Ayr we go again

 

Unfortunately it's another home game this Saturday as fellow languishers Ayr United make the long trek North to face home strugglers Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Ayr are one of only two teams we have beaten at home in the Championship this season. However, in the presence of one of our highest profile managers ever, it would be rude not to think about the possibility of a seven goal barrage. Terry Butcher is in the area doing a gig with Richard Gough and will pop along to the stadium for a look at the current side. It has to be said that they are not a patch on what Tel Boy built before being lured to Leith for a custard cream, a team we beat in our next match, however, that is history and the mess we find ourselves in now is a sad indictment of the times we live in now under the present regime.

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Match/Ticket Info

Battery Farm - Rejected

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Venue

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	25	11	11	3	42	27	+15
Away	27	13	6	8	50	33	+17
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	52	24	17	11	92	60	+32

We have always had the edge over Ayr United and the H2H shows that. Even recent form has us on top, and that is not always the same for all of our recent opponents. Only three defeats at home. Our prime objective this weekend is a win and would be a bonus but avoiding defeat is an absolute priority. Maybe even scoring a goal might ease the pain...

Last 10 Competitive Meetings v Ayr United

3 - 1 (A)

3 - 1 (H)

0 - 1 (A)

1 - 2 (H)

2 - 1 (A)

2 - 2 (H)

1 - 0 (A)

2 - 2 (A)

1 - 2 (H)

2 - 2 (A)

Inverness ease away from the bottom:  3 - 1  Inverness added Sean Welsh to the ever expanding longer term injury list suffering from a recurring back injury, but Luis Longstaff was fit enough to make the bench. Ayr United had Logan Chalmers, Jamie Murphy and Anton Dowds as a triple threat up front. Despite this, Inverness cruised home without having to get out of second gear. Three goals inside the last ten minutes of the first half ended the game as a contest. Two from David Wotherspoon and a penalty from Billy Mckay. Ayr got a consolation penalty in a poor second half, but it was an important three points for the Caley Jags and Big Dunc. As comfortable as it was it was still a poor second half where we should have gone on to put Ayr to the sword. As it was, the result was huge in the context of our season and we can overlook the turgid performance in the light of three excellent points and a step up the table to eighth place with games in hand over some teams. FULL TIME: 3-1. Interesting to note that we only had five of the team that started against Ayr back on November 11th available for selection last week with Carson & Wotherspoon away and the rest injured.

Still here: Mark Ridgers, Cameron Harper, Danny Devine, Max Anderson, Billy Mckay (subs C Mackay, Wallace Duffy)
Gone/Unavailable: Morgan Boyes, Nikola Ujdur, David Wotherspoon, David Carson, Charlie Gilmour, Nathan Shaw (subs Delaney, Thompson, Hyde, Sheridan, Longstaff, Lodovica, Brooks)

Last Time Out

Inverness failed again at home last Saturday against one of the two teams they had already beaten at home this season. The other being this weeks opponent Ayr United. The Airdrie game ended scoreless, and that was no surprise to those at the stadium. Plenty of effort, plenty of passes, however our Achiles Heel of creating and scoring chances has haunted us for most of the season. Last Five: D D D W D 

Ayr United were idle last weekend. Their last game was a 2-0 defeat at East End Park on 2ndMarch. Two goals just before the interval by Chris Hamilton and a first for loan signing Chris Kane was the difference between the sides.Scott Brown's best result was a stunning 4-3 win over Partick Thistle (McAllister, Willoughbyx2 and McHugh were the scorers in a see-saw game). However, Ayr have shipped a massive fifty goals in the League and that's something that we need to capitalise on. They have also scored thirty-eight times, so it's important to keep our fourth clean sheet in a row to give us a platform to build on. Last Five: L W L W L 

Table ahead of Friday nights big game

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Dunfermline v Dundee United Friday night @ 7:45
1.	Dundee Utd	28	17	7	4	55	17	58
2.	Raith Rovers	28	17	6	5	49	36	57
3.	Partick Thistle	28	10	10	8	53	48	40
4.	Morton	27	10	7	10	34	31	37
5.	Airdrieonians	27	10	6	11	28	30	36
6.	Queens Park	28	8	8	12	41	47	32
7.	Dunfermline	28	8	8	12	30	38	32
8.	Ayr United	27	9	5	13	38	50	32
9.	Inverness CT	28	7	10	11	32	32	31
10.	Arbroath	27	6	5	16	28	59	23

SATURDAY 16TH MARCH

1. Airdrie v Arbroath
2. Caley Jags v Ayr United   
3. Partick v Morton
4. Queen's v Rovers 

Latest Team News

Inverness: Still have massive injury worries ahead of this one with most on the bench still nursing knocks.

