CaleyD

I heard that rumour too, but not had any confirmation of what's happening, or what the plan is (if anything). Regardless, I'm sure Barry will give due acknowledgement to the fans....as Scotty said, we never did get a chance to say goodbye properly. With regard to disrupting his game....it's amazing how clumsy I can get....I'm renowned for standing on people's toes :029:

East and West stand tickets cost more than the North and South stands. As we are all in the East stand then we only have single price point which is the higher one whilst Dundee will be able to offer their fans a lower ticket price for the North and South stands than they will for the West Stand.

The West Stand is the Main Stand, we are to be in the East Stand.

Have to say that I'm not altogether comfortable with the way this has been done...for two reasons. Firstly, given the "drought" in terms of big games involving ICT in the last few years then there's every chance that we'll take a very healthy sized crowd to this game with a lot of people coming out of the woodwork to attend a cup final (even if it is a diddy cup). Our fanbase has increased a fair bit since the last time and we had in excess of 3000 at that game. Secondly, we are to be housed in the stand opposite the main stand, which means there's is only one "price point" for our tickets and that is the more expensive of the two available at McDiarmid Park and I would have hoped that as a trade off we would have been given the more "comfortable" main stand. Only time will tell if the 3400 tickets will be sufficient, but my personal opinion is that whoever was involved in these talks has underestimated the size of our following and then sold us short in terms of where we'll be located.

You forgot Fat and Ginger in your description, Johnboy.....and I can assure that those attributes resulted in me being subjected to just as much teasing/abuse/discrimination (whatever you want to call it) as any minority group you want to name.

See Tech Support Forum.

What a heap of arrogant cr@p! Why should the decent majoraty be chased away from football by a bunch of foulmouthed loudmouthed kids? The current law exists because that decent majoraty doesnt want and wont accept this kind of nonsence - and football matches are no exeption. How many decent fans do people like this actualy drive away so how much money do you cost the club. If you are a member of the mindless minoraty which wants to behave like this then take a long hike into the Cairngorms where nobody can here you and shout all you like. Come back to the Caledonian stadium when you have growne up. The "decent majority"??? Don't make me laugh. Since when did two or three complaints from a crowd of hundreds or thousands become a majority? Those complaining are very much in the minority, it's just unfortunate that we live in a society that panders to the minority for fear of accusations of discrimination. Bring back the days when the majority ruled and the minority either accepted it or fecked off and did something else.

Better be careful calling them Queens, especially in any derogatory or discriminatory fashion, or we'll be in the P&J next week for sexual prejudice

Thanks all, am I allowed to give myself a birthday announcement on Saturday? :clapping03:

Glad they saw sense over the location. It's about as central as is possible for both teams and being bang smack in the middle of the country then it's more likely to attract a number of "neutrals".

It's one thing to argue the merits of a player, but quite another to suggest that he's been held at the club, costing us money and taking up a squad place for any reason other than the fact that the Manager thinks he is capable of playing some part at some point in time. If we flip the scenario on it's head for just a moment and we had McBain playing every game and Eagle being left out of the squad then people would be on criticising Butcher for making signings and then not using them. We can only start 11 guys on the pitch and have 7 on the bench...that leaves 8 or 9 players out every match, so it's not like he's the only one. McBains attitude of working hard and fighting for a place is exactly what I would expect....not just from him, but from everyone in the team.

Don't think the ref was biased.....just crap.

A few users were banned from polls last season for voting when not at games, or voting for the same player to get 1, 3 & 5 points (or a combination of those). Your username is on that list, which would explain why you do not have voting privileges.

No, Smarties are.

I'll take an ugly win over a pretty defeat any day of the week. Whilst I don't think many of our players turned in anything like a star performance, I do take some encouragement from seeing them grind out a result in a scrappy game which was never going to lend itself to fancy passing and ball tricks. Thought our back 4 did ok, was a short spell just after the break where they seemed to be letting the opposition get in behind them, but we picked up on that and quickly cut out the problem. In short, we did what needed to be done, and that's good enough for me.

If their was booing of Eagle then I certainly wasn't aware of it from where I was stood when reading out the team lines.

When exactly do you think the club have had time to sort this out?

What's so interesting about me posting a message from the club? As co-publisher of the site then these messages come to me (and Scotty) and we then post them as requested. There's nothing more to be read in to it.

You can catch someone with an elbow carelessly or by accident, but that elbow by Morrison on Hayes was delivered with malice and should have been a straight red. What gets me is that the ref was gesturing as if to claim he never saw it....it was an "on the ball" incident FFS. Not to mention the fact that the linesman and 4th official were also no more than 10 or 15 yards from it and they too were just shrugging shoulders and playing dumb.

Mike Smith has asked that I post the following in response to questions above.

If this rain doesn't stop then nobody will need to boycott anything B)

TCS would be condemned on that basis

The above is basically how it was explained to us at the meeting, and whilst the police aren't interested in getting involved with people who come away with the odd expletive or a bit of name calling and they appreciate that much of it is par for the course at a football match, they do have to act if someone reports being offended or it is a discriminatory remark (as in the last one in the list). Singing "the wheels on your house go round and round" could also be deemed as Racially Aggravated Breach of the Peace because it infers you're having a go at travelling folk.....so you don't even have to use the word Gypsy or Traveller. It's not a good situation, I don't agree with it, but it's only right that you guys are as aware as you can be on these things. If you decide to go ahead with these songs/chants anyway, then you are at least doing so in full knowledge that their is the possibility you could be lifted for it. The article posted by ICTChris calls the situation spot on.

