that turgid. Those in yellow and red are united in a peaceful boredom. Ukraine have just put a cross in, an event in itself, but punched clear the chance is lost. 90: FULL TIME: It's all over. If only that was true. It's extra-time here in Cologne. Both teams seem content to have taken the game to an extra thirty minutes nobody wanted. Not one off-side in the whole contest as the defences are that deep. Please lord of football let there be a change in extra-time.

OK - using the link in the first message, my name would be either ..... MACKENZIALDO or MACKENZIANDRO but I think I prefer the names for Web Admin (ADMAO), WebSite Admin (ADMINHO) and Site Admin (ADMALDO PAU) better :001:

fairy snuff :notworthy01: ps - dontcha know .... its "sahh-kerr" :017:

The commentary team* at the time said that FIFA could use video evidence to review the incident regardless of the ref. You could also argue that the ref did not see the incident and was merely brandishing yet another yellow in this farcical encounter because if he had actually seen a headbutt the card most certainly would not have been yellow. I guess FIFA will have to wait for the referee's report and also gauge how much outrage there is before they decide whether to act or not. *NOTE: I cant remember if we had the American "ESPN" or UK "SKY" commentators at the time of the incident as our audio coverage was switching back and forth because of 'technical difficulties'. If it was ESPN I will concede that HC may be correct as ESPN have proved to be somewhat inaccurate on specific administrative rules !!!

England will reach the semi-final at least .... playing a weakened Portugal side who will be without the two red carded players plus possibly Cristian Ronaldo AND Figo if FIFA review the headbutt incident ... it should make it easier for them. I fancy Brazil and Spain to get through to the other QF and for it to be an England-Brazil S/F where Brazil will shade it (I hope). From the other side of the draw, the winner of Germany-Argentina will be in the Final at the expense of ... Italy. http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/bracket.html

Given my position as admin on this site, I would probably fight it out with CaleyD for the title of Wankero or Bastardo .... with the loser getting the title Sumo ..... :015:

Interesting article in the Courier ...... CALEY Thistle's first team squad should be faster and fitter than ever before ahead of the new SPL season. Under the guidance of former player/manager Craig Brewster, Inverness were credited with being one of the fittest sides in Scotland's top flight, but current boss Charlie Christie believes his players' physical fitness can be improved upon even further. On Monday, weights for a specially designed strength and conditioning programme will be delivered to Tulloch Caledonian Stadium with the aim being to enhance the players' pace. The programme is just one of a number of minor adjustments Christie has made to pre-season training this year as he bids to get his squad ready for the challenges of the 2006/07 Premier League campaign. FULL COURIER ARTICLE

Excellent question MEE - and one I hadnt thought of in advance. Having considered how the bookies do it, and how Gringo does it in the NPL, I think I will stick with the convention of awarding points based on the score after 90 minutes. Extra-Time and Penalties will therefore NOT COUNT.

Our chairman is good friends with one of their directors .... we have supposedly had an 'arrangement' with them for years but nothing has ever come of it until now

Think the new deal involves something like 22 non OF games with each team getting additional coverage - my guess would be that they will leave it a few weeks into the season to see how the teams are shaping up before deciding which games are worthy of being televised ......

