DoofersDad

All in all a pretty sh*te night for the 4 home countries. Scotland Held at home by the team ranked 97 in the world England held at home by Ukraine Wales being gubbed 6-1 by Serbia (who are ranked only 3 places above Wales) and probably worst of all, Northern Ireland being held at home by Luxemburg! Team GB anyone?

Give him the number 9 shirt. Great stuff.

How our friends across the bridge must be laughing at this! But hey ho, who cares? If you've got something to say you should be able to say it and I have to agree that Dougal has a point here. For me the issue is a bit more than just one of communicating when tickets were on sale. We are constantly being told the club has no money and we have threads on here looking for fund raising ideas etc etc. But when we have a forthcoming match which is the first SPL derby between us and our very in form local rivals and when we desparately need a full home support, what does the club do to stir the local population? As yet, sweet FA by the looks of things. This is a huge match. Apart from the local rivalry and it being our first SPL derby there are other issues: the return of Munro and Tokely (and others) and the fact that County may be going into this game still unbeaten in the league for over a year. How difficult should all that be to market? And with tickets on sale last week what an opportunity to market the match with a weekend break from SPL action due to the internationals. There could have been a great piece in the Courier, for instance, about the game with quotes from Butcher urging the fans to get their tickets whilst there were still some left (ha, ha!) and really get behind the team. But what do we get, a silly non-story of Richie Foran urging the fans to get behind Billy MacKay. This is a hugely important game and it is vital we sell out the home allocation. The earlier tickets start selling well, the sooner people will commit to buy. Leave it too late and folk decide they won't bother after all. For a club that needs the money, its lack of activity in ensuring we get a sell out for this game is disappointing to say the least.

No idea Laurence, but whatever they do I hope it involves Miss Williams doing considerably less grunting.

The olympic games were a fantastic success with the home crowds roaring on team GB to Gold medal success. This included Andy Murray. Yesterday, a major event was organised to show off the medal winners to the public and to allow the athletes to say "thank you" to the crowds who had showed such fantastic support. And where was Murray? As if he hasn't already won enough money he swans off to the other side of the pond to play in some two bit tournament in the states in order to win yet more money. OK, so it's a so called "major", but there's 16 of those every four years and only one Olympic gold medal to be won. The man's a disgrace! Oh! By the way, I should add a few :tongueincheek: just in case anyone thinks I'm being serious - and there's some that would! Seriously though, I had a good feeling about this one. He showed some real mental toughness in earlier rounds and his chances were confirmed for me by a complete lack of Mahonio predicting a Murray triumph on this forum. He is a seriously good player and has the opportunity to win a few more majors in the coming years. He has good variety in his game and has excellent tactical awareness and has toughened up physically and, more importantly, mentally. In short he is getting better whereas Federer is only going to go one way now. Djorkovic seems to have lost his edge a bit but it will return although Murray has a good record against him. Nadal is the player he really struggles against and it will be interesting to see whether he returns to his very best. There are no real up and coming stars but obviously a good few that are capable of beating anybody on their day. Brilliant performance from Murray and in any other year he would be a shoe in for the BBC sports personality of the year. But this is an exceptional year for British sport and my vote is for Wiggins :notworthy:

4 - 2 final score for the Irish U21 in Italy. That is a brilliant win for them particularly after having a man sent of in the 37th Minute with the score at 1 -1. Doran scored in the 57th and 80th minutes before a 2nd Irish player got sent off a few minutes before the end. Hopefully this will be a real confidence booster for Aaron which will be reflected in his perfomances for ICT.

Digging up old thoughts and passing them off as exclusive new ones - you should try journalism - or politics.

...and Hayes is likely to be injured before the end of the game

Selecting the side with 2018 World Cup in mind, eh, Luke? Now there's a new optimistic spin on a disappointing performance in the first qualifying match. There should be no planning for the future here. You don't reach the finals unless you qualify. You qualify by being top (or second) of your group and Scotland will not be top or second unless the best team available is picked for every game. Qualify for the finals in Brazil and the future will take care of itself.

Doran got on for the last 20 minutes against Hungary but couldn't help the Irish avoid a 2 -1 defeat and fail to qualify for thge European U21 championships.

