Ticket and PPV information out nice and early:

https://ictfc.com/next-match-greenock-morton-h

After the disappointing performance and result at Hamilton, hopefully we get back to winning ways.

I’d like to see Mckay start given Duku has failed to score in eight league starts so far.

Possibly the most important game of the season so far and we need to get our promotion campaign back on track with a win.

McKay should definitely start, he is a confidence player like many forwards and if he is not brimming with confidence after his hat trick Saturday he never will be.

I would also be inclined to give Lewis Jamieson a start alongside him with Shane and Manny on the bench to provide fresh forward impetus later in the game.

I thought McKay & Jamieson gave us better movement in the run up to Gardynes winner in the last home game.

16 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

McKay should definitely start, he is a confidence player like many forwards and if he is not brimming with confidence after his hat trick Saturday he never will be.

 

13 hours ago, Satan said:

I thought McKay & Jamieson gave us better movement in the run up to Gardynes winner in the last home game.

Where is @CaleyD when you need him? 

2 hours ago, RiG said:

 

Where is @CaleyD when you need him? 

Personally, I only got into the habit of mispelling Billy's surname for the sake of the inevitable resction from the big man.

19 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

Personally, I only got into the habit of mispelling Billy's surname for the sake of the inevitable resction from the big man.

Now the weeman is having a go 😂

Wee plug for the last episode of The Wyness Shuffle which has a preview of the game against Morton with Dean MacKinnon who hosts the 'Just One Cornetto' Greenock Morton podcast (around the 54:23 mark).
 

 

Sounds like we have some players carrying knocks in advance of tomorrow’s game:

https://ictfc.com/match-preview-morton-h-2

And a request to watch where we park:

https://ictfc.com/local-business-parking-during-matchdays

Edited October 15, 20214 yr by Robert

Championship Resumes

 

After the international break it's back to the Championship on Saturday as Morton come to the Caledonian Stadium looking to lift themselves up the table and clear of the bottom places. The game kicks-off at 3:00pm with Inverness hoping to put the defeat to Hamilton behind them.

 

Head 2 Head v Morton

Venue

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	16	11	3	2	43	15	+28
Away	14	8	2	4	27	17	+10
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	30	19	5	6	70	32	+38

First Competitive Meeting

Sep 4th, 1999

League

(H)

1 - 1

Most Recent Competitive Meeting

Apr 6th, 2021

League (Championship)

(A)

4 - 1

Last 10 Competitive Meetings

4 - 1 (A)

0 - 1 (H)

2 - 2 (A)

3 - 2 (H)

1 - 2 (A)

3 - 1 (H)

5 - 0 (H)

2 - 2 (A)

1 - 0 (H)

2 - 1 (A)

Biggest Victories

Aug 30th, 2019

League

(H)

5 - 0

Heaviest Defeats

Nov 12th, 1999

League

(A)

1 - 5

Highest Attendance

Oct 31st, 2009

League

(H)

3,021

Highest Home Attendance

Oct 31st, 2009

League

(H)

3,021

Here's the table ahead of tonight's TV game between Hamilton who were routed by Partick Thistle.

Other fixtures tomorrow

Ayr United v Queen of the South

Dunfermline v Kilmarnock

Raith Rovers v Arbroath

		Pld	W	D	L	F	A	+/-	Pts
1.	Inverness CT	8	6	1	1	10	4	6	19
2.	Kilmarnock	8	5	1	2	9	4	5	16
3.	Arbroath	8	4	3	1	16	6	10	15
4.	Raith Rovers	8	4	2	2	14	10	4	14
5.	Partick Thistle	8	4	0	4	17	13	4	12
6.	Queen of the South	8	3	0	5	9	12	-3	9
7.	Ayr United	8	2	2	4	7	12	-5	8
8.	Hamilton Academical	8	2	2	4	8	15	-7	8
9.	Morton	8	1	3	4	7	12	-5	6
10.	Dunfermline	8	0	4	4	4	13	-9	4

There's a big swing towards Inverness in these fixtures. Only two defeats at home versus Morton out of sixteen encounters. One of those was as recent as last season though, when we went down to the only goal of the game at the Caledonian Stadium. Aiden Nesbitt was the scorer of the goal and that result put Inverness second bottom of the table in March.

Our last game was a rousing 4-2 Challenge Cup win at Borough Briggs where a Billy Mckay hat-trick saw us overcome a two goal deficit to go into the next round where we will play Raith Rovers at the Caledonian Stadium at the end of November. Lewis Jamieson scored the fourth goal to round off the comeback.

Arbroath scored a late goal to deny Morton all three points a couple of weeks ago in a Championship encounter. That would have been a decent result against team of the month Arbroath. Gary Oliver and Cameron Blues scored the goals for the Ton. However Michael McKenna's 87th minute penalty earned the Smokies a point. Last time out Morton edged past Montrose in the Challenge Cup on penalties (4-2) after a goalless draw.

Latest Team News

According to the Official Preview we still have a number of players carrying knocks. Probably David Carson and with Danny Devine and Cammy Harper being subbed early at Elgin last week then they might require resting for a bit longer, but Billy Dodds like to keep his injury situation close to his chest so we will have to wait until just after 2:00pm tomorrow to find out

Here's Roddy

 

View full article

 

Just hope Partick's performance last night adds motivation to our players today.

Keep it simple today and get 3 points...😃

1 hour ago, jed5697 said:

Keep it simple today and get 3 points...😃

I don't much care whether we keep it simple or make it more complicated as long as, come ten to five, we finish with all three points and no fresh injuries.

Mckay starts. Allardice at right back presumably:

https://mobile.twitter.com/ICTFC/status/1449362559832928258/photo/1

Billy Mckay resuming natural order

Why is the restart being delayed?   Hope it is nothing to do with the injuries at the end of the first half.

