The Season Opener Starts at Kelty

The League campaign kicks off this Saturday and it's the first training ground derby of the season on day one as we visit New Central Park, Kelty. Neither side qualified for the knockout stages of the League Cup with both being thrashed in their final Group fixture. Inverness start the season on minus 5 points as part of the Administration process from last season. We will be looking to start clawing that deficit back as soon as possible, starting on Saturday. With the League Cup Group stages being completed, Alloa have been the surprise package and boosted there ranking with the bookies as serious challengers for League1 promotion. They won their Group C winning all four games and eliminating Dundee in the process. Cove will also fancy their chances of going up. With three new teams in the league this season, it's fresh pastures again with East Fife, Peterhead and Hamilton entering the mix. Hallelujaha! There is a God after all and he is working for the SFA. The Caley Jags red card appeal has been upheld at the Fast Track Tribunal meaning Remi Savage will be available for selection this weekend. The bigger issue is how did he miss the referee and he will require extra training for that...

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Alfie Bavidge

Chanka Zimba

Mitchell Robertson

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Matchday One

Inverness sent this error strewn squad out last week in the ill fated game at Starks Park where we were not at our best as we gifted goals, penalties, own goals and sending offs as if they were going out of fashion. Two down in seven minutes and three down at the interval, it didn't get any better after the break although Wotherspoon did flick one in from a Strachan cross. That seemed to annoy Raith and they promptly got their three goal advantage back before Remi Savage's own goal and subsequent red card after the final whistle. (Appeal upheld since weekend). Not a great day at the office and Scott Kellacher was well aware of our shortcomings. We were without Ross Millen, Calum MacLeod and Paul Allan with MacKinnon still out longer term. Oscar MacIntyre made his debut having just signed from Hibs. That said, it was a poor performance from us while Raith showed why they are in the Championship with a clinical display. With these players out, we were left with a mainly inexperienced bench. Liam Sole is one player who could be a match winner and entertainer with his bag full of tricks. He should be a handful for the best defenders in League1 and I'm predicting he will lift the gloom pretty soon. Wow! It's already lifting with Savage free for selection this weekend. Happy days.

SCOTT KELLACHER: No Listen! Waiting to hear....... and Boom! Not one, but two strikers landing at the Caledonian Stadium the day before we meet Kelty. Take That ye Maroons. Well at least I thought that was what he said 😂. Alfie Bavidge returns on loan for the rest of the season and Chanka Zimba arrives on a 1 year deal. Also brought in defender Mitchell Robertson on loan from Celtic u19's.

Kelty were trounced 6-0 by Livingston in their final Group H game last Saturday whilst we were getting gubbed 5-1 at Stark's Park by Raith Rovers. This was Kelty's team at Almondvale , the Home of the Set Fare Arena. The match stats were heavily in favour of promoted Livi with 22 attempts for the Premiership side and just the one for Kelty. They've had better days though. Their best result was holding Kilmarnock to a no scoring draw in Kelty and went on to win the bonus point in the penalty shoot-out. They started with a dominant 4-0 win at Brora but were derailed at home with East Fife winning 1-0 in their following game. Next up was the draw with Killie before the rout at Livingston. Johnston, Cole (x2) and Ferguson were the scorers at Brora. Not much to go on this early in the season so it will be a 'suck it and see' day on Saturday. From last season, Kelty have lost a few including Scot Allan (retired), Cunningham, Lyon and Broadfoot. In have come Alex Ferguson, midfielder (St Johnstone); Craig Clay, midfielder (Dunfermline Athletic); Innes Murray, midfielder (Arbroath); Jack Brydon, defender (Queen of the South); James Graham, forward (Stirling Albion); Aaron Arnott, midfielder (Bonnyrigg Rose); Kai Kirkpatrick, midfielder (Albion Rovers). Latest News from the Kelty Camp: Scotland u19 international defender Jack Wyllie has joined the club on a season long loan deal from Rangers.

A classy and composed performance, at least until the substitutions. Hard to conclude on how good we actually are given that Kelty were a shadow of the side we have seen before, making loads of errors, lacking physical presence and generally seeming a bit aimless. But we certainly played a lot of lovely football and didn’t do much wrong. Great start to the season but many tougher opponents lie ahead.

2 hours ago, caley100 said:

? my source said he'd scored? why do BBC take so long>?

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👍👍😉

Pretty much what Yngwie says, he obviously got home before me 😂

Totally dominant although the subs seemed to upset the balance, or we got complacent as at one stage we were stroking it about like Brazil. Can’t wait to see Spoony’s cheeky wee goal again. Really impressed with Stewart and MacIntyre but a great performance all round. Think Kelty will struggle although I heard they had a makeshift defence.

