PerfICT

....I hope uyou've left a zero off this number!

If the stadium plan put up on P&B is right, we're on about 13,000 sold and Falkirk a making a pretty good fist of selling out the entire bottom tier of their allocation (~18k?). Assuming a few more sales before kick off and a reasonable take-up of the neutrals tickets, the stadium will be at least 80% full, which is good enough for me and proves a lot of the central belt doom-mongers wrong!

There's a divide???

Answer: everything.

Like it! However, what about the Eurovision winner "Heroes"? Woops, did I just give away the fact that I watched Eurovision? Thinking about it, maybe that should be the anthem for our Euro adventure. Get it, get it?

Shame that was the last game of the season....or do we have another game to come?

Get Christie off before he's crocked! edit - well done JH: wise substitution!

Correct decision not to play Meekings and Draper. Certain risks for injury/suspension. Is it over yet?

I like this idea! Pace in defence is such an asset. How about a Meekings, Warren, Devine, Williams back four? I like Raven, but Meekings at right back has more pace.

Shinnie won't be playing

F2 for me. I still reckon we'll get at least 12,000 and that's fine by me.

On the other side of the coin, the attendances at Caley Thistle's two home Highland derbies were pretty poor this season - 4021 on Sat Jan 31st and an alarming 3741 on Sun October 5th. The corresponding figure for the New Year's Day derby in Dingwall was 4887. 3741 and 4021 would have been disappointing in Third Division days and that must have pulled this season's average down. Another factor may be the randomness of imposed "non-standard" KO times which may create a variable downward effect depending on who the opposition are. So if you add in these unhelpful factors, it's especially good to see any increase in the average - especially against one particular negative factor which I believe has been quite significant this season. Inverness's catastrophic traffic flow. Sure, there has been plenty of adverse comment for some time about the Kessock Bridge roundabout and yes, it remains a total mess. But there is a lot more than that. As the Flood Alleviation Scheme strengthens its claim to become the slowest building of a wall in the history of the world, access to the Caledonian Stadium is among the many casualties. For a start there's the closure of Bank Street (I believe it is due to reopen today?) which is a main thoroughfare between North and South Inverness. This forces more traffic along Kenneth Street, as does the closure of Huntly Street and of course the more recent bottleneck in Academy Street has made things worse still. So..... Trying to approach the Stadium along the A9/ Longman Rd lands you with the mayhem of the roundabout. Trying to approach the Stadium from the Harbour produces all the difficulties originating in Bank St/ Academy St...... but that's by no means all. Because even if you do get to the Harbour the flood scheme has also created the need for more traffic lights there. And if you do manage to get to the game, it will take an eternity to get home again for the very same reasons. You really do have to wonder how much cash businesses are losing as a result of the extreme ineptitude of Inverness's traffic flow arrangements. These include ICT where I have this fear that a number of people may simply not be going to games because of the unacceptable time it takes to get to and from the stadium. Agreed. The other major factor to take into account are the number of midweek games. This year was not too bad for rearrangements, but the Dundee United games at the end of the season gives a hint as to the impact of a midweek game against the same opposition: nearly 1000 punters! OK, so there is always a draw for the last home game of the season, but weighed against that you have the importance of the midweek game.

Esson Raven Warren Devine Tremarco Vincent Polworth Watkins Ross Doran Ofere Subs: Mckay, Meekings, Shinnie, Tansey, Draper, Williams, Kink, Ferguson. A bit lightweight in midfield, but needs must! Barring injuries, I would not play Meekings, Shinnie, Draper or Tansey. I'm sure the likes of Vincent, Polworth, Ross and Doran will work their socks off with the chance of a cup final place up for grabs.

100% records (3 wins each) against: St Mirren and Hamilton Unbeaten against: Kilmarnock (2W, 1D), Dundee (2W, 2D), Dundee United (3W, 1D), Ross County (1W, 2D)

Ryan Christie taking the Scottish Cup round some Inverness schools today. Don't touch it, Ryan....leave that until after 30th!

....and this is our equal best "league" position in terms of home attendances (9th), so there are others in worse shape than us in terms of attendances. A word of caution about the numbers - last season (iirc), we only played Celtic once at home (chaos over fixtures after the split) - that probably accounts for most of the apparent increase this year(?) On an optimistic note, St J got a "bounce" of about an extra thousand punters on average through the gate this year - probably on the basis of their winning the cup last year......

If Falkirk's claim of 14k sold + the plan above are both accurate, we must be just shy of 10k sold so far. It will be good to get the cup up here and round the schools etc to drum up more support. My guesss is we'll have about 12,000 there on the day. Whatever! I wouldn't give a stuff if there were only 12 there, never mind 12,000.....so long as I'm one of them!

As predicted: this one of several ill-informed comments on the Scotsman article about Ryan winning the award: "Never heard of the lad so good of the hootsman to inform us that he played for Inverness Thistle. I think this is one of those cases where it is definitely a case of the players knowing more than the 'football writers'. The players voted for Jason Denayer and on all checks and balances - appearances, trophies, international recognition - that would be the correct decision. It seems that the 'football writers' have gone more with the heart as I suspect very few of them have seem the lad play any more than a handful of games this season...." Everything through green-tinted specs, you understand!

First ever ICT player to win the football writers' young player of the year (Ryan Christie).

Looks like it! Superb achievement! Cue whinging from Celtic! http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/32771773

Great for Gary Warren to grab one today - a chance for a wee celebration to make up for the final disappointment. Doran and Vincent excellent today. Nick Ross made an impact too. Great to have so much competition for places! The free sombreros and beach balls were a great idea. Well done ICT and thanks for a truly memorable season....and still the big one to come!

Pleas let's sell out Hampden and put on a firecracker of a final - let's stick it right up those who think that a "good" final needs a "big" team in it.

Clarkson released by Dundee.....

When we have good youth players like Ferguson and Sutherland why bother with kink JH must see something in Kink.....I must confess the fleeting glimpses I've seen of him he has been really poor, but maybe that's because he's not yet had enough of a run out. I agree with the above posts: let's concentrate on getting Ofere, Devine, Ross, Polworth (no mention of him!) and the best of the Development Squad signed up.

It's going to be a cracker, Dealwithit! The authorities may not like it because 2 "unglamorous" have earned the right to compete for the cup, but that is they clearly have a problem with the definition of "glamour". Two good footballing teams will go head to head on 30th May. May the best team (ICT!!) win. Can't wait!