STFU

We have an available squad which lacks any quality in depth at the moment, and that limits our options when it comes time for subs or backfilling for unavailable players. This won't be the last time we lose a game in this manner as a result of that, but hopefully Ferguson can find a way to improve the situation when the January window comes around. Unfortunately, the way we're run off the pitch is likely to severely hinder the available finances for that, so it will likely need a great deal of creativity and wheeling n dealing.

There's good argument for both approaches. The one used is higher risk, but gave better return in terms of game time and a proper look at fringe players. The cost was entertainment value. I'm sure Ferguson expected a bit more from the starting lineup and didn't intend to be relying on subs to win it, but he'll now have a better understanding of what he's working with.

With Welsh unlikely to have been on the park the whole game (Ferguson said post match he got longer than intended) and needing to focus on his own return, and Billy not starting, then I don't think there's anything to read into it.

Made a late decision to go after being offered a comp, and was regretting it at half time and almost decided to head home to the warmth. Sheridan is awful. Every move he made was towards our man with the ball, restricting options. Can't recall a single time he ran into space, and if the ball wasn't to his feet he wouldn't move/chase it. Welsh looked like he'd never played before and Delaney was a passenger. Until the subs came on it looked like we were also a poor Lowland League team with nothing to play for. We'd get to the final third, then pass it back, all the way to the keeper half the time. A better team would have taken us apart in the first half, but Cowdenbeath were as toothless as we were Thankfully we had a strong bench and the first 3 subs changed the tempo and the game. Billy's goal was an absolute corker.and I hope we're working on getting Wotherspoon tied down a little longer. Hopefully the game time will have helped the fringe players, and those coming back from injury, but man was it painful to watch. Most important thing is, we're in the hat for the next round. Onwards and upwards.

Confident we can do the business, but a little nervous by mention of 4 or 5 changes, especially involving players who haven't been playing, and unfortunately Max Anderson is cup tied, so not available for selection. Still might stick a tenner on a win by 2 or more.

That cover it?

I hear there's a stadium sized plot available up at Fairways where they were previously hoping for some Battery Storage 🤔

I think underpinning the financial future of the club on it might lean things in favour of my interpretation, but you carry on splitting hairs 👍

You're reading that wrong. It's not that the green port will deliver delayed benefit. It will NEVER deliver any benefit for the club.

I know you are just trying to defend the club, and that's admiral to a point, but I'm afraid you are wrong/misinformed on much of what you have said on this thread. Read it back in full and you'll see that there's information and links on things like business and resident objections to the Battery Storage unit, as well as independent consultations that state the application doesn't meet the criteria and the club not taking advantage of pre application advice which would have highlighted issues and allowed them to consider them before proceeding. The concert company stuff is covered above. The CEO told us the green port was going to be huge for the club, but now the chairman is saying he can see no way it will benefit us at all. This is not a case of giving a pat on the back and saying they tried their best, everything above is riddled with evidence of mismanagement and incompetence.

The recommendation to take pre application advice from the planners was not taken up by ILI/ICTFC. Naive, arrogant or both? Having watched the meeting, I'm not convinced the decision will end up going in favour of the club. When all is said and done, the application is to put an industrial operation on a protected open green site and all the noise mitigation and camouflage in the world isn't going to change that. A decision to allow it regardless isn't a precedent that council will want to set unless there's wider reaching benefit which can also be placed as a condition on future applications of a similar nature. A friendly councillor has managed to kick the can down the road by asking for the deferment, even if he also made it obvious that was primarily to buy time for ILI/ICTFC and not so much for the stated site visit.

Tell me you base your world view from information on the ICTFC Twitter feed without telling me you base your world view from information on the ICTFC Twitter feed 🙄

23_00497_FUL-Warehouse_13_Limited-2973526.pdf

If only we could drink battery acid 😂

I may be dreaming this as I can't find where I saw it, but I recall seeing something from Ferguson that said the team were being trained previously as if they were part-time, and it would take a little bit to get the squad fully up to a fitness level where they could play the way he wants for the full 90mins. That could mean that subs are as much about that transition and not pushing players too hard for 90 mins, as opposed to it being tactical.

It's too easy to scream "big bad council". I doubt there are many of us here would welcome a noisy, potentially dangerous, and ugly development, only 100 metres from our front door (only 30 metres from some offices). And it's not going to do much for their property value. Battery Storage is needed, but they can't just be plonked anywhere because the local football team will gain financially from it. There's an interesting article here - https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-66584335

Nairn County ring any bells?

I'll be disappointed if we don't put out our best available squad. We're nowhere near strong enough to be underestimating any team, and the more time our starting 11 get playing together, the sharper they'll get.

Sounds like ILI are using/renting the club name in return for being able to tap into the "this is great for the community" and "it'll save the club" angle. One of the club directors owns the land so maybe it, or a cut of the income from it, has been promised to us. As with everything, fans are last to know. So far we've been told the concerts would secure the future of the club, and that didn't happen. Then it was some magic to do with being in the Green Free Port that was going to be a game changer, and the Chairman has admitted there's nothing for is in that. Now it's our involvement with the battery storage, which appears to have been poorly handled and looking less likely to bare any financial benefit. But, it's never the clubs fault and always someone else to blame. Constantly whoring the club name out like this is embarrassing. Even if successful, there seems to be a fair bit of opposition to it from the residents and businesses in that area (aside from the ones who've been offered payment if planning goes through... that's called a bribe in most places) and reputational damage will be done, again.

Not playing at our best and still picking up points, not to be sniffed at. Up to 7th and still a game in hand of Ayr in 6th who are only a point ahead. Moving in the right direction.

Maybe if we stopped with the "We're entitled to...XYZ, just because we're a football club" attitude, it might help. Comments made elsewhere suggesting that consultant reports in support of the application were done on the cheap, and by the Chairman's own admission, we couldn't even get all the paperwork in on time. Add in the number of local businesses who lost large sums of money from the concert fiasco, and we've not exactly been making a lot of friends the last few years. The Trust is a separate entity. Remember when our CEO and Chairman went to great lengths to point out the importance of that with the concert company? How positions on these things can change to try and work a situation in your favour! It's also comical that the club consider themselves to be so hugely focused on the community, when they can't even manage simple fan engagement. Just another embarrassing episode in the Morrison/Gardiner tenure, regardless of whether planning is given or not.

Great job by Harper to spot the run for the second, and a perfectly weighted ball for Wotherspoon. That's the kind of play that comes from a bit of if confidence and trusting in your teammates. I know I'm only basing it on a few highlights, but the team are looking sharper and fitter throughout the squad. Promotion play-off places are not beyond us, but given where we've been I'll take survival at this point and something to build on next season. We just need to get far enough from the bottom that a points deduction for administration doesn't also relegate us.

Any update from the meeting?