CaleyD

Bring back Bobby Mann, he may have been a defender but he provided Wyness with some of the best service he has ever had. A ball from the edge of the 18yrd box on to the chest of wyness at the opposite end, drops to his feet, he turns, he twists and gives a little shuffle...bang, balls in the net.

Is it a bird???? Is it a plane???? No.....It's Ian Blackkkkkkk He can fair get up in the air for a wee fella, thought he was going to land in the tunnel at one point today when he came flying across the midfield and launched himself over the Celtic boy to head the ball safe.

We gave Celtic far too much respect in the first half and I think we looked scared of them to be honest. Long punts up the park just to clear the ball out of our own half and our midfield were sitting in the pockets of our own back 4 despite constant calls from Parky for them to push forward. Black had a chance early on but with acres of space in front of him decided to have a punt from just outside the 18 yeard box which went woefuly wide of target. Lennon seemed to have far too much space in the middle of the park and was picking up the ball and knocking it off with barely a challenge, I doubt he moved outside the centre circle for the first 35 minutes of the game. Last 10 minutes of the first half we seemed to switch on to a game and started playing the ball on the deck. Rankin had a couple of decent shots from distance and if he can continue to get off efforts like that I don't think it will be too long before he proves his worth. Whatever CC said to the team at half-time seemed to work as they came out all guns blazing, despite that though I thought Wyness was having to spend far too much time dropping back into midfield to collect the ball, we need players in the midfield to give him some service before we will see him play like we know he can. Think CC must have told Rossco at half time that he could play football because in the second half he was back to his old self with lung busting runs up the wing. Feck knows how he ever makes it as far as he does, it's not pretty but it works and long may it continue. Bayne won the game for us today IMO, he came on and he chased everything, he pressured the Celtic defense and was winning us balls in the last third of the pitch. People reckon his work rate alone is not enough, bollocks to that, it was his work rate that got the Celtic defense flustered and as Celtic started to drop players back to cover the ball broke to Munro who hit it as sweet as you like. Until that moment it was a toss up between him and Rossco for my MotM. Don't think we will see Rankin on Wednesday, after the "comedy moment" where him and Hastings decided to stick the nut in each other you could tell he wasn't 100% - he then took another knock and was substituted. As he came off the park he could hardly tell where he was and the eyes were glazed so I would very suprised if he wasn't diagnosed with a concusion. Over the 90 minutes the draw was probably a fair result, but I thought we were going to sneak it at then end and I don't think it would have been an unjustified win given the 2nd half performance. If they can learn to play like that for the 90 minutes we have no relegation worries and will be once again pushing the top 6.

Moving North hasn't improved his pool game any (although he did get one over on me in the 9 ball) :015:

The problem in Inverness these days is not so much them playing "Commercial" music, it's the fact they don't have any decent DJ's who can carry it off. I can't remember the last time I was out and I saw a DJ actually using a microphone to interact with the crowd. "When I was a lad" and DJing, using the mic to gee the crowd up was half the job and made for far more fun evenings. Maybe I should come out of retirement and show them all how it should be done :015:

