davie

For those too young to remember, like davie, Zulu was a 1964 film with Micheal Caine and a few others.

Alex, I dearly wish...........

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned elsewhere but, in addition to the semi final being shown live on BBC Alba, there is also full match commentary on BBC Radio Scotland. This will be on 810 Medium Wave following straight on from the Old Firm game. The football can also be accessed on the Radio nan Gaidheal frequency (103.5-105FM - 104.9 in the Inverness area) except when R nan G is on air. I think there is a Gaelic service on for half an hour at 3 so if you suddenly hear something that sounds like the soundtrack of Zulu you will have to switch to MW for the duration.

I'm not sure what the arrangements are on the internet.

Think i'm just going to go and watch the game live...

Charles, for God's sake be careful. You can't use terms like "Zulu" around here..........

One line of "stand up just to **** them off" and I'm there!

Has it crossed anyones mind that the complainants may actually be Gypsy Travellers? If it were them they are bound to be offended are they not? They're are many Travellers settled in Inverness and I'm sure some of them even support ICT.

There are many who see it as banter to refer to RC supporters as Gypsies and who get a laugh out of inferring that Gypsies are dirty or lawbreakers or, indeed, live in caravans and some of those claim not to be racist but the very inference in itself is racist.

Don't get me wrong here. I've made my caravan jokes etc, just like everyone else, and I see it as no more than banter but when the big arm of the law threatens action then its time to change. This was never a problem in our previous times in the same league as County because the recognition of Race for Travellers did not exist. It does now and if one person is offended then the club have to be seen to act.

Good post Alex. I agree with what you say but nowadays so called pc complaints seem to rarely come from the group concerned whcould have cause to be offended. eg people getting their knickers in a twist re Christmas springs to mind.

I'm with you here old girl. I don't see why the threat of the law should be a signal to roll over. There's a fine tradition of resistance in Scotland, but for important stuff like the poll tax or the miners strike, not trivial sh*te like this. And i'm still asking, is "arab" out of bounds? Is "hun" out of bounds? Context you see!

How can a football team survive when it works so hard to drive its fans away?

From over here in Canada these guys look like a bunch of fools.

I can argue with that.

The club aren't trying to drive the fans away. They are anxious not to fall foul of the law by allowing them to chant what are now, apparently, racist chants....

I don't think they've got any options other than to heed the police advice in this matter.

John boy, I don't think that anyone on here is advocating racism. the point that you seem to be consistently missing is that it never needed to come to this. All that it required was an announcement before the game, and a few words of warning to section G. It was the club who upped the ante by responding to what, by their own account, is one written (and therefore uncorroborated) and one verbal (and therefore inadmissable) complaint. It was the club who involved the polis and the club who mixed this issue up with the sitting/ standing in section G issue. The club, and in particular the general manager, doesn't need you as an apologist.

All that is happening here is the inevitable and justified backlash when you are silenced by the powers that be on behalf of a minority of one.

This is unbelievable. 2 complaints cause all this publicity which make us all look racist to the rest of the world. Horrified about the P and J article. I think the club reacting like they did has made things a lot worse and has made us all look bad. No wonder folk would rather stay at home.

Couldn't agree more old girl. Responsibility lies completely with Mike Smith for engineering this over one (and therefore uncorroborated in writing) complaint. I note that in the same paper, Adam Rooney wants the fans to " turn up the volume to drown out the travelling support and (sic) maybe even unnerve their players" According to MS, this is probably incitement.

Surely it's the law that's the problem, not the club.

I can understand protection being afforded to the race of ethnic Roma people, but not to people who have just made a lifestyle choice.

Yngwie, this is all about context. Being racist implies a malicious attitude towards the group (gypsy, whatever) intended to discriminate and harm. If you have ever seen this in evidence towards County supporters, I'll bu**er off and shut up now. But you haven't. This is banter, pure and simple. It is true that the Law is a blunt instrument in this respect, but it is one that the muppets have picked up sharpish and used against the bairns in section G. On the basis of one admissible complaint? How does it make sense to alienate hundreds on the basis of that? BTW, I don't have a racist bone in my body. If I see racism or discrimination I will fight it, but up front and with common sense. That is what this club patently and arrogantly lacks. I wonder what will happen tomorrow when the inevitable "stand up if you hate Mike Smith" happens? The club will no doubt claim nothing they could do about a situation that they engineered and the fans will suffer again. As usual. BTW if anyone out there, who knows about my other football passion refers to me as an "arab", I shall report them immediately.