I think they missed the boat in one way, but in the end they moved in the direction they wanted and hopefully that will prove to be good for the club and also good for this site. They missed the boat (in a way) because myself and Donald offered to design a top quality site for them at no cost where they could retain 100% of any revenue generated from any commercial items or advertising they cared to add to that site. However, although the club are now dragging themselves into the 20th century and hopefully into the 21st fairly soon they opted not to do that as some of the features they wanted could be obtained with less effort by signing a commercial partnership where the proceeds are split between club and commercial partner. This is totally understandable as there is currently no-one at the stadium who can work pretty much full time on a site in the way that our offer would have required, but with a commercial partnership PTV will supply much of the content and leave the club to just top it up with a little bit of local content. Having a look round some of the other PTV sites, I would hope that the new site will have audio and video that users will be able to sign up for and if they do, I can see the club making some money out of. I said it a few times last year, but if there were live audio or video "season tickets" available from the likes of ICT, BBC or Setanta I would buy one and I am sure I am not alone in that. I am sure the new site will also have things like ringtones, screensavers, multimedia files and all sorts and of course there will be a club shop. All in all, if its like other PTV efforts it will be designed to maximise revenue from the fans and also generate advertising income from the site itself. Anything that puts more money in the coffers has got to be a good thing ... so long as it doesnt go too far over the edge and become a cash-grab or a site that ends up crushed under its own weight in pop-ups etc ........ How will it be good for this site ? I think most users have noticed that we are more relaxed on here now and have let a fair bit more go that we would not have done on the old site. The craic seems better and for me it is definitely more enjoyable as I am not fending off multiple nonsense emails about this that or the next thing ..... we have maintained close contact with the club and will continue to do so in what we hope will be an open and friendly ongoing symbiotic relationship - after all we are all ICT fans !!!! I feel proud that I have been able to offer the club both an 'almost official' and then an 'official' presence on the Internet since the club was formed in 1994. It does of course sadden me that the official tag is now gone, but as I mentioned above, it is probably for the best as the club will now be able to maximise income from a commercial site and we can focus on building the community of fans on this 'Fan-Zone'

oh right - see what you mean now - (too early in the morning for me - need a coffee) - you are probably right Doing it that way kinda makes sense as it works, but I would far rather see them have a matrix in place where your fixture order was based on your finishing position the previous year (with spot 12 going to the new boys) ..... You could then have the fixtures worked out by week number and just slot the teams in. The next year the matrix is reversed so that home/away is the opposite but your own fixtures will likely be a little different because they are based on the finishing order the previous season and not on the team name !!!

We played Falkirk in last season's first game !! but I would agree that there is no 'hi-tech' computer at work, as the season before, we as new boys played another team that were relatively new to the SPL when we played Livi .... but we musnt grumble, at least this will be the first HOME opener we have had in the SPL, the last two seasons were away games.

Think the finished version will be similar to the Kilmarnock site .... http://www.kilmarnockfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/Home This is no criticism of the club in any way as it is a commercial company doing the design 'professionally' ... but did any of YOU guys stumble across THIS site when we were designing, creating and testing it ?? We already know the answer to that as we had a screen that stopped just that kind of thing and it was also password protected. Only those we invited to test it were able to see it before it was launched !!!

To expand on what CaleyD said .... YES, you have to pay to display fixtures. Many sites have been threatened with legal action for displaying fixtures without a license and there have been arguments each year as to how a list of fixtures can actually be copyrighted or indeed what actually constitutes a fixture list ... some sites tried using 'event' listings such as 'day out in Paisley', 'Trip to Aberdeen' and such like but fell foul and so did others who tried to get round it by having message board discussions prior to games !! Fortunately as an official site we were immune from the arguments as official club websites have a right to display their own fixtures and receive a 'complimentary' license each season. Although we are no longer official, and therefore liable for the purchase of a license, there is a discount available and we are greatful for the help the club gave us in the last couple of months in securing the reduced rate. Without that help there is no way we would have been able (or willing) to pay the advertised cost of around 200 for the list !!! I predict home V St Mirren also !!!

We have purchased the license required to display the fixture list. We should receive a copy in the morning and will be able to publish it from 10AM onwards.

The scary part is that some people (unlike this guy) put in applications like that for real !!! - I believe ICT got one or two 'joke' applications the last few times, and I dont mean IHE's attempt to become CE :004: Top marks to the chairman though for showing that he has a sense of humour

Fair play - I read a few of those articles and they were quite funny :clapping04:

