Six Pointer

 

It's the proverbial six-pointer on Saturday with Annan Athletic the visitors for a 3:00pm kick-off at the Caledonian Stadium. We climbed out of the relegation zone last week picking up six points in our last two games and that has lifted us up to seventh place in the table with the prospect of more should results go our way. The dramatic win at Dumbarton last Saturday was followed by a swashbuckling 4-1 win over high flying Stenhousemuir in midweek. Luis Longstaff and Alfie Bavidge both have hamstring injuries, the extent of which are being checked out.

Congratulations to our keeper Musa Dibaga who has been called up by his country, Gambia, for upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Kenya and Ivory Coast. Brilliant recognition for a man on form; a timely penalty save to add to his CV on Tuesday night against Stenhousemuir. 

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Match/Ticket/Bus/Bar94/Info

Musa Dibaga Called Up

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Kids go for £1! Under 12s go for £1 this Saturday! Available from the Club Shop only. Open tomorrow 10am - 4pm and Sat 10am - KO. Offer available until 1pm on Matchday Max 2 tickets per adult & children must be accompanied by an adult at all times.

 

2025

Mar 15th	League (League 1)	-	H	-
Jan 18th	League (League1)	3 - 0	A	438

2024

Oct 19th	League (League 1)	1 - 0	H	1,501
Aug 10th	League (League 1)	0 - 1	A	386
Jul 13th	League Cup (Group D)	0 - 1	A	427

2009

Aug 1st

League Cup (Rd 1)

4 - 0

H

1,095

1998

Jan 24th

Scottish Cup (Rd 3)

8 - 1

H

1,836

Only the six games between these two sides with four of them coming this season already. It started in January 1998 when we thrashed Annan 8-1 in a Scottish Cup tie. They must have annoyed us after they opened the scoring in the eighth minute. That's Ian Broadfoot's report below.

Scorers

Barry Wilson (14) Iain Stewart (17) Brian Thomson (20) Barry Robson (38) Brian Thomson (55) Stanley Leslie (o.g.) (74) Barry Wilson (84) Duncan Shearer (86)

Montgomerie (8)

The home side demolished a determined Annan side after an early fright. A loose ball found Norman Montgomery clear inside the Inverness half and he lobbed the ball over Jim Calder. Caley Thistle stormed upfield and scored 3 goals in a 6 minute spell. In 16 minutes Barry Wilson was set up by Iain Stewart just inside the area and he drove the ball low past Robert McColm. Three minutes later Brian Thomson slipped it to Stewart on the 18 yard line and he sent a low ball past the keeper. On the 20 minute mark Thomson was fouled just outside the box. He took the kick himself and sent it into the top corner. A fourth goal came in the 38th minute. Thomson and Stewart set up Barry Robson down the right and he headed straight for goal. Under strong pressure Robson hit it home. In 55 minutes Mark McCulloch cleared upfield from the half-way line and found Stewart who ran through the defence and slipped it to the side of the keeper as he unselfishly sent it across to Thomson who only had to tap it in. After 74 minutes it was 6-1. A Vetle Andersen cross from the left went in off the head of defender Stanley Leslie . 10 minutes later Wilson got the seventh with a low drive from 15 yards and with 4 minutes left substitute Duncan Shearer rose above the Annan defence on the penalty spot and headed in an Andersen cross to complete the 8-1 record score. Annan's bad tempered tackling was finally punished in 86 minutes when Stanley Leslie was sent off  Caley Thistle now play Dundee United at Tannadice on February 14th.

 

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 W L W D W / 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 next 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, Dunfermline bound Keith Bray with his fourth of the season and Alfie Stewart. We got our revenge at home to QotS (1-0) with Alfie Bavidge scoring his fourth goal in five appearances. Alas it was a bridge too far at Arbroath last week and we went down losing three without reply. The Stenhousemuir fixture was postponed and is re-arranged for March 11th. We went to Kelty and came away with a narrow 1-0 win thanks to Alfie's 5th goal in 7 appearances. Montrose proved to be stubborn opponents and it took a superb diving header from Keith Bray to rescue a point in a rather turgid encounter after Sandilands had opened the scoring in the first half. A last gasp win at Dumbarton on the Saturday with Alfie Bavidge scoring his 6th goal in 9 games. Unfortunately Alfie was injured early on against Stenhousemuir in midweek but that didn't stop us running up a 4-1 win with goals from Brannan, Gilmour, Bray and Allan. Annan up North on Saturday in a six-pointer...

