Charles Bannerman

Harry Chibber... Brian Thomson!? The man was a legend! Scored a barrowload, including the vital goal v Stenhousemuir which gained access to Rangers in the Scottish Cup in 1996 and he was a star in that quarter final at Tannadice as well. He made a stunning debut v Ross County in the Inverness Cup Final in December 1995. Brian Thomson might indeed make the bench in my ICT Legends XI and I hope the Supporters' Trust manage to get him to the Legends' Night in September. I also happen to think that Mark McCulloch did a more than decent job too in midfield/defence. Obviously I wouldn't judge players entirely by their goals but there was a screamer of an equaliser v Dundee Utd in the Cup in 1998 and a wonderful goal for Caley Thistle at Victoria Park.... although he might just have been playing for County that day! Nope..Mark is nowhere near worth considering here.

Might "Borough Briggs" be a reference to the town's bridges... ie the site of an ancient bridge or bridges over the River Lossie to which BB is very close? By the way, metalgecko, the Hammer of the Scots was Edward 1st, of England, late 13th/ early 14th Century and not Richard 1st (Lionheart) who was around in the late 12th and early 13th

I'm with Scotty and Peleisgod on this one... made even more extreme by Vetle's complete lack of personal charm. There's the wonderful tale of how Vetle mouthed arrogantly back to Pele at training at Charleston one day and SP left him to run all the way back to the Caledonian Stadium!

I note that while Blackie force gets panned for his remarks about the standard of English in central London, I note no similar obections to similar comments I made just before that about Telford Street!

As a PE teacher? I have always had this very polarised view of Sergei. As an individual he was an absolute gentleman and I had a whole lot of time for him. But as a manager he just didn't seem to make it and I think there was more to that than the fundamentally defensive tactics which made that first season at Telford Street less than inspring. And there was also the issue of his very poor command of the English language (and for that to become a general view at Telford Street, it must have been bad!) Unless there has been a massive improvement, I would find it difficult to see how he could manage to teach. I sometimes wonder how he coped with his earlier days in Inverness when he would have arrived at Telford Street to greetings such as: "Howyadooenserg"?

I think it's got to do with full membership of the SFA. Before 1985, both Golspie and Fort William used to play in the Qualifying Cup for that reason, even though they weren't Highland League teams. Then The Fort got into the Highland League, leaving Golspie as the only "outsider" in the Q Cup. This, along with subsequent changes as a result of the election of Cove to the HL and then Thistle/ Caley, County, Elgin and Peterhead getting into the SFL, led to the number of Q Cup 1st round ties going from 1 up to 3 then down to none at the moment when there are the 15 HL teams plus Golspie to give the even 16 (and a new first round where the second used to be. Back in the old days I used to like to introduce the now defunct Qualifying Cup 1st round as "nine games from Hampden... ulness you draw Queens Park away." Fort William often used to pose a problem here when the first round was on the first Saturday in September and Claggan Park was booked for the Ben Nevis Race. (Former Jaggies will have fond memories of a visit to Claggan in the Qualifying Cup, quite soon after their famous trip to Celtic Park in 1985!)

Sorry I've had to continue my post here because I couldn't somehow extricate the quote I was using from what I wanted to say myself which was...... Interestingly enough David Dowling (who's been very much in the picture on this one as an SFA Council member as well as chairman of Clach) is taking a different view here and is suggesting that it could be MORE difficult eg for a Highland League club to get a tie with an SPL club. His argument is that the SPL clubs now don't come in until the fourth rather than the third round as before. Also, apart from the top two in the HL, there's no chance now of a 1st round bye for an HL club and there's the possible additional barrier of having to dispose of a 1st Division team in round 3 before moving on to an SPL draw in round 4. (And I don't think I'm betraying "off the record" confidences if I reveal that one of David's "dream" scenarios would be County at Grant Street in Round 3 followed by ICT there in Round 4!)

Is this not getting a little bit out of hand? There was a series of incidents at Caley Thistle's final home game which resulted in a number of fans being ejected from the ground for standing. This raised a range of issues including, as far as I can see, bringing to a head a longish running dissatisfaction among some fans with the stewarding at the Caledonian Stadium. The Supporters' Trust very quickly (ie by half time on the day of the game) took the matter on board and is continuing in dialogue with the club on these issues. This is part of what the Trust exists for. All of this also seems to have set in motion two internet campaigns... one against the Chief Executive (on which I don't intend to comment other than to say that it appears to have at least some of the features of mass hysteria) and the other in favour of fans having the facility to stand at SPL games. The latter is a perfectly legitimate point of view, but surely standing at games is hardly a core issue for supporters whose club has miraculously come up through the leagues and is now on the verge of the top half of the SPL? I would therefore agree with Kingsmills and suggest that it's a pretty daft idea to take to law what I would suggest is a pretty peripheral issue in the grander scheme of things. Indeed has Caley Thistle over the years not seen enough of the inside of the law courts? By all means lobby other clubs and their fans. If there is widespread agreement with this view of a significant group of ICT fans then this will be reflected in a vote by the SPL to relax their rules for smaller stadia. If not, then the Inverness "standing" lobby will reluctantly have to accept that they are in a minority.

