CELTIC1CALEY3

For Aberdeen, beating ICT 4-3 was their cup final. They had already booked their place in Europe before the Semi which is classic underestimation of the opposition. For the nice guy Chisholm, this must be sweet after Ross County and Dundee United ditched him with little regard. I wonder if Calderwood will be disciplined for calling Aberdeen a joke? Who would be a manager?

Has anyone seen Tommy we need the floodlights on...

On 11 January 2008 - Inverness player-manager Craig Brewster revealed his playing career would officially be over at the end of the season. This meant Inverness losing their star striker after beating Gretna 3-0. Brewster had just been made MOM so how would he cope not playing and would the team be able to cope without this top class striker. On 14 January after a whipping by Hibs in the cup ICT WERE currently just four points behind third-placed Motherwell. .................................................................. ...scroll down 8 goals scored, 24 conceded, dropped from fourth to nineth, and then they met Gretna again and although Gretna were 20 odd players lighter, Gretna nearly salvaged a point. In the interim the players quite rightly felt Brewster the Manager, no longer Brewster the Player Manager, was not exactly Manager of the Month as he waited an age to get his first true win as a Manager. I suppose the meagre 8 goals we scored were because he was not playing any longer.

If you are Brew's agent, what sort of payoff did Dundee give him and how much would ORION have to find now?

Aberdeen and Hibs have recruited from Dutch or English non league football. Juanjo will not have lost his skill. Work on his fitness and we have a proven SPL player. By early August he may be top class again.

I agree with Yngwie that we have to cope with the bad times. Dundee United, Motherwell and our neighbours Aberdeen were for years relegation fodder. Only the SPL rules on large all seater stadia that did not exist outwith the SPL saved them from the trap door opening. However, something went seriously wrong behind the scenes. The rise of John Rankin lead to a resurgence and at some time he decided he wasn't wanted and made real steps to protect himself by selling his house. The team then perhaps coincidentally then plummetted. MOM and POM awards seemed to be our zenith too. However, no manager can be pleased with 7 straight defeats and having experienced even worse than that in his last very unsuccessful job it seemed fair that we reminded Brew that although he said he had learned from his Dundee United nightmare, he perhaps hadn't learned enough. I hope this period has been a great learning experience not just for Ian Black.

The top six split adds some interest as we discover Monday night. If we didn't have the split there would be little to play for with sides moaning they had 2 away and 1 home for 6 opponents in a 33 game league. Would you prefer a 15 team league with 28 games and two relegated teams?

The Jailender deserves credit for getting 50% of his pre-season predictions correct. Ross County would get promoted and he deserves great credit, as does the team, for winning in the way they have done so. Oh, his other prediction was that we would join them in Division 1. Hopefully we have learned from this season. Hopefully County are not one season wonders.

RIG are you deep into your Thesis and writing up your Bibliography and Footnotes at present?

Good, play Richie Hart up front with Niculae and Cowie. Richie Hart was very good for us in the early stages of the SPL. He can still do it for us. Also Paatelainen up front in a four man attack. None of this ***** footing about. Let's go for an 8-6 win. Attack like **** from the start. That means Zibi plays, protected by Procter, Tokely and Hastings, with Roy, Wyness and Bayne in midfield. In the second half as Rosco tires we bring on Watt, and McAllister to take over from Bayne unless he has scored twice. If we are winning by 5 goals then Vigurs gets another chance. If not we give Kerr a chance with Procter pushed forward. If we lose, Brewster has to resign. If we win by more than 2 goals he keeps the job for another week. If Gretna survive the split, we have to beat them again for Brewster to be in charge at the start of next season. We also have to avoid defeat against St Mirren and if Aberdeen miss the split we have to beat them with a last minute goal scored by Dougie McDonald getting knocked out by heading in an attempted Diamond clearance. It is asking too much of Brew to beat Killie and highly unlikely we beat Falkirk if Hearts make it to the top 6. The key thing is to get Falkirk home so we can have some more banter with Yogi.