Scott Kellacher will still be without Luis Longstaff who has a hamstring injury and missed the last two and Alfie Bavidge might be joining him on the sidelines similarly. 

Annan won the first two encounters this season, both at Galabank. The first was a League Cup game and the second a League1 game. Both went the way of the hosts by a single goal. We reversed that at the Caledonian Stadium by the same scoreline before a crucial 3-0 win at Galabank in the middle of January with goals from Alfie Bavidge, Keith Bray and Billy Mckay, his 114th and last strike for the club.

Pos	Team	Pld	Gd	Pts
1	Arbroath	28	17	52
2	Cove Rangers	28	18	47
3	Stenhousemuir	28	12	47
4	Alloa  Athletic	28	6	40
5	Kelty Hearts	28	0	35
6	Queen of Sth	28	-6	35
7	Inverness CT	28	5	32
8	Montrose	28	-7	32
9	Annan Athletic	28	-24	27
10	Dumbarton	28	-21	08

 

Last Six: W W L  L  L  L  

<<<Annan's squad for last Saturday in the 0-2 defeat to Stenhousemuir. They began February well with good wins over Kelty (1-3) and Dumbarton (2-1). That was as good as it got with four straight defeats. Cove Rangers (3-1), Alloa Athletic (3-4), Arbroath (3-0) and last week (0-2) at home to the Warriors.

After a promising start to the campaign Annan have dropped down to the relegation play off position. Having a poor defensive record has not helped their cause, shipping 54 league goals and only scoring 29 gives a goal difference of -24, and that's the worst in League1. They have had their fair share of injuries to contend with throughout the season, but then again we know a thing or two about that over the last few seasons.

 

 

 The matchday buses will get you to the game and back on time. 

Buses leave the Bus Station at 1300 and 1415, returning from the Stadium 10 minutes after the full time whistle and then at 1800.

Concession passes are valid on all journeys, with the fare for non concessions being £2.40.

Bar 94 will be open from 1200 before the game and until 1800 after the game 🍺

 

 

 

Just back home now and still can’t believe we didn’t get something out that game given the amount of shots on goal we had. I know we have a few key players injured, but we just didn’t seem to have another gear to go up, or a change in shape or tactics. Annan were out to frustrate and waste time from the minute they scored, we just didn’t handle that well. Makes next weeks game so much more crucial, but perhaps when we are up against it, is when we are at our best.

That was a poor performance and hopefully a defeat that humbles us all and brings us back to reality. The team looked tired and I feel the managers lack of squad rotation may come back to haunt us. It would be easy to criticise individual performances today but I think we could still be playing now and not have scored! 

Football can be a cruel game at times. Think Annan had 1 shot on goal and scored whereas we must have had well into double figures yet only hit the target on 2 occasions.  Paul Allan was desperately unlucky to hit the post but Billy should have scored. The majority of the other chances were all of the half chance variety and their keeper had 3/4 reallgood saves.

Felt some players were just off their game today, Bray, Stewart, Gilmour and Billy for example and, to me, Devine is a mistake waiting to happen in most games at the moment. He almost cost us another goal due to a poor needless pass and his delivery into their box was poor.

Finally the referee, who again I thought was poor. Blatant penalty denied in the first half and let Annan get away with murder on time wasting. Pick of that was one of their defenders going down in his box clutching his head only to ge treated for cramp. Too far away to see why the goal was disallowed but pretty sure if it was for a foul,  it wouldn't have been given outside the box. 

At least we now know what we have to do now and that is secure 8th place as a minimum. 

1 hour ago, big cherly said:

Back into the relegation fight with a thumping bump. Maybe the wake up call we needed as we were flat and poor today. I’ll upset a lot here but well done Annan. They had a game plan and they executed it perfectly. Score  a goal early, sit back and defend in numbers. Waste time, play the referee and break forward when the openings come. 
The first 45 minutes we had Billy alone in Annan’s half up against 4 defenders??
We just did not have any answer either tactically or in quality of balls into the 18 yard box. When the few chances came we fluffed them. 

