Sneckboy

Really hope Marley Watkins is fit after his leg-knock. I'd certainly go with your team selection, Renegade. Looks very decent and well balanced. A good call... We're definitely 'weakened' for this game with Foran, Vincent, Draper and Warren missing, but we can still field an extremely competitive side against the form-team - but our bench will be very young!

Was good to see Polworth and Christie on the pitch at the same time today. The sons of Inverness football royalty! On a separate note, with a squad of 21 'first-teamers' and with 4 players out (Draper, Foran, Watkins and Vincent), we had a squad of 17 available today - effectively 'enforcing' the manager into selecting an U20 player for the bench. But, there were two! - Adam Evans and Joe Gorman. I just wonder what's happening with Matt Cooper? Despite having previously made a handful of appearances, he's not been considered at all recently. I rate him, but see him being released at the end of the season.

Updated after 12th January 2014: Aoran Doran (100%) Y Y James Vincent (100%) Y Ross Draper (100%) Y Graeme Shinnie (75%) Y Y Y X Billy McKay (70%) Y Y Y Y Y Y Y X X X Nick Ross (67%) Y Y X Richie Foran (33%) X X Y

The SFA left Park Gardens for offices within Hampden, Scarlet. But, I'm just nit-picking, as I largely agree with your post!

League Two Shane Sutherland TWO GOALS (Elgin City 3-1 Clyde) Highland League Martin Bavidge (Huntly 1-5 Inverurie Loco Works) Dale Gillespie (Brora Rangers 3-1 Cove Rangers) Stuart Soane (Buckie Thistle 1-1 Forres Mechanics) Martin Laing (Clachnacuddin 2-1 Keith) Zander Sutherland (Brora Rangers 3-1 Cove Rangers) Stuart Leslie (Nairn County 3-0 Fort William) Northern Irish Cup - 5th Round Curtis Allen TWO GOALS (Portadown 1-3 Glentoran)

No source supplied, so it can be treated as hearsay at the moment. He's a regular starter in the Stevenage side so I would find it very strange if this were true. Besides, Stevenage have an FA Cup tie against high-flying Everton coming-up in a fortnight. As an Everton fan, he surely wouldn't swap that opportunity to instead come up here again when he was so keen to leave before?

I doubt he'd come here. He's likely good pals with Hartley from their Hearts days.

He may end up returning to semi-pro football. I understand Simon KIng has resumed playing at a relatively low-level in England. Hopefully Hogg can find a game somewhere.

It may only be January, but that Yngwie brilliance must be an early contender for 'post of the year'!!

Rangers were not relegated! It's extraordinary that this perception persists for some. It should be remembered that, like Hearts, Rangers 'punishment' for going into administration was a points penalty. However, unlike Hearts, Rangers failed to come out of administration and were subsequently liquidated. This resulted in Dundee taking-up the vacant spot in the (then) SPL. That left the (then) Scottish Football league with 29 member clubs with the (then) 3rd Division requiring an additional team. Ordinarily, this would have led to a vote to elect a new member, be it Spartans, Cove Rangers or whoever, assuming they could provide 3 years of audited accounts to verify their suitability as a solvent club. As history shows, the goalposts were conveniently moved to allow the newly-formed 'The Rangers' their place in the bottom tier. A different entity but certainly not a relegated 'Rangers' team.

Welcome back theeagle !

I agree! Despite not being entirely enamoured at the appointment of JH, It's too soon to be writing him off. In his 3 games away with us, we're yet to concede a goal! As mentioned, I've been critical of his appointment but will support JH until/if I feel his reign is untenable. Hopefully that won't ever be the case.

God! You're disturbingly right! Makes cleaning up the mess I've made all the more harrowing.

Aaron Doran is one of the most feared front men in Northern Europe! Not sure if that stunned me more than the word, 'whopping' being used in Google translate! Almost as shocking as the poster showing his wife's muff earlier!

The 2-year contract-extension shows he's clearly an integral part of the manger's thinking. I hope he utilises him 'appropriately'!

Izzy, where did you get the info on Tremarco signing a one-year deal? I want to update the 'Contract Situation' thread as it was high-jacked by Renegade when I was asleep!

Renegade! No! Please! You, Kingsmills, IHE, DoofersDad, Wyness101, TheMantis and tm4tj (and a few others) are my usual favourite posters to read! Always well informed, reasoned and insightful. I can't believe with your in-depth knowledge of the football-landscape you would make such a schoolboy error of thinking Warren was suspended this weekend! I can only assume you're under hostage in your own home by theeagle! Anyway, I apologise if I misinterpreted you and fraser's posts. I assumed when he said 'the team that got us into the SPL' meant 'the team that got us into the SPL' I took the question at face value. If I was promoted at work in a certain year but didn't cut it and so was demoted, fair do's. However, if I performed well and got re-instated back to my higher position, great. If I was asked when did I got promoted to my higher position, I certainly wouldn't think the questioner was referring to the first time! That's why I responded with the team that got us promoted to the SPL. The 2010 version. But I've been drinking brandy. Looking at the squad from our first promotion, it certainly had more North players than Butcher's squad of 5 North. (2 Highland, 3 Aberdeen) Anyway, I'm joking about, Renegade. I do like reading certain posters comments more than others. Your views usually reflect my feelings...and your team line-up forecasts are often the closest. Kudos!

