ictchris

I picture Dougal as like Ted from Airplane, people probably start topping themselves as soon as he starts up on his merger chat. I know I consider it when reading his posts.

Armstrong will be interviewed by Oprah next week. Word is, he's going to 'fess up as he wants to come back to triathlons or marathons. However, a confession could cause him to be charged with perjury as he has stated under oath in previous court actions that he has never doped. He is also being sued for $10m+ by a prize insurance fund and could face further federal charges.

Pretty surprising to see him stay but encouraging. Hopefully the likes of Tudor-Jones and Shinnie see this as a sign to renew their contracts, although younger, more ambitious players are likely to want to move on more than a relatively settled older manager.

Someone told you that the 18 year old Arsenal have put out on loan to the SPL and then extended the loan isn't going to get kept on? You must have amazing contacts.

For people saying we should get our out of contract players on 2-3 year deals, you need to remember that these guys might not want to sign a long term deal. It limits them in terms of their opportunities. If someone signs a three year deal and then has a tremendous season, scoring 20 goals etc then they are going to be less attractive to bigger teams because they'll require a fee to move. There's a reason that most players are on one or at the most two year deals, that's what is best for them. It also reduces potential costs for clubs like us - if we offer someone a three year deal and then they are crap for the rest of the time we are stuck with them.

Typical of the anti-merger flat earthers that they get a Facebook page three years after it was good. Look out for them moving to MySpace soon.

You can't complain about people celebrating in front of us after we've given them a shedload of abuse. When Imrie scored against us some of the people shouting at him were going mental, I remember thinking "you've just called the guy a paedo for an hour, what do you think he's going to do?" All good fun and part of the game.

Section E should get a 'Welcome to Hell' banner and unveil it at a midweek league cup tie against Alloa.

Italian football has an ID card system meaning you need to be in possession of a photo-ID card to travel away to watch your team. Colin Moynihan proposed similar in England during the hooligan years of the 1980s. A lot of Ultras/supporters groups don't agree with this. A poster on another forum said that other Udinese fans actually tried to get in at this game but weren't allowed because they didn't have an ID card. Away supports are low in a lot of continental leagues, including Italy. Distances between grounds are often huge meaning a 10+ bus journey. Violence around grounds is far more common than in Scotland or England also discouraging away fans. It's only really Ultras groups that go to long distance away games, which might put off less hardcore fans. Tim Parks book 'A Season With Verona' is about his season going to every Hellas Verona match, home and away. The first match is away to Bari, a 12 hour bus journey the length of Italy with a load of completely headcases, high on drugs and completely steaming. Not everyones idea of a great day out.

I'll be going.

Exclusive photo of Ross Tokely during this interview

More time to spend at home with his First Division winners medal. Oh wait...

If we don't win the league it's because Foran bullies the team and Butcher is a crap manager. Sack the board.

Apparently demand is so high that the Ross County admin staff were finding it difficult to get through it all However, they called in help from Elgin City's ticket office and all 12,000 tickets have now been sold.

A great performance from ICT. We started in a composed organised manner, solid at the back and moving the ball well through the team. We played at aslower pace than usual for this season, often moving the ball from defence. After the shambles of last weekends game, the same back four were balanced and organised. When we went forward we passed well, moving the ball out wide and through the midfield. We didn't manage to create any real clear cut chances and at times fell backdeep to defend but we limited Celtic to a few long range shot and crosses. Celtic stepped up the pace before half tme and Lustig had the best chance but he stuck it into the side netting. My brother said that he thought Butcher told the team at half time that Cetic were there for the taking and we presseda bit more after half time. Aaron Doran drove forward well when he was in possession and Shinnie was carrying the ball well. We started to get the ball into dangerous areas more often and forced a couple of corners, one clearence from Ambrose nearly ended up in his own net. When the goal came, it wasn't undeserved. Phlip Roberts, anonymous most of the game, picked up on the right, cut inside and laid up for Billy McKay to tap it home. We almost scored a fantastic second just after this, when Shinnie and McKay exchanged passes and Tudor-Jones broke into the area but his flick was blocked. Celtic stepped up the pace and, as you'd expect, forced us back. They had most of the ball, helped by Scott Brown coming on, but we were equal to most efforts. There were a couple of scrambled efforts, I think one hit he post, although it's difficult to see from the other end of the ground. We had a couple of breaks,including one that should have seen us wrap the match up in the last five minutes. We pushed out of defence, Doran attacked the heart of the Celtic defence very directly and made a perfectly timed pass to McKay. His shot beat Forster but rebounded from the underside of the bar to Doran, who took an age to get his shot away, giving Ambrose time to get back for the block. All told, a great win. Really important to come back strongly after the horrorshow of last Sunday and it was good to see that we can play well without Ross Draper. So pleased for the team and fans. Big couple of games coming up now.

They probably thought you were a tea-rrorist.

Who's that sitting in the layby Who's that crying there in pain Looks like Neale COoper to me Cos he never beats Caley And he won't be managing the gypos any more.

The mural of the Celtic Seville team in the London Road Tavern is the worst painting I've ever seen. You can't tell the difference between Alan Thompson and Bobo Balde.

For sale 1100 pies. Pls phone Elgin City on 0800 1100 00 I'm pretty sure that we oversold the first ever derby at Caley Stadium, anyone confirm?

I bought a restricted view ticket but am going to sit in a non-restricted view seat because I'm such a mental *******.

I'm going to be totally honest with you here. We're probably not going to sign Starvin' Marvin the Ethiopian from South Park.

We're not going to sign him. I heard we've balked at his demands for three lesbians to be delivered to his digs every Sunday morning to be 'cured'.

I'm going to be totally honest here. I don't think we're going to sign Marvin Andrews.

Renegade's team is basically the same as mine with Foran playing centrally. I've not really seen anything that suggest McKay would be better playing wider. I think having the twin outlets of Foran in the air on the left of the '3' and McKay through the middle to chase through the channels gives us a good chance of pushing up the park, pressuring Celtic and playing the game in the right areas. Although Celtic haven't been that good in the league this season, and have dropped points at home to St Johnstone, Killie and Hibs, you have to expect them to win here. I would be absolutely delighted with a point but am really just hoping for a decent performance. Sunday reminded me very much of the home game to Celtic, lack of pressure, poor energy and glaring individual errors from our defensive players. If we reverse that I'll be reasonably pleased.

Is Draper going to be fit for this one, he is a massive loss. ----------------------------Reguero-------------------------- ---Raven----Meekings-------Warren------ShinnieG---- ---------------Tudor-Jones------Draper------------------ -------Doran-----------ShinnieA----------Foran----------- ------------------------McKay---------------------------------- Draper drives our team, it's pretty clear from the last two games. He is so direct and aggressive in the middle of the park, without him we find it difficult to establish the pressing game that's vital to what we've done well in the last few games. The back four were horrific yesterday but I think we need to stick with them. The errors were individual and they've all done well for us this season. We don't want to get back to the chopping and changing of last term. Foran is vital for these games, Roberts' form has dipped the last few games (naturally for a young player) and having Foran offers an outlet if we need to go more direct and from set pieces, which will be important at Celtic Park where we might not be able to establish possession. I like Billy McKay up front, he offers us options into the channels and can hold the ball up to allow us to push up the park.