Scotty

Scotty HT: 1-0 FT: 2-1 1st Scorer ICT: Duku 1st Scorer P'head: Lyle CDN Girl HT: 2-0 FT: 3-1 1st Scorer ICT: Sutherland 1st Scorer P'head: S. Brown SOS HT: 0-0 FT: 2-0 1st Scorer ICT: Doran 1st Scorer P'head: Ritchie

I tend to agree here. You need some veterans in your team to balance out the youth. They may not have the speed or mobility of the youngsters, but they have the match experience and the smarts to grind out results, and both are needed over the course of a season. They can also help mentor those kids on the pitch and in training so they develop their own smarts. I see it all the time over here .... Beckham was 30+ when he played for LA Galaxy and his vision on the pitch was actually pretty amazing. Same with Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney, Kaka, etc. .... and just look at Ibrahimovic ... he came to MLS, lit it up for a couple of seasons (I was witness to his 500th career goal - which was against Toronto in front of my section) and then went back to Serie A .... He's about 85 now - or seems that way - but still puts some of the young kids to shame - mostly because he doesnt need to run, he just knows where to be after years of experience and game smarts. Now, Gardyne and Broadfoot are not exactly Beckham and Ibrahimovic but the principle still applies in my mind. The old adage is that "if you are good enough, you are old enough" when talking about young players ... I would say that the other side of that coin is that "if you are good enough, you are not too old" ..... but (father) time will tell if that proves correct for us this season .... ever hopeful though.

ok, as time is of the essence I am going to reply back to the club and note that we will sponsor Harper's home shirt and also Lewis Hyde as he got more votes than all others. Aslo going to close off the sponsorship for this year at our current numbers.

I still remember that toe poke !! I was (a lot) younger then and when I jumped high into the air in the living room my fist left a mark on the ceiling!

For me its not the players, or the fans (well not most of them anyway), its the commentators who do my head in. I was watching them romp home in the last match and should have taken a drink every time 1966 was mentioned .... I'd have been plastered before 15 minutes was up! They were so condescending about the opponent and so full of themselves it was annoying to watch. I am rooting for Denmark tomorrow simply because of all the adversity they have endured through the start of this tournament. it has echoes of 1992 when they last won it .. coming in as a late and unprepared replacement for Yugoslavia when that region descended into civil war. If Denmark win tomorrow then I am Denmark for the final. If England, then I really don't care. I like watching the Italians and the Spanish play - when they play well - but I have no pony in the race for that one ....

I know we did - we did the draw and it was collected a few days later .... Its been a while since we sponsored anything other than one player's home shirt ... and each year we have received that without issue. I think it was Ross Tokely's boots last time we did more than 1 item .... and although we didn't get the boots i seem to remember we got some ornament of some sort, like a glass football in a presentation case or something like that ... not crystal or anything expensive, but quite nice. There was also the chance for sponsors to get photos taken with their player too .... not last year for obvious reasons. If we got another few sponsorships from a few folk we might make it to an away shirt and that would be a shirt to add to the draw. Other than that, if we stick with the lesser item then its an experiment and we will see what we get ...

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/25704/12349868/ross-county-suspend-football-operations-after-coroanvirus-outbreak

ok, will add a poll here - for those who have contributed .... I have also clarified with the club that only sponsors of the Home/Away shirts of main players get a shirt at end of season. All other sponsors - boots, training tops and home shirts for the youngsters (ie. those items listed at £125+VAT) receive a "gift" from the club.

https://caleythistleonline.com/shirts.html - should really work on updating this page

I am open to that too ... we have always tried to sponsor local youngsters through their ICT career .... its not like you would get the actual boots anyway - just a 'gift' of some sort. Only the main shirt sponsor gets the item sponsored.

Happy to say we have now reached the target for Cammy's home top (see the line under #28 in the list. Thank You everyone for your continued support. Over an above that, because more people have contributed to this we are now at the threshold to sponsor another player's secondary item .... I have alist from the club, but the standout item appears to be Billy Mackay's boots? What does everyone think? ... or do we double-down and sponsor one of the even younger players?

