DoofersDad

There are indeed more women going to matches. In general this is a good thing but it can occasionally lead to some inappropriate behaviour. This was the case yesterday as IHE reported.

We really need the SPL reserve league reinstated to give players some match practice. If players are not getting any competetive games at all there is little incentive to stay. I am sure many would rather be playing reserve team football in the Championship than be in a SPL squad and getting no games at all. Its the same for all the teams, of course so we are not disadvantaged in that respect, but I can't see the current situation helps Scottish clubs to be competetive in Europe.

No predictions from me. All I will say is that I will be very happy if we are still in the top 6 after the next 5 games.

Never has an acronym been more apt than for the Football Association. To punish Blackpool for Holloway's team selection against Villa would demonstrate how little they understand about the realities of managing a squad in a struggle to maintain Premier league status. Blackpool might have expected to lose agaiunst Villa but it was essential for them that key players were ready for the West Ham match. The fact that his team were a bit unlucky not to get something out of the Villa match and that they then drew at West Ham is vindication of what he did. But that is not the main issue here. Presumably the FA think that fielding an allegedly weaker side when better players are available is not acceptable. Why? Is it unfair on other teams who are disadvantaged by the fact that Villa got 3 points midweek? No, because the expectation was that Villa would win in any case. Is it because it is unfair to fans of Blackpool who paid good money to see their team and then didn't see the best of the squad on display? Possibly, but what has that got to do with the FA? - FA is the answer to that because that is a matter between the club and the fans. If the fans don't like the way the club uses the available players, they can express their views to the club but I expect the fans are pleased with the way those selected performed against Villa and are also pleased with a draw away to West Ham. If the FA is going to fine clubs for fielding understrength teams, how are they going to police team selection? How can they possibly know the detail of the fitness status of players, be in a position to know which players are looking good in training, know which players play well in combination with others, know which players are best suited for the tactics for a particular match? How are they going to decide whether a team selection is appropriate or not even if it was any of their business? Blackpool were everybody's hot favourite for relegation at the start of the season but are in 15th place, 6 points ahead of the bottom 2. If the FA are to give Holloway anything, it should be an award for the Manager of the first quarter of the season. Long may he and his team entertain us!

By "give us some credit" I think he means "will someone loan us some money to buy some decent players?"

Sounds as though we were poor but getting the results when playing poorly seems to be a quality we are learning well. Brilliant result and 45 points on the predictor league.

No wine left!

Dornoch Caley, the wearing of poppies is in support of those who are prepared to sacrifice their lives in whatever cause our Government deems to be appropriate. In many ways the poppies are even more appropriate for soldiers who have lost their lives in some of the more recent conflicts because some of those who lost their lives probably did not support the wars themselves. They showed support for their country by doing what their democratically elected Government felt appropriate and put their duty to their country ahead of their own views. It is those who we remember by wearing the poppies who you can thank for giving you the freedom to fire off such an aggressive tirade. You may not agree with others in this thread but that is no reason to be so insulting to those who happen to hold a different point of view. Can I suggest an anger management course or maybe you should join the army? Have a red poppy.

The interesting thing is that this is not just an ICT problem - it seems to be something peculiar to the SPL. This season 24 SPL matches have been home wins but 32 have been away wins. This weekend there were 5 away wins out of the 6 matches. God only knows what the score would have been had Aberdeen been playing at home!

Perhaps Adam Rooney could be given a suitcase full of merchandise and punters can buy something as they walk past Starbucks?

I think tm4tj has summed it up very well. We missed Russell Duncan. Foran was pretty poor - is he still nor properly recovered from injury or is the captaincy not suiting him? - we looked a lot sharper when he came off and I would question whether he should be in the side at all on this form. Impressed again with young Sutherland - he was unlucky with a great turn and shot and seems to be the only player looking for the ball at throw ins.

