Matchday 3

The Warriors are the visitors this weekend for Matchday 3 at the Caledonian SarensPSG Stadium with kick-off scheduled for 3:00pm. The Caley Jags have won their opening two League1 fixtures netting five without reply against Kelty Hearts and Peterhead. Stenhousemuir went down 1-2 to Alloa Athletic on day one but bounced back last week to beat Cove Rangers 1-0. Both teams featured in the Challenge Cup in midweek. Inverness beating Elgin 1-4 and Stenhousemuir beating Rangers 'B' 2-1. Shaping up to be an open encounter in the Highlands.

This comment on Stenhousemuir's own preview should be all the incentive needed to dish out a good spanking.

"Manager Duncan Ferguson’s side have been clinical in front of goal and solid at the back"

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Match/Ticket/Bus/Info

Supporters Trust Meeting

NoS Cup v Strathspey Th

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Fans Meeting at 1230 in Bar 94, at which Alan Savage and 10CC give an update on the club and answer questions from fans.

🚍 All are welcome, and Stagecoach will be operating an additional matchday bus from the Bus Station at 1200 to get you to the ground in plenty time for the meeting.

Bar 94 will open at 1200, with last orders at 1430 (the bar must be fully vacated by 1445).

The bar reopens at full time. Man of the Match Presentation to take place Post-Match in the Bar. 🏆

More Info for you>>>

🎟️ Match Tickets available from HERE
🍺 Bar 94 open from 1200 and post-match
🗣️ @ICTSupTrst: Fans Meeting with Alan Savage
🚗 Parking £5 for cars
🛍️ Club Shop open 10:00am
🚌 Stagecoach Service Bus Info: leaving Bus Station at 1200, 1245 and 1415. Returning 10 minutes after the full time whistle and at 1800. The bus fare is £2.70 single (contactless payments or cash accepted), and Over 60 / Disabled and Under 22 Concession passes are valid, giving free travel on the service to passholders. Bus from ICT Social Club leaves Greig Street at 2.30pm. £5 return.

Good start to the season for the Caley Jags beating Kelty Hearts away 3-0 then winning 2-0 over Peterhead at home. Billy McKay scored the first goal of the season at Kelty with Luis Longstaff adding a second before the interval. Wotherspoon with a clever finish on the hour completed the scoring in the opening game. Wotherspoon and Sole were the scorers against Peterhead either side of the interval. We fielded a fairly strong XI in midweek against Elgin City in the Challenge cup, despite making ten changes from the starting XI against Peterhead with only Remi Savage starting, and captaining the side to a 4-1 victory at Borough Briggs. Good workout for those not regularly starting and it was great to see Adam MacKinnon getting some game time. Alfie Bavidge is getting up to speed with a couple of goals and another great strike from Robbie Thompson who will be knocking on the door for a start. Paul Allan banged in a penalty as well with Mark Gallagher thrashing in a tremendous strike for Elgin from over 25yards high past Logan Ross in goal. Chanka Zimba also started. I doubt we have ever had a stronger bench with most of the regular starters sitting on it. Hopefully Liam Sole will be fit enough to play a part this weekend. He is an entertainer and will excite fans with his slaloming runs at defenders. Fingers crossed.

Scott Kellacher: Is well aware of the threat provided by Dale Carrick. Mathew Aitken is also a threat and he played over an hour in midweek as he comes back to full fitness.

This was the Warriors squad that beat Cove Rangers last weekend with Dale Carrick scoring again. Not much in it according to the match stats, but when you have a player with the quality of Carrick, then sometimes that's all you need. He also scored an early goal (15m) in their opening game in a 1-2 defeat to Alloa Athletic. Carrick joined the Warriors from Stirling Albion having scored 44 goals for the Binos. I'm sure he has scored a couple of these against us in recent years. (Scottish Cup 2022 3 - 2). Notice that Nat Wedderburn has gone to Cowdenbeath.

In: Oliver Simpson, defender (Dundee United); Archie Graham, defender (Queen's Park); Dale Carrick, forward (Stirling Albion); Finlay Gray, midfielder (Dumbarton); Finn Robson, midfielder (Forfar Athletic); Yan Gromov, goalkeeper (Cumbernauld Colts); Peter Mendy, forward (Albion Rovers). Loan in: Olly Whyte, midfielder (Motherwell).

