First Leg v Smokies

 

After an edgy quarter final play off win over Partick Thistle, we face Championship team of the season Arbroath on Tuesday night at 7:05pm. Dick Campbell takes his team North as favourites to progress to the final, with St Johnstone being the likely candidates for the opposition. The game will also be screened live on the BBC Scotland channel. 

Arbroath have had a fantastic season falling just two points short of automatic promotion and finishing second in the Championship, six points ahead of third placed Inverness, and with a superior goal difference of seven, and losing only five Championship games all season. The one thing in our favour is that we beat them twice, the most recent a slightly flattering 3-0 win a couple of months ago.

TICKET INFO

OFFICIAL PREVIEW

Venue H2H all comps

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	21	16	2	3	56	18	+38
Away	19	9	4	6	26	22	+4
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	40	25	6	9	82	40	+42

This seasons meetings with the Smokies

3 - 0 (H)

0 - 0 (A)

0 - 1 (H)

1 - 0 (A)

Interestingly, over the final six games of the Championship, Inverness were the team on form, finishing with a flourish ahead of the Play-Offs

			Overall					Home					Away
Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	+/-	Pts
1.	Inverness CT	6	4	1	1	12	5	3	0	0	8	1	1	1	1	4	4	+7	13
2.	Arbroath	6	3	2	1	13	6	2	1	0	11	4	1	1	1	2	2	+7	11
3.	Kilmarnock	6	3	2	1	9	6	3	0	0	6	2	0	2	1	3	4	+3	11

Last time we faced Arbroath we were on an eleven game run of no wins since we thumped Morton 6-1 at Cappielow on December 11th

CTO Report March 12th: 3-0: The spell is broken: A blistering start by Inverness put them on their way to a first win in 12 starts. Goals from Shane Sutherland and Reece McAlear set them on their way inside eleven minutes. Billy Mckay sclaffed in a third with twenty minutes to go and there was no way back for Arbroath who lost ground at the top of the table with Dick Campbell sent to the stands. As Partick Thistle lost to Morton, we closed the gap to two points behind them with Raith still one point behind us. Away to Rovers next week. That's a massive game now as both sides chase a play-off spot. I said to my grandkid's at the game "that was an emphatic win" At only seven years old, Ava said "granda, what does win mean?" Yes, it's been a long time coming...

 

Well done Mark, great stuff.   

68 clean sheets, that's some size of linen cupboard pal!

TEAM NEWS

Roddy MacGregor has cracked a bone in his jaw and could be out for the next few games. Tom Walsh is likewise after being injured inside twenty minutes at Firhill. Wallace Duffy missed the last couple after being injured against Accies on matchday 36. Scott Allardice made it onto the pitch as an injury time sub for the first time in months, so that's a positive and here's another one, Aaron Doran came on as a sub for the last half hour after taking a knock at Cappielow on matchday 35.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A well deserved April's Player of the Month award for Logan Chalmers who has chipped in with some massively important stunning goals recently in our drive for promotion.

He scored five goals in a five game purple patch starting with a match winning fiercely struck brace over Raith Rovers. He followed that up with a belter against Ayr United, a sweet winner against Killie and a wonderful solo thumper against Queen of the South.

After a somewhat slow start, Logan has benefitted from more game time and you can see why he is highly rated by parent club Dundee United

That's some left peg lad. 💪

 

 

 

 

 

 

View full article

 

Another Friday, another crucial match with hopefully 2 more to come.

We need to better out of the blocks than Tuesday but we can certainly do this.

Agree with a lot of the suggestions on here. Arbroath are very good at stifling the game, we need to address that by strengthening our midfield which is outnumbered. The result is our attackers are starved of service and become wasted a lot of the time. I would drop Mackay to the bench, bring on Allardice if he is fit, and get the balls to the attackers from midfield through the lines to Samuels and Chalmers. We have to freshen up and bring something different to the table. We have the players to do it, and there won't be many goals in this game, so those moments of guile and inspiration can be crucial to turning the game. Give them something to think about.

