ALSY

I'm with Kiltarlity and Bronson here. Bullock took the abuse in good part at first and some of the banter was really funny but a few guys behind the goal kept it up for half the second half, and some of their comments were completely inappropriate. Remember that as well as there being children in the crowd, statistically it is likely that there were a significant minority that have sufferered some sort of abuse as children. They don't need to be reminded of their experience or have it trivialised just so an opposition player can be wound up. And please, don't come back with "Well they shouldn't go to football matches / they should sit in the stand if they can't take it" - going to a game should be about enjoying the football and supporting the team without being made to feel uncomfortable by persistent comments about sensitive subjects such as paedophilia.

On the basis of yesterday, Wood. I don't necessarily think Rory lacks hunger, but Wood certainly looked sharper and more effective with the ball at his feet. We should hold our fire on sending ANYONE out on loan, though - even if the work permit comes through, Niculae has a bad injury record, and Dean and Bayne being injured so early is ominous: if either is rushed back too soon there is a gretaer chance of a recurrence.

Surprised no-one has made more of the other substitutions - Zander was excellent, Black looked a class above as usual but I also thought Cowie made a huge difference when he came on. He was solid, used the ball well, got it out to the flanks far more than Hart or Mcbain (before he moved wide in the second) did, and also got forwrd well on occasion. About ten minutes from the end he made an excellent diagonal run to the edge of the box, took a long ball from Joinville beautifully and set up a decent chance for Garry Wood. This is the first time I've seen him play, but on today's evidence I think we could do worse than him and Black in the middle, with Rankin pushed wide. This would also give us a bit more height in midfield. Wood also looked a real prospect - matches Rory for size, made intelligent runs and in just two or three touches looked trickier than Rory with the ball at his feet. If Bayne doesn't make it next weekend then it might be worth pitching him in against the Huns: like Zander, he doesn't seem to lack confidence. As for the rest? The regular defenders were fine - thought Caff did very well at right back - but am unsure about Joinville. He seemed to mistime an awful lot of headers, was a bit clumsy when tracking back and looked isolated - perhaps Granty should have talked him through the game more. He did show some nice touches in the second half and won a few more headers, but whether he is reliable enough as a defender in the SPL I just don't know. The midfield, allegedly our strongest area, was a big disappointment in the first half. Wilson and Rankin both looked tentative, didn't use the ball nearly as creatively or effectively as you would expect against a second division team and (although someone always says this at the start of every season and he proves them wrong) I thought Wilson looked off the pace. McBain in the first half seemed to be the holding midfielder more than Hart, and he didn't have any real presence. Hart ran about a lot but wasn't effective. There was no imagination and no penetration. And in the attack, Wyness was anonymous in the first half but came on to a game in the second with some lovely touches and good linking play, and Rory worked hard, had at least one excellent shot, but as we saw last season, did not seem to have the speed of thought or ability with the ball at his feet to trouble good defenders. To sum up, on the basis of the first half I was really fearing for us next season, but by the end of the second, thanks to Sutherland, Cowie, Black and Wood, I was pretty excited.

Just watching Andrew Marr's History of Britain there and I think I caught sight of a clip of Tony Blair playing football against a team of girls in what looked like our strip from around '96-97, on a ground that looked v like TCS. Can anyone confirm? Was this part of the pre-'97 election charm offensive? Or am I suffering from close-season withdrawal and hallucinations?

Report in today's "Herald": "Inverness Caledonian Thistle are in talks over a pre-season friendly against Qatar. Charlie Christie's side have been approached by Errea, their Italian kit manufacturer, over the possibility of playing the Middle Eastern nation during next month's week-long trip to Italy." Qatar's current Fifa world ranking: 83. 8 places below Wales, 11 above Canada.

I agree - in fact I'd like to see him get more of a run in the Scotland side - but although Aberdeen fans were talking about his potential for a long time, he wasn't really given much recognition outside Aberdeen until he took on the responsibility of the captaincy. Dods has been great for us, but I think he's sometimes been given too much credit for the success of our defence while we've been in the SPL, partly because he has a higher profile as captain and partly because he's more of a known quantity to central belt journalists having been at Hibs and St Johnstone. Grant may be less "imposing", but his tracking back and last-minute interceptions have saved us in an awful lot of games, and I'd argue he's at least as good as Anderson or Stephen McManus with the ball at his feet.

Wasn't Barry involved in the Raith Rovers team that led Bayern Munich at half time in the Olympic Stadium? That wouldn't be a bad wee fixture... :004:

Good article. For me he's been our most impressive player in terms of consistency since we came into the SPL and I think he's been a bit overlooked by the sports media in Scotland. It's good, too, to hear from a player who is clearly ambitious yet seems committed to the club rather than talking about moving on to get recognition. Making him captain would raise his profile and perhaps, if we can start challenging for a top 6 place, he'll start to be talked about the way Russell Anderson has been talked about for a few seasons now. Breaking into the Scotland squad is always going to be difficult, but you never know - Weir and Dailly are coming to the end of their careers. Still lot of competition - Anderson, McManus, Caldwell, possibly Kennedy and Broadfoot now - but he's one of the few players we've got that I think still has international potential (Black and Sutherland being the other possibles).

Quote from Christie in the Herald suggests that the move for Buchanan has been made possible by moving McSwegan off the wage bill. No reference to Dargo.

Owen Coyle favourite to take over from Malpas long-term. A man who appreciates a decent striker, unfortunately. Shame Scotland has already gone to Swansea otherwise Coyle might have taken with with him.

