Another week of turmoil

 

In a week where we started with hope and optimism we suffered defeat at home to Annan Athletic and then the Administration movement went from static to plumbing the depths before a PowWow brought it back to status quo. We needed to fill the gap left by Musa Dibaga's sojourn to Gambia for World Cup qualifiers against Kenya and Ivory Coast and have done that with an emergency loan in  Celtic's youth keeper, 18 year old Aidan Rice. We hope it will end on a lighter note with the game against Alloa to look forward to this Saturday, (without Longstaff and Bavidge 🙁). The joys of Admin in League1.

We will stick to the on field events on here and will provide links below to certain Admin Statements.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Match/Ticket/Bar94/£5offer/Info

Aidan Rice GK

Administrators Statement March17th

Allan Mackenzie Pow Wow March19th

CTO Topic on Admin

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If you haven't got any friends, borrow some!

 

Venue: H2H

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	21	9	10	2	37	22	+15
Away	24	12	6	6	49	25	+24
Neutral	1	0	1	0	4	4	0
Total	46	21	17	8	90	51	+39

Twenty-one home games versus Alloa since 1994 when they came North and played out a 2-2 draw at Telford Street in front of 1,150 fans. None other than Hugh Dallas was the referee Caledonian Thistle (as we were called back in the day) were in the lead for a long time in this game, had territorial advantage for most of it but in the end were fortunate to earn a draw. They had chances in the early minutes through McCraw and Lisle but Jim Butter saved well. In 18 minutes Charlie Christie collected a Martin Lisle pass and weaved past McCormack before scoring with a blistering 20 yard drive. In 67 minutes Barrie Moffat equalised after a McAvoy cross and in 78 minutes Neil Bennett put Alloa in front. Caley Thistle fought back with efforts from McKenzie and MacMillan but it took until the 86th minute before they equalised. Keith McCulloch handled in the box and Mike Andrew scored from the resultant penalty. 

Report by Ian Broadfoot

Last 10 Competitive Meetings v Alloa

2 - 1 (A)

1 - 0 (H)

2 - 2 (A)

1 - 1 (A)

2 - 2 (H)

1 - 2 (A)

0 - 2 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

3 - 2 (A)

2 - 0 (A)

We are unbeaten against Alloa this season and could have won all three given that we were 2-0 up in the first encounter during the Duncball era. Having gone two ahead through goals from Devine and MacLeod we were pulled level just six minutes later when Sammon and Donnelly quickly restored parity. Danny Devine lashed in the opening goal from twenty-two yards in the seventh minute to give the visitors the perfect start. After the interval MacLeod gave us some short lived breathing space following a swift break forward as he drilled the ball across the keeper into the bottom corner, however Conor Sammon quickly pulled a goal back with a great header three minutes later into the top corner finishing a well built move from back to front. Moments later it was all square when Donnelly looped a ball behind Dibaga after a long throw from Taggart and a touch from Sammon. Having been well in control we were now under the cosh but despite some hairy moments towards the end it finished all square.

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 L  

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 and we went down losing three without reply. The Stenhousemuir fixture was postponed and was 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 and it was a disappointing defeat after Annan parked the bus after scoring in the third minute.

Scott Kellacher will still be without Luis Longstaff who has a hamstring injury and missed the last three. Kellacher said in midweek to the press: “Alfie won’t be involved this weekend. The scan came back a wee bit unclear so he is waiting to do another scan. “He has to rest for probably the next 10 days to see if it settles down, and then they will try to get another image of it. Then we’ll know where we go from there. “We also have two or three wee niggles, but hopefully we’ll be clear after tomorrow.” Hopefully MacLeod will return after injury as we were a bit thin on the bench last week against Annan.

This will be a tough game with Alloa still on course for a play-off place at the top end and Inverness still trying to avoid a play-off place at the bottom end. Our task will be made more difficult because of injuries to Longstaff and goal machine Alfie Bavidge. However, we showed that we can cope without these players in the entertaining win over Stenhousemuir, but the flip side was our inability to break down Annan last week where a bit of composure might have gone a long way to keeping Annan at arms length. I've been well impressed with Ben Brannan in his couple of games with us. He will be an important player with his driving runs forward and long throws and he's not scared to have a pop. Our defence will need to keep a 'Luke' out for Alloa's main scorers as they are among the higher scoring sides in the table with 43 goals.

