absent friend

This is just a big County windup by Snowball and ICT fans have risen to the bait!! They will be enjoying this in Dingwall.

I feel sure the said player will be very grateful to you for pointing out his inability to play to your standards, using the full force of your constructive assistance. .

I can easily take defeat... up to a certain point. Like YaBoy said, its the performance that affected people more. I am not sure about the rest of you's, but i feel that the team come out the tunnel expecting to win rather than giving 110%. The just seem to lay back knowing that they are much better. We are much better than most teams in Division 1 but we need to apply more team chemisty if we want to get anywhere. The only hard working players in our team just now are Bulvitus, Hayes and Eagle. Its like the rest have given up. Butcher needs to sort out the team fast. I just hope that the team change their attitude before Fans change there mind about them (or Butcher) and after out first defeat, some people already hate Terry. Do people expect to go a whole season without a defeat???? I rest my case!! Throw toys out of the pram because 'I don't like it' .

I am amazed at the degree of support for the negative threads on here, resulting from a loss of one game. I realise that the loss was to 'THE ENEMY' but we are all big boys and girls and should be able to accept that our team can be defeated at times or are we? This reaction therefore makes me wonder if ICT supporters as well as being 'tut tutters' 'sweetie paper rustlers' are also, especially the younger ones, gutless supporters, who are unable to accept defeat. You know the type that Mummy and Daddy always allowed to win at Ludo/Cards/etc so that they would not be upset and attack poor Teddy! Now able to use the PC they use this heritage to expect their bigger game, supporting ICT, to be a win, win, result too. Well this is not the way of the world, hard knocks happen and have to be taken on the chin, so please, please, stop bitching and behaving as if you were from over the bridge!! .

I think if I were Butcher and MM reading this, my ear would be to the ground for the chance of a move away before the easily lead, fickle Inverness fans, go to town once more, on their forum. Let's move this on, you, the fans, have now managed to undermine our management team so where does this leave us? Obviously there are no comparable managers about that will come to a club with this fickle fan base to move them on. As manager after manager is offloaded, and this fact is becoming more evident, our team is on a downward spiral to division three, lacking good long term management, making the chance of recruiting a decent manager even more remote. This small minority of posters will, by then, have done their work on this forum having lead the fickle fans by the nose and returned to their first love, Ross County, with their mission accomplished. Remember it is always easier to disrupt from within than without.

Mike, I took a quick look at the Dundee 'team for' thread and guess what? Your dead right, 100% included Zadi in their line up. Now they would have him in the Firth rather than in our side. 'Fans' - who would have them? As no doubt the big guy is thinking to day - with 'fans' like we have at ICT, visiting teams don't need support the home 'fans ' do the job for them.

What is also to be remembered is that the players may be very young, in mind as well as years, desperate to get home to their computer games. Footballing ability does not always equate to high IQ. To assume they are motivated by Ross County coming to play or the potential loss of a win bonus when they are already enjoying a (local) celeb life style is way off the mark. A degree of 'maturity', in my opinion, could be created by Rossco/Munro/Esson/Foran wanting their win bonus and, in no uncertain terms, making the younger players aware of this. The management can only really motive if the raw material is there to be receptive, I don't think this is always in abundance in young footballers, hence the Alex Ferguson cup throwing management requirement.

I think you could be correct! I am daft enough to think that if Rossco was on the field he would have instilled, by example and verbally, what it was all about and given the rest a lead.

I suggest that the posters on this thread have a look at 'TEAM FOR COUNTY' thread and see how many 'fans' selections EXCLUDED Zadi. Maybe even the odd poster now stating he is a liability included him in their team. I must confess that I feel he should be rested with Hastings back in, due to the unusual way ICT 'fans' have in showing their support.

You only need one or two of our team to be 'off' in a game or one or two of their team to be 'up' - for a big difference to be experienced BUT if both occur in the same match a big gulf can be seen. The players that are 'off' then put the others under so much additional pressure that their play becomes suspect as well. This raises the one big question - WHY AGAINST THE TINKS!!

Aye, it's my birthday on Saturday; so my dad has bought match tickets for us, along with the Kingsmill club 1 match pass. Quite looking forward to seeing part of the club i've never seen before! Well, young Sir, was this a good Birthday pressie (forget the football)?? Is this facility to be recommended at the price?

I thought this was Livi's day of reckoning.