Havent included friendlies against 'single' teams, although I think Benbecula and perhaps Orkney fall into that category. 20 July 1994 - 2:0 win against Combined Services XI at RAF Kinloss 09 May 1995 - 2:2 draw against Highland League select at Huntly 20 Oct 1996 - 0:3 loss against Highland League select at Telford Street (last game at TSP) 06 Nov 1996 - 6:2 win against Inverness & District select at Caledonian Stadium (first game at TCS) 21 Jul 1997 - 0:4 win against Lewis/Harris select 'B' in Lewis/Harris (not sure which) 22 Jul 1997 - 1:7 win against Lewis/Harris select 'A' in Lewis/Harris (not sure which) 17 May 1998 - ?:? against Chic Charnley select at TCS (Cerebal Palsy Challenge) 04 Sep 2001 - 0:9 win against Orkney in Orkney 28 Mar 2003 - 1:7 win against Benbecula in Benbecula

so long as you enter it into the predictor at least 1 minute before kick-off that will be no problem :004: - The predictor doesnt do 0-0 if you forget to predict :011:

Its automated and the predictions close 1 minute before kick-off - we cant add/edit entries after the time - sorry

:evil11: :finger01: :evil11:

[table] [tr][td]Club [/td][td]On Paper [/td][td]On Grass [/td][/tr] [tr][td]Celtic [/td][td]Better than us [/td][td]2 pts out of 12[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Rangers [/td][td]Better than us [/td][td]2 pts out of 12[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Hearts [/td][td]Better than us [/td][td]3 pts out of 12[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Hibs [/td][td]'should' be better than us[/td][td]6 pts out of 12[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Aberdeen [/td][td]'should' be better than us[/td][td]6 pts out of 12[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Kilmarnock [/td][td]perhaps slightly ahead of us[/td][td]6 pts out of 12[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Motherwell [/td][td]we are at the same level[/td][td]6 pts out of 12[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Dundee Utd [/td][td]living on past glories - outperformed them last 2 years[/td][td]8 pts out of 12[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Dunfermline [/td][td]Pars are in doldrums - will bounce back[/td][td]9 pts out of 12[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Falkirk [/td][td]a gritty team like ICT but we have the edge[/td][td]9 pts out of 12[/td][/tr] [tr][td]St Mirren [/td][td]1st season back in SPL - will do well ?[/td][td]9 pts out of 12[/td][/tr] [/table] As you can see from the table above, I tend to agree with the earlier posters. (and before anyone wants to split hairs - I know it is not possible to get 12 points from all teams because of the split but right now we have the potential of 4 games against ALL teams !!!) Celtic, Rangers and Hearts (depending on actions of Romanov) will continue to dominate the SPL in the coming season. Hibs and Aberdeen should also be up there but each has their own problems both with losing players and in Aberdeen's case with mounting debts. I would then say there is a group that contains Kilmarnock, Motherwell, ICT and 'possibly' Dundee Utd who will fight it out for 6th spot and mid table respectability. If we play to our strengths and the players perform as well as they have done in the last two seasons there is no reason why we cant finish top 6 and even overtake Hibs and aberdeen if they have problems. I predict (and hope) the relegation battle will not include us but instead will be between the Pars, Falkirk and St Mirren and maybe even DUFC depending on what Brew gets sorted in the rest of the close season. St Mirren are the unknowns - I havent paid much attention to Div1 since we got out of it, but they seemed worthy winners and may do what both ICT and Falkirk have done in the last two seasons and stay up at the expense of an established SPL side .......

Credit where its due - that article is pretty **** good !!! If I read it first, before looking at the author's name, I might have guessed at it being written by Bill Leckie as he has consistently been one of the few to give us credit over the years ... but fair play to Rob MacLean for soaring in my estimations with this piece. If the contents of the article are true then it is also good to see that Charlie is handling the team spirit situation very well. Wage rises - sure, why not if we can afford it - but wage rises for all, not just the so-called 'stars'. Hopefully any players linked with moves elsewhere will put stability and job satisfaction ahead of the mighty greenback, especially if we are beginning to close the gap between us and the other SPL teams in terms of wages.

I have split this topic so that the actual party doesnt get lost in all the other discussions on this thread. The other postings have not been deleted but are now in a thread called "End of Season Party - Split Posts"