IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER

Charlie - FACT - around SIX times more people supported Caley and Thistle compared to ICT today. Unfortunately many supported Caley and Thistle as their "second" team and favoured bigger teams. Since the merger many have bitterly opposed ICT and maintained their allegiance to the "bigger" teams. They have influenced many around them to do so. There are probably as many people leaving Inverness to follow the other teams on match days than those who sit in the North Stand. Initially there were a few that did both but the "rise" of ICT as stopped their attendance as well. The support for Caley at the Perf game only goes to show the potential - perhaps in hindsight £1000 could have been converted in to £8-10,000 and the North Stand would be rocking.

I prefer grass - always have done.

All that I have been trying to put across is that it still hurts and it always will - and the scab gets itchy when peeple who either do not have a clue or are embellishing the facts come around. Plus the ploy of some to deride any suggestion that the merger continues to have a negative effect on today's support and attendances. Do not forget that Caley and Thistle had been around since the late 1800's. The average crowds had dwindled significantly in the end and it was a case of hundreds attending games. BUT as was witnessed at the Scottish Cup replay in Perf there were and still are THOUSANDS of Caley and Thistle fans locally. I would say that it is only a minority who have chosen to follow ICT or "allowed" their offspring to do so. And Caley and Thistle fans are annoyed that two local institutions were torn apart and it was the callous manner in which it happened was the annoying part.

I don't twitter so what is the feckin craic.

Feckin pleasing and entertaining wind up though. But seriously 2-3 loan players are probably going to be the outcome.

And it is not me as others have wrongly conjectured - but we do go back a long way and still go to some games together. And it wasn't personal abuse it was a fairly accurate chacterisation.

It could mean that he is waiting for the availability of loan players which makes sense. The courier once described me as a middle aged hooligan so it clearly cannot be trusted

Feck me - £23.00 return - sorted

You were willing me to make that last feckin post !!

Quite a few but I am too polite to name them. Another suggestion would be to give it to one of the overseas fans who rarely if ever get a chance to watch games other than on TV or Internet links.

Now all of that I full agree with and long may it continue. But it is good to see that the likes of Mikey Noble remembers and appears to have the understanding missed by detractors, sceptics and people who think and act as if they are qualified to share opinions but basically are brainwashed as they were when it was happening. CaleytilIdie - Bring on Birmingham City. Unless they merge with Villa in the interim.

We are getting a train down from Glasgow at 0550. It stops in Preston and Warrington. I think around 0815 or something like that. Return train at 1815. You jumping aboard? Sounds good to me.

Plan A and Plan B are both correct and are evidently linked. I never alluded to thousands but hundreds of born and bred Invernessians who are influenced by the experience and bitterness of the older generation in their families. They are being brought up to look at ICT as being an inbred establishment born out of local politics and power building and those individuals are more prone to follow the big teams originally followed by their forefathers and spreading the anti ICT message to their friends and probably to their offspring. I have never suspected that this explanation to be understood by the posters who have never been part of that family or privy to the psyche since the merger. Sometimes stories are more about the fans rather than looking at the politics and the management, especially when displaying them as saviours and beyond reproach - a bit like Terry Butcher perhaps ? And when you have a historical following of separated cheese and jam locally but can savour a menu of delicacies at a national level - you encourage others to go for the latter - especially if you feel that you have been forced to eat the cheese and jam whether they like it or not. And there is only one monster and that is the individuals who wear blinkers about the merger and get paid for writing fairy tales.

Thistle and Caley were robust rivals but to say that they were from the same communities is saying that about Wednesday and United or City and United or Athletico and Real. It may well have been to the financial benefit but that does not lessen the hurt and the feeling of both sets of fans that there was hidden agendas and a serious lack of consideration of the effect on many. Just read the last two paragraphs of the CB response. The only thing I agree with is that football clubs need fans and mergers have little attraction to them. That is why we have so many refuseniks who continue to influence their friends and their families.

It is the death of two established football clubs - as Mike Noble appears to suggest it was a forced relationship that many feared would be short lived. And again as Mike alludes to it would have died a death if it was not for financial intervention. But it is just like the thought of amalgamating and playing in Dungwall - how many TODAY would have voted for and end up supporting that type of allegiance.

Mike was there at the time of the merger and is far more qualified than most to make such statements - I would suspect that the main thing that irritates a lot of the pre merger fans is that many posters tend to suggest that it should just be forgotten. But these things were and are important issues in the lives of the survivors. At times it still feels like a loss - a death. There will always be the thought "what if ?" - I know I have said it before but it could be comparable to ICT and Ross County merging. Now some, if not many, may scoff and laff at that - but Caledonian FC was an institution. It was a passion, it was a love, it was a family. To many it was a case of Caley til I die and forsake all else. Although many pre merger fans may disagree - I view ICT as a resurrection of Caledonian and I feel that I can continue to say Caley til I die - and feckin sing it. Jeggies were more of a banter rivalry and the merger only served to overemphasise and catastrophise the divide. Mike appears to believe that the merger still has an effect - of course it does. Who do the offspring of the hundreds of original dissenters support these days - NOT ICT.

Feckin great fixture - 90 minutes on the train from Chorley or a wee stopover - so who is going and what is the plan ?

A more powerful controlling narcissistic female ?

Yip - the experience will not affect the narcissistic personality at all. TB will now probably get a decent pay off and will appear on our screens as a World Cup punter - and may even get paid to go there. I am actually looking forward to his statements and the fact that the demise of Hibs had feck all to do with him - and the ultimate narcissistic wind up of how he is so sorry that he left Inverness, accompanied by yet another narcissistic rationale.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Wrong Mahonio i do remember is Thurso But they are all erseholes in Caithness

What about a 3D pitch and synthetic drugs ?

No match at Wick is a clear response to the Mahonio affair

James Dean has signed another years contract with Chorley

I am going to quaff a flagon in pure respect