Charles Bannerman

Ownership of the various properties at the Caledonian Stadium always reminds me of Winston Churchill's view of the Soviet Union - "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." Nowadays I tend to take the view that in 2000 over £2 million of debt disappeared (along with ICT's title to the stadium and its site lease) and five years later two rented stands materialised which made possible the playing of SPL football in Inverness so I tend just to say "thank you very much." It effectively means that, as long as the club keeps its books reasonably well in balance on a year by year basis - albeit with some dependence on windfalls like the Mckay transfer - then things look reasonably stable. It's a scenario which should act as a good object lesson lot for the people who come on here and moan that the board aren't being adventurous enough on the transfer market!

Do you not think that fans would miss more games due to being on holiday than they would due to winter postponements and if you're away, you're away and missed it, whereas there will be a fair chance you will still be able to go on the rearranged date if postponed?

Aye, and Brother Walfrid was a card carrying member of the Orange Lodge Lighten up mun! You're beginning to sound as if you've been for a two month holiday with that queen of PC Harriet Harman. Interesting feature of modern living though. Say or do something somebody doesn't like and you instantly get denounced for crimes against Political Correctness or Eflin Safety. I'll get ma coat now and head for the Lubyanka to save you sending the NKVD round

surely that applies to 'England' too Charles? or are you being selective in conferring the right to be the main FIFA member within the UK on the English FA with the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish being happy to pick up the scraps from the table? However, you are also fundamentally wrong .... at last count there were 23 non-sovereign 'countries' who were members of FIFA and 7 sovereign ones who are not ! (and before anyone comments on the list below, Gibraltar are not FIFA members, just UEFA) Non-sovereign nations that are current FIFA members American Samoa (USA) Anguilla (UK) Aruba (Netherlands) Bermuda (UK) British Virgin Islands (UK) Cayman Islands (UK) Chinese Taipei (China) Curaçao (Netherlands) England (UK) Faroe Islands (Denmark) Guam (USA) Hong Kong (China) Macau (China) Montserrat (UK) New Caledonia (France) Northern Ireland (UK) Palestine Puerto Rico (USA) Scotland (UK) Tahiti (France) Turks and Caicos Islands (UK) US Virgin Islands (USA) Wales (UK) Less ambiguously, I should, rather than "they alone", have said "the UK home countries alone". But as far as twitchiness is concerned, that indeed does seem principally to be confined to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The English don't seem to feel all that chippy about it. In the second instance, I wasn't really legislating for geographical fragments like Hong Kong, Montserrat and New Caledonia which are, through one status or another, relics of various countries' imperial pasts, although the concise way I tried to put it does invite their inclusion. So perhaps I could, perhaps somewhat more legalistically, rewrite the quoted passage as follows - But what gets the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish so twitchy is that the UK countries alone have preferred, separate status within FIFA and UEFA as constituent parts of a sovereign nation whilst not being sovereign nations themselves. What it boils down to is that, as far as I can see, no country in the world other than the UK has multiple representation in international football for its constituent bits (as opposed to separate representation for certain elements of its imperial past). This, as already stated, is a consequence of the unique "grandfather rights" which the UK enjoys because international football started here among its constituent bits. Given that constituent bits of other countries, such as Bavaria and Tuscany which were politically autonomous much later than Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales ever were, don't have this separate representation, it's unsurprising that this is an arrangement which could, potentially, be looked at critically by FIFA and UEFA. Since I began writing this Kingsmills has, however, reiterated what to me is the central viewpoint here - that Olympic football is a complete irrelevance and not worth bothering about. I note that the Vatican is one sovereign nation which is non a FIFA member and the famous Dave Allen sketch of the hammer throwing Bishop instantly comes to mind Presumably the Vatican feels adequately represented at club level in the East End of Glasgow.

