Surprise Surprise

 

East End Park is the venue on Saturday as surprise Championship leaders Inverness visit the Kingdom of Fife to take on surprise packet Dunfermline Athletic.

I say surprise packet, as that is exactly what The Pars have become under the guidance of former Alloa Athletic manager Peter Grant. I fully expected the Pars to be challenging at the opposite end of the table given their financial backing and the assumed quality of their squad. Unfortunately for them they find themselves languishing at the foot of the table and winless after four games with only a draw against Morton  to show for their troubles. They do have a Fife derby to come against Raith Rovers, but that won't be easy either. They have shipped three goals against Partick, Arbroath and Ayr United and their fans are now talking boycotts in an attempt to use fan power to force the board to act now before their season is completely ruined. Look out for the mass exodus on the hour. However, beware the scalded cat!

In stark contrast, Inverness are on a winning run of five games on the bounce in the Championship, have the manager of the month in Billy Dodds, and sit top of the table having already beaten three of the favourites in Raith, Kilmarnock and Partick Thistle. What could possibly go wrong?

PPV Stream @ ParsTV £12

OFFICIAL PREVIEW

ROBBO BOOK

VIDEO WATCH

SUPPORTERS BUS

Stat Attack

First Competitive Meeting

Aug 7th, 1999

League

(A)

0 - 4

Most Recent Competitive Meeting

Mar 20th, 2021

League (Championship)

(A)

1 - 0

Last 10 Competitive Meetings

1 - 0 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

1 - 3 (A)

2 - 1 (A)

2 - 0 (H)

1 - 0 (A)

1 - 0 (H)

0 - 1 (A)

2 - 2 (H)

3 - 0 (A)

Biggest Victories

Jul 26th, 2016

League Cup (Group C)

(A)

5 - 1

Heaviest Defeats <ouch>

Aug 12th, 2017	League	(A)	1 - 5
Aug 7th, 1999	League	(A)	0 - 4

Highest Attendance

Apr 10th, 2004

Scottish Cup (Semi-Final)

(N)

13,255

Head 2 Head

Venue

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	21	9	8	4	27	19	+8
Away	22	9	8	5	28	25	+3
Neutral	2	0	1	1	3	4	-1
Total	45	18	17	10	58	48	+10

Overall stats sway in our favour with the last ten meetings showing that Inverness have been more dominant in recent years. A far cry from the 4-0 thrashing dished out on our first venture into the Championship back in August 1999 when the Pars brushed aside the upstarts from the Highlands who dared to move up through the leagues to challenge the central belt dominance. In our defence we were reduced to ten men and conceded two late goals.

 

		Pld	W	D	L	F	A	+/-	Pts
1.	Inverness CT	5	5	0	0	7	1	6	15
2.	Kilmarnock	5	4	0	1	6	1	5	12
3.	Arbroath	5	3	1	1	12	4	8	10
4.	Partick Thistle	5	3	0	2	11	8	3	9
5.	Queen of the South	5	2	0	3	7	8	-1	6
6.	Raith Rovers	4	1	1	2	6	6	0	4
7.	Ayr United	5	1	1	3	5	8	-3	4
8.	Morton	5	1	1	3	5	9	-4	4
9.	Hamilton Academical	5	1	1	3	6	12	-6	4
10.	Dunfermline	4	0	1	3	3	11	-8	1

Other fixtures this weekend, all 3:00pm Saturday

Hamilton v Ayr United

Morton v Raith Rovers

Partick v Kilmarnock

Queens v Arbroath

LATEST TEAM NEWS

Michael Gardyne missed out last week having picked up a knock in training prior to the Buckie Thistle cup game. Looks like we are mostly free from injury with Billy Mckay and Lewis Jamieson champing at the bit as they remained on the bench last week. Look for a relatively unchanged squad this weekend. If it's not broke, don't fix it! We have also recruited someone to watch videos. Good work if you can get it.

Dunfermline will have Owain Fon Williams, Nikolay Todorov and Kai Kennedy in their squad as they look to get off the bottom of the table.

 

Aaron Doran will make his 300th appearance this weekend. Let's see if he can add to his 50 goals he has scored for the Caley Jags

Back scoring goals on Saturday, Aaron Doran is a Highland hero! 🦸‍♂️

With an impressive back catalogue of screamers, which is your favourite strike from the Caley Thistle man? 🔴🔵#SPFLHeroes | @ICTFC pic.twitter.com/8Cr9UYgPu9

— SPFL (@spfl) September 15, 2021

 

 

View full article

 

Great to see the goals again and there are a few belters there 

Good luck to everyone today. Dunfermline will be surely be going for it as they need to. A wounded animal. They have shipped quite a few goals recently so a few more would be ideal. Let's get that points total increased again. 