Ok, I think I have tweaked things to be a good blend ...... For now users should see ads at the top of each screen - one on the left, one on the right. On some pages there may just be one. There should also be an ad on the sidebar and a 'matched content ad on the sidebar. and finally an ad on the footer of each page. This is what we have always had. Within the topic lists and posts there should also be an ad and again this is what we have always had. I have turned off the 'vignette' ads which were the annoying ones between pages. I have also turned off most of the Auto-Ads that google placed automatically in favoured positions. These were causing multiple ads in forum listings and were also visible to our site sponsor group who don't see ads at all .... The only Auto Ads I have left in place are the 'Anchor Ads' - which would be these ones below. They only appear on mobile (for now) and can be minimised by pressing the up arrow below the google logo. According to Google these will appear on wider desktops from 19th July but I would hope/expect they act the same. If it affects the site performance, covers up menus or has any adverse effect, we will remove.

Its all about getting the balance right for me. The site relies on ad revenue to exist as well as one or two members who subscribe to our 'site sponsor' membership (which removes all ads) to pay our yearly costs. Software licensing, VPS hosting, domain names and all those sorts of things suck up pretty much all of our ad revenue ... and we usually manage to just about tick over. That's fine for me as this is not a business and no way anyone involved here is going to get rich doing it or even make a living out of it! Hasn't happened in the last 27 years, not going to now ... However, I have always told my wife that the site will never be a drag on our finances and if it stops being virtually self-financing then I would wind it down. Luckily, we are not at that point but we need to ads to keep that point on the horizon and not in direct view! Having said all that, I do try to keep ads to a minimum because I know what I can tolerate personally and I also hate sites where I get popups in my face all the time or intrusive ads. Right now it seems that any of the free apps/games I download to try on my phone have ads every few minutes and I almost instantly delete them if they are that frequent. Over 50% of our views now come from mobile or tablet and especially on a phone it can be hard to optimise these. Please keep letting me know about any obtrusive ads but please be aware we do need to have some of them to keep the site running. No Ads = No Site. I am currently testing the latest version of the software and will be tweaking things before updating it here. No huge changes but trying to make sure mobile experience is good is one of my primary concerns.

It was the first thing I noticed when I got the last strip delivered .... Loved the strip, hated the quality and appearance of the badge. We talk about players 'playing for the badge' so to my mind, that should be done to a decent standard! Other than that, no criticism of the design of any of the Puma strips so far. They have all been good IMHO.

My issue - as with all the other Puma strips so far is the crappy badge. The Errea embroidered badges were excellent. Even some of the one-piece badges we had before were decent, but this one looks cheap. Even if embroidered is not practical, could it be tweaked to not have a massive white border - that would surely look better.

I have disabled the vignette ads for now .... those are the kind that appear in between page loads. I am assuming this is the main bugbear? Other than that we have content ads (in forum/topic ads), anchor ads - which are the ones that turn up at the top or bottom of mobile pages and can be minimised - and matched content ads, which are the sidebar ads that show related content and ad links. According to our adsense reporting, auto-ads gives us a 150% increase in revenue over the current ones so i would rather tweak it to suit than ditch it ....

We signed up for a trial with google that runs for 90 days. This will see 50% of our ads presented as normal and 50% of them presented via google 'auto-ads'. The vignette ads - the ones you have to close that show in between pages when navigating the site are all part of the auto-ad portion of the trial. I get them too and its the one part of the test I don't like so far. We do want the ads to help cover our costs, but I dont want them to be intrusive so I will take this feedback into consideration when deciding whether we continue auto-ads (unlikely I think)

Is it the same 15 point score as England? I lost track with Brexit? Looking at the banding for MLS, the international ranking of Canada, Toronto's second placed finish in last year's supporters' shield, and appearances - for Singh at least - in the CONCACAF league it might be close. Not sure is any consideration is given to U21 players in terms of international call ups but with Canada being ranked outside the top 50 (for now) any points there might be a stretch. Anyhoo - just an example. Wherever the club look, hopefully they might think out of the box and try to land a few gems on loan if we can.

think out of the box - season long loans for Luke Singh and Rocco Romeo from Toronto FC! With football still somewhat restricted over here, and former feeder teams in Ottawa and elsewhere not able to accept players, TFC do seem to look further afield for opportunities for loanees ..... why not us ! Luke Singh (20) - decent (6'2") centre back who was called up from TFC II to the first team as a squad player for the CONCACAF Champions League match against Club Leon from Mexico. Got an unexpected start in that game and was then kept in the first team squad on an upgraded contract after doing well in the Champions League. Has made 2 additional first team starts for TFC in MLS and scored 1 goal. Currently loaned back to TFC II. Looks like a good prospect. Was on trial at Brondby at one point but made no appearances due to an injury. Recently called up to both the Canadian and Trinidad & Tobago national training camps as he is eligible for both until he decides who to represent. Rocco Romeo (21) - another centre back (6'4" and solid) who looks like a decent prospect. Has not made any first team starts as he has spent most of the last two seasons on loan at HB Koge in Denmark. Another who was recently called up to the international camps and is currently trying to get into the Canadian Olympic Squad.

