DoofersDad

One thing that has changed is that we appointed a video analyst in the middle of September. I thought this would be a really positive thing in that it would allow the players to understand where they could improve in terms of positioning and choices of pass etc., but it is not obvious what benefit it has brought in practice. I'm not suggesting it is a cause of our drop in results, but it would be interesting to know how useful the players and coaching staff find it. There will be a number of reasons why our results have dropped off and video analysis should be a helpful tool in identifying some of those. The absence of Carson has been a factor I'm sure. It was good to see him back today but he was clearly not back to full fitness. I guess he only started because others were not available. Sutherland has also been absent for much of our recent poor run and I think he has also been one of our best and hardest working players this season. Get the 2 of them back to full fitness and our form should pick up. With the announcement of Yogi taking over at Dunfermline, it was written in the stars that they would get their first win against us today. It was a bad day at the office for us, but I'd rather be where we are in the league than where Dunfermline are.

The Inverness Courier on Friday reported Billy Dodds as saying that David has returned to the squad after a family bereavement.

I agree it would be interesting to know the finances of this, but it may not be possible to produce an accurate balance sheet. For instance, it is not possible to say whether someone's decision to buy a season ticket was influenced by the fact the streaming is included in the price or not. And does watching the live stream make people more likely to attend live games in future, or to purchase more in the way of club merchandise? Regardless of the easily identifiable balance sheet figures, I feel the live streaming should be seen as an investment and as a tool for marketing the club to the wider public. It is a very good product now and imaginative marketing of the service could be an effective way of attracting new supporters. We know it is very hard to attract new supporters to attend the stadium to watch live games (especially on days like today), but having folk watching the live stream from time to time may well be a stepping stone to them become regular attendees at the stadium.

I would hope the live stream is here to stay. Not only does it allow supporters who live too far away to attend in person to watch home games, it also allows local supporters who are unable to attend for whatever reason to watch. There are long standing supporters who can no longer get to games because of mobility or other health reasons or because they have carer responsibilities. The live streams allow these folk to watch their team and put a bit of cash into the club's coffers. Hopefully there will also be parents of young children who will watch at home, and the experience will inspire the children to want to come to the stadium to watch in person when they are old enough.

9th December. All members should have received an email on 18th October with nomination papers for joining the Board. This email included the scheduled date of the AGM. Members should also have received an email on 11th October with a newsletter attachment which mentions the AGM date. If any member has not received these emails, please email [email protected]

The Supporters Trust is not going to fold. The issue is about how we can move the Trust forward for the mutual benefit of fans and club. The position is this. The Rules (constitution) state that the Trust Board must have a minimum of 5 Directors. We currently have just 5. In the event of one of the current Board stepping down, there are a small number of people who would be prepared to be co-opted to make up the numbers to allow the Board to tick over and preserve the voting rights in the Club. Hopefully supporters want the Trust to do a lot more than just "tick over", and those of us currently on the Board certainly do. Unfortunately, current Board members have very limited free time given their work, domestic and other responsibilities. We are also hampered by the fact that because so few supporters are members of the Trust, the Club do not see us as representing the fans and are therefore reluctant to engage. There is not a lot more the current Board can do unless new people come forward and either simply join the Trust or join and get actively involved. You can find out more and join here. Cost is only £5 per annum. The success of the Trust depends not on what those of us currently working for the Trust do, it depends on what supporters who are not currently members of the Trust do. It really is important that we get new folk onto the Board to get actively involved. There is a lot we would like to do in partnership with the club in order to improve the matchday experience, to raise money for the club and to support the excellent work colleagues in the Community Trust do. We have our AGM on December 9th and nominations to the Board close on November 11th. If anyone is interested in helping out in a constructive way, it is not too late to both join the Trust and stand for election to the Board. If you would like to find out more about what is involved and maybe have a chat to discuss things further, please email to [email protected] and I'll get back to you. Whilst the Trust does urgently need a lot more members and people who wish to work for the Trust (whether on the Board or in other ways), it is also in a better place than it has been for a while. Membership is now heading in the right direction, we have a new website and we have made significant improvements to the membership system. The infrastructure is in place for the Trust to be more active on behalf of upporters. It is now up to the fans to decide whether they want an active Supporters Trust or not. Please join and help make the supporters' voice be heard.