Rosscoe.... perhaps you might like to take this chance to read once again what Dennis actually said.... "We're slightly different players in that I like to come short and receive the ball, while Craig tends to play on the shoulder of the last defender," he said. "He is probably more of a goalscorer than me, but hopefully I can get myself back among the goals next season whether Craig is still here or not. "In terms of goalscoring, my second spell hasn't hit the heights compared to the first time I was here, but what you have to remember is that the club were playing in the First Division when I left," he said. "It goes without saying that I would like to score goals, but to do that in the SPL is very difficult because the standard is much higher than it is in the First Division. "However, my main aim at the moment is just to get a good pre-season under my belt and try to get back in the first-team. "Last season wasn't really a good one for me. I got injured only five games in and by the time I came back from the first injury, Graham Bayne and Craig Dargo had struck up a really good partnership. "Then when I did get back in I got injured again, so even though I was delighted to get a run out against St Mirren, it was not the best season I've ever had."

Mrs P.... I'm sure you'll agree that "that other member of the panel" (L_G for the benefit of those who weren't there) created the best moment of the evening, right at the end. Again for the benefit of those who weren't there, I'll recount the tale since it's well worth telling. Laura somehow got wind of the fact that Bobby, while manager of Ross County and still in the Highland League, had decided to put Barry on the bench for one particular Qualifying Cup final against Pele's Huntly (it was actually the 93/94 final in County's last Highland League season) and asked Bobby if he would give us a first hand account, which Bobby did wonderfully. Barry was still living at home so Bobby went into his bedroom on the morning of the final to break the news. This is the dialogoue which Bobby recounted. "Barry, I've got good and bad news for you... the good news is that we're in the final, the bad news is that you're on the bench." "The bench! What do you mean I'm only on the bench?" "Well son, Huntly have a couple of very big defenders there and I do feel that the best place for you is on the bench today." "MUUUUMMMMM!!!!!!......" As it happened, County picked up a couple of early injuries and Barry found himself on before half time and county went on to beat Huntly 2-1. Jessie's reaction is not recorded! PS - thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

IHE... I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt that this is not one of your wind ups. If this is genuine, what IHE quotes strikes me as a potentially very risky strategy. I can't see how players at any level will thrive on what appears, in the case of the lower group, to be a limited fitness regime. Coming from another sport which is highly conditioning and fitness dependent, I would have to say that football has benefited hugely by waking up to this notion over the last decade or so. And I think no team has gained more than ICT from increased attention to fitness. I am VERY reluctant even to be mildly critical of Pele who to me is right at the top of the Caley Thistle legends' tree. But I do feel he undercooked things a bit in terms of fitness. Robbo began to change that and Brewster's greatest legacy was to revolutionise it. What I saw in Italy last summer and generally chatting to management and players tells me that Charlie has kept this notion very much on board. At the Academy, I would be quite concerned if up and coming players, even of the second tier, were being under exposed to fitness training.... especially given the dreadful fitness levels prevalent among youngsters these days.

Chris... I now see what you were saying! In print it looked like a rhetorical question but even though it wasn't I think it was just as well you asked it since it was worth answering with that issue having been visited so often. Which brings me to Roscoe23's last post. Roscoe, it's one thing managers answering press questions but they must really get fed up answering the same question week in week out, often several times, especially when it's clear there's been no progress. Beacuse no one wants to miss the story, we keep asking the same question day in day out. Add to that the fact that CC is very accommodating at his press conferences where he often has to answer the same question four or five times a week, week in week out, in the one to one interviews he very willingly gives. I for one certainly feel a bit guilty about keeping asking the same **** silly question when there's a 99% chance of the answer being "no progress yet"!

Chris123... in defence of Charlie Christie I would have to say that I am not aware of him ever saying that he needs an answer from Dargo within a week. It may be that some reports have implied that, but the line I have consistenly heard him take is that they respect the player's decision not to make any announcement about his future until the end of the season. At worst I believe he said on one occasion that there may have been a chance of an answer last week but I am certainly not aware of the manager indicating that he was putting pressure on. The last thing I heard CC say on the matter (I think last Saturday) was that he (CC) would now be away for a few days and he expected to get a final verdict on his return. CC must be fed up to the back teeth of journalists (including me but not as often as many others!) repeatedly asking him about Craig Dargo and it's a story which keeps recycling itself.

