Caley Stan

Not much to add to what's already been said. It was an average performance but i think we still deserved a point. If there was a difference between the teams then it was that they defended better. The spell after half-time finished us again and i think this was a reaction to what happened last week. Our offensive 4-2-3-1 quickly looked like defensive 4-4-1-1 with Rooney hopelessy isolated from the midfield. We rallied and had loads of set piece opportunities but wasted them. Our only clear cut chance came when Foran got to the bye line and cut back for Cox - the Partick defender did really well to get there first and knock the ball over the bar. Disappointing result which underlines just how difficult this league is.

It's a bit sad that one of these threads appears every time we lose a game and it says more about the nature of some sections of our support than it does about Terry Butcher. I agree with some of the points that have been made about TB's lack of tactical nous. This has been costly in the last two games as teams have sussed our weaknesses out in the first half and exploited them shortly after half-time. I'm sure Butcher realises this as well. But i don't agree with calls for his head. He has presided over the club's biggest turnover in playing staff in over a decade and has had to deal with a relegation which was largely not of his making. The new team has shown signs of promise. People were saying at half-time in Perth that they'd never seen us play so well. Amongst some of the poor signings he made in the summer, he's uncovered a couple of gems in Hayes and Sanchez, and persuaded Richie Foran to stay. It's worth remembering that going into the Cup final, we had won 4 games in 5 and scored a barrowload of goals against the wee teams. I think he's building a team, and if he's given a good crack at it i believe that the team can find the consistency needed to mount a challenge for promotion. By a good crack i don't mean 'til the end of the season, i mean the 2 or 3 years that will be needed to finish what he's started.

:(

I think Northern Jaggie's idea is more likely to improve the atmosphere than any attempt to move singers into another part of the ground. Traditionally, noisy football supporters sit behind the goals and their team shoots towards them in the second half. Section G grew quite naturally as a result of this tradition and i don't think it should be messed with. The priority should be making it easier for those who wish to join them in creating an atmosphere.

Our home attendances in the Challenge Cup certainly suggest that the latter may be a factor, but did we take many more to our two previous finals? The glory hunters theory is more difficult to quantify, especially as we might not be taking part in any "major games" in the near future. It would be very intersting to see how many people would turn out for a big Scottish Cup tie - home or away.

Negative and boring got us a 1-0 win over Greece at Hampden when McCoist came of the bench late and glanced in a header. We went on to qualify for Euro '96 as a result. You should remember - you were standing next to me! Oh how i would love to see negative and boring 1-0 wins that take us to major tournaments again.

I think we should move Rosscoe into centre and give Stratford a chance at right-back with Bulvitis dropping out.

He hooked Sanchez for Cox after 57 minutes. The midfield weren't getting on the ball at all at the time and a change needed to be made. It was a really tough decision because all of the attacking players had played so well in the first half. As it turned out, Cox didn't really make us much more solid. The problem was the poor distribution from the back and the lack of pace of the full-backs. I think Butcher's biggest mistake yesterday was not bringing on Imrie or Odhiambo earlier as Hayes faded badly after a great first half and Foran wasn't as effective either. I hope we also remember just how good we were in the first half. Surely Butcher deserves some credit for getting us playing like that.

The muppets have gone too far this time. First Mike Smith, then Brewster, and now they go and bring in Pinochet. It's time for a revolution.

Robert Eagle appears to be latest victim of this phenomenon. Butcher said in the P&J today that McBain and Barrowman are "back in training". Were they injured?

That press conference is hilarious. I do agree with most of what Keane is saying, but his manner just shows him up as a complete headcase with a massive chip on his shoulder.

They have a large debt but they also get bigger crowds than anyone else in bottom 6 and i'd be very surprised if their budget was any smaller. I heard Chic Young saying recently that his money would be on Billy Stark. Craig Brown has aslo been touting him and pointing out how successful the system of promoting from within the SFA was in his own case and in the case of Andy Roxburgh. This must be the only point in Stark's favour - his club record is atrocious: Morton 1997-2000: Finished 5th and 6th. He was sacked after Morton were pumped 6-2 at Caley Park. St. Johnstone 2001-2004: Stark took over a couple of months into the season with St. Johnstone at the bottom of the SPL. The were relegated with 21 points (19 away from safety!) and Stark was sacked after consecutive 3rd place finishes in the First. Queens Park 2004-2008: 4th and 6th in the Third before promotion via the play-offs after a 3rd place finish. I think this record should be enough to discount Stark completely. He seems to be doing allright with the 21's so leave him there. The manager of Scotland must have a track record of success and Stark doesn't.

