CaleyCanary

Wonder if they're having similar debates on the Fulham and Arsenal websites today? We were beaten by late, late goals from a team that just doesn't know how to give up - a la Man Ure and Chelski. All three are driven by the same mentality and they will push every inch of the way until the dying second, just like a few weeks back! That's why they are winners and picking up trophies and why we keep chucking good results away - we don't have that self belief to the same extent. If anybody is to blame it's Strachan for instilling a Fergie-like never-give-up mentality into his team.

CC and DP have got a helluva job lifting them up for the Arabs on Saturday - but giving them a good stuffing with the same 11 as started yesterday is just what everyone needs.

Still numb this morning... ...don't think I've ever been so gutted about a result since that Wembley defeat in Euro '96 :007:

One of CCs comments before the Motherwell game was that Rory had been scoring goals for fun all week in training. His performances in training must be influencing his decisions to put him on the park. Hopefully one of these days we might see the fruition of the potential that CC obviously sees.

It's a really big deal if yer tring to organise a Highland March!!!

Just shows what an impact playing regularly has on squad picks. Marshall has gone straight into the No1 spot at Norwich knocking Gallacher to the bench - but Gallacher gets the nod for the squad as he's been playing regularly while Marshall has been warming a bench all season :017:

For the IT minded folk out there I ran this interesting bit of script through our database this morning and got a not unexpected result... > SELECT * FROM panellists WHERE clue > 0 AND username = 'GERRYMCNEE'; > 0 rows returned.

I've always had a lot of respect for the guy and would like to believe he felt let down by the SFA, but somehow can't help feeling that he has sold out his country for his 30 pieces of silver. Managing yer country must surely be the pinnacle of your career. I just can't understand how he could walk away from what he's achieved. He had the adoration of a whole nation and he's thrown it back in our faces. It is said that love and hate are opposite sides of the same coin, well Smith has just flipped his coin over :008:

Personally I blame davieB for not posting this fekkin weeks ago!!! :021:

You misunderstood me a wee bit there Clacher. I agree we have no right to expect to be in the SPL for a long time, just a hope that we are. It's the job of establishing ourselves as a top flight outfit that is going to be a long haul, a couple of seasons of finishing higher than expected does not mean job done. Relegation is always going to be a possibility but I feel we have more chance of avoiding it, particularly this year, if we just stick to what we've got and keep on playing to our strengths. It's the knee-jerk panic reactions that would put us down far quicker and then keep us down there.

No, I don't think we should Charlie 5 more games - 5 more years is a far better option!!! We're in this SPL game for the long haul so be patient. It's not going to happen overnight and chopping and changing managers never did anybody any good. Plenty examples out there at the moment and the most successful sides keep faith with their management teams and give them the support they need to bring on the good times - that's what we should ALL be doing now!!!

Yer right CaleyD - Since arriving at Norwich, Peter Grant jumps about like his pants are full o' midgies and the results are going from bad to worse! The locals thought it was a breath of fresh air when he first arrived coz Worthington used to sit there like he was in a coma. Now when he throws a fit on the touchline (which is for about 85 minutes of the game) the players just seem to ignore him as it's the norm now and the local support start screaming at him to sit down and shutup! Great entertainment though, at least you feel yer getting summat for your money :014:

I'll bet that Dundee, Livi, Partick, St Johnstone, Morton and a host of others (including Dunfermline) would love our 11th place right now, and I'll be well happy if we finish the season second bottom and live to fight another day!!! Our expectations have been far too high. We've been spoiled by success in the lower divs for years and really need to bed ourselves into the top flight before having any further ambitions. I don't expect our management team, on or off the park, will have thought they were going to waltz into a regular top six spot and UEFA cup glory. I don't see any reason why CC can't be the man to do the biz long-term for us - we don't want to do a 'Livi'. It's football FFS, the downs are as much a part of the game as the ups. It's going through a period like this that makes the good days all the more enjoyable. KTF, there's lots more good days to come!!! :021:

Don't panic, Dunfermline are there to save everyone else worrying!!! :003:

First trip up for the flying budgie this year - you know how I like the glamour ties. Just glad it was an away draw in the central belt and not Sneck...

Empathy, empathy, I know where yer coming from Naelifts. It was always my biggest worry as we careered headlong into the EssPee(H)ell that we would be leaving all our cuddly, lower div pals behind and things would never be the same again. It was a great delight to leave the bile of Ibrox behind after 1994 and start enjoying watching football once more with all the great craic that went along with it. Following and watching ICT is nothing, absolutely nothing, like following one of the OF thank feck and is still my favourite pastime - I'll even drive past a field of sprightly young unchaperoned lambs to get there! Just wish it could happen more often. As for entertainment, well that's the icing on the cake to be savoured when it happens. The enjoyment comes with just being there and it's why so many of us exiles cannot understand why there ain't bigger crowds with a better atmosphere at TCS.