Good luck to everyone today. Dunfermline will be surely be going for it as they need to. A wounded animal. They have shipped quite a few goals recently so a few more would be ideal. Let's get that points total increased again. 

Good luck to everyone today. Dunfermline will be surely be going for it as they need to. A wounded animal. They have shipped quite a few goals recently so a few more would be ideal. Let's get that points total increased again. 

Good luck to everyone today. Dunfermline will be surely be going for it as they need to. A wounded animal. They have shipped quite a few goals recently so a few more would be ideal. Let's get that points total increased again. 

Apologies for trigger finger 😂 hopefully trigger a few goals for caley 

No need to apologise 

No need to apologise 

7 minutes ago, jed5697 said:

Apologies for trigger finger 😂 hopefully trigger a few goals for caley 

Not sure about goals for Caley but I will happily settle for a goal for Caley Thistle for each of your good luck posts.

No need to apologise 

Cherrio, cheerios, cheerio......sorry, just practising

I don’t think many will walk out, and surely none will if they are winning. Radio Scotland mentioned that the proposed protest at 4 minutes seems to have been changed to 60 minutes.

6 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

I don’t think many will walk out, and surely none will if they are winning. Radio Scotland mentioned that the proposed protest at 4 minutes seems to have been changed to 60 minutes.

We ought to take advantage of any confusion today and ensure they want to go by halftime 🤔

Still remember Foran and Hayes having a bit of a scrap at East End Park so if the pressure builds today, we must keep our discipline. 

47 minutes ago, CELTIC1CALEY3 said:

Still remember Foran and Hayes having a bit of a scrap at East End Park so if the pressure builds today, we must keep our discipline. 

It’s ok, they’ve both been dropped for today’s match.

Slightly disappointing but not the worst result.

The Pars were always better than their league position suggested. We are still top of the league and still unbeaten.

Our next two games are against QOS and Hamilton Accies and the important thing is to put any disappointment behind us and focus on taking 6 points from these two fixtures.

If you had offered me top of the league, unbeaten and only one goal conceded at this stsge in the season I would have rushed to accept.

A hard fought draw with Ridgers making important saves to stop Dunfermline getting their first win.  Not as exciting as last week for us though.

Thought that was pretty poor. Dunfermline were winning every first and second ball in the second half. Lucky to get away with a draw in the end. 

The co-commentator must be a nightmare to work with, he was constantly interrupting the commentator 😆. Found myself agitated listening to it. 

Anyways, despite a poor performance, a point on the board away from home to what we thought would be promotion rivals, which is positive. 

 

 

 

That was a good game not to lose.

Dunfermline were obviously determined not to lose, and were cynical in doing so.  Can't remember when I last saw a team commit so many fouls.

The referee was weak.

The commentators were biassed idiots.  They were surprised when Sutherland went off - it was because he had just been hacked down, you morons.  I turned them off in the second half, after my wife booked me for swearing.

Duku tries, but he is just not effective.  And Billy will never score unless there is good service into the box.

Thanks go to Ridgers for keeping us in the game.

Mark that one down as experience, get the video analyst on the job (did I say the TV picture was rubbish?), and back to winning next week.

What should we do ?  Should we simply discuss the result and have a brew ? Should we quaff a single vodka and coke in respect of a point ? Shall we have a double vodka and coke as we have taken a point away from a team supposedly destined above us to go up ?

Of course it is a feckin "Doddsie" 

 

From what I could see, not a single home walked out as part of the much publicised protest against the board, despite a few reminders from our fans that it was time.  😀

Well from where I was sitting the dunfermline keeper didnt have to make a save. A glancing header in the first minute nearly had them in front and Ridgers performed a miracle to keep out a close range back post header. Once again keeping us in a match (2nd week in a row). Some good battling in midfield in the first half but the opposition were seriously on top at the end. Rodgers made another save when our total lack of any pace in central defence sold us short. Welsh went close and then McKay (I think) all within a minute in the second half. Persisted with long ball after duku went off which was a hopeless tactic. No guile, penetration...

.got to the 18 yd line and nothing to offer.  A bad day at the office so a point was just fine. In reality we should have lost that game

Absolutely mindnumbing game, but at least we're still undefeated.

Really good first half  dunfermline  then started to get in our faces some dodgy tackles and with Doran Sunderland and Duke having to go off we lost our way and let them back in to the game   but we would have taken this results at the start of season  well done guys you are doing us proud  special mention to Mark riders 2 fabulous saves