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. 💪

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Absolutely fantastic night, if only Joe had kept his composure after his sublime run then we could have finished off the cheating f***ers in ET. Shades of David Bagan in the Scottish Cup.

Fantastic performance on and off the pitch.

Dont buy into the Arbroath luv in. Went down far to easily all game with Campbell, Douglas and Co roaming the pitch and touchline bitching about everything. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

22 minutes ago, forresjags said:

Absolutely fantastic night, if only Joe had kept his composure after his sublime run then we could have finished off the cheating f***ers in ET. Shades of David Bagan in the Scottish Cup.

 

I’ve had the occasional senior moment but wasn’t this at the end of the 90? So we would have won.

Fantastic, absolutely fantastic!! Atmosphere was brilliant.

Really hope we can finish the job and see off St Johnstone.

Collum is a disgrace and I really hope someone took note of his totally inept performance last night.

Never been prouder to be an ICT fan.

Campbell says they were by far the better team on the night but sorry old man you just weren't good enough to beat us even with us at 10 and 9 men. We may not have looked that pretty but by jove we can defend all over the pitch. What a win guys!!!!!

28 minutes ago, caleyboy said:

Campbell says they were by far the better team on the night but sorry old man you just weren't good enough to beat us even with us at 10 and 9 men. We may not have looked that pretty but by jove we can defend all over the pitch. What a win guys!!!!!

Or briefly even 8 men giving them a 4 man advantage on the pitch.

Wouldn't say Willie the Gollum was biased any way - just incompetent, clueless and card-happy. Re supervisors: their job is to write up the refereeing performance bending over backwards to defend the ref and conclude that everything's OK and the SFA are dead brullyant.

 

Was thinking that St J are a team used to losing and may be psychologically weaker than the Smokies. Then someone upthread reminded me they'd drawn away to Galatasaray. Hopefully the bumbling mid-season St J will turn up...

Arbroath can't complain, they couldn't have had a better chance than their domination of the play, home advantage and facing a team down to 8 and 9 players. As Dick admitted they blew it against Killie anyway.

I just wanted to add to all the deserved plaudits that our stamina was awesome. Two hours on a dreadful pitch and conditions with us on the back foot most of the time, not to mention two players less. Their commitment, their refusal to buckle, get their bodies in the way, refusal to give in, especially in that last ten minutes and the whole of extra time was phenomenal. And then to step up and score five out of five, with a fantastic save from Ridgers, after going through all they went through - what can you say? Heroes, all.

Let's face it, St J will be a far tougher test, but with last night under our belt, the belief will be deep that we can once again defy the odds. Also I think we will be able to play better football against a less stifling, stuffy side. We are the underdogs, and that suits us fine.

 

Edited May 14, 20224 yr by The Long Man

55 minutes ago, caleyboy said:

Campbell says they were by far the better team on the night but sorry old man you just weren't good enough to beat us even with us at 10 and 9 men. We may not have looked that pretty but by jove we can defend all over the pitch. What a win guys!!!!!

With 9 (and at one point 8 ) players, Arbroath have only themselves. The only bit of luck we got was that header off the bar at the death, but I reckon we deserved a break at that point. 

6 minutes ago, HawkeyeTheGnu said:

With 9 (and at one point 8 ) players, Arbroath have only themselves. The only bit of luck we got was that header off the bar at the death, but I reckon we deserved a break at that point. 

Which merely cancelled out the shot for us which almost broke the cross bar in the first leg.

2 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

 

Firstly, it's impossible to ignore the elephant in the room, 

 

I think the elephant in the room, which very few seem to have noticed, is that we were embarrassingly poor and couldn't string more than 2 passes together. Arbroath were way better than us and adapted to the conditions extremely well. To say they were desperately unlucky is no exaggeration. Just hope we don't embarrass ourselves against St. Johnstone.

That said, I am absolutely delighted, and still can't quite believe that we prevailed. Perhaps in the next few days, if we could learn to string a few passes together, keep possession and keep the head, who knows what could happen. We do of course have history in defeating St. Johnstone to win promotion!

Forgot to say 'Honi soit qui mal y pense' to Bobby Linn. You are still a talented player but justice was served on Arbroath when you missed the penalty.  That will teach you to get a player sent off. 

16 minutes ago, buckett said:

I think the elephant in the room, which very few seem to have noticed, is that we were embarrassingly poor and couldn't string more than 2 passes together. Arbroath were way better than us and adapted to the conditions extremely well.

One might suggest that they are more accustomed to such conditions.