First off, I would like to make the point that whilst I was at the meeting representing the Supporters Trust, any views or opinions expressed in the following are mine and mine alone as I have not had the opportunity to discuss the content with the rest of the Trust Board and it would be inappropriate for me to speak on behalf of them before that talk has taken place. This is my understanding and recollection of the meeting. In attendance..... Mike Smith - General Manager (ICTFC) Peter McCallum - Safety Officer (ICTFC) Alistair "something" - A Police Sergeant heavily involved with policing of all kinds of events within the region Don Johnstone - Supporters Trust/CaleyThistleOnline (Me) 3 concerned ICTFC Fans (Who can name themselves if they so wish) A few matters were discussed at tonight's meeting, but the main focus was on the use of the word "Gypsy" in reference to Ross County fans. The topic was kicked off by the 3 fans in attendance expressing their confusion at where the apparent issue had arisen from and Mike Smith explained that he had received complaints (one verbal and one written) from season ticket holders following the last match versus Ross County. He went on to explain how these things are handled by the club, pointing out that they had a duty to follow up on and investigate any complaint. He then passed on to Alistair (Police) who gave us a brief summary of the law on these matters. To cut a long story short, the law basically states that if you make any remark which is deemed racially offensive by anyone who hears it then you are leaving yourself wide open. It was also highlighted that the word "Gypsy" was now a specified term within the legislation on the matter, which is why it might have been deemed acceptable up until more recently. I questioned this matter, stating that surely some "context" must be applied to any given situation, and whilst Alistair agreed that this should/would be the case, the simple fact of the matter with these things is that very little, if any, consideration is given by the courts in regards to the roots of any term (whether they have any basis in racism). If it can be deemed to be racist...then that's the bottom line. The fact that Ross County fans have been called Gypsies by us since before this legislation came in to place would carry very little weight with the courts. The matter was discussed around the table a fair bit, with various scenarios being given. The question was asked about visiting fans calling us names..."Sheep Shagging Bastards" being the example used. Alistair highlighted that this could (and would if someone complained and the matter was pushed) be seen as a breech of the peace, but would be unlikely to be dealt with as severely as comments involving a racial element which is a different and more serious charge. I again questioned why, if the legislation had existed since 1996 and the word "Gypsy" had been added in 2006, were we only hearing about it and being clamped down on now. Again, this came back to the fact that, until now, neither the club nor the police had ever received any complaint, but having now got a complaint then they need to act. We had some discussion about how this was communicated to the fans on Saturday and it was agreed that whilst it probably wasn't an ideal way to do it, the club were merely trying to get the information to the fans most likely to find themselves in bother...not through doing anything they don't usually do, but by not being aware that this had now become an issue...as was said, not ideal, but better than the club giving no information whatsoever. So, what's the bottom line? For reasons which are beyond the control of the club, the police and the fans...the term Gyspy is no longer deemed acceptable when being used to wind up or swap banter with Ross County (or any other) fans. This is not me just towing any party line, the lads at the meeting tonight will tell you that I put forward every conceivable argument I could come up with, but the sad fact of the matter is....none of it matters a jot. Whether we like it or not, this is not something that the club or police have any control over. Alistair highlighted that the police do not want to be lifting people. Many of the police are football fans themselves, but whilst they may understand the "history", they are there to uphold the law and the law says that offending anyone on the basis of the word Gypsy....or any other words inferring they are Gypsies....is racist. Once that had been established I then raised a concern about the communication of things such as this to the fans. Issuing "warnings", albeit ones intended as friendly, is not best done in the stand before a match when people are likely to be a little more hyped up and in "game mode". Could this matter have been dealt with sooner and in a different way? Probably, but it wouldn't have made any difference to the outcome. At best it would have saved 8 pages of ranting on here and a lot of frustration on the part of the fans. I have once again urged the club to look at how these things are handled and put across my view that if we all had a better understanding of how things worked and the processes involved then it might cut out a lot of the unnecessary high blood pressure. As an aside to the above, and I know this is a little off the topic of this thread. The handling of away fans for offensive behaviour was explained to the meeting by Alistair (Police). In summary, just because we don't see any action being taken in terms of police and stewards wading in to the away end doesn't mean nothing is being done. Because of the nature of away crowds and the fact that trouble spots tend to involve larger groups of people, the police use more covert tactics to remove and or reprimand offenders. These range from quietly escorting them away when they go to use the toilet or get a pie, to the use of CCTV footage to identify people who then get an unexpected police visit at home a couple of days later. It was also pointed out that since ICT fans are generally well behaved (home and away) then it's not something that many (if any) of us will have experienced first hand. Any problems with our mob are generally one or two which means they can be dealt with more openly at the time. The subject of standing was also raised and Peter McCallum pointed out that the clubs primary concern on this was not so much the standing, but the overcrowding of certain areas. It was suggested that the club could, again, look at making the West Stand available....allowing people to move over there so they can all be together without the risk of occupying other season ticket holder seats or overcrowding. This will take a bit of discussion among all parties to come up with a workable plan, but it is one possible solution to part of the problem. I'm sure I probably missed some stuff, and I would appreciate people asked questions before going off the deepend on anything. One thing I would say before closing. Please be very careful of trying to turn this into a tit for tat scenario, and I say that for our own sakes. It would be easy for any of us to start writing letters to the club complaining about some of the things away fans call us, but remember that anything they end up being banned from singing/chanting will also mean a ban from us being allowed to sing/chant the same or similar. This is already bureaucracy gone mad (although at a higher level than the club or police), let's not be the ones that make it any worse.

Apologies for not being able to come on and post sooner, had to go straight out to work after the meeting and then decided to take a couple of hours off from a crap week to go have a cuppa with friends (well, I could have lied and said I was working all night!!!) Give me 20 minutes or so to have my tea and I'll post a fuller report on tonights meeting....you might want to pour yourselves a large one while you wait.