hislopsoffsideagain

In light of a) Scottish football's continued failure to implement a proper pyramid system, and b) the rather unimpressive candidates looking to replace Gretna, wouldn't be an idea to just not let anyone else in? I know the odd number would be a little tricky, but I'm sure it would be workable. Considering the less than impressive progress of Elgin City since joining, who are now destined to stay alongside East Stirling, Albion Rovers etc. as a side who do nothing but prop up division 3, shouldn't some effort be made to streamline the whole thing?

I was watching it earlier - it's Motty's greatest moment when he screams "it's in! It's Alfonsooooooooooo!"

I like your thinking. The only issue is over whether, with so many pictures taken off the internet (mostly cut and pastes from google images, plus the UEFA website and national FA websites), it's okay for me to properly "publish" these on the internet, rather than just sending them out by email. If there are no legal objections I'll put them up no bother.

If anyone is interested, I'm putting together guides to each team at the Euros for my mates - three microsoft word pages with squad lists, stats, likely tactics, pointless trivia and a few fairly amateurish pictures. My friends think they're a good laugh and it saves them having to track down and pay for proper guides for the tournaments. Each squad takes up about 100kb. I've already finished Group D (because most of those squads were named a while ago) and am putting the finishing touches to Group C (including ROMANIA!), with the rest to be finished by next week. So anyone who wants them emailed, send me a PM with an address and I'll pass them on. Then I'll await the inevitable barrage of complaints about bits I've got wrong...

World Soccer magazine has their lineup as: Lobont Contra Goian Tamas Rat Cocis Chivu F. Petre O. Petre Mutu Marica However Ovidiu Petre is now out, so I think Cristea may fill in. Alternatively, Mutu could come into the hole with Nicolita on the wing. Or I might dare to dream that Marius might be considered for Petre's position.

Methinks I might buy a Romania shirt now! Cue the sports question being asked in pub quizzes all across the country for the next month: Q: Which two SPL clubs have players competing in Euro 2008? A: Celtic and Inverness And cue lots of Central belt football fans arguing that "that f****** answer can't possibly be right, ya dobber!"

Oh ****, have I jumped the gun? I saw Deac had been dropped, and the numbers on wiki have Moti dropped as well. On the other hand, that could be wishful thinking on somebody's part? Oh well, I guess I can wait till tomorrow before celebrating on his behalf.

IT'S OFFICIAL - MARIUS IS IN!!! (Source - Reuters) :allhail: And he gets his number eighteen shirt as well, according to wikipedia. Freaking magic. Do us proud, big man.

Well done to Don Cowie, who thoroughly deserves the award - as far I can tell he scored more league goals than any other SPL midfielder this season. Dougie Imrie winning 3 of the last 4 player of the months?! Well, that probably vindicates his signing. This underlies how important it is that we hold onto Cowie, Black and Niculae next season - they are our three most outstanding players.

Iain Vigurs, Ross Tokely and Barry Wilson celebrate the end of the season.

IHE is absolutely right. Our midfield was a shambles and it was clearly not due to lack of effort. Half the time I don't think the players knew who was supposed to be in which position at which time. A tactical shocker from Brew and one of the reasons why Falkirk dominated so much and so easily.

When Latapy came on, all you could hear at our end were murmurs of "aw, s***" and the like. I'm not sure I can think of another SPL player whose introduction as a sub fills us with such dread!

A good referee is a referee who remains impartial and unbiased even in the face of, for example, huge pressure by supporters, players or managers. Howard Webb, for example, is an outstanding ref. He makes mistakes, but the fact is that he keeps such good control and treats everyone equally, so he gets less s**t from fans and players. Going back further, Collina had the same gift. I haven't seen the highlights of the match, but everything I hear suggests that it was actually impossible not to give a penalty, and that United were denied a perfectly good goal; according to Levein, when the ref's reasons for disallowing the goal were pointed out as wrong by Levein, the ref then changed his reason for giving it. That is pretty **** fishy. Quite frankly, there should be a question on the application form from now on - "If at a game at Ibrox, a Rangers defender blatantly fouls an opponent in the box while the last man, would you give a penalty and send the defender off?" Quite frankly, whether due to dishonesty or lack of bottle, I think most Scottish refs would be lying if they answered "yes". On the other hand, imagine the double glazing bills if McCurry had sent Weir off and Rangers had lost. I'm disappointed that no-one has a conspiracy theory yet about the fact that McCurry's day job is as a Church of Scotland minister! :tic01:

Sounds like a therapy group needs to be set up - you know, everyone sits in a circle, and one after another we stand up and say, for example, "Hi, my name's Hislopsoffsideagain and I supported Inverness away from home", before breaking down in inconsolable tears.