Don, how does the potential income stack up? In your opinion:- Will the attendance numbers be up or down on the season prior to our promotion? Is the 'per head' take still the same as then? This will be ticket price/corporate etc income? I would imagine the players income could be higher than back then but in this hard times maybe not! Would the ?350k not be within the figures in the accounts and therefore if we lose the case we become another ?350k worse off, in the balance sheet as well as in the bank? I am hoping your opinion will be -Up, Up, Up, Income similar, ?350k set aside outwith accounts.

Being a non-smoker I admit that this subject is not very dear to my heart but I have read the comments and have one or two thoughts on the subject. Civil Liberties - if you are allowed to leave the stadium of your own free will at any time where is the problem relating to civil liberty? I accept that this may negate your re-entry but I don't think you are at liberty to dictate to the club, their terms for your re-entry. Films - are you allowed to exit and re-enter as and when you need a puff? Despite the foregoing I do feel that the club could accommodate the addicts and make their afternoon enjoyment that wee bit better. Maybe it is the only enjoyment they may experience that afternoon. Can't be difficult to use cloakroom tickets, steward manning one gate. If the re-entry demand means they lose part of the restart so be it, it will be similar to the pie Q problem. .

What the Feck are you talking about? You may aswell wrote in German because the only words that made sense was the swearing. Makes total sense to me! Maybe your lack of understanding says a lot about Dornoch schooling.

Could the difference since Pele days not so much be a player thing but a manager thing. Maybe the teams now are more tactically aware and are able, as on Saturday, to crowd out the better team and end up with a point and a lot of frustrated home fans. The training could also have changed from pie and pints to pasta and fitness. A player/team is only as good as the opposition allows them to be - I think we showed in the SPL over the years that this was the case, the press, however, blamed it all on lucky ICT. I do think we lack guile up front, not muscle and as the players strengths/knowledge/confidence emerge, maybe we will see some of this taking place.

How about the well paid professional that took his millions to Dundee instead of his first love, Aberdeen, because of the abuse that the chairman of Aberdeen receives from the 'fans' and he did not want to 'enjoy' this?? Of course the players hear it, of course they discuss it, of course they are friends of other potential targets that TB may have, of course they will encourage said friends to come and be verbally abused, of course it is not your fault for verbally abusing/encouraging the team - it is your right, of course ICT should be the finished article after a handful of games, of course Ayr played a sh.t tactical game and we should have strolled it. AYE, RIGHT!! Some of our players are on short term contracts and I am sure this will make Terry's job easier when a contract extension is discussed.

Nairn County centre forward, Davie Johnstone, went straight into Aberdeen's first team, playing in Europe, if I remember correctly. He then got homesick and returned to Nairn before again joining the big boys, this time with Hearts.

I think this raises a little question for our 'loutish' supporters IF, in the future, Allison saves a penalty, do they a) Boo him for being a County fan?(I don't know if he is) B) Cheer him for saving? c) Throw their rattle out of the pram because they are all mixed up? I feel sure he is not the first or last County fan we will have playing for us so maybe the 'louts' should get used to the fact that football, for the players, is a means to earning a living and, surprise, surprise, you don't always love your employers but you still provide a professional service. When he is in our colours he is one of us and deserves to be treated as such!

I was hoping that this would make potential posters stop and consider - from the initial point of jumping to his defence to a considered reaction, as to the reason for the change. I feel that there has been something positive happened and it will last for longer than just that one game. I, for one, thought that the armband was a bit heavy for him to carry, on the park and used this as a reason for his indifferent displays of recent times. Saturday dispelled this thinking so there must be another reason for this positive improvement.

On another thread re Captains armband, Grant is slated for his reaction under pressure 'booted clearances' type of thing. Now Saturday performance appears to be the opposite, in command, passing the ball out, right place at the right time etc. Could this be the result of having Esson behind him again? TB input over the preseason time? Or maybe just happier playing at a lower level?

Watching our manager give the team loads of verbals during matches, there is not really the requirement for a captains voice on the park. What we need is a leader on the park, with passion and conviction, who maybe does pick up a card or two along the way due to this, but frightens the life out of other teams who all love to hate him, with just cause. Managers quote " I wish I had 11 Rossco's on the park" or something like that! Rossco it is then.

We will be on a part time basis by then - maybe 3rd div.

Does profit from sales cover cost of keeping shop running? Can it be done cheaper/better? Is this not a time when ALL areas of expenditure must be considered and action taken, if required. There are a lot of 'nice' people being paid off all across the country, I'm afraid. This may only be a one season situation until our finances improve.

I see this match is now on but the result will be provisional dependent on Livi challenging the SFL. The other matches touched by the Livi situation are also being treated the same way.