The Long Man

Excellent attendance and atmosphere, despite all the Glasgow naysayers predictions. A fair amount of neutrals who enjoyed a £5 ticket, and many of them apparently had a great day out. Fantastic to witness the lack of rancour, the Bairns have been very sporting, saying that if they were going to lose, they were happy it was to a team and support like us. Contrast that to the semi final!

Thanks, wazzow! I was very keen to know. Good for him (her?) getting it all on, even if we do pay a tiny price in terms of size of letters. A price, dare I say, we will happily settle for: our illustrious long and historic name on that cup, and not a cheap abbreviation. What happens to the cup? Do we keep it for a year? I hope the club give us a chance to take our photos with it. Well, Charles, in the grand tradition of old sporting clubs we have to be distinguished from any putative Inverness Caledonian Thistle RFC or AFC now, or for eternity!

You won't be in the Championship long if you keep playing like that. You have an extremely astute manager whose tactics were spot on in the second half, when you bossed the game. And Peter Grant was outstanding, saving goals at one end, and scoring at the other. You contributed a lot to an epic day. Impressive turn out.

How will the engraver get it all on, or will he have to abbreviate it? The Highlands wants to know!

Hearts have been an object lesson in how to regroup and rebuild a club with the help of its fans, as well as bringing on a new team. Take note, old panto queen from Glasgow. Welcome back to the SPL. Thanks!

Whaur's oor Billie noo?

"Inverness CT playmaker Ryan Christie is the target of several English Premier League clubs, including Everton and Newcastle United. However, the youngster expressed his desire to remain in his hometown for foreseeable future, and it is believed a fee of around £1 million would be required to persuade the club to part with their highly promising youngster. (The Sun)"

Who's refereeing the final? And will our defenders have to be extra careful with their arms? The SFA will be so keen to avoid any more dispute that something tells me he will be whistle happy Better strap you arms to your sides, lads

Cheers, ecojon. I think now that the raw emotion from Sunday has subsided some perspective is putting the whole thing in context. Hopefully the SFA will respond appropriately too. Yes, we have a great rivalry over the years!

Well, with the current Celtic manager saying it wasn't intentional, and the former manager saying it is impossible to prove intention, it seems nobody supports the SFA stance, and I don't see how 3 people can unanimously agree that it was a deliberate offence warranting a suspension, when they have no evidence, merely opinion.

The other notable consequence of this decision, if it stands, is to totally undermine the referee's authority during a match. If a 50-50 incident occurs, the ref will now not be just concentrating on getting it as right as possible, but will try to second guess a potential tribunal if the club doesn't like his decision. Even worse, fans, players and club officials may well see a decision they don't like and think to themselves: we will complain to the compliance officer about this. So any controversial decision during a match will now be perceived to be not the final decision, but open to appeal and change. If the SFA can't see how this will make a farce out of the results, which won't be final any more, and be a recipe for chaotic reconsideration of all manner of decisions, then they are negligent in their responsibilities. Ultimately they have to back the officials charged with officiating a game, and if they are dissatisfied with the standards then it is their job to raise them. Not shift the blame to people who they think they can punish for other's sins. BTW, isn't undermining the integrity of the game and bringing it into disrepute a chargeable offence? The SFA should be charging and fining themselves.

Yes, but if the SFA have any sense, they will realise they have to listen to other bodies in the game, since this decision could have repercussions outside of Scotland. So they have a responsibility to the wider game and the way it is officiated. Which is why I think they should back off, now that the reactions are almost universally negative to their brainstorm. Even though it is a national association, they have to keep in step with other associations in order to preserve some coherent structure to the game and how it is run. Otherwise we are going to get different laws for the same game in different countries. How are they going to police European and international games with fundamental differences like that?

Even the dunderheids at the SFA might be beginning to realise what a potential minefield this is for them if they capitulate to Celtic, and follow through their ill-thought out knee-jerk reaction. I would imagine that there is the distinct possibility of a few discrete phone calls from international bodies advising them of the dangers of the path they are pursuing, and its knock-on effects not just in Scotland. Hopefully the message will get through and they will be looking for a way out, or a famous compromise - where Josh is reprieved and some symbolic rap on the knuckles is administered to fob off the Whingers Brigade. That would be the political solution, and I hope ICT give them the ammunition, in the form of impeccable legal arguments (like they want a case brought against Zalukas for starters), to carry it out, and avert a potential crisis in the future running of the game. That would be the best outcome, and the more insightful of them will recognise it, and take whatever straw ICT are offering them to clutch on to.

