Kind of Blue

Caleydon. Charles has given you a typical detailed reply that your post didn't really warrant. David Sutherland is standing down as Chairman but he and Tulloch will continue to play a very important part in the future of ICT.

Charlesand Caley D, you both make good and relevant points which i'm not going to add to. As far as the new Trust is concerned there is nothing, in my opinion, to be concerned about. D Sutherland and Tulloch will continue to provide support (including financial) to ICT for many years to come. Its taken a number of years but David Sutherland has now silenced the sceptics who doubted his motives towards ICT.

St Midden at home can be viewed as a good and a bad fixture. It's good that we're home and against a newly promoted side, so we should be favourites to win. On the other hand, SM will be fired up to prove the doubters wrong and the pressure will be all on us. We will be under pressure to get 3 points and hit the ground running, the following 3 games will be very tough.

Good. I am convinced participation in this cup would have adversely affected our spl campaign

It looks fine to me.

A well deserved award for Mark and it's good to seem him getting national (but not international) recognition. Mark has made a massive contribution to the rise and success of ICT over the last 3 years.

I'll take my usual one share.

I wish CC would forget about this Intertoto cup nonsense. The club should be concentrating on gearing up for another tough season in the SPL instead of being sidetracked by a European misadventure.

Dodds gets my vote just ahead of Dargo and Brown.

Yes I've seen him play. I do think he's a decent player but question whether he's worth an inflated transfer fee.

High: 1) Staying in the Spl for another season. 2) Dargo's wonder goal at Ibrox. Low: Getting beat by Livvi in the CIS cup; and getting knocked out by PT in the Scottish cup.

I agree with Kingsmills.

Despite him getting this award, I remain to be convinced he's worth paying a sizable fee for (£60k to £70k?). Do we really need another small midfielder?

Rig quote: [The man is still a good player but a disaterous manager] I hope Charlie is as "disastrous" a manager as Brewster, if so we should stay in the spl for the many seasons to come.

Caley D, you're sounding a bit embittered there. There's bound to be mistakes made and a learning process for all concerned when a new entity is getting off the ground. Give the Trust a chance, surely it can only be a positive development.

I remember the comeback against East Stirling. Their keeper had been winding up the Howden End with gestures etc, so it was very sweet to give him some stick back. For me one of our greatest and unlikeliest comebacks was against Cowdenbeath (away) in season 96/97. We were getting beat 2-1 with a minute to go, when we got an equaliser and then in injury time we got the winner. This result kick-started a run of wins which led to the winning of the league.

Caley D, David Sutherland is not quoted as criticising the fans for their views on the "failure" to obtain top 6. He does in fact say "whilst I do appreciate some fans' angst at not reaching the top six, we did try very hard to do it on limited resources." I think your confusing Charlie Bannerman's editorial comment - "but despite all that, there is still a minority view that missing out on the top six amounts to failure" with the views of the Chairman. For my money I think we've got the best Chairman in the SPL. HE'S more than delivered on every big issue that has arisen in the last few years.

It will be interesting to see where he takes County (please no jokes about the Mallard).

Brown has kept us in many games this season with excellent saves. It's easy to pick out moments such as the Aberdeen game (I would say that Grant was 50% to blame for the mix up) where Mark has made a mistake. However, his overall performance this season has been of a high standard and the 10 cleansheets are a testament to this. IMO, Brown must be in our top 3 performers of the season.

Mrs PB, possibly there could be a morale boost to the team and fans with being in the cup, especially if they can progress into the next round. However, I think the disadvantages outweigh the advantages in terms of possible disruption to the start of the season. The spl is our no 1 objective and we jeopardise this at our peril.

Juanjo has not exactly set the heather on fire with Hamilton.

I will not be unhappy if we don't get an Intertoto cup place. It's always seemed a half-baked idea to me and could cause the team to run out of steam mid-season because they started competitive games too early.

tm4tj, I nominate you for making the best post on the new site, so far. I totally agree with what you say. Livi have been unlucky for a number of games and were due to beat someone, unfortunately it was us. We paid the penalty for some slack defending and not taking our numerous chances.