Sneckboy

As well as the 4 above names, another Dutchman and former 'well player Mitchell van der Gaag is being strongly linked in the papers today. I think the other candidate is Norberto Solano from Peru, who (unless he's lieing!) admits he's been interviewed. There will probably be an announcement this week. I wouldn't normally be too 'bothered' about who Motherwell appoint as their manager - but the Butcher link intrigues me! Surely their board haven't got such short memories! The manner of his leaving ICT followed by the cataclysmic series of results that followed! My gut instinct at the time of his 'dismissal' from Hibs was that he was finished as a manager - certainly in Scotland! There must be a lot of money going on Terry though as the bookies have him as 1/2 favourite. We shall see.

I hadn't been aware of that stat - Clarkson netting in 8 consecutive games! Although Billy didn't score in our back-to-back cup games with St Mirren, he has now scored in 3 consecutive league games (4 goals). He's back! Great win today - and the first time we've come from behind to win, on the road, in over 3 years. (November 2011)

Was reading that article and thought, I've heard of him! But after googling 'Charles Ingram' realised that was the name of the guy that got caught cheating on 'millionaire'!

Premiership Stuart Armstrong (Ross County 2-3 Dundee United) Adan Rooney (pen) (Aberdeen 3-0 Hamilton Accies) League One Bryan Gilfillan (Stirling Albion 2-3 Peterhead) Connor Pepper SENT OFF (Stranraer 2-0 Morton) Highland League Andrew Greig (Brora 1-0 Inverurie Loco Works) Daniel Park (Rothes 0-5 Cove Rangers) FA Cup 2nd round Tom Aldred (Accrington Stanley 1-1 Yeovil Town) Irish League Curtis Allen (Glentoran 3-1 Ballinamallard)

Next fixture: Tuesday 9th December - Ross County v Inverness Caley Thistle - Highland Football Academy, 1pm

That would be ITC!? But, yeah we are the Cinderella club - but there's nothing Grimm about that - except that nobody wants to come to the ball with us!

Revised draw after last night. Dundee v Celtic Falkirk v Annan Athletic or Brechin City Hibernian v Arbroath Partick Thistle v Inverness Caledonian Thistle Queen of the South v St Johnstone Rangers v Raith Rovers Spartans v Berwick Rangers or Albion Rovers Stranraer or Dunfermline Athletic v Dundee United Previous meetings: 2002 - Quarter-final - Partick Thistle 2-2 Inverness (replay) - Inverness 0-1 Partick Thistle 2006 - last 16 - Inverness 2-2 Partick Thistle (replay) - Partick Thistle 1-1 Inverness (after extra time) (1-1 @ 90 mins). Partick won 4-2 on penalties. 2009 - last 32 - Inverness 3-0 Partick Thistle With our record of never having won there in the SPL/Premiership or indeed any of the cups, having also drawn at Firhill in the League Cup, they should start as favourites - I'm sure we'd all settle for getting them back up here for a replay!

RossP will be hoping that his McBookie bet is still on! And his 'sizeable sum'.... A sizeable sum for me is a fiver!

Managers and those 'between jobs' - like Stuart McCall himself, attend games all time. Half the managers in the Premiership were at our match last night.

I'm not sure! He maybe just wasn't picked for the squad - got to say, I can see him being released at the end of December. Anyway, great that we're into the last 16 - the Partick Thistle game isn't until February so we can look forward to that one when it comes. We've 11 league games before then and a transfer window to 'survive'!

Have included the 'split' fixtures this time - although, as Charles suggested, there are only minor changes.

Update. Penalties taken for ICT. (Last: Greg Tansey (scored) v. St. Mirren 2nd December 2014) Ross Draper (100%) Y Y James Vincent (100%) Y Nick Ross (80%) Y Y X Y Y Greg Tansey (80%) Y Y X Y Y Aaron Doran (75%) Y Y Y X Billy McKay (67%) Y Y Y Y Y Y Y X X X Y X Graeme Shinnie (60%) Y Y X Y X Richie Foran (33%) X Y X

Charles, on checking that my link 'worked', I've noticed an error in my figures. (my 2013/14 figures are only for the pre-split fixtures). I'll resolve it tomorrow!

