big cherly

Ref wiz a ‘homer’. Still couldn’t get a win!

Well Hmm’ that was a 45 mins of intricate ‘none penetration’. Nice slow passing aroon our half of the park (oops forgot the goal). Nae teeth. Even with the ref feeling sorry for us giving every challenge a foul to us. Nice yellow shirt thou!! Forgot the good natured expletive boo-ing at the HT whistle!!

HT 0-1 FT 1-2 1st ICT . Gilmore 1st Cove. Darce crowd 1639

Hi ymip, Like your views. Catch up in Jan 25

I think we all need to just step back a little and let us reach the half way through the season. We can make then, I suggest, a better assessment of whether we are capable of being champs, playoff, mid table or fighting relegation. Let’s take stock of a few things. Being full time is no guarantee for automatic promotion. It provides our F/T players the benefit of applying themselves fully to working on their fitness, skills, teamwork and manager game plan. The part time clubs have operating since there existence in an PT operation and know how to get the best out of there players. Experience counts; (more so over the season). We’re short of that currently with the young-ish team we have. Other teams are I suggest more settled in this area. Whether we like it or not artificial pitches present a challenge when your (our) home pitch surface is grass. Yes we can train in them at the Bught, but it’s still a disadvantage for us. We still have the geographic issue of our division rivals having easier access to player pools. DF may be able to access English loanees in Jan, but we need AS to provide the funds!!!! Lastly, let’s not loose sight we are just attempting to get the club back on its feet after a monumental six months. We’re not out of the woods yet. Finish by saying I want the team to be playing in the championship next year. However I think it may be the season after, but I’m prepared to support them whatever league they play.

Taking in the highlights, and admittingly it’s not a proper ‘take’ of the match as a whole, I have to align with the posters that say this was two points dropped. We had more than enough clear cut chances to ‘kill’ the game of before subs or Alloa came back into the game. DF’s changes or game plan may have contributed, but we have to take the chances (some sitters) when they come along. Time catching up on B McKay for me!

‘We’re undefeated, we only lost that one to Annan on a penalty’. You’ve got to laugh and shake your head!

Not at the match so can only go on posts entered. Loosing a 2 goal lead well into the second half looks and feels like a missed opportunity. Shutting up shop would have been the wisest plan, and maybe the attending fans can advise if we tried that (in vain), or went out to get a third goal? Either way I see this result as more of a positive. Away to one of the better league teams, artificial pitch, score and fight out a draw. Young team and hopefully they learn the next time they’re in that position to see it out.

HT 2-0 FT 3-0 FS ? Crowd 615

Tend to agree tm4tj, this will be a tough test for ICT. Alloa are seasoned campaigners in this division and know there way about getting results. Artificial pitch I understand, so that’s in the Alloa players favour. Throw in the experienced players you mention it will be a ‘tester’ for our youngish team. Wish our boys well!!

Look forward to the ex Chairman and members of the Board being dragged in to clarify SG’s lawyer’s assertion he/they knew fully the ex CEO’s contract terms extension and endorsed it unanimously. Or, maybe they were acting and relying on the strength of the ex Chairman assurances? No, they wouldn’t be that gullible??

There’s many ways to ‘skin a cat’ so the saying goes! Ignorance is bliss, just keep buying the merchandise!

Spot on Wygwie, Gardeners Contract was checked out both by an independent advisor and a central belt solicitor when the Mahwana show was in full swing and it was found to be watertight. The exposure of risk and potential for come back was known then, so I’m not surprised in any way where we are now. AS knew this would happen I’m sure. We’ll get through it eventually and end up paying Gardiner something. We the fans may be asked by sources to contribute to help reach any overspend.

Wish the forensic checks started with including what the contractural and legal position was with Gardiner before AS showed him the door. Hope I’m wrong but I cant think this is going to serve anyone but SG in the long term.

5 year Horizon # Club - Debt free - Majority owners highland based. - Paying minimum wage # Football side - Establish Championship team. - Tie up with US colleges for players. # Stadium - Coat of paint # Fan base - Average league game attendance >2100

3 year Horizon # Club - Debt free - Signs of re-investment by local businesses in the club - Matchday hospitality reinstated # Football side - Promotion from League 1 - More youth players achieving first team on merit. - Rosco – Hospitality ambassador # Stadium - Repaired / refurb toilets - De-weed the pitch surround track # Fan base - Average league game attendance 2000

1st yr Horizon (end of this season). Club · Debt free and on a sound operating basis that doesn’t jeopardise its future. · Meeting its Company, Corporate, Clubs shareholders and SFLA rules and obligations on time. · Board and CEO positions reviews and appointments/changes made. · Strategy for re-engagement with City and Region businesses with targets and timeline. Overseas – ‘Great’. · Open and more transparency and publish its interface/meetings with the Supporter Trust. · Invitation to past players as a mark of re-engagement and undoing previous wrongs. Football side · Management- more attacking system of play. The current system is considered unattractive by many fans and is counterproductive to encourage more to attend the games. . Achieve a play-off position. · Coaching – Recognise we have a large number of younger players with imho very few successes do we need to consider changing the coaching system. Nothing should be sacrosanct looking for improvement. Looking ahead to 3yr horizon apart from R Christie and Liam Polwarth, let’s be frank over the period is it value for money? Stadium . Badly in need of a coat of paint. . Back to turnstile only access. . Proper and improved stadium security. . Singing section . New bar? Fan Base . Approach and re-engage the ‘young team’. Place is desperately lacking in any real atmosphere. .Bring back the Mascot. . Proper strategy for increasing the fan base long term. Ie compare Ross County to us over the last 30 years!

