DoofersDad

To my mind the actions of the young lads is of far less concern than the unbelievable lack of action of the stewards. Had somebody come on the pitch and intended harm to one of the players they would have had all the time in the world. If this is the level of response the stewards provide when someone enters the field of play, the club should be demanding money back from the stewarding company because they are clearly not doing what they are paid to do.

"No leadership off or on the park" With your knowledge of this maybe you can give us an insight into the managers half time talk or maybe with his lack of leadership he decided to dispense with one. Perhaps, just perhaps, a poor footballing performance on the park, will be the players fault and not the managers! I do agree with the rest of your input as indeed fielding the same team each week can be less stimulating and maybe rotation could mean that some players would come back refreshed into the team again. However it must be difficult for a manager to disrupt a team when on a good run and make no mistake this is perhaps the best run we will ever experience as our finances dwindle and the calibre of player we are able to attract reduces. When things are not going right on the park it is reasonable to expect the manager to assess what is going wrong and take actions to address it. We started off with the tactic of keeping possession at the back and then trying to play the ball up through the middle. Partick pressed us, forced us into errors and then scored two well taken goals in the first half. There was no discernable response to going behind, no discernable change at half time. Given the performance on the park I would have expected Hughes to be parked on the edge of the technical area barking out instruction and encouragement but my impression was that he was less involved pitchside than usual (no doubt those in the mainstand will have a better take on this than me). Sometimes it's just not your day and nothing seems to work. I just got the impression yesterday that we tried one thing which didn't work and there was a lack of willingness to try anything. Hughes comments after the match are also of interest here. He was very honest in saying "one on one, all over the pitch, we were second best." That being the case, why was he not doing his nut on the touchline during the game? County were another team who pressed us hard. In that game we were lucky they were not out of sight at half time but at least we changed tack at half time and took the game to them. That was the kind of tactical response we needed yesterday but it simply didn't come.

I note the following line in the BBC website report of today's game. "Marley Watkins squandered a chance with an over-precise angled shot" How on earth can something be "over-precise"? Something is either precise or it isn't. Had Marley's shot been precise he would have scored! Directly above this nonsense is a picture of Stevenson putting the ball past Brill for the first goal. The caption reads "Stevenson was alert to take advantage of Gallacher's hesitancy for the opening goal". Some of the journalists at the Beeb these days are indeed clueless.

Full marks to Partick who thoroughly deserved their victory. Even when they were four up they worked really hard and closed us down quickly whilst offering plenty of movement when in possession. It was an object lesson in how to beat us when we try to play patient possession football. The dissapointing thing was that when it was clear that Partick had the right tactics there was no plan B. There was no leadership off the park and none on it. Shinnie looked as though he was completely uninterested so perhaps it is time to "rest" him, bring in Tremarco and give the captain's arm band to Warren. Hopefully the players and the manager will know they fell well short of acceptable standards today and will pick themselves up and do better next time.

HT 0-0 FT 2-0 ICT Mckay Opp Osman Time 56mins

OPEC have considerably less power than they once did but they do still have the advantage that they have reserves which are cheap to exploit and can therefore force prices down. What they no longer have is the power to force prices up to previous levels. What the American fracking has shown us is that oil can be extracted in large quantities by that method at a price which is competetive at prices which have been paid in recent years. This is why prices have fallen. OPEC could theoretically up production and drop prices to squeeze the frackers but only at the cost of rapidly depleting their reserves whilst significantly reducing their profits. That would not be a sensible long term option. If they try to increase prices both the Americans and the Russians will undercut them. All the signs are that oil prices will not be bouncing up to the kind of level the SNP were suggesting in the referendum campaign. Had we made the mistake of voting "YES" in September, an independent Scotland would be facing a very uncertain economic future indeed.

Yes. I made the point that it was more important to get any changes to devolved powers right than get them quickly and that therefore the Commission should not allow itself to be bullied into meeting unrealistic timetables. I also made the point that the referendum was about independence and nothing else. There has been no democratic test of the appetitie of the electorate for further devolved powers. I therefore requested that any proposed legislation to make significant changes to the legislation should be put to the electorate in a referendum. Interestingly I recieved no acknowledgement of my submission.

Sounds like a lengthier process than the publiciation of the Smith Commission Report!

HT 2-0 FT 3-1 ICT Mckay Opp Vigurs Goal 16 mins

That could be said for other players i.e Daniel Devine, Nick Ross etc. Can't see Nick playing at left back TBH.

Moving Shinnie into midfield and bringing Tremarco in at left back is another option. Tremarco is a player who I feel is a little unlucky not to have had more game time.

Has Richie not publicly stated before that he fancies going over to the States to do coaching? Once he's got his badges he could well be offski. But if the club support him in getting his badges whilst he is under contract here, I am sure he can be a great asset to the club off the pitch for a couple of years even if he doesn't win a place back on the pitch.

Methinks failing eyesight mistook the 3 on Shinie's shirt for an 8.