Out: Corey O'Donnell; Josh Walker; Kyle Banner; Nat Wedderburn; Kyle Jacobs,(retired); Blair Alston; Matty Yates; Joe Ellison; Cameron Rowley; Ryan Duncan; Max Guthrie. Loan ended: Bobby McLuckie; Joe Morrison; Sam Fisher; Scott Tomlinson; Ben Black.

From the ICT Supporters Trust

Dylan Williams continues his brave cancer battle. His latest round of treatment has been tough. We’d like all supporters to show their support for Dylan and join in with an applause in the 14th minute and let him know that the whole ICT family wish him well with his ongoing treatment. ❤️

40 minutes ago, tm4tj said:

All are welcome, and Stagecoach will be operating an additional matchday bus from the Bus Station at 1245 to get you to the ground in plenty time for the meeting.

The extra bus tomorrow is at 1200.

The 1245 and 1415 journeys will also operate.

I saw it at conflicting times somewhere so i did rock, paper scissors...

and lost. Meh!

A win sees us move to fourth place, third if Peterhead draw with QotS. Would never have dreamed that was possible a few weeks ago.

Belief is back 😊

Really looking forward to this, and to hearing what Alan Savage has to say at the meeting before the game.

I’m cautiously optimistic, but this is probably our biggest test this season so far.

If we win, we have momentum to build on.

With the strength and depth of players and squad at our disposal and playing on our own turf I expect nothing but a victory today.

We have enough games played now for the management and players to known what is required. Anything less than a ICT win today would be disappointment.

bc

Pos	Team	Pld	Gd	Pts
1	Accies	2	5	6
2	Alloa	2	2	6
3	Peter Reid	2	1	3
4	Stenny	2	0	3
5	Queens	2	-1	3
6	Kelty	2	-2	3
7	ICTFC	2	5	1
8	Monty	2	-3	0
9	Cove	2	-3	0
10	E Fife	2	-4	0

Another great day for football, I am hoping for another win! The PotY will not be posted till tomorrow.

Dominated the game and should he 2 or 3 goals up. Dreadful referee, highly debatable penalty, non foul that led up to the greenock and ridiculous booking for McIntyre. More goals in this for us if we keep playing the way we are. Biggest hindrance is going to be the ref.

Oh dear, 1-2 FT

Took the lead, dominated the game, lost. 🤷‍♂️

How we lost that game I find unbelievable. The referee certainly didn't help but that is no excuse for our inability to find the net with almost 70% possession. Why does everyone insist on passing across the goal instead of having a shot? Despite the result I thoroughly enjoyed the game especially the first half with some really attractive football.

3 points carelessly thrown away today. Some harsh lessons need to be quickly learnt especially by the manager

Substitutions needed to be made to be made earlier today as the swagger of the first half had gone and we needed to change things. Danny Devine needs a rocket up his arse as he is constantly playing balls/passes that he doesn't have to and lead to the ball being given away. We lost the second goal because we faffed about in midfield, Devine was charging upfield and we were exposed horribly for the goal. Don't think the keeper covered himself in glory either for that one.

The Stenhousemuir penalty really changed the game. In the second half, they just played 2 banks od four and tried to hit on the breaks. We didn't go wide often enough, as we had been doing, in the first half until Sole game on.

Referee definitely impacted the game today with the penalty for them. Gave them virtually everything in terms of fouls yet missed some clear and blatant fouls all over the park. Easily the worst Referee seen here for years.

Ultimately, we beat ourselves and we need to wise op quickly.

How we lost that I'll never understand, by far the better team and we're getting better week on week. Onwards and upwards.

VAR - Very Arrogant Referee. He changed the whole pattern and outcome of the game - despite our dominance we have to accept that referees have a big impact on games in this League. Said Referee failed to book their Keeper for clobbering Billy for our penalty which meant said Keeper had free license to waste time towards the end. Time to focus on Montrose.

Was starting to believe the hype.

Was at kelty but this was my first home game this season. Played some nice stuff first half but stenny changed 2nd half and matched our first half display.

Penalty was right in front of me. To start, wasn’t sure if the free kick was a free kick, too far away from me in north stand. Ball in and the zlatan ibrahimovic look a like ( must be the short ponytail), went to head the ball, calamity Devine using 2 hands on his back ( in front of ref) pushed him under the ball. Stonewall penalty for me.

We huffed and puffed 2nd half but poor compared to first half.

Thought Kellachers substitutions spoiled the flow of the team. He has to make up his mind on bavidge. Is he injured ?, if not, why is he only getting the game time replacing billy.

For me the ref gave a few strange decisions but can only give what he thinks he sees.

