Leaderboard

A big thank you to everyone who came along to the Race Night organised by the Supporters Trust on Saturday. We hope you had a great time, and thank you all for your generosity in backing the horses. The evening was a great success and, including the contributions from our sponsors, we raised over £1600. As many of you are aware, the night was to be hosted by Gary Wilson, aka "Face". Tragically, Face died suddenly and unexpectedly recently, but we decided to proceed, and one of the races was run in honour of Face, with the proceeds being donated to two charities that he supported: Mikeysline and RNLI. The event could not have taken place without the support of our sponsors. Stagecoach sponsored the event, with races sponsored by D&E Coaches, Inverness Computer Centre, Scottish Citylink, Ness City Tyres and the ICTFC Social Club. Thank you to you all. The Caley Club laid on an excellent buffet, and hopefully the event added to the bar takings! Thank you to some of our Board Members. To Laura for pulling everything together, Kath (ably assisted by husband Bob) for being the bookie, and George for stepping in and hosting the evening. We hope everyone who attended had a great time, and hopefully we will see you again at future events. Your support is greatly appreciated.

As we head to the end of the season, if only we had an alternate income stream to use the facilities during the summer. If only someone had thought of a concert venue for some 'has-been' artists appealing to boomers.........

I find this whole situation very worrying. This to me smells of desperation and a current crisis financially. This is like trying to put a plaster on the situation here and now whilst at the same time giving yourself 15% less money which seems crazy. A club with no money that can afford to get 15% less from sponsors. There is so much focus from the club on the battery farm and with it seems much confidence that it will get the go ahead down the line. I think until they know 100% that the battery farm will go ahead then it needs to be forgot about and not factored into our clubs future. Its a very sad situation we find ourselves in and the outcome of this crisis might just be every fans fear unfortunately.

His mistrust/dislike in Roddy is beyond baffling. We’ve seen some of Roddy’s goals and his ability to drive forward and add urgency to a game. - Brookes could be a huge addition as well with pace to help up front. Is anderson better than Roddy, is lawal a better fit for our midfield? there was also a spare place on the bench free for Saturday and even with the likes of Ujar and Samuels fit they weren’t included in squad. no idea what’s going on - it all seems rather haphazard

