Alex MacLeod

Looking at the highlights for second goal I think a lot of credit must go to Nick Ross for his quick thinking pass back. Many a player would have tried to go it alone in that situation. I've not been able to get to a game this season (Hopefully Tannadice on Saturday) and have only seen highlights or TV matches but what a difference. This is a team playing as a team and playing some really good football. Our style of play is well suited to plastic pitch and allows us to control the ball and control the game. Well done on the win.

Might have been good for us had it not been for injury

Question.....Is there something not right when, according to Raven, he indicated in the summer that he'd like to stay yet there still isn't an offer on the table?

Tansey will be available for this one. His totting up ban starts from 18/1 so will miss St Johnstone.

Never realised he was training with us. As far as I know he is still without a club.

Captain material maybe??

Not sure about that but did the rules not change whereby it's the player who's responsible for the agents fee and not the signing club?

Yes the offer is open to St Johnstone fans. Being a tuesday night I'd be surprised if there was a substantial crowd increase. The offer may attract a few extra visitors but I dont think it'll be in the hundreds.

Think it was mentioned a while back that he's back training

Ewan Murray @mrewanmurray · 16h 16 hours ago Would be surprised if Shinnie plays many more times for Inverness... Birmingham City bid expected. 0 replies 10 retweets 3 favorites

Attendance 4887

Being old enough to remember the days when players stayed on their feet at all costs there is an element of deception in the game. It used to be blamed on foriegn players but over recent years its become the norm among all players. I remember players like Jimmy Johnstone, George Best etc who'd jump over the extended leg and score rather than waste the effort in the hope a ref was duped. I think its time the corrupt lawmakers of the game at FIFA level put rules in place to stamp this out. In game like the St Johnstone one the law should be that if found guilty after game of deception to earn a goal player should be sanctioned and team forfiet game. I also think more needs to be done to stop the wrestling matches in the box at set pieces and the enmasse hounding of ref's to get a fellow professional disciplined. I also think that refs need to be taught to recognise a good old fashioned shoulder charge. Maybe its also time to stop resisting the use of technology i.e video referee just like in rugby. Critics may suggest this would slow down the game and make it boring. I dont think it would. In rugby its only used when ref is not sure. In rugby ref's decision is final and players never try to influence. Unlike the all too often card waving of players and hounding of refs.

A stat to ponder.......Last time we lost more than three league games in a row was festive period of 08/09 season. Back then we went on a run of eight consecutive league defeats. The seventh of those resulted in the sacking of Brewster.

I think that's right? I think it seems narrower due to the stands being much nearer the pitch? We had the same debate last year. Whether the pitch is bigger, smaller or the same size the fact is we beat them 3-0 and played them off the park with one of the best performances I've seen from any ICT team. Same again would be good. By the way, I understand that County still have plenty tickets for sale and are surprised that ICT shut up shop early for New Year and didn't want more tickets once the original 1,000 were sold. Inverness pitch is, I believe 115 x 75 yards whilst Dingwall is 100 x 75. Shorter but same width. Ourselves, Hamilton and St Johnstone have same dimensions. All others are either narrower or shorter. Info from http://www.footballgroundguide.com/scotland/ so may not be up to date.

Maybe the Tansey influence will keep our players here. http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/Sport/Football/Tansey-urges-caution-over-Caley-Thistle-exits-29122014.htm

Scarlet its been asleep for six months. Did you really need to wake it up again?

OPEC have considerably less power than they once did but they do still have the advantage that they have reserves which are cheap to exploit and can therefore force prices down. What they no longer have is the power to force prices up to previous levels. What the American fracking has shown us is that oil can be extracted in large quantities by that method at a price which is competetive at prices which have been paid in recent years. This is why prices have fallen. OPEC could theoretically up production and drop prices to squeeze the frackers but only at the cost of rapidly depleting their reserves whilst significantly reducing their profits. That would not be a sensible long term option. If they try to increase prices both the Americans and the Russians will undercut them. All the signs are that oil prices will not be bouncing up to the kind of level the SNP were suggesting in the referendum campaign. Had we made the mistake of voting "YES" in September, an independent Scotland would be facing a very uncertain economic future indeed. As of close of play on friday the oil price dropped such that shale oil recovery cannot break even. In the next few weeks the price will drop further. Shale oil production will slow down. The glut in the market will deplete and the price will start to rise. At that point the Saudi's will reduce output for a few weeks to create a bigger shortage thus increasing the price further. The price will reach a stable plateau and the Saudis will make big money. Fracking will resume and the whole process will start again. Five yearly cycle will be the norm. Watch this space.

Charles you may have been a decent teacher but political and financial journalist you are certainly not. I like the way you've used the typical redtop journalistic approach in choosing the paragraph you quote. Without the paragraph above and below it it can be made to look totally different to the actual story. http://www.macrotrends.net/1369/crude-oil-price-history-chart Big news Charles. The price is, at this moment, at its lowest for five years. Wait a minute though. Where was it five years and nine months ago. And guess what. It went back up. If you use the cursor on the linked chart you'll see the price in November at just over $65. In December its just under $69. Signs of an upturn maybe? Do you honestly think the people who control the oil market are going to allow themselves to suffer. The Arabs are pissed off at American shale oil production so the create a price fall to shut down the shale oil producers then the price goes back up and its the Arabs who reap the benefits again. Here's a line from USA Today that should please many Charles:- Low prices could also make new oil extraction technologies, such as fracking, less profitable.

I believe they're only allowed to display till the following seasons competition. ForzaCaley nobody is suggesting our fans cant be trusted. Flagpoles are prevented by the police not the club. Police fears are that they could be used as a weapon against them. They were banned atall SPL clubs, which I always found ironic because Hampden is aye full of them, The rest of your statement above is a bit of a contradiction. In one line you want to create colour and in the next some are chastised for wanting some of that colour to be red and black.