The comments so far about the match are pretty fair. One team gave a **** about the result and one didn't. Can you tell which was which? Between Wilson's wonderful chance early on and the late penalty, we couldn't have scored in a brothel. The game was a carbon copy of when they beat us at TCS in March. Our tactics against the Bairns are the footballing equivalent of the Munich treaty of 1938 - we gave them huge amounts of territory unnecessarily, which only made them stronger and more dangerous (that's the worst metaphor I've thought of in ages, but I'm sticking to it). The two big differences today was that we missed Munro, and they had Higdon back - I thought he gave Proc a horrible time and he was the best player on the park. It looked like we were trying to play 4-5-1 with Niculae deeper than Rory, but Rory couldn't hold up a baby, let alone a ball. On the rare occasions that we tried putting passes together we had some success, so, true to Brewster Logic, we therefore decided to instead punt long balls. And somehow, despite extra bodies in midfield, Falkirk could have driven a bus down the centre of the pitch without running over anyone. Then in the second half our midfielders kept swapping all over the pitch, and the only consequence was that none of them were there to help when we were defending. The first goal appeared to be hopeless marking; the second one was so easy that a bunch of traffic cones would have made it more difficult for the Falkirk attack than our defence. And it's all I can do to stop myself launching into a tirade about Rory's performance and the decision to play him as a lone striker. The nicest thing I can say about him is that he is a waste of space. He is either lazy, cowardly, incompetent or a combination of the three. And that meant that, on the rare occasion we got the ball up the pitch, we lost it again, quick as a flash. Did Black get injured? It meant we had to put up with the textbook Duncan performance of misplaced passes, poor positioning and multiple shots from distance that endangered only the ballboys behind the goal. Positives? Well, my all day breakfast at the Little Chef North of Stirling was nice. That's the first away game I've done since New Year. God have mercy on those who go to all of these if our performances are anything like this.

I must be one of the last people to end up supporting Thistle - I was 10 when the merger happened. I still have the last Thistle away strip though, pinned up on my wall alongside an ICT top signed by David Proctor that my mum won in a raffle. It's great to see so many kids wearing ICT tops now though; when I was a kid absolutely everyone else supported one of the Old Firm - mostly Rangers because it was in the middle of 9 in a row.

Forgive me, CaleyD, I guess I'm not quite as optimistic about their prospects. Gathered that, (apart from Rory of course, Vigurs' cameo at Tannadice and a couple of Wood's matches for Montrose), my experience of these players is little other than their appearances on Saturday. But I can't help thinking that if one of these boys was as good as a Scott Arfield (Falkirk), or a Stephen McGinn (St. Mirren) or a Mark Reynolds (Motherwell) then they would have seen a helluva lot more action this season. Is it not more likely that they will end up following in the footsteps of the likes of Jonathan Smith, Stuart Soane, Tom Parratt, Chris Finnigan, Neil McDonald, Lewis McKinnon, Craig McMillan etc. ? On the other hand, I will be absolutely delighted if I am proved wrong. Maybe that's why Brew is letting so many people go?

On the one hand, I love Denzil and Bayne to bits (in football terms, of course!) - if Caley have been around long enough to have legends then Wyness is one of them, and Bayne's work ethic is phenomenal. The man would run through walls if you asked him. On the other hand, based on recent evidence, it would take a brave man to say either of them are of SPL quality. Wyness had a wonderful run of form in the initial months of 10CC's reign; since then he has been extremely injury prone, and barring that win over Falkirk earlier this season, simply hasn't delivered enough. The contract debacle is a poor reflection on ICT, but he's been absolutely rubbish in the few matches he's played since. And he's the wrong side of thirty. Bayne, meanwhile, blows hot and cold, is really poor at holding the ball up for a big man, and simply doesn't score enough goals. I suspect that many of those worried about their departures are unhappy because a) Wyness was so badly treated by the club and b) because with Marius probably heading for the exit door we are desperately needing replacements. But neither of them are consistently good enough to provide the club with the goals we need. Sooner or later, though, what with the dearth of talent coming through the youth system, the team was going to need a massive revamp. It might as well be this summer, and until Brew proves me otherwise with crap signings (remember this guy managed to lure Craig Dargo up here), or by failing to hold on to the likes of Black and Cowie (Niculae's departure is probably inevitable), I say BRING IT ON.

How about either: Steven Watt had let himself go a bit after spending all season on the sidelines at ICT. or Craig Brewster began to think that Bazza wasn't taking the warning seriously that he "would be sent to St. Johnstone on loan if he didn't lose weight". or With little reason to jump out of their seats this season, Gretna fans have failed to find an alternative way to exercise.

