ALSY

Pedo? Stalker? Hitman? Security Guard? Body guard? Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.

In my previous job, famous people I met included: Billy McNeill, John Greig, Archie Gemmill, Paul McStay, John Hartson, Nacho Novo, Iain Banks, Ian Rankin, Christopher Brookmyre, June Whitfield, Karen Dunbar, Carol Smillie, Kirsty Wark, Donald Finlay, Paul Ferris, Davina McCall and Jordan. Can you guess what I did?

I already stated i dont know him personally but what i have seen from him. I.e Things he says in interviews and to newspapers, he seems a cocky, arogant **** who i dont particualry like. I don't particularly want to get drawn into your argument, but I find that quite a strange evaluation of TB. Sure, he carries himself with the confidence that someone who was, in his day, a world class player is entitled to do, but I've never found him to be arrogant in interviews. On the contrary, I've been really impressed with the gracious way he's accepted defeats and with the apparently genuine warmth he has shown towards Inverness and towards the fans. I also don't buy the criticism of his signings, especially given that he was powerless to prevent the loss of Black and Morais. I was frustrated by some tactical decisions in the run-in last season and with the decision to let Vigurs go, but I've been fairly encouraged by the way he's set out the team this season and by most of his signings, especially given the limitations he had to work within and the little time they've had to settle into a largely new team. There's no way the club will think about changing the manager before the end of TB's contract, and that's the way it should be. He needs at least this season and probably half of the next before we can truly evaluate whether the club is moving forward, consolidating or going backwards. Anyone who expects a season in the first division to be relatively plain sailing probably hasn't been following the club long enough to remember the five seasons we spent down here, finishing 6th, 4th, 6th and 4th before finally winning the title. Edited to add: DornochCaley, I've just read your post which refers to comments Butcher made as a player, which slightly negates my opening paragraph. All the same, plenty of people have said daft things in their younger days. Is that really a reason to dislike him 'as a man' 20-odd years later, regardless of what you think of him as a manager?

It's interesting... I intended to keep more of an eye on him as I'm aware of the amount of stick he's been getting, but he still didn't make a huge impact on me. He seemed to put in a lot of running, but I don't remember any particular thing he did to affect the game going forward. I wonder if he maybe does for us what Fletcher did for Man U against Arsenal last week by sticking to opponents, making it difficult for them to cretae and breaking up the play with little interceptions and short passes? Cox certainly looked the more dynamic of the two, as he did at Dundee, but perhaps Stratford's work makes that possible. The one thing I wasn't very impressed with was his use of the dead ball. He took most of our corners and they were pretty ineffective. Will be good to have Imrie back for that reason - he was in the crowd, but still on crutches, so it looks like it might be a while yet before we see him. It was also nice to see Blackie and family in the crowd.

Not long back. Reading through the thread, it sounds like the radio gave a pretty fair reflection of the game. We started brightly, passing the ball about well. Hayes' pace, Foran chasing everything up front and Cox's dig in midfield meant we ran the show for about the first half hour. Sanchez took his goal well and I was impressed with his movement in general in the first half, dropping off his man and making space for himself. As you'd expect, Golly looked more a lot more solid defensively than Lionel, and generally used the ball well to pick out intelligent passes and build from the back. Towards the end of the first half we seemed to lose a bit of momentum, and that continued throughout the second. It was pretty poor fare in general, but Partick definitely had more of the play and Esson made a couple of good saves. Thoght Granty and Golly defended well on the whole, but on two or three occasions Bulivitis got pulled too far forward and got caught either too tight to his man or on the wrong side of his man. If this becomes a habit, it will lead to us losing goals to teams with quicker forwards. I was also a bit frustrated with Rosscoe's tendency to punt the ball out of defence - hasn't anyone told him we're a passing team now? Anyway, I don't remember the exact circumstances leading to the equaliser, but I think everyone had seen it coming for a good 20 minutes. Extra time was actually a little better for us. Rooney and Barrowman up front still looked a little static, but there were occasional flashes of good movement. There was one particuarly good move involving Foran, Rooney and Barrowman, ending with a Duncan shot - think that might have been towards the end of the second half of normal time, come to think of it - that was very encouraging. Duncan actually did a reasonable job playing wide right in extra time, although his passing, as usual, was a bit hit and miss. I feared the worst when it went to penalities, given the circumstances of our last trip to Firhill, but Rooney, Barrowman, Rossoce and Granty took their penalities execllently, and Esson made three tremendous saves to put us through - the third, a one handed tip onto the bar, was quite outstanding. Overall, not a great game of football, but it sounded a lot better than last week's performance, there were periods of enjoyable passing play from us and the team did well to get back into it after losing its way for most of the second half. I also felt the estimate of 100 visiting supporters was a bit conservative - I'd have said 150-200. I was very quiet all over the ground, though - a real sober, Sunday afternoon affair. Looking forward to more rowdy Saturdays over the next two weeks with two more games roughly in my neck of the woods.

