Snafu

Spotted 4 bottles of the limited edition celebration whisky in the Whisky Shop yesterday The whisky was bottled to celebrating our 3-1 win at Celtic Park in the Scottish Cup in 2000 and 3 of these have been signed by our two goalscorers Barry Wilson and Paul Sheerin. They are selling for a steep £100 each though but should be highly collectable.

Match 1 Celtic - Average side - but still a different level by far in this league. Great result yesterday.

Match 2 Hearts - They are absolutely keech - dangerous to underestimate them, probably will give us our hardest game other than Celtic mainly because they will be right up for it.

Match 3 Killie - Verge of bankruptcy with a Sumo wrestler as their only scoring threat - Killie's debts are coming down and they have one of the largest squads in the league, however their form has been patchy but again like Hearts we might not know which Kilmarnock team we will face.

Match 4 Aberdire - The most over-rated team practically every season since Fergie left. Full of injury prone lightweights AKA Johnny the Tink - They seem to flatter to decive at the moment, improvements there though, we should still beat them and finish above them in the league for the 3rd time in 4 seasons.

Match 5 Hibees - Your having a fecking laugh guv - They are still our ****** and have got even worse this season, should be good for our goal difference.

Our target must be to take at least 13 points from these 5 games. Well we are on target for that at the moment.

We would have stuffed them if we had played the high energy pressing game that we deployed in the 1st 3 games.

 

We sat back and let them play and we must stop giving the OF so much respect. Hopefully we will learn from today.

 

However - Well done lads

I don't think there was anything else we could have done, Celtic had a sense of purpose and urgency about them that was missing from that midweek game and dominated the midfield simply because they had better players, they just lacked a bit of flare and imagination to open us up. Had we pushed forward more often especially in the 2nd half we would have been cut open repeatedly, did you miss what happened a couple of times when we did?. So the warnings were there.

I don't think whether we were playing the OF or not made any difference I think you are taking away the effort our lads put in just not to lose that game. You need to keep in mind this Celtic team were playing in the CL last season and beat Barcelona also finishing 25 points ahead of us last season, where as we only managed 4th in the SPL with players mainly from the English lower leagues and reserves.

Our players were out on their feet near the end with all that chasing and closing down, it was starting to look desperate for us in the last 10 minutes, mistakes and punts back up the park straight back to them were becoming more frequent. I kept hearing someone behind me shouting "push up, push up" but I thought Terry had his tactics spot on and our players did exactly what was expected of them. That's a point very few are going to come away with from Celtic Park this season and we are now 3 points clear at the top.

Meekings and Warren were stand outs yesterday, both reading the game very well and getting across to cut out any danger, both outstanding in dominating second balls and clearing crosses. Meekings has improved so much in just a short time. Shinnie barely put a foot wrong yesterday and played a big part in lessening any threat from that left side. Raven was up against it against Matthews and did what he could but he looks a better right back getting forward but there was little chance in that for him, I don't think anyone else in the team could have coped any better yeterday in that position. Brill looks a good addition and going by this performance could be hard for Esson to shift. So we are solid and also still improving.

I wonder if there's going to be a 20th anniversary kit for next season?

I wonder which football stadium is furthest away from a pub?

 

Would ICT hold that honour in Scotland?

Might just check that, I suspect Falkirk or Airdrieonians might be further away from a pub.

May the whole world become ignorant of the dreaded M word and may the sons of Caley Thistle laugh and smile and dance and sing to the future that is our new team.

Contrary, history must not be allowed to be reinvented and those who fell and never came back their memory (and posting/trolling on football forums) will live on.

Now forward to our first Scottish League title, what will be, will be.

With all this fruit talk I can't help but be reminded of Jason Lee, who back in the 90's endured constant chants of "He's got a pineapple on his head...." (to the tune of "He's got the whole world in his hands").

 

pineapple head.png       lee.jpg

 

 

Thankfully it's not the only thing he is remembered for. He is also remembered for for his poor finishing ability and being an overpaid dud at most of the 20 (twenty) clubs he played for, including Falkirk in our 03/04 promotion season.

Seemed to have great success playing against us though, as he scored 3 of his 9 goals that season in three 2-1wins for Falkirk including a winning goal near the end in that first home game between the clubs that season. It was one of the few downsides to that season as we failed to beat Falkirk in the four games.

cassette

Gaffer

Freddie

Can you pay at the gate?

Celtic Park is all ticket. If you can't get a ticket at the TCS then you could probably buy tickets for the home ends from the Celtic shops at the stadium or the store on Argyle Street but it would just mean you would need to keep your head down at the game, Keep in mind you would have to give your name and address when buying ticket so it could be at the sellers discretion if you are clocked as an away supporter, H&S and all that.