No talk now of 5 or 6th, every game now will be important in avoiding 9th place. 

bc

This, to me, is a concern with Kellagher in that I don't think he is tactically aware enough. Changes should have been made far earlier today and we needed to play at a far higher tempo. This nonsense if having all our players back to defend cirberz Gas to cease as it doesn't work as we then have not outlet to clear the ball. We actually kept 2 men up late in yfe game but we seriously need to change this tactic.

Annan take on today’s game. Once again an opposition manager complimenting us, even on a day most on here thought we were poor.

A disappointing afternoon.

The early goal gave Annan something to defend, and a mixture of the woodwork, great saves and poor finishing cost us.

I’d like to see the penalty incident when Savage looked to be clearly fouled again, along with the alleged foul that caused our “goal” to be disallowed.

I’ve said before that we’d have bad days and setbacks, but we picked a bad day for this one.

However, back on 26 October when we had -3 points and were 15 points adrift of 9th, we’d all have grabbed being 8th in mid March and in control of our own destiny.

We need to put this behind us, regroup and focus on getting a win next week. 

Edited March 15Mar 15 by Robert

What an opportunity to close the gap on fourth place with a win . No where near good enough to lose at home to a really poor team, let's be honest they offered next to nothing.

 However, we just plodded on more out of hope than expectation. The changes we made were ineffective and far to late. Appreciate the bench was young but IMO they deserve a chance when things are going not to plan, not just  the last 5 minutes   Possibly some of the more senior players need a wee kick up the arse, get their hunger and desire back.

 

CTO take on a grim afternoon of anti football.

Time wasters wasting our time

 

Was this going to be the game that breaks the Donkey's back? A home win would put Inverness in the driving seat whilst a win for Annan would revive their ailing hopes of avoiding the relegation play-off slot. Inverness were without Luis Longstaff, Alfie Bavidge and Calum Macleod, not forgetting long term casualties in Lewis Nicolson and Jake Davidson. Annan had their own injury issues with Tommy Goss. Undaunted they opened the scoring in the third minute, a deflected effort from Paul Smith. Virtually their only attempt over the ninety minutes. We, on the other hand were usurped by their tedious time wasting eleven behind the ball tactics and couldn't hit a coo on the arse with a big stick. Sean Murdoch, the referee, using the term loosely, was so far out of his depth it was unreal. A couple of penalty claims ignored and allowing the time wasting was his speciality. Paul Allan hit the post at the end of the first half and Jamie Smith made a handful of saves. Not a great day at the office as the temperature dropped before the end and the Donkey's took all three points. Meh

Oh dear, how did we lose that. Annan TV and not much Annan footage.

 

12 hours ago, Robert said:

A disappointing afternoon.

The early goal gave Annan something to defend, and a mixture of the woodwork, great saves and poor finishing cost us.

I’d like to see the penalty incident when Savage looked to be clearly fouled again, along with the alleged foul that caused our “goal” to be disallowed.

I’ve said before that we’d have bad days and setbacks, but we picked a bad day for this one.

However, back on 26 October when we had -3 points and were 15 points adrift of 9th, we’d all have grabbed being 8th in mid March and in control of our own destiny.

We need to put this behind us, regroup and focus on getting a win next week. 

 we can’t keep harping on about the past. Yesterday was a chance to go 8 points clear of Annan with 7 games remaining. We should be cruising to the end of the season and safety.

13 hours ago, Huisdean said:

This, to me, is a concern with Kellagher in that I don't think he is tactically aware enough. Changes should have been made far earlier today and we needed to play at a far higher tempo. This nonsense if having all our players back to defend cirberz Gas to cease as it doesn't work as we then have not outlet to clear the ball. We actually kept 2 men up late in yfe game but we seriously need to change this tactic.

Know what you mean Huisdean, I just hope when they are announced, our new owners pay big money for striker Cirberz Gas. 😃

Edited March 16Mar 16 by big cherly

Some of our fans really need to give their head a shake. Talk of 'we should have been doing this' or 'should be doing that' or 'our manager is tactically unaware'. Are you living in the real world?

