Charles Bannerman

What I find myself a bit bemused at is all the outcry against Regan for not landing O'Neill. Was there really any realistic chance of luring the guy away from a job in his own country, Northern Ireland, with a higher rated team where he's getting more money and on a longer contract?

Compared with that, did the Scotland job actually have ANYTHING going for him at all? He did make the point very strongly himself that, irrespective of all the other considerations, he is Northern Irish, so it's quite important to him to have a job with Northern Ireland, even though I do believe he lives in Scotland.

4 hours ago, IBM said:

Not if you take the cost of fuel free parking at Morrisons if you do some shopping and it would be double fare when my wife is with me 

Free parking at Morrisons is a good one. You can more or less get as long as you like if you feed the meter hourly. To get a £1 refund for the hour there's no minimum spend but, unless you are planning spending more than £15 or more, you won't get a refund for any longer duration.

7 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

The Gerneral Wade military roads were certainly not constructed for the benefit of the local population and the railway was extended to the Highlands largely to convey the great and the good from their Belgravia town houses to their sporting estates for six weeks of the year and, only a couple of short decades later, carrying the youth of Caithness, Sutherland, Rossshire and Invernessshire to the killing fields of Belgium and France in the cause of imperialism.

Lowland Scots treat Highlanders with at least as much contempt as anyone else. Ironically, a certain Scottish Football League vote in 1973, although hardly vital to life, comes as an interesting instance of same.

And the somewhat contrived WW1 reference really does betray the most enormous propensity to grievance.

49 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

Is sneering cynicism your default mode for everything ?

What's realism to one man could well be cynicism to another who is in perpetual denial.

1 hour ago, Kingsmills said:

..and both the A9 and the A96 are going to be dual carriageway for their entire lengths much reducing the disadvantage that the Highlands endured in terms of geographical isolation for decades when the Westminster government were responsible for transport. 

Yes.... the A9 looks WELL up to schedule for completion by 2025.... It took them several years to do the 5 or 6 miles south of Aviemore so only about 70 to go. On the other hand, they'll doubtless officially open a set of experimental boreholes and then announce that they've closed them again for half a century for "snagging". It will, of course, still be "the best road in the world".

That's interesting to see this in terms of numbers which certainly back up the perception that this year's HL performances in the Scottish Cup have been better than of late, although Fraserburgh haven't actually had to face an SPFL club in the first three rounds. Certainly the Brora epic is a welcome return to some of the heroics that Thistle, Caley and Ross County pulled off during the decade before they themselves went into the SFL.

I've had a bit of a debate with myself over whether to place this thread here or in the UK football section, but I've decided that it's relevant enough to Caley Thistle  for this part of the forum.

First of all, many congratulations to Caley Thistle's longest serving player of all time and appearance record holder (456) Ross Tokely, now manager at Brora Rangers, on their superb passage through to the fifth round of the Scottish Cup. More eye-catchingly still, in four victories to date, two of them away to League One opponents, Brora have scored at total of 12 goals and conceded none at all. Several Caley Thistle "old boys" have made a huge contribution to what Brora have achieved in recent years, and another of them is Jamie Duff who seems to have been put up as their post-match player interviewee at Methil.

Jamie was not slow to reveal that he thought East Fife "would have given a bit more respect" to Brora while instead "they thought they could turn up and stroll it". Jamie's words do bring back memories of 22 years ago at the same last 32 stage in January 1996, when East Fife appeared to treat the then still embryonic Caley Thistle with the same lack of respect. Many will remember East Fife manager Stevie Archibald subbing himself off, apparently reckoning the game to be won..... without bargaining on the resilience of Herchie and Co, a replay, extra time and a penalty shootout victory for Caley Thistle.

The rest .... Brian Thomson's glorious winner at Stenhousemuir leading to a quarter final encounter with Rangers at Tannadice.... became history as the "new" Inverness club recorded the first major achievement of its then short and still difficult history. I have always believed that the Scottish Cup campaign of 1995-96 was a major turning point for Inverness - and it came thanks in part to a lack of respect which, according to Jamie Duff, still hasn't been addressed down Methil way.

1 hour ago, Renegade said:

surely a lot of people will just squander it on drink, drugs and the rest.  

And why not if you can still get life's essentials for free from a food bank? 

