The Good the Bad and Raith Rovers 

 

With both clubs recording their first win in 2022, this clash could go a long way to deciding who has the bottle for the battle. Saturday 3:00pm at Starks Park should reveal all as good takes on bad, or Inverness versus Raith Rovers, a club apparently with the morals of Michael Gardyne. Both clubs have underperformed over the last three months but surprisingly still find themselves in contention for a play-off spot, realistically fourth place.

MATCH/TICKET/STREAMING/BUS INFO

SUPPORTERS BUS 07462218717

Raith Rovers bus 19th March leaves Caley Club 10.30, stadium 10.45. Picking up in Aviemore and Pitlochry. £20 and £15 for under 16s. Book through Facebook or on 07462218717

Venue Head2Head

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	19	13	4	2	37	14	+23
Away	14	7	4	3	27	17	+10
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	33	20	8	5	64	31	+33

Yes, the stats are not faulty: Raith Rovers have not beaten Inverness for almost twenty one and a half years. Incredible run of results going back to October 28th 2000 when we went down 1-2 in Inverness. Back to August of 2000 for their last win at Starks park and here is Ian Broadfoot's match report from that game, a 4-1 win for Raith: Caley Thistle's bad run continued against a sharp Raith side. Jay Stein set up the opening goal in 10 minutes with a run down the left and a cut back which deflected to Ray McKinnon and he scored with a low drive. The visitors best first half effort came in 27 minutes when Van de Kamp spectacularly saved a Davide Xausa 25 yard shot. On 44 minutes a free kick was touched to Kenny Black and Les Fridge tipped his shot over the bar. Raith killed the game off in a four minute spell in the second half. In 50 minutes a low ball from the right was punched by Fridge into the path of Paul Tosh who hit it home. Four minutes later Alex Burns beat three men in the box before scoring at the second attempt. Iain Stewart clawed one back with a close range header in 59 minutes after a Xausa shot had been blocked by the keeper. This sparked a revival with good efforts from Xausa and lively substitute Barry Robson. All efforts produced no more goals and Raith made it 4-1 in 82 minutes. Alex Burns crossed from the right and found Gerry Creaney who scored with a low shot from 15 yards. 

Decent teams back then 

Raith: Van de Kamp; McCulloch, Opinel, Gaughn, Browne, Black, S Tosh, McKinnon, P Tosh, Burns, Stein

Inverness: Fridge; Tokely, Mann, Hastings, Golabek, Christie, Sheerin, Byers, McBain, Stewart, Xausa

Subs: Calder; Robson, Bagan, Bavidge, Wyness

Last 10 Competitive Meetings

1 - 1 (H)

0 - 0 (H)

1 - 1 (A)

1 - 0 (H)

1 - 0 (A)

0 - 0 (H)

2 - 0 (H)

3 - 3 (A)

4 - 1 (H)

2 - 1 (H)

Saturday 3:00pm kick offs

Arbroath v Ayr United

   Killie v Queens

Partick v Accies 

  Rovers v Caley J's

Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts      DUNFERMLINE Ath v MORTON (Fri 7:45pm) 1. Kilmarnock 29 16 5 8 39 20 53 2. Arbroath 29 13 12 4 40 22 51 3. Partick Thistle 28 12 9 7 41 26 45 4. Inverness CT 29 11 10 8 38 27 43 5. Raith Rovers 29 10 12 7 35 34 42 6. Morton 29 8 10 11 32 39 34 7. Ayr United 29 8 8 13 30 43 32 8. Hamilton Ac. 29 7 11 11 31 45 32 9. Q.O.S. 29 6 8 15 29 42 26 10. Dunfermline 28 4 13 11 26 43 25

Last Time Out

Inverness broke their eleven game run without a win by beating title challengers Arbroath with a somewhat flattering but nonetheless welcome 3-0 win. An early goal by Man of the Match Shane Sutherland was followed soon after by a Reece McAlear strike following a neat move involving Shane and David Carson. We reverted to type after that and the ball was like a hot potato as it was battered skywards with great regularity. However we repelled the advances of Arbroath without too much hassle and Billy Mckay sneaked a third goal as we started to dominate with twenty minutes left.

Get in Reece as he finishes off a tidy move down the right...

Raith also ended a similar barren spell (first win in twelve) by beating Queen of the South 1-0 at Palmerston to remain only one point behind Inverness in fifth place. The only goal of the game came in the first half through Matej Poplatnik.

The honours are favouring Inverness this season in league games. Inverness edged the first one in the Highlands with a Roddy MacGregor special doing the damage, but the two subsequent meetings ended in draws. There was also a drawn Challenge Cup game at Starks Park which Raith eventually won on penalties. 

Latest Team News

Allardice and MacGregor out long term, but unless there are any new issues Dodds should have a relatively injury free squad. Cammy Mackay could well continue in goal as he has done well since getting his opportunity through Mark Ridgers downtime. Sam Pearson has been called up to the Welsh u21 squad for forthcoming games against Switzerland and Bulgaria. Read Here Unfortunately it rules him out after the Raith game and he is unavailable for the Dunfermline game on 26th March.

Raith 

 

Eric the Stats Raith round up.

In: Sam Stanton, midfielder (Dundalk); Jamie Gullan, forward (Hibernian)

Loan: Ben Williamson - midfielder (Rangers).

Sean Mackie - a left back on loan from Hibernian FC, originally joined Raith in 2015 from the Fife Elite Academy before moving to Hibs the next season, according to sources his last 2 years at Hibs has been blighted by injury.

