ictchris

You can't pay at the gate. Anyone know how many tickets we've sold?

Heres's a list of doping cases in football - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Doping_cases_in_association_football The only Scot on the list is Willie Johnston

Juventus' team doctor was done for EPO offences in the 1990s and Vialli has admitted that he was doped during his football career. Pep Guardiola failed drug tests (although he managed to get it overturned) for nandrolone. I'd be amazed if EPO usage wasn't common at certain clubs during the 1990s, when there was no test. I think there is a cultural issue with doping in football. Fans don't really care, they support their club or country and want to win, bollocks to the rest of it. Look at the reaction to Rio Ferdinand's doping test (he missed three out of competition tests, the equivelent of a failed test). Gary Neville just about took the England national team out on strike in protest! If, for example, Wayne Rooney was found to have suspect blood levels does anyone honestly think that Man Utd or the FA would ban him? There's no chance, Man Utd are a business and Rooney is a commodity for them and the FA know that if they took action he'd just pull an Alan Shearer/John Terry and stop playing for England, the FAs cash cow. Also, Man Utd and England fans wouldnt' care, they just want their team to win the Premiership or World Cup. Also, there's a culture of thinking that physical prowess and fitness is someone less important than technique and football, particularly in this country, is stuck on the idea that there's an untouchable, genius and magic in football that is above considerations like fitness, stamina. Whenever a manager wants to be passive-aggressive about losing and pay a backhanded compliment they say that a team are 'big and strong' or well organised, as though that's somehow a bad thing. The idea that you can take a player and dope him to make him a better, more effective footballer is not a popular one but the fact is drugs like EPO would be ideal for football. It would actually benefit our team, we try to play a pressing game but have lulls during games simply because it's such a demanding system. Get the blood bags out Terry! (only joking of course).

Incidentally, Eufemiano Fuentes, a doctor who has been widely implicated in Operation Puerto, is supposed to have said that he had many Spanish footballers as patients that Spain could be stripped of the World Cup if he talks. Juventus' club doctor was convicted of running an EPO ring in the 1990s. I wonder if we'll ever see something similar to Armstrong's fall happen to footballing figures?

Not everyone who gave evidence was a doper. Some had retired from cycling, some weren't professional cyclists, some were cyclists who refused to dope. What did his former massuese have to gain? Also, you say they were backing up each others stories, its worth stating (again) that the evidence was given to a grand jury. If this large collection of people, not all of whom know each other, somehow collaborated to fix up a story don't you think the US justice system would have something to say about it? Do you think that such a conspiracy is even possible, dozens of people perjuring themselves without contradicting each other? Judges and lawyers are qualified to pick these things apart, I doubt a motely crew of former racing cyclists could outwit them. In addition to this admissions of doping have cost a lot to some of those involved. We are seeing people losing their jobs in cycling teams because of this and Floyd Landis nearly got put in prison for fraud after confessing he doped. He and his manager started a 'Fight for Floyd' fund for people to contribute to fund his legal actions following his doping in the 2006 Tour and when he subsequently admitted he'd doped the US government prosecuted him, he only avoided the slammer by paying the money back. There is forensic evidence, samples that indicate doping. They are included in the USADA report, which you can read online. There is also extensive analysis by other people that Lance Armstrong's testing indicates doping, which you can read. Armstrong was the team leader of the biggest doping team. He won the biggest race in cycling seven times and, as the report says, lead the biggest doping conspiracy in the history of sport. That's why they 'went' for him - of course there are also other people involved in the same case, doctors and team management. That's true enough but the point is if they were all lying, if this was all orchestrated by the witnesses then why not try and attack their stories? It would be impossible to give evidence so detailed, so in depth that was falsified and for it to stand up to scrutiny. What you are saying is the standard defence for people who are accused by co-operating witnesses, they are lying, they are saving themselves etc. If all these people were lying and had co-ordinated their story then a. it would be one of the biggest conspiracies in US legal history, the US DOJ/FBI etc would be all over it and they'd all be in prison and b. Armstrong would've fought it, one thing no-one can say about him is that he's a quitter. He didn't because he knew the case was overwhelming. What we'll have to do is agree that Lance Armstrong is a cheat and that he doped. After all, he agrees that, which he showed by refusing to contest the charges.