OK... so let me get this straight. She whinges incessantly that Westmonster won't give her enough cash for public services.... but still seems to have plenty for prescriptions, bus passes, university tuition for people who would be far better off in the Tecky Colleges she has starved of funds, and for various other vote-catching superficialities. And now she also wants to dish out £150 a week to everybody, much of which may well in the end reach the destinations suggested by Alex Jones - while food banks continue to flourish.

She tells us she wants to be judged on Education (well that's you knackered then, dear!) but, whilst funding all these vote catching dodges, she is so miserable to local authorities that, for instance, Highland Council are looking at slashing 300 jobs in schools.

What a nonsensical manifestation of The Emperor's New Kilt.

24 minutes ago, ictchris said:

 Not sure why Polworth was dropped, maybe we expected to need to defend more in the centre of the park. 

 

In his post-match interview, the manager seemed to suggest that Polworth had been unwell and wasn't going to figure at all, but insisted on coming on the bus and then seemed to manage to get himself a place on the bench.

On ‎1‎/‎13‎/‎2018 at 7:51 PM, MorayJaggie said:

I'm becoming more and more convinced that the SFA are giving their referees a yellow card quota to get in every time they referee one of our games. 

Presumably that's one you also formulated on the Grassy Knoll, although the evidence does seem to suggest that refereeing standards aren't great. Have you been on to Alex Ferguson's lad at Doncaster in search of a solution out of the Book Depository stable?

6 minutes ago, LairdMattie said:

So its you I'm hearing when I get along to games! ?

That would depend on how often you attend Tornoto FC! 

The match statistics are quite interesting.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42205964

They are pretty level apart from a 7-3 ICT advantage in shots on target, resulting in a 4-1 scoreline. Sounds like a pretty god night for the attack force with four different men on the score sheet!

26 minutes ago, MorayJaggie said:

Pitch inspection confirmed for 11am. The cost of turning it on surely outweighs the cost postponing the match.

Would a postponement actually be all that bad a thing, given that the current schedule is for five games in the 15 days from Dec 30 to Jan 13 inclusive, arguably amid unease that injuries might start to accumulate?

1 hour ago, Polo Chick said:

Simply not good enough end off!

 

As they say on Wikipedia.... "Citation needed".

14 minutes ago, tm4tj said:

Donaldson out, Raven & Chalmers starting.

When he spoke on Thursday, Raven seemed all but certain that he wouldn't feature.

4 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

It is we fans who should be gratified by the contribution he has made in all the years he was was with us. Very gratified indeed.

You are dead right. I asked that particular question myself and I think what he was particularly gratified about was the response from fans which he said was "pretty overwhelming and humbling" and that it was "pretty unbelievable the number of comments I've had." Then there was an almost embarrassed pause and exhalation before he concluded his answer with "there's not much more I can say about that...." To another question, he said that he would "always be looking out for ICT and seeing where they go from here" and that this had been "the best time I've ever had at a club."

It's not that often that you get the opportunity to interview players who are leaving clubs, but without doubt David Raven has departed with great dignity.... a word which could equally be applied to his nonetheless categorical questioning of the stewardship of the two seasons following the Scottish Cup win.

7 minutes ago, Robert said:

Thanks, that's what I heard on the radio earlier. It would be interesting to know what else was said but not broadcast.

In terms of what was heard on the radio and seen on TV, it was the same stuff. Raven was simply expressing his dismay that he and his team mates had won the Scottish Cup in May 2015 and now the club is relegated and extremely strapped for cash. He just wanted to know how money from the likes of that and Ryan Christie's transfer could have been squandered in such a short time and to such little effect?

The other line which emerged at the conference but has not emerged in broadcast yet although may well do in print tomorrow, since newspapers are usually able to do greater depth than broadcast, was that it was put to him that when the fans cheered him off v Livi, they were cheering a contribution which extends far more widely than simply scoring the winner v Celtic. He seemed very gratified at that proposition.

32 minutes ago, MorayJaggie said:

Why doesn't the spfl have a way of monitoring referee performances and if found to be poor consistently have some sort of penalisation, accountability. 

Do they not still send referee supervisors to games?

Quizzer..... you are echoing my own thoughts almost to the letter.

As for weakening links with the football club, I believe that the more or less enforced sale of the premises several years ago was the thin end of the wedge there and that things got a lot worse as a cosequence of a personal squabble which had nothing to do either with the FC or SC. (And involves completely different individuals from the stadium lease scenario.)

