DoofersDad

A merger with County would find a home in Muir of Ord at the Black Isle Showground - amongst all the bullsh*t.

Have all your Aberdeen mates deserted your forum and signed up here for some decent craic? How else could you get so many positive reputation points for this stream of drivel? And where do you get the idea that ICT fans are agressive? We are always extremely courteous to supporters of other teams

Brilliant result which sounds as if it was well deserved. Let's hope that this is more of a reflection of how good we are rather than just one of those strange results that crop up once or twice a season. But given the first half performance against Cetic last week it looks as though there are real reasons to be optimistic. Hamilton seem to have started very poorly this season so a convincing win against them next week might be expected. How we do next week is likely to be a better indicator of how the season will pan out than either of these first 2 games.

Mc definately Cann

Doesn't look like Kevin MacDonald will get the Villa job now. Newcastle 6 - 0 winners today:

I think the reputation button is a good idea as long as everybody uses it in the spirit it is intended. Where someone makes a particularly good post it is good to acknowledge it. Without the reputation button the only option is to write a brief reply to say "totally agree" "good post" or whatever which really adds nothing to the thread but wastes time for others reading the thread. It is also good to express a negative view of posts without putting yourself in the firing line of criticising others. If a post is in bad taste then it is good that the poster should know that others are not impressed. In general, I think it is working pretty well although inevitably there seem to be one or two good posts being marked down and some moronic or distasteful ones marked up. My gripe with the system as it is, is that you are limited to the number of buttons you can push each day. Some days there may be several comments which you would like to mark up or down, but you can't. Also, some folk will access the site only every few days or so and therefore can mark up or down less than those who access everyday. My answer would be to allocate members a plus and minus "vote" each day which becomes cumulative. That way members would be free to mark posts up or down when they saw fit but there would be little opportunity for folk to vote a post up or down just because they can. As for IHE, he seems to be the one victim of the system. Are there a small number of folk constantly voting him down just for the hell of it? He has a somewhat individual style which some folk may not like but several pretty normal posts of his which would probably not have been marked down had anybody else posted them have been marked down. Many of IHEs posts give many of us a good laugh and his matchday assessments are usually spot on. I for one would not want to see IHE change and I am sure his reputation sccore conceals the fact that a lot of positive buttons have been pushed. Keep it feckin coming IHE!

It was the first weekend of a new SPL season and ICT were up against the Champions and title favourites. I opened up my copy of the Sunday Times hoping to read some considered opinion of how the league might shake up this year and, in particular, how ICT's performance against the champions suggests we will fare in the top flight - are we potential top 6 material or is it the relegation dog fight again? The match reporter was Douglas Alexander. He also had the only text on the front page of the sport section and an entire 2 page spread inside covering 6 different articles he had written. Within all that text, you would be hard put to find any mention of the start of a new season. Douglas argues that the success of Scottish football will be judged by how well the international side does and how well the top club sides fare in the European competitions. Fair enough, but that does not mean that the average fan is more interested in those competitions that on how their team do in the league. Ask a Dundee United fan whether they would rather go a round further in the Europa League than Celtic and Rangers or whether they would rather finish above them in the league and we all know what the answer would be. Alexander's articles were all about the international scene and, in particular, how Celtic are preparing. Pretty boring stuff on the whole. Of course, there is a place for this but surely not on the opening weekend of the bread and butter business of the game. As for the match report itself, again, it was all about Celtic. In 26 column inches Alexander could not spare a single comment on how the SPL new boys performed or what their prospects were. It could have been Celtic against anybody. In a report headed "McCourt Reigns Supreme" Alexander then chooses Kenny Gillet as MOM. This might seem a bit odd, particularly when the report suggests Celtic were carving the ICT defence open at will in the 2nd half. So just what was Kenny doing to justify MOM status? Well, we need to look on the ICT forum for that because during his lengthy report, Alexander fails to give Kenny a single mention! Of course, we are used to the Old Firm bias of the media but to me, this shoddy piece of journalism has hit new lows. It is worrying that journalists should write such shallow reports in the first place but even more worrying that editors in a so called "quality" newspaper let them get away with it. How was the match and the prospects for the coming season reported elsewhere?

Why are folk giving Gordy a hard time here for his eminently sensible comments? My pronounciation of foreign names is not good but if I placed myself in a position of introducing guests (which the Spanish players were) then I would make a point of finding out how to pronounce their names properly. Not to do so is simply rude. Not to even try is frankly shameful and reflects badly on the club and on our famed Highland hospitality. I hope club officials apologised to our Spanish visitors for the crass behaviour of the announcer.

Norwich have Delia to sort their catering - can we not get Lady Claire MacDonald?

Well obviously that's what he means but it's not what he wrote. It made me smile.

