clacher_holiday2

you know youre an ICT fan when you wait 33 games for Liam Keogh to score his first goal, then wonder if he might be better off in midfield still one of our best players ever

Why do people think I'm critisising the team? I'm criticising the bloody fans! Heres a rundown of last minute goals for and against us this season... i know this should be on another thread St Mirren 2-2 Inverness CT D.McGregor Goal 90+2' -2 points Hearts 2-2 Inverness CT 90+4' Goal C.Pepper +1 point Inverness CT 1-1 St Johnstone 90+2' Goal D.Robertson -2 points Inverness CT 1-1 Hearts 90' Penalty Goal M.Zaliukas (pen) -2 Points Dundee Utd 4-4 Inverness CT J.Daly (pen) Penalty Goal 90+3' -2 Points 4 points dropped at home through poor tactics and tired legs, 8 points overall, both are problems that should've been fixed. There's other games where we have won points and lost them in the final 10 minutes of matches but you can excuse that. Looking on the BBC, we've been in front in 8 of our 11 home games (Motherwell, Celtic and St Mirren) and only won 4 of them, do you think maybe the 11 men behind the ball to hang on tactic doesn't work?

Just because I'm not going mental about us being second place it doesnt mean I'm being negative. I think we probably are the second best team in the league this year but its not as if we're 15 points clear of the bottom 6 is it? We're 13 points ahead of Ross County and they've a game in hand at home to Hearts to come, theyre second bottom ffs. The leagues too tight to take any real pride in being next behind Celtic for me, its too tight for some of the talk on this website. I hope theres not too many voices in the ears of the current squad reminding them how wonderful they all are whenever the season comes up, they'll all be expecting 10k a week each and an open top bus whenever they draw at home to St Mirren. The jobs nowhere near done yet.

Negativity? All I said was we haven't achieved anything worthy of this outpouring of praise yet, the last two posters haven't exactly changed my mind on that front lol I never said anywhere it was all about to come to an end either, me saying I think we should be doing better isn't being negative at all. Complacency has stopped better teams than ours in this league. I just hope the attitude shown on here doesn't filter into the playing staff, they'll be expecting an open top bus during the winter break for being in the top 6 ffs. It's when we start to take our ability for granted that we won't be coming back from being goals down, you lose all urgency and intensity in play when you assume you'll come back regardless of the effort you put in, its already been evident in our last two draws. When you have players who believe they've already achieved something due to the level of celebration in their honor, aswell as not feeling the need to prove themselves as much, they'll feel they deserve rewarded for it by a better contract, which is something else we're seeing from a couple of players atm. We could end up being the victims of our non-existent success without even playing a game in January.

Your right Mantis, we have done well, even a non happy-clapper like myself can see that. The tone of your post suggests you're in agreement with me that some on here appear to be going OTT though? We aren't the finished article by a long shot, really open at times and so far this season we haven't really achieved anything. I'd be alot happier if it was the bad luck you talk of that's having us lose out on extra points and not sloppiness or poor preparation, which is how I see it. To me bad luck in football is conceding an exceptionally good goal, a poor refereeing decision, the conditions cancelling us out, a bad deflection or I guess any unpredictable event that any team has to weather over the season. Bad luck isn't conceding when you're defending on your 6 yard line for the last 10 minutes, a poor back pass isn't bad luck, sloppy sideways passing in midfield isn't bad luck, nor is your keeper being beaten by weak shots or giving away corners through flapping bad luck. I'd like to think those praising us aren't doing so in a patronising manner, I know the media are. If we do end up finishing in the top 6 we will rightly take praise but until then we're very much the plucky highlanders who are going above and beyond themselves. I mean there were calls amongst Hibs fans for the manager to get sacked up until they beat Celtic last weekend, yet nobody is commenting on them having an exceptional season? Theyre only 3 points behind us, so you would assume their fans would be as delighted as some of ours are. Same could be said for Aberdeen or Dundee United, both are only a couple of wins away from us yet they're having average seasons. This business of us doing well by our own expectations is nothing but an excuse for playing sh1te and dropping winnable points. Even I've been surprised a few of the new players coming in have been good, they've exceeded my expectations, by all means let us say that. However aslong as we have a team capable of beating most sides in the league then that's what our new expectations should be, once we get back to having a worse side than the likes of Aberdeen, Hibs or Motherwell then we can settle for dropping points and inconsistency. I just worry complacency will put all of our good work to waste, there's no need for it.

