DoofersDad

In its ticketing information, the Club is rightly highlighting the following text. IMPORTANT – These tickets are strictly for ICTFC fans and anyone attempting to sell any tickets to outside parties will have ALL of the tickets they bought cancelled and rendered unusable on the day. Similarly, any non-ICTFC fans found in the Caley Thistle section of the Stadium will be removed by stewards immediately. I think it is important that we all support each other in ensuring that any Celtic fans in our section are identified to the stewards and that the stewards promptly do what they have been instructed to do.

No info on ticket sales till Gringo’s NPL is closed to new posts

So, we either equal or better the performance of the 3rd best team in the premiership, or we suffer the biggest ever loss in a Scottish Cup Final! Interestingly, even though Aberdeen may have finished 3rd, they have finished with a goal difference of minus 4. That is 60 goals worse than the side which finished 2nd. Shows what a gulf there is.

What are the odds of us finishing with 11 players on the park?

Catchy caption! But I absolutely agree with what you are saying.

“Terribly sorry Alister, but we’ve got no secretarial vacancies at the moment”.

I collected my ticket yesterday. I passed nobody else on the way in, there was no queue, the girl in the shop was immediately available to serve me. I looked through to the front reception desk and the person there had nobody at the desk and did not appear to be on the phone, but I couldn't be sure of that. I passed nobody on the way out. All in all, it seemed very quiet, so it is a bit concerning that you are experiencing such difficulties. One would assume that staff are being transferred from other tasks or temporary staff have been drafted in to meet the extra demand and ensure that emails and voice messages are responded to as quickly as possible.

The Courier is reporting that the Inverness Common Good Fund has agreed to subside the cost of travel to the cup final for "young people". It say details are still to be finalised. Hopefully some announcement soon.

If you think people with sympathies towards Rangers or Celtic should not be made welcome at the Caledonian Stadium, I would politely suggest you take the issue up with our CEO. I am sure he would be delighted to have a chat with you about it.

Having the vote close a week after the last home game of the regular season is amateurish. It's pretty contemptuous of the players and fans alike. it's little things like this which maybe make players decide not to sign a new contract here.

I'm looking forward to the final more than in 2015. Back then I was anxious that we might get turned over by a lower league team in the final. This time, I have absolutely no expectation that we will win but am just astonished that we are actually in the final given where we were a few weeks ago. I'll enjoy the occasion and I will enjoy the atmosphere of a nearly full Hampden despite it being mainly a wall of green and white. I expect us to be soundly beaten, so anything positive about the team's performance will be a bonus. And if, somehow, we managed to win - well, wow! It is remarkable that we are heading to our 2nd final after only having been in existence for such a short time. It could be a long, long time before we get to a final again. Whatever the outcome, the day will last long in the memory and so I really would urge as many who are able to attend, to do so. But finances are a real issue for people and are a major reason why people don't attend more matches and won't be able to travel to Hampden. It is the fans in the stadium that provide the atmosphere and who spur the players on. With the eye watering sums of money that are poured into the top levels of the game these days, it really should be possible to divert some of this money to keep ticket prices down to allow more people to attend occasions such as this.

I have absolutely no sympathies or loyalties to either Celtic or The Rangers, but if any of their supporters, or supporters of any other club, wants to come to watch a game of football either supporting ICT or as a complete neutral, then in my opinion, they will be most welcome in the North Stand. The money generated for the club by neutral fans and fans supporting more than one club coming to the Caledonian Stadium makes an important contribution to the finances of the club. Intolerant views such as yours harm the club. You presumably object to supporters of those clubs because of their bigotry, yet by saying that those with sympathies for those clubs are not welcome here, you demonstrate a level of bigotry of your own.

Is this a new change to their website or have they simply not bothered to update following the SFA's confirmation? Would be good news if there is some serious reconsideration going on.

Falkirk obviously don't fancy playing us again next season.

The First final was in the 1873/4 season, so this makes it the 150th anniversary of the competition. But because the trophy wasn't played for in the war years, it won't be the 150th final. It is historic enough though and there is no need for us to lose by more than 5 goals to make it any more historic.

Tell them that if they don't sign a new contract, they don't play in the final.