Play Offs Looming Down to the nitty gritty now as we enter the last two games still in the danger zone and just one point ahead of Queens Park who, as it happens, face Arbroath, the very club that Big Dunc said might have downed tools by now! You couldn't write it, could you. In fairness, Dunfermline have nothing to play for but pride, and a few shekels, does that mean that they will also down tools? Have a word with yourself if you answered yes. The final day of the season next Friday night has Queens Park at home to Airdrie and Inverness at home to Morton. It's going to the wire. At the moment, it's still in our own hands, but it's not over until the fat lady sings. (sit down Michelle...) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Match/Ticket/Bus Info ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Venue H2H v Pars Pld Won Drn Lst For Agst + / - Home 25 10 10 5 31 22 +9 Away 25 9 11 5 30 27 +3 Neutral 2 0 1 1 3 4 -1 Total 52 19 22 11 64 53 +11 We have a pretty hefty advantage over the Pars since we first locked horns with them in the First Division (Championship) back in August, 1999. Our first encounter was at East End Park after we had gained promotion. That didn't end well, a 4-0 defeat, an early injury to Barry Wilson after 6 minutes, a Pars penalty before half time and a red card for Andrew Allan after 66 minutes. Ian Broadfoot's summary of that game: The reality of the First Division hit Caley Thistle hard in this opening league fixture as they slumped to a 4-0 defeat. They were hit by an early injury to Barry Wilson and Andrew Allan was ordered off in the 66th minute for a tackle on Brian Reid. Caley Thistle were only one down at half time to an Andy Smith penalty, but were overwhelmed in the second half. A Brian Reid low drive in 61 minutes made it 2-0 then came the ordering-off. Scott Thomson made it three in 81 minutes and Stewart Petrie completed the rout on the final whistle. Last 10 Competitive Meetings v Pars 0 - 0 (H) 1 - 1 (A) 1 - 1 (H) 2 - 0 (H) 1 - 1 (A) 1 - 2 (H) 0 - 0 (A) 1 - 0 (A) 1 - 1 (H) 1 - 3 (A) The stats show six draws from the last ten meetings with all three this season ending all square. That's where the smart money will be going. However, this is a different beast with more than just relegation at stake. Given our financial plight, the mere existence of our club functioning as it is just now is a growing concern. Going down may well be the catalyst for part time football and seasons in the doldrums should we survive. The ultimate price to pay for failure is plain for all to see. LAST TIME OUT The Caley Jags battered Raith Rovers to a 0-1 defeat at the Caledonian Stadium last Friday night, thanks mainly to a worldy performance by Raith keeper Kevin Dabrowski and his woodwork. Ably assisted by our inability to stick the ball into the net, we snatched defeat from the jaws of a comfortable victory. In terms of performance, everything was positive. In terms of result, it was a disaster. We can't fault the players for effort, but the season long issue of not taking our chances reared it's ugly head big time. It certainly looks likely that some familiar faces will not be here next season. LAST SIX: L D L W W L Dunfermline drew 0-0 with Queens Park at EEP last week as Queens showed plenty of resilience to deny their hosts. The Pars saw the better of the game in a dour scoreless encounter that ensured they have nothing left to play for and QP remained below us in the table. I'm sure Pars' aim will be to finish with a flourish especially at home in front of their own fans and of course the extra £££ for places. LAST SIX: W W W D L D Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts Table ahead of Airdrie v Dundee United on Friday night. 1. Dundee Utd 34 21 8 5 69 22 71 2. Raith Rovers 34 19 8 7 53 42 65 3. Partick Thistle 34 14 12 8 62 50 54 4. Airdrieonians 34 15 6 13 44 42 51 5. Morton 34 12 8 14 42 43 44 6. Dunfermline 34 11 10 13 39 44 43 7. Ayr United 34 12 6 16 50 58 42 8. Inverness CT 34 9 11 14 37 38 38 9. Queens Park 34 9 10 15 43 56 37 10. Arbroath 34 6 5 23 35 79 23 Friday 26th April Airdrieonians v Dundee United Saturday 27th April Arbroath v Queens PK Dunfermline v Inverness CT Morton v Rovers Partick Th v Ayr United LATEST TEAM NEWS Aaron Doran looks likely to have pulled on the Caley Jags strip for the last time after limping off against Raith Rovers last Friday. Sean McAllister returning was a bonus though but the mystery deepens as to why Roddy MacGregor, Austin Samuels and Nikola Ujdur are not featuring either on the injury list or the team list. Baffling to be honest as Roddy has the midfield attributes required, Austin has the speed and potential and Nikola in my opinion, if fit, would be my first choice on the team sheet. Are these guys on the way out? Add to that seven or eight loan players, then next season will see a massive restructure and rebuild at the Caledonian Stadium. I imagine the board members are squirming in their seats like Angela van den Bogerd at a Post Office inquiry. Here's Dunc isn't it>>> No changes, Doran Out with a knee injury... Dunfermline have former St Johnstone striker Chris Kane available and he is a handful, a sort of taller version of Alex Samuel but with less hair. They also have the human battering ram in the shape of the powerful Alex Jakubiak. Pars v QP last week @ EEP Mehmet Fisher (Breen 86) Benedictus Fagan-Walcott Welch-Hayes (Jakubiak 68) Hamilton Ritchie-Hosler Edwards Todd Kane McCann (Holmes 80) Subs Not Used: Little; Sutherland, Chalmers, O'Halloran, Benjamin, Moffat

Reporting on the Man City game on Thursday, one BBC reporter described Kevin de Bruyne as "the Belgian Duncan Ferguson" after he opened the scoring with a fine headed goal. De Bruyne shows great promise and will surely have been hugely flattered to be described in this way. It occurs to me that the lad might be keen to play here next season and continue his development under the guidance of Big Dunc himself. This could be a great move for ICT as well as for young Kevin. With Doran sadly looking to be past his sell by date, we are lacking a creative midfielder who can score goals and de Bruyne could be just the type of player we need.