Nothing surprises me in football anymore - well not quite true, Elgin did ma heid in when they drew at East Fife two weeks back and lost me my hard earned beer tokens! Don't think we'd get stuffed anyway, but with Man Ure coming up on Tuesday it just may be enough to hold them back. Reckon a point is feasible and all three may be a bit unexpected but not beyond hope. And I reckon Mike Fraser will have his name all over the Sunday papers :021:

It doesn't need owt like that Mantis, it's already setup and all you have to do is register and the site gets a commission for you playing. I've signed up for both Lotto and Euro Millions and if my luck's in I'll be another 'mystery exile' investing in the club :022:

Now that's an interesting thought... ...wonder if Cooper was first choice or if Shearer was ever approached about the possibility :024:

Felt sorry for Stewarty when I heard the news of his departure but delighted at Pele and Cooper getting the chance there. I wish them well, we could do with another strong contender in the region and they are quite capable of delivering.

For what we'd get in January we'd be better off hanging on to him until the end of the season and then wishing him all the best. We'd be daft to let him go early for peanuts and risk being short of cover if someone in the back four picks up a nasty injury or a lengthy suspension.

It's always an interesting debate about whether an English non-premiership club is a bigger entity than one of our own SPL sides. What we must remember is the relative difference in size between the two senior setups in both countries. The English league is so much bigger with clubs attached to much larger towns and cities and pulling far bigger gates than we can manage - even as far down the pecking order as the Conference sides! There's a lot more money about. I was at Norwich v Cardiff on Saturday, attendance over 25,000 which was 94% capacity - and they get that nearly every game not just because they were playing the league leaders. They've had the luxury of parachute payments for the last couple of seasons so there's been plenty dosh flying about the place over and above Delia's contributions. Like our own board, they're pretty sensible with their money. They invested in their new training centre at Colney and it's as good as anything else in the country and the envy of many in the premiership. Their youth policy has produced some fine players over the years, some of have played up north like Chris Sutton, Craig Bellamy and Dale Gordon. So are Norwich City a bigger club than Caley Thistle? On reflection, I'd probably have to say yes they are - but they don't get the adrenalin pumping like our lads can! PS. The Dundee United reject is doing fine and becoming a firm favourite with the yokels. He's currently got a bit of an injury and was benched for the Cardiff game. No doubt he'll get his place back easily, his replacement (Ashdown) looked well dodgy and his distribution would have been an embarrassment to Elgin City!

Gringers, really, are you suggesting I'm a wind-up merchant? :010: All I can tell you from this end is nowt! There's been nothing on the official club website and no further mention of any partnership in the local rag. The story first appeared on the 21st but doesn't seem to have generated any interest with the Canary faithful - at the moment they're far too concerned about getting dumped out of the Carling Cup last night by lowly Vale. Looks like Grant's honeymoon could be over before it even got started! However, he has been making a lot of noise about the youngsters at the club being given a chance and he wants to put some oomph back into the youth policy that did so well here a few years back. So, if he still has good links with Charlie then I wouldn't be surprised if something emerges. Although I do feel that the tone of the original article is suggesting that we would be treated as some sort of minnow feeder club for Norwich, and believe me that's a piggin' joke! The odd loan spell of a young fringe player may be useful if we were going through a bad injury patch, but under normal circumstances why on earth would we want to be introducing Norwich City has-beens and never-will-bes into a good settled squad like ours? For me the article lost most of its credibilty with the mis-spelling of 'Super carey' in the title :017:

Well one third of the way through the season to the split and how do we fair? Sitting comfortably in 5th place, 1 point off a UEFA Cup spot and 9 points clear of our dearly departed Brew fighting it out in the rat pit! From what we've seen so far I don't think we've got anything to worry about from our competitors around us. We've built nicely on our nearly missed top 6 place of the last couple of seasons and the potential is there for a really successful season. All we need now is another great cup run and a victory against the Dons to put the icing on the cake. Not counting any chickens just yet but I'm feeling really positive about moving into the next cycle of games. I think our management and team deserve a well earned gold star for their brilliant efforts so far. :clapping04:

I don't really care what flavour of tictacs we have against Falkirk as long as we secure the 3 points. They've too often got the better of us at home - historically, they're a bit of a bogey for us! It's vital we keep our feet on the ground and put everything into getting a win here and in Paisley next week. We need to build on last week's win to consolidate our position in the top half before we hit that Dons-Hibs-Celtic-Hearts sequence again. The odd few points snatched against the odds like last week are all very welcome, but it's the kind of game tomorrow that we need to be winning regularly if we expect to be top 6 regulars.