Row S

 

What were the 11 sites? Why was inshes never given serious thought, where matalan is? Personally i think that would have been a good site, right in amongst housing, shops etc. a good base to expand future support

As is the one from Row S, this is very perceptive post which has sent me into the bottom of the wardrobe to find the copy of Bruce Hare's report which Fiona Larg gave me when I was writing the book, in which I didn't list all 11. But these are - Stratton Farm, East Seafield, West Seafield, East Longman, The Inshes, Drumossie, Cradlehall, Castle Heather, Torvean Quarry, Holm Mains and Beechwood. The short list was - Stratton Farm, West Seafield, East Longman and The Inshes. That then boiled down to Stratton and East Longman and the rest is history.

Seven departed at the first hurdle for reasons ranging to sheer impracticability (Torvean - see Renegade's post) to cost of land and probable resident opposition (Inshes). I imagine that the Matalan site comes under Inshes and I also don't know what the local plan might have been saying for there, given the way things have developed since 1994.

 

Regarding the Bught area, I think the problem of getting traffic in and out would have been insurmountable and will remain so until this new road goes in. Just about everything would have to go over the Ness Bridge and along Glenurquhart Road which are already a nightmare.

Row S is absolutely correct in saying that Stratton Farm scored highest - but not initially! The matrix which Hare produced clearly shows East Longman as the leader and that was the case in his interim report. But come the final report (with, one suspects, some lobbying from INE who wanted to kick start the Golden Mile) Stratton had miraculously taken over as the leader. 

 

I know there is an ongoing viewpoint that a new stadium site should be considered, but I really can't see a viable alternative to the current arangement - even though Hare's report did stress that East Longman's attraction depended on moving the travelling people and the salt store, which has never been done.

 

Charles - Your excellent record keeping has brought it all back to me. As both a supporter and a town planner it was a great exercise to be involved in.

Stratton Farm emerged as the preferred choice in view of the best access to the trunk and local road networks for away and home supporters' traffic. It was also on a bus route with a frequent service. 

You may recall that the new road connecting the stadium to the harbour under the Kessock Bridge did not exist other than as a dotted line in the Council's Local Plan in 1994. A share of this eventually had to be included in the cost of the stadium development. There was also some doubt about the landfill gas situation at the East Longman tip and the limitations of the gas main (which restricts the width of the fourth stand). 

The Inshes site was allocated for community facilities and a park in the Local Plan - church, health centre, fitness club, Inshes park etc but then got permission for retailing as well. The Bught area would only have been possible if the West Link of the SDR had been in place.

I also remember the point being made at the time that as the club did not have "Inverness" in its name why did it have to be within in the town boundary?   

Stratton Farm scored the highest score in the feasibility study carried out in 2004, which I was party to. As such, it is still my first choice. It is also jointly owned by a former chairman and current director of the club together with two directors of Nairn County.

My mate appears to have hold of a 49 seater bus and a driver so has contacted CJT in order to get a comms out to anyone on a waiting list to fill it. there are 5 of us in the group already so we have 38 spare seats.

 

Looking at £10 a head return so might be able to take a few more bods down the road!

Sounds great. We're on that list (2 of us) but have heard nothing further from CJT since Saturday night so count us in.

3-0! We only won 3-0! If we had shown more composure in their box it could have been 7. We were immense tonight and that was with Vincent and Draper having a poor game too. If Marley had been on earlier...

.... Close thing between Foran and Shinnie for MotM.

I disagree. I just don't see what he brings to the team. He loses possession too easily and commits some clumsy fouls. His attempted shot in the first half was unreal.

3-0! We only won 3-0! If we had shown more composure in their box it could have been 7. We were immense tonight and that was with Vincent and Draper having a poor game too. If Marley had been on earlier...

.... Close thing between Foran and Shinnie for MotM.

 

Fraz said that "you may have to walk to Celtic park from a coach stop too". I cant see that this walk will be significantly longer than the one from Bellgrove as I thought that supporters' buses normally park quite near the ground.

So, is that a definite no to more buses being run through CJT to the final? If so we need to start looking for an alternative and I am now concerned that we might miss the opportunity to get on the first (and possibly only) special train. No official word from CJT yet.

I never said that about walking from the bus. ETA> I presume that you weren't on a semi-final bus where it was a good 10 minute or so walk to Easter Road from where they parked?

 

I certainly never said that there will definitely be no more buses. All I've done is laid out the facts as they currently stand.

Advice is that the best value and easiest way at the moment is the train. Which is heavily subsidised. If the walk is a major issue you could perhaps club together with another couple of fans and get a cab. Wouldn't be more than a few pounds between you.

There are still spaces on the train.

 

Hey Fraz, I think we are both straying away from the main issue here. It's not about the walking distance etc as all I want to know is whether more buses are going to be laid on. My preference is to go by supporters' bus and I am currently on the CJT waiting list for two places on a bus. However, if it is confirmed that no extra buses are being run then I will happily make alternative arrangements, train, car etc. What I don't want is to miss out on booking a place on the 09.00 train while I wait to hear whether or not extra buses are being run.  