I think there was a pretty good consensus on here in 2012 that Olympic football is a complete joke and really shouldn't be given house room. Tennis is the same and so would golf be if it were to be included because these sports already have their own global structure as major attractions. Consequently, I would prefer the British Olympic Association simply not to bother entering a football team. I suppose you could see a sort of obligation for a home Games in 2012, but for Rio, I just wish they wouldn't bother. But what gets the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish so twitchy is that they alone have preferred, separate status within FIFA and UEFA whilst not being sovereign nations, and this highlights that anomaly. It's a bit like Prussia or Tuscany having their own teams and the three who do so have that privilege because of the "Grandfather Rights" of international football starting among Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales. What they therefore fear is that if the notion of a British football team becomes highlighted, pressure will grow for this privileged status of Great Britain getting four bites at the cherry to disappear.

Whether it was designed to keep out the riff-raff or was simply an SPL vanity project, you are absolutely spot on with that gingerjaggy!

So, in similar records elsewhere, THAT'S who you tend not to see "Sevco" referred to all that much? Bloody computers, though! How often do you find that you can't do something because some damned lump of electronics says so? Back in their early days I went into the paper shop to pay my mother's papers but they said they coldn't take the money because the computer was checking the bills. Then you get sports events where it's clearly to everybody's benefit to make a late change but you can't because the computer says you can't. And don't start me on school science experiments! OK. Rant over. Never liked the things. However, irrespective of what the computer says, that important inaugural game was East Stirlingshire v Caledonian Thistle because that was what the club was called at the time. As for the goal, there is clearly considerable doubt, as Ian Broadfoot is at pains to emphasise in his book.

At the time it was definitely frequently credited as an OG but I now see where you are coming from Sneckboy. I have just checked Ian Broadfoot's book and he somewhat sits on the fence saying that the official record gives it to Herchie although several other sources credit it as an OG. I have to say that 20 years on that's the first time I've seen it credited as an OG, but that's now what the official record says. No point in asking Herchie... he will claim it for sure!! PS - official records can be wrong and this pedant would point out that the official record in the previous post refers to the club as "Inverness CT" whereas at that time it was simply "CT".... Caledonian Thistle PPS - I'm glad that the uncertainty is about Caley Thistle's second competitive goal and not the first which was definitely Wilson Robertson. Herchie then had his 15 minutes of fame (or rather 19 because that's what it took him), when he got the club's first SFL goal and hat trick v Arbroath four days later.

I'm not so sure about Herchie. Wilson Robertson scored in the team's first ever competitive match, a 2-0 Coca Cola win away to East Stirling on 9th August 1994 (the other goal was an OG.) As far as I am aware, Herchie (who was team captain that season) played in that game and then scored a hat trick v Arbroath in CT's first ever SFL match (5-2 at home to Arbroath 4 days later), but his second competitive appearance. If you want to include friendlies, then the first official friendly, in which both Herchie and Wilson Robertson played, was a 3-0 defeat by St Mirren so on that basis neither scored on their debut. On the other hand Ian Broadfoot refers to an earlier closed doors kind of encounter with RAF players as the club's first ever "game", so if both Hercher and Robertson scored on that occasion, some kind of case could perhaps be made. Robertson, by the way, scored not only CT's first competitive goal but also Caledonian's last in the 1-1 draw at Huntly in May 1994.

I think in Scotland we should just stick to the sports that we are good at, like, erm..... Well you can sure knock rugby off the list after than Wooden Spoon decider against Italy.

Beaten by a country which is a dysfunctional war zone and whose women compete in the Olympics wearing kit which is one step removed from a burkha! Somebody said that the Scottish players were docked 10% of their match fee for that defeat. So do these guys actually get paid for being as absolutely cr@p as that? I believe that no other country has played so many cricket world cup matches and failed to win any of them. Indeed Scotland's abject ineptitude at cricket is maybe a good reason to reduce the number of teams taking part in the World Cup so their embarrassment can be saved. And even at that, how many of these "Scottish" players are actually third rate Antipodeans or from the Indian subcontinent? On which subject, I heard a post match interview with the Italian rugby full back who sounded decidedly Southern Hemisphere. Strange how The Empire seem to be much better at traditional British sports than we are. I also wonder how this latest outcome is perceived among the ranks of the Nationalists? Gutted at Scotland losing or delighted that we don't do very well in this quintessentially English activity?

Rings true with what i've heard, hear we are looking to sign two players, one most probably being Kink but heard that Prince Rajcomar and the other lad have left #notintheknow Yeah according to my source you are correct Your source being Wickipedia ?.. Wickipedia? What's that? Similar to Wickileaks - which people have in toilets "up ee rodd" Then there's "email" - which is brought to them by "ee postie".

