bdu98196

Away fans making noise in the main stand, no wonder it doesn't go down well, that'll drown out the noise of the Worthers wrappers Plenty of clubs split stands between home and away fans successfully and at much bigger clubs with many more fans than our visitors take. There may be a bit of 'banter' but there's not a recent history of violence between home and away fans plus if anything was to 'kick-off' then it can do so outside where there is no segregation on the way to and from the stadium. I'm not saying to be complacent and if there are specific incidents that its felt the stewards aren't acting on this has to be highlighted as threatening physical or verbal behaviours along with religious, political, racial, sexual etc should not be tolerated and needs to be stamped out. This does seem an over-reaction and yet another thread complaining about stewards and fan behaviour but all voiced on the internet with nobody stating they have taken any definitive action to contact the club or security/police services with incidents & evidence.

It wasn't wages that was the issue, it was his lack of wanting to hang around for how he was treated last season and never really given a fair chance. As for his current record at Well, agreed its not great but at lease he is proven to have scored some goals at a higher level, unlike our current options especially Baird who despite numerous seasons doesn't have a decent record of goals even at this level. Just making the point that we should have gone with at least 1 striker proven to score goals at a level on par or better than we are currently playing at - I don't think that we have.

Unfortunately the gambles or bad decisions of the summer transfer window are still haunting us - the club decided not to offer a decent contract to Fisher coupled with his mismanagement last season leaving us with nobody upfront. We went for Baird, Oakley, Susan & Bell - whether these were all Robbo choices or not its unclear. The constant switching & trying different partnerships is desperation to try get a pair of strikers who can complement and score goals - unfortunately after 20 plus games and averaging marginally over a goal a game its clear none of this is working. While we are so limited in quality of players and in budget to bring in better we can just expect more of the same for the rest of the season. Ideally we should ship out Baird, Susan gone and look to develop Oakely, Bell & Austin with another player on loan perhaps but we cant afford to offload Baird, hence he will stay and we will struggle on til the summer.

Tansey off to County on loan

To put that in context its also 6 wins in 22 games, 3 off against Brechin and 11 of the goals scored. This is the price paid for a summer where the club messed about with players & managers, not having a clear strategy other than to slash costs. The lack of maintaining a 15 goal striker is killing us. In this league with a solid defense and decent striker you can get away with average players elsewhere and still make the play-offs or even get promoted - just look at Hamilton in the past but we didn't have an infrastructure that could see that. Would happily have traded Baird, Bell, Susan for another season of Fisher - he probably would have still left budget to play with for the likes of Ali Sutherland

For several players they may find that as they haven't exactly set the Championship on fire, the offer from ICT may be the best they will actually get. As one of our most talented and best players the expectation is high from fans and based on our lowly league position and several sub-par performances both last season and this there are always going to be questions asked as to whether some (not just Polly) have the motivation and fight for relegation and lower league battles. If people were talking about Polly and others are strolling games and lighting up the league then there would be less criticism, however its guys like Morgan & Reilly at St Mirren, Dobbie at QoS, etc and not our players. However I think everyone on here agrees its unacceptable and certainly doesn't condone any personal abuse directed at any players.

Its getting like last season on here - every game people are criticising ref decisions. Whether it be cards, set pieces or disallowed goals, its reasonable to look for why we aren't performing as everyone wants so blaming someone is natural however the real reasons are that we are not creative enough or scoring goals. If you analysed every match there would be some contentious decisions yet when the team wins nobody is too bothered its when we loose people look to question. Right now its in danger of becoming tiresome after every poor result - facts are still the same, while we may have improved defensively we still make mistakes and are too toothless in attack to compensate for that. Until we can create and score more goals we wont win too many games unfortunately. If we keep on berating officials we will get a rep as the Celtic of Championship - this relates to management and fans

Time will tell, but given some of the players out of contract - Vigurs, Polly & Doran have been part of the team that went down and haven't as yet shown they can cigar a lower league (although their ability suggests they should), the offers that they may have thought 12 months ago to be there may not be available to them now. None have demonstrated that they are better than Championship level for anything other than patches so the level of club and associated remuneration coming forward with offers may leave them making a decision as to whether ICT is the best place to be. If that's the case the club has to make offers based on where we are and not what players think - if they can go elsewhere after that for more then that's a personal & professional decision.