Shouldn't be too difficult. Hopefully drag a few along with me.

Funny, was thinking the exact same thing myself. Don't want to be too much of an apologist for Butcher - I think he made quite a few mistakes in selection during the relegation run-in - but wasn't part of the problem with Byrne that he was injured for most of the early part of Butcher's time in charge? By the time he was available Butcher had a team that had gone on a decent run, and it's understandable that he wanted to show some faith in most those of players even when the results started to worsen again.

I didn't see the incident, but I'd be inclined to give Foran the benefit of the doubt. He did tremendous work getting to the bye-line and cutting it back for our second equaliser against Dundee, and maybe he had that in mind. I expected Foran to be a little more prolific too this season, given his past scoring record with Motherwell, but perhaps he will get more chances once the team starts to gel a bit more. It's still very early in the season.

On a purely personal note, the positive is that this is a game I can make even though it will be a midweek fixture. Realistically, though, I don't give us much chance. Our recent record against Motherwell is very poor, and I think Gannon looks like a pretty shrewd manager. People seem to think they will struggle simply because Gannon isn't well known up here, but Motherwell seem to have a lot of good young players coming through. Sofa for me if we do win though, being married to a Motherwell supporter.

Well said. Inevitably he'll be a bit slower, but he brings experience and a certain amount of footblling intelligence. Obviously it's a short term fix, but it suggests that Butcher is maybe less enamoured of LDZ than everyone thinks and realises he needs options at left back. Isn't that that everyone is asking for? FWIW, I would prefer to see McBain at left back - he was our most reliable player in that position when he got his chance last season. Hastings was very poor at the start of last season, as he was the previous year before regaining a bit of form later on, and it was obvous Butcher saw nothing to make him think he would improve the team if he came back in. If McBain isn't an option for Butcher, then hopefully Golly will bring a bit of short-term stability and Butchr can look more closely at Shinnie and decide whether he can make the step up at some stage. There's certainly no point in predicting doom and gloom before we've even seen Golly start a game this time around.

Anyone want to open a book on when his first suspension kicks in?

Rooney on for Proctor. And why not? Throw caution to the wind.

Thank feck. We need a bit of the Paterson-era sprit now - come back for a 3-2 win. First shot on goal, though. Poor.

F*ck sake. Kind of glad I wasn't able to go to this now. F*cking Vigurs as well.

Are you referring to Celtic's famous 4-2 victory over the mighty ICT? Naturally... the brainwashing department at work has finally got to me. :D

We're back in the first division... it's the third round of a national cup competition... the game will be played midweek... surely it's got to be Celtic away? All the stars are aligning... Otherwise, Midden away would probably be my choice, for ease of travel and also because they don't look any great shakes this season and we're probably better just now than we were for most of last season.

It was Scott Davie - a Raith Rovers supporter who usually has the Pittodrie beat on Sportsound. I always find his reporting pretty irritiating, tbh - never seems to have any enthusiasm for the game.

