clacher_holiday2

The season isnt a mess but it really could become one very quickly. I've been saying for about 6 years now our pitch is far too big and thus far too open for us to defend well on against decent or athletic teams, being honest there wasnt any of either in the SFL. When we play well, we can also use it to our advantage but typically it doesnt suit our style of play, if the SPL played on 6 a side pitches we would be unbeatable! Apart from set pieces, when was the last time any team spent an afternoon putting decent balls into our box from the touchline? Or us into theres? All the decent balls into the box coem from players cutting in and getting closer to goal. As simplistic as it sounds, on a slightly thinner park theres less distance for a ball to travel and thus its easier to whip a ball in rather than loft it, it sounds too stupid to be true, to me it is. I've made alot of money over the past 3 years gambling on away teams in the SFL when playing at a ground with a plastic pitch. The psychological boost received when running out onto a clean, fresh, perfect astroturf pitch in the middle of winter, after a weeks training in mud and slush, cant be accounted for when considering tactics, the side who doesnt normally play on the decent pitch or rather hasnt recently, is always up for it as theres a genuine motivation there to go out and take advantage. For me, its exactly the same when GOOD teams come to the TCS, they see a huge wide park with all the space in the world to pick out passes or try runs through. When defending, they can do so further up the park as they know any attacks coming in numbers will have to be built slowly, they dont need extra time to react to a long ball as they can see all of our players are the extra 10-15 yards further back and wont support quickly enough to make anything of it. EVen when a full back is beaten on the wing by one of our players they know that they'll have an extra second or two to catch the flight of any cross. I've heard it from fans of all Scottish clubs, even when we were getting beat 3-1 on Saturday- 'its a very difficult place to play'... is it really?! Thats like saying Hampden is a difficult place to play! We should slash 5 yards off both touchlines, take a good 6-7 yards off the goal lines, we'll never see international football at TCS so why the hell do we need an international sized pitch?

One of the best ICT players of all time, due absolute respect, wouldnt be surprised to see him back with us at some stage in his career.

I miss Rivals, back then Livi, Clyde and Ayr were the teams to beat, it was so easy to go between all the other clubs websites. My strongest memory from the rivals days was actually on livilions, I posted more there than I ever did on our page. I remember coming 3rd on the LiviLions tipster competition by about 10 points (out of about 400 odd, went down to a tie break) even though I didnt enter it until after the first month had passed, it won me a subscription to their fanzine. I think there were 2 weekends in a row where I predicted 4 out of 5 correct scores for the first division games and took nothing but stick for it as I was too young to gamble, so must've been 1999. I think it was around 1999/2000 for me, that's when I first got the internet at home, I must've signed up around the start of the season we beat Celtic for the first time as I remember coming on to vent about the first game being called off. I've had a quiet couple of years on the site being a bit older and wiser busier now but back when I was part of the Young Team going to most games and on here everyday, I loved nothing more than spending the afternoons winding people up and picking apart posts word for word to prove what a smartarse I was. Was all for a good cause I think..?! I did manage to bring Bobby Manns other half onto the boards and took a hell of alot of flack over Charlie Christie, which looking back was ridiculous given how these forums and the internet in general have integrated into everybodies conscientious. Back then people were coming on and blaming the INTERNET for things that I was saying, just wouldnt happen anymore, the value of individual posters opinions is utterly worthless these days given that almost everybody in the UK has a Facebook page/forum and 24/7 mobile access. In other words, the web has been totally diluted with so much tripe that any controversial or iffy opinion that somebody doesnt agree with, can be dismissed purely because it was posted online and thus has become the tripe mentioned, regardless of its legitimacy. Clacher_Holiday2 ENJOYING A DECADE OF BEING RIGHT

Theres a thread on Hibs.net with a few similar veiws from Hivees at the game today. Police Harrassment of ICT Fans In South Stand

It seems crazy after so many years of this, that nobody on either side of the standing/sitting divide has ever clarified what the law is. TBH- in the past I've always said if the law says we have to sit down then we should regardless of what any other group within a ground is doing and I sort of see the police and stewards side when they say they are not in control of the entire stadium. However until theres 100% clear rule regarding what we're too do in a football stadium then fans of any club are entitled to say 'if 4,000 Old Firm fans can stand then why cant 400 ICT fans?'.

Funnily enough the signs on the Royal Nip say its re openning as a Wine Bar (!)

The Royal Nip has closed down for renovation, so the Iona Bar will be packed out with about 100 extra Hibees, not sure if they are letting in away fans or not for this one.

Cheers 12th Man. It's a good start and will only get better, its a good use of the space.

Anybody take pictures?

I'm pretty sure Blackburn were ?16 two seasons ago, would be shocked if it was moe than ?20 for them.

Ross County @ 2.37

Yep, I think they were lost with the forum upgrade. No question its going ahead, just wondering if we have a prize or not. IF we dont then so be it..