And last but not least; In & Out;  the Hokey Cokey saga of David Goodwillie. Yes, the in-out, in-out, shake it all about transfer that rocked the club back onto it's heels and brought out some embarrassing grovelling apologies. He went back to Clyde (loan) and his career is on hold as a footballer I believe as he is not welcome there either.

 

Out:

Adam Masson - Centre back on loan to Thornton Hibs JFC

Blaise Riley Snow - Midfielder on loan to Alloa Athletic

Kieran Mitchell - the 18 year old is on loan to Bo'ness United

Luke Mahady - a centre forward loaned out to Burntisland Shipyard FC

Quinn Coulson - left wing player farmed out to Cowdenbeath

 

 

 

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Raith losing the plot. Down to 9 men. 

19 minutes ago, Satan said:

Need to win this now, if only to **** off the idiotic commentators (non biased) for continually calling us Caledonian Thistle.

Really.

Well surprisingly we did win!!!

Just now, snorbens_caleyman said:

Take my advice.  Never, ever try to pick a winner

BTW, you are Mark Ridgers' Dad, and I claim my five pounds.

It bites.😁

You just gotta love football for the element of surprise 😂😂😂😂😂

Just amazing! This season is nuts

What an end to a game, brilliant. Come on ICT 👏👏👏

Well well well. I didnt see that coming 20 minutes ago.

We maybe didn't deserve all three points but I wll happily take them.

A bit of breathing space against Raith and the gap narrowed against Partick.

A much better day than it looked a wee while ago.

We will have to play, and especially defend, much better for the rest of  the season but much to celebrate this evening.

Edited March 19, 20224 yr by Kingsmills

If we are honest we were lucky and cannot afford to defend like that.Thank goodness for Chalmers that's all I can say

Yo! What a finish. Well done that man Chalmers. Back in the top 4. If we go on a run now that would be perfect. Topsy turvy or what?

Partick getting thumped a real bonus. Good day for us after all.

Now we are third and need to keep the winning run going.

Not pretty but I will take the three points happily (and sorry all for saying I’d settle for a draw earlier!).

Two great goals by Chalmers.

Arguably more than we deserved but Raith were quite cynical at times and didn’t like the ref seeing through their tactics.

Roll on next Saturday!!

Well, what a finish!.  Didn't see that coming, but very well done lads.  A win that should give us every confidence for the run in.

Let's hope we analyse the scrappy goals conceded to learn for next few games.Just relieved we scraped it.

27 minutes ago, Satan said:

Need to win this now, if only to **** off the idiotic commentators (non biased) for continually calling us Caledonian Thistle.

Really.

What’s wrong with calling us that? 

Yessssssssssssss!C mon the Jaggies, season’s not done yet, what an end result.

I'll happily take the luck now, we haven't had much for a while.

I was hoping for a draw but I guess I’ll have to settle for a win.

59 minutes ago, Satan said:

Need to win this now, if only to **** off the idiotic commentators (non biased) for continually calling us Caledonian Thistle.

Really.

What a disgrace. Commentators using our club name.

6 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

What a disgrace. Commentators using our club name.

That's not been our name for a long time.

Is that what they all think we are called?

Raith have not beaten us in a league game since 2000 ! 

Yes, now we have two wins under our belt, with 6 goals scored, let's concentrate on a pedantic argument about our name 😂

Honestly didn't see that win coming,despite the promising start and long spells of first half possession- who knew Chalmers could be so deadly twice from nearly the same spot on the pitch!

Credit to Raith for blowing it big style - kicked off by the straight red for Bene( commentators seethe now). Persisistent time wasting came back to bite them, and with Dodds throwing subs on like confetti it seemed to further confuse Raith who, like their mates doing the commentary were marvelling at how the Caledonian Thistle ( hi Sergei!) players were always changing position on the pitch, it was hard to tell who was playing where , which if you'd been privy to most of our games this year it's a natural effect of not having much of a plan or formation. Fluid, I think they described it as.😆

A lot of flak directed at the ref, but even with replays the poor quality of stream combined with camera angles and sun made it hard to definitely argue with a lot of them.

Certainly worth waiting for the last 5 minutes or so, for the late winner and another red card into the bargain.

Oh, the hopes are rising already.

😏

 

I know it is a big ask, but I've just been thinking about our first time moving up to the top flight and how ICT seemed to come out of nowhere in the last few games to claim the prize. I'll never forget the pitch invasion while we waited for the helicopter to continue its journey to Inverness.

The teams above us will be getting nervy now and the boys have nothing to lose by throwing everything at it.

C'mon ICT - you can do it.

Scenes in the away end 😎 Flashbacks to the 4-3 game when Foran scored.

Thought we were the better side first half although there was a lack of intensity, obviously Dodds thinks they train well so just treat matches like training sessions.
Second half we were miles off it and would have got booed off if the game had ended at 1650. Wee Billy must have a sore neck watching all those hoofs going over his head. Aaron’s finished and Broadfoot has played too many games this season for an old man. First two subs made no difference but Cammy and Walsh coming on did.

Don’t usually criticise refs but I’ve observed Colin Steven since he started in the non league and he’s consistently hopeless.

Edited March 19, 20224 yr by TheMantis

I understand the tactics now. Confuse the opposition by using as many subs as you can and change formation so much that the opposing team don't know what's going on .Ah the down side,well we don't know what formation we are playing either and that is why passes keep going astray.Justgoing to enjoy the win for now and grateful  Chalmers chose to shoot twice and not pass.

Well that was unbelievable our passing was dire. What a finish though   how many times has that happened to us in the past  we have to kick on now the gods are maybe with us 😇  come on ict