I can't see the Board not offering Dodds a new contract unless there are circumstances we are not aware of. I would be opposed to a contract of more than a year though as his record is decidedly mixed. It is true that we have had a bad run of injuries but Dodds does rather overplay that in order to deflect blame from himself. Before Friday's game he was saying that apart from Sutherland and Walsh, he had a full squad to pick from. One must therefore assume that the 11 he put out on the park were what he considered to be the best 11 in the squad. However, with the exception of Carson for Deas, we had the same starting line up for the 2 woeful defeats at the hands of Hamilton in February. On the other hand, when we thrashed Cove 6-1 on January 2nd, there were 5 in the starting line up who didn't start on Friday night. There is more to our poorer performances than just guys on the injury list. For me the key factor is our ability to hold onto our better players and the ability to recruit new talent. We have never been great at retaining our better players, but that is understandable as players who excel here will always get offers elsewhere which our Board can't match. But we have generally been good on the recruitment side and in recent years it is Robbo who has been the key man here. He has always had an excellent network of contacts. Whatever the the Board decide, it will be vital that we have somebody in the club who can identify and persuade promising young players of the calibre of Delaney, Deas, Henderson, Shaw and Samuels to come to Inverness. Unless we can maintain that ability, the only way we will be able to get out of the Championship is through the back door. Without good recruitment it will take a much more astute coach than Dodds to keep us in the Championship.

Congratulations, Robert. To be fair, I was never really in the hunt. But rather like ICT, I came into some late form only to slip up a bit in the final two rounds of games. Hard luck, Gringo. Maybe next season will be your year. You could then pull the plug on the game and be the champion in perpetuity! Many thanks for running the prediction league. It is a bit of fun and it is a shame the numbers get fewer each year. Hopefully a bit more competition next year.

HT. 0-0 FT. 1-0 ICT. Shaw Opp. Akinyemi Crowd. 2424

You said you wouldn't attend the Semi-final because tickets prices were too high, and then criticise the Supporters Trust for suggesting the SFA should reduce ticket prices for the final. Make your mind up! Do you want lower prices which make going to games more affordable for fans or do you want higher prices so the club gets more from gate receipts? I can't answer for the Supporters Trust as I'm not on its Board any more, but I read the comment about reducing prices as a tongue in cheek remark. We all know that the SFA aren't going to reduce ticket prices just because our Supporters Trust has made that suggestion, nor is there any serious prospect of them putting the kick off time back to 3 O'clock. But at least the Trust is speaking out on behalf of the Supporters and getting a bit more publicity about the SFA's shameful decision.

Courier picking up the story with Supporters Trust statement.

It is not a question of helping ICT, it is a question of preventing trouble and their club getting fined or having sanctions taken against them for the behaviour of their fans.

With Celtic having such a huge support, that is probably an issue regardless of what our allocation is. It needs Celtic to warn supporters that if they are found to have bought a ticket from our allocation, they will be banned from Celtic games next season and, if they are a ST holder, removed from the ST list.

Of course, Celtic fans would argue that they have 50,000 season ticket holders and several thousand on a waiting list, so why should they miss out on a final and the opportunity for the Treble just so that thousands of ICT "fans" who rarely if ever make the effort to go to games can attend? I have some sympathy for that argument, but on the other hand, Celtic have these big occasions as a matter of course and fans get lots of opportunities to apply for tickets. For small clubs like ours, these occasions are a very rare so fans should be given a realistic opportunity to buy tickets as many will never get the chance again. Also, the game is supposed to take place on a level playing field, so to speak, which is why it is held in a neutral venue. There should be the opportunity for both sets of players to be roared on by an equal number of fans, otherwise, one side is given an advantage. We should, therefore be given the opportunity to sell as many tickets as we can, but it would have to be on the basis that we would have to return unsold blocks of tickets if we haven't sold them within a defined timeframe.

How come they are only talking about this now? The fact that the 2 finals are taking place on the same day has been known for months, so if the broadcasters were keen to avoid a clash, they should have been negotiating kick off times months ago. One understands that audience figures are important to Broadcasters, particularly commercial ones who rely on advertising and/or subscriptions, and that ICT v Celtic is less of a draw for neutrals than Rangers v Celtic or Man City v Man Utd. But the point is, that regardless of which teams happen to be in the respective finals, if they are played at the same time, total audience figures will be lower. Given the opportunity a significant proportion of the TV audience would watch both games. One wonders if payments for broadcasting rights have already been fully agreed or whether there was a clause which links payments to audience figures. If the former, then the SFA should be telling the Broadcasters where to go. If the latter, then the clubs should be telling the SFA where to go. We know where we are going, but sadly we don't quite know when.