Arbroath Test

 

Inverness and Arbroath started 2023 with a bang, something's got to give as the New Year big hitters collide at Gayfield on Saturday. Both sides had been struggling to build anything before Xmas but found their goal scoring boots in the New Year games. Inverness put six past Cove Rangers and Arbroath had a stunning 4-2 win at League leaders Dundee. Plenty of changes at Arbroath for Inverness to contend with, however Dick and Dom are still going strong at the helm.

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Match/Ticket/Bus Info

Arbroath Audio available

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Venue H2H v Arbroath

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	23	16	4	3	57	19	+38
Away	21	9	6	6	26	22	+4
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	44	25	10	9	83	41	+42

Inverness shading the away fixtures but the games have generally been tight affairs in recent years apart from a rogue 3 - 0 win for the Caley Jags in March 2022. No scoring draw anyone?

Last 10 Competitive Meetings v Arbroath - Honours even over last seven meetings

1 - 1 (H)

0 - 0 (A)

0 - 0 (A)

0 - 0 (H)

3 - 0 (H)

0 - 0 (A)

0 - 1 (H)

1 - 0 (A)

1 - 0 (H)

1 - 1 (A)

Last away win at Arbroath was a 1 - 0 win back in July 2021 when Shane Sutherland was the difference between the sides in a tight game on a difficult day for football.

CTO summary: After a goalless first half Shane Sutherland broke through the middle to drink the ball neatly over Gaston for the opening goal with just over twenty minutes left. A late rally from the hosts should have drawn them level but Inverness hung on grimly to take all three points. In the opening forty-five, Sutherland had an effort cleared off the line and Nouble proved to be an awkward customer as he bulldozed his way around the park spurning the Lichties best chance of the first half. It was a welcome three points but a difficult watch throughout.

Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts   1. Queens Park 19 11 3 5 38 27 36 2. Dundee 19 10 4 5 32 24 34 3. Ayr United 19 9 5 5 38 27 32 4. Morton 18 8 6 4 27 19 30 5. Partick Thistle 20 9 3 8 40 35 30 6. Raith Rovers 20 8 3 9 25 26 27 7. Inverness CT 19 7 5 7 26 27 26 8. Cove Rangers 19 5 6 8 28 34 21 9. Arbroath 20 3 8 9 17 30 17 10. Hamilton Ac. 19 2 5 12 16 38 11

 

FRIDAY 6TH JANUARY (7:45pm)

Raith Rovers v Dundee Fc

SATURDAY 7TH JANUARY (3:00pm)

  Arbroath v Inverness

Ayr United v Hamilton 

   Cove R v Queen's

    Partick v Morton

Meetings this season

It's the third meeting this season and both previous games had ended all square. No goals back in August in the first fixture and a 1 - 1 draw back at the Caledonian Stadium in November thanks to goals from Nathan Shaw and Kieran Shanks. Mark Ridgers had been benched after the Morton gubbing as we entered our slump. Both sides have only one win in their last six games, but what wins they were. Six of the best including a Billy Mckay hat-trick, his fourth for the Caley Jags, with Devine and a couple of og's. Arbroath stung Dundee with four away from home for the Smokies at Dens Park. McKenna, Hamilton, O'Brien and Hilson put ten man Dundee to the sword and toppled them off their lofty perch.

Latest Team News

Great to see Mark Ridgers back between the sticks against Cove. Hopefully that's the end of the Ridgers Rift. Zak Delaney returned from injury and Sean Welsh played again but no sign of more recent casualties like Nathan Shaw, Cammy Harper. Roddy MacGrgor or Austin Samuels. Jay Henderson fitted in well on his debut and looks to be an asset and we have also taken young loan players back on board. Ryan Barrett has left the building after his loan deal ended. Wallace Duffy should be available for selection after his suspension last week.

 

 

 

Arbroath 

OUT x4: Lot of changes at Arbroath as they try to save their season. Kareem Isiaka has left Arbroath after his loan deal expired and Kieran Shanks has gone on loan to Peterhead with Ryan Dow moving in the opposite direction. Daniel Fosu has left and Mason Hancock has returned to Aberdeen with a knee injury that has ended his season. 

IN x4: Yasin Ben El-Mhanni made his debut against Dundee and ran the show in that stunning away win and has plenty of quality. Former West Ham and QPR striker Sean Adarkwa is another new to the Smokies as is midfielder João Baldé coming in from Hibernian.  As noted above, the experienced Ryan Dow comes in from Peterhead on an 18 month deal.

Midfielder Keaghan Jacobs is in rehab after a knee operation.

Great result today. And such a positive performance, too! When we went ahead I feared we’d sit back as that’s what we did last time I saw Caley on the road at Cove. But this time, we went for it! The second half was superb, with wave after wave of counters as Arbroath tried to chase the game. Good to celebrate with the players behind the goals - everyone was on Cloud 9. 
 

Hilarious to see Arbroath kids swarm towards the Away end when they equalised. Kind of made a mockery of the announcement that Arbroath is a family club when you see the wannabe hooligans. 😂

 

Thanks IcyT, that’s encouraging.

When I heard it had gone to 1-1 I was worried but it’s good that we kicked on and saw it out comfortably.

Henderson will have benefitted from his goal which will boost his confidence, and the whole squad must be buzzing now.

Did Nicolson play left midfield when he replaced Mackay? He’s definitely one for the future.

How bad did Mackay’s injury look?