How ridiculous, that reads like the rantings of an OF fan. We were relegated last year not because of a few referring errors or decisions we disagree with but because consistently over the course of 38 games for the most part we were honking. This season we are where we are because the early part of the season we were even more honking and slowly picking up but with the mediocre players and general lack of any creative spark (demonstrated by our lack of gaols) we are probably where we deserve to be. Other than the odd additional point we should have collected, the facts are that 50% of our league wins have been against Brechin - that means out of the other 16 games against the 8 other teams we have only won 3 times - don't be fooled into conspiracy theories that we are being held back by the authorities - what's holding us back is not being good enough, which is a worrying indication of the Championship given that being this bad we still look realistic play-off contenders!!!

Baird struggles as he isnt a tall or strong physical player which considering our tendency to still hoof the ball isnt helping him, but coupled with that being a small player he has little pace - while he works and runs his sole function has to be to score goals and unfortunately his physical attributes dont help that. We need to loan a young, hungry player from the fringes of a Premiership team who has shown that they know the way to goal.

Dundee are ready to let out-of-favour midfielder James Vincent, the 28-year-old who has 18 months left on his contract, leave on loan in January to free up wages for a new signing. (Daily Express, print edition) From the BBC today, ex-player being released, I don't think he'd be a value for money signing but as most on here love to reminisce or link ex-players with returns, we may as well have a thread about it. Its a no thanks from me though.

While its a positive bit of news, lets not forget that the stadium has been called the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium for 25 years - that's pretty good advertising especially in an age when other clubs are selling the stadium naming rights. Being associated at a level when the club ascended into the Premiership (including regular mentions on TV), National Cup finals and a trip into Europe - its not been bad exposure overall for Tulloch.

It was a hard won 3 points, but it was inevitable the goal came from a set piece - we could have played all wknd and never created or scored from open play. The team lack a goal scorer as Baird is not the answer - he's too short to win the ball in the air and has limited to no pace at all. The midfield lacks creativity and when players like Polly show as little heart or desire then its no surprise. Fortunately the back 5 look settled and fairly solid which along with finding a double figure scorer in Jan will get out into the play-off's I'm sure. Its lucky its a leagued where mediocrity in the middle can be accommodated in teams.

^ Agreed. Williams is an injury prone player and the Championship is a rough league with less player protection than the Premiership - also while he was decent cover in our squad he could never displace any of the more established players at the time. Given the opportunities he has had his career hasn't really progressed, it would be a huge gamble for a player who although quick has limited end product so unless it was a pay as you play or a low salary offer then I think its got the potential to be another costly error - duration at club & costs incurred V's games played ratio first time round isn't great so why repeat?

Lets hope his improved form is here to last, failed to impress at previous clubs but has clearly improved recently. The security of a loner term deal hopefully doesn't allow complacency and reverting back to what was seen before.

Re-arranged to Tue, expect a poor turn out which will affect club income. Would it not be sensible to have tried to arrange it for the midweek between xmas & new year as there is no game planned? Even if it was an evening then 26th or 27th folks might be off work and more willing to travel or head along. Sensible decision calling off early but poor decision on the new fixture date IMO

While I accept that books have to balance and there is a trade off between pricing and footfall, it is also true that pricing cannot be continually increased or kept at inflated levels just to compensate for negligence in building a business and expanding the customer base. The citing of market research is fine, but is it ever listened to? Fans can sit inside any night of the week and watch domestic or foreign football on TV in a warm atmosphere instead of venturing out - we (Scottish football) need to find the niche, which is summer football with a focus on accessible kick off times - make it an fun atmosphere to draw fans, kids & families along. The fans have been saying this for years, surveys conducted and results presented but nothing changes. Yes, research is done but sadly nobody in Scottish football really gives a sh1t unless its the OF calling for it.

Poor value for money and failing to capitalise on previous success. Asking fans to pay £20+ for a ticket to watch lower tier football in the middle of winter is what's killing the Scottish game. As a club we were playing attractive football, winning and storming up the league a few seasons ago yet the club never put together a strategy to get a bounce in crowd numbers - never used the winning of the cup as a strong marketing tool and never looked outside the 4 walls at what being part of Inverness & the Highlands could bring for local and external investment. Too much time patting each other on the back and in-fighting with management than looking forwards IMO. If we want crowds to increase now, we need to improve the quality of entertainment, style of play and the overall match day experience. We need some young players to be near the team that fans can get excited about and look forward to investing in their development - not like we usually do and freeze them out before scrapping them off - this does not help.

