Caley Stan

Golly and Juanjo got the goals in our first win at Pittodrie.

The cost of not aspiring to qualify for Europe is enormous. It sucks out one of the few aspects of this league that retains serious competition. It tells fans that they shouldn't hope or dream of anything beyond survival in the SPL.

Very sad comments and quite insulting to the fans. One of the things that has made this season so exciting is that we have been chasing a prize until the very end. To turn round afterwards and say that we didn't much fancy the prize anyway makes the whole thing feel a little empty. I also find some of the projections of financial burden a little far-fetched. The idea that we would need a bigger squad is just silly. We were looking at probably 2, at best 4 extra games - no more than you face in a good season in one of the cups. As for the costs of travel etc., I don't know the details but there are many clubs smaller than ours competing in the competition and they seem to cope. It's been a great season but there can be greater seasons. Talk to any fan from the numerous small Scottish clubs that have represented this country in Europe and they'll tell you it was one of the proudest moments of their lives, not to mention the fun some of them had following their team abroad. If we don't aspire to that then what are we doing?

I was screaming for Robbo's head that night. Hissy also took a lot of flak. I think the wound of Pele's departure was still a bit raw. It was a turning point though, we beat Celtic the following Sunday and went on to consecutive Scottish semis and a glorious return to Broadwood on the way to promotion.

The regional thing was abolished in 2009. I would love it if we got a Greek team, but would also be very happy with Turkey - sounds like the St. Johnstone fans had a great time there last year.

I heard he has a parrot called stanly, who picks the names of available players out of a food bowl.

This is the line up I expect: -----------------McGregor------------------ Hutton----Webster------Berra--------Fox ------------------Caldwell------------------ Mackie----Morrison---Adam-----Naismith -------------------Miller-------------------- It's far from ideal, but Levein's hands are tied - I have no idea what he will do if Berra doesn't make it. Caldwell's presence in midfield is basically enforced by the absence of Brown and Fletcher but I thought he performed well there against Australia, providing much needed cover for our ropey centre back pairing and recklessly attacking full-backs. Adam and Morrison are obvious choices in the middle although I would like to see Adam drop deeper to look for the ball - he's so much better when he has time and space to pick his pass. We have good options in wide areas but the inclusion of Mackie and Naismith is more about their defensive qualities and tactical discipline than anything else - we have more pace and creativity on the bench in Forrest and Phillips and they can be introduced later in the game if required but given our dodgy back line I think Levein is right to priorities solidity throughout the team. I'm almost certain he'll play Kenny Miller despite claiming to be considering Rhodes and I think it's clear why. Miller offers so much to the team overall with his running and link up play and we just can't afford to play a striker without those attributes at the moment.

There's an interesting range of views on this thread concerning why this performance was so bad - and it was really bad. Firstly, the Andy Walker school of analysis which dictates that if a football team plays badly then the players can't be trying hard enough or don't care enough about the club they are representing. This is an extremely lazy way to think about football and it's offensive to a group of players who have started the season quite well considering the circumstances. Then we have the 'hold our hands up and admit we just weren't good enough' brigade. Sure, Celtic are much better than us, but as others have pointed out, this was a relatively weak Celtic team having it easier in Inverness than they have ever had it before. Nerves definitely played a part - how else can you explain the number of misplaced passes and bombscare defending? Central midfield and central defence are always key in these games - the two central midfielders have to press like **** and the centre halfs have to concentrate at a much higher level than they are used to. Injuries and suspensions obviously didn't help us in those areas, but Butcher didn't give the players out there a chance to perform. I'm more than happy to see us pass the ball a bit more this season, but the number of times we gave it away in dangerous areas was just terrible. Mostly, I think Draper, Ross and the full-backs just didn't have options when they wanted to play it forward. Apart from Shinnie, who is really looking for the ball in our attack? Shane is static out wide and only seems to offer anything to the team when he comes inside to win the ball. What kind attacking threat does he actually offer? I've never seen Doran play for more than 10 minutes in a game. He looks capable of creating chances in those wee spurts but needs to become much more involved overall. And Billy McKay. Poor Billy McKay - he didn't ask for this. I saw glimpses of good link up play from him in Paisley but we were on top for long spells in that game. When we are on the back foot he offers absolutely nothing as an out ball. It scares me that we seem to have no other options up font. As Gavin Morrison was preparing to come on the tv camera focused on him and Butcher preparing him to come on. Butcher had a piece of paper in his hand but he looked confused and didn't say a word. Perhaps it was upside down.

