DoofersDad

Have you been watching 50 shades of grey? He priobably wants a spanking new striker too. ...who can score from a variety of positions.

Of course an independent Scotland would not be funded on oil alone but the point here is that as most of the North Sea reserves are under Scottish waters, oil revenues would be very much more important to an independent Scottish economy than they are to the UK economy. During the referendum we were constantly hearing charges that the Unionist parties wanted Scotland in the UK because of the oil revenues and yet we then get nationalists playing down the importance of oil revenues to the Scottish economy. You can't have it both ways. I haven't the time to look up the figures but the per capita revenue from oil in an independent Scotland would be about 8 times that of the current per capita income within the UK. That makes it about 8 times more important to an independent Scottish economy than it is to the wider UK economy. Add into that Salmond's absurd assumptions for the sustained price of oil and production levels and you get some idea of the irresponsibility of the SNP's proposed post independence spending binge which it used to buy votes from the poorest sections of our community. Whether or not a post independence SNP Government would be irresponsible enough to actually implement the policies it used to bribe the electorate is debatable. Without the level of oil revenues proposed they would have to borrow even more massively than they were proposing to do in any case. Regardless of whether anyone would take the risk of lending the such sums, I doubt that even the SNP would actually throw the nation into the level of debt this would involve. It's not a question of talking down Scotland. In my experience those in the unionist camp and especially those who (unlike me) were born here, want what is best for Scotland. What we share with those in the UK outside of Scotland is a belief that Scotland is better by being part of the UK and that the rest of the UK is better with Scotland as a part. The heavy dependence of oil revenues in the Yes campaign's economic case followed by the massive volatility in the oil price since the referendum seems to me to be pretty convincing evidence that we really are better together.

I do find the self righteous moral outrage of those who don't like the outcome of the referendum a little tiresome. It wouldn't be so bad if it was justified but the reality is that the dishonesty of the YES campaign was simply mind boggling. Charles is quite right to pour scorn on the Salmond and his crew bribing the Scottish electorate with his promises of jam tomorrow based on projections of sustained high oil prices which already have been shown to be false. I would add that these bribes would also have required massive borrowing over and above fanciful oil revenue projections. Not only that, but of course, Salmond couldn't even tell the electorate what currency we would use in an independent Scotland. And I really don't see what "yessers" are complaining about the vow for. It may not be delivering all that some had hoped for but it is delivering additional devolved powers which we have not had the opportunity to say whether we want or not. The "Yes" camp lost the referendum but are getting further devolved powers that have not been put to the electorate and yet they still keep whinging. It really beggars belief. I guess the tactic is to make themselves so unpopular with the rest of the UK that they will happily support independence just to get shot of them. It may be a way to get independence but its not good for Scotland.

HT 0-0 FT 0-2 ICT Tansey Opp Goodwin Time 48 mins

With the inevitable sacking of Paul Lambert there are now no Scottish managers in the English top flight (unless you count Scott Marshall who is jointly in charge on a temporary basis at Villa Park). Over the years, the English top flight has had way more than its fair share of Scottish Managers. Managers such as Moyes, Souness, Dalglish, McLeish and Strachan have all had some reasonable success but it is the legends of George Graham at Arsenal, Bill Shankly at Liverpool, and Matt Busby and, more recently, Sir Alex at Manchester Utd that made Scottish managers almost an institution in the English top flight. I don't know when, if ever, there were no Scottish Managers in the English top flight and wonder what this says about the Scottish game. More often that not, great managers were also great players before. Just as we have seen the number of Scottish players playing in the English Premiership decline, it now seems that this is working its way through to managerial level. Of course, top level football is so much more international these days. Top Premiership clubs are awash with foreign players and an increasing number of foreign coaches. But that doesn't mean that there are no longer opportunities for Scottish players and coaches. If they are good enough then they will be employed. The fact is that fewer and fewer players and coaches from Scotland seem to be making the grade these days and it perhaps reflects the general state of Scottish football. Lambert's sacking can be seen as representing the end of an era for Scottish football. Let's hope that Gordon Strachan can conjure up some success for the national side in order to regenerate grass roots enthusiasm again and trigger a new era for Scottish influence in the beautiful game..