TBH I can't see even a 100% Foran getting into the first choice starting line up these days. He would not even be a cert to be on the bench. Of course we will have spells with injuries and suspensions and that will probably give him an opportunity for a game or two but I think we've seen the last of him as a regular starter. He's been great for the club, but we are considerably stronger in midfield now and his is a little bit older. We may not be seeing a contribution from Richie on the field but should not under-estimate his contribution off it.

http://www.fifa.com/ballon-dor/puskas-award/video=2463792/index.html Watch the 10 nominated goals and vote. Some stunning goals in here!

Legend

If the snp do spearhead "Better Together" does that make labour / tory / lib the dirty nationalists? No, As things stand they will all be united in support of the EU. Of course, if Cameron is unable to negotiate any changes that the Tories feel are in the UK's benefit then the Conservatives may well support coming out of Europe - but they will be split either way.

I'm just looking forward to Nichola Sturgeon spearheading the "Better Together" campaign in Scotland.

Could well be back managing in Highland League next season. ...if he's lucky.

We won 4-2 to (temporarily) go top and the performance of the ref is getting more Collum inches than the performance of the team!

It's a difficult one. If you pay employees more then there is less available to invest in the business in other ways and this can threaten the viability of the business. On the other hand, if you pay better wages there is a tendency to get better staff which in turn can help gain business or sometimes simply reduce the number of staff you need because of their productivity and the fact that they actually turn up for work! Undoubtedly those at the very top of the wage tree earn far too much and it is not good to see owners of businesses taking hundreds of thousands out of their businesses as profit when they pay their staff as little as possible. But it is not just owners of businesses who earn too much, the amount some folk with particular skills get (commodity traders, top footballers etc) is also not justified in my view but is, unfortunately a result of market forces. We have a minimum wage set in legislation. There should be no compulsion to pay the living wage, rather we should have that as an aspirational thing that firms should aspire to pay if the business can afford it. Compared to other countries we do have a significant wealth gap and there is scope to narrow that whilst maintaining financial incentives. Increasing the tax free allowance seems to me to be a no brainer as does increasing the levels of tax at the top end. I really don't buy the argument that increasing top end tax to, say, 60% will drive folk overseas. . Clearly there are a lot of folk who earn less than top end tax rates and live very comfortably whilst those earning at top end levels are earning in excess of that - it wouldn't be as though all of their earnings were taxed at top end. If they want to live in this country then clearly they can do so - and very comfortably at that. Folk who live abroad in "tax havens" do so because they want to, not because they can't afford to live here.

HT 1 - 1 FT 3 - 1 ICT Watkins Opp Andreu Time 21 Mins

I think "independent" councillors are part of the problem rather than the solution. Let me say first that there are some independent councillors who do the job for the right reasons and who do a great job - but they are very much in the minority. Others get involved for less honourable reasons whilst plenty others do it for the right reason but are simply not up to the job. In addition, we never really know what they stand for and how they vote on various issues. We end up voting for them because they are not affiliated to a political party rather than because of their own personal credentials. There is a lot wrong with political parties at local level but at least there is a party take on local issues and an expectation of local action being consistent with their wide manifesto and political agenda. Generally speaking you know what you are getting and if the councillor strays from that then they fall foul of the party and are not supported by the party as a candidate next time round. In addition, the party machinery can provide a lot of support in dealing with constituents' problems and in providing advice to councillors on issues they are expected to make decisions about. "Independents" don't have access to that level of support. With PR at local level confrontational politics is less likely than at higher levels of Government. Party based local government is more open as well because one of the problems with the so-called independents is that they form their own little groups and alliances behind the scenes with agreements that one will support someone else's pet project if the other reciprocates etc. Better in my view would be to say that you had to stand on a party ticket. What that would do is encourage the creation of new parties which could be focused on issues within the remit of the local councils. If that was done in conjunction with legislation which facilitated the creation of new parties but with appropriate constraints to prevent very small groups of 2 or 3 locals calling themselves a party e.g. publication of manifesto, minimum number of paid up members etc, then we could have real informed choice and more effective local government. It is a timely debate, as it is reported today that COSLA has written to William Hague arguing that more powers need to be devolved to local Government. There may well be a case for that in theory, but if power is devolved to local level we really do need people in local Government who are competent to make decisions.

I think the micro-brewery concept is great but the site is wrong. I think Erasmus shoots himself in the foot when he cites "The Kitchen" as the sort of venture which has gone ahead, because that very modern and different design with,as he says, no parking, demonstrates that the Planning Committee will approve rather more innovative projects. The problem with this type of planning refusal is that they tend to give too many reasons for the refusal and then end up giving some reasons that are not good reasons at all and which are then siezed on to criticise the decision. Same building the other side of the High Street would be brilliant. Tend to agree with the general comments on Councillors but given the shameful turnout we have for local elections it could be argued we get what we deserve. I stand by my views expressed in another thread that the work of politicians at all levels is onerous if they are to do it well and therefore they should be remunerated better. That would encourage people to go into politics rather than other jobs and we would get more able people in post. Far too many at local level do it for their own egos or self interest and they tend to hold sway over those that get involved through a sense of doing good for the community. Disagree with comments about lack of decent restaurants in Inverness. There must be 30 restaurants in Inverness better than anything in Dingwall. No - that's a bit harsh - make it 50.

Must be something I drank