CaleyCanary

What a wonderfully exhilarating and frustrating couple of weeks that was - the massed fans reception for the team arrival back at Renfrew airport was fantastic, any travellers passing through there must have thought we'd won the darn thing!

Bill Shankly would disagree...

A stunning result Eagle, good away win for the Canaries too today - wonder if Uncle Roy would let us have Townsend on loan in January? ?

Keep smiling Scotty, you will beat this and life is a lot rosier on the other side - all the best!

Good week to miss - gives us a chance to get back to full strength and by the time they get around to it we may possibly be bolstered by a couple of new faces that arrived in January...

Thanks as always Mannie...loved the wee extra bit at the end about the City fan ?

A dire state of affairs when the unbeaten run ends at what should have been one of the most winnable games of the season so far. I like to remain upbeat and optimistic but from so many of the accounts in the forum about abject performances over the past couple of months we should have seen this coming - sad.

Yes indeed it is, but we also haven't lost a match since the Challenge Cup defeat against Dunfermline way back in August. I'm not going to ignore the issues as there obviously are a few, but I'll remain upbeat in the meantime. That's probably easier for us to do than for the fans of our Scottish Cup Final opponents, they are also a shadow of the team they were in May 2015. Bottom of the league with no wins and dumped out of the cup conceding 4 goals at Stenhousemuir! That truly is a shocker. Saturday is another important day for us, we really could do with upping the pace and clinically putting Falkirk to bed early. It's an opportunity for a statement of intent as to how the rest of the season will pan out.

Sounds like a good mix of resilience, guts and determination - great job! Like Pele's good old comeback days right enough Mantis, I remember the 3-0 down at half-time to Ayr ending 3-3, and of course the cracker at Livi where we didn't quite make it. Seems like we ain't gonna do anymore boring 0-0s...

It's so great to be reading the cheeriness and optimism from the posts today, raises the spirit no end. Well done to all, obviously an all round team and backroom staff effort to get through the difficult week and get the result

I'm not so sure this has really divided people, think all agree the club has acted appropriately, it's just a case of whether he should have been punted now or suspended until sentencing then punted - he was going one way or the other! For a change I think the club have acted correctly and despite my initial reaction that he should have an immediate suspension, terminating his contract now was the correct course of action. Have to agree with Hugh's pov about some of the posts attacking other posts though when we are all basically thinking the same about the scumbag - we all wanted the same result no matter what approach was taken.

0-0 would look pretty nice at the moment...

Good news that Oakley is fit enough for a bench seat - maybe see him on for young Daniel later in the 2nd half...

Ah, the good old days of Wyness and Ritchie in their pomp - they were a formidable pairing but the likes of a potent striking duo like that don't come around too often unfortunately.

Hi SP, no direct connection with Sneck - was brought up in Aberdeen but had family in Keith and Glenbarry. Caley was my 'wee' team after seeing them playing at Keith when I was a nipper. That got cemented later in the 1980s when I was stationed at Kinloss (I've moved about a bit!) and then came 1994, the advent of the Internutters and the rest is history ?

Spot on - that's how I first went to Prenton Park, as a neutral and the experience grew on me...

Back in the 60s I spent most of my teenage years living in Chester - a great area for a footie fan. Tranmere Rovers played all their home games on a Friday night as they couldn't compete with Liverpool and Everton on a Saturday afternoon - and it worked for them. I started going along when I was 13 and it got me hooked, the lack of visiting fans in greater numbers was not thought of as an issue and there was something magical about playing under the floodlights. It freed up Saturday for me giving the choice of whatever game took my fancy at Liverpool, Everton, Chester or Wrexham - you gotta love turning up wherever you like and paying cash at the turnstile! I still follow Tranmere today so that Friday night policy won them a supporter for life. Ok it's a very different scenario these days with so many competing activities and the TV, life was a helluva lot simpler 50 years ago. A benefit of this may be getting supporters of the ugly sisters that head south on a Saturday coming along to TCS on a Friday night. For me now, it's hard enough getting up north for a Saturday game, Friday nights just wouldn't be possible. But on the whole, if it adds numbers to the local support I'd back a proposal for it. Offsetting an expected drop in the numbers of visiting fans with a hopeful rise in local support has got to be a good long term strategy to foster young supporter loyalty and increase the crowd numbers as the years go on. I don't think there's any one strategy going to provide the answer, anything tried has to be done in conjunction with lowering the price of admission as I think that's the biggest single cause of dwindling support. It's not an idea to dismiss out of hand.

He has now turned down the opportunity to sign for Maltese champions Valetta and the Mariners aren't going to offer him a contract - this may be the reason... "The Mariners are said to be waiting for governing body Football Federation Australia to decide whether it will contribute to a potential $3m Aus (£1.63m) offer to the 100m and 200m world record holder." (BBC Sport) Can you imagine the upset in a Brit lower league dressing room (ours included) if a celebrity non-footballer was fast-tracked into your team on that kind of money and you were benched to make room for him? I can't see it happening anywhere anytime soon - the guy is dreaming!

I'd been wondering what the old General would get up to in his retiring years so I fought against the old Aberdonian bum squeak and forked out £1.99 of my hard earned to find out. Keep going old chap and remember 'Never give up, never ever give up!' ?

Aye but balanced by no clean sheet this week

If they don't want to move one game to Murrayfield they could always play one of them on Monday evening, but that would mean having to postpone two of the Wednesday evening league fixtures. In that scenario the Tarts-Tic game would be the best option to save the late evening trip back up the road for the Aberdeen fans - of course that thought won't enter into the SPFL thinking! Moving one game to Murrayfield seems such a simple solution...

Well that was a relief at least!

I like that CD ?

Have to agree Mantis, I only see this competition as a positive step. I gave up watching friendlies many moons ago, a complete waste of time, effort and money not only for the fans but also of limited benefit for the FA, coaches and players. This tournament, on the other hand, will provide some meaningful competition to put some life back into our internationals with the added benefit of another chance to reach a major finals and restore some long lost pride and passion.

As much as anything else I'm p'd off with Rooney for costing me 5 points for the 2-1 win in Gringo's NPL ?