Fraz said that "you may have to walk to Celtic park from a coach stop too". I cant see that this walk will be significantly longer than the one from Bellgrove as I thought that supporters' buses normally park quite near the ground.

So, is that a definite no to more buses being run through CJT to the final? If so we need to start looking for an alternative and I am now concerned that we might miss the opportunity to get on the first (and possibly only) special train. No official word from CJT yet. 

All the more reason to go on a supporters' bus but if no more than 10 are being run and these are all full............ The dilemma now is how long should we stay on the waiting list for a bus before it's too late to try and get a seat on a train?

No word on extra buses then?

Will SPT put on enough trains to get fans from Queen Street to Bellgrove in light of more than just special train fans likely to use that service.

Better to watch highlights on line. At least we weren't on last tonight. I'm usually struggling to stay awake for our game to come on.

I agree about the so called pundits. Thompson defends the indefensible again. Nevin is an annoying wee **** anyway, just like Billy Dodds.

Ordered tickets at stadium this morning. Have to wait a week before we get them in our hands though.

On most match days this car park is normally off limits to fans. They usually lock the gates well beforehand so it is surprising a number of cars got trapped in there last night.

Also I have to say that the parking habits of a lot of fans out on the adjacent roads (pavements and verges) at the Courier building is pretty disrespectful to pedestrians. Many are illegally parked around the junctions. If they parked like that in a residential area they would be booked by the police or wardens. There has been a few near misses with pedestrians trying to cross over the road perpetrated by illegally parked vehicles opposite the New Century House access. It is only a matter of time before someone gets knocked down or the police take action as they did on the verges on the A9 approach to the stadium.

Much better although they have still included part of that corner normally kept for away fans. Here's hoping we can get enough folk to expand to the upper tier too. 

Esson

Raven - Devine - Meekings - Shinnie

Foran - Tansey

Watkins - Vincent - Ross

McKay

Subs: Brill, Tremarco, Warren, Draper, Doran, Williams & Christie

Less that four weeks to go and still no arrangements made public. Hopefully we will know what our ticket allocation is early this week and when they go on sale. We really need to start booking buses and Scotrail need to decide if they are laying on extra trains. 

 

Thought we were very good at times and should have won by a comfortable scoreline, we might only have had 6 on target but that doesn't mean every shot off target amounted to nothing. 23 attempts just shows the amount of attacking we did. There were other times where the game looked quite scrappy though with passes going amiss regularly, mainly from Hearts but definitely a few from our lads. Tansey should have scored another belter, some strike but unfortunately a great save from MacDonald who had a really good game. Personally don't think i can single out anyone for a bad game on Saturday, we just couldn't get that elusive goal to get the 3 points but on another day we could have won by 3 or 4. Lets hope the scoring boots are on on Tuesday night.

 

A good post that more or less summed up my view of the game. However, I think we need to try some different options starting with the game against Stranraer on Tuesday. Doran needs rested and Nick Ross could easily slot in on the left. Draper needs to wise a up a bit too - he was a bit sloppy yesterday. Devine also needs some game time before the LC Final.

Brill

Raven Devine Meekings Shinnie

           Draper Foran

        Watkins Tansey Ross

                  McKay 

Bench: Esson, Warren, Tremarco, Christie, Polworth, Vincent, Doran

What else could we expect from the SPFL, the scummy east end of Glasgow of course.

GIRUY THE SPFL and all the blazers. You will think twice about messing the mighty Csley Jags about again.

I watched on tv as I said I would. Firstly well done guys for a fantastic never say die performance. You made me feel so proud.

Justice was done for the red cards. Firstly it wasn't Warren who committed the foul for his second yellow. It was Watkins. No wonder Gary was raging for being no where near the incident. Then Josh's red card was no worse than a yellow and certainly not as bad as Robinson's near leg breaker on Billy in 6 minutes.

Here's hoping we can slay the hoodoo of not winning at lunch time on a Sunday then.

The Castle Tavern, Inverness. Crowd of us who choose not to travel.

As long as they all plus the rest of the squad get extra practice in training this week at taking them.

Brill

Raven Warren Meekings Tremarco

Watkins Tansey Polworth Shinnie

Vincent

Mckay

Subs - Esson, Devine, Draper, Doran, Williams, Ross, Christie

Draper and Doran need to prove themselves more to get back in the team. Polworth deserves a longer run after his recent performances.

Still not enough action by the SPFL to get me to go. Our fans will be hugely outnumbered and with a Sunday lunchtime kick off when we generally can't win, I fear the worst. I will be watching from (behind) my sofa. 

I was discussing ticket prices with folk around me today too. Many of them are pensioners and are not at all happy to have to pay £20 to sit in the stands at Fester Road.