ICTPaisley

Move teams in closer proximity between leagues? At that level though it's not fair to just move a side out of a league to fit another one in. A fair bit of extra travelling would need to be done. Moving a lower league side into the highland league or the other way around just wouldn't work. The West and Ayrshire leagues are combined right down until the last two leagues which are regionalised for Glasgow and Ayrshire based teams. The Central first division has 4 teams relegated every year from a league of 14. Two teams from the Glasgow based league below (Central District) and two from the Ayrshire District leagues are promoted. Now if 4 teams from Ayr are relegated then they just accommodate them into the league by expanding it, Where as glasgow would be a short two teams. At the moment the Ayrshire league has 12 teams and the Glasgow district only has 11 due to this. The odds and even numbers of these leagues change every year. There has to be a better option than this though.

This is how the league in Belguim is run. The Belgian Pro League is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Belgian Second Division. Seasons run from late July to early May, with teams playing 30 matches each in the regular season, and then entering play-offs 1, play-offs 2 or the relegation play-off according to their position in the regular season. Play-offs 1 are contested by the top 6 clubs in the regular season, with each club playing each other twice. Play-offs 2 are contested by teams ranked 7 to 14 in the regular season, divided in two groups of 4 teams playing each other twice. The relegation play-off consists of 5 matches between the 15th and the 16th-placed team in the regular season. Now my opinion is that our idea of a setup is much better than this. 1 team promoted from a league of 16. They play each other twice and then the two bottoms teams then play each other again FIVE times to decide who is relegated.

Am i right in saying the pyramid structure would allow one team to be promoted? I heard they are maybe going to combine the East and South leagues with a couple teams added from the west to make an entire Southern League so the winner of that would then play the Highland league winner in a playoff to decide who wins promotion. Now if this is the case and say the highland league team wins the promotion and a southern team is relegated from the 3rd division what happens then? Does the Highland league play with one less team and the Southern League accommodates another space from say 10 to 11 or 20 to 21?

I agree with this. I know a few Junior sides that feel making the step up will ruin them. The best junior side from the West is Auchinleck Talbot, could you imagine them having to travel to Elgin and Peterhead every other saturday. A lot of the fans from the Juniors and EOS,SOS leagues would like the option to deny promotion, I'm not sure how the highland league are taking this but they do not feel making the step up is worth it at this moment. This could be a problem and would make a mockery of the set up in suggestion. The lower 18 should be regionalised into two leagues of 10, automatically promoting two non league sides to make up the difference geographically. But its ok for Berwick to travel to Peterhead just now. They wouldn't be travelling those distances every week anyway. The junior teams should have the option to opt out. It's ok for Berwick as thats what they want. The junior sides want to either stay where they are or be able to win promotion to another regional league. I can see teams like East Stirling being saved from being relegated most seasons as its not financially viable for a team to replace them.

To be up to standard with current division 3 standards there is a lot of work to be done in most grounds. Money which these clubs just don't have. The fans enjoy being able to watch their club for £5/£6 on a saturday and instead of travelling the entire country only have to drive around 20 miles. They are also worried that if they are brought into the new pyramid system their attendances will not only drop because of the price increase it will also decrease due to no longer being a big fish in a small pond. Typically numbers will drop when a team isn't winning most weeks like they have been used to for a number of years. I know a few clubs in the west juniors that can average higher crowds than some division 3 clubs at the moment and its all due to the cheap day out and the reasonable chances of being successful. Not all players who play for these clubs are that willing either i've heard. They like being able to train on Monday and Wednesdays and playing on the Saturday at a relatively close away ground. They aren't so keen on taking the step up as they have their real jobs to think about and that's sometimes why a few players for the SFL eventually take the step down to the lower non league setup. Regional's above their level is the only sensible option or you will have the problem of teams rejecting promotion. I think i'm right in saying Holland has brought in a pyramid system and teams have already rejected promotion for various reasons.

The only real option they had though wasn't it? They could hardly try and bring in a 3rd choice manager. Unless Flitcroft keeps them up he'll be sacked in the summer and they'll again try to get someone in who they actually want.