I hope the three are happy now, but I really would like to see evidence. Verbal complaints are not generally acted upon by the club (or there would be no stewards left) so why now, and why the young lads? This is vindictive discrimination by the club, acting on one written complaint.

I am not happy. I will be going to the game, despite it becoming more and more apparent that the muppets have a death wish for the club and I will make my displeasure known if need be. Again Mike Smith, if you don't like banter then go somewhere where none exists.

Well that clarifies things then. A gobfull of spin (not even from the main protagonist) followed by a vieled threat of action from the polis who are fortuitously independent of the club. I am glad that there is an "understanding of football tradition" when there is patently none. If there was, you would see that this is nothing but parochial regional banter.

I presume that the "safety officer" hides behid the same anonymity as those "official complainants" It's football. We like it, it's why we pay good money to go. If you don't like it, with the greatest of all due respect, f**k off somewhelse that you do like, Mike.

Can you pay at the gate?

Only if you take the oath on the bible after paying but before entering the ground;

I do promise to sit on my seat,

I do promise not to swear,

I do promise not to sing,

I do promise not to pass opinion on how the ICT or opposing team are playing,

I do promise not to utter the G word,

I do promise to do what a steward tells me to do, no matter how stupid or rude the steward is.

Then and only then can you enter the asylum.

How utterly, utterly true. As with any truism, ignore it.

Is it not the case that the chants are upsetting the neighbours? as there is a large travelling community not that far from the ground.

Are you taking the p*ss? At what point does the noise generated in section G carry that far. Even with a (rare) NNW wind? By the way, it's a site, not a fixed community (kind of defeats the purpose, being travelling and all)

Hold on a minute. Of course the G word is racist. Of course it's said with venom. Of course it's shouted loudly. It's because it's a FOOTBALL MATCH. It's a tribe thing. it's a gladatorial contest where your champions face up to theirs, but instead of killing each other, they kick a ball and we, the supporters, will them on. Get that kind of emotional involvement and people will say and do things that they ordinarily wouldn't. I don't think many (if any) of the section G people would shout "g word abuse" at anyone outside of the ground, regardless of where they were from. Generally speaking, these boys are treated very badly by the stewards (Caley 100, remember your brewster out banner)

As for mainstander, I take exception to your flippant 1690 quote. There are never an average of 2 murders after any of our games, A&E is never overwhelmed, people do not spout the kind of genuinely held belief bile that they do. Maintain perspective please, and Section G, more power to you.

Is the TCS the sole domain of elderly singers? Is it possible to get someone to play there who isn't arthritic?

What is this? I thought it was a thread started as a bit of bait by some random. And here we are, unable to not bemoan our own status! Pleeeze! Consistency problem? Diarrhoea has a consistency problem. Dingwall has a consistency problem. Maybe the two are related. Jings!

Jings again! Realise that any kind of results led management is a confidence game. It's about getting the most positive spin on everything to keep your shareholders, team and fans happy (in that order) so you are not liable to have people (including TB) bemoaning their mistakes in public except in the most coded of language. The kind of language TB used after the c*unty game. So I don't think you can say he's not acknowleging problems. as for the comparison with Brewster, I don't recognise it. Even with the ups and downs we've experienced so far, this feels nothing like the miserable depths of CB's reign.

So I don't know if I have faith (too jaundiced for that) but I see enough to have hope and at this stage of the season, that's enough.

