DoofersDad

Brilliant statement from the club. Well done to the club and, of course, to Robbo.

Oh God. It will be Alloa after Robbo next!

No. It's too late to be thinking about this. It's bedtime ffs.

Daniel Hoban and Martin MacKinnon have signed new contracts too. Daniel's is a 1 year extension and Martin's is a 2 year deal. Great to see the young lads getting contracts. We're not going to be short on keepers!

Its only good on the club if the refusal was made with the agreement of Robbo. Regardless of contracts, it is in nobodies interest for the club to prevent anyone who wants to move to further their career, We saw what happened when the previous Board prevented Yogi from speaking with the Arabs. We're still recovering from the consequences. Given the memory of that episode, I assume that the club did speak with Robbo before Dundee were told to feck off but it would have been good to get a statement to that effect to firmly squash any unease. The Dundee statement about the vacant position refers to having been inundated with applications and that some of their targets are currently employed by other clubs and therefore they need to speak with those clubs first. This does not necessarily mean that Robbo has applied for the post, but if he didn't, it means Dundee are targeting him despite all the applications. We have good reason to be a little worried just now. I certainly hope Robbo is going nowhere. I think he's a great fit for the club and he has done a superb rebuilding job in the last two seasons. It would be a disaster for the club if he was to leave. I fear it would be a disaster for John too.

I assume the answer is "no" because the games will not be held under the SFA's jurisdiction. But there is a lovely irony of him being appointed to the top job just a few days before being found guilty at a disciplinary hearing. I expect this irony will be lost on the SFA but it really should be an opportunity for them to finally acknowledge that there is a very serious problem with the standard of refereeing in Scotland.

It would be good to see Donaldson get an extension on his contract - perhaps with a view to him taking the captain's arm band in due course. Tremarco will be 34 later this year, and much as I love the guy, he seems increasingly injury prone and I don't think he'll be able to command a regular place in the team beyond next season.

I hate all the vilification of players when they move on and especially when they move to our main rivals. These guys are simply making a living best they can in a career with a very short lifespan. Moving to a bigger wage may not always be the best career move in the longer term and staying a bit longer at a club you have developed well at, may result in a far better offer the following year. However, players like Chalmers are not earning much with ICT and it is completely reasonable for them to move on. And to do so with our thanks and good wishes.

I think opening up SPFL to promotion from the lower leagues has been a really positive move. It has allowed lower league teams to have some ambition whilst at the same time forcing some of the lower level SPFL teams to pick up their ideas if they want to remain in the system. This arrangement has been a huge success in England. The concern for me is where there is only one promotion place available, particularly in a situation like in the SPFL where that place is not automatic but subject to a play-off. This can result in a log jam where there may be several teams at the lower level who are actually better than several in the tier above. This is a bigger problem in England where the leagues mostly have 20 or more teams, but it might be more appropriate to have the team coming bottom of the SPFL being automatically relegated and the team next to bottom going to a play-off. Good luck to Cove, though. I think they will do well next season.

Confirmation of what we knew/suspected. Joe's been good for us at championship level but I'm not sure he'll add much to County in the Premiership. Can see him getting paid lots more for sitting on a bench than he did for playing football this season. Invest the money wisely, Joe!

Have they not just won the Northern League East division (level 8) by a healthy 12 points? This promotes them to the Premier division at level 7.

Congratulations Gringo. Top of the pack for a while and resisting the challenge of one and all. Well deserved back to back victories. I'd echo CMIB's thanks for your efforts in doing all the hard work in this. Respect. By the way, how did you do in the Prediction League?

The Board has told us how skint we are. CaleyD posted the following section from the annual report at the time of the last AGM. I think most posters on here understand the seriousness of this. It means we simply do not have the money to attract players who are proven to be quality at the level we are playing. Slowly but surely, the club is freeing up money from some of the irresponsible contracts of the past but that serves mainly to minimise the debt rather than free up money for more lucrative contracts. And don't be too dismissive of Robbo going into the English non league in search of talent . Remember, England has 10 times the population of Scotland and teams like Morpeth will be Scottish league 2 standard at the very least. Given that David Carson was not only their player of the season but also the division's player of the season, I expect he will be a very able addition to our squad. Finally, Dean Brill was playing at Wembley today for Orient in the final of the non league FA Trophy. The crowd was just short of 43,000 which was nearly 6,000 more than watched ICT when we won the Scottish Cup. The standard of non league football is way, way higher than non league football in Scotland and it will remain an important hunting ground for us. Our club has a fantastic record of identifying players with the potential to play at a higher level and we need to continue to do that if we are to continue to operate in the top two tiers of the Scottish leagues.