The 'help the club continue in its current form' is the most worrying part of that letter.

This is the wording of the Chairman’s letter to sponsors, with contact details removed: I am writing to you today, firstly to thank you for your backing of our football club, and secondly to appeal to you to kindly continue that support. As I am sure you are aware, we have recently and very disappointingly, had planning refused by Highland Council for the installation of a 4 acre battery energy storage farm on the site of the former Fairways Golf Course, the reason given was due to loss of green space in a private green space area of 200 acres. This is despite the fact that one of our many important and impactful Caley Thistle community projects involves the complete resurrection of a significantly larger green space adjacent to Inverness Royal Academy, which is a ten acre site that will be used as a community hub for the city and beyond, promoting physical and mental health wellbeing for thousands of people both young and old in the Highlands. Our quest to seek planning permission for the battery farm has now been escalated to Scottish Government level and it is our strong expectation that the Highland Council’s decision will be overturned on appeal but this will take a number of months. What this means is that we face significant pressure on our cash flow. To that end, I am writing to all our sponsors to ask if you would be able to help us through this situation by renewing your advertising with us slightly earlier than normal. If you are able to renew by return, it would be hugely appreciated by everyone at ICTFC and will not only help the club continue in our current form, but it will also allow us to continue the great work we do in the city and beyond, especially as we enter our 30th anniversary. If you can help us, we would be able to thank you for that support by offering a 15% discount on last season’s price for an early renewal. If you can help, please contact our Commercial Director Keith Haggart, either on his email address of ——- or by mobile ——-. Finally, as ever, on behalf of myself, the Board of Directors and Executive team, it is a privilege to serve our football club and we thank you for being a part of the club which has represented the city so well in the last 30 years.

I assume our Chairman has been quoted correctly in his letter to sponsors, otherwise the club would probably have issued a correction of some form. What I find really disappointing is that he again makes the argument that permission should be given because the club is making such a positive use use of green space elsewhere in the City. He was rightly criticised on this point by several Councillors at the planning meeting and yet he keeps banging on about it. He just doesn't seem to understand the basic fact that those making the decision on a planning application need to be seen to base their decision on matters pertaining directly to the application. Getting in a public huff about the fact that elected Councillors and Council Officials have not allowed other matters to be a factor in the decision, only further sours the relationship between Club and Council. It is, frankly, naive and embarrassing. The relevant and much stronger "green space" argument is that the proposal contains a commitment to plant a variety of trees and shrubs on the site which will increase both the biodiversity and the carbon capture potential of the site. I'm afraid I don't have a lot of confidence that the decision will be reversed. I also think it would be prudent to plan on the basis that it won't go through. If I was a sponsor I would not be paying my sponsorship early, I would want to be holding back and seeing what the promised financial restructuring involved.

Please at least make sure Gardiner goes in first ! Certainly not in the recycle bin just common trash .

There wasn’t much difference last night to how we have been playing recently. Here’s hoping we get the testimonial for Doran in the summer now.

Dunfermline v ict this season, they hit the woodwork 8 times. we have played like that all season, we conceded and didnt score

First full match I have seen in a while. I thought we were the better team by far, At least 4 or 5 times hitting the woodwork , and Raith keeper was outstanding throughout. A real sickener to lose that, but strangely I feel fairly confident that we can stay up without the help from other results. Call me a happy clapper if you like, but I thought we were really good tonight and really unlucky to lose a match we could have won by a handful of goals Onwards and upwards

It was out of our hands at the time of the interview. Results on the Saturday went in our favour putting it back in our hands again.

Harper has a few offers for next season and none of them is from us. I'd imagine Ridgers may have options also but he's at a different stage of his career and seems settled in the area. Fingers crossed. If we do go down I'd love to see us go the route of using our younger guys and giving them the opportunity to grow and develop as a squad. Not all will make it and some will move on but it's our best chance at putting together the nucleus of a squad that might stay together for a few seasons.