Was at a wildlife talk last night. It's generally accepted that birds can't count, so if two of you walk to a bird hide and one gets in and the other walks away, the birds can't tell the difference. However the guy said crows could count up to about 19....... That's a lot more than many hoodies.

I think County will improve but I don't think it will be enough. Partick are in 9th place, 13 points ahead of County and with a game in hand and I can't see any way County will catch them or anyone above them. It is therefore between County, St Mirren and Motherwell. It would not surprise me if Motherwell were bottom at the end of the season as they are just dire at the moment - before their draw with St Johnstone they lost 5 in a row all by more than a single goal, and they just don't score enough. County got thumped by the Dons but most of their matches in the latter part of the season have been pretty close. St Mirren are a bit up and down but I think have enough to keep then clear of the bottom 2. If it came to a play off, I reckon both The Rangers and Hibs would have a bit too much quality for County over 2 legs. I'd like them to stay up but I think they will narrowly fail.

Have they abandoned the idea of going round in shoals then? It's the Dolphins that swim in Schools, so regardless of whether or not Fraz is correct with the sex for pleasure bit, I think the answer has to be Dolphins. Sex in schools! Hmmm - may be even smarter and brighter than us.

That's a great draw for us. Raith are no mugs and will be well prepared for the game but notwithstanding that, we should win the game if we play to our strengths. Hopefully we have learnt the lesson from going out to The Rangers in the other cup. Getting to the semi-final would mean a real chance to lift the cup together with the financial benefits for the club. There are incentives all round and there really should be no slip ups. Bring it on!

I remember it well. I think it was originally built as an isolation hospital and the balconies you can see in the picture would allow patients to sit out in the fresh air which was seen to be the best cure for TB before all the antibiotics arrived on the scene. Laterly it was still used for infectious diseases but also for more general chest conditions. There were actually 5 wards at Culduthel. I can't recall whether the building in the photo only held the chest/infectious diseases ward or whether a general medicical ward was also in that block. Anyway, that block was divided into wards 4 and 5. Elsewhere on site were two care of the elderly wards and the dermatology ward. All changed when the new Raigmore was opened. Also on site behind the old admin buiding you can just see was a staff accommodation block. That was where I stayed for a year when I first moved to Inverness. As far as isolation is concerned, the Matron did try to keep the female staff isolated from the male staff - but failed miserably I'm pleased to say.

The subs on the bench wait patiently for their turn to play.

HT 0-0 FT 0-2 1st ICT Ross 1st Opp Stevenson Time 48 mins

Hallelujah! The happy clappers 100 yards!

I'm not overly bothered about not having a recognised striker, I'm more concerned that we secure contracts for our soon to be out of contract players and that we play to our strengths. To my mind our strength is a lot of good attack minded midfield players and full backs who can all run and can shoot. I'd like to see us be more positive in taking the game to the opposition with a front three having pretty fluid roles which would upset the defenders and pull them out of position. Get players into the box and get the full backs to overlap and play low balls in with the likes of Tansey and Shinnie coming behind, exploiting the space created by the runners and looking to shoot from cut backs and half clearances. Mixing it up a bit up front would make us less predictable and throwing the likes of Fergusson into the mix as well would offer further options for the team as well as giving him a chance to show what he is capable of. Because we had Billy as a recognised striker we tended to depend too much on him and build our attacking play around him. Rather than focus on a lone striker, if we can focus more on the collective strengths of the team and encourage others to take more of the responsibility of looking to score, then there is no reason why we can't score plenty. Watkins, Doran, Christie, Tansey and Ross all have an eye for goal whilst others are perfectly capable of getting in on the act as well. Goodbye "He scores when he wants". Hello "They score when they want".

I agree with much of that but I don't think that letting Sekajja go indicated a confidence that Mckay would stay. There had been a lot of talk about people coming in for Billy and clearly he was being watched. Despite what were presumably the club's best efforts to get him to sign a new contract, he had not done so. I think it would have been naive in the extreme for the club to be surprised at Mckay's departure and I don't for one minute think they were. Sekajja either left because he wanted away or the club did not feel he was good enough to take on the role should Billy leave.