I think the next Scotland manager should have a record of consistently wringing the best out of his players at club level. I don't see any reason to appoint a man on the basis of their reputation as a player or even as a coach when there are candidates out there who have already brought consistency to their teams at club level. That criteria rules out both John Collins and Gary McAliister. They still have to prove thmselves and i think they've got a bit of a cheek to be touting themselves for the Scotland job. Joe Jordan is also ruled out on these grounds - he may be respected as a player and a coach but he has a dodgy managerial record. Without doubt, the most experienced candidate is Jim Jeffries. He's been a manger for over 25 years and many people feel he has been unfortunate not to land a bigger job before now. I think his record's too patchy to be considered for this job. After 5 years at Gala Fairydean and a couple of seasons at Berwick, Jeffries got the Falkirk job where he won the First Division at the first attempt. Falkirk stayed up in 9th position but were relegated the following season. Jeffries kept his job and Falkirk bounced straight back up and finished 5th the following season. Jeffries then spent 4 seasons at Hearts, finishing 9th - 4th - 3rd - 6th and reaching 2 Scottish Cup finals, winning it in 1998. This was undoubtedly the most consistently successful spell of of his career. Jeffries took over Bradford in November 2000. They were rooted to the bottom of the Premiership table and stayed there for the entire season, finishing on 29 points. After a poor start in the Championship, Jeffries was sacked after just a year in the job. Never a week goes by without someone on Sportsound saying "Jim Jeffries and Bill Brown have done a great job at Kilmarnock". It's one of these statements that neanderthals like Sandy Clark and Billy Dodds feel they can spout without consulting their tiny brains, safe in the knowledge the JJ's "great Killie job" is a statement of fact that nobody will ever challenge. I think they've done a good job at Kilmarnock. Here are their league finishes over 8 seasons: 7th---4th---10th---7th---5th---5th---11th---8th It's good. It's stable, but it's not spectacular. More worrying (for Killie fans) is that for the 3rd consecutive season they are starting to get sucked into a relegation scrap. I think his time at Killie sums up Jeffries' managerial career. There have been some great highs (top 6 finishes, qualifying for Europe), but there have definitely been lows as well. I don't think we can say with any confidence that Jim Jeffries will imporove fortunes of the national team. Next up for the Stan attack.............Billy Stark.

I think we might be Dundee's bogey team this season. A win on Sunday might not give us 3 points but it will certainly put the shits up them.

I was there that night. Danny McDonald scored our goal and we were the better team. I think we're going to pump Dundee on Sunday by at least a 3 goal margin........ This post is a great advert for Guiness.

Glad to hear the Inverness Cup is back in action. Aside from the famous 5-2 pumping of the farmers at Clach Park, my only memory the Inverness Cup is a very hazey one. I think it involved Caley losing 3-2 to County at Kingsmills. Can anyone confirm this? I may be wide of the mark.

Craig Levein. Not only for manager but to head up a revolution in the way the SFA develops football talent at all levels. I'm always impressed when i hear him talking about football and believe that he has the energy and focus to instigate real change in the game here. Aside from all of the that, he's the only realistic candidate with a good record of improving teams at club level. In his 4 seasons at Hearts they finished 3rd, 5th, 3rd, 3rd. This is as consistent as any non-OF club has been in the last 20 years. Consecutive 5th place finishes at Dundee United may look less impressive on paper but placed in the context of that club's recent history (and not forgetting who preceded him in the job) it represents a major turnaround in their fortunes. His silence today suggests to me that he's interested - i really hope the SFA don't **** this up.

I think we're talking about 10 teams here - County are just village team and Queens haven't been the top division for a very long time. Here are those 10, in order of last season's average attendances: Kilmarnock Falkirk Motherwell St. Mirren ICT Dundee Hamilton St. Johnstone Dunfermline Partick Thistle Obviously the figures are skewed by the fact that 6 of the 10 teams were playing in the SPL, but all of the clubs posted average attendances between 3000 and 6000. Kilmarnock and Motherwell have distinguished themselves from others in recent years in that they have avoided yo-yo-ing between the divisions and have finished in the top 6 on occasion. Dundee, Falkirk, St. Mirren and to an extent, Dunfermline, have been able to maintain decent gates in the First Division, suggesting that they have a stronger core support than the likes of ourselves, St. Johnstone and Partick. Hamilton's attendances are a complete joke. Obviously attendances are not the be all and end all when it comes to judging the size of a club but i think they are a good indicator. To answer IHE's questions directly, i don't think there's much difference in terms of size between these 10 teams and i think that we have more potential for growth than most of them. Our location means that we face less competion for punters than other clubs and the (growing) size of the town means that we have plenty of potential to increase our support. I agree that money is not a pre-requisite to increasing the size of the club and believe that in the long-term, we will only grow by forging closer links wth the community at large.

This is a wikipedia wind-up that's gone too far. Pat Nevin is 100% weedgie - i'd be surprised if he's even set foot in the Highlands. Barry Wilson is a Fifer although i think he deserved that status of 'honorary Highlander'. On topic, i think it's a real shame that we haven't kept an U-19 team. The cutting costs argument doesn't really wash as nearly every other team in the First Division has one. I think this is yet another example of short-term thinking from the ICT board.

Late goal for Dunfermline puts us up to 4th on goals scored - 5 points from top. We're about to go on a really tough run of games though.

Not much enthusiasm for this one then. It's understandable, i suppose, after yet another anticlimactic qualifying campaign. I still believe that we have a decent first eleven. Here's the team i'd like to see on Saturday: -------------------MARSHALL----------------- HUTTON----CALDWELL---MCMANUS----FOX ------------FLETCHER---THOMPSON--------- MCCORMACK-----MCFADDEN------ROBSON -----------------------MILLER------------------ I'd aslo like to see run-outs for Berra, Whittaker, Dorrans, Naismith Steven Fletcher.

They must be brothers.

That just about sums it up for me. Much like the first derby of the season, County seemed to be a good bit sharper, picking up loose balls in midfield and finding their own men with short passes. They were well worth their win. Having said that, we could well have sneaked a draw. Somebody mentioned the free headers for Tokely and Bulvitis, but the best chance fell late to Odhiambo who snatched at a header when he had more than enough time to take the ball down and slot it home. I had a great time on the terraces today and i'm looking forward to the cup final followed by trips to Firhill and Palmerston. The First Division is great. Those who don't agree might have to learn to enjoy it because i think we'll be staying here for a while.

That is so freeze-frameable

In his last spell in the First he made 24 appearances and scored 1 goal.