1 hour ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

Why is the restart being delayed?   Hope it is nothing to do with the injuries at the end of the first half.

That's what they said. Seems that Gardynes OK, but probably enough for a pop in visit to Raigmore as a precaution if his cut is deep enough.

This game swung in the first half with two poor misses by Morton. They paid the price when a ridgers kick looking for McKay found it's way to him via defenders head. One on one with the keeper he found the bottom corner with a precise left footed shot. Morton never really recovered and an alert Gardyne knocked in a loose ball in the area for the second. Morton were poor defensively and we should really have scored more. Won't complain though still top of the league 😃 six pointer next week 

Wasn't  pretty to watch but hey 3 points🤣 county  must  be regretting letting mackay and gardyne  come over the bridge 🤣🤣🤣 thanks Roy 

Welsh was pathetic today

Another comfortable win without getting out of first gear. Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. We've only really sworded one team in the league and that was Partick Thistle when we wrecked them in the second half. Other than that we have been okay but sit proudly at the top of the league. Have we got more to give or are we not set up right to take advantage of the players at our disposal?

A deserved win, but on several occasions at 0-0 and 1-0 we did our best to let Morton get into the game by poor passing and some comic book defending.

Ridgers’ kicking was not to his usual standards, but the one that counted was great vision and very accurate to set Mckay up for a cool finish into the corner.

Gardyne pounced for the second after Mckay could have scored in the same move.

We could, and possibly should, have got more against a poor defence, with Jamieson coming closest.

Other than when we gifted them chances, Morton didn’t trouble us too much. I recall one Ridgers save in the second half with the ball rebounding to a Morton player who headed wide when it looked easier to hit the target.

It was good that Gardyne was able to play the second half after his injury right on half time  I didn’t see what happened but hopefully the Morton player is ok too. The 15 minute delay didn’t hamper us as we had probably our best spell at the start of the second half.

We had a lot of injury stoppages, with Sutherland going off with a knock as well as Gardyne and Duku getting treatment on the pitch. Hopefully they are all fit for next week.

A nice touch was Mckay holding up Carson’s shirt after he scored to show the players’ support for him at a difficult time.

Not our most convincing display and some worrying lapses in possession, but another three points, and a five point lead after the first round of fixtures is a good place to be. Raith next week in another top of the table clash.

 

 

Edited October 16, 20214 yr by Robert

Come on folks, what's with the negative comments ? After the first full round of fixtures, we are 5 points clear at the top. Would even the most optimistic of us have predicted that before the season began?

I rather enjoyed our 'made in Dingwall' victory today made all the sweeter by Dunfermline's late late equaliser against Kilmarnock.

Yes we rode our luck and could have been one, or even two, goals down before our operner had the Morton finishing been more clinical but I thought we were fairly comfortable thereafter.

A huge game next week in Kirkcaldy against a resurgent Raith Rovers and we will have to play better to take something from it but we know from spells this season that we are entirely capable of doing that and ensuring that there will be very little dancing in the streets of Raith next Saturday evening.

1 hour ago, Kingsmills said:

Come on folks, what's with the negative comments ?

It shows our expectations have risen!

I thought I was realistic, not negative, and the comment above about Welsh is harsh.

A shout out for Allardice playing out of position, as he handled things pretty well. I also thought McAlear had a good game and gave protection on the right side.

Once again Gardyne was the pick for me. I was sceptical when he signed but he has become a key player for us and has weighed in with important goals.

I was please Mckay started and it was great to see him on the score sheet. His confidence must be really high now.

We have a good mix of youth and experience.

We just need to tighten up on some slack play and we can really go places!

Was it B D who said he wanted ICT to  be an attacking and entertaining side? well we certainly got entertainment yesterday loved the ' play '  they put on, you know the one ' Comedy of errors ' it was heart in the mouth stuff.

I really felt sorry for Mark in goal, that would have given any Keeper the Jitters and unlike his usual self he did drop one or two balls,........but come on,  what an assist to Billy, clear thinking there, a brilliant piece of play that settled things for us.

It was a happy ending to trhe play with a win that put  the rest of the Championship on edge  knowing they will have to chase all the mre to catch up with us.

Hope we put on 'As you like it ' next game, another happy ending.

The recent games against the bottom 3 have shown there are no easy games in this division, yet we are 5 points clear at the top.  We must be doing something right.  This season we seem to be managing to win games that are pretty finely balanced.  The difference seems to be that the team are all working really hard for each other and when we have those "heart in the mouth" moments there is a real collective effort to clear the danger.  Pressing hard and winning the ball back then gives us more chance of creating opportunities up front.  Maintaining the level of intesity and the team spirit will be essential if we are going keep the challenge for promotion going.

27 minutes ago, DoofersDad said:

The recent games against the bottom 3 have shown there are no easy games in this division, yet we are 5 points clear at the top.  We must be doing something right.  This season we seem to be managing to win games that are pretty finely balanced.  The difference seems to be that the team are all working really hard for each other and when we have those "heart in the mouth" moments there is a real collective effort to clear the danger.  Pressing hard and winning the ball back then gives us more chance of creating opportunities up front.  Maintaining the level of intesity and the team spirit will be essential if we are going keep the challenge for promotion going.

I entirely agree, there are heart in mouth issues both on the pitch and in the boardroom but there is now much more that is right than is wrong both on and off the pitch.

We are in a position which is the envy of every other club in the division, including some considerably better resourced than ours.

Nothing is guaranteed but with effort and dedication from everyone with the club at heart, there is no reason why that can't still be the case when the honours are handed out in May.

It is no accident that we are top of the league at the quarter way stage. We are there on merit and if we keep these standards up there is no reason why we can't remain there on merit.