Stinky Fish & hard stone Saturday in the Pink

It's off to the bygone land of granite quarries and stinky fish meal factories this weekend as the Caley Jags head for Balmoral Park to tackle Cove Rangers on Matchday Six with League1 business high on the agenda. This will be Cove's 200th League game since gaining promotion to the SPFL. Inverness have made a solid start to the campaign and got themselves into positive figures within two weeks and now sit within the mid table group. On the other hand, Cove have made an inauspicious start with just two points from five games and sit at the bottom. Mind you, with David Eguaibor and his Bro on board adding to the experience of the evergreen Mitch Megginson, they will always pose a threat. However, we have our own threat in the form of Liam Sole. The fleet footed twinkle toed forward is exciting the fans and we can expect the unexpected from the in form player. Don't forget it's a 17:30 kick-off and if you can't make the game, it's live on BBC Alba.

There's a lot to get through in this preview so click on the link to take you to the full preview on Caley Thistle Online

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Match/Ticket/Bus/Info

Caley Jags in the Pink

📺 Game on BBC Alba 5:30pm 📺

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Curses Caution

Scotty is the top dog>>>

Congratulations to our Head Coach Scott Kellacher who has been named the Glen’s Vodka William Hill League 1 Manager of the Month for August 2025

In August, Caley Thistle secured league wins against Kelty Hearts, Peterhead, Montrose and Alloa Athletic while also getting wins in the KDM Evolution Trophy against Elgin City and Aberdeen B.

Kellacher said: “It’s always nice to get an award but this isn’t just for me, it’s for everyone at the club. I’ve got a great staff, really good players and everyone has pulled their weight. Everyone works ever so hard, and this award recognises all our efforts.”  

And the laundry award for clean sheets goes to>>>

Goalkeeper Ross Munro has been named the SPFL William Hill League 1 Player of the Month for August 2025. Munro, 25 years-old, kept clean sheets in our league wins against Kelty Hearts, Peterhead, Montrose and Alloa Athletic.

Upon receiving the award, Ross Munro said: “It’s nice to get recognised, but this is a collective award. I wouldn’t have got this award without all in the boys in the squad, the management and the staff.”

This is our Big Boys Squad for League1 business and the team we had out against the Wasps two weeks ago. The Wasps came North on Ladies day but it was the Caley Jags that took the three points with a deflected Liam Sole strike just enough to swat away the Wasps. We were somewhat wasteful throughout the game and by the end of the match had to rely on keeper Ross Munro to keep our noses just in front.

Last weekend we were just as wasteful in the KDM Trophy and had Liam Sole to thank for saving our blushes with a 94th minute corner kick that ended up in the net after Binos keeper Robert Duffy had denied us with a series of wonderful saves during the ninety minutes. Ross Cuningham opened the scoring for the visitors with a stunning strike before Chanka Zimba levelled before the interval. We made heavy weather of seeing off the Binos and the sending off of Stewart Murdoch led to the cavalry charges that eventually paid off with the Sole goal deep into time added on.

Ross Millen remained on the bench against Stirling Albion, so that might mean he is a real thing and he could be included this week again. Paul Allan missed out last week but is back in contention and Adam MacKinnon has been getting more game time recently as he gets up to speed.

Scott Kellacher has plenty of attacking options available to him despite losing Robbie Thompson and Ben Gardiner who have both been loaned out to Brora Rangers until January. Robbie has bagged three goals in the two games he has played for the Cattachs so far with Ben also scoring in the last one in midweek.

Caley Jags will be in the Pink on Saturday and that should brighten up the TV screens>>> LINK TO ICTFC

The kit will be worn by the team for the first time tomorrow in our William Hill League 1 match against Cove Rangers, which is a 5.30pm kick-off live on BBC Alba. 

The club will also have a pop-up shop in Tesco Extra Inverness, Eastfield Way for the in-service days on Monday 15^th and Tuesday 16^th September from 10am until 4pm on both days, with both our new 2025/26 Home and Away kits on sale. 

Ticket's Here

• Adult: £15,

• Concession: £9,

• Youth (12-17): £6,

• Under 12s: Free

ICT Supporters Travel Club 🚍

• Travel Club Bus leaves Sarens PSG Stadium at 1pm???.

• £20 a seat. Book through the Travel Club’s Facebook 

• Or call 07462 218717

Cove drew 0-0 with Hamilton Accies in their last League1 encounter to gain just their second point this season. Their other point came in a 3-3 draw with Montrose a couple of weeks ago. Note that they only had two subs on the bench v Accies, one of which was keeper Bálint Demus. Striker David Eguaibor appears to be a handful for defences having scored all four of Coves League1 goals including a hat-trick in a dramatic encounter against Montrose. He also scored the only goal of the game against Dundee B recently. They lost 1-0 to Elgin City in the KDM Trophy game on Saturday. Blair Yule was against Peterhead and missed the game against Accies but should be back for this one. Cove have a few injuries to contend with and Arron Darge and Declan Glass out and defender Michael Doyle is a doubt.

Mitch Megginson: Mitch’s tally of eighty-six league goals represents just over a quarter of the total Cove have scored during their time in Leagues One, Two, and the Championship, and he has been top marksman in four of their six campaigns to date. Always a danger and still the man that needs shackled.