I was at the game tonight and heard the boos before I saw Blackie. Closed my eyes an thought of Ibrox before clapping and cheering the wee bugger onto the park. The locals looked a bit bemused but they don't know our history.

I really liked the way we took the game to St. Mirren throughout, especially in the second half and enjoyed some of the football played by Doran, McKay and particularly Andy Shinnie around the box. Unfortunately, their touches rarely resulted in clear cut chances. Not sure whether we should be excited about the season ahead off the back of this or not - maybe Saints are just really poor - but at least it feels like we have a plan. OTJ and Draper in tandem performed the dual role of protecting the back 4 and pressing high up when we didn't have the ball. They're both slow, lumbering players without much of a creative spark but they looked reasonably comfortable in possession and both have great physical presence. The biggest negative today (apart from all the all the Chris Kerr/Dougie Imrie sh*t) was Ryan's performance - he looked culpable for both goals. I'm generally feeling much more positive about the season than i was at 3pm though.

The team we'll be fielding next season will generally contain 3 -5 players from the north of Scotland (the Shinnie's, Ryan, Nick and Shane), plus 2 players with good experience of Scottish football (Richie and Hogg), plus local youth players on the fringes, so I don't think there is any danger of the squad on the whole not "knowing their environment". However, beyond that, Terry clearly does have a policy of trawling the English lower leagues. Is it working? If not, why not? Do these players struggle with the style of the SPL, do they fail to settle in Inverness, or are they just not good enough?

From today's Grauniad: "Terry Butcher's methods of recruitment continue to raise eyebrows in the Highlands. The Inverness manager has opted to sign players from such teams as Newport County, Macclesfield and Gillingham, thereby completely avoiding the Scottish market. Such a policy carries clear dangers, given the importance of knowing the environment you are competing in. Prediction: 12th". Ok, so we know that he's a slimy little Jambo who you wouldn't want peeing next to you in the Heathmount toilets, but does Cyril have a point about Terry's signing policy?

There's another iconic image at 1:30ish. A group of moaning old men in the main stand shouting abuse at a side on the verge of winning promotion and the title. They're quite funny though, and they're all wearing nice bunnets.

Were we better then than we are now? Surely Wilson, Stewart and McLean would all walk into the current team. Anyway, I would like a picture of Pele, standing alone in the corner of the dugout looking dour, smoking a fag, with a single headphone in his ear and a brutal cold sore on his bottom lip.

Glad to see the club coming out with this statement and hopefully we can move on from here. While I think that it's disingenuous to pretend that Friday's statement was anything other than an expression of disappointment and frustration that Sevco could not take their place in the 1st, the club have reacted quickly to allay fears of further corruption in response to that decision and it would be nice to think that this marks the end of our involvement in the affair.

Very disappointing statement from Cameron, topped off by a post from Caley100 that contained all the hallmarks of a raging currant bun. For Cameron to come out blabbering about a once in a lifetime opportunity to change Scottish football just begars belief. The attempt to place Sevco in the 1st was evidence of Scottish football's unwillingness to change at all costs, and the decision that SFL clubs made today gives us a chance, just a chance, of reconfiguring the game away from the tedious Old Firm domination that we have all got so sick of over the past 20 years. It will be tough. It will certainly be on a smaller scale, and more clubs will probably end up having to start afresh in the 3rd, but personally I would prefer to watch under 19's in the 3rd than a bunch of loanees from the English lower leagues trying to keep us in the SPL at all costs so that we don't lose our slice of Old Firm generated tv money. That's not sport for me. It's just a televised entertainment show in which we are suppossed to be grateful for our bit-part. I salute the SFL 25.