I am taking a bit of a jump here and anticipating the clubs continued existence is/will be secured by the welcome intervention of Mr A Savage. With his stewardship and demand for professionalism and fiscal accountability going forwarded, be it with AS himself or with new owners, it provides hopefully, us the fans, to breath a little more easily and consider what the future holds for our little club. So taking that lead, and with the opportunity to clear the slate so to speak, I thought it worthwhile starting a posting to see what the fans want for our club looking at 1, 3 and 5 year horizons. My thinking behind this is the club is the fans, and without the fans intervention in May things could have looked a darker for our club. So, taking that position, where do we want to see the club in the three horizons. I am putting in a few conditions / caveats, so to keep the discussion realistic and achievable. As it’s a watershed period for me nothing is considered sacred. So for now I only list the headings or topics that I think are relevant! Others may identify more pertinent or pressing ones. Here are my Horizons 1st year Horizon (end of this season). 3rd year Horizon (end of season 26/27). 5th year Horizon ( end of season 29/30) Topics # Club (of field) # Football side (ie management, players, coaching. youth system etc # Stadium # Fan base # ?? I’ll drop my 1st year horizon items soon. Hopefully it is of interest to some and allows others to get their there thoughts ‘out there’ bc

We held it together to see out a win. Not a great second half. I was fearing one of their many long throw-ins would ultimately end up with the ball in our net, but fair play to our defence, they stood firm. Good argument for the defence today. Rest of the game plan still needs work. Too many passes when one or two is suffice. Shoot on site, not look for the pass! Again we need Mackay running in on the goals, not deep in midfield. Take the win, positives and move on!!

Reasonable half 1-0. Great to see Mackay do what he used to do for fun. Still a bit of being at a repeat of a past movie with limited penetration. But hey ho we’re bloody wining for now!

For the reasons I provided. It’s simply a poor investment of time, energy and money (even if it is AS’s). Better to move on and concentrate on improving the club professionally (both on and off the park). I know DF was/is SG’s ‘man’, and there are valid reasons to question his managerial capabilities. He knows he is under the focus of our new interim CEO and if performance and or results are not at an acceptable level, then I am sure we will have change.

Yes CbP, tend to agree but I would prefer AS would not go down this ‘road’. I would prefer a settlement was reached and we paid SG to disappear quickly (he will reappear somewhere else {England} i’m sure). My reasons are: # SG will want to keep his name in the limelight (Kahwana like), so his name and image of a ‘hard and demanding businessman’ in the sport world is ‘out there’. There are enough like minded individuals out there that care only about siphoning money out of clubs (Glazers spring to mind), that admire these attributes. It wouldn’t surprise me any if some future connection or venture with good old Ketan appears. # I would like AS to give his full attention to making ICTFC an attractive and sound investment for an appropriate and long term group or individual. (Anders Povlsen my ideal type). Wasting energy over a long drawn out legal battle in Court dilutes AS’s time on this matter. It also serves SG purpose above. # The costs for fighting any legal case submitted by SG will only go one way, and that’s up!! I can imagine the fun lawyers would have insisting each of the over 7,000 unopened emails are debated over in the minuscule detail to defend some abstract and completely irrelevant clause of corporate law. Cut our losses now and ‘heave’ SG. Give him the 70K to ‘get rid’! # Any legal case will inevitably drag the members of the Board into the quagmire. ‘I said this to XX, and he agreed’. No ‘I only said this’, and thought it was clear what I meant ….’ It’s just a mess waiting to hear the starting gun. God knows there are a pile (if not all) of the KK Board backers I’d gladly dump now, but I just can’t face more of these people pleading insanity!! # Lastly and more importantly for me, it’s time to close the door on the past 5-7 years of incompetence and self-interest, and move onto a new and hopefully brighter chapter of the club’s future. Let’s pay SG his 30 silver coins to see the back of him for good. Can’t think of a better way of insulting SG than starting with a victory on Saturday.

HT 1-1 FT 2-1 icy fs Mackay qos ? C 1795

A long way to go, we’ve just started the season. Let’s not get too high or low on a 0-0 away from home. Like all ICTFC fans I want the team to win every game, but we know that’s unrealistic to expect. As a few guys have rightly already mentioned, taken where we were two weeks ago, for me its just satisfying to know we’re in a hell of a better place than we could have been had the dice rolled a little differently. Regarding the team. I’m for blooding the younger players early! They will run all day long and learn (for good or bad) quickly. The older heads will keep a grip on things as they gell and improve as a team. Don’t underestimate the effect on player moral and added effort the announcement of A Savage’s intervention and the group’s plan for the club. It stabilises the player’s security for at least the season and provides a platform to if not reach a play off spot, make the season more hopeful. DF will have been told I expect (by CC more than AS), he has to deliver a more forward playing game. He has the support of these two individuals for now, but DF knows it’s not up for debate and he has I expect till January to deliver a better product. I will be present next Saturday and will be looking for and expect a ICTFC victory.

To the fans that attended the game, what was the general view of the team performance and outcome. 0-0 seems a not bad result for an essentially young team up against one of the favourites?