I would echo what Scotty has said. I've not worked on the site/s anywhere near the length of time he has but for every addition/change/enhancement a person see's at the front end of the site, there are many hours of work go into it in the background. This site is probably a decent enough example, it took us 1500 hours of work putting it together before it was fit for public viewing/use, and even then (and still now) it is getting constant refinement. I have been working on the site here practically full-time since the start of the year and have just recently gone back to working full time (in a paid job....lol) and the standing joke was where I was going to find the time to earn a living given the amount of time I was spending on this. Scotty was also putting in practically full-time hours on the site whilst holding down the job that pays the bills. So from that standpoint we can appreciate the amount of time the club will need to invest in running the site for themselves and how long it will take them to get fully up to speed. The club won't get things 100% correct from the off, just like we didn't (and still don't) all that I would ask is that if people are going to criticise, make it constructive. If you don't like something, say why and say what you would like to see. Scotty and I receive the occasional criticism, on the whole these are constructive, but you get the odd person who is just out to have a go. The constructive criticisms/complaints we deal with and work with the person to put things right, the others go straight in the bin. I think we are pretty open in the issues we have had on the site (and on SportNetwork previously) and it is only with the help of the users that we are able to tweak and improve things, and that will be the same with the new site. It's not practical or possible for a person to check every link and every feature constantly to make sure they are working so there is a dependency on users to flag up problems. There will inevitably be a small overlap in features between here and the official site, but we have a pretty decent working relationship with the club and have agreed to try and not step on each others toes. There was always going to be a time where the site had to split in to it's two main components (official and unofficial) as stuff is far more closely monitored by the powers that be at this level and there are certain things that the club needs to (slightly) distance itself from, like the forums. On the same note, in order to run a true fans site, we needed to distance ourselves slightly from the club to prevent having to be over zealous with censorship etc. Scotty carries 12 years of experience with him of running the club and fan site for ICT and I carry a bit of technical knowledge and a couple years experience with the ICT site/s. The club are aware that they can approach either of us at any time should they need help or advice with anything. Regardless of what we think of the new Official Site or it's setup or anything like that, we appreciate their need to move off on another road and we both hope that it is everything they hope it will be. We made the decision to move this site off SportNetwork as we found it was too restrictive in the features we could offer, or we had to find time consuming and laborious work arounds to make stuff fit. That brings with it a new challenge for us and keeps things from getting stale, it also brings with it the opportunity for us to get more fans involved. The moderators now have a far bigger range of tools available to them for assisting with the running of the forums and any fan who wants to contribute to the site in any way (stories, match reports, new ideas etc) is more than welcome to approach us with suggestions - to use Scotty's phrase, we want this to be a site "By the Fans, For the Fans" and the more contributions we are getting, the fresher the site remains. Whereas the site would have concentrated more around just club news in the past, we want to expand that with fan news, articles on fans experiences, what it is like travelling hundreds of miles to see your team play, or what it is like following ICT from overseas, the stories that do the rounds in the pubs and next to the radio as people listen in, what funny/interesting stuff happened to you at last weeks game or a game 20 years ago, a chance to capture some of those memories and to keep them available for fans of the future and for people now to look back on in years to come. It will take time for us to get where we want to be with the site, and if we are honest, we should never reach where we want to be as the site should continually grow and evolve, but thats half the fun, and it will be the same with the official site. It will take time for them to catch up to where they should/want to be and from then on it is all about growth and development. The club have the added pressure of making the site pay and developing it as another income stream for the club through various methods. On here we said from the outset that everything on this site will remain free and that we would never charge for a general service, and we stand by that. We do have adverts, but those are there to offset at least some of our costs (webhosting, software licenses, fixtures license, couple beers...lol etc). I could ramble on all day, but the main point is that running a website is something totally new to the club and it will take them time to grow in to the task, just as it is taking Scotty and I time to learn and grow in to the task of running this site totally free of any fans network site etc. We will continue to share knowledge and experience with the club if they want/need it and the club will continue to work with us on provision of data etc that we use here. The sites may have gone separate directions, but that doesn't mean the people behind them aren't still working together and co-operating. It has not become an "Us and Them" situation, and I hope it never does.

Regardless of how many people who supported Thistle or Caley pre-merger choose not to attend TCS you still have to look at the fact we now attract 5 or 6 times what these teams used too, these people are therefor insignificant in the grand scheme of things and have had no impact on the growth of ICT crowds. If all the "Stay Aways" were to come back tomorrow, the increased crowd figures would hardly be noticed. The only people suffering are they themselves.

I should be in the Innes pre-match tomorrow, so remind me (as I keep forgetting) and I'll take a share.

