Champions in waiting

 

 

Kilmarnock head North looking to wrap up their return to the Premiership as they visit the Caledonian Stadium on Friday night. The game is a 7:45pm kick off and can be seen on council TV. The crossing of the T's and dotting of the I's is all that prevents the trophy being handed over, but the real battle goes on for second, third and fourth. Killie will be taking a big crowd North looking to close out the title.

MATCH/TICKET/STREAMING INFO

SPORTS BAR OPEN AT STADIUM

The stats lean towards Inverness in this fixture but it's usually a tight affair. Home advantage could be crucial but Killie are hitting fine form at the right moment. We sometimes appear clueless, let's see what hat we wear on Friday night.

Venue Head2Head

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	24	11	9	4	44	32	+12
Away	26	8	6	12	36	45	-9
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	50	19	15	16	80	77	+3

Last 10 Competitive Meetings v Killie

0 - 1 (A)

1 - 0 (H)

1 - 0 (A)

1 - 2 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

1 - 1 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

3 - 1 (H)

1 - 2 (A)

2 - 1 (H)

This Season

It's advantage Inverness so far in the three meetings. Never more than one goal between the sides this season but Killie look to be rounding their season off in emphatic style whilst we are still trying to ensure we make the play-offs with some erratic performances, self belief not high on our agenda.

CTO Report August 28th -Table Toppers: Both sides had won their opening three fixtures with Killie having the better goal difference. Both sides had yet to concede a goal; something was going to give, and it did after five minutes. This game had the potential to be the toughest test so far in the Billy Dodds era and it was a tight affair but Inverness scored the only goal of the game when Michael Gardyne lashed the ball into the net via the keepers palms. That proved to be the winner. Blair Alston nicked one off the outside of the post before the interval and Mark Ridgers kept Killie out with his 4th clean sheet in a row in the Championship after denying Innes Cameron from point blank range to put the Caley Jags at the top of the table on their own.

CTO Report December 3rd - Table Toppers again: League leaders Kilmarnock looked determined to spoil the game as a spectacle and it was a first half of few chances. Mckay having a shot blocked for a corner by Hemming and Ridgers denying McKenzie. However, chances were at a premium and the half ended goalless. The goal that settled the game was a stunning strike from captain Sean Welsh and no more than Inverness deserved with Killie void of attacking intent. This result put Inverness back on top of the table for now.

CTO Report January 29th - Rugby Park Loss: Inverness made the long journey home with no points after Kyle Lafferty scored an early goal after good work by Daniel Mackay down the right wing. What a kick in the teeth that was. Very little to choose between the sides as neither side dominated and clear chances were at a premium with Killie probably having the better of them. Without five regulars, this was always going to be a difficult ask, and so it turned out, but our recent signings look like they could offer something once they are up to speed.

Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts Inverness v Killie (Friday night) 1. Kilmarnock 33 19 6 8 46 23 63 2. Arbroath 33 15 14 4 45 25 59 3. Inverness CT 32 13 11 8 45 31 50 4. Partick Thistle 33 13 10 10 44 36 49 5. Raith Rovers 33 10 13 10 40 43 43 6. Morton 33 9 13 11 36 42 40 7. Hamilton Ac. 33 9 12 12 37 47 39 8. Ayr United 33 8 11 14 34 48 35 9. Dunfermline 33 6 14 13 33 49 32 10. Q.O.S. 32 6 8 18 30 46 26

SATURDAY 16TH APRIL

Arbroath v Queens

Dunfermline v Ayr United

 Morton v Accies

  Partick v Rovers

Last Time Out

Killie saw off Dunfermline with a goal in each half from Kyle Lafferty and Oli Shaw in a one sided affair. It might have been a cricket score had it not been for Pars keeper Jakub Stolarczyk pulling off a string of super saves.

The Caley Jags threw away a two goal lead against Ayr United last week with a less than impressive second half performance. Shane Sutherland opened the scoring with his tenth goal this season and Logan Chalmers curled in a beauty from twenty two yards. Alas once Ayr changed their personnel at the interval we were second to every ball and got what we deserved. In fact we were left hanging on somewhat and were lucky to claim a point after goals from Fraser Bryden and Markus Fjortoft. A better point for Ayr than it was for us.

Logan's super strike...

Latest Team News

Killie have the luxury of a strength of depth squad and should have no fresh worries ahead of this game. They will also have the luxury of a big away support for this one and that 12th man could prove decisive.

Billy Dodds welcomed Roddy MacGregor back last weekend with a substitutes appearance for the talented midfielder. Scott Allardice was the only missing player last week but Aaron Doran was replaced at half-time, presumably injured.

Here's Roddy talking about his time out

 

 

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17 hours ago, tm4tj said:

Stats available on this site

https://caleythistleonline.com/stats/playerstats.html/

Filtered down to League games only:

Deas - 9

Carson - 7

Broadfoot - 6

Devine - 6

Billy Mckay - 3 😂

Looks like the 'Top Four', have all served the one match suspension, probably only Deas could get to 12 before the play-offs [for a 2nd ban], so might be worth playing Harper at LB after Q0S. Might be worth starting with Duffy in the last games instead of Broadfoot to rest him. Think we need to protect Carson a bit as well.

Be good to give MacGregor game time after QoS, plus Samuels

Kilmarnock may end up being the worst Championship title winners in some time. They were howling for most of that game and whilst they had us under pressure I didn't feel too concerned for the most part. Only a bizarre error by Broadfoot let them in. I thought he had been playing well up until that point as well.

The game changed on that moment and the subs by Dodds. Full credit to him for making those changes but what an absolute shitebag McInnes is   Game and arguably the title there for the taking and he decides to sit back on a 1 goal lead. No wonder Aberdeen fans tired of him.

Carson was excellent in the middle of the park. Surely now we need to get a proper RB in so we can keep him there and stop playing him (or Duffy) at RB. Doran also provided a bit of composure on the ball further forward. Nothing really stuck for Samuels. His control was poor a lot of the time and quite often the ball bounced off him and away before he could get it under control. Mckay is still class however. Right place, right time for his goal and he was part of a lovely quick passing move that brought about the second.

Shame McAlear seems to have gone off form a wee bit since his stunning strike against Dunfermline. Maybe we'll see Carson start tomorrow night in his place.