Very strange. The move is also reported on the P&J website. I get that Kelty are an ambitious club and may well be challenging for the lowland league title next year, but it still represents a massive drop in level for him. I certainly prefer White to Austin in many respects but I always felt that Austin was a more natural finisher and he's had a few very composed finishes for us. It may be that a drop down the leagues will provide him with the opportunity to boost his confidence with a hat full of goals, but I remain to be convinced that Yngwie's explanation isn't the truth of the matter!

Agreed. I certainly don't think there is any conspiracy nor is Robbo suggesting that. But there is a real lack of consistency. I appreciate that referees have a very difficult job and need to be given a bit of slack from time to time, but I would have to agree that the standard of refereeing we have had this season is the worst I can remember.

Robbo will be in trouble for his radio interview. Called the 4th official a liar and said he was no longer going to stand for the the attitude and incompetence of officials. Earlier on the commentators were saying he was a class act by the way that despite the disappointment, he took the time to congratulate all the Utd players and applauded their supporters. Well done Robbo! Needs to be said.

HT 1-0 FT 2-1 ICT White Opp Safranko Crowd 6212

Maybe the hotel staff will put cascara in their porridge.

I think Polworth's red is fair enough. I agree the head was low but it was low for some time, he was second to the ball. and the studs were showing. I'm not sure that the part of the head Connolly is clutching is the part which Polworth's boot made contact with, but that is irrelevant. Polworth's actions were reckless. And to be fair, Polworth seemed to accept the decision without any surprise. Commentators were suggesting that Donaldson's tackle was more of a red card offence than Polworths but unless there is something which shows up on the replay, it looked a fairly nailed on yellow to me. Frankly, it was probably more important to keep Donaldson on the park than Polworth so perhaps we can't complain too much. However, unless an appeal is made and won, that may be the last time we see Liam in an ICT shirt and certainly the last time at a home game. It will be very, very sad if his last action as an ICT player is to trudge off the park after having been sent off.

I was amused by some of our supporters shouting abuse at the Utd players and the referee for Utd's time wasting at the end. After the red card, they always looked the more likely to score and having got the goal, I fail to understand why they didn't use the man advantage to push for further goals. They played as though the it was a one off game and not a two leg tie. They should have gone for the jugular and may regret not having done so. After conceding the goal I am perfectly happy that we are only one goal down going into the 2nd leg. Thought Aaron Doran was superb in the first half and it's a great shame that we weren't able to capitalise on his work by scoring. No doubt that Utd got the rub of the green in this game. Their fans will now expect them to put the tie to bed at home and all the pressure will be on them. I think we are capable of upsetting them on Friday.

HT 0-0 FT 0-2 ICT McDonald Opp Safranko Crowd 3112

Being in the play-offs at all means that we have finished in a higher league position than we did last year and benefit from a not inconsiderable extra amount of prize money as a result. Any income from the play-offs is therefore a bonus. The priority IMHO should be to get as many people into the ground as possible to provide the support for the team, and that means charging minimum prices. Some of us are fortunate that the price is not a consideration, but for the large number of fans whose finances are pretty tight and who want to bring the family along, buying tickets at the minimum price even, represents a significant outlay which they were not expecting. Upping the price to midway between the minimum and the minimum for the final round is a further £10 on top of Saturday's £36 for 2 adults and 2 children. That will be enough to discourage some. Good marketing on social media and other channels could have emphasised the need for a good support and to state that the club has priced the game at the minimum allowed in order to help as many people as possible get to the game might have encouraged a significant number of folk to make the effort. It would have been good PR.. I expect the higher price being charged will result in a smaller crowd but will still bring in more money than had the price been kept to the minimum. But that is not the point. As I say, any profit from the game is a bonus, what really matters is to get the fans in to cheer the team on in what is the most important game of the season so far.

I agree with RiG about him having been open about his mental health issues. Hopefully the atmosphere of our club and the wider community will be just what he needs. If that's the case, then he could be a very decent signing for us.

With a two goal advantage there is always the expectation that you should win. It brings a lot of pressure which increases when you lose the first goal. The momentum of the tie changes as Liverpool and Tottenham demonstrated with devastating effect earlier this week. In the circumstances I think we. coped pretty well and managed the game very sensibly. It would have been nice to see a bit more of a cutting edge but it wasn’t the occasion for taking risks. Another accomplished performance from Jamie McCart and a really solid one from Jordan White. I don’t expect us to beat United, but given the spirit the team has shown this season, anything is possible. Come what may, we have exceeded my expectations for the season. It’s been a good one.

HT. 1-0 FT. 2-0 ICT. White Opp. Shankland Crowd. 2788