That's absolutely true, one danger in any trial or judicial process that uses witnesses is that witnesses could falsify their testimony. They could collude with each other to get a story straight and co-ordinate their testimony. However, where's the evidence that they did this? Lance Armstrong, as we can see from the money being claimed back from him, had resources running to millions of dollars, highly paid lawyers. Do you think that a story cobbled together by a few cyclists would stand up to scrutiny from these people? Obviously Lance thought it would as he didn't challange them. The testimony given by Hamilton, Hincapie etc was given to a federal grand jury under oath, if they all colluded in that then they'll go to prison, it's a serious crime in the US. Armstrong was accused of doping during Tours a couple of years ago, during his comeback. The legitimacy of the timeframe was challanged by Lance in court in the US and he lost. He didn't refuse to give evidence, he refused to contest the charges. He pleaded guilty. Quite different from refusing to give evidence in his own defence. You'll have to look pretty hard to find anyone who thinks Lance is snow white now. Also, his guilt or the depth of it isn't alleged, it's been proven and he refused to contest the charges, pleading guilty Imagine a criminal case that had more than twenty eye witnesses and forensic evidence pointing to someones guilt. Do you honestly think that isn't enough for guilt? As above, can you be on the jury if I'm ever accused of a criminal conspiracy.

Armstrong has had all his title officially stripped this week. http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/robert-millar/the-bare-minimum Good article by Robert Millar, great Scottish cyclist from the 1980s and 90s, on the EPO scandal. Worth pointing out that Millar tested positive during his career for steroids but he makes good points. Interesting, and something I didn't know, was that hemacrit levels, the level of red blood cells in the blood, decreases during exercise. SO not only did the UCI give the OK for riders to have abnormally high levels to start with, they didn't penalise them for blood results that are against all known science and could only have come from doping.

Butcher has done a good job with us, albeit with a few bobbles now and then. He's a good fit for us and I think he's a good manager. However, if you are being absolutely honest about it he's not had a stellar career as a manager. He was dire at Sunderland, poor for Coventry and didn't even last a season at Brentford. Ipswich will look for someone with a proven track record at that level of football and, leaving aside sentimental connections, he doesn't have that.

I was a bit sceptical about this signing but he's been excellent for us. He's a calming presence at the back, strong in the air and plays the ball out of defence well, when it's appropriate. Pleasing to see him score, he's come close before.

Just watched the game 'as live' on BBC Alba. We started superbly, we always do well when we press the opposition and play with the intensity we showed early on. Draper again showed his value as a ball winner, nicking the ball to set up the first goal and McKay had a great flick on for the second. We dropped back a bit after that, I'm not sure we can maintain the pressure we played at for ninety minutes. Dundee pushed us back and we were lucky to go in ahead at half-time, if we're being honest. Again, right at the start of the second half the Dees should've equalised when Milne missed from six yards out. However, after that we solidified and weren't really caused any problems, while playing some good stuff going forward. Andy Shinnie was superb, great touches when he needed to drop deep and always dangerous when in possession further up the park. He showed great strength in the run up to the fourth goal, really good play from him. Really, really pleasing set of results from us.

How are ticket sales going for the Rnagers game? Got tickets for me and two others today.

I think we could be annihilated tonight. I don't think Belgium are as good as they've been cracked up to be but they are capable to putting us to the sword. Levein should be sacked immediately. He is useless.

Every goal we scored against County came from a move featuring less than three passes, which is the generally accepted definition of long ball football, certainly the type advocated by Charles' Reep and Hughes, who were the first to really articulate long ball tactics. There's nothing wrong with long ball or direct football, so long as it's done well. What is required is for the team to put pressure on the opposition, pushing players into right areas of the park and forcing mistakes from the opposition.

I think they should do more games where teams from different sports play one half by one teams rules and the other half by the other. I'll propose - French Badminton team v the Australian Rugby League VIII.

You can download the report and see the evidence for yourself. Also, eyewitness testimony isn't hearsay. In terms of cycling, the testing was easily circumvented. One example is EPO - there was no test for it during the 1990s and it took the Festina scandal (when a team car was found loaded with vials of EPO and other drugs) to accelerate moves to a test. When it was introduced, after years of research and work, it took Michele Ferrari minutes to work out how to beat it - he advised riders for uS Postal to inject 'microdoses' of EPO intravenously rather than subcutaneously. Also, the testing rules stated that riders couldn't be tested between 10pm-7am, so, as Tyler Hamilton said in his book, 10:01pm was a busy time of day for professional cyclists. The team doctors worked out how to reduce 'glowtime' when a postiive test would be returned and tailored the doses to that. The cycling authorities also didn't want Armstrong caught - he was the biggest star in the history of the sport, broke cycling big time in the USA and generated millions in revenue for the UCI and sponsors. It's only through the intervention of outside agencies like USADA that lead to him being caught. Tyler Hamilton testified that during the Tour in the doping years he beat the best time for climbing Mont Ventoux his blood work showed abnormalities and he was taken aside and told to 'take it easy'.