Pledged/Paid List @Scotty @bughtmaster @Caley Mad In Berks @ICT29 @Naelifts @snorbens_caleyman @snorbens_caleyman @HawkeyeTheGnu @HawkeyeTheGnu @Tree @Robert @Robert @Robert @weeman @jagster @Row S @Fraz @The_Sponge @The_Sponge @The_Sponge @TheMantis @TheMantis @Wanderer @finmack @IBM @IBM @TheCaleyOne @Gringo ----------------------- @Gringo @DundeeICT @Eye Settee @Moogthurso @Moogthurso @Moogthurso @Moogthurso @tm4tj @tm4tj @tm4tj @Gowans @caley100 --------------------------

Its time for Player Sponsorship for the 2021/2022 season. For 20+ years now we have sponsored one or more ICT players each season. We were proud to have been the main shirt sponsor of Grant Munro through his entire ICT career from a youth breaking into the team to his final season with the club, then we moved onto sponsorship of Liam Polworth. We have also sponsored other players over the years for boots, gloves or other items. For the last three seasons we have sponsored Cameron Harper and it looks like a good choice now that he's breaking into both the Caley Thistle side on a regular basis and also got a call-up to the Scotland U21 setup alongside Robbie Deas, Roddy MacGregor and former team-mate Daniel Mackay. As we transition out of the COVID scenario, the club needs these sponsorships more than ever ... so hoping we can raise enough again this year to continue .... Details below. PLAYER TO BE SPONSORED: We hope to continue sponsorship of CAMERON HARPER's Home Top. If we reach additional milestones, we will look to add sponsorship for other players for 'lesser' items. COST Home Shirt - £450 inc vat [to be confirmed] HOW TO TAKE PART To take part in this sponsorship you will need to upgrade your site membership and join the "Player Sponsor" group. We in turn will use the money received from these memberships (minus PayPal fees) to purchase player sponsorship(s) from the club. We will set all memberships - regardless of when ordered - to end on June 1st of each year. This allows us time each year to gauge the interest in continuing for the following season. The cost to join this group is £16.00 (this amounts to £15.00 joining fee plus £1 to cover the PayPal fees). You may purchase multiple memberships if you wish, just amend the total in your shopping cart and add a note when placing the order if it is to cover family members who may not officially be site members!!! ALL MEMBERS: To join the group simply go to this page http://caleythistleonline.com/store/ or access the CTO Store from the main menu at the top (under shop). All our site membership upgrades are handled securely via PayPal's platform which will accept direct payment from most credit/debit cards so it should be easy enough to upgrade your membership whether you live in Sneck or somewhere thousands of miles from there. CASH MEMBERSHIPS: We do NOT take cash payments. Everything needs to go through Paypal. Sorry. Once we know how many members have joined the group, we will decide on what gets sponsored. The first item will be the selected player's Home Kit ... but the more members who upgrade to "Player Sponsor" membership, the more we can sponsor. At the end of the season, members of our sponsor group will be selected at random to receive any gifts we may receive from the club. For any events that occur during the season (like sponsors nights or meet and greets etc.) we will offer first refusal to members of the sponsor group to attend as our representative. Eligibility will also depend on any COVID restrictions in place at the time. If you are interested, please add your name to this thread or go ahead and join the sponsor group. You will be marked as once we confirm payment received via membership upgrade .... EDIT: As questions are raised in the thread, we will clarify any that need a response below: Technically the payment is listed as a 'subscription' when you pay, but that is internal to this site only and is done this way so that in a year's time it will generate an invoice on here allowing existing members to renew (if they wish) or to let it expire. Renewal (or not) is at the user's discretion and as far as paypal is concerned it's a one-off payment and there will be no automatic re-billing from their side.

Thanks for all your work on this Gringo. I know it became increasingly hard to get the odds each week, post them, then work the excel magic to get the standings.

Absolutely nothing. Best part of the town

So long as we don't bet our sell-on fee on black and see it come up red !

Yes, Happy to see Denmark progress after all that trauma and the circumstance of their losses ... and happy its completely in our hands now. "Win and In"