FT 4-0. Still very early days, but the last 2 cup results, after such a shaky start against Montrose, are very encouraging - suggests that the team has a lot of hunger and that the new players are really trying to prove themselves and cement their places. Good result for County tonight too though, unfortunately. On the other hand, Partick are having a pretty horrible start to the season - hope they don't start finding form a week on Sunday.

Bulivitis! Interesting collection of scorers tonight. Edited to add: Tokely booked already, ffs.

Only changes from Saturday's line up are Tokely for Proctor and Rooney for Sanchez - Scott Davie on BBC speculated that Sanchez may be carrying a knock.

Just to echo what everyone else has said, a cracking game with lots of passing football and chances created by both sides. What a contrast from last season. Munro looks a far more composed player with Bulivitis beside him. I feel that some of the criticism of Eagle is a little harsh - he wasn't particularly bad yesterday and may develop more confidence with more games, although he does look a little lightweight. Mind you, I do think it should be him rather than Hayes who makes way when Imrie returns. Two particular pieces of praise: Terry Butcher. There were a few question marks over some of his tactical decisions towards the end of last season, but the passing game he has tried to implement this season and the spirit he has obviously fostered in the team are really encouraging. Also, he appears to have done two crucial bits of business in unearthing Cox and in persuading Foran to stay. These were our most influential players yesterday, both demonstrating intelligent, direct attacking play and tremendous workrates. The away support. By all accounts it was excellent at Dunfermline, and it certainly was yesterday, singing throughout the game and all the way down the street afterwards. I find it hard to tell by looking, but I'd hazard a guess that we had 3-400 there yesterday - definitely more than we took to the majority of SPL grounds last season. Quite rightly, Butcher made sure the players acknowledged the support, and the gesture was appreciated. By the sounds of things County were woeful yesterday, and if our team can combine the same sort of attacking play with the spirit it showed yesterday , than ICT should have a great chance of a win. Hopefully the home support will also show the same sort of backing that the away support showed yesterday. If so, it has the makings of a great occasion.

This was inspired by a comment RiG made in the pre-match thread on P&B, which got me thinking... There have been plenty of threads asking people to list their dream ICT team made of players from all eras, but I don't remember this one having been done, or at least not for a while: of the teams we have had at different times over the past 15 years, which was your favourite, and why? There are a few obvious contenders: the Feb 8 2000 team, the promotion-winning team, the team that finished 7th in the SPL, but my own favourite is the 2002-03 team that Pele took to the top of the league before leaving and Robbo took to our first Scottish Cup semi final. Mann, Wyness and Robson were fantastic that season - Robson in particular, having been quite a frustrating player previously, began to fulfil all the promise he'd shown in the past. For those that may not remember the full team, the squad for the Scottish Cup Final was: Brown; Tokely, Mann, McCaffrey, Golabek; Hart, McBain, Duncan, Robson; Wyness, Ritchie. Subs: Bagan, Christie, Fraser, Keogh, Munro, G. Stewart. Don't think I've ever enjoyed football quite as much before or since, although the following season was obviously euphoric. Thoughts, anyone?

I'm happy! Would have preferred it to be the semi-final, mind you, and on a Saturday so I could make more of a day of it.

Will be there with CaleyStan and Arbroathawayday. Belated start to the season for me - missed Dunfermline for family reasons and still a bit gutted about it.

I'm pretty certain that this issue was raised with the club last season by someone on here and that the response was that the club has 'no plans' to introduce a smoking area. As far as I know very few clubs do offer this facility - Aberdeen is one which does, and possibly also Kilmarnock? Perhaps it has something to do with this notion of being 'health-promoting clubs', although that is undermined a little by the type of food sold at most grounds! IMO, as long as smoking remains legal and cigarettes are sold in this country, it's discriminatory not to provide a ventilated area with ashtrays where people can smoke without others being affected by second-hand smoke or discarded cigarette ends. However, the majority of those with the power to make these decisions seem to disagree and I don't see this changing.