Read Roberts post above. We were dead and buried in October due to a truly inept manager the 15 point deduction no money and a variety of associated factors.

The very fact we've managed to claw ourselves back to a position on the park where we even have hope at surviving in this league is a near miracle. Yet we have fans wanting to turn on those same coaches and players who have achieved that. Seriously?

Some of the vitriol being spewed across social media is disgusting and a lot of it coming from so called diehard fans.

Shameful.

Camera work from Annan like their team...  feckin pysh.

Billy Mackay must be having nightmares about missing that chance,  lift it above waist height and its a goal and he batters it off the defenders leg....  doh.

Very unhappy with the results yesterday. 

36 minutes ago, STFU said:

Some of our fans really need to give their head a shake. Talk of 'we should have been doing this' or 'should be doing that' or 'our manager is tactically unaware'. Are you living in the real world?

Read Roberts post above. We were dead and buried in October due to a truly inept manager the 15 point deduction no money and a variety of associated factors.

The very fact we've managed to claw ourselves back to a position on the park where we even have hope at surviving in this league is a near miracle. Yet we have fans wanting to turn on those same coaches and players who have achieved that. Seriously?

Some of the vitriol being spewed across social media is disgusting and a lot of it coming from so called diehard fans.

Shameful.

Yes, pay our money, every right to express an opinion, (just like you have done here).
I personally have stated that what the manager and team has achieved so far is nothing short of amazing, and if we avoid relegation it will be recognised when we look back as one of the clubs greatest feats. 
We were all disappointed (I think) about the performance and result on Saturday having come of the ‘high’ of Tuesday nights extravaganza, but let’s not kid ourselves Saturday was not a timely warning! 
The team (SK - BM + players) has done well clawing back 15 points, with a good number of results ground out with a single goal. 
The loss of Alfie B and Louie L may be significant for the remaining games to come as Saturday displayed all too well for me. 
I’m optimistic we still have a better than good chance of remaining in division 3, but it’s going to an anxious few weeks for me. 
Respect your view, but equally I will continue to respect others that don’t.

bc

Edited March 16Mar 16 by big cherly

1 hour ago, bishbashbosh said:

 we can’t keep harping on about the past. Yesterday was a chance to go 8 points clear of Annan with 7 games remaining. We should be cruising to the end of the season and safety.

I agree, but we aren’t.

That’s why remembering how far we’ve come can help us stay positive and behind the players for the run in.

37 minutes ago, STFU said:

Some of our fans really need to give their head a shake. Talk of 'we should have been doing this' or 'should be doing that' or 'our manager is tactically unaware'. Are you living in the real world?

Read Roberts post above. We were dead and buried in October due to a truly inept manager the 15 point deduction no money and a variety of associated factors.

The very fact we've managed to claw ourselves back to a position on the park where we even have hope at surviving in this league is a near miracle. Yet we have fans wanting to turn on those same coaches and players who have achieved that. Seriously?

Some of the vitriol being spewed across social media is disgusting and a lot of it coming from so called diehard fans.

Shameful.

Typical over the top and loud reaction to fans who are just posting their own points of view.

After all this is not what football is all about the highs of Tuesday and the very lows of Saturday. Of course supporters are going to be gutted that was a f***ing sore one,not helped by the way Annan conducted themselves.

 

I think we all are terribly disappointed but we just need to pick ourselves up, dust down and get back onto the task in hand. The players absolutely feel the same as could be seen in the bar post match. Hopefully this puts all the talk of promotion to bed and we just concentrate on getting safety. We would have taken this position when we entered admin. 

Folk are entitled to whatever views they like but the club existence is probably at stake here. Annan we're anti football imho and the ref was terrible but the problem really was we couldn't score? 

Hopefully a bit more positive at 4.45pm next Saturday. 

People are quite entitled to express disappointment at the result but that can be done without the nastiness and character attacks.

You can say the team played poorly and talk about errors without broad sweeping statements suggesting they are useless.

You can question whether the manager got the tactics right for one game without claiming he's entirely tactically unaware.

Why does all decency and gratitude from some need to go out the window after a loss when the people involved have done way more right than wrong in the last 6 months or so?