Wow. 3 wins in a week. We're 2 points off 6th!

If he scores the winner this afternoon it should make for a http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iYhw_5ehZ4.

I left this game feeling slightly frustrated that we didn't take all three points. This was the worst Hibs performance i have seen in ten years of visiting Easter Road - they lacked confidence and cohesion and until a flurry of corners in injury time created absolutely nothing. After a slow start, we started to make our numerical advantage in midfield count and dominated possession and territory for the last hour of the game. As on Saturday, the strongest part of the team was the central midfield trio of Foran behind Davis and Cox - most folk were surprised to see Cox hooked as he was buzzing about well and didn't seem tired. Davis showed great composure on the ball in tight situations and looks a cut above this league, and Foran seems to lead the team better from the base of midfield - if there is a concern about him playing there it is that his passing can be erratic. Unfortunately, the wide players were unable to build on the platform provided by those three. Tade was poor out on the left where he caused Aberdeen a few problems on Saturday and the tactic of trying to him early with long diagonals was often wasted due to his poor touch. Hayes, on the other hand, tended to come deep to receive the ball while we were in possession and after a fruitful period before half-time wasn't given any space to play in the second half. While Gillet, and particularly Golobart were comfortable in defence, Hibs' inability get the ball into the front two made the night easier for them. Overall, i feel more positive than after the Aberdeen game, and a helluva lot more positive than i did before the week started. Worryingly though, two of our best players in these games have been Golobart and Davis. Hopefully we can hang on to those two and give the team a chance to build something on the strong and stable performances we have seen this week

I don't like these comments. Butcher needs to take some responsibility for our position in the league. The back 4 of Meekings-Tokely-Hogg-Gillet has just played consecutive games together for the first time, so it's hardly surprising that they look a little lost together. Butcher said after the Killie game that he's known his best team since pre-season but hasn't been able to play it because of injuries. This is clearly untrue because Hogg and Davis weren't signed until the season had started. I suspect that Butcher is only beginning to realise what his best team is, and that the amount of chopping and changing he's done in the meantime has a lot to do with the number of goals we've conceded.

I'm in, but i'll need to have a look at a team photo first. See you all in Diggers.

That's exactly how i feel about Supporters' Trusts. I long ago gave up worrying about the opinions of those who do no more than sit at home and mouth off via a keyboard. If my willingness to step up to the plate and do more than mouth off sets me apart from those people and brings me in for a bit of criticism...so be it, I would rather be criticised for doing something than criticised for doing nothing at all. People are entitled to their opinion, but I rest easy knowing that the Supporters Trust are at least trying, instead of expecting everyone else to do the work for them. I wasn't really criticising - just couldn't resist the comparison in the face of your vitriolic attack on union leaders . I agree with every word of your response, but think that the points you make about union leaders probably apply to leaders of all sorts. It takes a certain type of personality to become a leader, and very often large egos with personal ambition tend to have the drive to take on those roles.

That's exactly how i feel about Supporters' Trusts.

He may well be faster, but Tade's touch makes Bayne look like Bergkamp in comparison.

So, while long ball has worked for other teams it "should never be played by this club". Why not? Mixu is a pragmatist. When he was at Hibs, they accused him of playing long ball. At Kilmarnock, i believe he made the decision to play the most effective football possible with the tools he had at his disposal rather than on any ideological commitment to passing or attacking football. It was a unique situation in SPL history because Killie had a unique player in their team in the form Alexei Eremenko Jnr, a player who was reputed to earn more money than any other player in the league. Mixu played everything through him and earned a lot more than praise than points. Ren, i'm not a big fan of the hoof either, i'm just looking at our squad and thinking about how the hell we're going to stay in this league.