I'm just not sure about that in a Highland context Sneckboy. I don't think it would be fair to exclude a club which, for reasons of geography and employment, feels unable to play in League Two from being a member of the Highland League which has rules to ensure practicable travel. I'm also not very sure about this national pyramid in general for these very same reasons of travel and employment and fear that an element in its implementation may be the complete cluelessness of our Weegiecentric SPFL officialdom about the difficulties that much of the country has in getting from A to B. For its population I think that Scotland already has far too many national league clubs and the lower reaches of the SPFL would have been far better regionalised whilst retaining the opportunity, in principle, for the likes of Fort William to make their way to the Premiership should they ever become good enough. That, of course, would be subject to meeting criteria - specifically in Fort William's case, a reasonably playable pitch. I see their home game is off yet again today.

And one more thing - the only reason that the self protection racket was broken even in 1994 was that Raith Rovers' representative at the vote to decide whether or not to go for 4 x 10 and hence two new recruits - a Mr Paxton - voted against the instructions of his board and for the change. This then gave the Highland clubs the opportunity to make their cases for real (at a time when Thistle, Caley and Ross County had all had relatively recent Scottish Cup spectaculars) and thankfully common sense prevailed and the Jack Steedman "over my dead body" mentality was defeated. I do realise that the Highland League collectively voted to opt into the pyramid, but i would be interested to know, for instance, how its two most Northerly clubs, Wick and Brora (who also happened to be among the more likely champions and hence participants in the playoffs) voted? I just don't see how it's fair that the decision of a large number of clubs which will never be likely to be affected by a decision should be in a position to impose a binding commitment on others which are far more likely to reap the consequences, but would find it far more difficult to fulfil the requirements.

The much maligned BBC updated Brora's situation and views fully last Saturday evening and again on the Monday morning. Brora chairman John Young said that he felt that, for a part time team, the potential obligation of trips, including midweek, to the likes of Annan and Berwick (that's 600-700 miles both ways) was not realistic and he really didn't want to make the move. However he said that if they had to do it, and he understood that this would be the case, they would - reluctantly. On the other hand, when asked if they would be dreadfully disappointed if the club failed to meet the SPFL criteria, he said that he might get into trouble for saying this, but they would prefer to remain in the Highland League. I actually have full sympathy with Brora in this situation where Scottish football officialdom has again been incapable of seeing beyond the Castlecary Arches. Most of them probably don't even know where Brora is - apart from the notion that it is up in this monolithic community called "the Highlands" (which begin at Perth) where we all live in adjacent black houses and hide each other's claymores and muskets in our thatched roofs. It simply is not realistic for many HL clubs to fulfil the requirements of the League Two fixture programme. Getting from Brora to Fraserburgh or Cove on a Saturday is difficult enough and midweek the HL has a 110 mile rule to prevent unrealistic journeys. The SPFL has created the most ridiculous of ironies here because for decades until 1994 its member clubs operated a self protection racket, hellbent on keeping the Highlands out. Since then the HL area has acquired four SPFL teams, two of which have shown a number of these erstwhile protectionists a thing or two. That has gone a long way to meeting demand for SPFL football from this geographically remote area, so there are now much fewer clubs still wanting in - at which point the SPLF go and make entry compulsory! This is just another case of football being a mirror of the society we live in since up in the Highlands we have been used for centuries to being treated as second class citizens by the Lowland Scots.

If he does sign then I hope, come the Raith Rovers cup tie, that the stadium announcer has suffucient knowledge of the 60s to know to play "Waterloo Sunset", performed by the new man's parents

The best one I ever heard was by someone actually from "up there". Just last Saturday there was a Sportsound discussion on some club which had engaged a sleep therapist to help their players sleep properly. Willie Miller then came away with a thoroughly brilliant one liner the gist of which was "When I was at Aberdeen, if we had any problem sleeping we just counted sheep."