Long term: Gilmour, Longstaff, Big Harry & Lewis Nicolson.

Out: McAllister, Macgregor, Shaw, Ujdur.

Struggling: Carragher, Boyes... Have I missed any

Duncs pre-match still to come

 

Ayr United: One glaring alteration at Ayr United since they were last here is their manager. Former Hibs and Celtic midfielder Scott Brown is now in charge after Lee Bullen was relieved of his duties on the 15th of January a few days after we had beaten the honest men 3-1 at Somerset Park. He was replaced by Brown some ten days later. Brown has 3 wins to his credit since then from seven games ( QP, Airdrie, Partick), losing to Dundee United, Rangers (cup), Raith Rovers and last time out at Dunfermline.

Ayr's January sales deals.

In: Nathan McGinley, defender (Motherwell)

Loan in: Jack Sanders, defender (Kilmarnock); Josh Clarke, goalkeeper (Celtic); Harry McHugh, midfielder (Wigan Athletic); Kurt Willoughby, forward (Oldham Athletic).

Logan Chalmers was a big threat last time we met and with players like Murphy and McGeady on their books plenty of experience at a higher level. On loan forward Kurt Willoughby looks handy.

Ayr team @ EEP  

Clarke

 

McAllister (Tomlinson 90+1)  Sanders   McGinty   Musonda

 

Bryden (Chalmers 45)  Dempsey (Smith 76)   McHugh   Murphy (Syla 76)

 

Dowds   McKenzie (Willoughby 56)

 

Subs Not Used: Albinson; McGeady, Stanger, McGinley

 

Good to see that bullying in the workplace is alive and kicking in the Highland Council

A heated exchange took place in a Highland Council meeting today.

During the debate of Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club’s application for a battery storage facility Councillor Duncan Macpherson was told that he would perhaps be thrown out of the chamber by Highland… pic.twitter.com/l9jCcrzj78

— Inverness Courier (@InvCourier) March 14, 2024

2 minutes ago, Pele_Is_God said:

I hope Morrison and Gardiner are asking Butcher to take us until the end of the season. This is dire...

Glad I'm paddle boarding at Loch Achilty instead of wasting my Saturday afternoon.

Sitting in the car in the North Stand car park would be more appealing than watching this gash

Actually feeling quite smug because, having been to all the home league games this season, I gave this one a miss.

Just didn't fancy the long journey home on the back of yet another draw!

But really hoping I'm made to regret this decision by missing a stunning 2nd half performance and convincing victory!

Gone in 1-1 start again, we are all desperate for a win.

35 minutes ago, Jack Waddington said:

Sitting in the car in the North Stand car park would be more appealing than watching this gash

I repeat my statement. Gardiner and his wee rat need gone PRONTO

1-2 FT. That is a terrible result.
 

Our home form is abysmal and I seem to say it regularly but i feel so sorry for our home fans having to endure so much p1sh.

This club is so unbelievably finished. And its all thanks to that muppet upstairs. Getting the police to silence the critics isnt a good look either...

That was frankly desperate. I cannot think of a positive tonight.There was no fight,desire,or endeavour and we made Ayr look semi decent..Ayr first attack and they get a goal.Realistically we could play until next Saturday and never look like scoring.If it wasn't for the penalty we were never going to score.Credit to Billy for taking it and scoring.

Never mind,Dundee United next week!!!

We are so lucky that Arbroath are worse than us.

Now that must go down as one of the worst games this season,although there is a lot to chose from.

10 minutes ago, Jack Waddington said:

This club is so unbelievably finished. And its all thanks to that muppet upstairs. Getting the police to silence the critics isnt a good look either...

The Police? What's that about?

Edited March 16, 20242 yr by Duke of Inverness

Why can nobody in this team run? Everything is done at walking pace! 

At no point in the game did we look like scoring. I even thought we'd miss the penalty - which certainly didn't look like a penalty from where I was!

We're going backwards! 

22 minutes ago, Duke of Inverness said:

The Police? What's that about?

Eh, what are the police involved in? 

7 minutes ago, Duke of Inverness said:

Eh, what are the police involved in? 

The only real action in the ground and you missed it

12 minutes ago, Duke of Inverness said:

Eh, what are the police involved in? 

Fan got lifted for yelling to Scot Gardiner about how it is.

Will definately try to claim its cos he was pished, but when its one of the regulars who doesn't tend to put a toe out of line against stewards, and the fact the chants about Gardiner from that section stopped after he got hoofed and the other stewards had a go at the rest of them, its not hard to put 2 and 2 together.

Edited March 16, 20242 yr by Jack Waddington

Are you suggesting that SG has control over the decisions made by the police? Or that the police lift people because of the opinions they express regarding the competence of football club officials?

7 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

Are you suggesting that SG has control over the decisions made by the police? Or that the police lift people because of the opinions they express regarding the competence of football club officials?

He has contacts at the lodge 🤫

That was utter crap. But WTF happened at the end. Ferguson shook hands with the Ayr manager and went straight up the tunnel and to top it off the only player that bothered to come down near the north stand and show any kind of appreciation for the fans was Alex Samuel and he’s a Ross County player.   

That was absolutely dire. Another must win game we failed to win. I'm  no longer despondent.  I'm totally  scunnered with direction we're headed in. Dodds had to go but I think we've gone backwards since then.

1 hour ago, Douglas Mackenzie said:

The only real action in the ground and you missed it

OK. I don't go to matches anymore as I've had enough of the CEO, the club not caring about fans, Ferguson's awful tactics and subsequent garbage performances etc etc.

Don't expect any of that will change anytime soon, so mapping out other interests on Saturday afternoon's etc will likely become the norm for me. 

Happy 30th birthday ICT, not!!

Sat through every home game so far this season, and my god it’s been a miserable experience. Under Dodds we were awful, but I have to say since Ferguson took over it has been worse. No idea what the on field plan is (if one exists), but there is no fight, no pace, no urgency and no clue. It’s not as if the opposition is anything special, but they don’t need to be. We look nailed on for the relegation play off place, and there is precious little to give confidence that we could survive that.

1 hour ago, Yngwie said:

Are you suggesting that SG has control over the decisions made by the police? Or that the police lift people because of the opinions they express regarding the competence of football club officials?

He does have previous, recently getting stewards to move in to stop an individual speaking (in a friendly way) to players, so it's not that big a stretch for him to have a word with the match commander (or whatever we have). 

Scot Gardiner getting upset at fans lobbying him verbally during a game?  Surely not?

Well that was my first home game of the season and probably my last. Having said that we could have been three up after 15 minutes !! No leaders and it looked like many having a pop at each other - no width whatsoever - no real sense of urgency - no apparent training field preparations or ploys. Worst for me was that we were bullied by Ayr not outplayed. Afraid that Dunc is employing an English League 1/2 mentality. Absolutely obvious that we are a patched up side with no sense of understanding how our peers play. Final summary is that I witnessed more dog sit today than I did walking along the Battery Site !!

 

CTO report (first draft, i doubt it will change much)

 

A lovely day for a game of football but the storm clouds are gathering around the stadium.  On the whole, I think the players put a lot of effort in and tried their best, but the sad fact is, that as a group, they just aren't good enough.  Again we started brightly and with a bit more quality could have been 2 up in the first 15 minutes.  Ayr were no great shakes, but once they settled into the game, we rarely found any space where it mattered.  

There are times when we pass the ball neatly in midfield and keep possession, but when we get into the final third and and are put under more pressure, we either lose the ball or pass it back.  We create very little.  It is clear that Fergusson has his preferred way of playing and he ain't going to change it.  He wants us to play out from the back and through the park.  It's brilliant to watch when Manchester City do it, but with all due respect to our lads, they don't have the vision or skill to do it.  Time and time again we start to play out from the back and are just too slow to make progress, we allow the opposition to regroup and organise their defence and we can't find a way through.  It's just boring.

Edited March 16, 20242 yr by DoofersDad

Terry Butcher was a guest of the club today.  Did I miss something or was he not invited out and introduced to the fans?  I was rather looking forward to giving him a good round of applause as a "thank you" for some of the best and most exciting football we've seen in the 30 year history of the club.