DoofersDad

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ICT. Billy Mckay

Arbroath. Jay Bird

Crowd  1712

It is a sad sign of the times that the sheer stupidity of the Chair and Vice Chair of the planning committee does not surprise me. It is of course appropriate, that Councillors with a relevant interest in a scheme declare that interest. But how many of the committee members actually have a relevant interest in ICT?  Going to watch them from time to time is hardly a relevant interest. 

What next?   Will these numpties be arguing that no councillor should be allowed to vote on any housing proposal due to a “relevant interest” of being generally supportive of building more homes to alleviate the housing crisis?

As for complaining that more Inverness based Councillors didn’t vote, words fail me.  What on Earth did they expect if they come up with such spurious examples of “relevant interests” which are obviously going to prevent Inverness councillors from voting! 
 

And what don’t they understand about what a quorum is?  A meeting is either quorate or it isn’t.  If it is, then the vote is perfectly valid under the rules of the organisation.

6 minutes ago, buckett said:

Joke thread . . . . surely?

 

Sure, it’s too early to think of Dunc getting sacked but it’s fair enough to question what we’re seeing. There was a terrific new manager bounce after an awful start with Dodds, but it’s gone very flat. 
 

Hopefully the team will gel a bit more and become more positive going forward as a result. To be fair, Dunc inherited a mess. As far as I’m concerned, avoiding relegation is the main target.  Assuming that is achieved then I will be looking for improvement both in terms of results and entertainment next season. If we don’t get that, then it would be time for someone else. 

Kane would drop deep and get the ball himself. Haaland would struggle though. 

Doran is class. He hasn’t played many minutes this season but he and new loanee Samuel are way ahead of anybody else in the minutes per goal stats. We need him on the pitch looking to shoot on sight and the likes of Billy and Samuel primed to pounce on the loose balls from blocks, saves etc. 

Dunc has spoken highly of the ever present Gilmour, but I think I’m right in saying he has scored just once and has no assists. For someone in his role it is not good enough. Shaw may not be playing as well as last season but he has as many goals and assists as the rest of the regular midfield put together. 
 

Football is about scoring more goals than your opponents. It is not about how many safe passes you can make. 

Away tactics. That’ll mean the crowd making a bit of noise then!

Was the park and ride concept not one which specifically related to the construction of the Red John Hydro scheme?  The idea being that the significant construction workforce would get bused to the site from the stadium.  The club would therefore get a steady revenue for the parking of workers cars and, possibly, various construction related equipment.

Another idea that had been floated at one time was to turn the Sports Bar into a cafe with a view to attracting workers from businesses around stadium road and NC500 traffic.  This would be linked with several car charging points.  Can't see this catching on myself.  

Can't see a traditional park and ride working either.  I live on the Black Isle and so the site would potentially be very convenient for me.  But why would I wait half an hour for a shuttle to take me into town when there is plenty of reasonably cheap parking in the city centre and regular buses which I wouldn't have to wait half an hour for and which go directly into the centre?

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ICT.  Mckay 

PT. Graham

Crowd. 2859

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ICT. Gilmour

Hibs. Le Fondre

Crowd. 4266

Yellow. Obita

Many thanks for the feedback Robert.  It sounds as though granting of the planning permission would be a significant one off boost to the club, but refusal would be a disaster.  I wonder if the in-between scenario of an appeal against whatever the decision might be was discussed?  Appeals processes can be rather drawn out and this would leave the club needing to find further ways of keeping the current set-up going for what could be a fairly uncertain time frame.

It is positive that the Chairman was prepared to come to the meeting to talk about this.  It is also positive that  Scott Young has formally been appointed SLO and has expressed a willingness to engage with the Supporters Trust moving forward.  However, this is just a very small step in what will be a long journey.  We know and the club knows that the SLO should not be a Director of the club.  We also know there are a host of issues which the club should be dealing with and are not.  We need to see a massive change in attitude from the club in the way it relates to the fan base.  Coming along to a few meetings to update the fans on a few issues simply doesn't cut it.

