South West to East Kilbride

Coming down from the North, It's a first for the Caley Jags as they visit the K-Park Training Academy which has a capacity of 700 (400seated), situated in the St Leonards area of East Kilbride at Calderglen Country Park, East Kilbride, Glasgow G75 0QZ. It's a 3G synthetic surface so that might affect team selection. Inverness went down narrowly to a last minute goal at the weekend against St Johnstone having beaten Elgin City in our opening encounter. East Kilbride have been the shock troops in Group F so far. They led St Johnstone for fifty minutes before going down 3-1 in their first fixture. Their second game saw an astonishing comeback from the 88th minute when they had just gone 2-1 down to Raith Rovers. However, in a remarkable turnaround, they scored three goals over the next six minutes to take all three points in a 2-4 win at Starks Park. To prove it was no fluke, they then thumped Elgin City 1-4 on Saturday as they played their penultimate Group F fixture.

No Listen! Here's Scott Kellacher ahead of match

“We know we’re in for a real hard game, East Kilbride have made a great start and they’re desperate this season to go and win their league to get up. There’s a lot going on at their club and they are going in the right direction because their performances have been good.” “They have some cracking players there; Mick Kennedy and Simon Ferry are doing a great job. We’ve watched them a few times, the way they play the game is exciting so hopefully we’re in for a real good game tomorrow night.”

We’ll assess Ross Millen today, it’ll most likely be 50/50 for the game but if he’s feeling it we won’t be taking any chances with him. We can’t afford to have players out long term, so we have to look after them in the short term.”

East Kilbride v ICTFC ⚽

• Premier Sports Cup Group Stage

• Tuesday 22nd July, 7.45pm kick-off

• Ross Commercial Finance Stadium

• Calderglen Country Park

  East Kilbride

  G75 0QZ

Ticket Info 🎫 There will only be 290 tickets available for ICT fans

Tickets available from the following link via Fanbase for ICTFC supporters

Travel Club Info 🚍 The ICT Supporters Travel Club are running a bus to Tuesday’s match against East Kilbride, leaving the Caledonian Stadium at 2pm. Both picking up in Aviemore. £20 a seat. Book through the Travel Club’s Facebook or 07462 218717

EK's team -V- Elgin City last Saturday where they ran away with the game. Skipper Jack Leitch opened the scoring in the third minute and he added a second after 21 minutes before Elgin pulled one back from the spot on half time. Nathan Flannagan scored soon after the interval before John Robertson ended the scoring with nearly half an hour to go. A great start to life in with the big boys and I'm sure they will be knocking on the promotion door come the end of the season.

Former St Johnstone player John Robertson is the leading scorer in the League Cup this season with five goals from three games. Jack Leitch scored twice at Elgin. EK have scored nine goals in their three games.

Here's how they did it at Elgin!

Here's how we went down to St Johnstone.

Caley Jags starting XI and Subs in the defeat to St Johnstone. Ross Millen and Adam MacKinnon were missing through injury and that was likely our strongest available squad. Substitutes Liam Sole and Jordan Alonge put in a strong case for a start against East Kilbride with a powerful display and added some much needed pace and power to our attack. Liam Sole looks like he will scare the sh!t out of defenders this season. Already got his own song (Gold) after a couple of substitute appearances with his twinkle toes and attacking prowess. Not seen anything like him for years, certainly not in a Caley Jags top. Sensational! Good confident display between the sticks by Ross Munro. Our Achilles heel on Saturday through no fault of his own was probably Calum MacLeod having to fill in at right back. A fish out of water but he stuck manfully to the task. He is much more suited to being a powerful midfielder. Chin up, this could be your season. Alfie Stewart and Paul Allan did a power of work and the defence were strong until the 90th minute when Ikpeazu did what he does best. What a beast he is. If anything, Wotherspoon and Longstaff were posted missing in the first half which meant we surrendered possession too easily. I doubt we will underestimate EK and I'm sure Kellacher will be well aware of the dangers and implications of this tie.

Full time 2-6

No Listen!