 

Pos	Team	Pld	Gd	Pts
1	Arbroath	29	17	53
2	Cove R	29	18	48
3	Stenny	29	12	48
4	Alloa Ath	29	5	40
5	Queen of Sth	29	-5	38
6	Kelty Hearts	29	0	36
7	Montrose	29	-7	33
8	Inverness CT	29	4	32
9	Annan Ath	29	-23	30
10	Dumbarton	29	-21	09

 

Last Six: D W W W L  L   

Alloa started their last six with a 2-2 draw at Montrose. Wins at Kelty (0-2), home to Annan (4-3) and Cove (2-1) before losing their last two (2-3) at home to leaders Arbroath and a 3-2 defeat at Palmerston last week. Despite the recent defeats they remain in the fourth play-off position eight points above Inverness. Luke Rankin tops their scoring charts with 8 goals followed by Luke Donnelly on 7 and Connor Sammon with 5.

Starting XI v QotS last week <<above>>

 

This will be the 47th meeting between Caley Jags and the Wasps, also known as Alloha Athletic,

One game was played at a neutral venue and that was the 1999 Challenge Cup Final played at the Shyberry Excelsior Stadium, Airdrie with an Attendance of 4,043. Alloa came out on top after an entertaining encounter, winning 5-4 on penalties after a 4-4 draw. Bummer for Paul Sheerin who scored a hat-trick including two penalties but failed to score his spot kick in the shoot out. Meh!

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 Penalties (Irvine, Boyle, Cameron, Little, Cairns) Beaton miss.
Inverness Pens (McCulloch, Tokely, Byers, Wilson) Sheerin, Teasdale saved.

Match report written by Ian Broadfoot

 

 

 

 

4 minutes ago, RednBlackComeback said:

What’s so frustrating is that we could and should have won the last two home games, and we’d now be sitting in 6th place just 2 points off the 4th place playoff spot!

That’s gone now, unfortunately.

Just as important, we would be 11 points clear of Annan and certain of staying up, which might be a factor in getting a buyer and out of admin before season’s end. 

Talking of certainties, Dumbarton are now definitely relegated as their failure to win today means they can't catch Annan.

League Table

 

Even after our disappointing last two results our recent form is still good 

 

Brannan was immense today with Adam, Alphie, Keith and Paul showing their potential - apart from Adam, none will be with us next year. Aidan can be proud of his debut - he saved us at the end.

We are unlikely to see Billy ever score again.

Let's hope Charlie is nominated to take any future penalties if we get any in our remaining few games.

 

If someone else had taken it and missed then fans would be shouting and asking why our all time top goalscorer hasn't taken it.

Such is the nature of football fans.

Saw a post on X saying Billy had scored 75% of all penalties ever taken for us. Did a little googling and for context that puts him up there with players like Messi from the penalty spot.

5 hours ago, STFU said:

If someone else had taken it and missed then fans would be shouting and asking why our all time top goalscorer hasn't taken it.

Such is the nature of football fans.

Saw a post on X saying Billy had scored 75% of all penalties ever taken for us. Did a little googling and for context that puts him up there with players like Messi from the penalty spot.

Maybe check stats on recent years,  Billy 10 years ago would more than likely score.  Strange thing is when Billy picked up the ball I knew he wouldn't convert.  Sad thing is if we had scored the pen the game was won.

Obviously not wanting to open old wounds. But last season in the championship billy missed a pen at home to Dunfermline in a midweek game that ended 0-0. He scores, we win and we would have finished 7th a solitary point behind 5th and 6th. STATS EH.

no criticism from me, he is our all time top scorer. he is obviously scoring in training or the manager would be doing his job and allocating pens to someone else.

correct me if I am wrong, think I was once, I can only remember messi playing at the very top of world football against the best goalkeepers in the world not Scottish league one standard. Stats eh. apples and oranges.

Take a look for yourself.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/billy-mckay/elfmetertore/spieler/123294/saison_id//wettbewerb_id//plus/1#verschossen

 

34 minutes ago, STFU said:

Take a look for yourself.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/billy-mckay/elfmetertore/spieler/123294/saison_id//wettbewerb_id//plus/1#verschossen

 

Don’t need to.

On way home from game yesterday I was wondering what the conversion rate for billy on penalties was. I use the same site as you.

i would never in a hundred years have thought about comparing billy with messi though.

Edit: end of replies, moving on to a game at 17:00 tonight.

Edited March 23Mar 23 by bishbashbosh

 

 

2 hours ago, caley100 said:

Maybe check stats on recent years,  Billy 10 years ago would more than likely score.  Strange thing is when Billy picked up the ball I knew he wouldn't convert.  Sad thing is if we had scored the pen the game was won.