Someone can correct me if my sums are wrong - but I think my mental arithmetic is still pretty decent. Brewster's league record since he returned to the club - Played 32, won 13, drawn 3, lost 16, scored 48, conceded 50, 42 points Brewster's league record in his first spell, according to soccerbase - Played 45, won 14, drawn 17, lost 14, scored 49, conceded 44, 59 points And, for comparison, 10CC's record in SPL games - Played 58, won 21, drawn 16, lost 21, scored 72, conceded 72, 79 points On points per game, there's barely anything to choose between them.

What good does a "Brew out" banner do, exactly? Your support of Marius is great, I thought it was a superb idea to have that flag, and I'd like to think it encourages him. But what on earth do you expect to achieve with anti-Brew banners? While I was as vocal a critic of Brew as any during February and March, some people have got to get a grip. Remember how many points we had when he took over? About as many as a British Eurovision song contest entry. It's certainly been a tough season, but to call ninth a disaster?! What does that make Kilmarnock's season? The way this is going, we are going to have a four season SPL record of eighth-seventh-eighth-ninth. Back in May 2004 I'd have taken that. And for goodness sake, our last two games before crushing Gretna were a comfortable, entertaining win over Killie and a narrow defeat at Tynecastle. Hardly reason to slag him off so much, even if that terrible run of form a couple of months ago is fresh in the mind. The one thing that everyone agrees on is that our transfer activity this summer will make or break us. That will be something to judge Brew on. Can you tell I'm on L_G's side in this argument.

Good point about Niculae there - I was a bit critical of him during the game itself but you're right, you'd have thought that one of the centre-backs was his siamese twin considering how close he was all the time. It was a frustrating game for him and you could see that in his body language later on, but clearly Gretna had learnt their lesson from the run around he gave them in January. And goodness knows you could drive buses through the space that was created by the way Marius dragged the defenders around.

How many newspapers will run headlines with the phrase "six appeal" tomorrow? That's about as easy as it gets, I think. We cut Gretna open whenever we could be bothered, and once we got Bayne on in the last 20 minutes we started causing havoc. Mostly great goals... 1. Great defence splitting pass puts Cowie in behind, he keeps his head and squares for Imrie to tap in. 30 seconds gone by my stopwatch. 2. Niculae's powerful header wonderfully saved by Fleming, but Rory shows unheard of athleticism to head in the rebound. Gretna goal - appalling marking at a set play, Tokely misses the header and Hogg flicks it in from six yards. Could Zibi have stopped it? I'll give him the benefit of the doubt - it was at close range. 3. Bazza, mate, that was a corker. 20 yards out, he steadied himself and hammered it into the keeper's bottom right hand corner. Magnificent goal, as good as any we've scored this season. 4. Great break by Imrie down the left, and he stood it up beautifully for Cowie to crack home on the volley - great technique from Chipper. Defence gave him all the time in the world to finish it off, mind. 5. Tokely gets on the end of a corner to head it in. Not much power on it, how it went in I have no idea. 6. Vigurs!!! Smashing volley on the turn after another Imrie run and cross. Gretna were utterly guff, but you can only beat what's put in front of you. We were pretty nonchalant in the first half, but only looked vaguely in trouble when defending set plays. Brew may have given them a kick up the rear end at the break. Commendations today for Imrie, Cowie and particularly Bazza who looked very classy indeed. I suspect, even despite his goal, that there may still be criticisms of young Rory, and I have to say that I've seen glaciers that move faster and sloths that put in more effort than he did today. He's like Steven Hislop but without the work rate. Still, he got a goal and that's what he's supposed to do.

I hope to goodness that someone at the club might actually read this thread, which in itself has produced umpteen very good ideas which could mostly be implemented at quite low risk. If only... At least today's kid for a quid offer shows somebody at ICT has a teensy bit of initiative; the rest of the time the club are about as forward-thinking as Russell Duncan!

Heh - how about this for a first eleven? Mark McRitchie Andrew Allan Vetle Anderson (captain on the grounds that he was the worst player we ever had) Paul Bradshaw Chris Miller Wayne Addicoat Gary Farquhar Darran Thomson Paul McMullan Bruce McCraw Martin Glancy Subs: Les Fridge, Graeme Stewart, Bajram Fetai, Dean McDonald, Bryan Prunty How on earth can anyone slag off Nicky Walker? He was a great keeper for us, far better than Slim Jim (even if he didn't sit on crossbars or dribble round defenders)