sorry .... no fancy graphics or links today .... looks like live text not available on most sites and sky ticker only updating at half time .... we really are in a communication black hole when we are out of the SPL.

Instead - we will bring you TM4TJs Match Preview .......

Caley Jaggies v Gable Endies

New season, new club structure, new teams, new venues, new competitions, new players, new away strip and new hope for the ICT fans.

The season kicks off earlier this year as relegation sees Inverness entering the Alba Challenge Cup and hosting Montrose in the first round at Tulloch Stadium, well most of it as part of the stadium will remain closed, with only the main stand being open. ICT are no strangers to this competition having won the Challenge Cup trophy in November 2003 after defeating Airdrieonians 2-0 at Perth thanks to late strikes from Steve Hislop and David Bingham.

Today?s visitors Montrose have not been here since the Stadium was converted to all seating and the last time we entertained the Gable Endies was 5th April 1997 in a Third Division game where ICT won 3-2.

The Gable Endies, now where did they get that unusual nickname I hear you ask? Apparently 'Gable-Endie' is the nickname given to a citizen of Montrose. The term originated because the early buildings had their gable-ends facing the High Street. How odd.

Today?s team line up from Inverness is anybodies guess as the trialists and new signings were put through their paces in recent friendlies. Coupled with ongoing injuries and possible suspensions Butcher will be the only person who knows what the starting eleven will be. New additions Robert Eagles and Johnny Hayes could feature along with Danny Stratford and Lee Cox. Latvian defender Nauris Bulvitis is also expected to get a start. Ongoing injuries to Imrie, Odhiambo, and Proctor may see them miss out, although Butcher will wait to see how they are before making any decisions.

For Montrose, manager Steven Tweed has a new look squad to choose from with eleven summer signings including John Gemmell and Alan Campbell. Gemmell scored fourteen times last season for Cowdenbeath with four of those goals coming against Montrose. He was also voted the Cowdenbeath Player of the Year. Alan Campbell was recently released by junior outfit Carnoustie Panmure.

Tm4tj prediction

Should be a comfortable day out for ICT, but with the new squad needing time to gel, we may have to be patient before overcoming Montrose who will be out to cause an upset. No room for complacency and the lack of goal grabbers will be a hindrance to us although my prediction will see Inverness come out on top by a couple

Think I had better agree with the moderator, just incase.

Play nice or I'll have to have a word with your mother!!!

I wasn't at the game, was there anything good to take from it, apart from the fact that we won and the board are faced with the harsh reality that more cash is required for a goal scorer, who may well pay for himself due to a good cup run and a return to the SPL and not to have faith in an overpaid striker.

The words loan deal keep appearing in my head.

So you think being taken to penalties by a part-time 3rd division side is acceptable? With a team who most of the players have SPL experience?

I think someone else needs the reality check.

It's a lot more acceptable than having lost....and the way some people are going on you would think we had.

A lot of people seem to be hanging the rest of the season on this one game...I'm not saying it was a fantastic performance, but as in any season we'll have days when things don't go to plan but we still pull off a result and we'll have days where we play outstanding football and take nothing from a match....such is the nature of the game.

We have people claiming "we won't do this and we won't do that" on the back of one match, and a match where we were missing a number of (what could be considered) key players. If we were well into the season and injuries etc had forced us to field that team and we got a result then we'd be delighted and we'd be noising up opposition fans with claims that even our reserves were beating them.....that for me is the reality of the situation.

What chance do we have if, after one game, the fans are already panicking, spreading doom and gloom and talking about relegation? I'm not saying we should be smothering the players/team with false praise, but I don't think we should be slinging up any nooses and herding them to the gallows.

Totally agree Caley D. I have replied to similar threads like this before where some contributors on this site really seem to be from another planet. This was the first competitive game of the season but in reality was still a pre season game. The same goes for Annan next week with the real season starting on 8 August. A 1-1 result against Falkirk would have kept us up last season and if we had got that playing as we did today, some of these so called supporters would still be moaning as it was only a 1-1 draw. Give some of the new guys a chance to settle in before jumping to conclusions about how good they are. If some of the contributors on here want to continue to endlessly moan, then all I can say is find another team to support as I honestly don't know how some can seriously call themselves supporters of ICT. Rant over.

thats what i said and i got ripped into. the new boys did well. i remember ian blacks debut (sorry to use him as the benchmark for free transfers again) didn't exactly set the heather on fire.

caleyd, i will not let your signature fool me again.

In the past I have been more guilty than most on this site of refusing to accept other's views on things. I have caused arguments due to my refusal to accept that other people can see situations differently from myself. Most of us, barring visiting supporters are ICT fans and all we want is the best for our club. Some are more positive than others some are full of negativity but we all have a voice, we all have a view of what is going on and if the truth is known the probability is that none of us are 100% correct but all our views are valid.

