Bluesman

Just back from Glasgow. Reflecting on the event, I had great weekend with my team at a cup final, we lost and that's really disappointing having got there, but even playing well below the levels we have reached earlier this season, we were within a couple of penalties of an historic win. We lost a long term manager middle season and that's often tough, yet have managed to stay top six and reach our first ever major final. (Most) of the Aberdeen fans I met were fine folk and weren't taking us lightly. One nice touch was a 51,000 crowd in Glasgow and no-one was singing about their 'beliefs' and 'culture' just football.

Sadly our recent inability to get decent service to Billy continues and goals are still like hens teeth. Not a classic by either team but I agree Aberdeen were there to be taken. Thought we might get in front when we had a good spell at the start of the second half but poor passing (get it on the ground) let it slip again. Better shape by us today (Meekings and Devine did well) and crap finishing by both teams kept the game tight. Poor efforts at penalties have to say. Anyway, pub here is decent and beer is cold so could get used to major cup finals.... Papers have Dons running a £15m debt to achieve this so Inverness are doing pretty well to be top six and finalists with a 3k home support.

Not right now you can't......11am 21st Feb - unless you can get to the stadium.

Yes same here, site has ticket sale still as restricted rather than ST for season book holders and you can go no-where else by phone but back to the ticket office which is of course engaged - pathetic - as usual. Can get a ticket online for a basketball game in Los Angeles or a gig in New York but not for my local club....

Josh Meekings is one of the best young players in Scottish football and will be a target for many. For a player of his age he has hardly put a foot wrong in a very pressured role at the back. Graeme Shinnie is in that class too and was superb against Hibs, as all the TV commentators noted. Garry Warren is a rock and would be first on my team sheet every week. Billy Mackay is top scorer in the country yet can clearly get better. What am I saying? They are all dross and not worth a penny....honest! All could be targets, but I would love to see them all with a cup on their Inverness CV at least.

Agree with DD's take on the game, fab first ten minutes with some lovely link up play, thought we were going to bury them early but they reorganised and made a battle of it. Defence worked really hard together and ensured the three points but agree midfield looked a bit lightweight at times and gave possession away too often to be comfortable. (We actually gave the ball away directly from a throw in again, thought we'd got that sorted - take them more quickly guys!) We gradually lost the penetration we had for the first ten minutes, but overall a really good 3 points and winning these kinds of games when we don't play well is great. St J are a good team but couldn't really threaten our goal. Need to keep our back four if at all possible. Once again the league table makes happy reading tonight. Sitting second in late November - fab.

They did a good job here and the club are at the highest level yet. However they did get complete support and nearly five years to get to this stage. Can't think of any other manager having that kind of backing over the same period and can't see it happening at Hibs. The process of leaving was yet again more mince than tattles what with the coat and bunnet display and didn't need all the mangling of words by Mo over the weekend about his position too. Others have said that managers leaving us in these circumstances haven't then done much and that's true. The club have a good record in managerial signings overall and whoever comes in has a great position to start from. Just hope we can use some cash to maintain the current squad as best we can.

I'm still thinking about "Nicola McAlley's excellent package"....

Maybe the league table should include extra points for clubs who can maintain some kind of balanced finances. Its crap that teams can continue to outbid others while racking up debt and moaning about their plight. Kilmarnock comes to mind for some reason. When Mixu P (can't spell it) was in charge there he signed 5 foreign players in one go which must have increased their wage bill at a time their Chairman was pontificating about Scottish Football's financial worries and the need for change. He won SPL Manager of the Month...

Hmm... looks very secure anyway. No-ones gonna be making a daring night time raid for unsold season tickets are they? Has a sort of designer "F**K You!" look about it which is quite appealing.

Re our signings and Scottish talent. Time will tell if other SPL clubs have given chances to young Scottish players this season and it pays off - costs aside. What I would say is that back in the day one out of every five kids I knew in school played football all the time and one in ten was pretty good, competition to get into secondary school sides was fierce. I wonder how the top local school sides of today would fare against those from 1972. I would love to see more young Scots in with a shout but maybe it's just reality so we have to get prospects where we can.