This confirms what everyone understood from the comments made by the Chairman at the recent Fans' Meeting, and demonstrates the difficult financial situation, particularly if the Scottish Government Reporter does not approve the Battery Farm. It also highlights the importance of the Stronger Together initiative by the Supporters Trust, which is aimed at increasing the voice of fans within the club and, therefore, on the decisions that the club takes. It aims to raise funds to purchase shares in the club, but the Trust Board will only decide to purchase shares when it is happy with commitments given by the club. If you have not already given your support, it is easy to do, with full details in this thread: https://caleythistleonline.com/topic/36186-stronger-together-how-to-contribute/ In summary, the payment options are: To make a recurring monthly payment through Stripe, use this link: https://buy.stripe.com/5kA00Fe5U5Sq4YoaEE The link allows recurring payments to be made on a monthly basis. The default setting is £10, but you can change this to any sum by clicking on "Qty 1", which appears below "ICT Sharesave". Changing the quantity to 2 makes the recurring payment £20, changing the quantity to 5 makes the recurring payment £50 etc. To make a one off payment through Stripe, use this link: https://buy.stripe.com/28o9Bfd1Q4OmcqQ3ce Simply insert the sum you wish to donate. These methods are in addition to those available at the launch, full details of which are in our brochure: https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/stronger-togetherd The link contains all you need to make one off or regular payments via your mobile banking app or internet banking, and also a Standing Order form that you can print and complete. The Standing Order form has the Supporters Trust bank details pre-populated, with these details which also apply for payments via your mobile banking app or internet banking: Sort Code: 83-23-10 Account Number: 11486617 Account Name: Inverness Caledonian Thistle Supporters Society Sharesave.

Scott Gardiner being no longer required saves the club a reported 100k a year . It’s not rocket science to anyone that he needs to go . It’s been one disaster after another for our much disliked CEO . How can the club expect any sponsor to inject cash into the club when money like this is squandered on paying his wage . Has he actually achieved anything significant since his appointment or was it just jobs for the boys act with Ross Morrison ? Seems to be more clowns about the club than Billy Smarts Circus .

Not again!

A lot of criticism has been merited but not to the venemous degree of some. I think some peeps think are living on past glories and the expectation that we are a top league outfit. Dunc has always had a tendency to speak before he thinks and is crap at post match interviews. I suspect that he has also been taken back by the abuse directed at him. I suspect that he also realises that he has been used as a fall guy and promised to him about the future are up in the air. He is not an experienced manager and tried to install a play from the back system in a team with no settled formation or understanding of each other. BUT what was the evidence on Friday. He has been too concentrated on defence and has been amiss in how he has played individuals - McKay, Doran, Devine and Lawal being examples. He also did not recognise the importance and impact of contracted players. His dislike of Roddy McGregor is surprising. We had eight loanees on the park at the end of the end of the Raif game. They may end up saving our season and I would gladly keep at least 4 of them.

I don't think that it was because we had a bad 10 minutes. That was simply to be expected. It was a defensive lapse at fault and a rare lapse at that. I am in no doubt that if we had another decent forward to partner Samuel that we would have been in the play offs. I think that Lawal has a lot of potential but not yet playing in a central midfield role. I would take the risk of playing him up front and letting Billy play in a number 10 role. I think his pace will frighten other teams and Samuel has an out card which he hasn't had all season.

That was a sore one to take but I can’t find it in me to attribute any blame to the players for Friday night’s result, that’s just fekkin football and the best team doesn’t necessarily win. They did more than enough to get the 3 points and were just denied by some bad luck and superb goalkeeping. I can even overlook the shoddy 10 minutes after the break, it happens, their efforts in the other 80 minutes should have given us the 3 points - unlucky lads, you gave it a ruddy good go. That leaves us now with 2 cup finals to go, we really can’t afford any other slip ups. Our vastly superior goal difference counts for sod all if Queens win their final 2 games, we needed to be 2 points clear to allow us the luxury of a draw in either match. So many variables though - for us, perhaps Dunfermline and Morton might not be so pumped up now, given they’re both out of playoff contention at either end of the table. As for QP, no telling what kind of fight Arbroath will put up against them, and more importantly, will Airdrie take their foot off the gas and rest some key players for the playoffs? What I saw on Friday night gives me the confidence we have enough in our locker to do it, but we most certainly need to do it ourselves!