I totally disagree with creating a structure which promotes eliteism and bleeds the game dry financially. It's all fair and well saying look what we did and how it worked for us, but you also have to keep in mind that ICT were/are supported by a rapidly growing community (domestic, commercial and industrial) which helped us keep our heads above water until we reached the stage we are at now where we are, IMO, a financially viable business in our own right. To suggest and/or implement any kind of setup that strangles "grass roots" level football more than is already happening will be the death nail in the Scottish Football coffin. We have a lack of talent coming through as it is, and the best of that is already being lured away to clubs outwith Scotland. The only way to compensate for that is to promote football at the lower level, to support it and nurture it's talent and increase the number of players coming up through the ranks. One of the biggest plus factors for us in our development is the way we have picked up talented players who have gone unnoticed elsewhere from the very clubs some are looking to "get rid off" - where will we find these players in future? Will we be able to compete in a market where supply will drop, demand will increase and transfer prices will rocket? I very much doubt it. If clubs like ours want to continue to progress, grow and build, then we need the teams lower down the leagues to be as succesful as they can be, to be producing talent and acting as a player development platform. Without that then we would need to be investing large sums of money in large scale youth/player development projects. Either that or we will have to start looking abroad for players and whilst I have nothing against foreign players, I would far rather see our team made up predominantly of Scots, and I would also like to see that same ethos reflected in more teams throughout the entire league setup. There is nothing in the SPL 2 proposal that I can see which supports any of that, and there is nothing to be gained long term from cutting loose the smaller clubs to either sink or swim. These are the ideas which are killing the game here and the short term gains will soon be swamped by the long term damage, both at domestic and international level.

If they are going to regionalise it then get on with it and do it now, not put some bastardised league set-up in place then start messing with it and cancelling promotion and relegation as they move things around and give us years more of meaningless football. We (scottish football fans) are the customer, so why in gawds name are then not listening when everyone is screaming at them about what we want.

rosco17 - Being a DJ, you should surely be aware that one of the most annoying things is when a person comes up and asks "Can you play something good", the conversation then goes back and forth with you asking what they want and them just constantly saying "Something Good" or "Something better than this" - The Tannoy Announcer used to read these forums, he probably still does, and I am sure he would be happy to hear your (specific) requests/suggestions.

With regards to attendances in relation to catchment area, we suffer from the same issue as Livingston - a large proportion of the population in the catchment area are "outsiders" who will have followed another team before moving here. It will take a generation or two for that to filter out and produce more fans. In the meantime however, I agree that the club need to be doing more to encourage these new people along to the stadium and our prices are a major stumbling block.

He's only an ickle little thing, he can sit on someones knee.

I don't think David Sutherlands proposal has been represented in it's entirity as I know that he wanted to move to a 2 league SPL which also involved scrapping the split. I can't help but feel they have gone about this in totally the wrong direction. If anything it is the SPL which should have been done away with and the whole game in Scotland brought back under a single banner. It is/was unlikely that the SPL will be disbanded, and with that in mind we should have been looking to increase the current size of the SPL instead of fannying around with the introduction of a 2nd SPL. Why they would want to introduce and SPL2 when it is obvious that the current setup is not working is beyond me. The only thing we can hope for (and I think it is unlikely) is that the teams invited to join an SPL2 refuse, or that sufficient teams refuse and it forces a rethink with the idea of an increased number of teams for SPL1 being top of the list. I understand that it is near impossible to remove money from the equation these days, but the priority should be the game and how it is contested over the season, not how much money can be squeezed out of it. Also, the divide between the SPL2 and SFL1 will grow to a level whereby teams in the SFL will be pushed even further toward financial ruin in an attempt to compete and comply. I think we are missing a couple of bits of the jigsaw here. Why would the current SPL propose a set-up which, on the face of it, would mean a further division of funds and a dilution of income for the existing teams. And why only invite 10 teams? Are we to believe they will continue with a 12 team SPL1 and the split or once they have the 10 others on board will we see the SPL1 reduced to 10 and the split abolished.....22 teams across 2 leagues just does not make any sense regardless of which way you cut it. In short, I find the whole thing smellier than Yompa's socks!!!!

What I am saying is, that North Stand sounds quieter in the Main Stand and Vice-Versa. Alos, can you please not use ALL-CAPS, it is difficult for some people to read and considered rude on message boards and in Chatrooms etc.

Because they are directly opposite you and the sound is chaneled in your direction, where as the sound from the North and Main Stands travels across the front of each other instead.

I've sat in both North Stand and Main Stand (sometimes during the same match), from the Main Stand the North Stand sounds quiet and vice-versa. Sound does not travel well in our stadium, pure and simple.

