In the back door

 

We have arrived at the Tony Macaroni via default. We sort of came in by the tradesman's entrance after Queens Park were eliminated from the Scottish Cup for fielding an ineligible player. Step forward Euan Henderson who has now been inducted into the Caley Jags Scottish Cup Hall of Fame alongside some famous legends. Legends like Josh Meekings, James Vincent and Jamie MacDonald. Of course, all of this on the anniversary week of our Scottish Cup exploits in February 2008. Yes, that's the one that spawned the SuperCaleygoballisticCelticareatrocious headline that rocked the Scottish Football world back in the day.  Of course since then we now get to keep Celtic by virtue of putting them out of the Scottish Cup on three separate occasions (2000-2003-2015), but it was February 8th 2000 that set the ball rolling. Saturday's opponent are auld enemies Ferranti Thistle, or Meadowbank Thistle or as we now know them, Livingston. Our first fixture against them was the first time they used the name Livingston back in 1995. Many a tough encounter in the lower leagues over the years. Surprisingly our last two encounters were in the group stages of the League Cup and the Scottish Cup where Inverness prevailed in both fixtures.

Ahead of the game it was announced the Inverness had won two awards. One of these awards was fully merited, the other is the subject of much discussion and mirth from those that know. So we have the Manager of the Month in Billy Dodds and Player of the Month in Billy Mckay whose five goals in January included a hat-trick at Cove. He is now on 92 goals, only ten behind Sir Dennis Wyness. In fairness to Dodds, he had nothing to do with the voting. Congratulation to both recipients.

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Ticket Info & Supporters Bus

Championship Awards

Billy Mckay

Half Price Kit

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Over the years Inverness have edged these fixtures but there's not been much between the sides and Livi have now been able to sustain Premiership football since the start of season 2018-2019 and currently sit fourth in the table.

Venue H2H v Livingston

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	19	9	4	6	32	25	+7
Away	21	8	6	7	32	32	0
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	40	17	10	13	64	57	+7

Deja Vu: The last time we met Livingston in the Scottish Cup was also a 5th round tie, this one was in the Highlands on Feb8th2020. An even first half where both sides had efforts cleared from the goalmouth produced no goals with defences on top. The wind was causing as much havoc as the officials. Sean Welsh fired just wide at the start of the second half, but he made no mistake with a free kick on the hour to open the scoring. Plenty of huff and puff thereafter, but no further scoring and it's the Caley Jags that go into tomorrows draw for the next round.

Last 10 Competitive Meetings

2 - 1 (A)

1 - 0 (H)

1 - 0 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

0 - 0 (A)

1 - 3 (H)

2 - 0 (A)

1 - 0 (A)

1 - 2 (A)

3 - 0 (H)

First ever competitive meeting with Livingston ended in 0 - 3 defeat: Report by Ian Broadfoot: This was Livingston's first league game after their name change from Meadowbank Thistle and they dominated it with their pace and class. They took the lead in 3 minutes when Lee Baillie headed home a Young cross. Home keeper Mark McRitchie got down well in 10 minutes to smother a Young shot but in 32 minutes it was 2-0 when he palmed a McLeod corner into his own net. In 55 minutes it was 3-0 when Baillie headed home a Duthie free kick. Caley Thistle's best chance came in 67 minutes when Christie and Mitchell combined well to put Mitchell through with only Stoute to beat - he tried to flick the ball into the corner but hit the post. Mitchell's frustration showed 6 minutes from the end when he swore at a spectator within earshot of the stand-side linesman. The red card was inevitable. 😂 
Caley Thistle were disappointed at the result but knew they had been outclassed. 

Biggest Victories

Jan 14th, 2006	League	(H)	3 - 0
Jan 22nd, 2005	League	(A)	4 - 1
Mar 18th, 2000	League	(H)	4 - 1

Heaviest Defeats

Aug 7th, 2004	League	(A)	0 - 3
Apr 3rd, 2001	League	(A)	1 - 4
Aug 12th, 1995	League	(H)	0 - 3

The last meeting between the sides was a League Cup group stage match at Livingston last July where Inverness won 2 - 1: Lions Tamed:

Livingston had the better of the opening exchanges and Nouble had the ball in the net but was flagged offside. Ridgers was the busier keeper early on but a swift counter attack saw Austin Samuels open the scoring after 37 minutes. Inverness held that advantage until the break. Daniel Mackay bundled in a second shortly after Max Stryjek was sent off for felling Austin Samuels in the box. Jason Holt pulled a goal back late on then proceeded to miss a penalty three minutes later as Inverness saw out the game to win 1-2 and go top of Group G.

Last Round:

Inverness sneaked through after losing 0-2 to Queens Park. Euan Henderson played and the rest is history. On the field Queens Park were superior to us but off the field they never did their homework and subsequently were removed from the event as Henderson was not signed prior to the original date of the postponed fixture.

Livingston eased through after coming from behind to beat Stenhousemuir 1-3. Nicky Jamieson headed Muir in front in the first half but three goals in seven minutes eased Livi into the next round. Scott Pittman and two from Steven Bradley clinched the tie in their favour to set up this game against Queens Park Inverness CT. Livi have only lost one of their last eight games whilst winning four and drawing three. The only defeat was at Parkhead on 1st February. Other than that, they are unbeaten since December 24th when Hibs beat them 4-0 at Easter Road so are on a good run at the moment.