I’ve only missed one home game all season, league, cup and friendlies, so I’ve suffered a lot! Tonight was one of our best home performances and I am gutted we got nothing from it. The woodwork saved Raith on four occasions and their goalie had several tremendous saves. Raith caught us out with one of their few chances. McAllister, Samuel and Harper were the picks for me, but no one can fault the effort of any of our players. We need to pick ourselves up and ensure we beat Dunfermline next week (and hope they win against Queens Park tomorrow).

Where would we be if we had another forward to support Samuel ?

Can’t believe we lost that, which is a phrase I’ve uttered too many times this season. Of our 14 defeats, our heaviest was 2-0 and the other 13 were by just one goal. So many of them came down to one defensive lapse or missed chances at the other end. Raith’s keeper made some great saves tonight but we also should’ve buried some of our chances.

We need Sean McAllister on form like he was last Friday as well as our strikers actually putting away chances, I think Mr McKay is due a goal , and as has been stated above, the defence concentrating for 90+mins as one lapse was one to many last week which turned out to be costly!

Piss-Up and Brewery are random words that spring to mind when thinking of the powers-that-be at the SPFL. I have no idea whether Buckie are content to stay in the HL or not for financial reasons, and the statement doesn't sound like they will fight this decision too rigorously. However, it seems unfair that they will even be excluded from playoffs when others have until July to be compliant. It's all very reminiscent of the stadium criteria issue that kept us down and kyboshed Falkirk as well.

I don't think the new statement from the Buckie President will go down well with the fans. It would appear from what he says that his understanding was, that providing they could confirm the services of a doctor to be present at all games by 15th May, they were good to go for the playoffs. It would therefore seem reasonable that they should be allowed to play those games on the understanding that if they were successful in beating East Kilbride and whoever is bottom of Division 2, they would forfeit their place if they don't succeed in confirming medical cover by the 15th. The powers that be may, of course, take a different view, but I am sure the fans would be expecting the club to argue the case and Farquhar's statement does not explain why they are not doing so. I guess the Buckie Board take the view that they can't afford to play in Division 2 and are making weak excuses rather than being honest with the fans. It is also bizarre that the current league clubs which are not compliant, have until July 1st to comply. What happens if any, some or all of them fail to comply? Do they get kicked out? If not, what is the point of the certification process? The new season will be about to start with the league cup games and there would be no scope for them to drop down to the Highland or Lowland leagues or for other teams to replace them.

We need to assume Queens Park will win at Arbroath, so nothing less than a win will do for us to keep things in our own hands for the last game. We need a performance like last Friday, with the difference that we find the back of the net rather than the woodwork or any part of the goalie’s anatomy. I’m down for this one and really hoping for an enjoyable evening after winning three points in the afternoon. Now really is the time for everyone to step up and ensure we retain our Championship place.

Just like when they fiddled it and put Brechin in the Highland League, I hope other teams keep beating them!

Substitute Airdrie, Cove and Peterhead for Annan, Bonnyrigg and Spartans. They tightened the rules this season so the established clubs have some time to comply.

You mean SPFL central belt favoritism?.....no....never!! Let me guess...Edinburgh City, The Spartans, Bonnyrigg Rose, Kelty Hearts and Annan

A very long time to read the manual .... https://www.scottishfa.co.uk/media/9978/sfa-club-licensing-manual-2023.pdf

Wow! What does a club need to have to get Bronze status?

I'm not so sure it's just to do with having a squad full of local born players or not. The guys from that cup winning squad were mostly committed to the club/area and many of the non indigenous players still live locally so there's an obvious affinity. Two of them are at the club now. Fans also felt far more connected as they had greater opportunity to meet and spend time with them.