Chic Murray,genius

Frances Begbie, cultural icon

George Galloway, political overweight

Jings, nice one absent friend. Lots of lines of sense let down by the needless (and not very good) sarcasm right at the end. One thing I will say is that after all these years of watching fitba, it's about opinions. Thousands of the things, and none of them exactly the same as the others! I agree with Scotty on this one, and I'll be honest, I agree with grantie (although I don't rate him as capitan for other reasons) If as much energy was invested in supporting the team as carping, better sh*t would happen

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Rooney has always appeared to me to be one dimensional and slow. His pace, even in 1 to 1's has always looked iffy, and he can't turn defenders. Because of that, he's always looked out of place in a counterattacking team.

I agree that he scored a few last year, but they were invariably created by set pieces etc., and we don't get them that often. I also agree that its a confidence thing, but ICT don't play the type of footie required to give him that confidence.

Nail, head and hitting!!!!

:) :)

eh? Compared to what?

And what sort of football do we need to play to give him confidence?

Being essentially a counterattacking team, we don't create the sustained pressure that will get you tons of setpieces. If we played a sustained pressing game (e.g. what c*unty did on saturday), we might. AR would then profit, but we don't and he won't

Rooney has always appeared to me to be one dimensional and slow. His pace, even in 1 to 1's has always looked iffy, and he can't turn defenders. Because of that, he's always looked out of place in a counterattacking team.

I agree that he scored a few last year, but they were invariably created by set pieces etc., and we don't get them that often. I also agree that its a confidence thing, but ICT don't play the type of footie required to give him that confidence.

Of course it will help his condfidence, it will also help him realise he isn't very good, and that Berkshire is a bit of hole.

Well, after that intelligent reply, I rest my case. If you want to continue this debate, I suggest you PM me when you get home from kindergarten.

Caley mad in berks. Can you tell me (in a thread about negativity) what you are contributing to it? Your original comment was unhelpful and childish. Accept and move on.

He's not been a consistent liability at all....you're starting to exaggerate and get carried away with yourself.

I've not totted up all the points for the PotY voting so far, but there's a couple of games where Lionel has scored pretty well, and if I could be bother going to check then I'm sure some of those getting hysterical will have voted for him at some point.

Not defending his performance yesterday, but some people really do need to give themselves a bit of a shake.

you seem to be defending him quite a bit!! Would he be in your starting 11?

I know that is not directed at me but I would play him against Partick. Its only a cup game and it is a perfect chance to see if he can bounce back. It is better than playing him in a league game which is im my opinion way more important than the challenge cup

Its also the perfect chance to make changes to the team ahead of a massive game down at morton in 2 weeks. Mainly Lionel out!!!!

Look at all the threads on him, when I was in France I saw many second div games Lionel would NOT get a game, he is a muppet, waste of money , but what does Malplas know about football...

Malpas has forgotten more about football than you will ever know. I actually agree that changes should be made for the Partick game, but not along the lines that you suggest. Lionel has played well on occasion for this club. He has also made mistakes. It was obvious on Saturday that the occasion had got to him and that he could do nothing right. He had simply fallen to bits, that much was utterly visible. In that kind of fragile state, what he (and the club) don't need is gratuitous comments from vacuous fans hiding behind some clever username. In short, you. At this moment, the Manager is away on other business when he should be here, sorting out the mess that his crap midfield created. He actually owes us that. When he said "just as well I'm away" he simply abgorated his duty and I for one find that difficult to accept.

In those circumstances, you had better hope that Malpas actually does know something andsomeone is supporting Lionel through this. Unlike you.

As the OP said, that was truly shocking. I've not seen an ICT side before that I was actually angry with but this was grim. Stratford is simply not good enough. Eagle is not good enough. Sanchez - not good enough. LZD I can forgive, although the poor man fell to bits today. Our entire midfield simply capitulated and were overrun. When we got rare chances, we fluffed them. There was a complete lack of coherence and heart about the whole team and TB has to take some responsibility. I'm struggling to see what positives you could take from this.

I was in the main stand today, and it has the atmosphere of a grave. I got tutted at for giving gyp to Brewster! Let me away from these people and back to NS as soon as possible. I honestly don't see why some of them come to a footie match - it sure as hell ain't for any enjoyment. Stay at home. I saw Grantie as well, and he was right. I'm off to watch MOTD.