This resumes on 4th August. The same 17 clubs are competing. We endured a dreadful campaign last season, finishing last! Hopefully, a year on, our youths can perform better, as I understand last season much of our team were boys who'd just come 'up' from the U17s.

A couple of pre-season games soon - the first-team have St Mirren on Saturday while the 'U20s' head to Lossiemouth the same afternoon.
Similarly, the following Saturday Inverness CT have a 'double header' with games at Nairn and Wick, with presumably the youths heading to Caithness.

33 minutes ago, Gavroche said:

Macrae scored twice and Roberts once, according to a Rangers fan.

Team : Mackay, Brown, Howarth, Brown, Gilchrist, MacLennan, Sutherland, MacArthur, Macrae, Roberts, Hull. Bench : Hoban, Blackett, Stark, Rennie.

No Dean Brill. I hope that's a good sign rather than a bad one.

What a great result and a good turn around over the last half a dozen or so games. W3, D3, L2

 

Edited April 15, 20169 yr by 12th Man

A proper development team too and not one full of fringe players.  Very encouraging.

Today at 6pm
Partick Thistle v Inverness CT
(at Airdrie)

This is our penultimate game of the season, and last away fixture.
One match left after this, home to Hamilton Accies - provisionally next Tuesday.

Maybe not set the heather on fire but we've improved on last season which is encouraging.

1 hour ago, Kingsmills said:

Maybe not set the heather on fire but we've improved on last season which is encouraging.

Maybe stats show an improvement but the objective is to bring players up to first team standard and we certainly don't see much progress in this area.

Team v Partick Note Horner and Roberts both starting

Cameron Mackay, Lewis Horner, Calum Howarth, Jason Brown, Cameron Gilchrist, Blair Maclennan, Chris Brown, Liam Hughes, Andrew MacRae, Jordan Roberts, Alasdair Sutherland.

Subs: Daniel Hoban, Struan MacArthur, Ali Stark, Stephen Rennie.

You can follow the match thanks to the Partick website : http://ptfc.co.uk/teams/u20/seasons/2015-2016/fixtures_results/1904_inverness_caledonian_thistle_u20/live.

Half time 1-0 Partick

Lewis Horner OG puts Partick 2-0 up

Liam Hughes' penalty saved.

87 mins : Rennie scores !

88 mins : Hughes ! 2-2 ! What a comeback !

FT : 2-2.

Edited April 19, 20169 yr by Gavroche

3W, 4D, 2L.

Only 2 defeats in last 9 matches

Pretty good going.

A very encouraging end to the season  for our second string, seems a lot has been learned after our poor start. Things on the up, always a good sign for the future.

At TCS against Hamilton, 6pm. Team : Brill, Horner, Howarth, Brown, Gilchrist, Maclennan, Roberts, Wedderburn, Macrae, Hughes, Sutherland.

EDIT : 1-0 ! Sutherland.

Brill saves a penalty !

3-1 ! Sutherland again and Roberts.

Edited April 26, 20169 yr by Gavroche

H/T
Inverness CT 3-2 Hamilton Accies

3 assists for Horner.

FT : 3-3. Sutherland (2) & Roberts. Brill saved a penalty.

Well done again Gavroche#

Thanks to the 2 twitter accounts haha !

3 minutes ago, Gavroche said:

Thanks to the 2 twitter accounts haha !

Incredibly young Accies team...only 2 players over 18!
Their 16-man (16-boy?) squad today:

1 x 34 (Martin Canning)!
1 x 19
4 x 18
2 x 17
5 x 16
2 x 15
1 x 14

A much better campaign from Inverness though - although, obviously it couldn't have been any worse!
Last season was the first Development League and we finished 17th - this season we'll be either 14th or 15th. Still not fantastic, but, the figures are better in all departments.

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Points
2014-15	32	5	8	19	33	84	23
2015-16	32	9	9	14	39	52	36

 

Sneckboy wrote

"Incredibly young Accies team...only 2 players over 18!
Their 16-man (16-boy?) squad today:"

1 x 34 (Martin Canning)!
1 x 19
4 x 18
2 x 17
5 x 16
2 x 15
1 x 14

Now that's what I call a "Development Squad"

"A much better campaign from Inverness though - although, obviously it couldn't have been any worse!
Last season was the first Development League and we finished 17th - this season we'll be either 14th or 15th. Still not fantastic, but, the figures are better in all departments."

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Points
2014-15	32	5	8	19	33	84	23
2015-16	32	9	9	14	39	52	36

Again, league stats mean absolutely nothing. What matters is how many players are good enough to progress to the next level!

 

Edited April 27, 20169 yr by caleyboy

55 minutes ago, caleyboy said:

Sneckboy wrote

"Incredibly young Accies team...only 2 players over 18!
Their 16-man (16-boy?) squad today:"

1 x 34 (Martin Canning)!
1 x 19
4 x 18
2 x 17
5 x 16
2 x 15
1 x 14

Now that's what I call a "Development Squad"

"A much better campaign from Inverness though - although, obviously it couldn't have been any worse!
Last season was the first Development League and we finished 17th - this season we'll be either 14th or 15th. Still not fantastic, but, the figures are better in all departments."

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Points
2014-15	32	5	8	19	33	84	23
2015-16	32	9	9	14	39	52	36

Again, league stats mean absolutely nothing. What matters is how many players are good enough to progress to the next level!

 

Personally, I would have thought that how they perform as a group in the Development League would be a fair indication of that....

28 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

Personally, I would have thought that how they perform as a group in the Development League would be a fair indication of that....

Including "over age" players such as first team squad players will obviously enhance the team performance and improve results. Development means the development of players not teams. A number of years ago Celtic proved this when they didn't retain one player from their U19 league winning squad. The ONLY important factor is the number of players promoted to the first team squad at the end of the season. Would you consider a 3-3 draw against a young Hamilton team a good result when we include 5 first team squad players in our team?

Edited April 27, 20169 yr by caleyboy

I'm of the opinion that the inclusion of first team players does more to hinder positive results than help as you can't gain any consistency with an ever changing squad.....as can be seen by what's happened with our first team this season.

Hamilton have a very young squad, but they are a squad that's been playing together all season with very few first team players being supplanted into the team.  The benefits of that can be seen when you watch them play, both in individual performances and as a team.

It is a bit of a catch 22...especially when you have a season like ours with lots of injuries and need to get players games to regain fitness etc.  Also, the fact that we had a squad of 25 this season when we normally run with a squad of 18 means there's more demand for general game time to maintain some match sharpness.

So....all things considered, yeah....a 3-3 against Hamilton with 5 first team players in there (or not) is a decent result.  The fact that, despite the additional upheaval, we've improved across the board means there are still plenty positives to be taken from the season as well.