Laurence

Somehow one feels as Hamlet did, it may be better to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or take arms against it - But does a noble mind exist at Scottish FA towers - I think not. ? I do feel Strachan was the sufferer of the most outrageous fortune especially the England game he nearly won.

Hi all I did not get to the game However I am happy to note Inverness avoided defeat , We now have twice the points away than at home . lol Hope full ICT will get a win before Bonfire night.

My opinion and I have been involved with football for nearly 70 years , was he was not interested. He did score a goal which took a deflection or so it seemed from where I was sitting. The second goal again from my vantage point was at leas a yard offside.

In Rugby terms the wheels are due to come off the chariot The problem with the England team is they only have a couple of world class players, by world class I mean somebody who has the potential to play for Barcelona or Real Madrid or PSG - That is Kane and Ali possibly Walker - Thinking of Stirling or Henderson they may get in the B side at Barcelona. The centre backs are average Smalling and Jones , Stones is moderate , The goalkeeper Hart is Terrible and is not as good as our Wales man Fon Williams. Maybe Butland is sound , but I prefer the ex Celtic man Forster . I can't see for the life in me how they can compete with , ( the usual suspects ) Spain , or Germany, from Europe, or Argentina. from South America - No unless it snows in Russia it will be a very poor campaign for Perfidious Albion. When I think back to the team, that won it, Gordon Banks, the two Charlton's, Bobby Moore , Peters, Hurst , Hunt , Ball, I could go on. This England side is terrible and hasn't a cat in hells chance. I rather think Southgate will be following Strachan to the Dole queue Having said all that they may totally confound me and lose to Germany on penalties in the Semis.

We are talking about our number 7 or is there some other guy with the same name. Come on Polworth played like he was totally disinterested. If that is trying his best I would like to see him on a bad day.

I cant believe I have just spent half an hour reading these posts when I should have been working. Dear me I will never learn

You are right Kingsmills . - Off we go again, As Nelson said " England Expects ", Tough ask, because , Since 1966 and all that, England just can't take the pressure. I get so embarrassed , the news papers are mainly to blame. The other home countries including the republic seem to have passion , no passion in a white shirt I'am very concerned. I think Southgate is a good coach,

They have already called a stadium after me ( tongue in cheek ), The Banks's Stadium at Walsall Or was it called after a brewery ? I wonder

I rather feel ICT finances will not stretch to anything better than a rookie manager , or a proven manager for a lower league team. Lower league managers like the guy at Accrington , stooped to watching Sunday league football in Liverpool, in the hope that he would spot a gem. If Iceland can qualify and put England to shame, anything is possible in football . Plenty of giants in Scottish sport most play rugby though

"Doofers Dad and Charles" are absolutely right. I agree totally with their eloquent summing up in the state of affairs. One of my biggest sporting regrets in my life is that in 1966 I was caught in a traffic jamb traveling to Torquay with my girl friend to start my holiday , I missed the game on TV and I just knew it would never be repeated. Some 51 years has passed. My point is that in any sport you love; is grab the minute when life is good, and not get too down with the converse If ICT had ben top of the division and going well , I would not have been at the game, because the competition does not rank in my portfolio of sporting must see activities. But because of our poor start to the season, I wanted to see how we coped with a relatively easier task than those afforded to us by our very capable opponents in the championship . I just hope that some lessons where learned by the management and the team, not to hopeful about No 7 though. With regard to the £20 debate , my daughter who accompanied me to a St. Mirren game one boxing day a few years ago announced to the assembled throng on exiting the ground in a loud voice , " Waste of 25 quid ". It was the first time she had watched Inverness.

Without mentioning names I thought our No 7 looked totally disinterested throughout the game. with regard to shouting from the stands , When people get upset and frustrated they will on occasion shout at the team, unlike myself I just mutter and groan not too loudly.

I wrote this without reading what other fans have said so my comments would be original and not coloured by others , I will read their observations later Taking into account the standard of the opposition the overall result was more or less as expected. so the score line was good. However the performance was average. I suppose we have to be thankful for small mercies Two saves by our excellent goalkeeper helped immensely. It was notable that the custodian took on the role of organising the defence, throughout the match he was forthright in his annoyance of the standard shown by the back 4. Mainly their positional play and failure to press and close down in a professional manner. The midfield I thought was not up to standard their weak play put the defence under a lot of pressure, especially towards the end of the game , when a lack of fitness seemed to take its toll The forwards are weak not enough strength and a target man most be found before any real progress in that department will be found. I was pleased with the attitude in the team in general, they worked hard and seemed enthusiastic. One or two, I won't name because if they read this, it's not fair, but they are not up to the job, in skill, and their passing is very average to say the least. It is nice to see an improvement but their is still a long way to go.

