Caley Mad In Berks

Wow, what an incentive to win next week! A possibility of a 'home' match for me down the road in London. Bring it on.

Just got back down south. That was a game that was there to be won. Astra did not look that dangerous, but neither did we. We had lots of possession but mainly side to side in the middle of the park. Only Christie looked as if he had any imagination going forward. Disappointed in Doran. Of the new boys I thought Wederburn did OK. Unimpressed with Fon Williams for the goal. He was very indecisive in setting the wall and then didn't cover his near post adequately. He made a couple of good stops later though. I fall into the 'what had Esson done wrong' camp. I realise we needed to bring in an experienced keeper with Brill seemingly going to be out for months, but I expected it would have been as back up to Esson, not the other way round. Lopez looked slow, although with a decent touch, but clearly lacking the pace of Marley. Roberts was anonymous in the 10 minutes he was on. I assume Vincent and Tremarco were injured? What about Dave the Rave? Although Meekings did OK, I much prefer Raven at RB with Meekings alongside Warren, who had his usual strong game. Tansey MOM? What was that about? I thought he was OK at best. Draper far from his best. Williams Ok, I like him better the more I see him. My worry for next week, and indeed for the season is where the goals will come from. Anyway, onwards and upwards. Good luck to the team and our supporters over in Romania. Sorry i can't be with you.

Signed as number 1 keeper eh? Bit harsh on Esson I feel who did nothing wrong last season. Also, I'm sure Brill will be delighted when he is fit again.

Wouldn't be surprised if there is something in this. United will certainly have the money having shifted 'Shifty' to Tic. Certainly Billy has not 'cracked it' at Wigan. He hardly got a start under his namesake, Malky, and doesn't seem to be higher up the pecking order with the new man.

Many a true word spoken in jest!

H/t 1-1 F/T 2-1 ICT Tansey Astra Budescu Time 17

9 July Jason Oswell again, for Newton in their 2nd leg win in Malta

Interesting question ! I can't make the game in Romania due to a long standing previous commitment. But I am sure it would have been cheaper for me to get there from down here in Berkshire than it will be for my trip to Inverness next week for the 1st leg. When I add up flights, parking at Heathrow, hotel, car hire for a day, ticket, food and booze I'll be lucky to see any change from £500. Pretty sure I could have got to Romania cheaper.

I definitely agree with Renegade that there is something 'not right' about the club's silence on this rumour. I supported the club's stance all through the saga of not publishing the amount of tickets sold for the cup final, and even for their coyness about publishing the amount of season tickets sold so far. I sort of get their reluctance to go public on anything to do with money. But this Latapy issue really confounds me. If there is nothing in it, why not come out and deny it and put everyone's mind at rest. If there is something in it, then give us credit for being reasonably intelligent and let us know what is going on. I, for one, cannot believe that it was just coincidence that Rice apparently was in the dugout for the Deveronvale game. I believe that the majority of posters on here are honest, serious ICT supporters and I think we deserve better communication from the club on this issue. I've only written to the chairman once before (on the kicking Rangers out of the SPL issue), but I'm tempted to contact him again over this. Come on ICT, treat us like adults!

I read on BBC website that Curtis Allen, (plus one other Glentoran forward), missed their Europa Q1 tie last night because they were 'away on holiday'. Really surprised that they were allowed to be away for this game which Glentoran lost 1-4, leaving them a mountain to climb in Q2. Maybe Glentoran don't see Europa Cup as important?

Some well taken goals but it has to be said that the standard of defending at that level looked very poor and he would need to sharpen up for the Scottish Premiership. A contract until January initially ? As mentioned before, make a show reel of a player banging in goals and he'll look great. But if you consistently see goals being scored then you'll see a fair bit of bad defending. Conference football. Probably on a par with the Scottish Championship? Talk about talking the game in this country down. To suggest that our Premiership on a par with the conference is just about as ludicrous as your previously expressed view that the Highland League was and is amateurish pub football.... I think 'iamthecaptain' was surmising that Conference level teams might be on a par with Scottish Championship sides, not Scottish Premiership. He could have a point in my opinion. Certainly I think top conference sides would give lower Scottish Championship sides a run for their money.

Thanks for the updates. Good to see both trialists score on their debut. Encouraging! Hope they impress Yogi. Lets see what the second half brings

Really sorry that he has had to go to get a regular first team berth. I wish him all the best with his new club. He will always, for me, command a place in ICT folklore history for his dramatic equaliser against Hearts in the league cup semi last year.

Smee is correct. The original Caley and Thistle supporters were indeed passionate about the teams we followed, and rightly so. Also, it is not strictly correct that Highland League football was amateur. I know for a fact that some of the Caley players, even from the early 50s, when I started watching them, were well rewarded as part time professionals. I don't know how many 'glory hunters' are now supporting ICT, but for me, the more the merrier. We need all of them, and I hope our current success will breed a new generation of young fans who will grow to love ICT in the same way as we old Caley and Thistle fans loved their clubs. Some one on here posted that he thought many of the 'reuseniks' simply reverted to supporting their 'big teams' when ICT came into being. I feel sure that this is correct. In my own case, however, I never had a 'big team'. Not in Inverness when I was growing up, nor in Glasgow when I was a student, although I did watch Partick from time to time, as they were close to my student digs. Then when I moved to London in the 60s, I didn't watch football at all. Even when I moved to Berkshire in the 70s, although I like to see my local teams, Reading and Wycombe, do well, I don't class myself as a supporter, although I'll go and watch them from time to time. The only English team I like, which no one could call a 'big team', is Exeter city and that is partly because a friend of mine has been Director of Football there for many years. So it has only been Caley and ICT for me. One of my big regrets is that I have failed to persuade any of my grandchildren to show any interest in ICT. They don't even follow their local team, Reading, being too easily caught up in the hype that is Chelsea, Man Utd, Liverpool etc. But these premier league giants will never give them the same enjoyment as I had from supporting Caley and ICT.

Well I remember those trips as a youngster to the Nairn Games on the train. How exciting. It was our only day out of the year, and the trains in those days didn't even have corridors, and each carriage was packed to capacity (and more!). As I grew older my mates and I sometimes cycled to Nairn on Games day, taking our lives in our hands on those long stretches of the Nairn road. But an enduring fondness for the links at Nairn was generated which stayed with me, firstly as a cricketing venue, and later for golf on Nairn's two great courses.

He could hardly have picked a club further away, without leaving the UK. But I dare say his 'seething' ability will have preceded him to the good folks of south Devon. I wonder how they will take to it?

For what its worth, I usually use Google Chrome as my browser, but I've just tried Internet Explorer and it seemed fine (including pictures). If anything it was quicker than Chrome which seems to be quite slow since the changeover, which I assume is just teething trouble.

I wouldn't have him. I suspect he will slip down the leagues now. Unless he ends up at County of course. More likely Brora though?

Just two more weeks now until we know for sure. I'm sure Easijet and others will be inundated with bookings soon after the draw is made. Personally, I think Ireland (North or Republic) would be great for our first venture abroad. Bring it on.

I hope the chips wern't burnt too!

At least I feel better about him going there than if he had gone to Aberdeen. He'll join another of our old boys, Sam Winnall, there.

Great to see Dean Brill, even with his gammie leg, joining in that.

Likewise, a couple of the last ditch tackles he made were sensational. Had he just mistimed them a fraction almost certainly we would have had a couple of penalties.

Yes, can I endorse the thanks to Gringo who puts a serious amount of work into this for our enjoyment. Well done again sir.

Loads for sale on EBay.