£8 for us 16-25 year olds ain't too bad And Under 16's just £1 And they'll spend considerably more in the pub afterwards!

Absolutely. The figures are indeed 'transient' as the visits of certain clubs can hugely impact on the averages. We've still got a festive game against Aberdeen to come plus visits from County and Celtic. I've used the database Soccerway for these results. I've cross-referenced random clubs' attendances (simply using my own arithmetic) and they always exactly tally - I'm confidence of the veracity of Soccerway's published figures. http://uk.soccerway.com/national/scotland/premier-league/20142015/1st-phase/r25295/tables/?ICID=PL_3N_03

It would actually be 6 away ties - 4 in January followed by the first 2 games in February! The old cliché about the winter months and squad depth, injuries and suspensions etc probably holds-true!

Did Spartans not get to the quarters a few years ago? They've reached this stage (last 16) twice before - (2004) Spartans 0-4 Livingston (2006) St. Mirren 3-0 Spartans (after 0-0 draw) They're playing 'catch up' with Edinburgh City in the Lowland League, so they have to try not to become too distracted by the Scottish Cup - but, I reckon they'll make the Scottish League before too long.

Obviously need to win tomorrow night first, but Partick Thistle at Firhill is another tough tie! However, only a maximum of 4 Premiership clubs will be in the Quarters.... Huge incentive for Spartans/Berwick/Albion Rovers to reach the last 8. I think, that if Spartans got through, it would be only the second time a non-league club has reached the quarter-finals. Elgin City (then Highland League, of course) did it in 1968.

Happy with a draw today. If you don't lose - you win the Cup! Outstanding result for Spartans! Huge boost for the Lowland League and the Scottish Cup to have a non-league in the last 16....Spartans. It would be great to win the replay and then get drawn against them - we'd be crossing-swords again after many years and resuming a friendly rivalry.

Game on... Dundee v Aberdeen starting the weekend of cup fixtures. Huge opportunity for a smaller team to go on a run - a 'freak' draw, pairing all the 'top' sides together means there'll be a maximum of 7 Premiership clubs in the last 16.

Yeah, their last few home crowds have been 2,800 and 2,500 but they've had the 'benefit' of games against Celtic, Aberdeen and Dundee which has helped boost their average for this season - so far. Looking at last season's averages against this seasons, St Johnstone will doubtless claim that they've successfully retained some of the 'cup final fans' - but it would be fairer to examine the stats at the end of the season. Rounded to two significant figures, for clarity, the 10 teams with comparable records to last season are below. Partick Thistle seem to be experiencing second season novelty drop-off, and Motherwell's poor season looks to have had an impact at the gate. But, early days!

I can't remember when we went full-time. I was thinking it may have been a little later than the move to TCS. Perhaps it happened after we were promoted to the old First Division? As for the BBC, they irked me the other day! Was reading an article about Celtic's ambitions to one day move to either England or a European league. The journalist said something along the lines of (paraphrased) ....frankly, Celtic should be playing the likes of Inter Milan instead of Inverness.... Obviously playing on the initial 'I', for effect, but why not use Real Madrid/Ross County or Dortmund/Dundee!

There's no mention of St Mirren fans?! I The content of the link must have changed.

Probably common knowledge for some, but I've just learned that Ross Tokely is off to work in Angola over the winter. He's due to return by February so will be available for the anticipated pyramid play-off. He'll be a miss for Brora's cup game at Queen of the South on Saturday.

Some bizarre 'logic' there! I would argue that over the long term, average crowds of 3,000 will not be sustainable and rather than staring up at the glass ceiling, we'll be looking down at the trap door!