I've been to ICT games in Montrose in the past, and believe me, I didn't feel like I was in the 'North of Scotland'!!

I sympathise with players being absent for a multitude of personal reasons, be it the imminent birth of a child, to the other extreme, maybe a bereavement. And I understand that players have to occasionally be missing on match-day to attend to those situations. However, Raven's not been absent from the match day team/squad. He's been available for selection and has been on the bench as a used/unused sub. I'm reluctant to get involved in a tit-for-tat, fraser but I fail to see what 'personal reasons' can prevent a footballer from being available to perform at 3pm yet are fine to be introduced anytime after - as was witnessed in the Aberdeen game where he performed so well! (to prevent any pedantry, ok, Raven came on at 6.30pm approx. in the dons game because personal reasons prevented him starting kick-off at 5.30pm)!!

Warren is NOT suspended. old caley girl is correct. His one-game ban is for the first match from January 15th - likely to be Aberdeen. If that's postponed, then the next game will be his ban and so on. Incidentally, fraser, Raven has not been missing due to 'personal reasons'. He's technically been involved in all the recent games in some capacity even as an unused sub! He was introduced to good effect against the dons but hasn't featured since. (Unless the personal reasons you allude to are a euphemism for Hughes not rating him!)

Every smaller team is 'guilty' of discovering thousands of extra 'fans' when they reach cup finals. Just very recently, Killie and St. Mirren won League Cups in front of thousands of fans who suddenly remembered who they support. And the open-top bus celebrations seemed to attract the entire community! It must be bitter-sweet for chairmen to witness the whole town coming out on occasions like that, showing enormous goodwill towards their football clubs. Then a fortnight later, they're gone, with the clubs back playing in front of their 3,500 hardcore! I recall the glorious month of February 2000, when we took throngs of fans to Parkhead, packed out the stadium a couple of weeks later for the Aberdeen cup game and again had an impressive away support for the Pittodrie replay. In-between that, we had a bread-and-butter home league game against Falkirk that attracted 2,700. I remember Steve Paterson coming out of the tunnel and almost stopping in his tracks at the sight of the stadium being two-thirds empty. As he sloped off to the dug-out, I could swear there was a bemused wee shake of the head! Shades of Butcher's bewilderment at the apathy demonstrated in our home gates despite the club flying high! Fans are fickle!

The 'problem' is, these games in hand will likely be scheduled for much later in the season. We'll also have a re-arranged game against Hibs due to our League Cup semi final. We'll probably have 3 games outstanding then!

"....mostly bred from the North of Scotland..."!!!! I am struggling to see how most of the squad that returned us to the SPL are from the North of Scotland!? Grant Munro and Stuart Golabek are the only two I can think of. Tecnnically, Ryan Esson, Ross Tokely and Russell Duncan were born and bred in the Aberdeen area. But the rest of the squad were guys like, Jonny Hayes Nauris Bulvitis Dan Stratford Lee Cox Dani Sanchez Lionel Djebi-Zadi Adam Rooney Robert Eagle David Proctor Richie Foran Dougie Imrie Eric Odhiambo

Inverness Citadel still exist in the amateur leagues. Although not a continuation of the original club. Think, a bit like Rangers now. Same name, completely and utterly different identity!

No. 2. I think if Clach had been involved in the creation of the club, it's likely that 'Inverness City' or 'Inverness United' would have been the chosen moniker. Inverness City now exist as a Junior outfit. Inverness United is often used for youth teams from the city when involved in youth tournaments like the Aberdeen football festival or indeed abroad. I think Charlie Christie's been involved with the latter. I can't remember, now, how the name was chosen. I think it was likely a compromise between the two clubs involved in the merger. Inverness was still officially (and considered by outsiders) a town back in 1994. I don't think a name-change is ever likely. We've established ourselves on the ICT name and changing it would make us look very unsure of our identity and fuel the fire of the central belters who see us as some sort of artificial franchise. Although this should be confined to the hackneyed 'merge' thread, I can't help but feel vexed that the Highlands were ignored so long. It resulted in us 'having' to merge to have any recognition in Scottish football. The recent (20 years) change in attitude has resulted in North clubs finally being accepted into Scottish football's National leagues. The impetus has continued with the introduction of a pyramid system that allows teams like Clach, for example, or Huntly, Cove, Brora et al. into the formerly exclusive system. It's a shame that the previously closed-minds of the blazers running the Scottish League didn't sooner implement the fairer system of cream-rising-to-the-top on merit. Who knows, all 3 Inverness clubs could have been in the now SPFL eventually! I would have loved to witness Inverness Thistle, (yes, my former club of choice) competing in the SPFL, even against 'the likes' of Montrose. But, I doubt either Thistle or Caley, on their own, would have achieved the level we currently enjoy!