tokelyisvictorious

I was at the game, there was a couple of niggles. There was that eejit who always shouts at the games, always something along the lines of 'COME ON CALEY, WAKE UP' or even 'BOOOOOO'. Think he sits in section F, bout halfway up judging from the noise.

Looks as though the decision has already been made. Good to see, a bit of positivity running into the last few games as well. Nice to see my influence has spread so far... :)

Good to see all positive replies so far. If Butcher stays, as well as Esson, Hayes and Foran (and maybe even Duncan after saturday's showing) we have a real chance. Then again, if we have to let these players go, it might be a different story. Although Butcher has rebuilt a team, the core of the squad has remained from last season (Esson, Roscoe, Munro, Duncan, Foran, Rooney), I'm not sure how he would fare completely starting from scratch.

I'm good like that. B) Nice to see 100% so far on the 'Regardless' answer.

Coming up to that time of the season where decisions have to be made about players and staff (unfortunately no decision can be made on the more executive members of ICT). So do you believe in Butcher and Malpas, or do you think they've had their time and can move on satisfied that they have done a good job. Simple enough, a vote and an explanation. My vote goes to 'Regardless of the season's finish'. I've seen enough this season to convince me that Butcher has the makings of a good team, and that he should be allowed time to mould them into league winners. And, if Dundee were taken out of the equation, we would be winning the league this season. I fully expect the replies to be positive.... B)

Ah. Yep. Looking back on it, we didn't win. Apologies. But I stick by the rest of the post. Renegade stated Rooney was poor and the worst on the pitch. He was marked out of the game and given poor service. I'm sure he can find some love for Rooney somewhere.

If it wasn't for Rooney, we wouldn't have drawn today. If it wasn't for Rooney, we would be minus 15 goals this season, and we would be mid-table at best. What do you mean you don't care if he scored? If he hadn't we would be another point worse off. I hope this is another Renegade statement designed to be completely opposite to the general consensus, but if this is really your opinion, then you know nothing. Reason for edit - got carried away and forgot the actual result.

We had enough chances in that game to win every game from now until the end of the season. Just off the top of my head, I can think of Sanchez missing one across goal, Bully's header off the line, the own-goal-that-crossed-the-line-but-wasn't-given chance, another almost own goal (this time kept out), Hayes through on goal, Rooney through on the keeper twice... And a few others I've probably forgotten. Good performance, lacking in urgency in some parts, but we made opportunities today that earlier in the season we weren't able to. No idea regarding the penalty, Munro went down from some pressure, and everyone shouted for it. Next thing I know, there's no-one around me cos they'd all stood behind the goals waiting for the Ginger Messiah to power it home. Up until the penalty the ref was shocking. Really pedantic. But he gave the penalty, so it was a terrific all-round performance from the man in black.

It's not as if my summer revolves around England getting knocked out, but it does cheer me up. I am always delighted to see Lawrenson/Hansen/Linekar/Wright unhappy. Maybe if they got some decent, neutral pundits in the studio my attitude would change, but I doubt it.

I can honestly say that I have never heard any 'gloating' about '67. Maybe reminiscing, but no gloating. And taking your point, Celtic should then harp on about '67 before every champions league game, which simply doesn't happen. Maybe if you frequent the Celtic forums. I know England games are less regular than the CL, and that comparing Celtic in the CL and England in the WC is impossible, but I just don't hear a peep about '67 before any CL games. Maybe I switch off from it. For me, and you can take this as racist or a tad prejudiced, the English media/fans are a more arrogant breed than the Scotland fans. The fans should probably expect more, they do have a decent team, but the Scotland fans believe more in the occasion rather than the end result.

I wouldn't but the t-shirt, but I personally will be delighted when England get knocked out. Not really about racism, it always makes it interesting. Not really about the English either, just an extreme dislike for the media stuffing as much '66 nostalgia as they can into their agenda's. And Ian Wright.

Seems to be another money-saving technique, but probably one that will backfire on us. The big advantage we had over County was our run of form (now interrupted) and their heavy schedule coming up (and we've just added another game to ours).

Here, this is a public forum, you need to watch you don't say things that break the law. Below, we see Richie chilling, and Richie going mental. In your face Gibson! :D :allhail: So sorry, I will conduct myself in a more foran-positive manner in the future.

Rooney is definitely the most improved. Confident, better workrate, has been working on his pace and stamina and is putting the chances away. No idea about how good Hayes was when he was down at Leicester, but right now I would rank him as one of the most exciting players I've seen play for ICT in a while. He's been given a lot more freedom to roam in midfield, always willing to run at defenders and have a pop at goal. Reminds me of a smaller, chubbier Barry Wilson. Could become a better player than Baz, if he keeps it going until the end of the season. On the point of Foran, at the end of our last season in the SPL, he seemed to be a man possessed, chasing every ball like a madman. Now we've dropped down a division, he seems to have an annoying habit of feeling that he doesn't need to show the same commitment. He's shown in a couple of games that he is capable of it, like away to Dundee earlier in the season, but in other games he has been infuriating. In case anyone thinks I'm jumping on the bandwagon, I mentioned this last year, especially after the Airdrie away game, when he seemed to constantly stand still with his arms outstretched and complaining.

Ambled along for the game, and it was quite good. Big attendance, I'd say pushing towards 5000. The main stand was almost full and the north stand was just as good as the partick game if not better. The eejits missed a late penalty that could have won the game. Thought Rosoce could have got a run-out in the team.