Latest Team News

It's probably a game we could have done without, however, we are still in the Cup and will have to give it a go. Sean Welsh missed the Morton match and Max Ram has been out for a month. More importantly Austin Samuels, Roddy MacGregor, Shane Sutherland and Tom Walsh have all been out for months and Robbie Deas has a broken leg to get get over. No quick fix unfortunately but on the bright side, Scott Allardice and Cammy Harper have now taken part in three games without any reaction....... hopefully. Ben Woods is a couple of weeks away with an ankle injury. Lewis Nicolson, Ethan Cairns and Robbie Thompson are cup tied for this match.

 

 

Livi used human battering ram Joel Nouble against Killie lately and he scored the opening goal in a 3-1 win. We had bother with him when he was on loan at Arbroath last season. However, he is just one of a number of powerful players at Livingston that has seen them climb to fourth in the Premiership table. Striker Bruce Anderson is another who seems to have developed well whilst at Livi and is top scorer this season with six goals. Midfielders Scott Pittman and former Ross County player Stephen Kelly make for a powerful engine room at the Tony Macaroni. Former Inverness player Andrew Shinnie could feature in the Lions squad on Saturday. Something that won't feature is VAR. Livi don't think it's worth the hassle of using it as it's not a requirement outside of televised games in the Premiership.

 

Hearts are the first club into the draw for the quarter finals of the Scottish Cup after a 0-2 win over a battling Hamilton Accies last night. Goals from Humphreys and Devlin secured the win. Media Luvvies Darvel can be seen on TV on Monday night against Falkirk.

 

Whilst we are on Cup duty this weekend, there are a couple of Championship games to keep an eye on.

SATURDAY 11TH FEBRUARY (3:00pm)

Morton v Queen's Park

SUNDAY 12TH FEBRUARY (2:00pm)

Dundee v Cove Rangers

 

 

The club’s report:

https://ictfc.com/match-report-livingston-0-3-ictfc 

From the highlights, surely it was Carson who set the first up, not Henderson?

On 2/12/2023 at 8:57 AM, Jaggernaut said:

I'm not usually one for predictions, but I have this feeling that we are going to get a home draw against Celtic. If it comes to pass that I'm correct, I will definitely do the lottery on Saturday, something I haven't done for 20 years, and if it is a significant sum of money, I will buy the club and restore us to our former glory! 😀

Oh well, I can certainly forget my new career with the crystal ball! And continue not to play the lottery, and I unfortunately won't be restoring ICT to their former glory. They will have to do that with the tactical genius of Billy Dodds, who, after leading us to triumphant glory in West Lothian, will probably be given a five year extension on his contract! I had a dream that could now turn into a nightmare!!! 😱

Welsh has made the team of the week!

Clyde 1......oh dear

16 hours ago, Robert said:

The club’s report:

https://ictfc.com/match-report-livingston-0-3-ictfc 

From the highlights, surely it was Carson who set the first up, not Henderson?

It's 100% Henderson. Carson is back in the penalty area when Ridgers throws the ball out to the right flank.

Thanks. Just watched it again. I went by the position the ball was played from rather then the player!!

Lesson to self: pay more attention!

I feel that the onus is now on Dodds & Co to maintain a level of improvement in the coming weeks. Where Saturdays performance came from is puzzling but the effort, the togetherness and most importantly the tactics were spot on. The togetherness was simply oozing at the end of the game and a surprising, albeit not generalised, chant of praise and support for Dodds. Even he appeared taken aback given his reaction post match. It felt like we had moved into a parallel universe. But now is the time to consolidate. I for one would say that a play off place and a Hampden outing would be a remarkable achievement given what kind of season it has been. And there are plenty of excuses that could be used and we do appear to be moving towards the strongest squad position of the season. To me the main concern was the apparent lack of desire and a feeling that Dodds had lost the dressing room. Nobody could make that comments about Saturday. I am further encouraged by some background whispers that some ultimatums have been made and there is a wind of positive change blowing over the Dump.  I am sure that many will scoff and the proof is in the pudding. I renamed my post match libation as a Doddsie some time ago and last Saturday I raised a glass with that name and hope that I will repeat the tribute on a few more occasions this season. Here is a good luck slainthe 🥃

Here is the SPFL one. 

An absolutely brilliant performance from the team and great tactics from Dodds.  We pressed Livi in the right areas, played deepwhen we needed to and let them play in front of us.  Didn't create much in the first half but showed some fantastic direct counter attacking for the first and second goals and then pressed the ball, won possession and scored the third at the death.

Defensively we were solid - Devine probably the best of the back four but Carson was good as well.  Welsh and Allardice worked really hard in the middle and didn't let Livi get a grip of the game at all.  Henderson's pass for the first was a great ball, very clever early hit to outdo the Livi defence.  I thought Danny MacKay was off it a bit but never hid and worked hard.  Shaw was our best non-Billy Mckay player, he played more centrally and used the ball well, caused problems with movement and workrate and bagged two assists - the cross for Welsh's header was pinpoint.  Billy was probably our man of the match though, two outstandign finishes for the goals and hard work, classy touches and great movement throughout.