Charles Bannerman

That's not been my experience, except possibly in cases when people are trying maximal efforts with weights which I would imagine is unlikely to be common among footballers. In general I would say that strength training would tend to reduce injury proneness.

To return to the original question, it really doesn't seem all that long ago that I was wondering if there was actually a connection between a LOW rate of injury and the demanding training regime at Caley Thistle. After all, well conditioned tissue tends to be stronger and better sble to resist damage and until very recently there has tended to be quite a low injury rate at ICT. As it happens there has been an upward blip in injuries over the last few weeks, but you have to remember that there are different types of injuries such as acute traumatic as in a broken leg, overuse such as shin splints and of biomechanical origin such as ileo tibial band (sore knee and outside of your leg), although there's a grey area between the last two perhaps. Don't misunderstand the term "overuse" either. It doesn't necessarily mean that someone has been over training. A number of the recent injuries appear to be acute traumatic, such as Ian Black's knee, David Proctor's ankle and possibly Grant Munro's knee as well - in other words bad luck. A number of them have emerged from the rough and tumble of matches. Please also don't misunderstand the term "fitness". Too many people confuse this with "endurance" which quite simply is one of a number of types of fitness. There is also speed and yes, strength, as well as combinations of these three. As a result, the gym sessions the Caley Thistle players frequently do will to a large extent be about developing strength - and you just have to look at some of these guys to see that they are reasonably well worked in the upper body as well. No one should think that the current fitness regimne is simply about lots of continuous running. Even pre season didn't involve that much - it was far more sessions like 4 minute intervals which can be far more demanding. I don't for one minute think that these guys are being overworked. Some of them may not particularly enjoy the hard work but it is indispensible and I'm pleased to see football these days catching up on other sports in this respect. Having coached athletes to Commonwealth Games and European Championships on more than one occasion, I have a fair idea of what the human body can take and can benefit from and welcome what's happening in football in general and in Inverness in particular. Perhaps I could also return to the comment I made just after the North Cup final when I contrasted the conditioned looking body forms of the ICT U19 team and the Nairn side who, quite frankly in one or two cases were unfit looking and downright fat!

Someone will have to introduce this guy to Footballer's Wife!

I'll just take this opportunity to summarise BBC coverage of ICT this weekend. * Full match commentary from Kheredine Idessane and Brian Irvine on 92-95FM in the Highlands and Islands and on the internet wherever it's contractually allowed to be sourced. * Open All Mics across Scotland (and I think on the web too?) on 103.5-105FM with Jim Spence. * Sportscene with updates and full time report from Kenny MacIntyre on BBC1 Scotland from 4:30. * Match report and reaction on Sports Report on all Radio Scotland frequencies at 6:30. * Webcast from Kheredine and Brian. Should be up from early evening. * Post match interviews from Kenny. Should also be on the internet from early evening. * Internet highlights from whatever time tomorrow the contract allows it. * TV highlights with Richard Gordon at 10:35 on Monday evening. * I think I'll tune into Open All Mics from the dry and warmth of the Ross County press box this afternoon where I'll be compiling part of Moday morning's BBC Local sports bulletin. Local bulletins are on every morning at 0750 (and at various other times especially 0654, 1254 and 1654) on 92-95FM in the Highlands and Islands with ICT (and other) news every Monday and Friday plus other times when relevant.

Do Nairn not in fact return to Meadowbank Stadium, the very scene of their 1986 triumph when they eliminated Meadowbank from the cup and went on to that tie against Dundee?

Yes... I believe 1976 was your last and only one. Did you manage to get your hands on the tin of dubbin they used on the ball as a souvenir? :018: :thumb04:

We don't allow tradesmen in Inverness so we don't actually need to have a Trades Holiday. I also find that last observation and illustration a bit ironic, coming as it does from a native of the caravan capital of the Highlands - just take a look to the East of the harbour! :thumb04:

That's the one.. guaranteed to speed up any runner passing through. Note so sure about any similarity with Dalneigh though.

Sorry BC but, with 30 years of athletics coaching behind me, and I'm being perfectly objective here, it just took a look at each of the two sides to see the difference in levels of conditioning. Aaah... Shanghai.... isn't that the estate that you (well "we"... not you personally) run through towards the end of the Nairn 10K and - even though you've got more than 5 gruelling miles under your belt and it's uphill - you still manage to run that bit faster!