Arbroath are up to 3rd and have the best goal difference in the division. They are there on merit and we saw tonight the qualities that make them a very hard team to beat. They were very well organised. Every player knew what their role was, they closed us down quickly and anticipated who the ball might be played to and closed them down quickly too. Put simply, they stopped us playing football and were helped in that regard by poor playing conditions and an inept referee. But we didn't help ourselves. It was an uncharacteristically lacklustre performance, and even when we did get in behind their defence, the delivery into the box was poor (if it actually reached that far) and shooting was either very weak or very speculative. If the referee had added on another 30 minutes for Arbroath's farcical timewasting antics, we still wouldn't have scored. I'm afraid we need to up our game if we are to remain in a play-off spot at the end of the season. Good to see some youngsters making a bit of noise with the drum at the far end of the North Stand, but I'm afraid even their welcome enthusiasm was extinguished by what was happening on the pitch. Here's hoping for another stirring performance against Partick to get us back on track and to re-kindle everyone's enthusiasm.

Great to see the minute's silence in his memory observed impeccably by all at the stadium tonight.

It's Mackay with a small k.

The recent games against the bottom 3 have shown there are no easy games in this division, yet we are 5 points clear at the top. We must be doing something right. This season we seem to be managing to win games that are pretty finely balanced. The difference seems to be that the team are all working really hard for each other and when we have those "heart in the mouth" moments there is a real collective effort to clear the danger. Pressing hard and winning the ball back then gives us more chance of creating opportunities up front. Maintaining the level of intesity and the team spirit will be essential if we are going keep the challenge for promotion going.

I'm afraid I was unable to attend the last meeting but I understand the intention is to have the next meeting as an open meeting for anyone to attend. Thanks to those who have submitted issues for discussion via [email protected] and please keep the emails coming. In order to better represent the wider fan base, the Trust needs to increase both the number of members and the number of folk who are prepared to do a bit of work on behalf of fellow supporters. Please nip across to the Supporters Trust section on this site for more information on what the Trust has been doing recently and what, with your help, it hopes to do in the future. (Click on "Forums" on the red menu bar at the top of the page and then scroll down to find the Trust's section.) Annual membership is just £5 for adults and £1 for under 16s.

With the introduction of the Fans Focus Group, a few folk have been asking questions about the Supporters Trust. It is true that the Trust has not been very visible for a while, but with your help we hope that is about to change. Over the last wee while, the few volunteers who make up the Board of the Trust have been working behind the scenes to improve the infrastructure to make us better placed to work effectively as a bridge between the club and its fan base. We now have a new website where you can find out a bit more about the Trust and how you can join. Improvements to the membership system make it easy to join. So what is it that the Trust actually does or would like to do? Broadly speaking, the Trust would like to work with the club in helping to improve the matchday experience for fans. This would involve identifying what issues fans have with the current experience, what ideas people have, identifying what other people think of those ideas and then working with the club to address the problems and bring ideas to fruition. This might be issues and ideas around access to the ground, car parking, ticketing arrangements, the club shop, stewarding, toilets, PR system, pre or post-match activities, half-time entertainment, catering, facilities for folk with disabilities etc. One area where we are keen to work with the club is in encouraging more enthusiastic youngsters to come to the games. When we do get a good group of youngsters giving great vocal support, it not only creates some real atmopshere in the ground, it gives the guys out on the pitch a huge boost. We all know there has been some behaviour from a small minority which has caused a problem or two, but the way to deal with that is through constructive engagement. That is why we are particularly keen to get some younger people involved in the Trust and hoepfully onto the Trust Board in order to better represent the youngsters who, after all, are the future of our club. We also want to get back to fundraising activities. Not only does this bring people together and give people an enjoyable experience, it raises money for the club and associated activities. For instance, we would be keen to raise money to help support the wonderful work our colleagues in the Community Trust do. The Trust will also get involved in other issues on an ad-hoc basis. For instance, when the club decided it could not afford the upfront costs for getting Ian Broadfoot's book "Milestones and Memories" to print, it was the Supporter's Trust which stepped in with a fundraising campaign to quickly raise the required money. As a result, there is a wonderful book for us all to enjoy and a significant profit for the club. There is, therefore, a lot the Trust can do for the mutual benefit of club and supporter. But what is certain is that all these things we would like to do won't happen unless we have both a significant increase in membership and a significant increase in the number of people wishing to be actively involved. At the last AGM, there were only 4 people willing to stand as elected members of the Trust Board. Since then we have co-opted one more Board Member, but heavy workplace and domestic committments severely restricts what we can do in our limited spare time. We need to get more folk on the Board and we need to set up sub-groups (e.g. for fund-raising, youth engagement) if the Trust is to be effective. Annual membership is just £5 and £1 for under 16s. The Trust's admin costs will be much the same regadless of the number of members so an increase in the membership will generate cash which can then be passed on for good causes associated with the club. Crucially, increased membership also means that the Trust is seen by the club as being more representative. For those acting on behalf of the Trust to be seen by fans and club alike as being genuinely representative, they need to be elected by a significant proportion of the wider supporters body. In other words, the Supporters Trust can only work on behalf of supporters if the supporters support the Trust. We therefore hope that as many of you as possible reading this will join and support the work of the Trust. You can find a bit more information on our new website or you can join directly here. It is important to understand that the Supporters Trust is not a supporters club designed to give benefits to its members. The purpose of the Trust is defined as being ‘the vehicle through which a healthy, balanced and constructive relationship between the Club and its supporters and the communities it serves is encouraged and developed.’ and as ‘being the democratic and representative voice of the supporters of the Club and the communities which it serves’. Registered with the Financial Conduct Authority, the Trust is also the custodian of a 10% voting right in the club. It is therefore really important that the Trust is as representative of the supporters as possible. To be effective and to be seen as representative, the Trust needs to have as many members as possible and to have more people actively involved. Please feel free to use this thread to ask any questions about the Trust or by email at [email protected]. Please contact us by email if you would like to consider getting actively involved in the Trust. The Trust can also be found on Facebook. We do have a Twitter account but please note there is an on-going problem with access and we are currently unable to log into the account to post anything. Many thanks for reading all of this and I hope you will feel able to join us. Yours in togetherness Peter Mutton Chair, ICT Supporters Trust.

