First of all I feel like a hypocrite writing something like this because I haven't been to a game since we got beat 3-0 a Easter road, mainly due to having more commitments but to be honest for the first time, well ever really, I can't be arsed spending +?20 to watch 11 prima donnas run about just to collect their fat wage packet at the end of the week. There seems to be no passion, no ambition to push the club on to the next level. As soon as relegation wasn't likely the team stopped giving a cr@p and it's hard to blame them when they really have no chance of winning anything. Since we got into the SPL the only time I have seen a player give 100% is when they come up against the old filth and that is usually motivated by the TV cameras or the chance that the OF might snap them up... nevermind the +4k fans that have paid the admission fee.
Obviously relegation isn't a reality thanks to Gretna imploding and IMO getting exactly what they deserve... but that's another topic... anyway......
It's been an incredible 13+ years, watching ICT work our way up the divisions the proper/honest way (unlike Gretna, Livi etc.), paying reasonable wages to honest players and competing for titles/promotion and cups. It seems, to me anyway, that after putting in all the hard work from the board to the pitch now we finally made it to the SPL that the cherry tastes bitter rather than sweet... we are really playing for our survival every season and because we are concentrating on preserving our SPL status we haven't had a decent cup run in god knows how long. Our players are never out the papers with contract 'issues' and as soon as we go on a bad run of form the manager is slaughtered by our fans.
The other week I went along with a work colleague, massive Dundee fan, to watch the Dees take on Stirling Albion and apart from it turning into a goal feast I was jealous of the lower division football. I miss competing with teams that are on a similar level at the start of the season, almost every team playing to win each match with everything to play for, ridiculous +5 score lines, cheaper tickets, better crack, younger players getting their chance to shine and when a gem comes along getting maybe 2 seasons of his best before he gets snapped up by a team with better resources.
It might just be a lull we're going through at the moment but it seems to be the same every season when we miss top six, we'd be as well not turning up for any fixtures after that. I'd personally prefer we were back playing in the lower divisions where the dream of making it to the SPL was far more attractive than the reality