HawkeyeTheGnu

It's almost rude not to go, isn't it RiG? :clapping03:

Bloody weddings.

Unless it's your own, don't go. In fact especially if it's your own don't go :D :P

Ah. The sagacity of age!

Brasso - ?2.99

Cloth - ?0.99

Blowing a 15 point lead - Priceless

Four commentators for a First Division game?

Richard Gordon to introduce.

Jim Spence to commentate

Robbo to summarise, and translate the long words for Derek, who will be sharpening his crayons.

Im on my way with + 1 all the way from leeds through hail or ash!! :D

Looks like a good crowd from West Yorkshire, Leeds, Pontefract, Wakefield, Dewsbury, Batley are all represented.

And hopefully another 4 from Leeds!

Raith lose 3-0 to Airdrie. Hope they haven't given up on this season after going out of the cup, which is what I recall we used to do after we had a good cup run and nothing to play for in the league.

Raith don't have nothing to play for. It is not beyond possibility that at least two of Airdrie, Ayr and Morton could overtake them and drag them into a relegation or play off position.

We need to take care of one game at a time.

Precisely. As long as we keep taking care of business it doesn't matter what the other teams do.

The empty mug of the lemon flavoured green tea has spoken. The illusion at this time is that 69 is the magical number but this is only due to the unclean minds of the mortals, by the time the unspeaking farm lands visit the hallowed ground of the Caledonian Arena there will have been enough dropped points from others that the magic number of 67 will be attained and great celebrations will herald the return of the standard to the capitol of the High Lands.

At the time of writing, 70 is the magic number. 69 is the magic-ish number, as GD should be enough (but remember Hearts in 1986).

I'm inclined to agree that 67 may well be enough, but as C*unty play so many games in the last week, we may not know it's enough when it happens.

A win on Saturday eliminates both QoS and Dunfermline from the title race mathematically.

It also leaves us six points from the title, as we would have 64 pts and both Dundee and C*unty could get to 69.

Dont think we can possibly have the league mathematically won by the 10th due to County's games in hand.

Yes, the most points we can get to by 10/4 is 64, and even if all results were to go our way, C*nty could get to 65 and QoS could also get to 64.

Oh well, whos going to hampden

All the teams in Div 3?

At least twice.

The way our title rivals are imploding two wins and two draws may be enough.

The problem with analysing the table is all the games in hand. The fact that any of the top five think they are in with at least a mathematical chance, while Raith, Morton and Ayr are fighting to avoid the playoffs means that there aren't too many meaningless games between now and May, so there will be no easy points for anyone.

Mathematically, we still need to win alln 6 to guarantee it. Realistically, unless QoS or C*unty go on a tear, 4 should be enough, as long as we don't lose to Dundee.

Things will be a lot clearer by a week on Saturday.

6 games Renegade, we need to win 4 and draw one

If we win 5 and draw one, C*unty can still equal our points total. We would have a GD of at least +30, meaning that C*unty would have to win all 9 of their games by 3 goals to stand a chance of pipping us.

Oh and do Rangers & Celtic have relegation clauses in their contracts aswell? :P

Yes, the clause states that they won't ever, ever(1) get relegated.(2)

(1) ever!

(2) subject to hell no freezing over

He wanted to go, so let him.

I was spectacularly unimpressed by his challenge cup final appearance, and the last time I saw him play - QoS in Dec - he was trapping the ball further than I can pass it. If his first touch had been anything like, then he would have been some player - bags of skill. He clearly thinks that he's worthy of better than us, and gave the impression that he's rather be anywhere else.

Ian McCall is almost a cult!

last time we won it we only dropped two points at home all season plus were good away from home

Drew 4, lost 1 at home - 11 points dropped. Best home form by 6pts. Joint 3rd best away form (Clyde & St Johnstone were better, Falkirk the same).

I think the club have adopted the "cross that bridge when it comes" attitude, for example. Short contracts, silly campaigns (one year promotion). Whats going to happen next year or even next month when a number of players' contracts are up?

I assume (dangerous, I know) that the one year promotion campaign was born out of the parachutre money - the club could sign players on one-year deals knowing that if promotion wasn't achieved then they could re-budget without having the burden of expensive contracts. What should happen is that the financial position is reviewed and the club offers contracts to a value it can afford. If we get promoted then that puts us in a different place, financially speaking, than if we are not. Regarding the January contracts, it may be that a degree of mid-season budgeting takes place.

I never though we would be promoted this year and it was silly to advertise that, as im sure the club realised it was impossible. I think the fans have been surprised by the quality of the league which is why people are disappointed by how poor our start has been.

