AlexJones

Uncle Roy works in mysterious ways.

It's not strictly off topic, but do you really think that expanding the League to include sides of lesser quality is going to improve things? Agreed, no place for diddy teams like Rangers, Hearts and Hibs in the top league.

I would have to agree with OCG here. Sergei arrived at Caley in June 1993, spent a year there as player manager and was then appointed by the new board in 1994 as the first CT manager where he lasted a year before a quite civilised sacking. Given his 50 Soviet caps and all the other things (described by Charlie Christie at the time as "playing credentials others could only dream of") it must be between him and TB to be the highest profile individual at the club. And it was indeed a very bold and imaginative move by the Caley Committee who may also just have been manoeuvring their high profile name into pole position at a time when merger was in the air and a manager for some new club might be required fairly soon (as turned out to be the case). Unfortunately Sergei didn't quite deliver either as a player or as a manager. Indeed in the 2-1 defeat by QoS in CT's first ever Scottish Cup tie at Telford Street, Sergei gave away one of the two identical 20 yard free kicks which led to the QoS goals - and then turned round and blamed keeper Mark MacRitchie! The thing that struck me most when Norman Miller took him to Telford Street that day in 1993 to introduce him to the media was how bad his English was. IHowever I also have to suggest that when he left after two years at Telford Street it had probably become a whole lot worse! For instance, how do you translate "Howyadooen Sergmun?" into Ukrainian? Remember reading somewhere that big Vlad offered Sergei the Hearts job a few years back.

Paul Cherry and Barry Wilson were our first 2 'Premier League' signings IIRC.

McKay for me. Better all round player. As others have said, Rooney's record is padded out with penalties, and goals against lower quality opposition. Both ICT legends though.

Another good performance and result. Team selection and tactics spot on. The only negative - we now have a dilemma when Warren is back. Who do we leave out? Doran doesn't deserve to lose his place. As the cliché goes, it's a good problem to have. Whatever Yogi and the players are doing on the training pitch is working. Keep it up!

I just need to look at the rugby and how they are trusted to drink alcohol at games They need something to keep them entertained during the 40 minutes of stoppages.

I suspect Team Butcher would do a very good job for them. Took over at ICT when we were bottom of the SPL and dire, built a new team on a shoestring budget, took us to two semi-finals, our first ever Top 6, a bawhair away from Europe, and left us second top of the league. County are a very similar club.

They sacked Dick Campbell when he had them top of the league.

I disagree with this. It's all about scale. Every support has a hardcore of absolute belters, ourselves included. They're just less noticeable for us because the scale is smaller. Nobody really pays attention to a few dozen neds in the North Stand. If you increased the scale by 10-20 so you have an OF sized crowd, you'd have a critical mass of a few hundred of them - big enough numbers to start getting into some serious mob behaviour.

Hat tip to todays ref. He gave very few soft free kicks and didn't flash a card once. The result, a free flowing game. I get the impression officials have been told to tighten up. This was definitely evident at the World Cup. It's much harder to 'win' a free kick these days, and I for one applaud that.

Klok looked like a pretty decent footballer, wouldn't mind us giving him a trial. I expect our style of play would suit him much better than Counties. Still only 21.

This is the third year in a row they've started a season woefully underprepared. I expect them to release / sign at least 12 players as the season goes on, and finally finish 10th.

Our best ever result at that ground? Always good to see the team make a bit of history.

On past form Motherwell will probably score an extremely fortuitous goal with their first hoof up the park.

He's shown flashes of quality, but we shouldn't get carried away. There's still a long way to go. He certainly looks to have potential, but how much of it he fulfils depends upon his work ethic. Very few promising young Scottish players ever really manage to get there. Gary O'Conner and Derek Riordan are a couple of recent examples. They reach a certain level of lifestyle and start coasting. Remember the old saying, talent in 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration. Hopefully Ryan stays in Inverness for at least another couple of years. His future hinges upon how many hours he spends on the training pitch and in the gym Vs nightclubs, bookies, pool halls, video gaming etc. This is Scottish footballers Achilles heel. We have a culture of low standards and low expectations. Fortunately for us, Inverness have a good track record of developing young players. Our Spartan amenities and modest small town lifestyle seem counter-intuitively to work in our favour. Also factor in the core of solid, hard working professionals in our ranks who should serve as a positive influence on younger squad members like Ryan, rather than leading them astray (I hope!).

We're due some luck against this lot.

By the time we get the ball into the final third the other team have everyone behind the ball and in position - there's no space to attack. I don't have a problem with building moves from the back, but the current style is just too slow , rigid and predictable. There's no variation. No free flowing moves. No getting in behind. No overloads. Anyone get the impression that Hughes is over-coaching the team? The crazy tippy tappy stuff under pressure in our own third almost cost us the game towards the end. Can't fault the players tonight, bar Vincent who kept giving the ball away. Watkins made a huge difference when introduced. Horner also impressive.

Anyone see Harkins ridiculous dive for the Penalty against Kilmarnock? Definitely something to be wary of this evening.

The cost of losing a key player, in terms of prize / gate money from league position and cup runs, needs to be factored in. Even for a bid of £300,000 we could find ourselves at zero net gain, or perhaps even at a net loss. It also sends out the wrong message to other clubs, i.e. Caley players are available on the cheap.

Can't believe he's still on the bench even for Linfield. That boy's spent almost his entire career as a substitute. Such a waste, he has talent.

Couldn't care less about Hamilton's home attendances, it's the team on the park that matters. If anything, smaller clubs who reach the top league deserve even more credit for how well they're run. Encouraging result. Eager to hear some match reports!

He hasn't come across as badly as some make out. Obviously he's nowhere near as eloquent, charismatic or funny as Terry Butcher - but which Scottish manager is? Whilst some of Hughes remarks (water kills the plant, workmans tools, honest lads) are facepalm-worthy. His positive, cheerful demeanour is actually quite endearing.