The day 5462 Invernessians buy a season ticket anywhere will be one for the record books.... Can't say it does anything for me, and I agree the shoulder bits just look tacked on basically. Very few strips are decent these days as designers seem to be having a laugh. I am biased but the old simple 60's strips still look great and still sell in droves 50 years later. Doubt we'll see many of todays strips selling in 2063. Jaisus I'm sounding more like ma dad every year...

Leave him on whatever planet he is on.

Yep good on him. Liked Roy a lot. Always gave 100%, rarely gave a slack pass and probably should have had more starts.

Well done guys, I raised a glass to you on Saturday when the rain was fair slattin doon.

Its about more than money of course, but did I see a quote from St J Chairman that the plane alone cost as much as they received? He was reckoning he would have to find an extra £100k was it? Would still rather have finished strongly and had the chance, but history now so moving on....

Excellent. That Doran goal against County gets better every time I see it. Billy's left foot volley at Dingerville too. Funny how its still the goals V RC that feel the best.... The Terry and DA clips from the end of the 3-3 cup game - brilliant - worth a season ticket for that alone.

Pipe down you young uns, plays havoc with my hearing aid!! (30 years in front of a Marshall stack). I do forget that each year more fans under a certain age will not be bothered about the M word. We geriatric geezers used to be able to make a fair noise in Inverness derby's of old believe it or not, but it is a bonus to have a growing vocal support again. Good on you

Despite having criticised the team selection and performance on Sunday, I don't believe for a minute that Terry wasn't upset at losing that game and he would I'm sure have been right up for a 'taste of Europe' - however short. Now if he can just sort out corners, free kicks, throw-ins, crosses, set pieces, midfield, substitutions and tactics we'll be fine.... I was bit worried though about picketing at the airport from UKIP's five Scottish supporters if we had qualified......

Ah well, no in-betweens, we are either great (v Motherwell) or mince (last two games) it appears... What's with Roy McGregor on telly and the tiny wee dark glasses - bit pervy Did my eyes deceive me or did DA actually start to applaud ICT fans at the end? Great support today, the fans did the team proud (prefer it the other way round)

Can we get away from the "you're being negative if you're disappointed" line? It's not wrong to be feeling we could have done better in the latter part of the season. There are some valid points in the posts above regarding performances in some key games. We have found some good players who can on their day be very good but there is room for improvement on basic aspects and without spending money: we must work on improving corners and especially freekicks (the last four have all gone straight into the wall) we must stop lobbing high balls to wee forwards (obvious I know but we still do it) a striker like Billy needs the ball coming in from wide and to his feet and when we do that he gets goals we must have a plan B when games aren't going our way - in some of the games mentioned above, we haven't I don't think it's choking that's a problem as the guys can battle as we've seen in several come from behind games, but we are very vulnerable when teams play us close in midfield (Hearts semi-final) like County did today (admittedly much easier for them today as we had such a makeshift group). Any team needs a decent amount of possession in the middle of the park to have a chance, therefore I think a priority should be a strong combative midfield tackler to get in opponents faces and dig the ball out - Fergie's (and Pele's) teams always had one. Ross Draper can put in a good shift but we don't get the best out of Richie in that role. None of the above is negative just personal observations from a viewpoint of improving. For me a good season. I agree some of the leagues 'bigger' teams have been pretty poor of late and there's been some disappointing results after the turn of the year, but a good season that can be built on (2013/14 season ticket tucked away and ready)

Jaisus what mingin weather today. Was out for an hour and came back freezing. Hope you guys are managing to keep the important bits dry A dram by the fire in Strathpeffer may be in order?

Seems to be staying, according to The Herald

Agree with these sentiments, great job. Good too, to see guys like Gary Warren given a chance to play professionally at a level he never thought would be possible for him. One Gary Warren is worth a hundred Ian Black's.

or the pink panther theme: Doran - Doran - Doran Doran Doran Doran Doraaaan. He's wee, he's tough, he doesn't score enough...he's Aaron Doran, on the wing. Sure he'd take it as good fun...maybe