PUSH FOR PROMOTION

 

Inverness make the trek to Ayr on Saturday as the season edges closer to a climax. Often a happy hunting ground for the Caley Jags, Somerset Park should hold no fears for Inverness as the campaign heads towards fever pitch with points important for both clubs. However, despite Inverness having the better stats in Ayr, the Honest men came North in mid February and took all three points South. It's a 3:00pm kick-off on Saturday.

MATCH/TICKET/STREAMING INFO

SUPPORTERS BUS INFO BELOW

DNIPRO KIDS AID - PAUL CHERRY

Bus to Ayr 9th April leaves Caley Club 9.15, stadium 9.30 with pick ups in Aviemore and Pitlochry. £20 a seat, £15 under 16s. Book through Facebook or on 07462218717.

Venue Head2Head v Ayr

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	22	10	10	2	36	22	+14
Away	22	10	5	7	42	28	+14
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	44	20	15	9	78	50	+28

Last 10 Competitive Meetings

1 - 2 (H)

2 - 2 (A)

1 - 0 (H)

2 - 2 (H)

2 - 0 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

0 - 1 (A)

2 - 0 (H)

2 - 0 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

CTO report Aug21st 2021: Walsh nicks it: A slightly damp morning opening out into a muggy but calm afternoon in the Highlands made for near perfect conditions for this game. However, the football did not match the weather in a dour first half and it was goalless at the interval. Ayr rattled the top of the stand at the start of the second half as the game came to life. Tom Walsh looked to have opened the scoring when he bundled an inviting cross from Manny Duku behind the keeper after 54 minutes with Sean McGinty in close proximity trying to clear the ball. Joe Chalmers put a shot across the face of the Inverness goal that went narrowly wide. Walsh missed a glorious chance to double the lead moments later but pulled his shot across the face of the goal as well. Robbie Deas also missed an opportunity for a second goal, firing the ball over the bar from a great position inside the box. The game was more open but Inverness held on for their third 1-0 win of the season and top the league jointly with Killie.

CTO report Nov26th 2021: At a windy Somerset Park, Inverness took the lead early on when Sean Welsh met a Tom Walsh cross at the back post unchallenged to head into the net. The lead only lasted a couple of minutes as Joe Chalmers scored after a corner with a couple of defenders being grappled to the ground as Chalmers slotted home. Gardyne was causing all sorts of problems and his next angled cross into the box was missed by Mckay but it bounced through and into the goal to give the visitors the advantage at the break. Reading levelled with a low shot eight minutes into the second half, Ridgers not covering his near post sufficiently. No more scoring partly due to Aidan McAdams in the home goal and another great opportunity to get back on top went abegging with Partick winning 1-0 at Rugby Park.

CTO report Feb19th 2022: Ayr United took advantage of a midfield error and conceded corner from whence Sean McGinty headed the opening goal in a poor first half. McAdams saved Ayr before the interval with a great double save within ten seconds of each other as Inverness searched for an opening. Adeloye doubled the lead just after the hour seconds after coming on with Inverness in disarray. Lewis Nicolson struck with a first time cross that ended up in the top corner to throw Inverness a lifeline, but we remained winless in two months. Any hopes of promotion up in the Ayr.

So, honours even this season with one win apiece and a draw. All to play for on Saturday with Inverness on a three game winning run that sees us handily placed for a play-off place and Ayr struggling to stay above the play-off place at the wrong end of the table after only one win in their last five games and picking up only two points.

With Dunfermline beating Raith on Wednesday night, we have strengthened our claim for a top four finish. That could be further enhanced should faltering Partick drop more points on Friday night when they take on Queen of the South at Palmerston. The downside of Dunfermline winning is that it has plunged Ayr United into deep trouble and will amplify their resolve to take something from the game this weekend.

Partick beat Queen of the South 1-0 at Palmerston on Friday night with Queens missing a host of chances. All square for third place now.

Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts   1. Kilmarnock 32 18 6 8 44 23 60 2. Arbroath 32 14 14 4 44 25 56 3. Inverness CT 31 13 10 8 43 29 49 4. Partick Thistle 33 13 10 10 44 36 49 5. Raith Rovers 32 10 13 9 40 42 43 6. Hamilton Ac. 32 9 12 11 37 46 39 7. Morton 32 8 13 11 35 42 37 8. Ayr United 32 8 10 14 32 46 34 9. Dunfermline 32 6 14 12 33 47 32 10. Q.O.S. 32 6 8 18 30 46 26

SATURDAY 9TH APRIL

     Ayr United v Inverness CT

Hamilton v Arbroath

  Kilmarnock v Dunfermline

    Raith v Morton

Last Time Out

Ayr scored a last gasp equaliser against Hamilton last week through a superb strike from Kerr McInroy to earn a point in a 1-1 draw. Accies had led thanks to an early goal from Andy Winter. That followed a similar draw at Morton the previous week where Adeloye scored a late goal to earn a point. Looks like Ayr still have some fight in them with late goals in their last couple of games. Top scorer Tomi Adeloye is the man to watch and Kerr McInroy strikes a mean ball as well.

Kerr McInroy, at it again! 🚀#cinchChamp | @AyrUnitedFC pic.twitter.com/Bs6waKxMKz

— SPFL (@spfl) April 4, 2022

Inverness got a welcome third win on the bounce as they beat Dunfermline 2-0 with goals from Reece McAlear and Austin Samuels, his first for the club. McAlear's strike was a thunderblaster... He doesn't do tap-ins, the last one on this clip the stunner against the Pars.

Also against Dunfermline, Cammy Mackay showed why he is keeping Mark Ridgers on the bench

 

Latest Team News

Ayr are pleased to have Mikey Hewit back, so pleased he has been given a new three year deal. Striker Sam Ashford could return after suspension but midfielder Ben Dempsey is a doubt.

Inverness will be without the injured Scott Allardice who is out for the season. Unfortunately Sam Pearson's loan spell was ended prematurely due to a close family bereavement. The Welsh u21 international with potential in abundance has returned to Bristol City. Condolences to Sam and his Family. Roddy MacGregor should be back in training by now after a long lay off.

Eric's Ayr Raid

We last played Ayr on 19th February beyond the January transfer window..

The only addition to the squad is Alex Kenyon, a defensive midfield player who had previously been with Scunthorpe United and arrived at Somerset Park on 7th March.

Cheers Eck 

Get behind the team in the push for promotion.

The Supporters Travel Club are running buses to the final three away games of the season and all play-off games should we find ourselves involved.

 

 

 

 

 

LES FRIDGERABLES

A long time ago in a February far, far away, ICT were ten games without a win and the Shuffle panellists were asking whether a place in the playoffs was slipping away. A month later, on the back of three consecutive victories, we’re wondering whether we can steal second. Moff, Riley, AY and their special guest, ICTTV commentator Iain Auld, look back on a month of dramatically-shifting fortunes for the team, and shoehorn in a few tenuous movie references along the way. Action!

 

 

 

View full article

 

Samuels on

And so the expected has happened - having been 2 up early on, Ayr score their second and we are looking at a draw or even defeat once again.  Is there a self-destruct button in the kit bag or something?

1 minute ago, IBM said:

Samuels on

McAlear off

Really need the win here to be honest if we are aiming to snatch 2nd place for a better chance in the play offs

Billy Mckay off Joe Hardy ON

 

Carson off Devine on - strange?

We are so disappointing this half we  just need to plug away and try and steal a win.Strange when we were so in charge first half.

Should have brought Devine on earlier.

....Ross County now sitting 5th ......................

2 points dropped today. Shocking 2nd half performance 

Disappointing. We have a dominant start to the game and create a well deserved 2 goal lead playing some of our best football of the season.

Then, instead of continuing to do what got us there, we decide to sit back and cruise through the rest of the game in third gear.

Can someone please tell Billy Dodds that we are not good enough to decide to take it easy against anyone, far less a team fighting for their lives at the foot of the table.

We were fortunate today that Raith Rovers lost and we will almost certainly be in the play offs but we have almost certainly blown our chance of overhauling Arbroath and giving an easier passage through the play offs.

We can't afford to indulge in such a level of complacency again between now and the end of the season, whenever that may be.