One thing that needs to be mentioned is that on his last visit to Caledonian Stadium, to bring the first half to a halt, the fourth official got on his mike and radioed 'Dougie is there something wrong with your watch, we are now 7 minutes over full time?' It would be interesting to get TV footage because from the tunnel area you could clearly see Dougie looking bemused, checking his watch, and then quickly blowing his whistle. There is no evidence this happened again on Saturday, but if it did, a 3-3 draw would not have lead to Grant losing the head. So my theory is that Dougie wound Grant up by his own incompetence. That said, both Russell and Grant need to learn the same lesson Rosscoe and Bayne learned after the Motherwell defeat. You have to act like an adult even under pressure. Iy you want experience with the younger lads, join Ian Black. That is perhaps unfair on the younger lads.

Robbo is the only person around with the mascot's shape. A bit like a trojan horse.

I am not sure the players would walk down the tunnel after Black. If you are not sure about playing for the team how can you lead them? Richard Hastings is an experienced International who would bring something to the position possibly for more than Grant's suspension.

A Manger is a virgin birth so it will not be Robbo.

Robbo was in disguise as the new mascot.

You can tell your grand children our first goal went in off the Bus.

....Killie Park, Donald Park,..............I did it my way!

If Brew deserved it, then fair play to our boys for having the guts to stand up to him and the overall management. Ferguson would not tolerate it but Brew proved at Dundee United he was an incompete manager. When he was parachuted back into to ICT he and others said he had learned. He had but like a gold fish it had a limited effect time span. We are now into uncharted territory although Dundee United certainly experienced loss after loss after loss and eventually Brew took the inevitable package. Let's hope his strategy here is not to take the third package of his short managerial career and lets hope this is just tactics to lull Aberdeen into believing they have a guaranteed 5-0 win.

Look on the bright side - a win for us wrecks the Dons top six aspirations for this season. That's incentive enough.

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) -- Romania beat Russia 3-0 in their friendly international in Bucharest, a day after Russia coach Guus Hiddink signed a new two-year contract. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SPORT/football...es.round-up.ap/ Niculae (left) is congratulated by team-mates after scoring in Romania's 3-0 victory over Russia. Ciprian Marica gave Romania a 1-0 lead on the stroke of half-time with a left-foot strike past goalkeeper Igor Akinfeyev. Daniel Niculae doubled the lead in the 62nd with a shot from the edge of the area, after taking a pass from Marius Niculae. Niculae himself added the third with a header from six meters out with 15 minutes remaining. The match was one of four friendlies the Russians have lined-up ahead of Euro 2008 in June. Romania have one further warm-up match against Montenegro.

Soccer-Romania beat Russia 3-0 in friendly Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:43pm GMT BUCHAREST, March 26 (Reuters) - Romania beat Russia 3-0 in a friendly on Wednesday with goals from strikers Ciprian Marica, Daniel Nicuale and Marius Niculae. Romania dominated the match against a Russian team drawn entirely from the domestic championship, with VfB Stuttgart striker Marica opening the scoring from the edge of the area on the stroke of half-time. Coach Victor Piturca took off Adrian Mutu and Cristian Chivu at the break and substitute Daniel Niculae made it 2-0 after 60 minutes. Inverness forward Marius Niculae scored the third with a header from Banel Nicolita's cross from the right in the 76th. Marius Popa made his debut in goal for Romania when he replaced the unwell Bogdan Lobont.

'Oi, has anyone seen the dressing room...I've flippin lost it'

502 spectators needed to avoid more jokes on 'Only an Excuse' - it's is where our SPL dream began with a 3-0 thumping. We've recovered since then....

Whenever he lead Ayr out of the tunnel he always looked over and said 'I hate playing up here' but with Falkirk it's a different story and the banter Saturday was magic. One other story from Saturday 'Some of my players think they are the best strikers in the SPL but they couldn't win an argument in a chip shop.' A case of Sunshine on Leith.

Old Scarlett has wisdom and his theory seems very valid.