How did Hyde do in midfield today?

I see Ram was missing today so we remain light on numbers but Dodds told the BBC we will have some back soon. 

2 hours ago, Yngwie said:

Must be our biggest win at Gayfield? It’s a ground ICT have always hated playing at but we have had good results there recently.

A 4-1 Christie-inspired win in 96-7 which put us top at 4.45 and I think we stayed there. Did we not take seven off them once in the League Cup?

Henderson is a pler. Still need Allardice back. Hope Daniel’s not missing another spell. A rather needless early booking for Devine. Very encouraging second half for us, much improved from the first. A bit meh being stuck behind the goals. Support was great today, as were the steak & black pudding pies. Lewis Nicolson ❤️💙   As @ymip remarked, a fair few Sneckie lads on the pitch at the end of that game.

Edited January 7, 20233 yr by TheMantis

Well done boys another good win on the road

45 minutes ago, TheMantis said:

A 4-1 Christie-inspired win in 96-7 which put us top at 4.45 and I think we stayed there. Did we not take seven off them once in the League Cup?

Just checked and you are right with 4-1 in Nov-96. The 7-0 in the LC was at home.

54 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

Just checked and you are right with 4-1 in Nov-96. 

As Max Boyce used to say… 😎

38 minutes ago, TheMantis said:

As Max Boyce used to say… 😎

Had to Google that reference, what with me being a mere youngster 😀

Good luck to the Campbell brothers and i hope that Arbroath stay up. No preference in who goes down. It's a tough old game. Hopefully onwards and upwards for us. There's a few pretenders to the Crown. Some good games to look forward to. Are we on a run yet 😂

https://twitter.com/ICTFC/status/1611855677365882882/photo/1

A fantastic three points on the road, and at a ground that's been a difficult place to go for points in the past. Good to hear that the team played some good football, and on the deck by all accounts, I hope that this is the way forward now, as it is getting us results. Hopefully Dan's injury isn't too bad, and that we have as strong a team as possible for next Saturday. 

Next Saturday could be a season-defining game for us, if we (somehow) win we'd be on 32 points, 7 off top with raith away then morton and Hamilton to play at home, if these players are coming back like dodds says every week then who knows what could happen. Will take a miracle imo as QP are scoring goals for fun, but there's always hope 🤞🤞

Another positive result and possible step forwards but not getting carried away. Two games again dross opposition where last wks opponents conceded a **** load again yesterday and Arbroath are a team much like us with only one win since mid Oct.

Next wk against a free scoring Queens will be a bigger test although their good run has yet to convince they are genuine title contenders for the long haul.

Heading in the right direction and changes like Ridgers back are working but for me the damage is done and Dodds regardless of the rest of the season is not the right man for the club moving forwards.

Yesterday’s goals:

Some nice play by Hyde in the build up to the first. A very controlled finish by Henderson. A difficult header for Nicolson.

Well done guys!

On 1/6/2023 at 8:21 PM, Gringo said:

Big wins for both sides last week. This has got 0-0 written all over it 🤔😆 Hope not mind.

See...told you so. 

Try this

https://twitter.com/ICTFC/status/1612050073512443904?s=20&t=V55vZ8iXujV5vbGR4blITw

When I saw Duffy bounce off the big no 24 Adarkwa in the first minute I thought we were in for a long afternoon, but he was absolutely hopeless.

Two good results, and some core players performing closer to the best of their abilities...

Hopefully a minimal contact week on the practice pitch, carry the confidence from the last two games into Saturday. 

Massive test coming up with QP although some might say they're not genuine,  I haven't seen anyone yet who are real contenders, so let's see where we are now in our recovery. 

 

Quote

 

"Jeezy peeps" has to be quote of the week!

Goes to show what a lot have been saying the last few months, and that we are capable of getting results, even with the number of injuries we have.

Hopefully the players can carry the momentum into next week and beyond.  We need a 15+ point buffer from the relegation/playoff spots at the bottom.

2 hours ago, STFU said:

Goes to show what a lot have been saying the last few months, and that we are capable of getting results, even with the number of injuries we have.

We played 8 of the same team that the manager called out as being ***** only a few wks ago against PT (not forgetting Ridgers and a solitary new addition), yet now seem to be 'back' and its all plaudits and 'high fives'. Not much has changed and certainly not the injury situation. Therefore does it not look ridiculous that it has been banded as the excuse for so long - clearly a lot more too this now the dressing room harmony appear to 'restored' and players want to play (again).

That was kinda my point 🤷‍♂️

Good quality video footage from Arbroath. 

Commentator not quite Match of the Day standard though.

Would recommend they use subtitles though as not sure what language he was speaking 😀

It would be great to say that we’ve turned the corner, but hard to be conclusive on that when these wins have been against unspectacular opposition. It certainly appears though that we’ve at least stopped the rot, the low point being at Partick where the performance was a couple of levels below what previous depleted line ups had managed.

Having Devine and Ridgers back since then could be a big factor, it’s so important to be solid at the back and that often seems to give confidence to the whole team. Also, Henderson seems to have brought some new life into the attack, and having the 3 HL loanees back has strengthened the match day squads a bit, all having contributed.

Some grounds for optimism but Queens will be a much tougher challenge and I’m certainly not at the stage where I’m expecting us to win.

Not expecting a win either, but with the goals starting to come, despite the defence still looking shaky, I am expecting us to be competitive.