And happy new year folks !

I really wish people would stop talking about our 'great form', we've been crap loads of times this season, we've dropped a lot of points purely because we've been complacent rather than because we've been outplayed. You'd think we' were 10 points clear at the top from Celtic the way some on here go on, the league table shows theres only 7 points between us and the bottom 6 and 10 to St Mirren in 10th. The league is very tight. I very much doubt theres many fans of other SPL clubs as impressed with ICT this season as some on here are, they'll be looking at how tight the table is and dismissing the league positions entirely.the same way we would if we were a mere 3/4 points behind a side with half the season left. Obviously we're way ahead of where our budget says we should be but then we've got the players to pick up these points for now regardless of their wages, total credit goes to Butcher and his contacts down south for that, I just worry that we should've had more points on the board by now. We've been lucky this past two weeks not to have been taken out of 2nd place, as the rest of the league closes up behind us, pretty much every dropped point will see us fall down a place or two. We should have the points in hand by now to keep us in the European places regardless of other teams results, instead we're two defeats away from trying to cling on to a top 6 spot and challenging for position with County.

Plus the Longman even in the middle of summer can be a pretty hard sell.. (!)

That doesn't mean there's no hope at all though, there are other ways football clubs can make money like in any business. Clubs could make long term investments in real estate like St Johnstone have (or used to have?), they've been able to fund a team way above their attendance levels for years because of good management. If holding a season ticket meant a fan was able to get discounted meals, gym memberships, flights, cinema tickets etc etc then its the sort of investment that people would find a hell of a lot more appealing, as they wouldnt have to attend every week to get the full value of the ticket. Hell theres no reason a club like ICT couldnt own the gym, the restaurant, the sports bar etc etc themselves. I'm pretty sure theres clubs all over Europe with setups like that. The only way to make money for the club for free is to call upon the fans to bring more people in, that clearly isnt working as most ICT fans are pretty apathetic when it comes to legwork at the best of times.

The reason crowds are down is because of football on TV, its a global phenomenon of the past 12-15 years. Theres clubs in the far east who struggle because of the EPL ffs. All clubs in the UK suffer from it no matter what their size, there's clubs in the English Prem itself who play in towns and cities where the local fans are outnumbered by fans of the top clubs. In years to come even the Old Firm will suffer because of it, eventually the remote fans of the Old Firm in Scotland will soon be following Arsenal, United, Liverpool etc from the sofa. Satellite TV, the internet, more people being nomadic for work or education; these things have all contributed to people having no identity with the towns or communities they grew up in. A Liverpool fan in Inverness will use a Liverpool FC message board much like this one we use for our club, they will interact with other fans from all over the world. They will watch every game on TV or online, they will feel a stronger connection to that club and those people than any of the local "sh1te" as they'd call it. Lots of us might not call them real football fans, not just because they dont goto many games (if any) but because of the popstar like worship of the millionaires swanning about the park that couldn't give a **** how many people are watching. The fans of these clubs will simply dismiss us lot out of hand, they laugh at us for supporting a team that cant even afford a one million pound player. I've no idea what its like in Scotland now but there used to be a blanket coverage of the Old Firm in the printed national press, every pointless story or photo was talked about, the fans all over Scotland would lap it up. As the printed press thankfully dies a death, you'll find more and more taking their hit of football chat from the internet, where there are no borders and there's a real time feed of all the latest soap-operas each top EPL club churns out. Having said all that, I'm all for people broadening their horizons, even if its just virtually. We shouldn't kid ourselves with talk of reduced ticket prices, access or whatever, theres not a thing we could ever do to make it more appealing or cheaper to watch ICT than it is to watch the best clubs in the world while sat by the fireplace or from a bar stool.

