CaleyD

I'd give it to one of the ball boys. Seriously though, I've never understood the need for a Captain on the park when you have a Manager on the touchline capable of shouting orders on to the park. Aside from that, if you take away the armband then a natural leader will shine through anyway.

I would hope it wouldn't be the case, but lets not have anyone looking to test/antagonise the situation. The Stewards will be there to do the same job they always do whether they have a license or not and it is the club and the stewarding company who are leaving themselves open to problems if they have not ensured compliance with the new laws. This situation covers far more than just TCS and if clubs aren't complying with the law then something will happen during the natural course of events to bring it to light and nobody should be risking their own neck intentionally because of the ongoing stewarding issues. In short, they are quite capable of screwing things up themselves without the need for any help from the fans, and at the end of the day, if you cause an issue then the police are still on hand to ensure your dealt with accordingly.

ictchris, I made the same points when writing up this weeks Match Report for the site. Making "like for like" subs when you need a change in tactics seems like a totally pointless exercise. If your looking to increase your attacking threat then you increase your attacking force, often that means bringing on an extra forward, not just swapping one for another. With regards to the Gretna game, Wilson had to be brought on as Black got injured so it was a forced substitution.

I quite like the idea of a paper based fanzine and "CaleyThistleOffline" has a certain ring to it :001: Not everyone uses the internet and you probably could find a market for it.

Whether the decision is the right one or the wrong one, I don't really care, what's important is that a decision has finally been made and although it dragged on longer than necessary IMO, at least it hasn't been turned into some kind of circus sideshow. It's up to Hart now to earn his place back in the team and I hope he is given the same opportunity in that regard as everyone else and this incident is not held over him or used as an excuse to keep him sidelined. I also hope that our own fans remember who he is out there representing and we don't see repeats of some of the things that happened in pre-season games where some of our own fans thought it funny to berate and shout at him whilst he was taking corners, or every time he was on the ball. It's not big, it's not clever and the only people your effecting are your own team.

I get the feeling that problems exist within the club at present that go way beyond players performances on the pitch. That's life I guess and everything can't be rosy all of the time, I just hope that someone has it under control and individual ego's and issues aren't being allowed to get in the way of the larger picture.

Can I suggest you ignore the voices???

Utd couldn't afford the final installment so we sent Rossco down to repossess :023:

In hindsight I could understand the logic behind starting Proctor instead of Cowie - holding Rangers for as long as possible and strengthen the defencive aspect of our game - however that went right out the window after 34 seconds and Brewster should have been ready to make the change from that moment on. If we can't fix the problems at the back, then we need to adopt the Pele strategy of scoring more than the opposition.

I was slated at the start of the season for suggesting that we thank our current DoF for all he has done getting us where we are and looking for a more qualified replacement.

He must have been bricking it going in to yesterdays game, but he appeared to have channeled that and looked poised and ready the entire 90 minutes...miles from the Fraser of last Wednesday who seemed all over the place and wandering aimlessly up the pitch. Although he isn't the finished article he is the number one choice at the moment and appears to be learning all the time. We can't really ask more of him than that, and until January comes and Brewster is faced with the decision of keeping faith in him or bringing in someone else then we all need to try and back the guy. That doesn't mean he isn't open to criticism, but we have to understand that, at the moment, we have little choice but to try and lift him and not get on his back and add to the problems. The same goes for Fraser, he has to understand that certain expectations have been placed on him and has to work to prove himself capable. The next couple of months will be as big test on his character as it will be on his ability.

Your right about the argument, your wrong about who he had it with :004:

I hope to run a Minibus for the away day to Dundee Utd on 1st December but it will depend on the numbers. Will sort out departure times etc nearer the date but if your interested then post here to let me know.

Marty is still around, he just chose to change his username :004:

Have I missed something? Wilson is listed on both the BBC and the ICT Official site as being available for tomorrow.

More importantly...who is going to fix it?