I agree with this. I know a few Junior sides that feel making the step up will ruin them. The best junior side from the West is Auchinleck Talbot, could you imagine them having to travel to Elgin and Peterhead every other saturday. A lot of the fans from the Juniors and EOS,SOS leagues would like the option to deny promotion, I'm not sure how the highland league are taking this but they do not feel making the step up is worth it at this moment. This could be a problem and would make a mockery of the set up in suggestion. The lower 18 should be regionalised into two leagues of 10, automatically promoting two non league sides to make up the difference geographically.

Rory mcallister

Noticed it hasn't worked on two mobile phones i've used to make sure your using a PC or laptop when trying. Other than that i haven't a clue why it isn't working.

That's the funniest thing I've ever seen that's football related, absolutely brilliant!

They sell on ebay every now and again, roughly £2.00. i often look for programmes from our first 10 years as i am a collector however i was at this game and got my programme then.

I read P&B a fair bit for info on the Juniors, not so keen on reading up on the SPL side of it though.

Think we'll finish above hibs but below Dundee utd and Motherwell.

Excellent to hear we're moving fast to get new deals struck up.

I liked the champions league of old where it was 1 team from each country, a cup winners cup and the Uefa with far stronger teams. Not going to happen these days though with football ruled by tv.

People (like me) said the result and performance was rubbish. It was. Last week the players were booed off and deserved it. This week the players were accoladed for their great result and performance. They deserve it. Simple. Seems even after great victories the uber-fans are still more interested to attack their fellow fans, even when they are praising the team, than doing likewise themselves! Very strange. Booing the team after they went on a 10 game unbeaten run? Yeah they totally deserved it!! A good result and you just jump on that band wagon though. Get a grip To be fair any team deserves being booed if you lose 5-1 at home, especially as thats now our biggest ever home defeat in the SPL. Excellent win today, didn't expect anything from today so thats a bonus. Roll on County next saturday! Hoping for a 2nd great cup run.

Jim Calder, Russell Duncan, Grant Munro, Barry Wilson, Charlie Christie, Iain Stewart, Dennis Wyness, Ross Tokely, Richie Foran, Stuart Golabek, Adam Rooney, Ian Black, Bobby Mann, Barry Robson, Richard Hastings, Paul Sheerin, Mark Brown, Paul Ritchie, Johnny Hayes, Roy McBain are all ICT Legends IMO. Theres no doubt a few out there i've missed though. Keep em coming.

Good player, yes, but legend? Hardly. I feel this word is banded about far too easily, and often these days. For the reasons you quoted yourself (ie his nasty side) I would never view him anywhere near legend status. Anyway, have we really missed him? Arguably Hayes and maybe A Shinnie have been his equal, or better at times. Don't agree with that at all. He would still be a regular in our squad and i think he earned his legendary status by being one of our best players for 5 seasons. Russell Duncan is the only player who plays in his position who i would say is a bigger legend at ICT, but Black is definately a better player.

Was keoghs first against Hamilton in the 5-1 game or was that the game he missed a complete sitter, can't quite remember.

What happened to Liam keogh and Paul bradshaw?

I'd prefere Pittodrie too for the fans from Inverness, It just seems like too much of an advantage for the Hearts fans having it at Easter Road. Inverness to Aberdeen - 104 Miles - 2 Hours 46 Mins Edinburgh to Aberdeen - 127 Miles - 2 Hours 57 Mins Going by google maps the difference in travel is only 11 minutes for each travelling support. Sounds alot fairer to me.

St mirren is the simple answer! Best chance of progressing.

Given that Foran is out i'd have lined up with that too. If we are going to realistically challenge for top 6 a draw at least is required. Anything less and we'll be sucked right back into being a bottom side team, the league is that tight this year.

Just read Tades pre match interview on the game today. St Johnstone and former Inverness forward Gregory Tade: "I don't think many people can argue with the fact that St Johnstone is a bigger club than Inverness. "No disrespect to them, that's just the way it is and I am just glad I joined. The league table shows it is a bigger club. It is, there is no doubt. I've got to disagree with that statement, Maybe in the past but over the past 9 years we've shown to have closed that margin significantly and hopefully we can win today and move above them to show we are the bigger club.

Not an easy one to do for away games unless one of the coaching team were willing to write it. Scorers and team line up would be good enough.