A96

Heilandee - going by your avatar you look just like me. You must be my long-lost twin? Principles are principles but how is the Scottish nation going to survive without deep-fried M*rs Bars? There has to be a market out there for deep fried Macaroon Bars. Could even call them deep-fried "MacaRooney" Bars? Just like Rooney's England team they would be well and truly battered!

A serious bit of backtracking by Mars Plc I'm afraid, RIG. They can dress it up any way they like but the fact is that they have assumed that everyone in the UK will be supporting England. Not a very clever assumption methinks!

If in doubt, check their special event web site at http://www.marsbelieve.com. You won't find much there about the 2010 Commonwealth Games. It's just a lame excuse by Mars Plc I'm afraid. :020:

Kingsmills, you could always get the Lidl immitation Mars bars instead. Not quite the real thing, I admit, but it's the principle that counts.

Mars Bars are now called "Believe" Bars. Every Time you buy one you will be registering your belief that England will do us all proud and win the World Cup. Respect to our English friends and fellow ICT supporters - but could you really see Mars Plc doing that if Scotland were the only UK country to qualify for the World Cup? Question: Will you now be buying more or less Mars Bars now that you know the significance of each purchase? Check out http://www.marsbelieve.com

On the positive side we have an excellent pitch. It is one of the largest in the country and the playing surface is superb. As for our stadium as a whole................well...................I reckon the Toftir Stadium in the Faroe Islands edges ahead of us by a fair margin. But that is only my humble opinion.

Elgin City? Ross County? :012: Games against our lesser neighbours may be a major coup for them but we've moved on from playing these diddy teams. Our appetites can surely only be whetted by playing English Premiership sides or teams from the major European leagues. We need a pre-season challenge, not a cricket score.

Tough call as there have been so many heroes in our team this season. I will have to break the trend though by suggesting Ian Black. When I saw him playing at Pittodrie for us last season I thought he was pretty useless - seemed only capable of moving the ball sideways or backwards. Just can't believe the improvement over 12 months though - especially with his tigerish tackling in midfield and excellent distribution of the ball. Therefore the wee man has to get my vote. :021:

He must be one desperate C**nty fan if he's going to support us against anyone. Glad to have on board though. On the other hand, perhaps most C**nty fans are really secret admirers of their mighty neighbours in Inverness but are just too shy to admit it.

Absolutely proud of Charlie, Parkie and all at ICT for an amazing post-split performance and a tremendous season. Nice to be "fourth" in the SPL, isn't it? :004:

I think the impressive turnout for the Scotland Futures match versus Turkey proved that we are a football city. 6,000 turned out on a freezing cold evening for (to all intents and purposes) a practice match when less than half that were expected (I know I spoke to the man who sells the pies). If that match had taken place in Edinburgh, Glasgow or Dundee - supposed "football cities" - it is unlikely that the crowd would have been half of what turned up in Inverness.

Official attendance at tonight's game v. Falkirk was given as 3100 something. Funny thing is that there were a lot less empty seats tonight than there were at the Dundee United game yet the crowd on that occasion was given as 3600 odd. There must have been at least four times as many Falkirk supporters there tonight as there were United fans a week last Saturday. Perhaps with ticket prices being cut by 50% for the Falkirk game, the same discount may also have been applied to the counting of those paying at the gate?

Four wins in a row. Well done to our management team and to the players. Charlie and Parkie are obviously getting something right. Wasn't too sure if I would make it to the game tonight but am glad I did. For me, tonight's defeat of Falkirk was probably one of the best ICT games I have seen all season. I thought they were showboating at times - so full were our team with confidence. Even Rosscoe was trying all the fancy tricks (even if they didn't always work). If you weren't there - you missed a cracker!!

True - we sprinted out of the blocks last season. But without Craig Brewster's 6 early goals our start to the season might have seemed more like like a crawl than a sprint. Thankfully the other Craig - Dargo - found his goalscoring touch in time at a time when CB stopped scoring. It is Craig Dargo's 20 goals that really set the heather on fire though. But you are right. We need to keep our fitness levels up the standards that Craig Brewster set. And hopefully that will happen for next season too.

Good to see Highland youngsters get their chance in the SPL. Zander played well - as did Michael Fraser. Both good prospects for the future.

But we are still the team that officially relegated Livi......................................!!!!!

Well done to Charlie and all the boys!! Yet again the mighty ICT progress to bigger and better things - and all done on a shoestring budget. A really commendable effort!!

With Caley Thistle I don't think we can isolate any manager, player or board member alone as being the reason for our success as a club during our short history. I believe the reason for our success over the years is down to the spirit, character and attitude of the club as a whole rather than as a consequence of any individual's input at any particular time. How often have we seen seemingly irreplaceable figures leave the club (whether manager, player or official) only to see the status of our club continue to grow unhindered? Personally, I believe it has something to do with the ingrained Highland spirit - an attitude that is readily absorbed by newcomers who are not Highland. We were unjustifiably frozen out of the Scottish League for decades - perhaps our fighting spirit stems from a deep seated desire to show the Lowland football mafia that we deserve our place in Scottish football and that we have a point to prove? As many have said before - ICT are "the sum of it's parts". We have something as a club (most of the time) that money can't buy - a positive attitude that doesn't allow room for prima donnas. Livingston and Dundee United have had a lot more money to spend in recent years than us but what has it achieved for them? You cannot buy spirit, character and a correct attitude. That is something a club either has or has not.

As a ST holder I would say fair play to the club. Better still, let kids in free like they used to do in the First Division.

Scotsport? True to form we had our spot on the graveyard shift - last game of the programme, somewhere in the wee small hours. They didn't even mention our name in the after match discussion!! The programme starts at 11.55 next week, so we can expect to appear somewhere around 1.20am.

Friendlies 0/6 CIS cup 0/3 SC cup 1/4 SPL 12/35

3600 surprises me too. That was the crowd figure for the Motherwell game also but I thought there were a lot less there today. £20 is way too high for entry - especially after the split. Better to make the maximum price £15 for everybody (or even a tenner) just to get the fans in. Anyone who paid £20 today to watch such an awful game against Dundee United in such unpleasant conditions will feel very hard done by (but for the exception of Dargo's last minute goal). Anyone who pays £20 to watch the midweek Falkirk match will need to be either extremely generous to ICT or extremely rash with their hard-earned cash!!

Yup. Today's goal by Dargo will do me nicely. After all, what better way could there be of convincing Craigy Brewster that made a bad mistake in leaving us? Two wins against Dundee United in a row. Yah beauty!!!

IHE - I like your new avatar. Is his name Craig Rooster by any chance?

Correct. Denzil has bags of ability but today he seemed anonymous. Needs to work his socks off like his wee mate Craig Dargo. That boy rarely stands still - and today we saw how that pays off with his superb opportunistic late winner against United.