The Hammer

It does look a little short of striking options at the moment. I do always think, though, that a world cup delays the transfer market activity. OK so ICT probably aren't looking to directly sign a WC player but when these players move it does tend to have a knock on effect down the leagues as other players move on and become available.

Is Bar 94 open only to Supporters Trust members or can anyone go in? I am a member, and will be renewing next month, but am considering attending a match in August with some non-members. Is there an age restriction on entry?

Fixtures are what they are - we have to play everyone home and away twice, but to start at home, finish at home and be at home for the new year fixtures is good news.

Now there's something I can get on board with! Indeed, my head this morning is telling me that I did participate quite fully at the pub last night.

I tend to agree with this. No, probably not. But, with the bloated tournament such as it is, the next game against opposition of the quality of Croatia or better is not likely to happen until the last 16 and momentum by then might (or might not) give the confidence to overcome. Personally, I'm struggling to get into this WC so far. As yet I've only watched two full matches (England & Scotland) and the second half of Brazil v Morocco. I've seen the goals from maybe half a dozen other matches. Maybe when the group stages are over it will grab me a bit more.

I decided to stay up (sort of). I had unintentially nodded off on the sofa between about 9 and 11:30 then woke up, watched the remaining Brazil v Morocco match then sat and watched the Scotland game. It was light when it finished so I took my dogs for their morning walk 4:30-5:30 then went to bed for a few hours.

This - in conjunction with the ticketing system - should be almost foolproof in identifying the ticketholder (or at least the ticket purchaser). From there it's surely down to any club/SPFL/police initiatives to determine effective punishments and, by extention, deterrrents. Clubs could lead the way - having their own policies - regardless of these lenient punishments dished out by the SPFL. In England a (countrywide) stadium ban and criminal record seems to work pretty well in the main.

Having been in Prague three years ago when West Ham won it I can fully understand how their fans will be feeling, it's quite a surreal joy. Well done to them, and enjoy the Europa League next year.

Just announced.

Oscar MacIntrye is the real surprise here for me. The others I can all see reasons why the club may choose to part ways them, but with Oscar I can only assume the descision not to sign an extention/new deal would be down to him.

I haven't looked at their accounts (perhaps thats something to do over the summer) but in addition to the plastic pitch hire as already mentioned perhaps they are just really good at getting in sponsorship income and corporate dollar. I guess part time clubs also have a lower salary cost base.

Not specifically ICT, but it is relevent to ICT so hopefully alright posted here. For anyone interested in such things, here are the average crowds in League 1 this season, with each team's biggest and smallest crowd. Not surprisingly ICT were far and away the best supported, and also were the opponent for three of the other clubs biggest crowd. East Fife were the biggest draw to two other clubs. Despite having the lowest average Kelty were not the lowest crowd for any club when they visited. Cove were the opponent for Hamilton's biggest and smallest crowd of the season. ICT's lowest crowd was bigger than every other club's best crowd of the season. Average Largest Smallest ICT 2306 5029 v Hamilton 1792 v Peterhead Queens 1034 1413 v Montrose 495 v Stenny East Fife 739 1348 v ICT 553 v Montrose Peterhead 696 927 v Queens 479 v Alloa Alloa 615 809 v ICT 509 v Cove Montrose 587 1082 v East Fife 260 v Peterhead Stenny 544 1096 v ICT 384 v Montrose Hamilton 476 696 v Cove 238 v Cove Cove 471 695 v Peterhead 240 v Alloa Kelty 417 745 v East Fife 242 v Cove

Generally people in England keep off the pitch, but there are occurrences, especially when titles are won, where it happens. As West Ham have never won a title I don't know what the consequences for fans are that do this - my guess is nothing if it's just seen as exuberence. I was at the Ethiad a couple of years ago when they won their 4th title in a row and the pitch was invaded (see below) but I didn't hear of anything being done. It was all good natured. West Ham have had disgruntled fans fun on the pitch - they have been dealt with by the law and issuing of bans which include (I believe but don't know as fact) having to hand over their passport to authorities if/when that club is playing in Europe, although that might have been if it happened in a European game. Theoretically a "football banning order" prevents you from access to any stadium in the country, but I don't know how it's co-ordinated. For the most part it works as a deterrent.

I read that refs are going to talk to clubs in the summer about all the holding. To be honest all it needs is them to say "we're going to referee to the laws and not let you all cheat anymore". While I get your purple card idea, I don't think its needed. Just be strict in pre season games and they'll all get used to it by the time the season proper starts.

It looked OK to me. Part of each foot looked to me to be on or behind the line, and arms looked OK. What made you think it was a foul throw? I've been wrong about foul throws before when I was thinking of the older law where your feet had to be behind the line.

Sometimes I wonder if there is an agenda in VAR only showing a particular angle and not looking at them all. It is certainly not a guarantee that the ball hit his hand from the one angle I saw shown. I was watching the Hearts game and when that finished I switched over in time to see the replay, VAR and penalty. Surely for a televised match there were other angles available.

Surely it will still come down to mm? Won't they have to draw lines to see if there is 1mm of daylight? Or is it just a naked eye call? Seems to me its just moving the position of the hairs to split. I haven't read the detail of it though.