I agree totally - There is life in Raven yet

Richie will do well at Elgin I am sure , I think there is potential in the lad

Not sure what administration will bring in Scotland Did not Airdrie get punished in a draconian manner some years back. We all know about Rangers. Leeds in England had numerous points taken off them. I went to an away game with Bury at Brighton and had to suffer the embarrassing sight of watching the home fans throwing money into buckets , to help save the Bury club. Fans were being asked to buy bricks in the stand walls , and pay for seats with their name on them. So embarassing Whatever happens administration must be avoided at all costs

Bonfire night . If we don't have a win by bonfire night . we will have to bring in a new broom. Just home the dust raised in the sweeping doesn't choke the sweeper = D H Lawrence

Did JH not get sacked at Hartlepool , I am thinking from memory here, the seed of Hartlepool's demise might have originated from his tenure.

Long before I came north ; Inverness were becoming a legend ( I remember on the Bury message board people were commenting on an ICT result at Ibrox . In deepest Sussex I was reading stories of unbelievable victories. One of the reasons for me living up in these parts was the thought of watching this amazing team. I read Charles's book, (Against all odds ) and it read better than a novel, I ordered six copies and I sold them more or less straight away , interest in the team even in America and Australia was apparent . if it had been fiction nobody would have believed it . When I watched the semi finals - and then the finals against Aberdeen and Falkirk , I was really in my element It was wonderful. Now there is a equal and opposite reaction. If we ( and I use we with pride for an outlander ) are to survive and build again, we will be stronger and better for it.

From the club administration point of view finances are a problem. I don't think they ( the board that is ) expected relegation , when they didn't ( or refused to ) delve into the coffers to pay for new contracts players were demanding after the cup win JH obviously got frustrated he was unable to keep his team together, or even attract loan players because of a shortage of cash RF took up the reigns with his hands tied behind his back. He was too inexperienced to keep the club up , only a couple of points between going down and staying up. The board miscalculated and the unexpected relegation shook them I am sure Relegation meant more cost cutting and the club only held on to a few of their former players , Again I don't think the board saw it coming that another relegation was possible. From what I am reading on this forum most of the fans also are totally shocked by the situation. the new manager also is under severe financial restraint , he is hoping he can get enough points together for survival , but he needs to find new players to score goals. the older players are getting depressed and moral is dropping like a stone. I wonder if administration is not far off , all the signs are there , that the only option maybe is to go down or go bust. Sounds horrible to contemplate I think it is pointless to blame this person, that person, or the board or the man in the moon It won't change anything. Somehow or another we have to start winning matches , The ball is in the boards court , it is their problem, and it all comes down to money.

I shall ask my friend Richard who taught with you to elaborate a little more on your prowess, he was waxing lyrical about your abilities during a bridge game I partnered him.

My first reaction was Who ate all the pies ? Then I thought Which of us is D'Artagnan ? But that doesn't fit the " one for all and all for one", unless the one gets the bullet

Spain won the world cup without any strikers Mind you they had 6 midfield players of extremely high world class stature The line up shows David Villa at CF but in reality he played so deep it was in mid field GK 1 Iker Casillas (c) RB 15 Sergio Ramos 23' CB 3 Gerard Piqué CB 5 Carles Puyol 16' LB 11 Joan Capdevila 67' DM 16 Sergio Busquets DM 14 Xabi Alonso 87' CM 8 Xavi 120+1' RW 6 Andrés Iniesta 118' LW 18 Pedro 60' CF 7 David Villa

I agree with the quote in its entirety and most of the other quotes I have read I was a firefighter for 30 years, I never heard alarm bells this loud , and some of the stations I worked on the bells would awaken the dead.

During the match we appeared to struggle when attacking to worry the centre halves of the opponents , try as ICT did the killer through ball never materialised. I was always worried that the counter attacking speed of Queen of the South , would undo us. A few times QOTS broke through owing to our lads being too far up the park, only to see their forwards shoot wide. Whether it was their fear of Fon Williams positional sense at the last hurdle or just poor shooting I will never know. At one point I thought who is the biggest lad on our bench , it would be the now reserve goalkeeper Ridgers , I thought to myself why not bring him on at centre crash , at least he is big enough to head the ball down to the second man Connor Bell , who can play maybe. Man City once brought on their goalkeeper for that very reason towards the end of a game, Any port in a storm as they say. My other thought was TB the anathema of the fans and the club, but could he return to sort out the mess , As he said to the Hibs players , he would throw them under a bus, if they didn't perform. As we all know he got the sack there. But we also know that his abilities to get in useful loan players was amazing , they could ( the board that is ) ask him to sort out the club who it is obvious from comments I have heard that he still loves the club. Don't worry have a go at me if you think I am barmy, I can stand it

Just got in People round me mostly to a fan said " The worst match they can remember " It was pretty dire Player of the match was our goalkeeper . That sums it up. , Two first class saves . We had no weight up front , nobody to challenge with any force. No real shot or header on target A blind man on a galloping horse could see we need a big centre forward above all else. Now we seem to have the custodian situation sorted For the fourth match in a row in my opinion we were second best overall . Something will have to be done . The Mr Micawber character from the book David Copperfield, famous saying was he was waiting for something to turn up. Is Robbo from the Micawber school of philosophy. I wonder