TY TY, the other guy didn't make it, driving buses just didn't seem to be his thing.

New League will commence on Friday - we have 10 active teams, if we get 2 more we will have 2 divisions, if not it will be a single league. If you wish to join then League ID is 61170 or you can use the direct link http://www.xperteleven.com/?lid=61170 League will be open to applications for new teams for this season until Thursday evening.

Regular first team games with Elgin would be of no more use to him than regular reserve games for ICT. The only time I think it benefits a player to drop so far to get first team football is when they have confidence issues and need something to kick start them again. Even if that was the case, I can't see him going out and coming back challenging for a midfield slot with us. I think it will come down to just getting his wage (or part of his wage) off the books from the clubs point of view as Fox must be well down the pecking order and very unlikely to pull on a shirt for the first team this season (or ever). Nothing against the lad, just don't think he has what it takes to ever make the ICT first team again and wherever he ends up good luck to him.

35/35, 72/75 and 3 Minors

You already have a squad of 20 players which is the maximum you can have in a private league. Need to sell before you can buy anyone else.

There are clubs with a far longer and more succesful history langushing in the lower leagues - are they also "Big Clubs". Being a so called "Big Club" has very little to do with history and far more to do with what you are doing here and now. Size of the fanbase is relevant to geography, population make-up and age of the club. Taking all these in to consideration I would say we are doing ok on the fanbase front. Also, you could have a fanbase of 50,000 and it doesn't guarantee any greater success on the pitch. Gretna obviously have aspirations of playing in the SPL, are they as big/bigger than the teams already playing there who aspire to survive each season? I'm sure every team from the local amatuer leagues to the OF aspires to play at the top level, just because you aspire to achieve something doesn't make you any bigger than anyone else. I would say we are doing a far better job than most at achieving our aspirations, which are to play at the highest level and maintain a healthy balance sheet. It matters not a jot what your aspirations are or how much money you throw at achieving them if it doesn't produce the desired results.

I am sure some of you have worked it out for yourself, but you can get money by particpating in the Sponsor activities and also by issuing press releases. If you fancy it you can also play the pools game. The game is very much a slowly slowly catchy money type scenario. If you spend all your money on transfers then you can't afford to train, if you spend it all on training you can't afford to buy players. This means you have to be clever in your transfer dealings. Players offered in via the system are generally better value than trying to deal on the transfer market and then there are the youts which get offered up occasionally. I tend to buy all the youths offered and if they are no use sell them on immediately.

On this occasion I don't buy in to the idea that because the player/agent has requested a transfer then he is not 100% dedicated to the team he currently plays for. Dods is not looking to go on and further his career, he is looking for his last contract, he wants a decent contract and he wants to be nearer his family or receive a commitment from ICT to keep him here for 4 years. All in all the issue seems to be one regarding personal circumstance and not financial gain for the player. If Dods was to stay at ICT till the end of his contract, then he will still be looking for a new contract with a club closer to home, it does him no favors to spend the season playing half hearted or below the level we know he is capable of, if he did that then any clubs who may now be interested in him are likely to look elsewhere for potential better prospects. I think we should let Dods go now, not because of any doubts I have regarding his commitment, but because the guy wants to be closer to family/loved ones. This has always been the case and he has already given us a year more than he originally signed on for (2 years if he stays till end of this season). He could have simply asked for a one year extension and left this summer, but by signing 2 years he has generated some value for us as a club, but ONLY if we move him on now. Give the guy a break and appreciate the reasons he wants to go and lets try and not be so selfish about things. Yes, it is a dog eat dog world, especially in football, but just because all other clubs act like mean barstewards does not mean we have to follow suite. We have always stood up and done things our own way and it has served us well, so lets do the right thing by the player and the right thing by the club and let the guy go get his final contract and be closer to those he wants to spend more time with. If Dods stays he will get 100% support from me unless he gives reason for anything else. If he goes I wish him all the best at wherever he ends up. If thats Utd, then so be it, it might stick in the throat a bit, but such is life, he has served us well and deserves our respect for that.