 

Checked the Met Office forecast for the Arbroath area. They're suggesting gusts in the upper twenties still in the early evening which will be even stronger at Gayfield. The wind's often a factor there. Keep it on the deck!

3 hours ago, KirkieRobRoy said:

Checked the Met Office forecast for the Arbroath area. They're suggesting gusts in the upper twenties still in the early evening which will be even stronger at Gayfield. The wind's often a factor there. Keep it on the deck!

I say, that's me in Arbroath. Rather windy here. My Haggis flock would not like this. I hope Kingmills has weights in his tutu or he won't see much of the match. Eh what? 🧐 

I'll go with that, billy has done a lot of hard running over the last three games, was starting to look tired.

Hopefully win the midfield battle with this setup.

Willie Collum!  

Probably the strongest team we could put out.   Understandable that Mckay is dropped, since he didn't get much out of Arbroath on Tuesday.   I suspect he will come on when Doran runs out of steam.  Sutherland, Chalmers and Samuels are all capable of banging them in.  McAlear too.

I have a horrible feeling that it will all come down to penalties.

3 minutes ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

Willie Collum!  

Probably the strongest team we could put out.   Understandable that Mckay is dropped, since he didn't get much out of Arbroath on Tuesday.   I suspect he will come on when Doran runs out of steam.  Sutherland, Chalmers and Samuels are all capable of banging them in.  McAlear too.

I have a horrible feeling that it will all come down to penalties.

It will be the Willie Collum show!

I wonder is No Shin Guards found Mantis with his smokies tucked under his arm 

10 minutes ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

Willie Collum!  

Probably the strongest team we could put out.   Understandable that Mckay is dropped, since he didn't get much out of Arbroath on Tuesday.   I suspect he will come on when Doran runs out of steam.  Sutherland, Chalmers and Samuels are all capable of banging them in.  McAlear too.

I have a horrible feeling that it will all come down to penalties.

I’ll take penalties right now!

Love the music choice.....

We're playing into the wind. Giving away a few silly fouls already. 

I have switched the commentary off as those numpties have'nt noticed that there is a gale force feckin wind !!

This pitch is awful. 

 

Passes have to be lifted not stroked. 

Change to a little bit more direct caley that ball is sticking.

1 minute ago, Moogthurso said:

This pitch is awful. 

 

Passes have to be lifted not stroked. 

Change to a little bit more direct caley that ball is sticking.

It's hard to play direct when the ball keeps getting blown back towards our goal. Keep it tight first half then go for it second half when we have the wind in our favour.

Pitch is fine, punting is awful, again...

Arbroath defo strongest playing with wind,but we have to learn to keep ball on ground and pass the ball.High kicks forward met by Arbroath defence every time

Very disjointed effort first half by ICT.I cannot believe we are still punting long balls to nowhere.Why oh why don't we play forward

Edited May 13, 20224 yr by Douglas Mackenzie

Surely the objective was not to lose a goal. Thankfully Arbroath were WORSE at punting than we have been. But there are times when hoofing is the only option in such defensive conditions. This is our chance to show that we can play with the wind and that will be about passing, using the width and getting shots on target. 

2 minutes ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

Surely the objective was not to lose a goal. Thankfully Arbroath were WORSE at punting than we have been. But there are times when hoofing is the only option in such defensive conditions. This is our chance to show that we can play with the wind and that will be about passing, using the width and getting shots on target. 

Fair enough...  its a carbon copy of Tuesday night.   Arbroath working their asses off to stop us playing.  

We will come into this game, I hope Billy gets on and scores a winner.

I'll settle for a McAlear 45 yarder

Fecks sake Carson  you almost killed a seagull !

Callum Davidson enjoying the football tonight...

We all knew it would only be a matter of time before the star of the show made his mark