2-0 Nairn. They got a couple of early goals and that was it. They probably deserved it but it really was literally "men against boys" since Caley Thistle stuck by the spirit of what they agreed and played a very young team. On the other hand it was interesting simply looking at the two sides - you couldn't help but notice that the ICT team looked quite a lot more athletic and conditioned. To be quite honest one or two of the Nairn players looked a shade on the portly side... in fact you could be forgiven for thinking at a distance that Colin Montgomerie had offered Nairn his services since he's not got anything else to do this weekend!

That would be Kirsteen then would it?

A couple of questions. Firstly, have you been able to establish who the directors of the company concerned are? Secondly, do a) This company or b ) The Trust or c) Both or d) Neither enjoy limited liability status?

I meant that the guy from Oasis's wife looks like a cleaning lady... not Scott Paterson - in fact I don't even know if he's married.

Is that not the guy that looks like the chap from Oasis whose wife looks like a cleaning lady?

Wick estimate that this trip could cost them up to ?4000. However they do have the appearance money, an SFA travel grant and their share of the gate money to offset it. I would imagine it's not physically possible to travel much further on mainland Scotland. In general the north teams do have a huge amount of travelling (Golspie are lucky their draw is at home!) However the most colurful sounding tie has to be "Clachnacuddin versus Burntisland Shipyard Amateur."!

Are you sure you're not talking about Ryanair?

Charles - are Radio Scotland doing a through the window feature tomorrow evening?? Yes... 10:30 to 00:30. 810 medium wave.

oh aye! thanks! :thumb04: Either that or it was Basil Fawlty fresh from dealing with his German guests!

I suspect it may be that lad holding the cup on the left hand side of all your posts!

Wouldn't have thought so. There's already one track in Inverness which the operators seem to find difficult enough to maintain and lack of density of usage has been quoted as one reason (excuse?) for the investment not being made. There's certainly no need for a second one. On the other hand, if Inverness Leisure, who operate the track, wanted to convert the present Queens Park into another use with a new track as part of a new centre, then at least there would be the benefit for track users of no longer having Inverness Leisure as their "landlords" which in my view has not been a happy experience since they took the facility over from Highland Council. The other side of that, though, is that the loss of the track in its present location to other activities is bad enough and this would become a much bigger problem if it was round the city's main football pitch. However I think the reality here is that the Courier were looking a fresh line on the accounts story since everybody else had already had it and on pressing George they got a "I would never say never" out of him on the Bught. In practice, and I'm sure George is aware of this, I don't see the Bught being able to accommodate anything major like this until the TLR link to Holm Mains is complete. even with the Sports Centre, Glenurquhart Road is chaotic with traffic and an alternative access would have to be there first.

IHE... this was RADIO... the medium for which you have a perfect body! It went quite well actually - ended up running for almost 20 minutes.

For information, BBC Radio Scotland (in the Highlands and Islands only) will be broadcasting a feature item of about 12 minutes duration on Caley Thistle on the "Highland Cafe" programme at 1:15 tomorrow (Fri). The item will look more at ICT's impact on the Inverness community and at financial issues than the playing side and the studio guests will be supporters' spokesperson Mairi MacLean, David Sutherland (of Tullochs, not the Supporters' Trust), Jim Traynor and myself. Although only available live in the Highlands and Islands, I would imagine that there must be some kind of internet availability as well. The live version is on the 92-95FM frequency range which is 94.0 in the Inverness area.

I would agree with Alex's post in all respects except that it wouldn't be English "bias"... they quite simply have a far greater number of good players (but for some reason can't translate that into international success in existing competitions.)

This fuss has all blown up because politicians have once again tried to jump on the bandwagon of sport. Let's face it, the whole lot of them are only interested in their own political aims and couldn't give a toss about the Olympics etc. This is just Big Gordy trying to look like Mr. GB and Wee Alec looking for another excuse to pick a fight with the English. In any case, this is a complete non issue. Football as a sport is a law unto itself simply because of its worldwide size and as such is completely irrelevant to the Olympics and doesn't care about them. The Olympic football competition has always been a joke and whether or not Britain competes in it is really a side issue. I just don't know what the fuss is all about, except perhaps that Scotland etc always get extremely twitchy when their anomalous and privileged positions of places at the FIFA table without being proper sovereign nations comes under any threat. What the recent fuss is really about is that there are people in Scotland bricking it that Scotland has separate FIFA status whereas the likes of Bavaria, Brittany, California don't and this fuss will draw attention to that. They're just trying to keep their heads down. A Scottish Olympic team, apart from being a complete non starter under IOC rules which restrict membership to proper sovereign nations, is a complete nonsense because there simply isn't the talent here and certainly not the facilities. Why not believe the people, like Chris Hoy, who have been there, done it and have the Team GB teeshirt?

You obviously don't listen to the BBC then!