Well said STFU

It's a football forum. They were rightly praised for the performance against Stenny. Unfortunately this was the Polar opposite and the fact that it came in the first game after our best performance of the season amplified our frailties on the park. It is abundantly clear we struggle without Longstaff's creativity and the pace and power of Alfie Bavidge, yet they both missed most of the Stenny game. MacLeod was also another good option that missed out. Through no fault of the players or management that left us with a fairly limp bench.

Such is life. It's where we are at just now. 

We can bounce back again as we have done before. It's going to be a tougher run-in than most fans envisaged and it's the same for every team fighting for their existence.

Bit of a reality check all round, our defensive line didn't cover themselves in glory for the calamitous defending ( not defending?) which led to the corner and again for the goal.

Everything that followed was fairly pedestrian stuff giving the Annan team plenty time to pack the box whenever we were trying to break through. Plenty saves from their keeper, but I wouldn't say he was particularly over extended - simple stuff really.

The ref wasn't of a decent standard at all, not much worse than Tuesdays but we won that didn't we.

Well done Annan.

Pick it up next week.  Hopefully Macleod is back.

3 hours ago, old caley girl said:

I think we all are terribly disappointed but we just need to pick ourselves up, dust down and get back onto the task in hand. The players absolutely feel the same as could be seen in the bar post match. Hopefully this puts all the talk of promotion to bed and we just concentrate on getting safety. We would have taken this position when we entered admin. 

Folk are entitled to whatever views they like but the club existence is probably at stake here. Annan we're anti football imho and the ref was terrible but the problem really was we couldn't score? 

Hopefully a bit more positive at 4.45pm next Saturday. 

Understand the underlying point you make OCG. I believe every one of the ICT fans that turned up on Saturday want to be able to continue to sit on their seat come August and support the team.  
However with respect the survival of the club and how we perform on the pitch are two separate matters. Any interested buyers will maybe keep an eye on the team’s results but it will have little or next to no bearing IMO on their decision to invest or not.

On the football side, the team on Saturday were running-on-empty. Absence of (key) injured players was evidence of just how important they are to the team. 
Yes Annan were time wasting, fainting injury, awful to watch, (to us) and rode their luck. But that’s their job. They turned up with one object in mind, go back down the A9 with 3 points. If they lost yesterday they understood that was their chance just about gone to get out of 9th position. 
We were unable or incapable to change the outcome to swing the game in our favour. We had plenty of time to grasp the way we were set up and playing wasn’t working.

So bad day at the office. Learn from it  and put it behind us (it’s history now). I look forward facing Allow on Saturday. Completely different type of game I would expect. 
bc

Edited March 16Mar 16 by big cherly

9 minutes ago, big cherly said:

Understand the underlying point you make OCG. I believe every one of the ICT fans that turned up on Saturday want to be able to continue to sit on their seat come August and support the team.  
However with respect the survival of the club and how we perform on the pitch are two separate matters. Any interested buyers will maybe keep an eye on the team’s results but it will have little or next to no bearing IMO on their decision to invest or not.

On the football side, the team on Saturday were running-on-empty. Absence of (key) injured players was evidence of just how important they are to the team. 
Yes Annan were time wasting, fainting injury, awful to watch, (to us) and rode their luck. But that’s their job. They turned up with one object in mind, go back down the A9 with 3 points. If they lost yesterday they understood that was their chance just about gone to get out of 9th position. 
We were unable or incapable to change the outcome to swing the game in our favour. We had plenty of time to grasp the way we were set up and playing wasn’t working.

So bad day at the office. Learn from it  and put it behind us (it’s history now). I look forward facing Allow on Saturday. Completely different type of game I would expect. 
bc

Totally agree. 

Think you misunderstand what I was trying to say? I meant that given our minus 15 deduction we would have been happy enough with where we are now? 

8 hours ago, STFU said:

Some of the vitriol being spewed across social media is disgusting and a lot of it coming from so called diehard fans.

Shameful.

Just out of interest what posting on this forum topic regarding the fans comments do you object to, that you consider vitriol or disgusting? I believe any criticism I’ve read is valid, opinionated and fairly put?

bc

Edited March 16Mar 16 by big cherly