Well done to the team! It will be good to hear from our supporters who were at the game, a happy bus tonight

Agreed,

The fans that travelled down were served with a treat. Can’t remember the last time we scored six in same (proper) game. Ayr with Butcher?

bc

Table after last nights games

Pos	Team	Pld	Gd	Pts
1	St. J	3	5	9
2	ICTFC	3	5	6
3	E K	4	-1	6
4	Raith	3	0	3
5	Elgin	3	-9	0

Obviously a very enjoyable game. We were on top in the first half, threatened early with Sole looking dangerous. He won a free kick that Allen came close from but the keeper put it wide. Billy had a chance with a low shot that was just wide. EK took the lead with a goal from a set piece, hard to see from our end of the pitch but looked like a fairly simple goal from a corner - poor defending on our part. We equalised shortly afterwards, when Alfie Stewart put in a great ball for Mckay to head home. For the rest of the half we were teh better team, Stewart had a chance when he was put through but the keeper saved and also he knocked one wide. EK hit the post after a short backpass but didn't threaten that much.

Second half and we went on a run where just about everything we did went in. Sole knocked a ball back in and Allen finished it to put us in front. For the third Chalmers drove on from midfield, played in Longstaff who finished really well from the right. Callum MacLeod came in from right back and hit a low shot to make it 4-1. Savage hit a long pass for Longstaff to go in and score his second and then a free kick on the right saw Stewart hit a low shot straight into the far corner.

At this point I was wondering if we were going to equal or overhaul our record victory but the game naturally got back to a bit of balance and we made five subsitutions which, as you would expect, disrupted the rhythm of play a bit. We did have one or two other chances, Wotherspoon probably should have scored but their keeper blocked it. EK scored a free kick right at the end for their second.

Overall, a fantastic performance - the start of the second half we literally looked like we'd score every time we had the ball, and pretty mcuh did just that. I lost count of our goals, not sure I've ever done that at a game before. I thought Longstaff was outstanding in that spell - scored twice, set up one and (I think) won the free kick for the sixth. Alfie Stewart also had a great game, he was all over the place, looking dangerous and using the ball well every time he had it. Paul Allen covered so much ground and was available all the time as well. LIam Sole had a good start - his booking by the ref, former Ross County player Jamie McCunnie for diving was ridiculous - I felt he faded a little when he and Longstaff switched wings but he was always an outlet. With a bit more time in the team he could be fantastic.

Their keeper did not cover himself in glory based on the highlights

1 hour ago, Tree said:

Their keeper did not cover himself in glory based on the highlights

Just what i was thinking!

Took the dog a walk at half time, after confusion on BBC re score, Checked 25 mins later and jeez 5 - 1!!

Great result against a team that were playing well, cheered me up no end!

Knowing that several of our players know how to put the ball away should hopefully bode well fornthe season.

A few nice goals in there but yes, keeper was suspect on a few of them and made it easier ... but taking a positive, you still have to find the target, and we did!

4 hours ago, caley100 said:

Just what i was thinking!

Took the dog a walk at half time, after confusion on BBC re score, Checked 25 mins later and jeez 5 - 1!!

Great result against a team that were playing well, cheered me up no end!

I think you should take the dog for a long walk on Saturday

RAINING GOALS @ THE K-Stadium

44 minutes ago, IBM said:

I think you should take the dog for a long walk on Saturday

Their keeper could have done with a Retriever to fetch the ball from the back of the net.

A terrific performance from the team, it’s a shame our fans let us down from time to time. The state they left the EK gents toilet was an absolute disgrace.

7 hours ago, Tree said:

Their keeper did not cover himself in glory based on the highlights

Yes he had a bit of a nightmare. On 4 occasions there he looked like an outfield player who’d been made to go in goals.

1 hour ago, Yngwie said:

Yes he had a bit of a nightmare. On 4 occasions there he looked like an outfield player who’d been made to go in goals.

The stick he was getting from our fans in the first half was hilarious. Could only imagine what it would have been like had he been beside us in that second half.

Watching the highlights, Chalmers looks like he played well in an attacking sense, which is unusual for him as he's more of a sitting in, recycling possession type player from what I can remember.

I must admit I was a little nervous about this game. EK were flying and banging in the goals at will. We started really well and should been at least 2 up by the time we went behind against the run of play. Billy got us back in it and that second half performance was one to cherish. I've not seen us play like that in a long long time. Liam Sole is going to be an outstanding player. He was running rings around their defence. Couldn't understand why he switched flanks but either way it worked well. Play like this in the league and we'll run away with it.....with we can avoid injuries etc.

As for the ground...mmm..only two sides to it but neat and tidy I suppose. Didn't like the idea of watching the match behind a big protective net. Was anyone else their a mug and bought the programme? I've not bought one in years - not many clubs do them now, so I decided to get one. 28 pages of nothing really.

I’m a fan of a programme. When I had seen EK were doing one it showed me that there’s no reason why we shouldn’t do one either.