From transfer market website………looks like he scores when he wants ….. most of the time. I thought he missed more last couple of seasons. Stats eh.

this season and last he is just over 50% scored or just under 50% missed.

OOPS what I didn’t check was who billy was playing for. He was doing the Scottish club rounds, us, county, Dundee united etc. when he came back to Scottish football after his transfer from us if I remember correctly.

Season.   No. Of pen.   Scored.       Missed

24-25.           2                      1                 1

23-24.            6.                    4                2

22-23.            5                     5                 0

21-22.             1.                     1.                 0

20-21.             0.                    0.                 0

19-20.             2.                    0.                 2

18-19.              4.                     4.                0

17-18.               0.                     0.                0

16-17.                2.                     1.                 1

15-16.                5.                     5.                0

14-15

13-14.                 1.                     0.                1

12-13.                 7                      5.                2

no pens or not with us 2007-2011

Edited March 23Mar 23 by bishbashbosh

I wasn’t able to be at the game yesterday so I’ve just seen the goals on here just now.

I can’t comment on the penalty or his overall game, but Mckay’s pick out of Stewart in space led to our goal.

 

1 hour ago, bishbashbosh said:

Don’t need to.

On way home from game yesterday I was wondering what the conversion rate for billy on penalties was. I use the same site as you.

i would never in a hundred years have thought about comparing billy with messi though.

Edit: end of replies, moving on to a game at 17:00 tonight.

I was comparing his conversion rate with a player who plays/ed a similar role, albeit it a far superior level.

There are players with percentages in the 80s and 90s, so neither Billy or Messi would be considered world class penalty takers.

I get that he's not the player he was and I have no doubt he knows that better than any of us. I wish we had the squad to better utilise more of his smarts and relied less on his legs. As just mentioned above the ball he supplied for our goal was top drawer.

I'm not going to say anything like maybe if we got behind him more he'd maybe be better. Crowds at games are very supportive of the team when they are on the park. It is what it is but I don't like the singling out of players and blaming them for a defeat or relegation or whatever.

Yesterday he set up the goal without which we'd have lost. Bit more credit/recognition for that from some to balance the criticism would feel better.

If you missed the game, here's what went on...

 

Just a couple of points from yesterday’s match that was somewhat worrying for me.

1) The loss of Remi Savage through the red card for the next game. (Assume it just one game?). Danny had a better than usual game on Saturday, but he can be haphazard more times than not. Remi acts as an old sweeper type role whilst having the height for centre half and provides cover for Danny. He will be missed I fear!! 
 

2) The crowd attendance on Saturday was a concern! 1650-ish doesn’t auger well as we head into the remaining home run matches. Weather was good for mid March and Alloa offered the appeal of an open match. The crowd has been ever so slowly dropping since the high of the Cove match level. 
Maybe all the negative press through last week had its effect, but it’s clear to me we will need more fans to get of there butts for the remaining home games.  The years (decades) of not investing properly in fan recruitment is now having its full effect. The players will need the supporters more than ever in the coming matches. I don’t know what the immediate answer is, but fan apathy is a worrying concern for me. 
bc 

Edited March 23Mar 23 by big cherly

Bored after watching the Greece game. Here is Alloa TV coverage of yesterday’s game. Have to say that this is the best/ clearest camera work by the away team I have seen this year. Commentator pretty unbiased also.

 

2 hours ago, big cherly said:

Just a couple of points from yesterday’s match that was somewhat worrying for me.

1) The loss of Remi Savage through the red card for the next game. (Assume it just one game?). Danny had a better than usual game on Saturday, but he can be haphazard more times than not. Remi acts as an old sweeper type role whilst having the height for centre half and provides cover for Danny. He will be missed I fear!! 
 

2) The crowd attendance on Saturday was a concern! 1650-ish doesn’t auger well as we head into the remaining home run matches. Weather was good for mid March and Alloa offered the appeal of an open match. The crowd has been ever so slowly dropping since the high of the Cove match level. 
Maybe all the negative press through last week had its effect, but it’s clear to me we will need more fans to get of there butts for the remaining home games.  The years (decades) of not investing properly in fan recruitment is now having its full effect. The players will need the supporters more than ever in the coming matches. I don’t know what the immediate answer is, but fan apathy is a worrying concern for me. 
bc 

Surprised by several fans in the north stand booing at final whistle. 