Bit of late 1990s Manchester gloom-pop

I was in the Main Stand and thought the noise was pretty much even, except at the end. County probably made more in the second half when we were all terribly nervous but that's only natural.

The County fans should sing that 'ole ole ole county county' song a bit more. Didn't hear it enough.

Fancy dress for this one I think. Pretty gutted Asda stopped selling those Jimmy Saville costumes.

Is it expected to be a sell out, no cash gates or anything?

We got to the quarter finals in 2002, where we lost 5-1 to Ayr Utd. Tokely put us 1-0 up and then got sent off and Steve Paterson made him go and sit on the bus for the whole game, so the story goes We reached this stage again in 2005, when we took on an abject Livingston team who somehow managed to beat us 2-1 after extra time. Craig Dargo scored in the first minute but we were pegged back and taken to extra-time when Paul Dalglish scored. Livi manager at the time was Paul Lambert. It was a total sickener, Livingston really were rubbish back then and were relegated that season with one of the lowest points totals in SPL history. They played Dunfermline in the semis, who we beat three times in the league that season.

You know we said no You know we said no Charles Green You know we said no You're not Rangers You're not Rangers You're not Rangers anymore You're not Rangers anymore We're all going to Hampden You're all going to Elgin Nah nah nah nah nah Nah nah nah nah nah

Here's a list of all the derby games since 1994. I've bolded the ones I have attended 2009/2010 Scottish Division 1 Tu 30Mar 2010 Inverness CT 3 - 0 Ross County Scottish Division 1 Sa 20Mar 2010 Ross County 0 - 0 Inverness CT Scottish Division 1 Sa 07Nov 2009 Ross County 2 - 1 Inverness CT Scottish League C Cup Su 04Oct 2009 Inverness CT 1 - 0 Ross County Scottish Division 1 Sa 29Aug 2009 Inverness CT 1 - 3 Ross County 2004/2005 Scottish League Cup Tu 24Aug 2004 Ross County 0 - 1 Inverness CT 2003/2004 Scottish Division 1 Sa 27Mar 2004 Inverness CT 1 - 0 Ross County Scottish Division 1 Sa 03Jan 2004 Ross County 1 - 0 Inverness CT Scottish Division 1 Fr 14Nov 2003 Inverness CT 3 - 3 Ross County Scottish Division 1 Sa 30Aug 2003 Ross County 1 - 1 Inverness CT Scottish League C Cup Tu 26Aug 2003 Inverness CT 1 - 0 Ross County 2002/2003 Scottish Division 1 Sa 08Mar 2003 Ross County 0 - 2 Inverness CT Scottish Division 1 Tu 25Feb 2003 Inverness CT 1 - 5 Ross County Scottish Division 1 Sa 09Nov 2002 Ross County 0 - 2 Inverness CT Scottish Division 1 Sa 24Aug 2002 Inverness CT 2 - 0 Ross County 2001/2002 Scottish Division 1 Sa 23Mar 2002 Inverness CT 1 - 1 Ross County Scottish Division 1 Tu 19Mar 2002 Ross County 0 - 0 Inverness CT Scottish Division 1 Sa 17Nov 2001 Inverness CT 3 - 0 Ross County Scottish Division 1 Sa 15Sep 2001 Ross County 2 - 1 Inverness CT 2000/2001 Scottish Division 1 Sa 31Mar 2001 Ross County 0 - 1 Inverness CT Scottish Division 1 Tu 02Jan 2001 Inverness CT 3 - 3 Ross County Scottish Division 1 Sa 18Nov 2000 Ross County 0 - 3 Inverness CT Scottish Division 1 Sa 16Sep 2000 Inverness CT 0 - 1 Ross County 1996/1997 Scottish Division 3 Sa 15Mar 1997 Inverness CT 3 - 0 Ross County Scottish Division 3 We 12Feb 1997 Ross County 0 - 3 Inverness CT Scottish Division 3 Sa 16Nov 1996 Inverness CT 2 - 0 Ross County Scottish Division 3 Sa 28Sep 1996 Ross County 1 - 3 Inverness CT 1995/1996 Scottish Division 3 Sa 16Mar 1996 Ross County 2 - 1 Inverness CT Scottish Division 3 Tu 23Jan 1996 Inverness CT 1 - 1 Ross County Scottish Division 3 Sa 18Nov 1995 Ross County 2 - 0 Inverness CT Scottish Division 3 Sa 30Sep 1995 Inverness CT 1 - 1 Ross County 1994/1995 Scottish Division 3 Sa 06May 1995 Inverness CT 3 - 0 Ross County Scottish Division 3 Mo 02Jan 1995 Ross County 3 - 1 Inverness CT Scottish Division 3 Sa 29Oct 1994 Inverness CT 0 - 0 Ross County Scottish Division 3 Sa 27Aug 1994 Ross County 1 - 3 Inverness CT My first was a pishy 0-0 draw at Telford Street. I think someone missed a penalty but I can't quite recall. I was 13 years old. The derbies in the first three seasons were tremendous, great characters and rivalries from the Highland League and usually a couple of red cards in every game. I remember the 1-1 draw in January 96, three red cards in a couple of minutes. My favourite from that period was probably the 3-1 win in our title winning season, Stewarty scored early on and then we were battered for an hour, with County completely dominating. Derek Adams equalised and everyone thought it was a repeat of the previous season, where we hadn't won a league derby. Then, amid the celebrations, a beautiful ball was slipped through and Iain Stewart pulled off the most outrageous chip of a keeper that you've ever seen. The ball must've been in the air for at least a minute. Brian Thomson rounded off the win with a late goal.