The outcome of the planning application will be crucial is shaping the the strategy and priorities for the club for the next few years.  Regardless of which way the planning decision goes, the club should be looking to involve the fans in developing future plans.  The fans are the lifeblood of the club and if the club had engaged more constructively with them in the last several years, the club might not be in quite the precarious position it now finds itself in.  

9 hours ago, Leaky Blinder said:

Okay thanks. Well all we need to do now is find out who is this weeks Communication Officer & let him know

Quite.  If you didn't laugh you'd cry.  Seriously though, the SLO should be the main contact person between the club and the fans.  Any club that values communication with the fans would ensure that the appointment of the SLO received maximum possibly publicity.  Not to publicise it at all is contemptible.  Not only has the club not announced this, they haven't even bothered to change the website.  It still lists Gordon Fyffe as SLO.

It is great that Scott Young has been attending the Supporters Trust's open meetings and I wish him all the best in the role.  I do wonder though, what the club has told him his role is.   The SLO is a role that Supporters Direct Scotland and the SFA have worked closely together on in order to provide guidance to clubs.  Scott, just in case you haven't been provided with a copy, you can find one here.

I wouldn't be looking forward to this if I was a Hibs fan.

That was a hard watch.  Players getting used to each other was probably a factor as was the gusty wind, but in truth, Queens showed more energy and desire and were better organised.  The stats say we had 17 shots on goal (which is encouraging) but none of them made the keeper work.  I'm not too despondent though.  I think we do have the talent to make progress once the team gels and I think the new signings give us options we didn't have before.  Savage looks decent at centre back, McAllister looked lively and Pepple looked strong and could be a good target man.  Pick of the new signings at this stage would appear to be Samuel. He probably should have score again today but he holds the ball up very well and has a great work rate.  

At the moment there is a pretty obvious lack of confidence in front of goal, exemplified by two awful efforts by Gilmour towards the end,  but with options up front, we need to be more positive going forward.  If we do that we will create more and we will score more.  We also need the fans to get behind the guys on the pitch more.  It means a lot to them and yet for many of our so called support, the most noise they ever make is when they are shouting abuse at their own players.  It is a significant reason why the team seems to play so much better away from home.  We call ourselves supporters, so let's give a bit support to the team.

We've been hoping that a lot of money making things work out, but one by one, they all seems to end in disappointment.

Maybe this is an appropriate time to remind folk of what Scot Gardiner said in a lengthy CEO update posted on June 13th.  Referring to the new Green Freeport, Gardiner said "This is a designation which will no doubt be hugely impactful and positive for the club for years to come and we are working with our legal team at WJM and our new auditors A9 Accountancy in Inverness to maximise the opportunities on this front."  Just a few months later, and thoughts of this being a boost to the club's finances seem to be dead in the water with the club Chairman, Ross Morrison,  telling fans at a Supporters Trust meeting that he just couldn't see how the club can get any benefit from this at all.

Gardiner also wrote "Infrastructure improvements at the Stadium have been identified and exciting new commercial contracts have been progressed, some to be announced in the coming days including our technical kit partner and main jersey sponsor/partner and subject to legal agreements in the coming weeks, we hope to have important news about the Stadium and its environs."  Despite the Trust's Matchday Experience Survey identifying a wide range of issues with the stadium and its environs, the hoped for important news has still not been delivered.

 I hope to make it to today's game but I won't be able to go to the Trust's meeting before it.  Scott Young, the club's newest Director, should be present at the meeting and should, by now, be rather more up to speed with what is going on at the club.  Perhaps he will be able to tell supporters what it was that was hopefully going to be announced, but which hasn't been.  Is the stadium going to remain an unwelcoming dump or is the club going to act upon some of the constructive and cost effective ideas that fans came up with in their survey responses and which are outlined in the survey report.?

