ictchris

In most cup games we've played against lower league sides since we were promoted to the SPL we have included youngsters. I think that the young players we have at the moment are better than at any point since we got into the SPL - Zander Sutherland and Garry Wood have both shown that they can play in the lower leagues, Rory McAllister has shown flashes of good stuff pre-season (I heard he was great against Liverpool, suggesting he will come into his own when we make the Champions League) and Jamie Duff and Iain Vigurs already have experience in the first team. Don't know much about Arbroath, although they won promotion last time out and have had a decent start in the Second Division.

I think that attendances are down because prices are too high. A few years ago people would come to the games and pay ?20 because SPL football was exciting and new. Now that we have been here for a few seasons that isn't really the case - SPL football in Inverness is routine. Also, given that we have less money for wages than most of the other clubs in the SPL and the dire financial consequences of being relegated from the SPL, we have to play a different sort of football to what we were used to in the SFL. Thus we have football that, while it's of a decent quality compared to what we used to watch in the SFL, isn't exciting and can be frustrating. I don't think it's surprising that fewer people are willing to pay for that. I think that if we went on a great run and were in the top six crowds would be decent. Perhaps if we were fighting relegation they might also pick up, particularly towards the end of a campaign. If we are going to push into the top six then we'd need to spend money and that would mean either going into debt or attracting investment (which in football terms often mean the same thing, hello Hearts, Gretna, Dundee). Going into debt is not a something that we should follow as a model - we simply aren't a big enough club to countenance 'spending to accumulate'. Few clubs in Scotland are, even Rangers are feeling the financial pinch of having to spend to compete. Attracting investment is difficult as basically you are asking to someone to hand over money and expect no return. There are very few people like that. In most cases it falls flat. Ideas like building a pub at the ground, building a club shop or securing a city centre retail outlet are all well and good but they require big initial investments and we simply aren't in a position to do that. When it comes down to it, can we afford to throw a couple of hundred grand at building a permanent club shop? Wouldn't that money be better spent on players? How much extra value would we get out of a club shop, how long would it take us to get the money back? Are there really lots and lots of potential customers of our club shop who we are missing out on due to it being the way it is? I haven't read all of this thread, so apologies if these points have all been made.

Teams confirmed on BBC Inverness CT 01 Fraser 02 Tokely 24 Duff 05 McGuire 16 Hastings 11 Imrie 15 Cowie 08 Black 06 McBain 09 Rooney 10 Barrowman Substitutes 23 Esson, 03 Djebi-Zadi, 07 Wilson, 13 McAllister, 17 Sutherland, 22 Wood, 27 Vigurs Hibernian 21 McNeil 03 van Zanten 04 Hogg 05 Jones 20 Hanlon 14 Keenan 22 Shiels 18 Rankin 11 O'Brien 09 Fletcher 10 Nish Substitutes 41 Grof, 26 Murray, 12 Morais, 16 Stevenson, 24 Pinao, 28 Campbell, 34 Canning Looks likewe'll be going: -------------------Fraser-------------------- --Tokely---McGuire--Duff---Hastings--- ---Imrie---Cowie---Black---McBain---- ----------Rooney---Barrowman--------

Re-sign Bobby Mann? Stop this madness!

Zander has done alright for us and on loan to Hellgin and he gave away a penalty on his first team debut, IIRC.

I hope he is the new Paul Ritchie - 20 goals a season for three years would suit me fine.

Wikipedia has him down as a midfielder - his scoring record isn't that impressive if he is a striker.

Accies were excellent - their full-backs were superb, they were hard-working in midfield and Davie Graham and Offiong up front looked lively. For us to get anything from the game on Saturday we'll need to do well in midfield. I can see Brewster sticking to the 4-5-1 formation we employed at Pittodrie to achieve this.

Pish highlights. What sort of 'highlights' package doesn't show a disallowed goal or at least two chances so clear cut that it was more of a surprise they weren't scored?

I thought we played the perfect away game yesterday. We set up solidly with Black and Duncan protecting our defence and a lone striker but we had the players in midfield who could get forward quickly in Imrie and Cowie to support him. Great stuff.

Good turnout I thought.

Train tickets booked. Two of us heading up from Edinburgh, meeting up with another two in Aberdeen. Looking forward to it.

I was asked for a 'fans view' of our season for the Herald pull out section today. I said I'd like to see us sign a pacy striker and a solid defender and the lack of these was making me feel pessimistic about our chances. So, if we now sign a pacy striker and a solid defender I'm going to look like a tit. :015:

I think that when Rory first nudged his way into the first team squad in 2005, Brewster said he reminded him of Garry O'Connor. O'Connor had a promising start but took dogs abuse from Hibbees until he came good under Tony Mowbray when he was about the same age Rory is now. I'm not saying that Rory is as good a player as O'Connor is (I don't expect him to be getting into the Scotland squad or winning a million pound move to the Premiership) but perhaps he can come good. I really hope he does - it seems that whenever Rory makes a mistake he is absolutely slated by our fans, especially on here, but when certain other players are abysmal they aren't castigated to the same extent. I recall someone having 'Come in Number 13 you're time is up' as their signature! I saw him a couple of times in the reserves back in 2004/05 he was excellent - going on runs, attacking the opposition with vigour and being a real #'impact' player. When I've seen him subsequently for the first team he seems nervous and perhaps puts a lot of pressure on himself. The best he's ever played for our first team was when he came on for Denzil in the first minute of the league game against Celtic back in 2006 - perhaps at least partially attributable to the fact that he was thrown on pretty much cold with no time to dwell or brood on his game. Maybe we should just tell him two minutes before every game that he's starting and he'll do a lot better! Let's hope that he proves the doubters wrong, everyone on this thread will share that sentiment.

Pressley is rubbish.

The fact of the matter is that in the summer of 2006 it was pretty obvious that Darren Dods was going to leave and the defenders we have signed since then are: Phil McGuire - Had a positive impact when he first came in but slumped (along with the rest of the side) after New Year Steven Watt - Injury-prone youngster who has only played something like 15 first team games in his career. Lionel Djebi-Zadi - Notoriously unreliable player, who could come good but is a risk. We haven't done enough to plug the obvious gap in our squad since then.

Craig Dargo came on trial for a week before he signed, that worked out OK.

Pre-season gams are pretty meaningless. I'd be worried if we lost all our games 5-0 or something like that, but usually you get a mixed bag of results. To put it in context, I went to a pre-season game a few years back where our full strength first team, featuring Robson and Wyness among others, were beaten 2-0 by Lossiemouth :015:

I think it'd only be if it's for violent conduct or something like that? As he got two bookings it won't be.

The Courier states that we have a game on Thursday night against Morten Weighorsts side, who we played a few seasons ago, but the official site doesn't mention it?

The Courier have a diary on their website from Graeme Linton. I bet he's delighted, fifteen years ago he'd have been writing two paragraphs on Caley v Golspie Sutherland, now he's sipping Carlsberg on expenses while chatting up hot blonde Danish burds (probably).

Jim Duffy got Dundee relegated in 1994 and couldn't get them back up. He then managed to get Hibs relegated, before a triumphant return at Dens where he, eh, took them out of the SPL again! No thanks.

Says more about Stevie Crawford than it does about us, to be honest. He's apparently been offered a player-coach deal with East Fife, he is coming to the end of his career, they pay decent wages and he lives locally. He's also done very little for years at an SPL level.

I've always wanted to go to a match up there.

I don't think County will win the First Division.