The Queens Head North

 

It's an early chance for revenge after we were beaten in Dumfries nine days ago as Queen of the South visit the Caledonian Stadium on Saturday afternoon, having won 3-2 at Palmerston. They have climbed to third in the table with former Caley Jag Adam Brooks scoring for fun in recent games. Luis Longstaff has trained this week and if he shows no reaction he will be included in the squad. Queens could top the table on Saturday night should they win and other results go their way. Our target is a win over Queens with Annan failing to win and that would put the Caley Jags up to eighth. Plenty of incentives for both teams to do well and that should make for another entertaining encounter. 

 

Remember to try the new improved bus service for home games. 

For 3 pm kick offs, buses leave the Bus Station at 1 pm and 2.15 pm. Buses return from the Stadium 10 minutes after the full time whistle and again at 6 pm. Stagecoach operates these journeys as normal bus services, open to all passengers, and at no cost to either the club or the Supporters Trust. Passengers holding Under 22 or Senior Citizen and Disabled Concessionary Cards will travel free on the service. For other passengers the fare is £2.40 for a single journey.

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Hospitality/Match/Ticket/Bus/Bar

Bus to game Sponsorship

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Venue for H2H

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	22	13	3	6	39	26	+13
Away	21	8	7	6	36	25	+11
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	43	21	10	12	75	51	+24

Over the years we generally held the upper hand over the Doonhamers with home advantage showing a greater chance of taking all three points. Administration has it's knock on effect though and this will be a tougher ask than previous years.

Last 10 Competitive Meetings

2 - 3 (A)

1 - 0 (H)

1 - 2 (A)

2 - 2 (H)

2 - 1 (A)

2 - 1 (H)

1 - 1 (A)

0 - 1 (H)

3 - 0 (A)

3 - 1 (H)

It's one win each so far this season. A 1-0 win back at the end of August with Billy Mckay notching a first half winner during the Ferguson era. The next game was re-scheduled, hence the two in nine days with Adam Brooks grabbing a brace. Alfie Bavidge and Keith Bray had pulled us level but substitute Jordan Allan nicked the winner ten minutes from the end. A long journey home with no points after putting so much into the game. Maybe we can repay them this weekend.

 

INVERNESS CT  The Season So Far

D L  D D W D D D L   / W L(11)D W W W L  W L  

W W L  W 

Since Scott Kellacher was handed the reins in game 11, there has been a more positive approach to our matches which has resulted in improved performances and a more enjoyable matchday experience all round. Alas we were brought back to earth with a disappointing result in our last game of 2024, a crushing 1-4 defeat at home to Cove Rangers. We'll have to put that one down to a bad day at the office. However, we bounced back in our first game of the second half of the season in the six pointer against Dumbarton with a hard fought 2-0 win. That win over Dumbarton was a vital one and the introduction of Alfie Bavidge was a welcome one as he opened the scoring early in the first half. Charlie Gilmour slotted in the clincher in the second half to give us a cushion over the Sons and to narrow the gap on Annan to seven points. We took part in the only League1 game last weekend and came away from Annan with a resounding 3-0 win, Alfie Bavidge netting again with Keith Bray and then Billy Mckay from the spot.  *It was then on to Palmerston on the Tuesday night but in a five goal encounter we went down 3-2. Alfie Bavidge notched his third goal in three games and Keith Bray added a second but goals from Adam Brooks (2) and Jordan Allan kept the points in Dumfries. We bounced back with a resilient 1-2 win at Alloa in our third away game on the bounce, Keith Bray with his fourth of the season and Alfie Stewart his first. Up next a revenge mission at home to QotS.

*There were plenty of positives to be taken from the defeat against Queen of the South in last midweek. Alfie Bavidge is on form with three from three and Keith Bray added his third League goal of the season. Luis Longstaff was a big miss at Palmerston having been injured at Annan last Saturday and missed out again at Alloa.

Scott Kellacher on Luis Longstaff: “He’s back in contention, he’s trained a fair bit so we’ll see how he gets on. He got through training today [Thursday] so we’ll see how he is tomorrow [Friday] and take it from there. He’s been back training a couple of days so that has been ideal to get him back involved with the squad.”

