KirkieRobRoy

Scottish Junior Cup draw today pitted Kirkie Rob Roy at home to Kennoway Star Hearts... among whose players is Kevin Byers. I'd almost forgotten about him.

Yet FW has good connections to Glasgow, isn't far away from Sneck and can draw on another big-for-the-Highlands town (Oban) that disnae have an HL team. They're better placed for recruitment than some HL teams.

Coming to this late as I was in Inverness without advanced IT equipment. Definitely one of the worst games I've ever seen. QoS were surprisingly poor too but they had the consolation of a few decent attempts and some decent form earier in the season. No punch up front and still some worrying defending, saved by OFW. I thought our yellows were deserved and there could have been more for some of the daft tackles. I liked the comedically awful QoS free-kick too, but don't forget the ICT (forget who it was) fresh-air shot at the edge of the box in the second half at a time when we had a wee bit of pressure. It's early days and I'm not a Mad Manager Sacker but the team and club need to take action before too long. Can't see Brechin getting off the bottom but Falkirk are getting back on track and we need to do the same.

Owen Coyle is a high-risk appointment, with an unimpressive recent managerial record, just like most of the prospective bosses we could attract. He's just more expensive.

Or get cheap advance tickets First Class to Falkirk Grahamston on the Highland Chieftain both ways. That's what I'd do.

Married an Invernessian from a Caley family and started going to away games, mainly, after the merger as the club were now playing regularly in the Lowlands. And all downhill from there. Every summer I hope for a Kirkie Rob Roy v ICT pre-season friendly, so that I can wear two scarves in July and expire from heat exhaustion.

Well, it's a terrific goal, at least. I tried to be positive after the St Mirren result but it's harder this time. Dumbarton are never going to get out of this division northwards, but they have built a reputation for scrapping and gathering enough points to avoid relegation. Might be worth learning from them...

Sadly we'll be in Inverness anyway on the 30th and are committed to being at the QoS game. Kirkie Rob Roy currently in 2nd place in the West Central Juniors, too...

Anything really surprising? St Mirren are emerging as a decent side with lots of home-grown youngsters (now there's an idea!) making an impact. Did anyone expect a result there? In retrospect, scoring twice must be a pretty hopeful sign, and it's obvious to everyone that the defence is a problem to solve so let's assume Robbo and team are onto it. St Mirren have taken a couple of seasons to regroup after relegation. We might need something similar. Not ideal, but if it's a way back, it's a way back. And would you really fancy seeing Celtic or Aberdeen launching attacks at that defence next season?

My concern would be - is this £500k a 'soft loan' of the kind (albeit much smaller than) those with which the new Rangers club are papering over their cracks? Hope not. What kind of 'investment' is it then?

Remember posting here yonks ago about how in most tourist cities you can buy jerseys of the local team in tourist shops. Why not ICT jerseys in the tartan tat shops? Something genuinely Scaddish and Invernessian to take back to Littleville, Wyoming? While some of the suggestions above may or may not be practical or feasible, at least it shows the fans are thinking and trying to be innovative in terms of ideas. Is the club?

Brown should probably have been sent off, but even before his booking, England's Walker (I think it was - don't follow English football) did a right nasty one on Morrison, causing the injury that took him off, and wasn't even booked. The two minutes between Griffiths' goal and Kane's sneaky equaliser are the best I've felt at Hampden since you-know-what.

Something in the P&J today about him being out with a toe injury rather than being frozen out. Is this mince?

Not an outcome any of us wanted or can be happy about, yet the right one all the same. I'm surprised, though - I thought he was staying put. Worried now about the replacement. Will the board dither about that as they did while we were slowly and agonisingly getting relegated?

Quite a bit of Dunbartonshire, including my bit, is.

Aye, really enjoyed the semi-final, even though beating Celtic was getting a bit passé by then (things have changed now, though). Was dreading it if we'd made the play-offs and ended up paired with Falkirk. Coulda been payback time. In the end payback wasn't needed, and they didn't make it anyway.

Accies, from the point of view of it being a shorter away trip for those of us based in the west. Mind you, I watched that doc on BBC TalkFunny the other night about United's UEFA Cup run in 1987, beating Borussia Munchengladbach and Barcelona on their way to the final. Remember watching the Barcelona away leg live on telly. What a come-down for them to be trying to overcome Accies to get promotion.

Agree with those who want Fisher to stay. Has done well recently and would do better a league down. We need somehow 1) To start discovering more Shinnies, Christies and Polworths coming through the system and 2) To have a manager who can look at all the players being released just now from SPL sides who might just be rejuvenated at TCS and rejuvenate them 3) Spot players in the HL and Juniors who are improving and ready to step up. Should be, er, nae bother.

I see Davie Moyes, the Richie Foran of the English Premier, has walked. Amazing he lasted as long as he did as well. Maybe Richie can be his assistant in his next club job, in Yemen or wherever.

I've had this earworm since I started reading through this thread so everybody else might as well too...

Agree with Matt above. We were pretty terrible for most of the game, big long balls. It was a blustery day and a plastic pitch - play it on the deck like Killie are doing! Yes, for the last fifteen minutes there was some urgency and the odd chance might have given us a draw - but why, for much of the previous hour and a bit had many of the players seemed like mildly interested bystanders? Richie in his after-match comments said the only thing he was unhappy about was the 'schoolboy defending' at the second goal. As I saw it, the second goal was terrific play by the Killie lad. The first goal - that was schoolboy defending.

Also in the striking ranks Clyde have ex-Kirkie Rob Roy David Gormley (who before either club was in the hapless Ayr United team that lost 7-0 to ICT in the Butcher promotion year). I'd rather Clyde filled the bottom spot in a year when the other tenants of Broadwood, Cumbernauld Colts, won the Lowland League. That would be a play-off to savour. Main memories of away games at Clyde - terrific match programme, terrible pies.

Never been to the new Dumbarton gaff either. Is it really only one visit ever to Nou Bayview? It was a freezing Boxing Day or something like that, iirc. A massive goalscoring spree by Queens Park could still see them make the playoffs, if other results and goalscoring sprees go their way. Hampden would be fun. Especially if we nick Gus McP as manager. Hopefully St Mirren stay up. Only been to the Falkirk Stadium for Scotland U21 & women's games so looking forward to seeing ICT there, too.

As I recall, he won every post-split bottom-6 fixture 1-0 during his tenure. We'd've settled for that this year. And he left after a bad start to the season, but at a time when we did always start poorly. I don't think he's a shout for manager anyway, but I do wonder why, if he's still at the club, he's not being listened to.

A fellow-poster has summarised them nicely in the matchday thread.