Anyone paying attention to Scottish football would know that the first division is a nightmare to get back out of. Even if you'd only been following ICT since they joined the SPL, a quick thought about what has happened to the teams that have been relegated during our time would tell you that.

I don't think is was silly to advertise a quick return, and I'm sure our aim is/was to get promoted this season, but that is true of at least six other teams. To settle for a fwew years in div 1 would have been really sad and unambitious, and this is the season when we would have the money to create a strong squad. I can accept the club gambling money they have on a return to the SPL. I would be less happy about them gambling money they don't have.

Some of the Cat 1 / FIFA list referees are excellent at having a quiet word with players on the way past. When referees don't approach the game in this manner, and officiate the game by the laws verbatim - they are lambasted. This, in my opinion, is not fair.

It wasn't verbatim application of the laws that caused the problem. Muir officiated in an inconsistent and random manner, meaning that he very quickly lost control of the game. Had he applied the laws to the letter, we may have complained that he was over fussy, but the players would have known what was what.

I wasn't at the game on Saturday, but I'm sure the last thing Alan Muir needed was a manager jumping about in the technical area when he had a game to officiate. I posted before the match that QOS would probably play dirty.

I'm sure it was the last thing he needed, but when he lost control he also had Chisolm trying to ref the game from the dugout as well. He put himself in that position by not asserting his authority.

Does this mean the team will not benefit from his inspirational half time team talks :014:

Sadly, no. He's just banned from prowling the touchline and berating the ref.

for those who cant work in euros (like me) €242,500.00 = ?211,918.81

I don't have the figures to hand but the 242,500.00 Euros would have been a heck of a lot less than ?211,918.81 if paid at the time of his transfer

Around ?165-170k I think - basically ?40k less...

Maybe we're stalling until the ? rallies against the €

I always knew the board were a load of Merchant Bankers

Only three teams have ever returned back to the SPL: Falkirk, St. Mirren, St. Johnstone

Falkirk were never relegated according to your figures, so haven't returned back within your time frame. They did win SFL1 twice, but weren't promoted the first time, so we will never know whether they would have stayed up or not.

Butch has been banned from the touchline for two games, 19th & 26th, not sure about Foran and Russell though.

Pretty much par for the course. Lets hope he spends the time away from the touch-line reading a copy of 'Timely Substitutions for Dummies'.

The SPL started before 2000/01, Hibs have been the only team ever to get relegated then come straight back up and that was back in 98/99!

If you want to be anal about it, Hibs were relegated from the last season the premier league was part of the SFL, and rebuilt significantly adding a combination of SPL quality players and experienced SFL1 lags to ensure promotion.

SFL1 has always been a nightmare to get out of. There are usually at least 7 teams who could potentially win it, and the competition is utterly cut-throat.

If you look at the 10 mins highlights that the boy posted on youtube, I'm sure it's the incident bang on 3 mins where the ref books Duncan and the other boy.

When I watched it (and then rewound to watch again!) it looked like he just booked QoS's No 8 (which I then thought was why he sent Russell off - wrong no 8 and in perfect keeping with his general grip on the game).

Russell's reaction to the yellow after the melee made it look like he knew he was going, so maybe he was booked in that earlier incident, but it wasn't clear to the observer.

Watching the highlights only enhanced my feeling that we should have killed the game long before Foran went, and that Queen's no 4 should have had first use of the hot water on Saturday.

The good ref is barely noticed. Mr Muir insists on being the centre of attention, is unclear in the intent of his actions and struggles to be consistent. The reader is invited to draw their own conclusion on his competency.

Is this the only issue thats draging the club down in some people views? This topics been talked about time and time again and we are going over the same area time and time again.

It's a long way from being the only issue that's dragging the club down!

We are going over it again, Georgeios, because no-one has given us an honest definitive account, of what happened.

As you say, there are other issues, Johnboy, but I believe this is a good clear place to start.

The sad thing is that a number of our board are successful businessmen, and therefore should know their way round a contract (or if not, have access to someone who does). What a pity that they do not seem to think it as important at the club.

You are right, HtG. As Scotty mentions such oversights have made us look like clowns, again. Ross County were better run than us even when we were in the SPL. But who is responsible for the Marius mistake.

I suspect that we'll never find out. I'm sure that we'll see a name at the bottom of the contarct signing on behalf of the club, and there may well be a sacrificial lamb offered to try and appease the seething masses. But the identitity of the individual who didn't apply due dilligence may never come to light.

Or am I being too cynical?