Hopefully Rangers away. Always good to start the season with a stick-on 3 pointer. :004:

amc - surely one of our great strengths is that the continuity in the squad has led to an excellent team spirit and a level of trust between players and management that most clubs can only envy? Recently players that have been on the fringes (Hart, Caff) have comeback in and done excellently. If the squad is disrupted by an influx of new players, surely such players will finally lose patience and want away? There's also no guarantee that any players we can afford will be any better than those we already have. The flipside, of course, is that the existing players might become complacent if we don't make many signings, but there's been no evidence of that so far. I think the club's approach is spot on.

Hope to God Blackie doesn't read this board or he'll definitely want away. Isn't "mentally unstable" a bit of an overstatement? With friends like that etc... He's a young guy who still has to learn how to control his temper. There's at least one player like that at every club. Of course Charlie's got to keep trying to work on this with him, but it's no reason to give up on him. Another reason that he commits more fouls than most is that he's committed in the tacke but so short in stature that sometimes he simply doesn't have the reach to win the ball cleanly. A few seasons ago Ilian Kiriakov had the same problem at Aberdeen, and Paul Scholes has always had it. Scholes also has a problem controlling his temper. So obviously Alex Ferguson should have punted him to Oldham in around 1996...

We shouldn't put too much emphasis on this top 6 finish - depth of squad & finance are always going to make it difficult for us to break through there. I'd be happier with another 8th or 9th and at least one good cup run. Was heartbroken when another day out at Hampden was snatched away from us by the Neanderthal and little plastic Kenny Miller. Next season ICT = CIS Cup champions. Believe.

No place for Hastings among the heroes after his best ever season for us? Or Wilson? Fair play to Hart too for apparently excellent form in the last few games - great to see a player determined to win back and keep his place.

We could always ask Elton to stick Watford in the back of his limo...

Charles, The Mayfair cafe was on Eastgate at the bottom of Stephen's Brae - very close to Ronnie's chipper. Flaking orange and white paint and a multicoloured sign above the door, did a mean line in 99s. I was born in 1973 and it's a VERY distant memory, so I suspect it closed around '79 or '80 - possibly around the time they demolished the buildings at the foot of Crown Road and replaced them with that awful wall. It may well be that the Mayfair was a short-lived name and that it was better known as something else - as I say, it was only there for a short window in my memory.

Not determined to get the last word in, honest (just a bit pissed and farting about online) but I reckon a good start to the saeson could be worth a lot more than 70k to any club, and especially one with Utd's potential fanbase. Utd fans seem to have a bit more faith in Levein than recent previous incumbent and if they come out of the blocks fast they could be getting 1,500 - 2,000 more per game than they are getting at the moment. No guarantee that Robson could help them do that, of course, but Levein seems to have that belief in him. Also, the grocer's thrown so much money at them that 70k is maybe less of a big deal to them than to us or Falkirk. On the subject of starting well, does anyone feel that our fans are getting bored with the slow turnover of personnel at the club? Would two or three new faces boost atendances at home games? Personally I'm really proud of the fact that we've achieved what we have with a number of players that have been with us since the lower league days, but I rarely make home games, so I don't know what the vibe is among the fans in Inverness. New faces = bigger gates at the start of the season? Just throwing that one out for anyone more clued-up than me.

Really enjoy this part of the forum as someone (just) old enough to remember the dead flies in the window of the Mayfair cafe... Thought the following link might interest a few of the historically-minded among you: national library of scotland link Possibly even CB isn't old enough to remember Inverness in this incarnation! For a history of the town to this point, click on the "Background Information" box - written by yours truly in a previous life before I followed Charles into the teaching profession.

Surely that just confirms how important he considers Robson will be to Utd having a good start to next season? Don't think anyone will stop Robson being a niggly wee s***e, Levein's presumably accepted that's something he'll have to live with - just like we'll probably have to live with that with Blackie (and without wanting to revive an old argument, I think we'd be mad to punt Blackie for that reason).

Agred on all points Scotty, and another thing no-one's mentioned yet is that he's got a huge supporter in Craig Levein, who's described him as "far and away our [united's] best player". I suspect that that's exactly the way to keep a player of Barry's high self-reagrd onside, especially coming from an ex-player and manager of Levein's reputation. Barry will be at the heart of an imporved Utd side next season, much as I'd love to see him back at ICT.

Scott Wilson's probably been Dunfermline's most consistent player over the last 5 years and they've done all right until the last couple of seasons. He's v. experienced in the SPL and always looks committed. Signing him would be a very intelligent piece of business IMO, but if he's going free I suspect a central belt club will snap him up. Maguire? Nah... another of AFC's much-hyped "new Willie Millers" destined for the lower leagues (anyone remember Gregg Watson?)

Ah. So they are. That's the last smartarsed comment I post.

To return briefly to the bizarre thought of trading in CC for Eoin Jess just because Jess fancies a bash at coaching... don't any of you remember Eoin Jess giving interviews when he was at Aberdeen? He managed to get out 15 syllables a minute if he was feeling chatty, and had this permanent Dylan-from-The-Magic-Roundabout thing going on around the eyes. Not to mention his habit of going missing from games for an hour at a time if he didn't fancy it. NOT the sort of inspriation we need. CC's doing fine. As for Jess, if he's really keen he can start at Hill Rovers and work his way up, just like managers did in the good old days...

Don't see him going anywhere now. Outstanding on Sunday apparently, and remember the shortages Celtic had at the back by the time they played Milan this year. They'll need depth if they want a Champions League run again. He'll be staying to fight it out with McManus, O'Dea, Pressley & Caldwell, especially if O'Neill signs Balde.