Caley Mad In Berks

I seem to remember reading that there is some help given to clubs in this competition who have to travel outside their normal zone. Or did I just dream that?

Yes, I know they merged with Oswestry some years ago, just over the border from their Welsh origins. Still think it could be a good trip. Certainly for me it would be less than one third the distance than Sneck.

Love to see us get an away tie in N Ireland, or even Wales, next round. They could be 'away' days with a difference.

5 goals this afternoon (7 Oct)...................... Two more for Phil Roberts for Braintree, One for Curtis Allen for Glentoran One for Martin Laing for Inverurie One for Adam MacLeod for Strathspey

Yes, nail biting stuff, and it all comes down to a real 'must win' game on Sunday. I know there is a mathematical chance of a draw being enough to secure second place in the group, but I think we can reasonably think that the odds against Slovakia dropping points against Malta are likely to be 50 to 1 against, or more. Even second place with 20 points ,(reducing to 14 in the process to decide which of the 9 second places misses out), may not be enough to see us into the November play offs but we would be very unlucky to miss out if this case, and the odds would now be in our favour. All in all, a great position to be in which many of us would not have thought possible a few months ago. I just hope that we don't end up regretting England's last minute equaliser against us a few weeks ago.

Adam Evans scored twice last night (4 Oct), for Shelbourne, in a 4-2 win (aet) against Dundalk, to help his side win the Leinster Senior Cup.

One that 'Caleyboy' will like..... The Lion's Den - 'Home of Pride of the Highlands'

Well put 'bdu'. A very reasonable, and accurate, assessment of the season so far. Many other clubs would have binned their manager by now in similar circumstances.

I noticed Dean McDonald's name crop up on the "Remember this guy" thread. I checked him out for interest. He has had at least 12 clubs since his decidedly unsuccessful spell with us 10 years ago. His best spell was a couple of seasons at Farnborough in 2009/11 where he scored 45 goals, would you believe, in 90 appearances. This gained him a trial at Swansea City, but no contract. He moved clubs frequently after this, turning up at Dulwich Hamlet last season, a reasonably successful, London based, Isthmian league side. He scored half a dozen goals for DH, (all of which I missed ,btw, in my 2016 year end stats of ex ICT goal scorers). He has now moved on to Merstham FC in the same league.

Lee Cox scored for Coalville Town tonight (02 Oct) in a 2-1 defeat at Stourbridge in a Northern Premier League match.

What? No Lionel Djebi-Zadi on your short list even?

As this is quite possibly going to be the only competition this season that we have any hope of progressing in, surely we should 'have a real go at it' and play our strongest team against Peterhead. I. along with Robbo it would seem, have no idea what this might be. It could mean, as you suggest, playing some of the youngsters. Whatever side we put out, it will add significantly to our current woes if we were to lose, at home, against a Div 2 outfit.

Marley Watkins red cardedin the last minute for Norwich at Reading this evening (30 Sep)

Sat 30 Sept 2017 Adam Rooney scored a HAT-TRICK for Aberdeen this afternoon. In the Highland League , only spotted three scorers ..... .........Michael Finnis for Clach, Dan Park for Cove and Andrew Greig for Brora Also, overseas, two of our much derided forwards of recent years, Henri Anier and Dani Lopez scored again for their Finnish and Spanish clubs. They have been on the score sheet quite a few times in recent weeks, unlike the dross we have replaced them with

But do you no know "No no Nanette" ?

Who is going to move it at half time? Oh, I've just remembered, our forwards don't score goals anyway, so it wouldn't make a lot of difference if it was in the opponents' goal mouth for half the game.

Doesn't sound good. Tremarco, when fit, is about the best player we have left (and probably should be Captain). I would have thought it would be in Robertson's interest to get players like Tremarco on his side, rather than alienating them.

Quite a few scorers yesterday (23 Sep). I spotted the following........................ Eng Champ S Winnall (Derby 1 - Birmingham 1) National League (S) P Roberts (2) (Braintree 5 - Hungerford 0) Non League Premier R Eagle (Leiston T 3 - Met Police 0) SL 2 J Brown (Edinburgh c 0 - Peterhead 3) Scot Cup A Greig (Hat trick) (Brora R 5 - Girvan 0) D Gillespie (Edusport Acad 1 - Rothes 1) M Laing ( Lothian This HV 3 - Inverurie 2)

Well spotted. Checking up on him, I see he has been back in Spain for a couple of years. Before moving to Elche CF a couple of weeks ago he was with Real Murcia from Jan to Aug this year and scored once for them back in January.