Even though he was not playing today, Foran's reign as captain has got off to a pretty shaky start. Writing in the programme notes today, he pays tribute to Grant Munro's captaincy and goes on to say "I saw how much it meant to him when he lifted the Irn Bru First Division Trophy last season and it's certainly something that I hope to experience in the not too distant future". Relegation this season Richie, and you'll be half way there! :_beatme:

I think 3 - 0 flattered us against 3rd division opposition, It's early days yet and to be sure it was a very much better performance than against Montrose this time last year. Although fair play to them, Queen's Park played some decent footy at times and should do well this season. To do well in the SPL we need one or two of the new signinigs to stand out as being shoe ins for a regular starting place and the downside of today was that we didn't see that. McCann looked pretty poor to me and whilst Blumenshtein showed some nice touches he was generally pretty ineffective and we looked a lot sharper and theatening when Eric came on - he was as good as I've seen him play. Innes was only on for a few minutes before he had to go off but in the brief time he was on looked the best of the new signings. Nick Ross did well enough but is a long way short of the standard of Hayes whilst Rooney looked off the pace today. I am sure it was the intention to take him off after about 60 minutes and put Sutherland on but unfortunately the injury to Innes put paid to that. Everybody else was OK with the pick of the bunch being Cox. A good work out but more attention needed on the defence is my verdict. Oh, and why was there no stadium announcer? Do they think there is no need now the names are back on the shirts?

When there are so many genuinely needy folk in society I think it awful that money should be squandered in this way. To me, the purpose of prison is not so much for punishment as rehabilitation. The loss of freedom should be punishment enough and therefore the value of public money should be to rehabilitate prisoners and help them to become useful members of society. With that aim in mind I think the Government does have a responsibility to care for the welfare of prisoners but the right of prisoners to be protected from others should not extend to screwing compensation out of long suffering taxpayers. Of course, there are some prisoners whose crimes are such that you feel they can never be rehabilitated or even if they could be, society would never feel safe if they were released. So why do we pay all this money to keep them behind bars? This is why I am in favour of the death penalty. If you accept that Huntly should never be released then whose interests are best served by keeping him in jail at great expense? Certainly not the taxpayers and certainly not his if it means he is in constant fear of violent retribution. In my view a humane execution is the best solution.

So you'ld rather let your team down and get sent off than quickly score a goal whilst the opposition are making idiots of themselves?

The poor performance of top Scottish teams is put into focus by the fact that Shamrock Rovers only lost 2-0 to Juventus.

Braga 3 Celtic 0 Celtic had 38% of posession and just 2 shots on goal. It looks as though they are as good as out of Europe. They are a poor shadow of the team that was the first British team to win the European Cup. It is a sad reflection of how poor the Scottish game is at the moment. Looking on the bright side though, if Braga can beat them so convincingly then the time is right to break the old firm dominence. We can start that process by giving them a beating on the first game of the season. Bring it on!

Does anyone know what Andy Barrownan's goal celebration is like?

Does anyone know if there is an SPL rule that there should be no number 13 or is it just a decision individual clubs make? I like number 13. When I was at school in Worcestershire studying for my "O" levels, I was summoned to the Headmaster's office one morning. I assumed that my illegal still had been discovered, but no. I was told that being in the first class of the school which was first in alphabetical order in the County I had been allocated candidate number 13. I was asked if I wanted another number. I said I had no truck with any superstitious nonsense and kept the candidate number and passed all my exams. Maybe I should get the number 13 on the back of my shirt - probably get run over crossing the dual carriageway!

1. Celtic 2. Rangers 3. Dundee U 4. Hibs 5. Motherwell 6. Hearts 7. St Johnstone 8. Aberdeen 9 Hamilton 10. ICT 11. St Mirren 12. Kilmarnock This has a pretty boring normality to it. What Scottish football needs is for someone to get amongst the old firm but I can't see it happening. But ICT ending up ahead of the Dons would be a good step in upsetting the old order.

Shouldn't this be in Rumours? (Sorry, been waiting all weekend for that opportunity) Its been over a day since this was posted and nobody has picked up on the joke!. Perhaps some folk think its second hand news. Perhaps some think "I don't want to know" but I think you are clearly a man of the world. Wondering whether this thread was going to go your own way must have seemed like an albatross round your neck. Oh well, I suppose I'd better give you a green dot (I'm right out of green manalishis, I'm afraid)

I think we pay far too much attention to the personalities of professional sportsmen and women. We critise the likes of Murray for being dull and then we criticise the likes of Higgins when they are anything but. Let's focus on the sport because that's what matters. Higgins was a disturbed character as are many people who are particulary gifted in some respects. He is someone who was thrown into the limelight but did not have the emotional resources to cope with the pressures his talent thrust upon him. Of course, there is no excuse for the incidents Johnboy refers to, but in many ways he was a victim of his own talent. He was a brilliant snooker player and entertained millions in his prime. He should be remembered for that and that alone.

These results mean nothing. Remember last season we only beat Montrose at home on penalties in the first round - but we did OK for the rest of the season!

It will also take time for others to get going. The OF will both have a lot of changes so there is no reason we can't take a few points of them early in the season.

I like the fact that the strip was being modelled in County territory - just to let them know who the Premier Division side is!