5 hours ago, Caman said:

 

Maybe changing it to a family club, with a cafe theme for daytime and pub theme for evening would be better? 

 

Agreed. I think changes like this are needed both to widen the appeal and to make it more profitable.

2 hours ago, RednBlackComeback said:

The Thistle Club had a much more attractive location, 

Baron Taylor's Street??? 

I am just home after my traditional couple of quiet hours out on Boxing Night, which always include a visit to the ICT Social Club.

Tonight I walked into the bar to find seven people - Laurie Redfern, a stalwart regular, Sandy the barman and five Rangers fans playing pool and playing Rangers songs on the jukebox. By happy coincidence, my arrival in the bar coincided with the jukebox proclaiming "Hello, hello...." to which I took great delight in responding, loudly "You WERE the Billy Boys".... which went down about as well as a Hail Mary in the Louden Tavern. But, as Corporal Jones used to say.... "They do NOT like it up 'em Captain Mainwaring! they do NOT like it up 'em." Into the bargain, I didn't particularly like what I think is the ongoing presence of a picture of Ibrox on the Social Club wall. This is the Social Club of Inverness Caledonian Thistle - much more recent winners than (The) Rangers (if at all? ) of a national title. There is baggage here that we really do not need. Get rid of the bloody thing!

My point? If the Football Club is, as we now know, being reconstructed as an institution much closer to the community and the fans. This must therefore also become the case with the Social Club. Friends of mine, whose Inverness football past goes back a lot longer than my own, speak of glorious days when "The Caley Club" was full to the rafters with Caley fans. Even within my 15 year membership of the place, after it became the ICT Social Club, I remember far better times than this. In the new era of reconstruction, we really do need the ICT Social Club once again to become a social centre for the football club. This is an important sub-plot of the grander design which we all hope will assist general reconstruction.

Changes in social habits, adversely affecting all licensed premises, have clearly not helped, but I also attribute much of the Social Club's decline in recent years to its regrettable divorce from the Football Club. I don't even want to mention The War once, even if I think that I got away with it, but let's be realistic. The place has been seriously hamstrung in recent years years by personal agendas, pursued on behalf of a disgruntled departee by a surrogate employee, now no longer with us, and culminating in the disastrous and ruinous Social Club AGM of 2015. The private agenda in question, which had nothing to do with ICT,  was solely against Kenny Cameron who - like the surrogates and their associates - is no longer with us. That double clearout offers us a new opportunity.

We now have a new club steward, with no personal agendas, and a new football club board. Perhaps this should also become an opportunity for the ICT Social Club to be brought back to a place of prominence and developed into far more than a money making opportunity for the football club. It should also be a central hub for the kind of cohesion which the football club board is clearly working to achieve for the greater good.

2 hours ago, Renegade said:

I see someone on P&B said that McGillivray answered a few questions and then left the AGM in quite an abrupt manner.  Can anyone expand on this?

That is absolutely not the case. Dougie ASKED a number of questions, more or less all relating to the status of the stadium and in doing so it was clear (if clarification was needed) that his problem is with Tulloch-Sutherland and not the club. He also stated that his family's 500,000 or so shares would never be used pro-rata in a poll vote and would only ever feature as one of a show of hands.

There was nothing heated about any of his interventions, nor indeed about the meeting as a whole. As for his departure, he advised the meeting that he had guests to meet so had to leave - and he did so on offering the club his very well received best wishes. There was no hint of acrimony at all.

My own belief now is that there is scope for bridges to be built (good term - Dougie began life in inverness as Project Manager on the Kessock Bridge!) between the McGilvrays at least and the club, and this should be encouraged. Let's not also forget that, despite criticism of the end of his 5 year chairmanship, he played a massive part in getting the club - including Pele -  there in the first place..... and even won the "£500 to a pie" on-air bet which I was able to arrange for him to make with Tam Cowan that ICT would be in the SPL within 10 years of formation!

19 minutes ago, Huisdean said:

 Never a good idea for a club to have a few powerful shareholders who can dictate what happens to the club.

Dougie needs to be given credit for stating at last night's AGM that his family holding of around half a million shares would never be used as anything more than a single hand up at a meeting. In other words he would not want to exert his pro-rata entitlement in a poll vote.