1 Where were you born? Raigmore Hospital

2.Where did you spend your childhood? Inverness

3 When did you start following football in Inverness? First Caley game a 7-1 home win over Buckie Thistle in 1983, First ICT match a dull 0-0 draw with either Alloa or Albion Rovers I can't remember who exactly in 1995, didn't start going regularly to watch Caley Thistle until 1997.

4 What is you current location? Inverness

It it not the case that players find it harder to spot teammates when they are wearing darker jerseys though?  The opposite is also the reason why keepers seldom wear white, due to being more likely to be spotted when they're off their line.

County seemed to do alright last season and the season previous.

Watching our players or players at the top level in Scottish football they all know where their team mates should be during a move depending on the circumstance or if a certain player is not there someone else. They get used to each other familiarise though practice and training, rehearsing tactics and movement, a different strip worn should register in the brain within seconds at the start of a game if unfamiliar and makes little difference unless there is a similarity between that strip and the opponents. Don't our keepers wear a very light grey jersey to distinguish a difference. Not sure what other colours are available for our keepers if the grey one clashes say with an opponents mainly white one.

For Saturday the team could wear either home or away without clashing, I would prefer the home strip as I will be wearing one as well.

Positivity??.

Well at least we won't be relegated this season.

Avoiding relegation has to be the first consideration, once that is achieved then move onto the next target, avoid the play off, then aim for a top six place, then top 3 and a Euro spot. I say this because there is very little in quality between all the teams apart from Celtic and form can turn around very quickly. We have started very well, but it is only 3 games and 9 points. With a small squad like we have injuries and suspensions will impact somewhere along the way and the likely possibility of our best players being cherry picked in January if our good form extends that far. I will enjoy it while it lasts.

Would it not have been worth the players using it in a pre-season game to get used to it before the season started (unless they wear it in training of course!)?  Remember what happened to Scotland in that Georgia match where they wore that horrid rust coloured jersey and got beat 2-0 (which turned out to be of massive importance in the end IIRC).

Liked the last mainly black strip but as someone pointed out on here to me it was a jinx, just as that minging Scotland strip. But players should be used to picking out their team mates regardless of what colour they wear. Adjusting to get used to a new strip takes seconds not four or five games, maybe team tactics and the quality of player played more part in what went wrong rather than the colour of strip they wore.

Point regarding Hooper, Higdon, Griffiths, Russell and Daley. Apart from Higdon, Billy outscored them all in the league last season, but Hooper goes for £ 5m plus, what value would ICT put on Mckays head if anyone did come in for him. At present form he should be our first million pound player, but I bet they would be less ambitious with their valuation at the stadium.

McKay won't leave for peanuts that's for sure. Some clubs will dip their toes to check the market strength at Inverness, they might hopefully be put off.

If he does go it doesn't leave Terry much time to find a replacement and we are slightly short of strikers as it is.

The PFA has been asking the SFA for clarification on betting rules for players.

JACK ROSS, the PFA Scotland chief, has called on the SFA to look at their rules on betting

Ian Black has been charged

Craig Thomson has refereed 47 matches involving Sellick, handed out 75 yellows, 2 second yellows and 4 reds, awarded 9 penalties in their favour. For their opponents awarded 95 yellows and 2 red but only 1 penalty.

He has been in charge of 19 ICT games, handed out 27 yellows and 2 reds against us and awarded 3 penalties for us, and for any opponent we have played 25 yellows and awarded 1 penalty against us.

All seems fair enough, we just watch out for these needless bookings that might add up later in the season.

Having seen it in the club shop on Monday has to be one of the worst away strips ever, just a complete mess. Pity cause these colours can be used to create a fantasic design.

I wouldn't get too excited as if we are going to be gifted 3 points on Saturday, guarranteed Lennon will have kicked backsides after that performance yesterday so there might be a reaction from them. Its up to our players to stand up to it.

Confident but not overconfident.

That's it, ticket bought, travel arrangements sorted, cardboard flares constructed, now just the can't wait feeling to get through up to Saturday.

Has Nick Ross signed yet?

Next season he will be sought after by many clubs in the Premiership and Championship and make his breakthough into the Rep of Ireland squad.

The choice of design for the away shirt should be practical rather than for fashion reasons. As we have seen both current home and away shirt clashes with the home shirt of Kilmarnock. Better if we had an away shirt that didn't clash with any home shirts of the other teams if the home kit does. As our home kit is predominantly blue and red, I don't see a problem with the away kit being predominantly white and or black. Maybe white with red trim could be a good alternative as well.