Xmas is coming

 

We face Hamilton Accies on Saturday in the Championship, fresh from our mauling of Morton last weekend, but can we sustain that level of intensity as we enter the heavy winter schedule? The game kicks off at 3:00pm at the Caledonian Stadium with live streaming available from ICTV at £15 if you are unable to get to the stadium. We are due Accies a doing after our lousy performance down there on 2nd October against ten men for over an hour. Let's hope we can continue to build on our performance from last weekend. If not, Raith, Arbroath, Killie and Partick are waiting in the wings...

OFFICIAL PREVIEW 

MATCH INFO*TICKETS*STREAMING

Venue - Head 2 Head

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	13	4	4	5	20	17	+3
Away	10	6	1	3	16	12	+4
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	23	10	5	8	36	29	+7

First Competitive Meeting

Jan 25th, 1997

Scottish Cup (Rd 3)

(H)

1 - 3

Most Recent Competitive Meeting

Oct 2nd, 2021

League (Championship)

(A)

1 - 2

Last 10 Competitive Meetings

1 - 2 (A)

2 - 1 (H)

0 - 3 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

1 - 1 (A)

1 - 0 (A)

0 - 1 (H)

4 - 3 (A)

0 - 2 (H)

2 - 0 (A)

The first meeting of the clubs this season saw Inverness fail to beat ten man Accies at NDP despite the hosts playing over half the game a man short. Lewis Smith and Andy Ryan had put Accies two up inside twenty-six minutes before Reegan Mimnaugh was red carded after half an hour. We huffed and puffed for the next hour before eventually getting an injury time consolation by he who shall not be named, but it was too little too late to retrieve the situation. That was our first League defeat of the season at the Fountain of Youth, but it left us three points clear of Kilmarnock in second place at the beginning of October. Since then we have gained a further fifteen points and remain top, but with Raith Rovers and Arbroath breathing down our neck. Accies have added nine points since that first meeting and are heading the bottom half of the table in a League where anyone can beat the rest on their day.

Other fixtures this weekend

Arbroath v Morton

Kilmarnock v Dunfermline

Partick v Rovers

Queens v Ayr Utd

Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts   1. Inverness CT 17 10 4 3 25 12 34 2. Raith Rovers 17 9 6 2 27 16 33 3. Arbroath 17 8 7 2 28 13 31 4. Kilmarnock 17 9 2 6 20 11 29 5. Partick Thistle 17 8 4 5 29 16 28 6. Hamilton Ac. 17 4 5 8 15 30 17 7. Ayr United 17 3 6 8 16 29 15 8. Dunfermline 17 2 8 7 18 28 14 9. Q.O.S. 17 3 5 9 16 26 14 10. Morton 17 2 7 8 15 28 13

Last Time Out

We trounced a hapless Morton 6-1 at Cappiellow. Doran, Sutherland (2), Mckay, McAlear with a screamer and Jamieson scored the goals in a one sided affair. Ugwu replied for Morton just on the break from the spot. 

Accies drew 1-1 at Somerset Park with Ayr United in a highly competitive encounter. They opened the scoring through Lewis Smith five minutes before the interval but Tomi Adeloye headed Ayr level three minutes after the break and that's how it ended.

Latest Team News

Sean Welsh will require more time to rest up. Other than that we should have a fairly healthy squad although Roddy MacGregor was also missing last week.

 

 

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What's the PPG Table looking like? Presuming the losing run has been a kick in the teeth in what could be our last chance at promotion if the league ends up getting called as is...

17 minutes ago, Jack Waddington said:

What's the PPG Table looking like? Presuming the losing run has been a kick in the teeth in what could be our last chance at promotion if the league ends up getting called as is...

Despite today's unwelcome, if not unexpected, news, I would doubt very much if this will mark the end of the season.

We just need a bit of a 'circuit breaker' to get more folk vaccinated and boosted and for more data on omicron.

1 hour ago, Jack Waddington said:

What's the PPG Table looking like? Presuming the losing run has been a kick in the teeth in what could be our last chance at promotion if the league ends up getting called as is...

We’re second, behind Arbroath on goal difference.

Today’s restrictions are hopefully temporary and we get back to “normal” in the second half of January. However, it should act as an incentive to win points in case there is a curtailment at some point. 

Looking at our fixtures, we will have 5 games with restricted crowds, 3 of them at home.

As Queen of the South are also out of the cup, it would be good if that home game could be moved from 15 to 22 January so fans are allowed in as normal. 

Edited December 21, 20213 yr by Robert

That’s a good point, but probably too sensible a suggestion for Scottish football.

All sense goes out the window, with anything to do with covid 19.

13 hours ago, Robert said:

Looking at our fixtures, we will have 5 games with restricted crowds, 3 of them at home.

As Queen of the South are also out of the cup, it would be good if that home game could be moved from 15 to 22 January so fans are allowed in as normal. 