Buzzing after that. We were pretty flat in the first half. Little ambition when we got into their final third yet struggling to cope with Partick's far more direct attacking. We were lucky to go into the break just the one down. 2nd half was one the the best and most exciting performances for a long time. There was a really positive approach and a real desire in everything we did. Great effort all round but a special mention for Shane who put in an absolutely immense shift. It looks like having a "Head of Physical Performance" is having an impact. The exciting thing about today is that it shows we can win by playing adventurous attacking football. A bit more of that and we will have fans returning in numbers.

I think that was Miracle of the Month! Billy is a much more experienced guy than Richie was and Billy is surrounded by rather more experienced people to support him. We are a division below so I can't see the same kind of colapse happening this time round. This is a well deserved award for Billy and should set us up well for the rest of the season. No doubt we will have some poor performances and a bit of bad luck along the way, but it's looking promising for a good push for promotion.

Brilliant news. Well done to all concerned.

An interesting and enjoyable afternoon. Buckie are a decent side and showed why they are doing so well in the Highland League. They defended in numbers making it difficult to find a way through, yet they broke with pace and seemed to find it easier to penetrate our defence and to create chances. They were unlucky with a great effort hitting the woodwork and had two further chances in the first half when a lack of composure spared our blushes. The introduction of players who have not been starting this season was very welcome. There were decent performances all round with Jamieson particularly catching the eye. However, a consequence of making so many changes was a lack of bite in midfield which led to Buckie getting into dangerous positions a bit more than was comfortable. We kept possession well, but I would have liked to see us be a bit more adventurous in taking players on, playing the cute passes in behind the defence and looking to shoot more often. For all our possession, we didn't create a lot and only had 10 attempts at goal. But today was not about putting on a show, it was about giving players game time whilst being good enough to win. In that sense, the game was a great success and I am sure the coaching staff will have learnt a lot from today's performance. We showed today that we are a team with good depth, and that must be a cause for optimism moving forwards.

No. You haven't missed it. I wrote to Scot Gardiner earlier in the week to ask where this was and he responded to say that they hoped to get it out prior to the weekend. Unfortunately this has not happened. I am, however, collating issues to bring to the next meeting and therefore would take this opportunity to ask folk to email any ideas or concerns to [email protected]. I would stress that this address is not a channel into the club but to the Supporters Trust. This allows the Trust to bring issues to the attention of the club on behalf of the fans and therefore provides us with the opportunity of having a fan led agenda and getting those views heard and discussed.