Thank feck for that. Although by denying the fact in a public act of denial you display a barely hidden subconscious desire that you wish you actually were Doofers Dad. Such feelings have been explored in depth in the psychological literature since the early days of social science and before that in the literature of the ages. "Methinks he doth protest too much" as me old mucker Billy Shakespeare used to say. Such feelings of wishing to be someone who you are not frequently manifests itself in a focus of other people's opposite feelings of self adoration and results in an unhealthy fixation on narcisism. Fortunately there is a cure. Large quantities of voddies and coke either side of a football match should do the trick.

It is an unreliable sh*te site. It has Port Talbot Town ranked above Wolves. Nearly as absurd as ranking County above us. Terry, forget about top 500 for freedom of the city - just stick to winning the Scottish Cup - that should do the trick.

Ross County are ranked 730! Obviously an unreliable sh*te site.

According to http://www.footballd...lubs.php?Id=194 ICT are ranked 935 in the World. Terry will have to go if we drop out of the top 1000 but he can have the freedom of the city if we break into the top 500.

Played 96 minutes for Swindon today in their 1 - 0 defeate by league 2 side Oxford (for whom Cox was not playing) According to the BBC live updates Rooney did not make much of an impact. The only mention was. "Adam Rooney has an effort at goal from close range which goes wide left of the goal." Oh dear! Not the best way to grasp a new opportunity. Sounds as though he will struggle to get a game after that.

Sweeper. We are shipping too many goals. Part of that is because we are getting caught on the flanks and because there is a lack of leadership within the back four at the moment. We are good going forward and having Foran as sweeper would allow the defence to press a little higher and for G Shinnie and Meekings to adopt more attacking roles. He's had his chance up front and doesn't do enough for me in that position. I'd rather see Shane given a proper run up front and failing that we could always try other strikers we've signed. Billy works hard but he's never going to score 20 goals in a season.

Hi Terry! It doesn't sadden me at all because I think there is generally a balance on here. There are a handful with extreme views at either end of the spectrum but the majority give a range of opinions somewhere in the middle ground. I would like to think that the management of this club do look at this website from time to time and give a bit of consideration to what is said so that they get a flavour of what the fans feel is good and bad about the club. Of course, those of us that post here represent a very small proportion of those who go to watch the team but nevertheless it probably gives a fair enough reflection of what folk think. And as a football manager he will not be suprised that there are some amongst the faithful who would like to see him gone but he will be encouraged by the general tone this season. Things are far from perfect but he has responded to the calls for a more attractive brand of football. We are playing some good stuff and this team is not far short of being a very good side indeed. If some of the defensive frailties can be ironed out we will start winning - and with some style. I think Terry will see that most on here appreciate what he is trying to do but will lose patience if we continue to ship goals and lose matches due to sloppiness at the back. The club is in much the same position in the league as when he took over and it is clear we want a little better than that. He would expect no less from the fans.

Yes.

Barrowman - already more this season for the Pars than in 41 matches for us.

No. I'm saying that I hope that by January we will be scoring enough as a team not to be requiring a loanee as good as Rooney was. I'm also saying that come January he will probably not be the player he was in our promotion season.

Motherwell v Newco! Now that will be interesting.

If he can't make it at Swindon then he is not going to get the breakthrough he would have been hoping for. As many have found out before, if you don't kick on when there is the opportunity then nobody wants to know you. He started off pretty well at Birmingham but was not able to get a run in the first team and has now dropped down the pecking order. His confidence will be gone and if he comes back here he will struggle. He should have stayed here for another season in familar surroundings. A good season in the SPL would have made him a a much more marketable commodity. A two year contract with the intention of selling him on after one would have done both him and the club a lot of good. Having said that, I can't say I blame him, it is difficult for these young lads to turn down offers of significantly more money especially when they probably have unrealistic expectations of what they might acheive. As for having him back here, I would hope that with the options now available to us there would be absolutely no reason why Terry would feel the need to take him back.

Sorted it for you.

Whilst County remain unbeaten having still failed to score a goal from open play. They have only concended a single goal - and that against Celtic. Strange indeed. The fact that a lot of results have been strange is clearly evidenced by the fact that Doofer's Mum sits proudly on top of the Prediction League.

Great news. Congratulations to them all and I hope they all feature on the field and come back to Inverness safe and injury free. We've probably made these new signings in case they don't.