ictchris

A quiet half in Robertson's anyone? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-19243886

I'm doing exactly as I said in my text message - pub for 9am, booze, booze, booze, then the tgame then off to the Jack the Rippers to the max out my credit card. Anyone that doesn't do that isn't a real man.

Wetherspoons is horrific. Better drinking in the street than in there.

In terms of pubs Tynecastle is a brilliant away day. THere are numerous tremendous boozers either side of the ground. Aside from Robertson or Stratfords I wouldnt' say any of them are unfriendly.Top Six is just a New Town yuppy who is too scared to go to a proper boozer. He probably wants to go to the Dome in George Street for a couple of pre-match Cosmo's. ;-)

In modern football it's unusual to have players for long periods of time. The night Tokely was confirmed as leaving I posted something on Twitter about it and an East Fife fan replied, saying that they have had two players in their entire history, over 100 years, who played for the club as long as he did for us. If people aren't renewing their season tickets because of that then they must be rather naive about how football is. The problem with releasing these players is that they haven't been properly replaced. When we let Grant Munro go, I thought Butcher had earned the right to make that decision. It was his responsibility to replace him with someone better and he didn't do it. That's the problem - if Grant had been replaced by a player of equal or improved standing then there would be no issue.

Having seen the highlights, definite red card. Idiotic and now he'll be suspended for games against Hearts and Celtic.

The idea is for Jones and Draper to sit in midfield, protect the back four, break up play and act as a bridge between the front four and the back four. You'd expect them to play lots of simple passes when in possession and make lots of tackles and win headers. This gives the likes of Shinnie and Doran the chance to get the ball higher up the park and create chances. The problem yesterday is that Draper and Jones, after the first 20-25 minutes didn't do it. They needed to impose themselves on the game and they didn't manage it. On too many occasions the ball dropped into the midfield area and Jones and Draper weren't there. The passing shown by both men also wasn't up to standard. I once read a description of Edgar Davids playing in midfield for Juventus as treating every opposition player coming within ten yards of him as an insult, chasing them out of the centre circle. That's the attitude that Jones and Draper need but all too often when I see Jones he doesn't stamp his authority on games. The guy is an internationalist, he obviously has talent and he is phyiscally imposing. He needs to do more, and also to not get stupid red cards and miss games. Perhaps Foran will do better when he comes in next week. Regarding Sutherland, having a player who is good in the air in a wide position is a good tactic, you can hit diagonal balls to them as a 'outball' to relieve pressure and it gives you more variety in attacking options. You need to provide proper service to them though, good balls for them to attack. I wonder if Sutherland is good enough for this level though - he's a big willing worker and a strong runner but is he really good at any of these things? I hope he proves me wrong but I have my doubts.

Here's our home record in recent SPL seasons 2007/08 - P19 W9 D2 L8 F32 A28 2008/09 - P19 W4 D5 L10 F18 A27 2010/11 - P19 W7 D4 L8 F25 A24 2011/12 - P19 W5 D5 L9 F19 A27 We are poor at home. One season in the last four with a winning record? If we won games and scored goals then more people would show up. Also, and I don't want to go on about pricing, but it's expensive. I paid £26 for a walk up Main Stnd ticket yesterday. Our 'hardcore' fans will always go no matter what but to increase attendances you need to attract more of the casual, walk up fans who go to big games to attend regularly. The best way to do that is to be good. As it stands we are asking people to pay a lot of money for something that's likely not be that good.

The pubs in Gorgie are brilliant.

He should count himself lucky that we have relatively docile fans. At other clubs if he shouted back given our rubbish home record he'd have people jumping the barriers for a more intense discussion.