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ICT. McAllister

QP. Paton

Crowd 2219

2 hours ago, Yngwie said:

The documents are Ross Morrison being granted security over the club’s assets (including ICT’s battery farm company) having put money into the club in the form of a loan. Similar to what a bank would do if it lent money to a business.

 I have little understanding how all this business wheeling and dealing works, but my take on the position is this.

1.  In answer to OCG, I think this is the first time secured loans from Directors have been used to finance the club.  I think there may have been previous bank loans

2.  The fact that secured loans are being made suggests that those providing the loans do not have, or are unwilling simply to give the club the money currently required to keep the club afloat.

3.  In the event of money coming into the club, either from the Battery project or elsewhere, Morrison and Munro would expect their loans to be repaid resulting in the "charge" being discharged.

4.  If Morrison and Munro request the loans to be repaid and the club does not have the money to repay them, then the Battery Company shares become the property of the 2 directors.

5.  ILI have a business model of acquiring land and driving through planning consent for green energy projects and then selling the site on.  I would assume that this is the case here and that there would be an injection of cash relatively quickly if planning permission is granted.  ILI will not have had to purchase the land in this instance and therefore both ILI and the Battery company will profit from the sale of the site.

6.  In the event of the battery project failing, then the shares in the company would become almost worthless.  The club could then repay Morrison and Munro with the shares so that the 2 of them would in effect be writing off their loans.

It does seem to me that this all indicates the club's financial position is pretty precarious, but hopefully someone with a better understanding of these things can prove me wrong.

One thing that will sit uncomfortably with many is that Morrison does, apparently, now have money to put into the club (albeit with strings attached), when so recently he was unable or refused to put money into the concert company.  The concert company was declared bankrupt with the result that local creditors were left out of pocket as a result of the concert company's botched management of the concerts.

Need to get some defenders in before the window closes

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ICT. Carragher

Raith. Vaughan

Crowd. 3562

43 minutes ago, STFU said:

Interesting selection of signings and makes me wonder if Ferguson is looking for defenders who are more adept at playing out from the back and/or who are more capable of holding a higher defensive line.

I don't know anything about the new players, just wondering why we'd be loading more defenders into the squad.

Agree with others that we must have players going out, or maybe we have injuries we don't know about.

Interesting thought.  A tighter defensive line would then allow a few more risks to be taken up front.  Either that or big Dunc is hoping that 15 goalless draws will be enough to ensure survival.  

When I come home after a game and tell my wife what a shite game it was - again, she is at a loss to understand why I still go.  But after over 40 years, I think it is healthy still to have a bit of mystery in a marriage.

I wonder if the club will open the North stand for this one? 

The scoreline flattered us.  Broomhill were very poor and this should have been an opportunity to take a few risks with taking players on and playing more adventurous balls into space.  We didn't do that though. For most of the game it was boring tippy tappy passing going absolutely nowhere.  When we did play a ball behind the defence, it was either misdirected or had too much on it.  Had Gilmour's shot not found its way through a crowded box just before half time, I am sure the team would have been booed off at half time.  Broomhill went down to 10 men early in the 2nd half.  The man advantage on top of what should be better fitness levels should have resulted in us using the width of the pitch to really stretch the opposition.  Whilst we dominated possession, we never created much.  Fortunately, Brooks was sharper in the box than the tiring Broomhill defenders and Samuel took his chance to make amends for his poor effort from the spot.

Despite his penalty miss, Samuel deservedly got the sponsors MOTM award.  Given that he is apparently not good enough for the County matchday squad, that says a lot about the level the rest of out team is at.  The answer to IHE's question is "no".  We haven't got what is needed.  Of course it is great to be through to the last 16 of the cup, but if we don't play better than this in the league for the rest of the season, we are going to be struggling to avoid the drop.

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ICT. Brooks

Bromhill.  Grehan

Crowd.  920

It is flair we need on the park; not flares off it.

It is interesting that although Welsh had not played a full 90 minutes for us all season, he was fit enough to be able to do so for Queens Park today.