Snafu

Dundee derby finishes 1 - 1 so I believe we are now certain of a top six finish   :clapoverhead: :clapoverhead: :clapoverhead: :clapoverhead: :clapoverhead: :clapoverhead:

Dundee Utd, Aberdeen and Hibs can't finish higher than us at the split, so yes.

Congratulations to Terry, Mo and the team for this achievement.

Lets hope that this will give the team a huge lift and we can push for a place in Europe in the remaining 7 matches.

The next stat/target to better is the 2005/06 total points tally 58, lets see if we can surpass this.

Double standards if those who were offended by the then Clydebank manager Ian McCall kicking over a pot of paint en route to the dressing room after a game and then defend Terry for exactly the same reason for his damage to a dugout. Its vandalism which any way you look at it and its good of Dundee to ask Terry to pay for the damage instead of complaining to both SFA and or even the police. On both occasions the home clubs has been understanding and the damage paid for then that will be the end of the matter.

If Dunfermline Athletic go into liquidation there will be no newco as there is no seperation between club and business like at Oldco Rangers. But someone could buy up the assetts and start a new club based at East End Park but the history and honours of the old club would not be transferable.

I hope it doesn't have to come to this and the club can recover.

Theres been a lot of similarities between this season and our first back in the SPL.

 

I seem to remember us being close to third or joint third with Hearts and about 6/7 points behind 1st place around Christmas and of course we ended up in the bottom 6 with a terrible New Year and stuttering run up to the split.

 

Back then we blamed a lot of those poor 2nd half results on fatigue and having a young squad, this year CaleyD(and other happy clappers) would have us blame nobody and put everything down to bad luck.  Much like that season, its poor fitness and concentration that have squandered all the hard work put in over the opening 20 odd games, both symptoms of complacent management.

 

I actually wonder if over the length of a season we suffer from trying to create a squad with good harmony, where everybody is buddies with each other.  Everybody should be on edge, totally focused, with cutting edge ALL professional footballers should step onto the park with.  I really couldn't care less if everyones bff's in their spare time, they should be competing with each other to get starting positions all week in training and in the gym.  When they cross that touchline they prove their worth by playing as a team and winning, ultimately thats what they get paid to do isn't it?  The stronger they are, the longer they can press the ball, chase the ball and pass the ball, a squad putting the effort in will beat a side dying on its legs every single match.  Players themselves will be inconsistent over 90 minutes if they haven't got the legs for it, mistakes are made.  It's all a bit late in the season to be worrying about this though.

 

I personally don't care about either cup but 2nd place is worth a couple of million quid and a later start in Europe.  Somehow we're still in the chase for that spot so everything is well in our own hands right now.

 

We can still win every single game this year, that should be the target.

A few similarities between this season and the first one back though this season our dip in form hasn't seen us drop as many points as we did back then. Hopefully though after we claim that top six place we can also go on a similar run of form after the split as we did that first season back.

Maybe some of our supporter should take a leaf out of the Gumball Rally film on Italian Driving.

On a more positive note, If we win our remaining 8 games and Celtic only take 5 points from their remaining 8 games, we win the league.

Agreed with LukeyLuke. The spine of the team is more or less there. A few more signatures away from having more or less the whole team signed up. Continuity has been the key to our success in the past but has been more difficult to sustain in recent years therefore its incredibly pleasing to see this business getting done. If more of the lads do sign up which i hope they will then it could be a quiet summer on TCS...in this day and age thats rare. 

Its beginning to show now but our current form could be down to a lack of depth in the squad. I would guess that along with the majority of the regulars in the 1st team will be staying on, Terry will be adding maybe 6 or 7 new players to the team during the summer to create more competition for places which is something we do lack right now. Currently only the goalkeeper and central defence positions are the areas which have serious competition for a starting 11.

6 or 7 is well down on previous summers which will be welcome and though less should be enough to freshen up the squad. I would expect a couple of popular players to move on in the summer Andy Shinnie being one, but then even that would give an opportunity for someone else currently in the team to step up.

9th bottom of the league and 25 points ahead of relegation, it was a close run thing there.

.

Not sitting to comfortably with this relegation predicament we were in, but then I did put too many Jalapenos in my chili last night.

It will be ironic if Tel lets Chris Hogg go after sticking with him for so long, especially if he is reaching full fitness again.  I've a feeling Tel will stick with him and let King go. Isn't Devine on loan? Therefore he could well be offski at the end of the season anyway.

If Devine stays it might limit the opportunities for both Hogg and King despite both being more experienced, so it will be difficult decision but it would look like one of our unsigned defenders will be moving on.

It will be ironic if Tel lets Chris Hogg go after sticking with him for so long, especially if he is reaching full fitness again.  I've a feeling Tel will stick with him and let King go. Isn't Devine on loan? Therefore he could well be offski at the end of the season anyway.

He was freed by Fleetwood Town after a spell on loan to Wrexham.

Wrexham wanted to sign him but he knocked them back to sign for us.. His performances so far have been excellent, has good potential and looks to have settled very quickly. I hope he can stay.

Meekings deliberately moved to get his hand out the way.

That's the way I saw it, he turned his back to block and in doing that his arm would not be moving towards the ball.

