Charles Bannerman

Another Churchill quote! And another reminder of what a disastrous appointment Duncan Ferguson was… and of the self satisfaction of Scot Gardiner’s claims about his role in making it.

“NOW THS IS NOT THE END. IT IS NOT EVEN THE BEGINNING OF THE END. BUT IT IS, PERHAPS, THE END OF THE BEGINNING.” Winston Churchill, 1942, speaking after victory at the Battle of El Alamein. We just need to get the Administrator moving!

Yes, that’s the bit I struggled with too, that winning all games would do it - but wouldn’t happen. But imagine- as it looked round about 4:30 - if it had gone to seven points adrift. Completely different scenario.

It’s been a hugely important afternoon, not the least because a landmark has been reached, although I’m not sure how to define it….. “it” being that for the first time since the 15 point penalty, Caley Thistle’s game in hand alone is enough to take the team out of the bottom two. But what an day! At 0-0 and Annan (and Dumbarton) winning, the gulf is potentially heading for seven points. But then Alfie Bavidge, plus the other two games turning on their heads, created one of these superb and dramatic “Six Pointer Afternoons”.

When someone raised the “dragging on” issue here at the end of January, I wasn’t unduly concerned. Two weeks on and into mid-February, I’m now also saying “Dragging on, isn’t it?”, although there was the statement from Charlie Christie that there had been three or four fairly serious expressions of interest.

I can’t help noticing that David Cameron seems to be under pressure as regards some of his other business interests. For instance he is reportedly the sole director of Upland, the company involved in the St Giles Centre in Elgin, and the Courier is reporting that this same company’s attempts to sell on the Ironworks have run into trouble. In the Courier report, Mr Cameron is quoted as telling the paper that this is “none of your bloody business”. Given that Mr Cameron is also owed £410,000 by Caley Thistle and, jointly with Ross Morrison, runs the company that owns the stadium car park lease, I hope that his other difficulties aren’t going to impinge negatively upon the football club’s situation.

Is that not Scott Gardiner’s remake?

That’s a very valid point. The team will probably end up with more points under SK and with the penalty than they would have done with DF and no penalty.

That’s a very important point DD. It becomes more difficult to catch a lot of teams above you because these points have to go somewhere, so it’s a trade off between welcoming Annan and Dumbarton beating teams ICT might still catch and accepting the squeaky bum you get as a result of not pulling away from these two to an extent that gives more complete confidence about avoiding relegation or the playoffs.

This large colour photo appeared in today’s PandJ. It’s of Billy Urquhart receiving a barometer from Chairman Norman Miller on the occasion of Billy’s 600th appearance for Caley in 1992. Among those who can be seen elsewhere in the photo are John Beaton, Derek Dewar and Jimmy Falconer. In 1994, Billy would appropriately have the honour of scoring the last competitive goal at Telford Street in a 1-0 victory over Thistle in May 1994… predictably with a header. Ironically, Billy was no longer a registered Caley player by this time, but was played for sentimental and “political” reasons… attracting a £250 fine. He went on also to play a limited number of games for Caley Thistle in the first season 1994-95.

Sorry, CT - I have absolutely no information to update about anything. However as I write, I’m not getting the feeling that we are now outwith any timescale that the Administrator may have implied at the December briefing. I would just add that the flurry following the Jan 8th Companies House posting was probably much ado about nothing and probably just a bogstandard procedural thing. I remain convinced that Cameron and Morrison, as joint owners of the car park lease and respective creditors to the extent of £410K and a secured (or maybe not as secured as he thought) £1.65M, are the two main players in this and the biggest potential obstacles.

Remember the Fluttering Guttering at Celtic Park 25 years ago this weekend? Looks like Celtic are having similar problems again this time. It was on 29th January 2000 that the Scottish Cup tie between Celtic and Caley Thistle was postponed due to structural problems at Celtic Park and a large contingent of Inverness fans had to come back down the A9 ten days later…. to witness history. Because I had a press pass for the game, I actually got into the ground and had pre-match access to the pitch along with various club luminaries of the day such as Pele, Jimmy Falconer and David Sutherland at a time when the Tulloch rescue was just getting underway. (I also had access to as many of the 20,000 surplus pies as I could take off their hands.) For reasons I won’t go into, the task of doing the Courier report fell to me… duly appearing on the back page under the massive headline PARADISE LOST. Then, then days later, Paradise was duly Regained.

Aye… best not to get too carried away. When a team is second bottom, it’s difficult to catch large numbers of clubs since the points they are playing for have to go somewhere, although a preponderance of draws among them would help. But I digress. Avoiding relegation, preferably by not finishing in the bottom two, has to be the immediate priority and a 3-0 win away to the side you need to catch to do that is an absolutely superb outcome. OK… Cove and Arbroath were disappointing but there have been one heck of a lot of Saturdays since SK took over when it’s got to 5pm and I’ve said to myself “Well that’s an incredibly important result!”

Agreed!

Because he has priority over unsecured creditors, the floating charge, if it remains valid, must presumably put Ross Morrison in a strong position to hold out for his £1.65 million, should he wish to do so.