It seems to me that this is a tipping point for the club. We are where we are (which is punching above our weight), but do we continue to develop and grow as a team and as a club or do we drop back to what might be seen as a natural level for a club with our resources and fan base? It is also a tipping point for the manager. He took over a team that was 2nd in the league and was fortunate to be able to retain almost the entire squad for this season. He has also been fortunate that with the exception of Foran we have been relatively injury free. This is where he starts getting tested. I've said it before and I will no doubt say it again, but with The Rangers, Hearts and Hibs all out of the picture, this season and probably next offers a unique opportunity for success and a European place. Whilst I am all for sound financial management and adopting policies with the long term viability of the club in mind, I do think we should be seizing the unique combination of having a brilliant squad and weakened opposition to achieve something we may never have the opportunity to again. A European place might not of itself bring in money but it would bring kudos and make this a more attractive proposition for future players. It would, of course, be brilliant for the fans. What concerns me is the lack of information and the generally negative vibes coming from the club at this time of great opportunity. When interviewed after the dismal draw against County it was put to Yogi that we have a number of other players who are capable of scoring and that we might might not miss Billy too much. Yogi responded by saying that we certainly will miss him as he's a natural born goal scorer. From that one can assume that he doesn't see Billy's departure as being something that can be fixed from within. That being the case, what efforts were done to replace him? After all, they knew there was a very high chance he would be going. Yogi has previously stated that he would not be bringing anyone in unless he felt they were better than we already have and would strengthen the team. Yet it seems that the only player we know of who was pursued was a 30 year old squad player from Southend. That hardly sounds like a ringing vote of confidence in the players we currently have. Nor does it sound like a professional effort at replacing a player who they almost certainly knew was off. It does, however, seem like an admission that the club thinks we need to bring a striker in. In the interview Yogi also blamed the pitch and said that they would need to make changes to the way we play to cope with the stickier pitches at this time of year. These days, if the pitch is a mud bath the games gets postponed. If the pitch is deemed playable then it is exactly that - playable, and professional footballers trained in crisp passing of a football should be able to pass the ball on a soft surface. What is the point of completely remodelling the playing style if you then abandon it at the business end of the season because the pitches are soft. Soft pitches in a Scottish winter! Whoever would have thought it! He went on to say that we have been good at keeping clean sheets and that we need to keep doing that and nick the odd goal at the other end. That sounds very much like letting other teams come on to us and then punting it up the field for Marley to chase. A bit like what happened against the bottom team in the league on Saturday. The rest of the season sounds like it could be fun! Of course, if you want to keep clean sheets you need to have a good defence. We have that at the moment, but for how long? We know Shinnie is away next season but what of Meekings and Raven? We understand that Meekings wants a one year contract and the club wants a longer one so it should be something that can be sorted out easily enough. But the longer it goes on unresolved then the more likely it is that other more cash rich clubs will offer Josh a longer contract for more money and, much as he may want to stay for other reasons, he'll be off. As for the David Raven situation I have to confess to being baffled. He has been repeatedly quoted as saying he wants to stay but has not been offered a new contract. I find it almost unbelievable that the club would not have offered him a contract but yet to the best of my knowledge they have not refuted what Raven is saying. It really is imperative to get these two players and others who are out of contract at the end of the season signed up as soon as possible. The money we got from Billy should help as should the money we will get from a decent league position. If we can't do that the position will be looking grim. We have just lost arguably our most important player and will lose our acting club captain at the end of the season. Unless contracts get signed soon we could lose 2 more key defenders who actually want to stay here, and possibly others as well. In the meantime, we did not strengthen in the window and we have no word of anyone coming in for the new season. We have also yet to see anyone come in on a loan basis who does anything to strengthen the team. After over a year, we have yet to see any evidence of Yogi being able to attract players to the club who are as good as any of the current first team squad. Obviously I would not expect the club to make public announcements about the detail of contract negotiations or which players may be being chased with a view to summer signings, but I would expect some general information of what is going on. We may get some good news on contract extensions very soon, we may get news that players have been secured on loan or on pre-contract agreements and we might find that the change of tactics is to press the opposition harder and play football in the opponents half (Greg Tansey thunderbolts and Nick Ross nipping in to pick up the pieces - that sort of thing) but the vibes we are getting suggest otherwise. Which way is the club going to tip? Onward to an early season European campaign and a challenge for honours next season, or back next season to a bottom six survival scrap? Come on ICT - it's time to show the fans that the contingency plan involves a drive for the former and not resigning yourselves to the likelihood of the latter. We have a great squad of players at a time when the league is as weak as it has ever been. It is a time of unprecedented opportunity for the club so please, let's seize this opportunity and let's see some evidence of ambition from the club.