I thought the handball shout was more of a penalty that the "trip" at the end. His arm definitely went up towards the ball, but the other one looked more like an accidental coming together to me. I can see why Hearts would want it, but I don't think theres enough in it to give a penalty for me. Hopefully the draw doesn't cost Hearts the title. Celtic could easily drop a couple of points at Motherwell tonight which would make the match at the weekend a formality if Hearts can beat Falkirk. Otherwise it's a winner take all.

Instead of getting rid of controversial moments it's creating even more of it's own! I always said it should be used like in cricket and tennis where a captain/manager has, say, two challenges per half. If they're proved right they keep their challenge, if they're wrong they lose it. That way we only get delays, etc if a team really does think they've been wronged - and they can point to that specific incident. Refs wouldn't then rely on it as a backup to their lack of descision making and linos would actually have to call an offside if they think it is. Oh, and the full audio of the discussion during a challenge should be played over the PA system in the stadium and put on the big screen where there is one. In cricket this adds to the spectacle rather than taking away from it as VAR currently does.

I don't know how it works in Scotland, but in England we never see police inside grounds anymore, and haven't for a while. The reason for this is that police outside the ground are paid for by the police/taxpayer but inside the ground the clubs have to pay for them. Clubs don't want the expense so it doesn't happen.

I hope so. Spurs have to play Chelsea who have lost 5 of their last 6 PL games, three days after the cup final. I can't see anything other than a Spurs win, which means we need to win away at Newcastle and at home to Leeds and then hope Moyes does us a favour and Everton turn them over. At Chrismas I'd resigned myself to relegation (and the bliss of no VAR next season) but the recent hope when we managed to escape the drop zone for a week or so means it'll be tense as you say. Not helped by the realisation that the team finishing 18th for the last 2 seasons has gone straight through the Championship to League 1!

Rant time! I am annoyed, nay angry, nay absolutely livid at the VAR decided outcome of the West Ham v Arsenal game yesterday. Whatever anyone's opinion of the accuracy of the end descision, it is poor/weak refereeing that has caused it. I accept that the WHU striker fouled the goalkeeper (albeit that Arsenal have done the same thing in other matches to win 1-0 and got away with it), and that being the case have no issue with the goal itself being disallowed. What I have a real problem with is the multiple fouls committed by Arsenal players before the foul on the goalkeeper. Trossard was not looking at, or even in the direction of, the ball as it came into play, he was intent solely on getting both arms around Pable (the WHU striker) and shepherding him away from his position, ultimately as it turned out into his own goalkeeper. The angle was never shown in the VAR review at the time but the camera behind the goal shown on Match of the Day in the evening highlighted it perfectly. This wrestling at all corners, by all teams, is a blight on the game. If referees had been strong enough or good ebough they would give all of these as penalties and stop the whole thing withing 3 or 4 games. If they had done from the start of the season then (what I see as) the proper descision would have been made yesterday, that being a penalty to West Ham. Indeed VAR did give a penalty for exactly what Trossard did yesterday against Spurs earlier in the season (manhandling a player while looking away from the ball). If this had happened in, say, October I'd probably be slightly less annoyed, but this poor officiating has effectively rubber stamped my own personal Championship double this season (albeit from different directions). Rant over.

Surely the club knows who bought the ticket for each seat? I appreciate that it may well not have been their own seat that was ripped out, but surely a starting point would be to contact the person allocated to any damaged seats.

Promotion for Stenny would bring a big descision on whether they go full time in the second tier or remain part time. Remaining part time hampers their chance of survival IMO but going full time brings its own cost issues. That said for their performances this season they deserve to go up more than Alloa on a purely football level. The whole Hamilton/Clyde home/away ground thing is just mad, a weird situation for fans going to both games that's for sure. I'm sure I read over the weekend that HMRC have started a winding up petition for the Accies so they probably need to be in the higher division more.

Some very good points here, much of which I would agree with. TBH the amount of opinion on different things probably warrants a thread on it's own rather than tacking on the end of the last match thread. I don't know when the ticket sales peak was but surely even the most optimistic wouldn't have thought that the attendance would be more than double the next best home gate? Any club run on a tight budget is going to under order perishable food rather than risk it going to waste (yes, I know it could be donated to local charities/shelters). We also don't know the lead time on pies - my guess is that whoever does supply them probably can't double the order at short notice, even if they were asked for. The same applies to staff, it's probably not easy to quickly double the catering workforce in the week before the fixture. I'm not saying the club shouldn't be able to react to increases in demand, but IMO it was probably a little unexpected to get sell quite so many tickets. Crowds will always come and go with results so a season of less successful results would cause some to come less often. That said the average crowd this season was 2,300 (even if only 2,500 had been at the last game it would still have been over 2,100). There were only 3 crowds below 2,000 so I would agree that 2,800-3,000 should be achievable, at least at the start of the season when the weather is good and form is unknown. As far as the playing staff goes, hopefully going up will be positive in making those with a decision want to stay. Generally not many players skip a division, so probably most would not expect a chance to play in the Premiership next season. Money is obviously a factor that we can't judge or impact as fans as we don't know the contract details or what funds are available (see Naysmith/Ayr/Stenny). Hopefully AS, CC and SK/BM can identify and recruit well enough to be competitive. Good post though BC, food for thought for many.