Kingsmills

Left a nail a staple and a screw. They returned the first two but I didn't get my screw back...

Did you leave a tip ?

We were left a little blue.

Parkhead on Sunday was quite a Crucible.

Watching in the nude ?

Sounds like you could do with a break.

Brill Raven Meeking Devine Shinnie Foran Draper Ross Tansey Doran Warren

Like others, I don't get excited these days when we get a free kick close to the box. Oh for the dead ball skills of Barry Wilson, Paul Sheerin or Barry Robson in an ICT shirt.

Lost 2-1 to The Rangers. Our goal scored by Ally Sutherland.

A bit of very good news to lift a bit of the lingering gloom from Sunday. When is the last time we ended a season without a single first team regular out of contract ?

Whilst I don't think it was a penalty either I hardly think that the view of a failed manager and terrible pundit should be taken as the final word on the matter.

I was thinking that. Very few of the fans who will want to go on Saturday wouldn't have been at Glasgow anyway. Why not simply make it a straight one off gesture across the board to reward fans for their loyalty and support throughout the season and not just on Sunday. If a few take up the offer who weren't there on Sunday or haven't even been all season then so what. Aren't they the very ones we are trying our hardest to attract ? Great offer, great gesture but I agree with RIG, forget about requiring ticket stubs. Throw the offer open to everyone.

We were painted into a corner, especially after we drew with Stranraer, I don't think there were enough midweeks to let us skip either side of the Final. The big mystery is why it took so long to re-arrange the County game at the Gloabal 50p for the Meter Stadium. Even those cave-dwellers can organise a game in less than four months surely. Maybe they were too busy praying for the sun to come back. Mind you, after Gollum's 'unique' application of the laws of football, the midweek game against Hibs was more useful than not. To be fair, the reason why the rearranged County game took so long to take place was that we refused to agree to any of quite a number of earlier dates proposed by Dingwall.

No fan of Yogi as a manager and have made it clear that I don't think he is up to the job but 'retard' is wholly unjustified and outrageous. Whether a decent manager or not, he seems a decent man and doesn't deserve such abuse even if we don't win another game all season.

A welcome gesture from the club. Let's hope the fans respond and we can muster 4,000 home fans.

Yes we were negative but it was probably the right way to go given how poor our form has been and how fragile our confidence is just now. I suspect the vast majority of us would have thought it game over if Aberdeen had scored first at any time given that we've not recovered to win on a single occasion this season. The fact is that the negative tactics worked and we did prevent them from scoring and might even have sneaked a goal. It remains my view that Hughes is a poor manager with a poor record who talks a lot of nonsense and hasn't an original thought in his head but, for this match, given how far he has dragged us down in such a short time, I think he got the tactics right and it came within a couple of spot kicks of paying off.

A poor game and we probably missed an opportunity when Aberdeen lost their two pacey attacking options in Pawlett and then Hayes. There were clear signs of nerves which was understandable. Whilst we offered very few serious attempts on goal, to be fair, neither did Aberdeen and nil nil at the end of normal and extra time was probably about right. The only difference between the sides was that whilst Aberdeen struck four clinical penalties into the corners with some pace giving Brill no chance, two of ours were poor penalties but such is life. Personally, I though the ref had a very good game, he wasn't overly officious and didn't appear to favour one side over another despite the noisy and potentially intimidating Aberdeen support. True, some officials may have pointed to the spot after Considine's challenge on Foran but equally, some refs would also have blown for Meekings's challenge on Rooney in the first half. I have no difficulty with the fact he gave neither and both sides had fully two hours to score from open play. Disappointing but, after recent results, the fact that we held our own against the second best team in the land on the biggest stage in the country is quite encouraging what is less encouraging is that even when reverting to our favoured formation, the urgency, pace and cohesion up front that was evident in the first half of the season seems almost completely absent.

What next ? Reaching the League Cup final and coming so close to winning the thing combined with securing our second top six finish means that we have had a good season. Securing Europe for the first time would turn a good season into a great one despite the disappointment of being dumped so comprehensively out of the Scottish Cup. However, given our recent form, that is going to be a tall order and to do so we are almost certainly going to have to Finish above Motherwell and turn round our alarming slump in home league form. That said, if we can quickly pick ourselves up from the disappointment and use that as motivation, we can go a long way to achieving both these aims in the space of four days. Six points from Wednesday and Saturday and Europe through the league is well and truly on and we will have righted the travesty of the first Partick home match into the bargain. It's become a bit of a cliche that the important games have been coming thick and fast but the next two matches really could define whether our season now fizzles out or whether we are left with all to play for in the closing straight. Time for, players, management and fans alike to dust ourselves down and make the effort to ensure that the season ends with a bang and not a whimper moving from merely good to the best in our history.

The club only wishes it could have/afford several dozen full time employees. Players aside, they barely scrape a dozen full-time staff (including coaches etc). I was referring to the playing squad as well as the few stalwarts in the back room.

We don't get half the total receipts though. The League take a cut, Celtic will get ground fee and there will be other costs including police and stewarding. Think circa 400k will be close to the mark.

Will the Corrie bus be parked a hundred yards from the ground so that all the Jaggies can nip out for a quick drink at half time ?

Thank goodness for the company. I was getting lonely..

The straight answer to the question is yes. If we have circa 7,000 fans on Sunday that will be the lowest number backing a side in a major final for many a long year. Is that disappointing ? The honest answer has to be yes. Personally, I thought we would take at least 10,000. Will the relatively small numbers make any difference to the pride, passion and enthusiasm with which those who are there back the team ? Not a bl@@dy bit it won't....

Not entirely but the bottom line these days is that the club is a commercial business with several dozen full time employees which cannot be sustained on league income alone. Our small profit last year was largely a result of our League Cup run. Our much larger profit this year will largely come from the same source. No, not all about the money but this cash has been instrumental in being able to re sign players on slightly improved contracts and, for the first time in a long time, ensuring that we don't have to embark on a massive rebuilding programme during the close season.

With 48,000 tickets sold, even assuming 30% sold as concessions, Sunday will be ICT's first million pound match on gate receipts alone. Far and away a record for our club. Add in TV rights, commercial income and a bit of merchandising and our share should be approaching £400,000 which will go a long way to restoring the cash reserves that disappeared with our relegation a few years back. Hopefully, though, the net figure will be a bit less after payment of win bonuses.