LancsDave

If he was staying, it would have been announced by now. He's going and the powers that be must think that announcing his appointment within 48 hours of a match between them would be disruptive for both clubs and TB. I don't think there's a hope in hell of seeing him in the dugout tomorrow...........unless he does another Barnsley.

Was Shinnie's goal the first by a Scot this season?

At the moment it's £36.50 day return to Edinburgh from Preston on the train. Less than 2.5 hours each way. You can arrive from 10.30 to 1.30 and leave at 18.15 or 18.50. Twice the price from Manchester and you have to change! Redspottedhanky.com is a good site - no card charges.

I'm with you Laurence but I'm English and live in Lancashire so I know not a lot about it. I'm a part time Caley supporter and mainly support Burnley in the Championship. On Saturday, Burnley are at home to Birmingham with a chance to get within a point of a play off position. I'll be at Easter Road though because, to me, it is the biggest match, yet, this season for either Burnley or ICT. If others think it's not a "big" match, then that's fine. The main thing though is that it's ICT''s biggest match this week! I find all this talk about "only" 2000 going to be depressing. I think it's fantastic that so many people are prepared to travel. Inverness to Edinburgh is not that much less than my journey from Preston!

We'll be taking a more direct route from Lancashire than IHE, just calling in at Alloa to see an old mate, then off to Dunkeld 3 points later then off to west of Torridons for a week complete with snow chains and shovel!

I'm really pleased for those who went to Killie - it's a hell of a long way whether you stay at Inverness or Chorley!

Interestingly, my English team, Burnley, played at Bristol Rovers last night and even our local paper says that BR's 2-0 win was deserved. Now Burnley are a top 8 Championship side who played premier football the season before last. Where does that place ICT's 2-2 draw?

As Motherwell is the nearest team to where I live, I'll be there with the missus. Watch out for a pair of 60 somethings!

According to our local rag in Lancs, Gornell is in Inverness now for talks. Stanley lose their best players every year but always seem to find replacements.

I saw him play for Stanley several times last season and he impressed me. He's not very big but he's quick near goal and is one of those players that seems to be in the right place at the right time. He'll be missed at Stanley, but every year about 8 leave and the canny manager brings in new young players, usually from Liverpool youth. Until I read this, I didn't know he'd left Stanley!

I'm not a good judge of a player because my only sighting of Barrowman was a pre-season friendly at Burnley 2 years ago and Burnley's promotion season. Of the players on view, I thought that Barrowman, who got Caley's only goal, was the only ICT player who would strengthen Burnley! As I said, I'm not a good judge of a player! When I was at QOS, I picked out Hayes as the worst player on the pitch. He then dribbled through and either belted it in or put one on a plate for a team mate - bad memory!

Fantastic win and I'm looking forward to 800 mile round trip in August. Cracking finishes for goals 2 and 3. Highlight was a certain manager kicking a water crate. Mark Hughes was sent off for "abusing" a bottle down here in Englandshire last month. "Abusing" a crate should therefore be a season long touchline ban.

Our local Burnley paper has reported this as a possibility. They are both raw but they score goals. Chances are limited at Burnley. Iwelumo, famous for his "miss" for Scotland and Stephen Thompson, ex Rangers, are both struggling for a starting place but are ahead of these lads I'm doubtful that Inverness would benefit from them but goal scoring does seem to be a big problem up there at the moment. It would be interesting to see who they would displace, if anybody. I'm hoping to be there against st Johnston on 19 Feb, so look out for a claret and blue shirt in the crowd if the deals come off!

I've stayed out of this as I'm a part timer who is English, living in England and only sees the team 4 or 5 times a year but I was there at Tynecastle. I'll vote for the above as the sentence that sums it all up. Seats weren't reserved in Edinburgh and, though the Caley end was well populated, there was room to move around for those who didn't like the company round them!

I'm only a part time fan and went yesterday because I was in Dunfermline the night before. It was amazing to see so many people had travelled from Inverness (and Chorley!). It was a great atmosphere from both sets of fans and I thought Hearts were a good side even if they did a lot of diving. Kyle hasn't changed much from his days in England. Inverness's defence was tremendous and some of the play in the last third was intricate and good to watch. Shame about Hayes who couldn't cope with the slippery surface. Could have nicked the game in injury time. I think he made the right choice to shoot instead of passing. He was central to goal and a yard either side would have scored. The main thing now is to pick up wins against the lower teams - the job's been done against the big boys!

A couple of years ago, ITV 4 showed matches from the 70s. It's hard to believe the difference. A player going to ground was an exception, apart from Leeds games. Now every time a player hits the deck, every 30 seconds, the opposition player goes down with him. Refs have an impossible job with all the cheating fakers. The problem is that the good guys don't complain enough. Come on, TB, let rip into the cheats! When Thierry Henry handled against Ireland, he said the ref should have spotted it and so it was the ref's fault for Ireland going out. Some people agreed with him!! Big Man, it is Integrity that's gone from a lot of the game.

The non penalty against Dundee Utd when your man spun round and fell over without any contact. The ref gave a penalty, the linesman didn't and the rest is history!

Celtic Craigy, you seem to be a decent type except you make no mention of your own divers! It was your man that triggered the farce that got the refs in a sweat. It seems that clubs who play in Europe a lot are the ones who have the most divers, the same as in England. Maybe ICT will dive a bit more before long, then! How can a manager slag off a ref when he, at the very least, condones tactics to hoodwink the ref? it's a horrible advert for football when the "big" sides feel it necessary to cheat against their much lower paid peers. The highlight for me yesterday was not Hayes' goal (cos I missed!) but Rossco's block, I think on Beattie. He was so stunned, literally, that he didn't react fast enough to "play act"!

Me and the missus coming up from Lancashire. Runrig in Dunfermline on Friday. 3 points on Saturday!

Out of curiosity, I looked on Rangers site for their report of the match. "When Beattie fell in the area, a penalty was given!" Says it all!!

Even from 400 miles away that was a terrible decision for a penalty, matched only by a terrible penalty! A superb adjustment by Ryan to stop it though. It's no good slagging off refs all the time, though - cheating managers and their players have to be brought to book. Starting with Smith and McCoist and their charges.

Thanks, Il Padrino for explaining IHE to us - difficult at the best of times. It doesn't matter who scores the second and winning goal though I don't give Mr Rankin much chance! A 2 - 1 win is an optimistic call, but two draws in Gleska seemed a bit that way didn't it! I'm off to Burnley shortly to find a pub showing the match, then going to Turf Moor to watch Burnley beat Leeds. I'll be the only there wearing both an ICT shirt and Burnley one!

Don't be surprised if an England Championship club came knocking!

Hayes's late miss wasn't on the BBC video - bet it would have been on if it had been Rangers! Foran was blatently blocked by that bloke who's older than me and his header was, in my opinion, a bad miss rather than a good save.

Has anybody a better SPL record at Ibrox than ICT?