Agreed. And with money from Billy's move and the saving of his wages there should be a little more cash to offer the out of contract players. It is more important to secure some of these players for next season than to splash money on a second rate striker. Meanwhile who knows how Fergusson and Sutherland might develop if given a bit of first team experience.

Any news at this stage would seem like panic measures. But look on the bright side - nobody else has left!

I wonder how Newcastle Reserves will get on in the cup against Raith at the weekend? Surely no less that 5 payers heading to Ibrox on loan from Newcastle is making a mockery of the rules around the influence one man can have with more than one club.

One word is quicker to type than four! But in the unlikely event in there being anything accurate in what IHE is posting, we're probably both wrong.

Asda?

I see Wigan have signed Wolves striker Leon Clarke on loan. Looks as though Billy could be spending a fair bit of time on the bench. Maybe we could get him on a loan deal

Presumably Hughes sees the need for a striker given the unsuccessful bid for Southend's Lee Barnard. Was that the contingency? Having made it clear that we were looking for someone, not to get anyone will clearly represent failure in that strategy. Personally I'm not convinced that our style of play needs an out and out striker but it does need players to be more goal aware and be looking to shoot a bit more often. We have several players who are capable of scoring and playing a fluid system up front should give several players opportunities to score.

Judging by this forum at the moment the contingency plan is to forget about football and create an Inverness history club so that we can all reminisce about the "good old days".

Glad to see you back to your encouraging best DD! You obviously didn't walk on that pitch on Saturday but it was glutinous and heavy. As I 've already said, it's a miracle Tommy and Mattie got it playable in the fiirst place. Brave? If we had attempted to pay the usual passing game beginning with Esson playing short balls out, it would have been suicidal. Although County are a side getting to know each other, they are fighting for their lives and will pull out results such as Saturdays. I would have preferred to see subs used earlier, but I can quite understand why an inexperienced boy whose game is reliant on pace wasn't put anywhere near it. The key point here is that the pitch was playable. In making that decision the referee is checking that the ball is able to roll on the surface. The pitch was soft and heavy but there was not lying water nor were there large patches of glutinous mud. Balls passed crisply and acurately would run true most of the time. And, yes, I am genuinely being encouraging because I think our players have the quality to be able to pass the ball on a pitch like that. From time to time they did play some decent passing football - indeed the goal came from a neat passing exchange. What was needed was a modification of tactics and not a massive change. I agree with you about the passing from the back. As the pitch cut up a bit, occasional balls would be likely to hold up, particularly if played a little too tentatively and that would be risky at the back. So at the back, there would have been a need to get the ball upfield quicker but once upfield we should have been looking to keep hold of it and pass it around a bit. Where the conditions were likely to have an effect was in playing the ball in the air when it would be affected by a strong wind and then, coming down from a height with more vertical momentum it would be more likely to hold up in the pitch. So, we revert to tactics more prone to being affected by the conditions than our normal game! And I don't buy the bit about not wanting to risk a young player whose game relies on pace. In his interview Yogi claimed to have changed his team when he saw what the pitch was like and put in runners instead. That would seem to me to be exactly the situation where you would want a young lad with pace (not to mention one who would undoubtedly have relished the opportunity to show everyone what he could do. And County are fighting for survival. So what! Does that mean they are trying harder than our team? I sincerely hope not. Are we not fighting for a European place or even the title itself? Incidentally, on the keeper front I always wonder why our keepers rarely throw the ball out. Craig Gordon was using that technigue very effectively for Celtic yesterday on a poor Hampden pitch. Yogi's interview is really pretty depressing. On the back of a great run of form he is signalling a change of tactics in the coming weeks with a view to keeping clean sheets and hoping to snatch a goal or two at the other end. When pitches are sticky it is the goal mouths that cut up the worst. Even the best of defenders will get caught out and you simply can't rely on clean sheets. Billy may be gone but we have a midfield stuffed with players who can score. It would be good to see a much more positive attitude demostrating faith in the ability of the players that we've got rather than making these lame excuses.