Poor second half. Disappointing to give up a 2 goal lead. A point is ok ( for first half performance) but 3 would have been better.

Well we threw that game away and dropped 2 points.We must have just came out 2nd half all complacent, thinking we were good enough to hold onto our lead,when we are not good enough and need to fight for 90 minutes. Surely we have learned that after this season.

Good opening 20 minutes but after that it all went pear shaped. Even before the break we were looking slack and just punting the ball long. it seemed there was no composure whatsoever amongst the players. And at the start of the second half that continued. Ayr utterly dominated and we were on the back foot from the first whistle (of the second half). Quite how Dodds could stand there and, seemingly, think this was fine is beyond me. Yes the recent wins have been good but we were rank against Raith after a decent opening start and got a bit lucky. Arbroath and Dunfermline were good performances but yet again we have been poor for what feels like the umpteenth time this season. It's not good enough and whilst playoffs are all but secured I cannot see how we can be good enough over what is likely to be 6 games to get promoted when we've arguably not played well in 6 games this season.

Edited April 9, 20224 yr by RiG

What a disappointing end to a game that started with such promise.   Looking extremely unlikely that we can finish 2nd now.  We would need to win all our last 4 games to  get to 62 points.  Ayr can do that with one win out of their last three.  And even then, at 62 points each Arbroath's goal difference would probably be superior.  So, for us to finish ahead of  Arbroath they would have to get no more than 2 points from their last three.  Clutching at straws I fear.   So it will probably have to be the long haul through the play-offs.  Let us hope that we can raise our performance levels and give it a really good go. 

On train back. Very disappointing...

We have an inability to change our shape when leading and don't get me started on 2nd half performance. 

Hey Ho! Personally would like Ridgers, Roddy and Devine to start next week. 

Miffed

Normal service resumes....

When Ayr brought on Adeloye and O'Connor at the start of the second half our defence was starting to creak and that's when we should have made changes then they brought on Smith and things got worse.  It took until the 83rd minute before he took on Devine.  Lee Bullen got his tactics right and were unlucky not to win the game.

 

The first third of the game epitomised about a third of our season. Sadly, the remaining two thirds of the game summed up the other two thirds of our season which is why we long ago dropped out of the race for the title and why there remain lingering doubts about Billy Dodds as head coach.

2 hours ago, tm4tj said:

 

Sums it up so well (although Partick won last night).

Whilst we look certain to make the play offs, I can’t see us getting through three two leg ties against, most likely, Partick, Arbroath and St Johnstone given our inconsistency.

As Kingsmills has said, today epitomised our season.

At 2-0 up so early, we should have kicked on and had a confidence boosting comfortable win, but we self destructed.

We need to up our game for Friday. 

Edited April 9, 20224 yr by Robert

47 minutes ago, Robert said:

Sums it up so well

 

4 hours ago, tm4tj said:

Miffed

Thought the mannie's first post summed it up nicely!

I don't know what you mean Robert

I never saw the match today, but reading most of the comments it looks like the Ayr manager, Lee Bullen, had a plan B, to get his team back in contention, while Billy Dodds is again found wanting and is unable to counteract the change in our opponents tactics. A very disappointing drop of two points, especially after the great start we had. In my opinion, I think Billy Dodds brief at the start of the season was to get ICT into the playoffs, and barring some catastrophic swing of results he has achieved that. We had a chance of going for second, but I think that has gone now, so we must try and finish as high as possible, as there is a difference in prize money ( I don't know the amounts ), between third and fourth. 

30 minutes ago, Jaggernaut said:

I never saw the match today, but reading most of the comments it looks like the Ayr manager, Lee Bullen, had a plan B, to get his team back in contention, while Billy Dodds is again found wanting and is unable to counteract the change in our opponents tactics. A very disappointing drop of two points, especially after the great start we had. In my opinion, I think Billy Dodds brief at the start of the season was to get ICT into the playoffs, and barring some catastrophic swing of results he has achieved that. We had a chance of going for second, but I think that has gone now, so we must try and finish as high as possible, as there is a difference in prize money ( I don't know the amounts ), between third and fourth. 

Perhaps more importantly, finishing third rather than fourth would give us home advantage in the second leg of the first play off tie which could be crucial.