Cleary there is a plan to reduce the wage bill and the playing squad age. While signing Raven would be of benefit we probably cant afford it with there still be being some high earners and some hopeless jobbers brought in on long deal - oh and paying for a departed manager. Next up will be Warren, OFW to depart - possibly followed by Vigurs,. Polly & Tremarco. The concern is that while we could put Brad back into the RB slot, that then leaves an issue in CB otherwise we will need to hope one of the under-performers so far can step up to RB - which I haven't much faith in. Much like the turn over previously when we moved on Tokley, Munro etc, the time has come through circumstances to make sweeping changes so best to just accept it. Everyone associated with the cup squad will always be held in high regard for what they achieved no matter where they end up next.

13 points off top. If we can pick up another 12 points over the next 5 games before the end of the year and just passing the hallway point we should be in a much more positive place - given our fixtures this is possible. QoS (A) Falkirk (H) Dumbarton (H) Morton (A) Brechin (A) 2 tricky away ties but should look to win both home & the Brechin game as a minimum.

Billy McKay - really? The key to getting out of this league much as staying in the Premiership is scoring goals and having a striker capable of 15+ per season. Defences can be organised and midfield styles of play adapted but without a guy to bang the gaols in, you're always up against it. While cutting costs was required, we should have fought to keep Fisher - he would have cigared this league. Even a player like Anier would have scored goals but instead we get rid of any possible proven quality with experience and history of goal scoring to fill the team with unknown risks - to have brought a player or two in, kept Fisher and then looked at youth we would have probably spent the same as now but be better off. Said it at the time but we were too keen to cut back rather than a strategic focus on key players out of contract being retained. In Jan I hope we can offload some deadwood and free up enough to make a loan offer for one off - Fisher, Scott Wright or Murray from Hibs (not the ginger one) - or anyone else proven

Home tie. Preference is to advance for me, so try to avoid Celtic, Aberdeen, Hibs but would be optimistic against all others - especially as its usually the first game back after the Premiership winter break so often shocks happen there. Only negative of a cup run is that if we only make the play-offs its a detriment.

Agreed on the disabled area - just because someone uses a wheelchair they shouldn't be forced to sit down the front in the rain, although I do understand how it could be difficult to accommodate but putting them at the back of a stand isn't right either. Fortunately we are lucky that we don't fill our main stand so could somewhere introduce a platform area and sacrifice a few seats although it may mean relocating ST holders - problem is then does the club have lift access otherwise its yet another expense in a stadium that was never built that way? I'm also not certain on this but there may be lottery money available for modifications of this nature as its more than just football related but community also. The catering needs looked at, queuing in a system that seems to have no real order to it and service which is pedestrian and highly inefficient - you have a lack of co-ordination between the staff and too many doing too many things rather than defined roles - the food & drinks on offer don't really represent value for money based on the quality (or lack of) and I'm sure its got worse over the years. Tickets - it would be nice that on matchdays tickets for the next home game are available for sale either before and after the game, possibly with small reductions to try capture fans on a high who may have come along and seen a positive result. Advertising in advance of promotions etc - if I'm at a game I don't want to wait til a few days before the next match to know I can get a reduced ticket for my mate through an offer but need to turn up to get it before the day of the game - give the opportunity to get it when fans are there already and in advance. Make it easy for the customer especially those who travel distances to games.

Must know by now that if you have any reservations or opinions which aren't seen through blinkers or with rose tinted glasses then it's not welcomed. The audacity to question perceived ICT legends or stalwarts won't make many friends. Even RF had a good run of games last year, so it's maybe too early to get carried away yet. Improvements yes but stick on for play off places as a minimum, mayb we wait until this second round of games is completed to judge the level we are at. Cautious optimism of heading towards the right path.

Its interesting to see comments from certain fans who seem to think because they refuse to criticise or say anything negative that they are infact 'better' fans than those of us who put across our concerns regarding the club direction and structure of both playing and management. There is a constant and in some ways highly tiresome citing of home fans being nothing but abusive to players - I think on several threads its been unanimously agreed (that the minority who partake) is unacceptable - however its the responsibility of every other fan to ensure that this is not tolerated and reported to the stewards and the club - bringing it up on every other post on this site will do nothing. While its good to see improvements in performances and results, the Utd result at the wknd should rightly bring positivity, however I think its still too early to get carried away - afterall we saw a few false dawns last year too.