The day started on a strange note for me as a steward tried to prevent me entering the ground, saying that I and my two companions were Killie fans and then that we were drunk Only after speaking to the steward in question and giving him our Inverness postcodes were we permitted to enter. Caley lined up with the same XI who started against St Mirren and we began the game very well. We dominated possession in the middle of the park and played some good stuff going forward. Billy McKay looked good, he made some clever runs and picked the ball up well. Doran also looked lively out wide and it was from his corner that we scored. Doran looped it in, then Draper headed it down (I thought it was JOnes who knocked it on at the time but subsequently read that it was Draper) and ANdy Shinnie slid in low to knock the ball home. We looked flying at this point and Doran nearly set up McKay to double our advantage, but McKay couldn't turn it in. Doran then burst through and was denied by a good save from Cammy Bell and our attacking players couldn't put the ball home. So far, so good. However, after the first 20 minutes Kilmarnock started to get hold of the ball more and put pressure on us, especially in wide areas. Raven, who looked patchy throughout, gave away a penalty for a rather innocuous looking foul but Ryan Esson saved Rachi's penalty, which was low but close to the keeper. More impressive was Esson's follow up save from james Drayton, whose powerful effort he blocked. That didn't give us a boost though and Kilmarnock really dominated the closing stages of the half. Most of our fans would've been happy for the half-time whistle to come and give us time to regroup but in the five minutes of injury time (Harkins and Dayton both going off injured following meaty tackles from our centre halves) Killie equalised, Pascali looped a header in from a cross on the left. It was no more than Killie deserved and meant that we went in on a downer. The second half probably had less incident than the first and again, Caley were wasteful in possession. Too often we hit speculative balls rather than a meaningful pass. We were also very deep and balls up to McKay weren't 'sticking'. Our creative players, Shinnie and Doran, weren't getting as much of the ball as in the opening stages which really blunted our attacks. Shane Sutherland had a couple of shots but he really didn't impress - a big willing worker but he didn't show either guile or power. I was surprised when it was McKay who came off for Nick Ross. With around ten minutes left Jones was sent off. Fowler slid in late and brought him down and Jones reacted aggressively. From my seat I couldn't pick out exactly what he did but from what I've read he went to headbutt Fowler, I certainly saw him waving his hands around. Really stupid behaviour from an experienced player and it meant that we were hanging on at the end. We don't have a big squad and that's one player missing for a few tough games. Down to ten men, Butcher barked at us to stick it long into the corners, drawing the ire of a couple of fans who he exchanged words with. Right at the death Nick Ross forced Cammy bell into a good save when he directed a header on target but couldn't beat Bell and our final chance to take three points was gone. A disappointing first home game of the season then. We showed our potential in the first twenty minute but the fact that we didn't build on that and lost a lead for the second game in a row is worrying. I can see what Butcher is trying to do - solid back four, two big guys in midfield and then four attacking players but we were eased out in midfield. You need Draper and Jones to dominate the middle of the park and they were often posted missing, I thought. Often Killie were first to loose balls in our half and Doran and Shinnie had to drop in to win the ball. That's not their forte and not what they should be doing. It'll be interesting to see how we perform with Foran coming in, we need a bit more dynamism in the middle of hte park and hopefully he can provide it. Final point about the crowd, it was poor but untypical for us. The fact is, we've been pish at home for years and it's not going to draw people into an expensive trip to the stadium.

I almost didn't get in. One of the stewards said my companions and I were suspicious because we'd got out of a taxi with a Killie fan and split up. We were asked if we were Killie fans and one of us had to give his Inverness postcode in an effort to prove we weren't from Ayrshire. Thank goodness we have these consummate professionals looking after us. Imagine the death toll we'd have had over the last few years if we didn't have these guys.

I may train it from Edinburgh for this one.

Yes, things like the Sevco vote require 8-4 whereas the TV deal etc need 11-1.

Did he not get injured while he was on trial? It's one of those things. We had him on trial, it didn't work out and he dropped down a level. He did well there, stayed fit and got another chance. We've done it for plenty of players in the past.

We were pish last season, people aren't going to pay to watch rubbish. We've consistently been poor at home - even in 2010/11, arguably our clubs best season ever, we were much better away from home.

Aye that pic is mine. Pavel scoring. I have Hissy swining on the bar in Dingwall on video, someone get that up there.

From twitter "Last season's deal earned 10 non-OF clubs £884k each on average. This season's deal will earn the 11 non-Celtic clubs £830k each on average."

According to usually knowledgable people on P&B the Sky deal was due to have risen from £13m a season during the last deal to £16m from this season. The deal signed today means it will remain at £13m. If/when SPL clubs vote to abolish the 11-1 requirement on voting for rights, the SPL clubs will be able to ensure a fairer split of the money between clubs. We could end up getting more money after all this blows over.

We should allocate the numbers alphabetically, Holland used to do that in the 1970s, it would look cool.

We should only sign players who promise to stay in Inverness until they are collecting their pension. Alternatively all new signings should have Graeme Bennett's face tattooed on their forehead.

Murray's in the final. tremendous performance.

http://ictfc.com/news/club-news/541-another-new-signing?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ictfc%2Ffeed+%28ICTFC+Official+Feed%29

Obviously this won't be on as Sky will cancel the TV contract now that Sevco aren't in the SPL. Rupert Murdoch is shredding the contract now and is sending James up to poison our wells and salt the earth. That's what'll happen, surely?

Apparently Kilmarnock abstained.