:029:

Frasers by a country mile. Zibi was partially unsighted and only a fraction of a second away from making the save. Frasers was a result of his own utter incompetence and attempts at show boating.

Subs have to be looked at on a game by game basis and I think any manager who goes in to the game with a set time in mind is treading on dangerous ground. Games like that against Gretna last week allow for substitutions on the basis of getting players off the park to rest them up for your next encounter and will rarely make any difference to the outcome and will not be made for that reason. Games like that against Aberdeen where your having to chase a deficit call for early subs, not necessarily because any player is having a mare of a game, but because you need to be changing to a more attacking formation/set of tactics to try and claw things back. Even at only 2 goals down with 10 minutes to go you're rarely going to over turn a two goal deficit with subs, and although he had them prepared to go on before the 4th goal went in the subs were a pointless exercise at that late stage in the game. Had we only been one down and the team performing well then you could argue that you had nothing on the bench with which to improve the situation, but at two down you have to make changes to enhance your attacking position and give the changes a chance to work.

Rightly or wrongly, the club would have a very good argument that Harts actions have caused them professional embarrassment, regardless of where and when the offense took place. This would, in my experience, be sufficient reason for them to expel him on the basis of misconduct. For those of you out there who have a Gross Misconduct clause in your contract of employment, you would do well to read it very closely as I would be almost certain that it also covers your actions outside working hours.

With regards the racist comment, they'd get one warning from me and I'd leave them in no doubt whatsoever that if they repeated it then I'd report them. I'm not easily intimidated so the thought of becoming a target for their abuse (or worse) wouldn't really enter my head, but can understand it being a concern for some people. It would probably be more sensible to take a trip to the toilets and have a word with a steward out of sight of the offender to prevent any backlash. Getting in to an argument with them serves no purpose and you only risk landing yourself in bother, especially if you make threats or use colourful language to put your point over. Although admittedly this is probably what I'd find myself doing :029: If the stewards heard or saw nothing then I'm not sure what they would do, but I would expect them to follow up on the complaint and have a word.

Minibus for Rangers will be leaving from the Innes at 9.30 in the morning. Still seats available for any last minute stragglers who want to head down for the match - just stick your name on here so I can expect you in the morning or drop me a call on 07956 408874.

That is about the angriest I have felt coming away from an ICT game in a long time. Not because we weren't playing well, in fact I thought we played some great football over the 90 minutes, but because all the hard work counted for feck all due to schoolboy errors. The 2 penalties we conceded were needless beyond belief, the passback to Fraser from about 40 yards out was asking for trouble even before Fraser tried to get cute and take on the forward and our entire team sat back for the fourth and almost invited the goal. If you took a video of the game, edited out the goals and showed it to someone and invited them to predict the scoreline then they'd be coming up with results of 3 or 4-1 in our favour, not the other way around. Unlike the result against Hibs where we were simply unlucky, last night we got what we deserved for making the mistakes we made...we were robbed by our own team. I also thought someone might have mentioned Frasers antics in the second half when he seemed to take to wandering up to the edge of the centre circle....I was just waiting for someone to lob him to really put a seal on the nights events. Starting to see a streak of arrogance in Fraser when he's on the park and it's not something that is doing him any favours.

It all comes down to one thing IMO, and that's the fact that the fans are angry and upset and nothing is being done to reassure them that the things are under control, be that performances on the pitch or the actions of those behind the scenes and upstairs. The sooner the club get back to communicating properly and regularly with the fans, the sooner the constant negative edge to everything will subside. ICT are a nightmare when it comes to PR these days. I forget the last piece of positive press that come from within the club, and everything they touch or get involved with seems to get screwed up, so it's no wonder people are constantly complaining. We have nothing to get excited about and nothing to look forward too. It doesn't take much to communicate with the fans, to quell the rumours and quash the conspiracy theories. By burying their head in the sand over things and making no comments they only serve to fuel the belief that things are amiss.

Another point to note is that we only get 5 subs (one of whom must be a keeper) and the U21 rule does not apply in the Cup.