The way I see yesterday's match is that the team, on the pitch and on the day, were woeful the attitude of some players was disgusting as was the attitude of some fans, myself included. All the in fighting between ourselves, and the team (management and players) is no good at all for ICT as a whole. We have fans throwing accusations at each other, we have players arguing with the manager mid match. We all need to band together, we need to discuss things instead of lecturing each other.

Yesterday I shouted my support for the team when I could, I also shouted through frustration when things on the pitch were going badly. There is a bad feeling in these forums at the moment and I hold my hands up and admit that I have done little to help the situation but come on guys, if you read the manager's comments at the start of the program, if you think about the steps the club have made to bring we, the fans, closer to the team then we have to do our bit to help. We are all individuals, we all have our own ideas. Can we not accept that? put our point across and listen to what others have to say? I have learned the hard way this is no good for CTO or ICT. If things don't change on the pitch then we will spend a long time in the SFL, we can do our bit to help improve that by stopping criticizing each other when our frustrations are aired, by becoming just a little more tolerant and understanding when the shouts of frustration go out, if someone has a go at me for shouting at bad play then it is not going to improve my mood and get me cheering the good play and I'm sure it's the same for everyone else.

Let's get behind the team and hopefully if we can get it together then that will reflect on them and vice versa. Let's get behind each other.

Yes, I have been drinking.

Well said. Even if it is the drink

Think I had better agree with the moderator, just incase.

Play nice or I'll have to have a word with your mother!!!

Riiiiiiiiiiiight. Nice one.

It was good to see the ref book the Montrose player for diving in our box.

It was good to see the ref book the Montrose player for diving in our box.

you are having a laugh if you genuinely thought that was a dive, young nicoll was past the defender with ball at feet when he went down. most caley fans I spoke to thought it was a pen too!

Also like how foran dives and feigns injury to avoid the yellow card.

I seemed to be in the minority when I thought that Foran went down too easily for the first penalty claim. Not sure about his second claim either to be honest. Of the three claims Montrose easily had the best one. If the referee thought he dived, as he did because he booked him, then I'm not sure why Foran wasn't booked either unless he thought it was an innocent / accidental coming together.

Edited July 27, 200916 yr by RiG

I wasn't at the game, was there anything good to take from it, apart from the fact that we won and the board are faced with the harsh reality that more cash is required for a goal scorer, who may well pay for himself due to a good cup run and a return to the SPL and not to have faith in an overpaid striker.

The words loan deal keep appearing in my head.

The new boy Cox seems like a good replacement for Ian Black - he was the only player I saw who chased the ball and looked like he wanted to win the game - and that was with his arm in plaster. I also can't understand why Butcher persists with playing Tokely at centre half.

I seemed to be in the minority when I thought that Foran went down too easily for the first penalty claim. Not sure about his second claim either to be honest. Of the three claims Montrose easily had the best one. If the referee thought he dived, as he did because he booked him, then I'm not sure why Foran wasn't booked either unless he thought it was an innocent / accidental coming together.

I agree with you there. I never thought Forans second penalty claim was a pen and the first one was debatable but I thought if Montrose had been given their pen we would have had no complaints

There was a comment on here yesterday made but tokelyisvictorious (or something similar) saying that the older fans were getting on at the manager. A guy who was sitting 2 rows in front of me at the game started shouting Bring back Brewster near the end of the 90 mins. I felt like giving he a smack in the mouth. It may not have been the best performance in the world (actually it was one of the worst I have seen) but we are through and we can see where we have to improve

I felt like giving he a smack in the mouth.

:023: Why didn't you? I'd have had difficulty restraining myself if I'd heard that...

Surely the guy who said "Bring back Brewster!" was joking? He can't have been serious!

Surely the guy who said "Bring back Brewster!" was joking? He can't have been serious!

He sounded serious. He started going on about how we would play better football if he was still in charge.

Did this guy look like craig brewster by any chance ? :P

We weren't good enough?

Forgive me if I was watching the wrong game, but did we not win? As far as I am concerned that's good enough, and if you can play poorly and win then it surely it only serves to suggest that we'll win more convincingly when we start playing better?

Some people are in dire need of a reality check or it's going to be a long depressing season for them...regardless of results!!!

well yes we won the game but only because we were playing a part time team, we weren't good enough and we must improve if we want to do well this season nevermind win the league. starting of slack and argueing amongst team mates and management and scraping past on pens was not good enough. reality check...so anyone you disagree with is in need of a reality check...who do you think you are?

Did this guy look like craig brewster by any chance ?

Maybe it was Derek Adams he's being at all the ICT games i've been to so far this pre-season :)