However, that's no excuse, and it makes me think of something that I asked in seasons past.  Is there no intelligence in the team?  Can they not see that hoofing long balls into the wind isn't working?  Are they afraid to go against what the gaffer has presumably told them to do?   Surely someone such as Welsh, the captain, or Broadfoot, with his experience, should be able to see that it's not working, and try to get the team to adapt to the conditions.  It's called reading the game.

Or maybe we are just not good or clever enough, in which case life in the Premiership would be nasty, brutish and short.

28 minutes ago, buckett said:

I think the elephant in the room, which very few seem to have noticed, is that we were embarrassingly poor and couldn't string more than 2 passes together. Arbroath were way better than us and adapted to the conditions extremely well. To say they were desperately unlucky is no exaggeration. Just hope we don't embarrass ourselves against St. Johnstone.

That said, I am absolutely delighted, and still can't quite believe that we prevailed. Perhaps in the next few days, if we could learn to string a few passes together, keep possession and keep the head, who knows what could happen. We do of course have history in defeating St. Johnstone to win promotion!

I think we had a poor first half. We didn't cope well with swirling wind conditions. However we were just coming on a game when the sending off happened. From then on it was all about getting to pens imho. Real back to wall stuff. 

Very proud to be part of the noisy crowd watching that. Even if some of it was through my hands....lol 

14 hours ago, IBM said:

And Dick Campbell said Christmas came early for Inverness tonight 

very disappointed with his post match interview sour grapes or what ? i would have a little respect for him had he said congratulations to Inverness on winning the game with 9 men as for Collum he should never be allowed to referee a game again the mans a disgrace🤡

I’m trying to remember, didn’t we once have a penalty shoot out there before, maybe early season League cup about 15 years ago, which I think we won? Vague recollection of a young Vigurs scoring one then running up to the Arbroath fans, but I might be getting matches mixed up.

This one from 2008?

https://caleythistleonline.com/team/fixtures.html/

Caley were then reduced to 10 men after Barrowman was red-carded for a second bookable offence.

Vigurs netted the decisive spot-kick in a thrilling encounter as Tosh and Paul Lunan both missed for the home side to see them crash out 4-2 on penalties.

Highlights of the climax of the shoot-out can still be seen on BBC Sport

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/61343068

Not enough has been made of the save that set us up. 

Brilliant from Mark Ridgers on top of the crucial one on one with Jack Hamilton.

Well done Mark 

Can the league rulers be asked to review that p

...s performance and cancel these Red cards before the St J game?

Glad of the realism in recent posts. The fact is we were rank for most of the game and incompleted passes......well i have never seen so many. Where does this long ball hoof culture come from?|One can only assume that the coaches are happy with it as a tactic. However we support a club who have given us so many of these magical moments and that was just one hell of a ride. Was looking to book stuff for Friday but just heard on the radio it is Thursday......better check. Proud once again of our wee club who just keep on serving up special performances...........cue a poll on fav moments. Well done all concerned and good luck for the final hurdle. Great to see the yougnsters out in such force but for Gods sake......I know its exciting but dont spoil it for everyone else.

1 hour ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

Stop calling me Gollum I am Smeagol 

31 minutes ago, tm4tj said:

This one from 2008?

https://caleythistleonline.com/team/fixtures.html/

Caley were then reduced to 10 men after Barrowman was red-carded for a second bookable offence.

Vigurs netted the decisive spot-kick in a thrilling encounter as Tosh and Paul Lunan both missed for the home side to see them crash out 4-2 on penalties.

That’ll be the one!

1 hour ago, Polo Chick said:

very disappointed with his post match interview sour grapes or what ? i would have a little respect for him had he said congratulations to Inverness on winning the game with 9 men as for Collum he should never be allowed to referee a game again the mans a disgrace🤡

I would normally congratulate Arbroath, as the only part time team in the division, on coming so close.

However, the conduct of Dick Campbell and so many of his players makes that impossible and I would shed no tears if they were relegated next season.

Well done to their fans though in turning up in such numbers.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle v St Johnstone

cinch Premiership Play-Off Final 1st Leg

Friday 20th May 2022

19:45pm kick-off

Caledonian Stadium

 

https://ictfc.com/premiership-play-off-final-1st-leg-tickets-on-sale-now

This pitch was rock hard, unwatered with 35mm grass if not longer, resulting in very poor football from both teams and greater than necessary injury risk. 

 

Arbroath were playing to their home advantage ,  but I am not in love with their idea of football or entertainment. They did not deserve to go through. 

Our sport scientists physios and coaches have a huge task ahead for us to be competitive on Friday.  

 

Trust the kids believe in Broadfoot and Ridgers, and hope we dont get Douglass Ross as part of the referees as he's the only pratt I like less than Willie colum.