Apologies for not getting back sooner. I'm afraid our activity on Twitter have taken a bit of a back seat this year. It has been an exceptionally difficult year for the few of us who have been trying to keep the Trust in existence with workplace and personal circumstances severely limiting the time we can devote to the Trust. Our longstanding email address of [email protected] and the newly established one of [email protected] are both automatically forwarded to officers of the Trust and therefore if there is an issue you want a response to, then please email us. What we have been doing behind the scenes is to make improvements to the infrastructure of the Trust and we have recently developed a new website at www.ictsupporterstrust.org. There has also been. a fair bit of liaison with the club on a range of issues. To develop the Trust as we would like and to be more responsive over the wide range of social media platforms will require more people to get involved in the work of the Trust on behalf of the wider fan base. We will be saying a lot more about that in the near future.

Thanks for the clarification. It is a good point you make. First, let me say that we are at a very early stage. What has not yet been discussed is an agreed purpose for the Focus Group. That, I hope, will come at the next meeting on September 2nd. What was agreed at Monday's meeting was to open up a specific email address ([email protected]) for fans to submit issues that they would like to have discussed. This email address will be monitored and the issues raised will be collated by a representative fans body and not by the club. This means the agenda is to a significant extent set by the fans, and the fans' representatives at the meeting can ensure these issues are discussed and actions chased up on if necessary. One of the key initial questions must be about how this Group impacts on other routes of communication between fan and club. The club's website currently lists 6 different email addresses on its contact page and individual staff members and Directors will have their own email addresses too. My personal view is that our new email address would be appropriate for issues someone thinks needs discussion between the club and fan groups, but that personal matters or requests for information should be directed to the club as at present. However, as is already clear from emails received, one of the issues is that emails sent to the club are not being replied to. I see the Focus Group being about working collaboratively so that the club's engagement with fans is more effective and, that far from replacing them, one of the outcomes would be an improvement in the existing avenues for communications. That applies not just to emails, but social media and the website etc.

Not sure what you're asking here. This is simply the club engaging constructively with the Supporters Trust and other fans' groups. Surely something to be welcomed by all?

Many thanks for posting this, Robert. As stated in the article, a summary of discussions from the 1st 2 meetings will be published by the club in the next 10 days and if anyone wants a bit more detail after that is published, I will do my best to provide it. This a very welcome and positive development. There has been a lot of criticism of the club in recent years over what is seen to be poor communication, and this initiative provides a regular platform for some constructive 2 way dialogue. Clearly a focus group meeting cannot involve everyone who may want to attend, but we have set up a new email account of [email protected] and would encourage anyone who has any general questions, concerns or ideas which you would like to be raised at a focus group meeting to send them to that address. I will collate the emails and liaise with Scot Gardiner to bring appropriate items to the group. Whilst not everyone can attend, everyone can be involved. With John Robertson and Board Director Gordon Fyffe attending meetings along with the CEO, this is a great platform to ensure that the club is listening to the concerns and ideas of the fans. Fans coming through the turnstiles are the lifeblood of the club and therefore it is important that the club understands what will bring people to the ground and what make them stay away. Equally, it is important that the club clearly communicates the reasons why it can't always deliver what people would like. The creation of the Fans Focus Group is a really positive initiative in enabling this 2 way dialogue, but it will only be a success if the club is made aware of questions, concerns and ideas and discusses them with fans' representatives. I'm glad to say, the first questions have already hit the inbox - so keep them coming! Peter Mutton - Chairman, ICT Supporters Trust

What! A 5-2 home win?

Hmm. I think I'd rather have played Covid Rangers and lost 3-0.

I wasn't able to see any of the Peterhead match but was greatly encouraged by what others had said. Such a disappointment then to witness this lacklustre performance. When we got the well worked equaliser I thought we would go on to win comfortably. It should have given us a boost but we seemed to drop off the pace, and when we did create chances our efforts on goal were woeful. Fair play to Stirling though. They looked better than some Championship sides I've seen and they moved forward quickly with good movement from players who at times seemed quicker and fitter than us. They looked a real threat on the break and might easily have scored more. We played some tidy football at times with good ball retention and interplay in midfield, but there was a lack of movement up front, we were rarely able to find the defence splitting passes and any crosses into the box were generally poor. As for the defence; being lucky to concede only 2 goals at home against a part time team 2 divisions below us tells its own story. But hey. It was back to watching live football and that is a real positive.

A timely reminder that there is a lot of Covid circulating locally. Everyone at the club has done a tremendous job in trying to keep the club Covid free, so hopefully everyone going to the Stirling game will follow the rules and help to keep it that way.