Assuming the restrictions are not extended.

Indeed, but no harm in moving the date in the hope that the restrictions don’t get extended or increased. It would be a positive statement to supporters.

I wonder, though, if clubs will let 500 in or play in empty grounds given the livestreams, as they will be better off not having any crowd in. 

6 minutes ago, Robert said:

Indeed, but no harm in moving the date in the hope that the restrictions don’t get extended or increased. It would be a positive statement to supporters.

I wonder, though, if clubs will let 500 in or play in empty grounds given the livestreams, as they will be better off not having any crowd in. 

When I was in earlier they were busy cancelling non season ticket holders for boxing day 😪

17 minutes ago, old caley girl said:

When I was in earlier they were busy cancelling non season ticket holders for boxing day 😪

Hate to say it, but it more than makes sense. Why would someone who's been there week in week out since August be behind someone in the ballot who has only got a couple games under their belt? 

1 hour ago, old caley girl said:

When I was in earlier they were busy cancelling non season ticket holders for boxing day 😪

Do we know how many season ticket holders we have? As our reported crowds are typically 1800-2200, I’d guess at around 1500, so we’ve around a 33% chance in a ballot.

Without getting political, as the sanction is to avoid pressure on the emergency services, none of which are involved in our games or, indeed, games out with the top flight, it would be better if we could go back to the maximum capacity with 1m distancing as that would easily accommodate all season ticket holders.

Once again, worry about the small number of big crowds at sporting events has resulted in all clubs being penalised, the majority for no obvious reduction in the risk of transmission.

 

Edited December 22, 20213 yr by Robert

I am not going to make the next game and as before am happy to stay at home an watch it on the PC and let others go to the game if there is a ballot.  Not easy times but I would rather stay safe than get Covid even though I have had 2 jags and a booster!

The words "ballot" and "on line streaming" expected to feature prominently again, just when I was getting used to living without them. 🤪 Hopefully the chosen 500 will hear from the club tomorrow.

Tbh, I'm somewhat considering throwing in the towel if I'm successful in the ballot, but it depends on what Section 94 (West Stand Team) are doing, slight rumours in the air (not sure how true this is) that there could be a protest about the ludicrous decision for a set capacity rather than a percentage like at the Euros.

Just makes no sense how a team like East Fife, who have a capacity of 1,980, will be playing at an almost quarter full stadium, whilst Celtic are playing in front of about 59k empty seats...

I think we have to wait and see if there is a ballot? The club have not announced anything to my knowledge? They might think it's not doable at such short notice? 

7 hours ago, old caley girl said:

I think we have to wait and see if there is a ballot? The club have not announced anything to my knowledge? They might think it's not doable at such short notice? 

If they do allow 500 fans, I hooe that, given the current surge, they insist on a negative LFT on the day of the match even though that is not a legal requirement.

Better to keep everyone aa safe as possible.

The Premiership have brought forward their Winter break which, by the standards of Scottish football, seems very sensible.

If there are to be any postponements further down the chain then being out of all cup competitions might be to our advantage if there is a fixture backlog.

Edited December 23, 20213 yr by Kingsmills

14 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

If they do allow 500 fans, I hooe that, given the current surge, they insist on a negative LFT on the day of the match even though that is not a legal requirement.

Better to keep everyone aa safe as possible.

The Premiership have brought forward their Winter break which, by the standards of Scottish football, seems very sensible.

If there are to be any postponements further down the chain then being out of all cup competitions might be to our advantage if there is a fixture backlog.

Out of interest, what would be the process you can see to show evidence of a negative LFT and when it was done? Take it along? 

33 minutes ago, Fraz said:

Out of interest, what would be the process you can see to show evidence of a negative LFT and when it was done? Take it along? 

Register result I think? 

When you register the rest result you have the option to get a text or e-mail confirmation. I assume that is what is accepted in venues as the alternative to vaccine passports. 

That’s not any form of meaningful check as people self declare their own results and report what they want it to be.

24 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

That’s not any form of meaningful check as people self declare their own results and report what they want it to be.

I have faith in people generally and am sure that the vast majority of people, including the great majority of ICT fans, will be honest and not put others at risk.

Not that it matters now, as the games been called off due to lack of players...

https://ictfc.com/ceo-boxing-day-match-update

And presumably Wednesday’s game at Dunfermline will also be a casualty as a result. 

54 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

That’s not any form of meaningful check as people self declare their own results and report what they want it to be.

But that’s how the system is set up and highlights why vaccine passports are a good thing for large gatherings. 

46 minutes ago, Robert said:

But that’s how the system is set up and highlights why vaccine passports are a good thing for large gatherings. 

Everyone I know who has had covid has been double vaxed, although none of them ended up in hospital, it does make you wonder - if you can still catch it then you can still pass it on - what good is this passport? What does it prove? It seems like another waste of resources just to give some people a sense of security.

The fear is taking over.