Probably a bit off topic, but Eagles would be a much better player if Butcher put him in the centre of midfield. Although he doesn't have much pace/trickery, he can spot a pass. Rooney thrives off the passes played into the channels inbetween the full-backs and the central defenders, Eagles would fit in perfectly. On topic, it seems that its going to be at least a few years before the fans decide they've had enough of the board members faffing, and take decisive action :D and we manage to keep a decent squad together for more than a season and push for promotion. The biggest positive out of getting relegated is stories like this, and the stadium ownership deal, finally coming out into the open. In the SPL, people were too happy for us to be successful to care about whether we owned our stadium, or if the board was leeching off that success.

Doesn't look as though he is going anywhere. Killie would never offer us fernandez, and I doubt he'd ever move up here to play for us.

He forces us to play the ball on the ground, when we're most effective. If we played Foran up front, the ball would be up in the air for 90 minutes, going between Munro's foot and Rooney/Foran's head. At the moment we seem to look for a man in midfield or a man on the wings to play it into, until we're under pressure and feel the need to hoof it. Seems to be suffering from a confidence crisis, was our top scorer for a bit until Rooney got his shooting boots on. Almost like a luxury in the 1st division, an intelligent footballer with a nice touch and slick passing. A valuable first team player in my eyes.

Definitely a penalty for Rooney's goal, and well done to the boy for stepping up a second time and slotting it past Tuffey. How we did not win that game by three or four is beyond me. Sanchez missed from 5 yards, Rooney missed a penalty, Partick cleared the ball off the goal-line, Rooney was through a couple of times as well, and Hayes had a cracking opportunity but blasted it over. We were all over them in the second half, especially the last 15 minutes or so. And finally got to celebrate a last minute goal, the last time that happened was the pars game way back in August. Nice way to finish a match, and it seemed to matter a lot to the players as well. Maybe, as long as the players keep focussed, we could make the run-in interesting. MOM - Either Bully (just for the sake of it), Rooney or Hayes.

Seems like my ICT correspondent was telling the truth after all then. I didn't believe the '4 players left contracted beyond the end of this summer' story, and couldn't be bothered checking, but now a couple have run through the team and verified it, seems crazy this is where we find ourselves. After 5 years in the SPL, and from what we were fed by the board, not doing too badly financially, and now we can't afford to hand a new contract to a club legend like Tokely or talent with a future like Bully. We must be one of the only clubs in Scotland not to know how we are financially. The silence from the club is deafening. The big issue is that a new man will need to come in and will need to rebuild an entire club. We will be starting from scratch, aside from reputation and the board's ineptitude. The comment from Butcher about the fee only being small seems like a slight complaint/dig at the board. I'd like to see him go on decent circumstances with the fans, here's hoping he can shed a bit of light on the situation nearer the end of the season.

I'm led to believe that we only have 4 players contracted beyond the end of this season. So, for the rest of the season we will have to make do with one natural centre-back, two let-backs, one right-back and one player who really should be playing in midfield (Proctor). Cracking. Then at the end of the season, we have 4 players with deals and no manager to decide who to keep. Hopefully the board will get their heads out of the sand, have a quick glance at the squad and management situation, and take action before it gets to that stage.

MOM - Bulvitis. Moment of the match - Imrie getting one over the dissenters. Motherwell were absolutely shocking though. We weren't amazing, but got stuck in and made sure we took our chances. If we show that level of determination in the County game then we might just be celebrating at the end. Hope Hayes is back for this weekend. Best player on the park. If we keep hold of him, Esson, Foran and Munro then I'd be a lot more optimistic for the years ahead.

Perhaps building to the 10,000 mark would have been excessive, but I was at a bit of loss at to why we took so long to start building the two extra stands, and then try to complete it like we were going for a world record. Surely it would have been better starting to build once we reached the SPL, and took a little more time and care building it. Good news for County though, I'm waiting for it to fall apart, but this time it feels a little different. Seems more likely that we will be the club falling apart in the near future.

County manage 2000 fans for their biggest games, and most of the time the attendance is exaggerated hugely. I've been to a few (back in the day when I couldn't afford away games), standing in the jail end and guessing about 1,600 at most, and then the attendance is read out as 2,500. To be honest, I wouldn't say I'm jealous of what County are starting to build, but it's a bit annoying that we did not show the same foresight and belief back in the day.

As in the highland news - This week, the club made a formal application to Highland Council's Ross and Cromarty area planning department to redevelop Victoria Park to create a 6,000 seater stadium - the minimum number of seats required by the Scottish Premier League. The ambitious plan would see new seated stands at both the Jail End and the away end. The existing away end would be demolished and a new two-tier seated stand, costing ?500,000, built in its place. Fitting out the Jail End stand with seats would cost ?100,000 and under-soil heating would come in at ?150,000. A new playing surface is also envisaged. I'd love to see this, it would be great to see just over 2000 people turning up to a 6000 all-seater stadium. More expense on their side, from what I can see they will not be promoted this season, nor next, and it's only a matter of time before their better players move away, and that's County back in a bit of debt again. That said, wish the ICT board had shown a bit of initiative, rather than going through all of the hassle when we went through and then paying Aberdeen to travel 110 miles to play at 'home'.