Just got home in time before the police closed the kessock bridge.

Decent game in the kelty sun.

Was directly behind Billy’s goal, I said to my mate as he shaped his body to shoot, that’s going in.

Back 4 were rarely troubled and both full backs had good games.

Had some shots at goal, some would have been in row Z if there were seats, and one went over the hedge behind the goal second half.

We will face sterner tests but you can only beat what’s in front of you.

Went for a pint before the game, think it was called king bar, and I was surprised, maybe its a common thing now, but sitting in the corner of the bar was Charlie Christie, grassa Bennett , ex clach chairman Chisholm, and 5 minutes later the main man Alan savage came in. I would have thought the kelty boardroom was the place for them to be. Ah well, new regime, mixing with the fans.

Alonge, it’s a no thanks from me. Sole looks pacy, but was trying little tricks to beat his man when using his pace would have been a better option.

Missing first home game next week v an inform Peterhead ?? as heading to Grangemouth to watch my 10 year old grandaughter play for ict girls.

4 hours ago, The Mantis said:

👍👍😉

Pretty much what Yngwie says, he obviously got home before me 😂

Totally dominant although the subs seemed to upset the balance, or we got complacent as at one stage we were stroking it about like Brazil. Can’t wait to see Spoony’s cheeky wee goal again. Really impressed with Stewart and MacIntyre but a great performance all round. Think Kelty will struggle although I heard they had a makeshift defence.

Sitting having a pint I seen a guy come into the bar with an ict top with number 5 and the words “ The Mantis “ on the back. Was that you mr mantis, I was going to go over where you were sitting by the door to introduce myself. But chickened out and walked passed you and your 2 mates and headed to the ground.

Ps…. I too want to see spoony’s goal again. I thought he was going to put his laces through the ball, fell backwards and his miss hit shot looped up over the very tall goalkeeper. They all count of course.

Edited August 2, 2025Aug 2 by bishbashbosh

I thought he juggled it and then made a clever finish.

As you say, need to see it again.

I was with a pal who supports Kelty who feared the worst before kick off as he felt they were exposed playing out from the back and two of our goals came from pressing them in that situation.

As you say, our job is to beat what we are facing and we did that with aplomb today.

Roll on next Saturday and hopefully we can perform as well at home as we did today.

Edited August 2, 2025Aug 2 by Robert

8 hours ago, Robert said:

I thought he juggled it and then made a clever finish.

As you say, need to see it again.

I was with a pal who supports Kelty who feared the worst before kick off as he felt they were exposed playing out from the back and two of our goals came from pressing them in that situation.

As you say, our job is to beat what we are facing and we did that with aplomb today.

Roll on next Saturday and hopefully we can perform as well at home as we did today.

I am wrong….. again. Right in front of me too. Excellent finish from wotherspoon and kick out from Munro to start the attack.

Edited August 3, 2025Aug 3 by bishbashbosh

11 hours ago, bishbashbosh said:

Sitting having a pint I seen a guy come into the bar with an ict top with number 5 and the words “ The Mantis “ on the back. Was that you mr mantis, I was going to go over where you were sitting by the door to introduce myself. But chickened out and walked passed you and your 2 mates and headed to the ground.

Aw you should have said. I only wore that to see if anybody would come out the woodwork. I don’t have many strips and just one with the name. Usually once a year event because of the weather. The guy next to me was David Sutherland whose son Sandy is on the podcast. Most of the podcast team were in the bar too.

Solid performance and encouraging result. Following the BBC text updates it looks like the Kelty keeper may have stopped it being more.

Do we know if the club have any plans to start doing the live commentary again? Their twitter (X) updates aren't great these days and the BBC live text seems to be more flakey and unreliable than ever.

The Kelty keeper was also responsible for inviting a lot of pressure onto the home side with some of his awful clearances. He looked really poor.

I thought we were pretty strong across most of the pitch without being exceptional. Nonetheless it was pretty comfortable. Mckay, Longstaff and Wotherspoon all took their goals well. We created a decent number of chances but also looked a little suspect for a 10 minute period in the first half after the opener when Kelty looked decent on the break. But the second knocked the stuffing out of them.

I was really impressed with McIntyre down the left flank. He defended well and was right up with every attack overlapping in the style of a peak Graeme Shinnie. He looks like he could be a smashing pick up.

My Hibee pals were surprised that McIntyre was let go......lots of potential there they thought