How we conspired to loose today simply deflates, for me, some of the best flowing football I have ever seen from a ICT team; yet loose it we did!

Oh for the want of a striker that can put the ball in the net. As others have said here a score of 3-1 for ICT at half time would not have been an inaccurate reflection of the performance and dominance. Billy’s game just didn’t produce the required goals needed unfortunately.

I couldn’t see really what happened for stenny to get the penalty. I’ll wait and see the highlights first.

The second half was chalk and cheese in way of performance IMO. Gone was the zip and fast flowing football and replaced with our normal miss-pass in the final third. I have to say I wasn't surprised Stenny managed to get past our keeper for their second and winning goal.

Again as others above have said the timing and selection of the subs/replaced was late and reactive for me. The Stenny manager Naysmith changed the game at the appropriate time (far earlier in the SH) which was rewarded with a surprised three points.

Yes they had the run of the green, but stayed resolute and defended stoutly throughout. So credit and well done Stenny for there performance.

The referee was not the reason for our loss today. The failings lay at our own shortcomings. Don’t argue with the bloke, there is only one winner. Understand that and we will pick up less yellow cards.

I don’t want to be over critical of us here as we were bound to loose sooner or later. Again lessons have to learned and taken on board.

bc

Edited August 16, 2025Aug 16 by big cherly

That should have been a comfortable win but we paid the penalty for not being out of site in the first half.

Some of our play and movement was top drawer in the first half but we are still too reluctant to shoot and chances go a begging as a result.

The free kick in the lead up to the penalty was a shocking decision as MacIntyre won the ball cleanly (but he deserved his booking for walking away with the ball) and I thought the penalty was debatable but note the comment earlier in this thread: one I need to see again.

We didn’t play nearly as well after the break but were well on top and should have been able to put the game to bed. Instead we got caught on the counter attack.

A bad day at the office but we knew there would be bad days. The key thing is to learn from it and regroup for the Montrose game.

Edited August 16, 2025Aug 16 by Robert

2 hours ago, big cherly said:

How we conspired to loose today simply deflates, for me, some of the best flowing football I have ever seen from a ICT team; yet loose it we did!

Oh for the want of a striker that can put the ball in the net. As others have said here a score of 3-1 for ICT at half time would not have been an inaccurate reflection of the performance and dominance. Billy’s game just didn’t produce the required goals needed unfortunately.

I couldn’t see really what happened for stenny to get the penalty. I’ll wait and see the highlights first.

The second half was chalk and cheese in way of performance IMO. Gone was the zip and fast flowing football and replaced with our normal miss-pass in the final third. I have to say I wasn't surprised Stenny managed to get past our keeper for their second and winning goal.

Again as others above have said the timing and selection of the subs/replaced was late and reactive for me. The Stenny manager Naysmith changed the game at the appropriate time (far earlier in the SH) which was rewarded with a surprised three points.

Yes they had the run of the green, but stayed resolute and defended stoutly throughout. So credit and well done Stenny for there performance.

The referee was not the reason for our loss today. The failings lay at our own shortcomings. Don’t argue with the bloke, there is only one winner. Understand that and we will pick up less yellow cards.

I don’t want to be over critical of us here as we were bound to loose sooner or later. Again lessons have to learned and taken on board.

bc

Surprised you didn't give the ref a glowing report Cherly! 😄

Anyway, Shyte happens, We just troubled to test their keeper, They just played to a game plan and got lucky from a clown of a ref and some poor defending.

Anyone else think Devine is a liabilty these days?

I felt the referee was poor for both sides and let’s not go down the route of blaming the match officials for our results. We should have won that game with the chances created. Stenny adapted and improved in the second half while our subs failed to make a positive impact in the game. Danny yet again looked vulnerable. What’s going on with Bavidge?? He has to start ahead of Billy.

The ref was poor, but that's not an excuse, that is simply a fact. I was getting frustrated in the second half ss we repeatedly fed the ball back to Danny to distribute, which was not his strong point yesterday. Forward balls were misplaced and we took half a dozen passes to do what one incisive pass would have done. We managed it in the first half but Muir had us sussed by then.

8 hours ago, LisleRightPeg said:

and let’s not go down the route of blaming the match officials for our results

This seems to be our go to default position in just about every match just now. When we don’t get the result we want it’s the failure of the referee. 😄

It’s part of the enjoyment of the game and I partake in condemning some decisions taken. However these guys are simply applying the rules of the game. These rules don’t have a team preference.

bc