I agree with your vision and see Div 1 as a great opportunity to blood the youngsters and form a squad of mostly Highlanders, hopefully capable of promotion to the Championship and beyond. Trouble is, for most of them, the Championship is just a level too high so Div 1 is a better opportunity for 1st team football. There's something awfully false about following a team of Englishmen, foreigners and Central-belters, supposedly representing your town, when your own town/area can't produce a team capable of playing at that level. Just look at the cup-winning squad of 2015 - how many Invernessians were in that team? How many Scotsmen?

Fully expect more of the same next year. Holistically if you consider the options - we are skint and will struggle to finance a team of permanent signings or the chance to go to money bags English clubs who will still pay for their youngsters to get some game time and pick up the costs - essentially free for us but we play them. I doubt anyone at the club is excited at the prospect of not having any experienced signings of younger players we with quality we can retain to develop and try sell. The strategy is clearly making the best with minimal outlay or long term commitments possible.

Everyone is saving their excitement to get past this next game fully aware of the stats this is a stick on goalless draw, knowing final game of the season it'll finally all click and we open the doors to 'total football' putting 6 past Morton.............all to be undermined by calls of it being a 'dead rubber' and Morton players had already mentally packed for their all-inclusives to Turkey

SHHHHHHHHH Keep the noise down!

Then why delay the release?

And those accounts are for the year that ended in 30 May 2023 so nearly another year has passed, which presumably has caused things to worsen further.

Aside from cashflow they may want money in before the accounts are due at the end of next month, assuming they don't delay them again, and everyone gets a fuller picture of how bad a financial mess we're in.

Totally agree. Given his history there's not a chance Gardiner doesn't have a contract where he's rewarded for failure.

Result didn't match the performance but more worrying is we finished the game with 8 loan players on the pitch. Of the the 3 left 2 were over 30. Basically we are going to completely have to rebuild from scratch, maybe need to sign ten or more players in the summer and get them to gel in probably less than six weeks.

Well I can't! How many times over the years have we seen them concede a goal immediately after the break? As soon as it was clear that Raith had come out of the blocks invigorated and fighting, I said to my wife that they were going to score very soon. And so they did. Teams and managers have changed over the years, of course, so it can't be blamed on any one thing or on one person. But surely the last thing to be said before they go out for the second half should be "Stay extra sharp out there for the next few minutes, until you get back into the rhythm of the game!". Statisticians and historians may well point out to me that we are no worse than other teams in this respect. But it sure seems that way!

New bins arrived this week from Highland Council. I'm going to struggle to fit Ferguson, Gardiner and the 23/24 season in the new grey rubbish bin.

Oh dear - same old excuses - same old script - clearly delusional and body language shows that he really doesn't care

How the f*** did we lose that, we were by miles the better team yet once again don't get anything due to schoolboy defending (which is unacceptable at this level imo), why the hell was Ridgers in that position anyway, does he not trust his defenders or something!! Has any team hit the bar/post as many as FIVE times because I certainly doubt it very much and do any team get as jammy as Raith because, again I doubt it! You can certainly see why they were on a rotten run of form going into this but of course it's against us they halt that run! In terms of ourselves, if we play like that in the next 2 then we certainly should win both and same goes for the inevitable play off games but we NEED to address this home form as it's beyond unacceptable and abysmal now! Btw I had to create another account as I couldn't remember my password and everytime I tried to reset the password I didn't get an email , usually my phone saves passwords too but this time it didn't .

Can hardly believe we lost that.We could have won by four.MOM Raith Keeper assisted by his goals. If we played like that all season we would be the other end of the table. Good team effort,although question marks over Pepple and Billy needs to be subbed after 60 mins as he no longer has the oomph needed. Where would we be without Samuel.

Didn’t mean to offend anyone Also, those that have called me Leeds Supporter, I’m not a Leeds supporter, it’s Leeds Seasider from being a Blackpool lad or “sandgrownun” as we’re also called. I just live in the Leeds area. I’m glad that “you lot” (not wanting to offend anyone with whatever you call yourselves) have climbed out of that second bottom spot. Still keeping my eye out on the scores week week out Fingers crossed for you. Up the…..