If you reckon it was a free kick, why is it not a penalty

Just watched it again, playing it over and over again and it looked from the camera view behind the goal as contact was made outside the penalty area, it couldn't have been less than an inch but that's what I saw. Maybe if I had been there on Saturday viewing from another angle and without the luxury of replays and slowmo  I very likely would have been shouting for the penalty.

The Meeking's one simply looked like a block as he was turning his back to the shot, ref was correct.

Graeme Shinnie never dived, not a penalty though but a free kick, ref got that one wrong.

What stuns me is how well they have done as a complete Newbie in the SPL? Must be doing something right. Or just got lucky..The real test will be how they do next season probably.And whether they have the staying power to remain int he SPL and continue to do well.

 

The very thought that above average players would even consider palying for a team in the Highlands in a town where the population is about $5,000 (?) is incredible.They must be getting a great wage, that's all I can think?

 

Anyway it is good for the area so good luck to them I suppose.

They do always mention and I agree that their support comes from the region also including Inverness rather than the town itself where the football club is based.

I would be surprised if they can mantain it next season as they will be surely cherry picked of their better players in the summer (I know Britton will be away to the St. Js), and as has I have heard on more than one occasion that Derek Adams would be an ideal managerial target for another club such as Aberdeen.

Great news

We are conceding an average of 1.70 goals per game this season, which is a litle bit higher than last year's 1.58. On a full season basis that would equate to conceding an extra 4 or 5 goals.

 

But if these extra goals all arose in drubbings from Motherwell then they actually have no impact on our points tally. 

Apart from the 9 points lost losing these games

We're having the best season ever in our short history and I would think finishing behind County would take the gloss off it not so much because of the rivalry but more because 2nd place is ours to lose at least up to the split as no other club has taken the initiative when we had that poor run of results and this will simply give us a points advantage after the split. Priority right now regardless of what anyone else does is claim a top six place.

Looking at last nights team sheet against Aberdeen, I only see 2 local (although there are a few I'm not sure of TBH), but dont see County as being a team full of Highland developed youngsters. We have just as many young local lads getting chances.

 

• 25 Brown - no
• 04 Munro - yes
• 05 Boyd -?
• 18 Ikonomou - no
• 22 Kovacevic - no
• 08 Lawson - ?
• 10 Brittain - no
• 11 Vigurs - yes
• 12 Quinn - no
• 16 Sproule - no
• 17 Morrow - no

Isn't Vigurs from the Aberdeen area (Stonehaven) and more of a product of the Aberdeen youth system, he broke through into first team football as a teenager with Elgin City before signing for us. Scott Boyd is from the central belt and Paul Lawson was at Celtic, I also remember Lawson playing for St. Johnstone.

They didn't find any horse meat when they tested the pies...they also didn't find any beef and/or lamb.

but for 2 Highland teams to be sitting so high in the league must be good for the future of the game in the North

It would be a brilliant achievement if the players were from the Highlands, but as the large majority of these players are not, and in our case, not even Scottish, then our success can only be put down to clever acquisition and management. A good future for the game in the North can only happen if mostly players from the North are playing for these two Northern teams!

If they're good enough they will get their chance, but right now there isn't enough footballers from this area that are good enough to make up a complete squad of players able to compete at that level and as far as I remember there never has been and likely there never will.

Anyway with this part of the country has a growing population with a good mix of people not just from all over Scotland but from all parts of the globe. I don't see why this can't be reflected in the football teams. We are living in the 21st Century with a much improved transport system cough cough where folks can move around much easier than in the past. Football players move up here for employment, same as any other line of work.

What would be ideal would be more focus on getting youngsters involved in playing football up here in the Highlands to keep a conveyer belt of talented future players coming through to play at the highest level in this country regardless of whether they are Highlanders or not.

County won't finish above us.

There will be plenty of long faces at the game tonight then?.

I'm sorry Snafu, mate! I got the 9 bookings off 'Soccerbase' or 'Soccerway' or Soccer-something, but I admit I'm wrong. This might sound sad and 'anorakish' but I've painfully gone through all the league games and double-checked... and I agree now, it is 6 yellows in the league for Warren! I wish to god I'd not got involved in this thread in the first place! No worries!

No worries mate. We've all made mistakes on football forums, I've done worse.

Snafu, Again, I haven't mentioned the ICT website. I'm quite sure it's accurate and have never once disputed that or brought into account its integrity.

Despite knowing that Warren had 9 bookings, I didn't know that meant a ban. That was my objective when I posted my 'concern' - to find out if anybody knew when/if a suspesion was imminent for Warren.

On a side note, regarding my claims that other sites are often not accurate: only last night I had to email the BBC to update the Scottish 3rd Division league table!

Fair enough and I'm not going to claim the BBC site is accurate either, it was just the first site I came to when looking for some list of card count, I then had look around else where to check the stats were correct over the regulars in the team that are close to the 6 point suspension mark. I have no intention of getting into a daft arguement over something not worth getting bothered about anyway, especially with another CaleyJag.

Just one thing I have Warren down as having 8 yellows 2 of which are from the League Cup (Stenhousemuir and Hearts) which only count within that competition and 6 picked up in the SPL which triggered this suspension tomorrow, where did he pick up the 9th one?