ictchris

I can't make it, but good luck. Dunfermline are a good club, have sound fans and is a good away day.

Apparently it was Gibbons who scored the second. Pretty experienced side there. Good to see Hogg and Devine getting a run out.

In that area of Dundee I think £200 gets you a three bedroom flat.

The big question is, who did we use to scout Steve Marsella?

He'll have been called into the Under 19s, he's played for them before.

Devine and Meekings at centre back. Warren must've got tired scoring his double.

Fans often over-rate players that don't play. Pepper had a couple of good showings from the bench but isn't a good choice to start yet.

At the start of the season we needed the likes of Billy McKay and Andy Shinnie to step up to replace Johnny Hayes and Gregory Tade. They managed it. Now we need the likes of Nick Ross and Shane Sutherland to step up and replace the people we have injured. As above, we have a good first XI but rely on younger, rawer players as they drop out. Nick Ross has been a regular in the side for a few years now, we've all seen his potential, he needs to be grasp this opportunity. Same with Shane - he looked good when he came on at Easter Road, he needs to make the leap to being afully fledged SPL player, if he's capable of it.

INVERNESS SIGN SPROULE http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/Sport/Shinty/Coup-for-Inverness-as-they-secure-Sproule-31012013.htm#.UQuiLHHDq6k.twitter

Kris Boyd's salary for 2012 with Portland was $1,515,000, $28,000+ per week. I don't think County will be matching that somehow.

Butcher on Gibbons and Jordan.

Roberts took a good penalty against Stenny in a previous round. He also set up Shane for the McKay sitter in extra-time, although overall he didn't have a good game.

I think that penalty is the worst I've ever seen by an ICT player. The spot-kick Wilson missed at Parkhead was pretty bad - Hedman guessed the right way when Barry tried to roll it in and just picked it up - but at least Wilson hit the target and you could see what he was trying to do.

We seemed to have saved our worst performance of the season for one of the biggest games. From the off we didn't look in control in midfield, it was akin to the early days of the season where our midfielders were isolated and Hearts played between our lines, so to speak. Draper and Jones didn't push on and dominate the play, allow Hearts to funnel the balls out wide where they had some success. We created some excellent chances, in the first half Shinnie picked up a clearance and sent a hooked pass over to top for McKay to run onto. Away from the defence and one-on-one with McDonald, he came up short, hitting an easily saved shot close to the Hearts keeper. Hearts came back and forced Reguero into a low save and then the new striker Ngoo hit the post with a header. We forced a couple of openings and Foran headed wide from a right hand cross. Overall, Hearts pressed us much more in the first and I was glad to get in goaless. Shinnie scored just at the start of the second half, a great goal. We had the ball forward and McKay's battling knocked it into the path of Shinnie, who took it a couple of yards and then cracked a low shot into the corner of Hearts net. It was a great strike, typical of SHinnie, who is really blossoming into a great player. Sadly, again in a throwback to how we played early in the season, we sat deep following our goal and allowed Hearts into the match. They put pressure on and had some big penalty shouts, which looked pretty hopeful from our end of the ground. Then Ngoo, who was involved in most of Hearts promising play, volleyed in following a knock back across goal, a great finish. In the last 15 minutes Scott Robinson was sent off for a challange on Owain Tudor Jones. It happened pretty quickly and Jones didn't go down but Robinson looked to jump in, which we've seen red cards given for. The Hearts fans didn't see it like this and were furious at the ref for the decision. From our perspective, we couldn't make the extra man advantage count in normal time, which was disappointing. In the first period of extra time, we almost gifted Hears a goal when Novikovas slipped in past Raven, but the ball was knocked wide. Then Sutherland was played in and forced McDonald into a good save, with McKay seemingly caught out he couldn't knock the ball into an empty net. Sutherland followed up the save with an attempt at an overhead kick that sailed over. Andy Shinnie then had a chance in the second half but his effort went over the bar from close range, just getting caught under the ball. All the penalties were excellent, keepers didn't get near to any of them until Roberts followed up another disappointing cameo with a shockingly bad penalty, ballooned way over the bar. Really disappointing end to the match - on performance we didn't really deserve to win but given the chances we had and the fact it was 10v11 for most of the game we really should've done better. I thought the atmosphere was excellent from both sets of fans, the stadium was buzzing. Good luck to Hearts in the final.

Good to have cover at left-back.

Shocking dive from the ballboy. As RiG pointed out on Twitter, it's refreshing to see English fans and media talking up a Swansea Bradford final, wait until you hear the cries of 'Armageddon' if it's a Caley St Mirren league cup final up here.

Someone had the highlights of that 3-1 cup win over Hearts on youtube, anyone know what happened to them?

I'm pretty sure that Livingston took less than 1000 fans to Easter Road for the semi-final the season they won the league cup.

There's no point in moaning about our support, it's been like this for years. Lots of people of my generation in inverness (I'm 32) are just happy to sit around supporting Rangers and Celtic, the idea that Caley are an alternative doesn't even occur to most people, we are seen as 'just' Caley and not to be botherd with. HOpefully things are improving among younger lads, who have grown up with us being an SPL side. As for parking on Easter Road, quite a few of the streets off Easter Road have free parking but you'll be very lucky to get parked on them. I know you can park for free on Rossie Place but finding a space is difficult. If you fancy a walk throug Leith you could park for free at Ocean Terminal and walk up to the stadium, probably take 20 minutes or so.

The Hearts game kicks off at 1:30pm at their Riccarton training ground.

Lagerback was linked but he is manager of Iceland at the moment. Strachan's managerial record is pretty decent: - Coventry: Kept them in the Premiership for three seasons, sacked when they got relegated, subsequent evidence suggests that they aren't a Premiership level club. - Southampton: Finished 11th and 8th and got them to the FA Cup final. - Celtic: The first Celtic manager since Jock Stein to win three successive titles. Took Celtic to the knock out stages of the Champions League for the first time and then did the same the next season. He did this against a Rangers side who spent a lot of money and invested heavily during that time. - Middlesborough: Terrible record, just didn't get it right. He was a success at Southampton and Celtic, half-and-half at Coventy and a failure at Middlesborough. He's managed and played at a high level and has a superior record to Levein, who was overpromoted after a semi-decent spell with Hearts, abject failure in England and a good spell at Dundee Utd. One thing that's important is that he'll have a good level of self-confidence and a more natural feel for this level of management than Levein did. Things like 4-6-0 smack to me of 'over-thinking' and a lack of self belief. Strachan knows he's succeeded in England and managed in the Champions League. he's a good motivator and that's important for an international coach. As for him not being a nice person, I think that's often overstated but in any case if he can get the team winning then I doubt people will care whether or not he eats live puppies and votes UKIP. Scotland actually have a decent side at the moment, if we were set up right. We have players competing regularly in the Premiership in a number of positions and a manager who can set the team up well could have success.

Cheers. Their last three home games have been played at Tynecastle, I might just phone up and ask where it's being played. Hopefully during the day, not in work next week.