Full Preview from Scott Kellacher

 

Pos	Team	Pld	Gd	Pts
1	Arbroath	20	8	34
2	Stenny	22	5	32
3	Queen of Sth	22	-1	32
4	Cove	21	9	31
5	Kelty Hearts	21	9	31
6	Alloa Athletic	22	3	29
7	Montrose	21	-2	25
8	Annan Ath	22	-19	21
9	Inverness CT	22	2	19
10	Dumbarton	21	-14	07

 

 

L  D W D W W  Queens recent run of form has lifted them up to third in the table.  A loss at Kelty was followed by a home draw against Annan Athletic then a win over Cove Rangers before drawing with Alloa Athletic. There was the Cup defeat against St Mirren where they gave the Premiership side as good as they got but just fell short and they picked themselves up to beat the Caley Jags in Dumfries in a five goal thriller. They then scored three again against Dumbarton. Adam Brooks has scored four in his last two games, five in the last six League matches and six League goals for the season. Meh! This was their starting XI against the Sons.  With Harry Cochrane and Kyle Doherty out there were starts for Josh Walker and Lewis O'Donnell. Taylor Charters, a 23 year old midfielder, has joined on loan from Carlisle United this week for the remainder of the season and goalkeeper Murray Johnson has returned on loan from Hibs. Forward Leighton McIntosh has now left Queens.

 

Bottom line is we should be aiming for 4th and, injuries permitting, I think we have a fair chance of achieving this objective.

On a separate note it was my first post-match visit to Bar 94 on Saturday as my 6 year old nephew was after autographs and photos with the players.  To a man they were accommodating, enthusiastic and very pleasant towards both myself and the little fella.  It's a great initiative and a huge thank you to all the players for their time on Saturday.     

1 hour ago, ymip said:

Bottom line is we should be aiming for 4th and, injuries permitting, I think we have a fair chance of achieving this objective.

Why not first? 
bc

Edited February 3, 20251 yr by big cherly

10 hours ago, ymip said:

Bottom line is we should be aiming for 4th and, injuries permitting, I think we have a fair chance of achieving this objective.

It’s not impossible but would require our form to improve and/or several teams above us to all get worse.

This is pretty simplistic I know but if every team keeps racking up the same points per game as they have done so far, you end up with Kelty, Queens and Alloa bunched together for 4th, 5th and 6th on 51, 50 and 50 points. We would be some way back but safely in 7th place on 43.

If I refine this by factoring in our improvement since Kellacher took over and assume we continue with Kellacher’s 1.92 points per game rather than our season to date average of 1.6, we still only get to 47 points, so still 7th and 4 points off 4th spot.

If however we win all our remaining games, we get to 61 points which will not just get us into the playoffs but could actually be enough to win the league!

32 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

It’s not impossible but would require our form to improve and/or several teams above us to all get worse.

This is pretty simplistic I know but if every team keeps racking up the same points per game as they have done so far, you end up with Kelty, Queens and Alloa bunched together for 4th, 5th and 6th on 51, 50 and 50 points. We would be some way back but safely in 7th place on 43.

If I refine this by factoring in our improvement since Kellacher took over and assume we continue with Kellacher’s 1.92 points per game rather than our season to date average of 1.6, we still only get to 47 points, so still 7th and 4 points off 4th spot.

If however we win all our remaining games, we get to 61 points which will not just get us into the playoffs but could actually be enough to win the league!

I think this is a great post. We might be in great form and that could continue, but we would be expecting a lot of teams to just fall apart. 
 

I think we need to concentrate on just catching what’s in front of us. I would take 8th this season. Anything higher will be a very pleasant surprise after what we have went through.

14 hours ago, Yngwie said:

It’s not impossible but would require our form to improve and/or several teams above us to all get worse.

This is pretty simplistic I know but if every team keeps racking up the same points per game as they have done so far, you end up with Kelty, Queens and Alloa bunched together for 4th, 5th and 6th on 51, 50 and 50 points. We would be some way back but safely in 7th place on 43.

If I refine this by factoring in our improvement since Kellacher took over and assume we continue with Kellacher’s 1.92 points per game rather than our season to date average of 1.6, we still only get to 47 points, so still 7th and 4 points off 4th spot.

If however we win all our remaining games, we get to 61 points which will not just get us into the playoffs but could actually be enough to win the league!

This is a much needed dose of reality. Even by the less than scientific method of "my gut feeling" I would predict us reeling in Annan and probably Montrose, in the (only) 13 games that are left. Anything else is a bonus. We're inclined to get carried away after a couple of good results anyway, then get brought down to earth. Arbroath have made some quality signings and Saturday will be a stiff test that'll show how far we've come.

(Against that, Stenny are top and yet we murdered them the other week.  We also have 10 wins which only the top 3 have matched)