ICT... how familiar are you with the specialist evidence and Bruce Hare's 1993/4 report on 13 possible locations which led to the choice of stadium site? How familiar are you with the land costs, likely resident reaction and planning implications of siting a stadium in the area of Inverness to which you refer?

Thought a pair of shoes would be better, given the ones you walked back to your hotel in on Friday night! (On the other hand your apparent reluctance to sit down perhaps also indicates why you need a cushion.)

According to Ian Broadfoot's impeccable statistics, that was Richard's third goal for Caley Thistle, the other two having come in something of a scoring spree in October and November 1995. So that was the first time he'd scored since he was a teenager... not bad for a man who turns 30 and reaches his 300th appearance this weekend.

Scotty... I'm not entirely convinced that ICT has taken things all that slowly. If you consider the timescale from 1994-2006 which I detailed further up this thread, I think that's pretty rapid progress from the Highland League to the SPL in about a decade. After all, everybody thought Dougie McGilvray was off his head when he bet Tam Cowan that ICT would be in the SPL by 2004. Inded some (especially David Sutherland) have criticised Dougie for pushing on too fast. I will pass no personal judgement either way on that but, for instance, it has been claimed that 1997 was too early to go full time. OK, Caley Thistle have got away with it, but by 2000 had spent a couple of million more than it had earned and the receivers would have been in had that debt (which presumably still exists in some form) not been spirited away into the Trust (at which point we wonder yet again what actually happened to that particular liability!) But yes, players become surplus to means at Leeds who are virtually on their uppers and, in front of the ICT backdrop which we've been discussing, people demand that ICT splashes out cash it doesn't have to get them to Inverness. Ironic indeed!!

On the other hand, with forward thinking like yours, you WILL be back in the Highland League... if you're lucky!

roscoe.... 1994 - Inverness Thistle and Caledonian FC, playing in front of a few hundred fans, both fail to win the Highland League. 1995 - Caledonian Thistle progress to Division 3 of the Scottish League and finish 6th. 1996 - Caledonian Thistle reach the quarter finals of the Scottish Cup. 1997 - Inverness Caledonian Thistle win the Third Division and go up to Division 2. 1999 - Promotion to Division 1, losing out on the Division 2 title at the last gasp. 2000 - ICT survives a major financial crisis due to overstretching. Just avoid the receiver thanks to the setting up of the ICT Trust to sideline over £2M of debt and a huge investment by Tulloch. 2003 - semi finals of the Scottish Cup. 2004 - Semi finals of the Scottish Cup, challenge Cup winners, Division 1 title winners and promotion to the SPL. 2005 - ICT hotly tipped for relegation but survive in the end quite comfortably. SPL football brought to Inverness by the construction of two stands, borrowing £1.2M in the process. 2006 - just miss the split. Finish seventh. I suspect you may be just that little bit too young to have a full overview of the progress Caley Thistle has made in the last 13 years and therefore don't understand that the club is actually quite fortunate to have come as far as it has in that time. Further progress, especially major, would require a whole lot more money. How much of that would you be prepared to provide by a huge increase in the cost of a season ticket? Or do you expect some mystery businessman to step in and subsidise your fantasy of taking Leeds United players to Inverness?

For those who don't know (not many since they've had quite a lot of coverage) Inverness City already exists. The title, which was firmly rejected by Caley Thistle, was then snapped up last year by a new team under the managership of Stevie Graham which has just finished its first season in the North Caledonian League. They've done very well indeed.. not far away from winning the league but did win a couple of cups, beating Golspie Sutherland (where former ICT player Robbie Benson is asst manager) in both finals. PS - I hear Alex Bone is going to be signing for Golspie.

I don't suppose the fact that the dog's owner happens to be a regular contributor to the publication in question is significant here, is it? So what do we have now? A dog as North Personality of the Year and the non existent "Loch Ness Monster" as Highland Icon. Big Brother Watchers and Sunreaders throughout the Highlands clearly can't get rid of that voting habit. Never mind. It all means we should waken up to an interesting set of election results next Friday morning!

Heilandee... all I can say is you've got better eyesight than I have. Even on maximum magnification, I can only now make that out as Bellslea Bar after you've told me what it actually says. Last night without that info, I could make nothing of it at all. On the other hand I suppose nobody can "discover" a drinking place like a Dundonian!

I THINK you're at Bellslea Park Fraserburgh... not that I've ever been there but if you blow up the picture you can just see billboards for Faithlie Net Makers and Findlay's Hotel. It doesn't take too much Googling to pin these down to The Broch. I was initially tempted to suggest Peterhead on the strength of a 01779 phone number on one of the boards but that's outweighed by the two Broch boards and I think Balmooor is probably a bit more sophisticated than that. I suppose the 01779 is a bit like Inverness businesses which advertise at Ross County.

17 was kind of old for going to Blue wasn't it?