I quite accept that the style isn't for everybody, but it doesn't diminish the momentous nature of what we have achieved. Radio 4 can have laugh at our expense if they like, but most people will appreciate and warm to a club which can show a self-deprecating sense of humour while also playing some of the best football I have seen in the SPL this year. We have plenty of professionalism, this is another string to our bow which doesn't detract from that, but enhances our appeal as something different and refreshing on the Scottish football scene. I can see how you might think it is 'amateurish', but I would argue that it is actually much more aware of its own deliberate exaggeration, which gives it its humour, and it is that guile and wit which has attracted a lot of praise and attention. Intelligence and humour - when did you last encounter those qualities in Scottish football? Put it this way - can you imagine Celtic having a sense of proportion or humour about what happened on Sunday? Whatever, enjoy the final and don't let Twitter put you off - I am looking forward to it, and it will bring in a lot of people to our cause. The future is bright.

This is appeasement of the worst sort of conspiracy theorising bigots who have been flooding social media since Sunday. It is incredibly weak of the SFA to look for a scapegoat to throw to these people, while undermining their own officials without actually blaming them. It is the worst sort of fudging in order to satisfy the mob, and will only worsen their own reputation. But the worst aspect of it all is who thought they could justify this under the current rules, and what kind of precedent it sets. If this stands, then any game in the future, particularly those involving the largest supports, will be subject to media storms and campaigns to have decisions rescinded. If there are some wiser heads at the SFA than these panicked functionaries, they will hope that this decision is overturned. Otherwise the future is hysterical media lynch mobs set to overturn any decisions they don't like. The SFA should back the referee, and point out that they can't change a decision made in good faith based on the evidence available to him at the time. Whether you like it or not is immaterial, if he felt that Josh didn't deliberately raise his hand to stop the ball, then that is his decision, and one the SFA should back, making clear the already established laws of the game, and the restriction of appeals and retrospective punishments to incidents not seen by the referee, and only serious ones which are unambiguous in their intent. None of the criteria apply to the Meekings case, and they should drop it before they do further damage to the game.

You are in the minority. It has been a great advert for the club - witty, funny and informative. I think you are misreading entirely the tone of it, and the way it speaks to people - it's a certain style which many are familiar with from blogs, tweets and social media, and is more clever than you think. Long may it continue. That feed during the semifinal was classic, and played its part in the huge enjoyment of the day.

Absolutely epic match. One of the best ever. What more can you ask of a match than controversy, high drama, end to end excitement, great football and five goals. Thrills, spills and no bellyaches, unless you're bad losers. Even getting their slice of luck, ICT played more fluently and often more confidently in their own game than Celtic. Kept to their passing game, and actually created more than enough chances to win the game in normal time. The winning goal was worthy of any game in any league. The close passing, running into space and finishing was as good as you'll see anywhere - Shinnie was at the heart of it, like so many of our attacking moves, and will be missed sorely next season. But what a way to go out he has now. Ryan is really starting to look like the talent that we know he is, and has come on in leaps and bounds this season - he was revelling in the space behind the strikers. The way we never gave up, even when under pressure, and losing our lead, was magnificent. If any team deserves some silverware for their contribution to football in Scotland this season, then ICT surely do.

The ICT Twitter account is brilliant - they missed one of my favourites at the end, though, which simply read: "A nation rejoices." Ha ha, love it.

I feel sorry for Billy, he deserves better, shame he is not here until the summer - he left just as he was in some of his best ever form, and then hardly makes the bench - what a waste (c Ian Dury)

Divine Devine! At last, now let's get a few!

Judging by the BBC commentary we are well in control of this game, and playing well. Ofere sounds like he might be a good asset. All we need is a goal - famous last words.

The Celtic manager was quoted earlier in the season as saying that ICT played the best football out of the challenging top four teams. So people who actually watch the game, and have some idea, know alright. On the other hand, people who derive their opinions from the media and stale shopworn attitudes just repeat the same old guff. To be fair, a couple of the BBC Scotland radio pundits have talked us up on more than a few occasions, the message finally getting through that things have changed, for the better.

In order to win it, one must first to get to the semi. i don't think i said anything about losing there!

Another goal of the season? That's nearly half a dozen now, by my count. Yogi's quite fair isn't he - he wants a soft draw in the next round, then glory glory. Only 3 SPL teams left, here we go.

Well done, lads. Great result, backs against the wall! Bring on the next round. Would love to make the semi.