Yngwie

Just be in the squad, I believe. But he would also have to be contracted to ICT at the time of the tournament, and I don't think OFW is unless he signs an extension between now and then.

Get a room!

Like this......?! http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/court-rules-independence-camp-cannot-be-evicted-from-holyrood-1-4119971

But the comeback is on!

0-3, getting embarrassing.

...but are 2-0 up.

Between them they have 68 goals for ICT, which is considerably more than the whole ICT XI have scored for ICT!

And yet at the same time, underwhelming! I'd liken it to Celtic winning the league this season. It was always going to be the outcome, but the didn't do it with any flair, and the margin of victory was smaller than before, despite the unprecedented weakness of their opponents. Indeed, their traditional main adversaries are a shadow of what they were back in 2011! Tactically the team is nothing special and has few ideas these days, with the only game plan being to get the ball to the star striker. They benefit of course from having more season ticket holders than any other team, these supporters being the most vocal and devoted (whilst also being considered somewhat paranoid). Recent forays outside of Scotland generate much excitement and noise, but ultimately bring little success and they're only really there to make up the numbers. Always like to think of themselves as a bit rebellious, without realising that these days they are well and truly the establishment.

Flack, I reckon.

All this talk of austerity, but UK public spending is only falling by very small amounts in % terms, compared to what would have happened had enough people been fooled into voting Yes. Year 1, and the already massively indebted Scottish Government's already planned massive annual deficit would have had an unplanned £7bn black hole due to the oil price (with similar to follow in subsequent years, it appears). THAT'S when you get real austerity, the kind noticed by every single person, every single day. Thank goodness for the broad shoulders of the UK, eh? Those nice English taxpayers just have to subsidise us more than ever before. Perhaps I'm fortunate in that I can't say I've actually noticed any tangible impact of the Tory/SNP austerity, until recently that is - the local out-of-hours GP facility was closed down due to the SNP health budget cuts, so that instead of being 1 mile from me I have to go to Dundee 28 miles away, which is something you notice when you have young kids and need these services in the middle of the night. Whose fault? I was reading the other day that in the time the UK has increased NHS spending by over 4%, the SNP has chosen to pillage the Scottish health budget and increased spending here by only 0.8%.

He could yet be managing Raith in the Premiership!

Ex-ICT OTJ at CJT?

There will be at least 2 away fans, I know a couple who are travelling up for the game. At first I couldn't imagine why they would bother, then I remembered that the alternative for them was a Friday night in Dundee.

After initially wondering if Jamie Vardy was in the Fleetwood side that played us in 2010 (he wasn't, he signed for them in 2011) I've been trying to think of connections (however tenuous!) between us and Leicester City. Billy Mckay, Johnny Hayes, Lee Cox and Eric Odhiambo all started out at Leicester Caledonian FC sold Kevin MacDonald to Leicester in the early 80's, leading to a friendly between the sides which Leicester won 4-0 (but we should have had a penalty!). For me and quite a few other Invernesians, I'm sure, Leicester were the first English team I ever saw play. Kasper Schmeichel has played at TCS, for Falkirk Best of all in terms of tenuousness - a former flatmate of Riyad Mahrez has played at TCS! Matthias Pogba for Partick (they played together at Quimper). What other loose connections are there?

I wonder how many times Thomson has asked himself how things might have turned out for Utd if he'd paid the very reasonable sum of compensation ICT were asking for Hughes?

Billy Mckay, Edward Ofere and John Rankin were all relegated with Dundee Utd tonight. Ofere, who had a great strike rate for us after signing mid season, finally got his first goal for Utd tonight. Since leaving ICT, Mckay has been relegated twice in 15 months.

None of the parties involved ever said he was! Just that he hadn't been offered anything at that time, as there were other signing priorities to be sorted before a final decision would be made. Hope he is staying, and more importantly, hope he regains his place as one of the first picks on the team sheet (cos there's no point giving him another contract and then not playing him, obviously).

That's only the 3rd time this season that we've managed 2 consecutive league wins - on both previous occasions, the 2nd game was against County so was pretty much a given! Hopefully we can make it 3 in a row against a Utd side who may well be officially relegated by the time the game takes place.

Nice to see us be the beneficiary of poor passing at the back!

Plumbing the depths?

Interesting and informative analysis (as ever) DD. If only BBC Scotland and the rest of the particularly weak Scottish media would scrutinise things in this way and ask challenging questions of our government!

Raven hasn't left! Oh, and I think that might be Tremarco's tattooed arm?

Does anyone else recall, must have been at least 10 years ago, this site had a Dead Pool competition?! (You picked 10 celebrities who you thought might die that year, and I think you got more points the younger they were when they died). I seem to remember doing quite well in it, but can't remotely remember who I picked. There were, inevitably, some people who complained that games like that shouldn't be allowed. But predicting somebody's demise is very different to causing their death, or actually wanting them to die.

I can't help but be reminded of the approach to election taken in 3rd world countries where, due to poor education and illiteracy, political messages use pictures and are kept very simple. Surely, even after 9 years of the SNP running our education system, things aren't that bad here!

I'm as disappointed as anyone at this news - but at this stage I won't lambast the manager, because I don't know the reasons behind it. Budget constraints, unreasonable demands, a much better right back already signed on PCA? Who knows, but I hope there is a darn good reason.