Kingsmills

Be fair, I was tipping us to finish eleventh.....

Get a grip it's banter. If Mr Vigurs doesn't relish the stones he should vacate the glass house he happily seems to occupy.

Slightly smaller than the one I caught and decided to use as bait for my real quarry. The large crowd of Jags and Caley refuseniks standing behind me on the river bank were nothing short of amazed.

Maurice Malpas managing on his own given his track record in that regard just doesn't bear thinking about.

It is quite obvious in various sections of the Forum that many posters on here do not visit the away grounds. Several SPL clubs have only 3 stands open, several clubs (Celtic, Hearts, Hibs, Killie to name just 4 that I can think of just now) have no parking facilities for away fans, and the number of fans at St Johnstone are a disgrace to Perth which has a much higher population than Inverness. St Mirren also have a very poor following. ICT have plenty parking for all fans - the ground is easy to get to, both by car and on foot from bus/train station. What else does Dougal want? Why does this Forum only have "like this" and no "boo" tick box. Perth may have had a slightly higher population when we were doing Higher Geography a decade or three ago but Inverness has long since overtaken it and the population of the Highland Capital is now about 25% higher than that of the Fair City. That said, the relative success story is Motherwell. The population of the former steel town is a good bit smaller than Inverness, is in decline and yet they get considerably bigger crowds than us despite having the 'lure' of the Old Firm virtually on their doorstep.

Please let's not contaminate this thread by introducing the myth of ' ex Jaggies' or Caley rebels heading over the Kessock Firth in their hoards to swell the coffers at Ross County. Anyway,there is no such thing as an ex Jaggie. Once a Jaggie always a Jaggie

I quickly looked on the bright side when we lost the League Cup semi, I looked on the bright side when we gave away a sloppy injury time goal in our last home match against St Johnstone which turned out to be of some significance, I managed to see a bright side when we squandered the lead against a vastly under strength Dundee United side last week. This week it is taking me just a little longer to make out the silver lining attached to the cloud.

.....or is Dougal Terry Butcher in disguise ?

For the benefit of younger listeners, Ms Parton is a country and western singer now of somewhat mature years who was perhaps more noted for having a couple of attributes now more closely associated with the artist formerly known as Jordan.

There is no doubt that we have a bit of 'previous'.

A tireless worker who made the very most of his talent.

Was never a good idea in the first place.

Sadly, that's what we have had since the turn of the year.

That's one pay per view I would happily subscribe to.

Probably the 4-0 against Dundee United at the start of our purple patch. Would have been the thriller at Tannadice had they not equalised in the last minute.

Exactly, it's baffling that some people seem so keen to perpetuate the myth that he said it was a blessing, or that he is somehow relieved that we didn't qualify and doesn't was us in Europe. All he said in a "brave face" context is that we aren't really geared up for European football yet. But anyone who thinks he or the club don't share the fans' desire to finish 3rd and qualify for European football needs to think again. Then that is what he should have said.

With the benefit of hindsight, the advice should have been don't go.

If indeed it was the decision of the club to release him rather than the player's to go then, in my opinion, that was the wrong decision and very disappointing indeed.

Got it now. Intertoto Cup! I have to say that the arguments about Europe also tend to mirror discussions about a possible fourth stand at the Caledonian Stadium. How do the possible benefits stand up against the likely costs? I think you have to look at this in the context of a club whose finances generally tend to hover on or just short of the break even point. I suspect that the year to May 2013 will turn out a bit better than average for various reasons, but 2012-13 has been an exceptional season. I would suggest that priority number one has to be affording and sustaining a squad which can first and foremost continue to secure SPL football (remember how "squeaky bum" last season was in danger of becoming) and finish as far up the league as possible. I don't think ICT is in the position to put essentials at risk for the sake of high profile luxuries which - in the grander scheme of things - don't really mean that much in real terms. I also wonder how many of the people who are making a noise about Europe or about a fourth stand would also be among the first to complain if the team started to struggle for lack of affordable squad depth. The likelyhood is that a Europe League place would result in us breaking even or suffering a modest five figure loss which would have been more than offset by the difference in place money between fourth and third of about £80,000 and the commercial benefit of the additional media exposure and higher profile. There would have been a knock on beneficial effect for the city of Inverness albeit modest. Yes our resources would have been stretched and we would have been unlikely to progress but the comments that have been made betray a worrying lack of ambition. Just how any part time Welsh, Irish or Scandanavian clubs do you hear expressing relief that they have failed to qualify for Europe ?

To be fair, Butcher is usually very good at the PR thing both personally and on behalf of the club. This time, he has got it very badly wrong.

Good idea. Beneficial to the club in warming up for the season and a treat for the fans.

I am sorry that you deem my post only somewhat sarcastic. I clearly didn't put enough thought or effort into it. On balance, however, my intent was to be facetious rather than sarcastic. Wholly facetious as opposed to somewhat so.

Given Terry Butcher's comments immediately after our defeat in Dingwall yesterday, I am assuming we will be concentrating our efforts next season on winning the League Cup which has the 'blessing' of no longer attracting a European place. As, far as the Scottish Cup is concerned, we will be going all out to reach the semi finals but will not want to risk reaching the final as, depending on league placings and who else is in the final, being runner up could run the risk of the curse of European qualification. We certainly don't want to win the thing. With regard to the league, this is our bread and butter and we want to to as well as we safely can. Accordingly, our aim will be to finish fifth. It would be nice to try to emulate this season'e record fourth position or even better but, depending on who reach the Scottish Cup final, fourth place can often carry with it the risk of European qualification. What a blessing for us that it didn't this season ! Come think of it, we could do worse than adopt St Mirren's season as a template for success but strive to do a little better, but not too much better, than them in the league.

I have never been hiding in the woodwork.

Terry was making a very bad excuse and clutching weakly at straws but it obviously worked as a number of ICT fans seem to have fallen for the line.