Probably Renegade, twice a season two of the former 3 clubs would play each other and you'd have 500 folk there. As I said earlier, I'm sure that if any of the clubs went it alone, they'd be where ICT are now, purely because the vast majority of football fans in Inverness never really supported any of the former clubs despite the fantasists claims based on big cup matches. The 3,000 or so fans we have would be attending games regardless of which club it was. If Clach were the big team in the early 90's, thousands would've turned out to see them in the Scottish Cup against the likes of St Johnstone. Most football fans in Inverness back then had a big team and no real local team, if the alleged fans of Caledonian FC really existed, why did only a couple of hundred vote to save the club from death? That's the hardest question for the brave few in fantasy land to answer, its a question thats usually ignored.

if he hadnt of started the season in a seething rage, im sure we wouldve picked up a handful of extra points

this huge but dormant caley support, has never been anything but a fairytale. why did only a couple of hundred turn up to save the club from death? the truth is that there were always dormant football fans in inverness, they just didnt support any of the teams. the same folk would go and watch any inverness club in a scottish cup game and out number the regulars at least 5 to 1. I'd say its fair to assume that if any of the 3 inverness clubs who existed at the time of the merger had gone it alone then they would probably have a similar level of support we do now. the extra assets available because of the merger were wasted, so the loss of those and the 200 or so fans of the other non merger club can be overlooked as arguements against a single team eventually getting to the top flight. this is an old one but i still say the location of le stade de calais is still the number one reason more people don't turn out (at least it ranks way over the merger as an excuse). obviously moving somewhere less ridiculous and hopefully to a facility that more closely resembles the real thing, will never happen unless somebody else foots the bill. we missed our chance years ago and have been paying the price since.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/5541229-Inverness-Caledonian-Thistle-FC/dp/B001ODEY72/ref=sr_1_1?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1355800808&sr=1-1 The ideal gift for all County fans this Christmas

Dundee United, St Johnston, St Mirren, Hearts? Killie?

Can somebody work out how many points we would we have if games finished on the 89th minute? We're doing unbelievably well to get into winning positions. Sadly once we have our noses in front the whole side get nervous and start hoofing balls all over the place, which does nothing but invite pressure. Our greatest assets are all up top, at all times we should be keeping Shinnie, Doran etc as far up the park as possible. Not only does it force the losing team to keep the 'big men' back but it gives us an outlet for clearances. This all hands to the pump bollocks is ruining what should be our best ever season. Looking at the league table its mind blowing the number of times we've all felt deflated after a match, its not as if we're losing 5-0 every week. Infact the couple of times we have been hammered the mood tends to be reasonably upbeat. So pats on the back for everyone for getting a job almost half done, 18 games in now, how about we learn a lesson from the late goals that have kept us off the top of the league for the last 18 matches for the new year? Everybody reading this should consider that this is our best chance to win the SPL in all of our lifetimes, this weak a league won't come around again. NO PRESSURE

well, i backed ITC to beat celtic @ 9/1 i backed ITC 1to beat aberdeen @ 11/4 and now ive backed ITC to beat ross county @ 13/8... AND ive instantly regretted it, win or lose its the 'books money im spending. good luck all

theres no way we would ever be priced up as favorites in this fixture (short of us being 10 points clear at the top of the league) draws are far more acceptable in cup games than in the league, the bookies know this

9 points between 11th and 1st

can only echo whats been said already, hearts were there for the taking today, we sat way too deep and got what we deserved. i blame terry butcher for that, we were never set up to do anything but defend. the theory in having foran and OTJ in the middle is sound, aslong as foran doesnt drop back every single time, you need that outlet ahead of the defence, being the captain of course he feels he should be at the back helping. disappointing to draw any game from a late penalty, theres no lesson to be learned here though, we've been doing it all season, tbh i dont even consider us to be leading in a game unless its by more than one goal and neither should that side. even last week against kilmarnock they were down to 10 men and pressed us, its no way to see out any match

considering I can't even get a working radio link I doubt it

ta. happy birthday tm4tj

dates?

highlight of the first half was ross tokely smashing it against the county crossbar in the first minute

lol roscoe