Scarlett I'm sure the original conversation was about you expecting increases in the pension you already recieve. I dont think funds set aside for frozen pensions was part of that topic. Frozen pensions are just that. They are pension funds that have been frozen until the intended recipient makes a claim. That fund covers the pension rights of some 5 million people who emigrated in last twenty years as well as all those who left previous to that who are still to reach pension age. I dont doubt for a minute that there is a frozen fund. There has to be for those emigree's who have paid into it so they can claim their entitlement. An entitlement based on contributions paid. There is no pot for UK citizens. Pensions for residents in UK are paid out of welfare fund. NI contributions are supposed to go to health and welfare but in reality thats not the case. If it were there would be a serious deficit. State benefits, pensions, care of elderly and support and care for mentally impaired, health services as well as care of interned persons costs way beyond what is collected in NI contributions. Much of that has come about because we're all living longer and because we have a larger population of those out of work and those in work who, because of low wages require state help to survive. The chancellor pools all taxation and sets budgets accordingly. If all this money you seem to think is lying around really is around then I'll be voting for the party that'll use it to help the 900,000 people who were forced to use one of the 400 Trussel Trust foodbanks in the country just to stay alive and the 185,000 people without homes.

So "Scotland's Oil" - which is conspicuous by its absence from that Opec list under the title of "UK" - is a pretty minor player on the oil scene then? Who has ever said otherwise.....so your point is just what exactly? My point is that Salmond and chums spent half the referendum campaign bigging up this declining resource which Alex M now tells us isn't even big enough to allow export to take place and hence for us to have a seat at the top table in terms of calling the oil shots world wide. Clearly dependence on this kind of situation would have increased 12 fold should it have, back in September, come to apply not to a population of 60 million, but just to 5 million who would have had no say whatsoever in market conditions relating to an asset which the SNP claims is crucial. No Charles I didn't tell you that. This top table you refer to is not inhabited by many outside the main Arab states. It is no more than a middle east cartel and none of the other countries, including the UK want to be part of it. Perhaps you should educate yourself before making such stupid statements. As to the exporting. We do export but we also choose to refine and process in the UK and export the products of oil. There's more money to be made that way. From that crude we produce a large percentage of the worlds plastics and synthetic rubber. we produce synthetic alcohol and other spirits, oil additives for the motor industry, bitumens, petroleum spirits and benzenes, aircraft grade kerosenes. diestuffs and paint additives and many more. All of those go to the manufacture of many other products and all are sold all over the world. Might surprise you to know Charles that there is a lot more to oil than the stuff in your car. A car, incidentally, where 75% of the components and fittings would have come from crude oil derivitives. But then you probably know all this anyway Mr Windupmerchant.

A little bit of education for you Charles. At the moment Saudi Arabia, the voice of Opec, is the worlds biggest exporter of oil. While oil prices were high, a situation created by Opec sticking to an agreed output quota, North America and Canada were able to invest heavily in shale oil extraction. Shale oil extraction is high cost and requires prices to be above $70 a barrel to make it viable. This shale oil has come onto the market and created a world glut in available oil thus knocking the price down. Saudi are not happy that America could overtake them as the worlds biggest exporter. Opec were asked by the non Opec countries to cut output to maintain the price. Saudi and the other member states, all of whom have no love for North America, have decided that they will no longer be the controllers of the price so will not cut back. They argue that North America has created the problem by increasing their output and that its they who should make the cuts. They know that the shale oil industry could collapse if the price is not raised. And thats the nub of it. Shale oil will become un-viable and production will slow. When that happens Opec will cut output and the price will rise. What effect will this have on UK? Hard to say really. As I indicated earlier UK still refines oil and produces oil derivatives at a number of large petrochemical complexes around the country, including Grangemouth. All these require crude oil as feedstock and when the price is low they make bigger profits. Basically, the reduction in revenue from the North Sea is offset by the increase in revenue from the downstream sector. This has been the way of this industry since I joined it in 79 and it will continue so long as there is a need for oil and oil derivatives.

So "Scotland's Oil" - which is conspicuous by its absence from that Opec list under the title of "UK" - is a pretty minor player on the oil scene then? Not quite Charles. The main exporters of oil are the countries in OPEC. The other players use, in country, a lot of what they produce. Note also that Russia, Azerbiajan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Colombia, Mexico, USA, Canada, Korea, Australia, South Africa, Namibia, and a few other African countries do not feature in Opec. I know you get your kicks from windups Charles but your comment above shows you're pretty clueless on many subjects.

"Oil Prices Plunge After OPEC Meeting" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30223721 Of course they do. There's more profit to be made from downstream products at the moment so the raw material needs to be cheaper. Drop the price and demand will increase.

As I'm self employed then no I'm not worried about anything. Having been in this industry for as long as I have I've seen prices rise and plummet many times. The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries consisting of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi, UAE and Venezuela. There mission is to coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its Member Countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers and a fair return on capital for those investing in the petroleum industry. In other words, being the biggest world producers of oil, they will increase or hold back production, as they see fit, to control the price for their own ends. The oil price was allowed to go far too high and now its being deliberately brought down again which actually benefits the producers who also refine and market the product. Companies like BP, Shell etc have to make their upstream product available on the open market. Their downstream arms, i.e refining and petrochemicals must buy the feedstock from the open market so if price drops the downstream arm makes the bigger profit. When the price is high the upstream arm makes the profit. When the price is too high demand from those who do not produce the raw product drops considerably so less profit is made than is made when price drops and demand increases. Kind of like the suggestions that if a football club drops there prices they could increase interest and thus profit. As a point of interest Scarlt, when I came into this industry the oil companies were budgeting for an oil price of around $5 US.