bdu98196

Have we got a thread discussing line ups etc for the game? If so then apologies for this post How does everyone think we will line up? Esson Raven Meekings Warren Tremarco Tansey Draper Doran Christie Williams Roberts? Subs - Mackay, Vincent, Devine, Lopez, Horner, Polworth, Wedderburn I'm assuming Lopez isnt fit enough to start and last 90 mins, but is he does then could we play Roberts in behind with Williams in LB and Tremarco benched?

^ Saving their money for the Challenge Cup competition featuring the big clubs no doubt

If its a loan deal should we not be trying to get in there as a club and do everything we can to re-sign him? If its a permenant deal, do we even have all the transfer money from the sale, financially we can't compete with Dundee United but he'd be very welcome back here.

I'd be keen to mount a serious League Cup campaign - if we won that we would (for a short time minimum) hold both domestic cups. Other than the OF I dont know or cant think of another club in recent times to hold both trophies simultaneously. I'm sure though someone will know who the last team was and when?

Clubs have played in European games for decades we all know through TV, radio or other media that the games generally are on are on at 7.45pm (1945) regardless of CL or EL, unless away from home and time differences. This is a ticket time printing error and either a quick call to the club or search on the net (official ICT site http://ictfc.com/matches/fixture-list) will tell the time for anyone unsure - calling for the club to reissue tickets is extreme and a cost tahts un-necessary. Nobody expects a 12.00am (not 12.08am) KO time and certainly not for Romanian (not Rumanian) TV as they are +2 hours from us, why would they want a 2am game for local TV?

HT. 1-0 FT. 1-0 1st ICT scorer. Doran 1st OPP scorer. None Time of first goal. 12 minutes.

Its not just about being able to hit a penalty its about dealing with the pressure at the crucial stage of a game. Tansey proved this, the gamesmanship from Celtic taking as long as possible to change keepers in the semi, packed Hampden with Celtic fans - yet he was totally unfazed and never looked like bottling it, other than Draper or Foran I'm not sure who else in our squad mentally could have done that.

The whole concept of an unelected house of members who use the powers they have to protect each other, manipulate and hide needs to be disbanded. People like this and many others have no place in representing anyone in society. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33243782

How many times have we seen in Scottish football that a club does develop a talent and then they leave, which is part of life so accepted. In some (few) cases clubs might get a decent transfer fee - recently DUtd have done ok with this, but other times they get picked up by the OF who refuse to pay the parent clubs valuation, goes to a tribunal and in almost every case the board decide that the development fee paid is insultingly low almost matching the OF valuation. Again keeping the strength and wealth of Scottish football within the duopoloy. I'm not suggesting teams dont develop their own but like any business if you develop a product and invest you should be able to sell that comodity for a fair price, sadly football isnt structured like that and even when systems are in place so it should be then it can be exploited and manipulated at the expense of the small clubs.

Given the position of Gray, I feel its picking on an easy target. We are a small club with 21 years existance, small fanbase and limited funds to invest in youth but easy to slate as we are provincial and the central belt biased media will always back this along with the majority of narrow minded fans. Where is the mention of Celtic & Rangers both clubs who have invested in multi million pound facilities for training and yoth development yet produce nothing in terms of proportion of success V's investment - preferring to fill their teams with overpaid journeymen or European imports of varying levels of quality. Even County for their facilities produce little first team youth players, so its not just ICT, although even compared to Killie, Hearts, Hibs, D Utd we are lagging behind. Perhaps the likes of Gray and the SFA should do more to help clubs invest and gather talent, put caps or limits stopping bigger clubs poaching local talent at the expense of the smaller teams, take the disproportionate wealth distribution and even it up so all clubs can have the same basis for youth investment. Instead they use clubs like ourselves as a platform to gain some publicity and become a talking point - as cup winners we become an easy target and he knew publicity would follow.

We can ignore Kink as a loss since he never played but we shouldnt overlook Billy leaving in Jan at a time when I think all agreed we were already a striker short in squad size. But reality is thats 5 off established first team players who have gone and none of these young lads got a look in last year but we are expecting them to step up and fill the places vacant, thats a huge ask. With the players we have its going to be a huge season for guys like Doran & Vincent to prove they are a mainstay player for the full season and not someone who drops in and out.

Organised trialist game meant to be on Sat at Broadwood. Hopefully Yogi will be there to watch............

With Watkins away and Ofere too, I thought we'd have pulled out the stops to secure Nick. Starting to worry about our squad now with Eurpoa games only 3 wks away - we look very weak.

I expect the times and even the days will be confirmed based on TV and obviously the SPFL will ensure we will have a good few Sunday games to accomodate our Europa League group games.

Perhaps another problem we always have is that people in Scotland (central belt) don't want to move up north to Inverness and see it as the back of beyond, yet English players may see it differently and be keen to move away from their cities etc for a different lifestyle. It seems that all the guys who take the chance to move up always enjoy their time and so do their families - perhaps we are just seeing a narrow minded view of location from our lowland countrymen?

​So we know that wont be a problem for us cos the Dons will be knocked out by then..... ​

Looking at who is still under contract next year, is this what we have and cover for positons? We look a bit light in midfield and definately need a striker or 2. Hopefully Nick Ross stays, can any of the young lads step up? Esson / Brill Raven / Meekings Meekings / Devine Warren Tremarco / Williams Draper Tansey Doran Christie / Vincent Williams Foran?

Any idea whats happening with Nick Ross, anyone know if he has had other offers or if he may yet stay?

With the signings Hibs have made so far and the state of that Rangers team, it may well be another playoff next season for them

With money as it is and timescales this tight, then playing local HL teams seems logical. A bounce game against the dons or even St J would benefit both - where else will any team get decent quality opposition before the Europa games, but think it would be a better idea to have fans - even if its just a few quid in and money to charity. It would be good if we can get one big pre-season game though before the SPFL season starts against an English team - I'd like to see a friendly against Arsenal as we are both national cup winners but sadly that would never happen.

I was surprised by the number of ICT fans who left at final whistle too, quite a few I could see from where I was walking out, if this was a home game the number would have been noticeable but feel those who stayed did more than enough to so the players appreciation.

Should this not be no more sleeps.......I mean is everyone not too excited now to be sleeping tonight? Dont want to sleep in tomorrow and arrive late or even miss it!!!!

HT: 1-1 FT: 1-3 1st ICT: Ofere 1st Opp: Loy Time of 1st Goal: 20 mins 1st Yellow Card: Taiwo Crowd: 34500 *Joker*

Esson Raven Meekings Devine Shinnie Tansey Draper Christie Watkins Doran/Williams Ofere Tansey & Draper holding, breaking up the play and distributing as usual. Doran impresses against DUtd and showed the problems he creates going forwards so could play ahead of Williams.

He wont come to Inverness, city doesnt offer enough for him. With Watkins and maybe Nick Ross leaving he could certainly slot into the midfield with Doran & Christie which would be quite an exciting 3 infront of Draper & Tansey