5 hours ago, big cherly said:

The crowd attendance on Saturday was a concern! 1650-ish doesn’t auger well as we head into the remaining home run matches. Weather was good for mid March and Alloa offered the appeal of an open match. The crowd has been ever so slowly dropping since the high of the Cove match level. 
Maybe all the negative press through last week had its effect, but it’s clear to me we will need more fans to get of there butts for the remaining home games.  The years (decades) of not investing properly in fan recruitment is now having its full effect. The players will need the supporters more than ever in the coming matches. I don’t know what the immediate answer is, but fan apathy is a worrying concern for me. 
bc 

I take your point about the need for fan recruitment but I think you are perhaps being a bit pessimistic about yesterday’s attendance.

There have been 16 home League One games this season so far and yesterday’s 1655 is actually the seventh biggest. Top and third - 1974 and 1894 - were during the festive period and the second biggest -1902 - was at the first home game after Gardiner finally left the building.

The smallest league attendance is 1439 for the very first game, at the time of the boycott. Yesterday’s 1655 is also, predictably, above the average of 1625. The attached table showing the whole of League One makes interesting reading. I’d suggest that given the club has fallen to the third tier, attendances have held up not too badly, although I’m not sure for how long this might be sustained.

Edited March 23Mar 23 by Charles Bannerman

You can see the attendance for all our games this season here.

ICT Fixtures

On 3/22/2025 at 12:24 PM, RednBlackComeback said:

What’s so frustrating is that we could and should have won the last two home games, and we’d now be sitting in 6th place just 2 points off the 4th place playoff spot!

That’s gone now, unfortunately.

While it's disappointing not to win and essentially rule us out the Play off spot and virtually secure survival I hope we continue to keep looking up the table and finish as high as possible.

Could certainly aim for 6th or 7th. Even push for 5th (though unlikely in 6 games).

This season was all about survival after going into admin and the point deduction. (We'd have been title challengers until recently without it so form has been solid) and that's so nearly within reach. Let's get it done.

10 hours ago, Charles Bannerman said:

There have been 16 home League One games this season so far and yesterday’s 1655 is actually the seventh biggest.

Jeez, thanks Charles (I think). That’s us on a good day. I know the point you’re getting across we have a loyal fan base. But if we run the average gates back from the championship (ignore the premier league as we don’t belong there), then what is the figures and trend. (I don’t know, it may be constant at 1650-ish?). 
My common denominator for club status is fan base. Simply put the larger your home fan number the better your team (over the piece) succeeds. 
If I take the championship this season, if we ICT, believe that’s where we rightfully should be then 1650-ish would have us in third bottom place (taking one of the bottom ones drop down). Before the posters come in with past playoffs how many overpriced players from the south were in those teams! (Where did that lead). 
The ‘big’ team in the highlands soaring on in the premier league right now started out with a more modest fan base, but they have succeeded (won the battle?) for supporters in the area.

Just put it out there for when we get oot ‘o’ admin. 
bc

Edited March 24Mar 24 by big cherly

On 3/22/2025 at 5:51 PM, big cherly said:

Billy has always striked his penalties straight down the middle. Most of the time the ball ends up in the net as normally goalies opt to dive to one side. Agree though it’s time someone else took over. 
bc

Mckay, for most of his first spell with us, seemed to strike penalties to his left rather than down the middle but looking at the video below it seems he went pretty much everywhere when taking penalties.

 

I've seen worse strikes. PJ made a decent save and reacted brilliantly to save the loose ball. Unfortunately for Billy it's just not happening at the moment. He went close with a lob in the first half which dipped just a couple of feet over the bar. He was also involved twice in the build up to Alfie Stewarts goal.

4 hours ago, big cherly said:

Jeez, thanks Charles (I think). That’s us on a good day. I know the point you’re getting across we have a loyal fan base. But if we run the average gates back from the championship (ignore the premier league as we don’t belong there), then what is the figures and trend. (I don’t know, it may be constant at 1650-ish?). 
My common denominator for club status is fan base. Simply put the larger your home fan number the better your team (over the piece) succeeds. 
If I take the championship this season, if we ICT, believe that’s where we rightfully should be then 1650-ish would have us in third bottom place (taking one of the bottom ones drop down). Before the posters come in with past playoffs how many overpriced players from the south were in those teams! (Where did that lead). 
The ‘big’ team in the highlands soaring on in the premier league right now started out with a more modest fan base, but they have succeeded (won the battle?) for supporters in the area.

Just put it out there for when we get oot ‘o’ admin. 
bc

We have to take account of the size of the away support too.

In League 1 you can count them easily in the South Stand, whereas in League 1 last season we had teams like Dundee United and Dunfermline who would fill it significantly. That can change the attendance by 1500 on its own.