Funnily enough, I and my wife were actually in Seville that weekend, along with 2 business colleagues and their wives, having booked the week end ages before, knowing nothing about the Cup Final. Our hotel, along with most others was inundated with Celtic supporters, and there were, apparently, several thousand others who had no accommodation at all. I can well believe this as the city was overrun with Celtic supporters. I have to say I saw no trouble at all, and I had the greatest banter with those Celtic fans in our hotel when they found out I was an ICT fan. I usually have not a lot of time for the supporters of either of the 'ugly sisters', but I must say that week end the Celtic fans did Scotland proud, from what I saw anyway. Fair play to them.

Certainly being born and bred in Inverness is a good reason to support ICT, especially if you are young enough not to have had any allegiance to the 3 Highland League teams before Caley and Thistle merged. For us oldies however (and I know that at 76, I am one of the oldest on the forum), it was not just a case of being born in Inverness, but which specific part of the town you came from which determined in many cases which team you supported. Obviously the Merkinchers supported Clach (and still do), those from 'up the hill' supported Thistle, but Caley's catchment area was not so well defined. I suppose the growth of the Dalneigh housing scheme provided a good number of Caley's core support. But my own case was different. Living near Holm Mills, and with parents uninterested in football, it was only when I was about 9 or 10 that a neighbour just a few years older took me and a friend to our first Highland League match. It was Clach v Caley at Grant St and Caley won 2-0. I was hooked from that day onwards. I still remember the wonderful Caley team of the early 50s. Willie Bruce, the keeper and Donnie (Ginger) McKenzie, the inside left, were my favourites.. In fact Donnie's sister and one of my much older sisters were best friends, and I can still remember how thrilled I was to meet him socially on a few occasions.. Many years later I was a guest of him and his wife in their home in Winnipeg, Canada, and I well remember chewing the fat about Caley well into the wee small hours. Very soon after that first match, my parents and I moved to Hilton, where most of my friends , and also most of my school friends right through my six years in the Academy, were Thistle supporters. So, but for that fortunate trip to see Clach v Caley, it is entirely possible that I could have ended up a Jags supporter. Leaving school at 18, I then studied in Glasgow, followed almost immediately with a couple of years in Canada, so I never really lived in Inverness again except for college vacation periods, and a few months in 1964 when I returned from Canada, before, later that year, moving down south, initially to London and about 3 years later, to Twyford in Berks where I've been ever since. My love for Caley never waned however, even though I only got to see them a couple of times a year when on holiday back in Inverness. Well do I remember these 13/14 hour drives through the night with the 3 kids stretched out in the back of the Morris Traveller. (Couldn't do that these days!). I was not in favour of the merger in 1994, and would have voted against it had I been in Inverness at the time. However, I soon embraced the newly formed team. And, that year, 1994, coincided with me leaving the corporate world and going it alone as a computer consultant. Some of my clients were in Scotland so I'd arrange Friday meetings when possible so that I could incorporate an ICT match. Also, my children were 'off our hands' by then, so getting up to Scotland at short notice was a lot easier. So, I probably managed to see ICT at least 4 or 5 times a season, and even a bit more frequently after we made it into the SPL, by which time I was retired. I've not managed as many trips in the last couple of years as BA have changed their schedules and the last plane from either Glasgow or Edinburgh to London is now about 19.30 which makes it just a bit tight for getting up and down in a day. So my trips north nowadays usually have to incorporate an overnight stay as well, which for both time and cost reasons, make them less attractive. But my love for ICT remains. I have never had a 'big club' either in Scotland or England. I just hope that we can survive these terrible times we are going through at present (and all last season) and that we can regain at least some of our former glory.

And yet another for Phil Roberts tonight, 19 Sep, for Braintree,in their 2-1 win at Royston in the FAQ R2 tie

Today (17 Sep), Dani Lopez scored for Arenas de Getxo in Spain.

Sat 16 Sep I spotted only three scorers on target this afternoon ......... Curtis Allen for Glentoran, Dan Park with a couple for Cove, and Gregory Tade with his first goal for his new side, Maccabi Petah in Israel.

Just noticed that Andre Blackman recently moved from Crawley Town to Barnet, and indeed scored for them on his debut, a couple of weeks ago, and then got red carded in his second game!