If there are 1400 tickets left then that means the crowd would be 6300, the biggest ever derby crowd.

I've posted a few stats on P&B. ICTs leading derby goalscorers: Dennis Wyness - 9 Iain Stewart - 7 Own goal - 4 Barry Robson - 3 Barry Wilson - 3 Brian Thomson - 2 Scott MacLean - 2 Steve Hislop - 2 Jonny Hayes - 2 Ross Tokely - 2 Mike Andrew - 2 Alan Hercher - 2 Norman McMillan - 1 Charlie Christie - 1 Wilson Robertson - 1 Mike Teasdale - 1 Paul Sheerin - 1 Eric Odhiambo - 1 Richie Foran - 1 Roy McBain - 1 Richie Hart - 1 Bobby Mann - 1 Robert Eagle - 1 Adam Rooney - 1 David Bingham - 1 Mark McAllister - 1 Ross County leading derby goalscorers Jamie McPherson - 5 Steven Ferguson - 3 Alex Bone - 2 Brian Grant - 2 Andy MacLeod - 2 Colin Milne - 1 Derek Adams - 1 Owen Coyle - 1 Tassos Venetis - 1 Conor Gethins - 1 Kevin McLeish - 1 Hugh Robertson - 1 David Hannah - 1 David Winters - 1 Graham Bayne - 1 Steve McGarry - 1 Own Goal - 1 Paul Di Giacamo - 1 Iain Vigurs - 1 Richard Brittain - 1 Scott Boyd - 1 Michael Gardyne - 1 Steve Hislop - 1 Brian Irvine - 1 Ross County's biggest derby win is their 5-1 win at Caledonian Stadium on 25th February 2003. Invenress Caledonian Thistle's biggest win is 3-0, which has been the score six times - 6/5/95, 12/2/97, 15/3/97, 18/11/00, 17/11/00 and 30/3/10. There has never been a derby on the 5th of October, but there has been one on the 4th - 4th October 2009 when a Robert Eagle cross floated in and gave ICT a 1-0 win the Challenge Cup semi-final. The only other October derby was in 1994 on the 30th of October when the teams drew 0-0 at Telford Street. Ross County have had twelve red cards in derbies since 2000 - Campbell (dunno first name), Jamie McPherson, Andy McLeod, Billy Ferries, Sandy Ross (twice), Eddie Cunnington, Darren Henderson, Alex Bone , Steve Hislop, Kenny Gilbert, Alex Keddie. ICT have had four players sent off in derbies since 2000 - Mike Andrew, Charlie Christie, Graeme Bennet, Bobby Mann.