They sponsored the comp and put up a prize for the winners. Any hep with the updates would be appreciated, 2 or 3 of us could have them updated no problem at all, it doesnt take long to get through everybody.

Very Ronaldinhoesq, love it.

Can't disagree with any of those odds tbh.

Despite last years issues- there was a good turnout all season, the new one is fast approaching so lets get this sorted asap. Issues that need resolved before going any further... 1- Prizes, McBookie Sponsorship. Are they with us this season? 2- Anything else we want to see? Changes in format, rules etc. The rules last term were pretty simple. - Everybody starts with a set number of points - Everybody must select one team to place their 10point wager on from the SFL each week using the posted coupon, with all bets being settled as they would be in the bookies (ie. lose -10 points win +whatever your profit wouldve been) - All bets must be posted before 2pm on each Saturday. Unless of course theres an earlier kick off, in which case all selections for that game must be posted up 1 hour before the early kicks off. (I think we only saw these when Scotland were playing) - Failure to pick a team would result in a loss of 10 points. However you may pick your side before the odds are posted if you know in advance you wont be able to get on the website. - During the winter, postponed selections would result in a return of your 10 point stake, however you are allowed to change your selection aslong as you do so pre the deadline. - In the event of there being less than 6 games going ahead in a single round of games, all bets would be voided. The other rules related to prizes.. besides those I dont think I missed anything out. I think thats pretty much it :023: Whats the story with McBookie?

Saturday or Sunday?

I have to admit I'm not a keen follower of their goings on but as a casual observer I was under the impression that Bougherra, Davis and McGregor were all leaving, even Miller was leaving at one stage. Apart from being deliberately over the top, my point was that the SPL is one of the worst leagues in Europe, the quality is absolutley abysmal. Any team willing to put a bit of effort in should do very well.

Having seen the squads every team is fielding in pre-season friendlies (including the Old Firm) and having watched a couple online, I could honestly see us doing well next year. Rangers won the league last year and will line up something like this.. Alexander Broadfoot Weir Webster Papac Naismith McCulloch Edu Whittaker Fleck Lafferty What sort of crappy midfield is that? Whittaker and Naismith going to get stuck in are they? And people say our defence is slow.... I'd take Roscoe, Munro and Innes in a 100 meter sprint over Broadfoot, Webster and Weird anyday, So... can we win the SPL this season? :022: I'd be gutted if we split the Old Firm, theres no Champions League for 2nd this time.

As far as I'm concerned we shouldnt mutter the word relegation until (at the very earliest) Christmas, we have to go out and win as many games as we possibly can playing the same system we used in the first division, once the weather gets awful we can then look at where we stand in the league and what needs to be changed.

I don't see what the big deal is, its just an armband, the players are all supposed to be adults and professionals. Everybody who starts a game has the same responsibility to bring out their best possible performance and to bring out the best from each other, if it was that big a deal then they'd all be wearing captains armbands. I'd be quite happy to see it being passed between 3-4 players throughout the season, for me theres no reason Foran, Munro, Roscoe, Duncan and probably Esson shouldn't all take turns. It would stop the pressure building on any individual's shoulders as the season goes on, especially if we go on a run of bad results and would likely give a boost to each player as its rotated between them. But like I say, it shouldnt be that big a deal i nthe first place.

The comps always been administered by the players rather than for the players, it'd be good for everybody to get involved.

No thanks required GJ, like I say updating it is no effort at all, its just difficult for me as I've hardly been on this site this past season. I was happy to do it when it suited me, sadly it became very infrequent, there were a couple of times I simply refused to update it purely because there were calls of 'wheres the update?!'... as a rule I rarely help people who refuse to help themselves! It's not as if I owe anybody any favors. As I've said, anybody can update the table, people could even update their own scores if they wanted, it isn't difficult. Theres no question the comp will be here next year. We just need to do a bit of brainstorming to come up with a way of raising more interest. One idea I flirted with at the start of last season was having a prize that directly tied into the losing bets placed every weekend, that is that one of us lays the bets every Saturday on Betfair that are placed on the comp (or even just the most backed selection for simplicity) and to then distribute the returns to the winners at the end of the season. The ins-and-outs of such an arrangement I dont know, but it wouldn't be difficult to set up and obviously any contributions would be voluntary, if we had ?100 rolling over every weekend from the start of the season (assume 10 x ?10 donations) just past then the prize fund wouldve been just under ?450 with the amount folks lost. Couldve split that ?200, ?100, ?50, ?50 ?50 between the top 5, creating interest throughout the field and given the winners greater gloating rights than they had this time out. But more importantly than the prize, it would bring the competition back to its roots, originally it was set up as an experiment by Bob to see how crap we were at gambling That was my idea last year and it was rightly rejected because the competition is supposed to be free to enter, but something needs to be done for next year.

These issues show up exactly how poorly designed and cheap our pathetic stadium is. Will we be entering year 7 of our temp stands come January?