Brian's comment was this:- "Again Board no conviction too scared to give decent contracts to all players so we lose players and do NOT replace them" This breaks down into three sections. Again Board no conviction - given the number of interpretations this could create, it's actually quite difficult to know what it's meant to mean. But if Brian means that he is not convinced by the Board then perhaps he should have elaborated. However in the context of what he seems to be saying, might he actually (but misguidedly) have meant to use the word "commitment" rather than "conviction"? too scared to give decent contracts to all players so we lose players - Brian seems to think that the solution to the problem of losing players is simply the macho, gung ho policy of offering sufficiently lucrative contracts to make them stay. He doesn't appear to grasp the financial realities of such a strategy, given ICT's very limited income streams, nor the consequences of attempting to match the kind of arrangements which the likes of Aberdeen and Wigan are in a position to offer. Perhaps a study of the lower leagues would help illustrate the consequences of clubs living beyond their means. and do NOT replace them - this is the issue which is being talked about most. The manager emphasised that he would only want to spend money on a player who could come straight into contention for a meaningful place and would not buy for the sake of doing so. With the kind of money available, it would not surprise me to learn that such a player did not materialise in the short window time involved. Clearly none of us knows the detailed current financial situation, but what we do know is that for the last several years, ICT has had to rely on one-off windfalls such as selling the Social Club, share investments and cup runs to keep its head above water. Consequently the Mckay transfer fee and the consequent saving of wages may well be a vital element in efforts to ensure ongoing solvency. The following three questions (with their answers) are also relevant. Do the board and manager need to take extra action to:- * avoid the catastrophe of relegation? (Obviously not) * ensure a top six finish? (Very probably not.) * expose the club to financial losses, as St Johnstone and Motherwell reportedly have sustained in the recent past, as a result of becoming obliged to play in Europe? (I would suggest they do not.) I obviously have no detailed personal knowledge of the Board's deliberations. But given the poor financial reputation that a limited European run has acquired and the consequences for the close season, it is not entirely inconceivable that the optimum area of the league to finish may be 4th - 6th (ideally 4th) where the only down side of missing the top 3 is the loss of the somewhat modest marginal SPFL prize money. Two things I do know, though. There is only a very narrow financial route which allows a club with ICT's income streams to stay in the Premiership at all. And historically from before day 1, ICT has been phenomenally successful in passing through various marginally navigable channels so has plenty of experience of that.

There have been a few fairly daft and unrealistic comments on here since full time tonight but this one really must take the biscuit for its utterly crass cluelessness. In a sentence, there are some people complaining that a club with a turnover of less than £4 million (which would fund just over 34 minutes of the EPL on Sky/BT) but is still now enterting a third month unbeaten in all competitions, isn't consistently churning out victory after victory in the upper reaches of the SPFL Premiership against rivals with player budgets often several times as large. Does Brian have the remotest scooby about the board's strategy to fund a team which is now heading for its third season in the top six on gross revenues of less than £4 million derived from crowds which fail to hit 3000 with alarming frequency? Clearly Brian does not.

So precisely how old were you when these buses were being attacked back in the spring of 1965? And is your great grand daughter aware of your murky past?

Apologies for that Hibs fan, but in every cloud there is a silver lining. In this case IHE at least managed to post before 8am on a Saturday morning. We can only speculate what he might have said after 8pm on a Saturday evening! I certainly remember Jimmy Smith in goals for Caley in the mid 60s and had heard that he emigrated to Canada. I am more or less certain he was playing for Caley in season 63-64 when they won the Highland League by a point from Nairn County with Elgin fifth, seven points off the lead. The following season Elgin, who scored 109 in their 30 games, had the first of back to back wins, by a point again from Nairn County with Caley third, five points off the lead. Although unthinkable to IHE and beyond his conception of horror, it is not inconceivable that Elgin beat Caley 8-2 on the last day of the season although this is a heck of a score against one of the better teams. On the other hand, Elgin very probably needed a win that day to clinch the title.

When I saw Tichy's byline as the last post I was sure he was going to quote Inverness Thistle as the best team in Britain in 1986-87 with 33 league games undefeated that season!

And the manager for the first nine of these eleven games was.....?

That's only one possible inaccuracy. There is also the assumption that each step is an accurate yard which I often doubt. The 10 yard rule must be one of the most poorly observed in football by referees.

Far less still Dougal!