A very good interview. Football needs more people with his common sense attitude and less like Celtic's Hooper with his pathetic comments on the recent incident. Terry is absolutely spot on when he says that there is far too much pressure on referees with all the TV coverage etc. He says it is a very difficult job and indeed it is. But if they are left to get on with their job rather than be surrounded with players aggresively questioning decisions and having managers ranting afterwards, they will feel less pressure and will probably get the decisions correct more often. Referees are monitored and if they are not doing the job to standard they will not be selected to officiate at the top level. Of course there will always be poor decisions but In general it is a matter of swings and roundabouts. If a club feels it has good reason to complain about the performance of a referee, then the way to do it is behind the scenes. It is great to see a manager who shows real respect for referees. Well done, Terry! Football managers have no business hurling abuse at referees - that's our job.

I've often wondered why we don't see more backheel attempts as you can get a lot of power from little back (or front) lift. It is also very difficut for the keeper to guess direction. But this one is quite sensational.

No doubt at the end of the season someone will be able to produce a chain of results that will "prove" Strathspey Thistle are better than Barcelona. Perhaps next year we will be able to prove we are better than Man Utd by actually playing and beating them! Back to reality - I'll settle for being better than Motherwell on Saturday.

That's the Sun making things up again. He's not got a doctorate - that's next year's away strip he's wearing.

Mordor

I think a tough line needs to be taken. As long as penalties for this sort of behaviour are relatively minor, people will continue to take risks with the finances of football clubs. What they are doing is taking a gamble that the investment will lead to rewards on the back of success, and as long as the risk seems to be small relative to the potential rewards, people will continue to take those risks. Others have commented that it is the fans of clubs going into administration who suffer and that they should not be the victims of this. That may be true, but to some extent they, at least, have an opportunity to comment on and perhaps, influence what is going on in their club. The real victims are the fans, players and staff of other clubs who are cheated out of success by those who go into debt to buy success on the park. Last season, had Dundee not hit the self destruct button, then they may well have held on to pip us for promotion. The increased revenue SPL status would have given them could have meant their gamble paid off as money would have come in to cover the debt. And who would the losers have been? Us, of course. Would we then have been able to bring in the new signings we have and get existing players to extend contracts? How long might we have stayed in the SFL? Having got promotion, things are looking good and folk are even daring to dream that we might be playing in Europe soon. All of that could have been denied us had the Dundee Board's irresponsible gamble of spending money they hadn't got come off. Yes, I feel sorry for the Dundee fans but we have to get the message over that cheating honest clubs out of what is rightly theirs is not acceptable. At the very least, the club should be demoted to the 3rd division and those responsible for the mess be banned from acting in any official capacity in any club afilliated to the SFA.

The fact that Rangers have got 10 points out of 12 and we have only 8 should be irrelevant to a decision on manager of the month. What matters is how effective a manager is at getting results from the players available to him. As has just been pointed out elsewhere, some of ICT's best performers were not even warming the bench at the clubs they came from whilst the OF take their pick from the rest of the country. TB has produced brilliant results from the resources available to him. If Butcher was managing Rangers and Smith ICT, then Rangers would have 12 points from their last 4 games and not just 10. If Terry does not get the award there is no justice.

On you go then - you've obviously got the foundation of a compact little tale.

I remember seeing a documentary on TV about devoted footy fans and there was a peice following an East Fife supporter who lived in Hertfordshire or thereabouts and who went to all the home games. His journey required him to get to Luton Airport from where he took a flight to Edinburgh and then the train or bus to Methil. On the day they filmed him there was driving sleet and a game to match. He decided he was so cold he couldn't wait till half time to get his hot pie - there wasn't a long queue so he returned pretty quickly but in his time away, he missed East Fife's only goal. I hope the club appreciated his dedication because his long suffering wife ceertainly didn't. Hopefully Robbo will give him something to make the journeys worthwhile.

We get ours from Ord Wood Products in Muir of Ord. The last time I think it was about ?60 for a ton load delivered.

Are those ICT colours or a Hun Union Jack?

Briliant!

If Eric had been on from the start we'd be winning by now. Bucher out! :irritated: Only joking :ictscarf:

:sleep: