A bit of Recreation at the Indodrill

 

Matchday 6 has Inverness travelling to Clackmannanshire to face one of the top sides in the table and a team we often struggled against away from home through the years, especially in more recent times. With events off the field of play casting further dark shadows over the future of the club, it's a tough ask for the players to remain focussed when their futures are at stake thanks to the incompetence and now unrivaled power hunger of our former tyrannic leaders.

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Match/Ticket Bus (10:00 am) Info

Investment Topic on CTO

Payer Sponsorship on CTO

Hospitality v Cove Rangers

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Venue H2H v Alloa

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	20	8	10	2	36	22	+14
Away	22	11	5	6	45	22	+23
Neutral	1	0	1	0	4	4	0
Total	43	19	16	8	85	48	+37

We do have the edge over Alloa, but that was in a previous life before Gardiner & Co decimated our club. Our new look squad will find a battle hardened Wasps a difficult byke to cycle, like we often did over the years and they will no doubt have a sting in their tail. Our last meeting was in the Championship in season 20/21, and we have lost twice and drawn three of our last five encounters.

Last 10 Competitive Meetings

1 - 1 (A)

2 - 2 (H)

1 - 2 (A)

0 - 2 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

3 - 2 (A)

2 - 0 (A)

2 - 2 (H)

3 - 0 (H)

2 - 1 (A)

Who could forget the dramatic ending in the 1999 Challenge Cup Final when 4,043 fans were at the Shyberry Excelsior Stadium in Airdrie to watch a Martin Cameron inspired Alloa lift the Challenge Cup after a 3-3 draw, extra time and penalty shoot-out. All this despite a Paul Sheerin hat-trick and an unikely hero in Alloa Keeper Mark Cairns who scored the fifth penalty then saved the clincher from Teasdale.

Starting XI Mark Cairns Jimmy Boyle Derek Clark Paul McAneny David Beaton Craig Valentine Ian Little Gary Clark Martin Cameron Willie Irvine Mark Wilson

Les Fridge Richard Hastings Ross Tokely Mark McCulloch Stuart Golabek Charlie Christie Mike Teasdale Barry Wilson Paul Sheerin Davide Xausa Dennis Wyness

Gregor McKechnie Max Christie Mark Donaghy

Kevin Byers Martin Bavidge Martin Glancy

It was bitter disappointment for Caley Thistle as they lost their first ever senior cup final on penalties. They came from behind three times in normal play then again in extra time to take the game to a penalty decider. Alloa took the lead in 20 minutes when Gary Clark hit a low ball past Les Fridge from 15 yards. Barry Wilson equalised in 29 minutes with a neat chip over the keeper. A defensive error let in Mark Wilson to score Alloa's second in 33 minutes but Paul Sheerin equalised from the penalty spot just after half time. This lasted 2 minutes before Martin Cameron made it 3-2 with a 15 yard angled volley. Another penalty goal by Sheerin made it 3-3 in 56 minutes. 14 minutes into extra time Alloa again took the lead when Martin Cameron beat the defence and ran on to score. Paul Sheerin completed his hat trick 8 minutes from time with a 16 yard shot. It was 4-4 on penalties after the regulation 5 attempts each. Alloa keeper Mark Cairns was the hero when he scored to make it 5-4 then saved Mike Teasdale's penalty. The Cup was on its way to Alloa after an exciting match.
Alloa Pens (Irvine, Boyle, Cameron, Little, Cairns) Beaton miss.
Inverness Pens (McCulloch, Tokely, Byers, Wilson) Sheerin, Teasdale saved.
Report by Ian Broadfoot

The Season so far

ALLOA Athletic: D D W W D  Alloa are unbeaten and they began the League campaign with draws at home to Queen of the South and away to Dumbarton followed by a home win over Stenhousemuir and another win away to Annan at the same ground we lost 1-0. Last time out they drew 0-0 at Gayfield. Last week was Challenge Cup action and Alloa pulled off a shock 1-3 win over Partick Thistle who had opened the scoring through our olde 'friend' Brian Graham. However, three second half goals from Kevin Cawley (65', 76') and Scott Taggart (90'+5 pen) gave the Wasps a tremendous result and a home tie against Arbroath in the next round. That was Cawley's 79th & 80th goals for Alloa.

INVERNESS CT:  D L D D W  Our season got off to a slow start with a draw at home to Dumbarton followed by a penalty defeat at Annan. Another two draws against Montrose (h) and Kelty Hearts (a) before our first win of the season over Queen of the South at the Caledonian Stadium a fortnight ago. Last weekend we beat Stirling Albion 3-0 to send us into a fourth Rnd tie away to Livingston thanks to a brace from Adam Brooks and a strike from Adam MacKinnon.

Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts Table ahead of Matchday Six 1. Kelty Hearts 5 2 3 0 8 3 9 2. Stenhousemuir 5 3 0 2 10 7 9 3. Alloa Athletic 5 2 3 0 5 3 9 4. Q.O.S. 5 2 1 2 4 3 7 5. Inverness CT 5 1 3 1 3 3 6 6. Montrose 5 1 3 1 3 3 6 7. Annan Athletic 5 2 0 3 5 9 6 8. Dumbarton 5 0 5 0 9 9 5 9. Cove Rangers 5 1 1 3 6 9 4 10. Arbroath 5 0 3 2 3 7 3

          League 1 Fixtures all @ 3:00pm

• Alloa Athletic v Inverness CT 
• Annan Athletic v Dumbarton FC
•    Kelty Hearts v Cove Rangers
•      Montrose FC v Stenhousemuir 
• Queen Sth v Arbroath 

 

Latest Team News

Alloa

Manager Andy Graham has a wealth of experience at his disposal. Alloa'a line up in their recent league encounter with Annan Athletic shows some well experienced players in there, notably strikers Conor Sammon and Kevin Cawley. Former Morton defenders Calum Waters, Scott Taggart and midfielder Luke Donnelly are now at Recreation Park. Stefan Scougall is also well experienced having been at St Johnston and Carlisle United in more recent years.

 

Inverness have one or two filtering back into the squad. Jack Newton has returned from Dundee United after getting injections in his knee  without requiring a major operation. Keith Bray and Luis Longstaff will also join the squad again after injury. I would imagine Big Musa will retain the gloves whilst Newman proves his fitness on the bench with the other two returnees joining him on the sidelines.

 

 

12 hours ago, big cherly said:

Let’s take stock of a few things.

"Being full time is no guarantee for automatic promotion...."

"Experience counts; (more so over the season). We’re short of that currently with the young-ish team we have."

"......DF may be able to access English loanees in Jan, but we need AS to provide the funds!!!!"

"..... I think it may be the season after, but I’m prepared to support them  whatever league they play. 

In response to four points Big Cherly makes above I feel compelled to give my tuppence worth:

1. I agree it's no guarantee of automatic promotion but being full-time absolutely should have a major bearing on where we finish.  If it doesn't then it casts a serious question over DF's suitability for the job in hand. Moreover, I believe that we have a squad of players who are capable of delivering better results than we've seen to date.  

2. The starting XI since the transfer window closed is consistently made up of reasonably experienced players who've all played at a higher level. We're generally starting with one or no academy players.  These core players should, in my opinion, be capable of putting us in a secure enough position to be blooding younger players later in games when the hard work has been done. Unfortunately the tactics employed by DF on Saturday, when we were two up, exposed young players to undue pressure and likely negatively impacted their confidence. Just my opinion but seems to be shared by a number of us who were at the match on Saturday.

3. The very last thing we need is Ferguson let loose AGAIN on the English loan market come January!!!  I would have thought that this was blindingly obvious to even the most ardent Ferguson proponents.

4. If we don't go up this season, from what is probably the poorest League 1 in living memory, then we couId feasibly end up stuck in League 1 for years (forever?). Given the composition of the Championship this season there's a fair chance that at least one sizeable club will be relegated which you would imagine would make it much more difficult for us to be promoted in subsequent seasons.

I would stress that I do not wish to get into a barney over this apparent difference of opinion.  We all crave success after an absolutely horrendous period in the club's history but I fear that persisting with the current management regime seriously reduces the likelihood of a potentially successful outcome this season. 

One win and four draws in the League to date is simply not good enough from my perspective and nothing I see or hear from Ferguson gives me grounds to believe things will improve with him in the hot seat.  

Edited September 16, 2024Sep 16 by ymip

49 minutes ago, ymip said:

In response to four points Big Cherly makes above I feel compelled to give my tuppence worth:

1. I agree it's no guarantee of automatic promotion but being full-time absolutely should have a major bearing on where we finish.  If it doesn't then it casts a serious question over DF's suitability for the job in hand. Moreover, I believe that we have a squad of players who are capable of delivering better results than we've seen to date.  

2. The starting XI since the transfer window closed is consistently made up of reasonably experienced players who've all played at a higher level. We're generally starting with one or no academy players.  These core players should, in my opinion, be capable of putting us in a secure enough position to be blooding younger players later in games when the hard work has been done. Unfortunately the tactics employed by DF on Saturday, when we were two up, exposed young players to undue pressure and likely negatively impacted their confidence. Just my opinion but seems to be shared by a number of us who were at the match on Saturday.

3. The very last thing we need is Ferguson let loose AGAIN on the English loan market come January!!!  I would have thought that this was blindingly obvious to even the most ardent Ferguson proponents.

4. If we don't go up this season, from what is probably the poorest League 1 in living memory, then we couId feasibly end up stuck in League 1 for years (forever?). Given the composition of the Championship this season there's a fair chance that at least one sizeable club will be relegated which you would imagine would make it much more difficult for us to be promoted in subsequent seasons.

I would stress that I do not wish to get into a barney over this apparent difference of opinion.  We all crave success after an absolutely horrendous period in the club's history but I fear that persisting with the current management regime seriously reduces the likelihood of a potentially successful outcome this season. 

One win and four draws in the League to date is simply not good enough from my perspective and nothing I see or hear from Ferguson gives me grounds to believe things will improve with him in the hot seat.  

Hi ymip,

Like your views. Catch up in Jan 25👍

Edited September 16, 2024Sep 16 by big cherly

15 hours ago, big cherly said:

I think we all need to just step back a little and let us reach the half way through the season. We can make then, I suggest, a better assessment of whether we are capable of being champs, playoff, mid table or fighting relegation. 
Let’s take stock of a few things.

Being full time is no guarantee for automatic promotion. It provides our F/T players the benefit of applying themselves fully to working on their fitness, skills, teamwork and manager game plan. The part time clubs have operating since there existence in an PT operation and know how to get the best out of there players.

Experience counts; (more so over the season). We’re short of that currently with the young-ish team we have. Other teams are I suggest more settled in this area. 

Whether we like it or not artificial pitches present a challenge when your (our) home pitch surface is grass. Yes we can train in them at the Bught, but it’s still a disadvantage for us. 

We still have the geographic issue of our division rivals having easier access to player pools. DF may be able to access English loanees in Jan, but we need AS to provide the funds!!!!

Lastly, let’s not loose sight we are just attempting to get the club back on its feet after a monumental six months. We’re not out of the woods yet.

Finish by saying I want the team to be playing in the championship next year. However I think it may be the season after, but I’m prepared to support them  whatever league they play. 

You forgot to mention that big Dunc is *****, and that the tea lady is more tactically aware ... there fixed it for you.

On 9/15/2024 at 4:50 PM, ymip said:

There's no "big-ish" club fallen on hard times in the league

There is. It's us!