Tale of the Tape League1:

• Cove 0-2 QotS - Match 1

• Muir 1-0 Cove - Match 2

• Cove 3-3 Mo - Match 3

• Heid 3-1 Cove - Match 4

• Ham 0-0 Cove - Match 5

KDM Trophy

• Cove 1-1 Spartans (Darge ⚽)

• Cove 1-0 Dundee B

• Elgin 1-0 Cove

From BBC Sport

In: Robbie Mutch, (GK Ayr Utd); David Eguaibor, forward (Cobh Ramblers); Justin Eguaibor, defender (Cobh Ramblers); Liam Parker, defender (St Johnstone, loan to perm); Layton Bisland, defender (Arbroath); Mackenzie Strachan, midfielder (Annan). Loan in: Lewis O'Donnell, midfielder (Arabs); Jackson Mylchreest, forward (St Johnstone).

Out: Nick Suman, goalkeeper (Aberdeen); Will Gillingham, defender (Port Melbourne); Myles Gaffney, forward (Annan); Finlay Murray, defender (Formartine); Connor Scully, midfielder. Loan ended: Adam Emslie, midfielder (Aberdeen); Dylan Lobban, midfielder (Aberdeen); Findlay Marshall, midfielder (Aberdeen); Liam Parker, defender (St Johnstone).

League1 Table

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

Some dates for your diary over the next few months.

First up is the comedy night next Friday night and it's not at the next home game at the Global Energy Stadium in Dingwall. Maybe not as funny, but it will be held in the Kingsmills Lounge at the Caledonian Sarens PSG Stadium.

It's fantastic to see so much now happening at the club since Alan Salvage came to the rescue and at a meeting on Friday Mr Savage put an end to our time in administration and banished our years of anguish and floundering in the doldrums in the bin.

Alan Savage confirmed he has 100% control of the club and that the club is officially out of administration.

Statue incoming!

More to come on this story as the full details of the press conference will be released in due course. Suffice to say it's great news for the club.

He reiterated plans to turn part of the car park into a music venue, replacing the Ironworks, but he believes that could also double up as a conference centre and multiple five-a-side football pitches.

He also has plans to install a petrol station, or an electric vehicle charging station, on the ground around the club, and is in discussions with Highland Council regarding that. Before any of those plans come to fruition though, Savage will have to appoint a board of directors.

He confirmed that Supporters’ Trust chair George Moodie will have a seat at the table, while it was confirmed on Companies’ House that Savage’s wife, Dawn, has been appointed too.

Cove, near Aberdeen, is famous for its history as a fishing village and the local quarrying of hard, export-grade granite, and for the infamous Aberdeen Fish Meal Factory, known as "the stinker".

• The "Stinker":

  From 1894 to 1937, the Aberdeen Fish Meal Factory operated in the area, producing manure and earning the infamous nickname "the stinker" due to its processing smell. The local entertainer Harry Gordon even made a famous parody about it, "A Song of Cove". 

It's said that smell still lingers to this very day and that's where the saying "he's had a right stinker the day min" came from...Right eenufff!

7 minutes ago, CELTIC1CALEY3 said:

Calum's shot was really top class and gave the 'keeper not Mutch chance of saving it! Three points and we move on.

Took a big deflection, don’t think it was going in otherwise.

D Flection is our second top scorer...

Having trekked along to that "stadium" 3 times including last season when we were robbed by the ref in the Scottish Cup, I gave it a swerve, especially with the late kickoff time, so hats off to anybody who made the trip.

I went along to a cup tie between the top two in the Lowland League, Linlithgow and Clydebank, and there's a fair chance that one of them will be in the SPFL next season. Home in time for the game on the telly.

I always felt we would make the breakthrough, probably with our quick passing in the box leading to a spot kick, but any port in a storm...
Young Calum is coming on in leaps and bounds (earlier in the season I felt he was one who might go out on loan) and Alfie S rivalled him for my MoM. Very few failures throughout, with the centre back pairing playing most of the game with hands in pockets. Still think Billy would do better as an impact sub rather than starting, and Zimba has grown in my estimation since I first saw him at Elgin.

Fantastic effort by all involved and we now have real momentum

Well, if this was a poor match, as a new fan, I look forward to seeing some good ones. The match being on TV offered me my first opportunity to see 90 minutes of ICT. Although the matches were on at the same time I watched this, without knowing the score, after seeing the West Ham v Spurs match. I enjoyed this one so much more, and not just because the result was what I wanted. Although there weren't many clear cut chances created there was always a look to advance the ball in an attacking fashion quickly - actually a pleasure to see!

I thought that in the first half most of the good intent seemed to involve Callum McLeod getting forward (perhaps because he was on the side nearest the camera, but that's the way it seemed) and in the end he thoroughly deserved to get the winner and was a clear MoM for me. Alfie Stewart looked very good and was a reasonably close second. I thought Joe Chalmers sprays the ball about well, but later in the second half when he was put under more physical pressure didn't handle that so well. Liam Sole looks dangerous and exciting, but on Saturday his end product needed to be better.

The defence (and keeper) worked well as a unit and although there were one or two dangerous moments for Cove, I didn't ever really feel that they were going to be able to get the better of the back 4 (plus GK).

The general consensus on here does seem to be that it wasn't a great performance but the job was ultimately done. For me, it was much more of a "good watch" and I'm thirsty for more.

We've seen too many pedestrian performances over the last couple of seasons.

Result was greater than the performance as most have said. The difference now is we have the pace to burn when we do decide to go with it. The final third needs tidying up though.

20 hours ago, tm4tj said:

We've seen too many pedestrian performances over the last couple of seasons.

Result was greater than the performance as most have said. The difference now is we have the pace to burn when we do decide to go with it. The final third needs tidying up though.

Still early days really, given that we have quite few new players, and getting the balance right always takes a bit of time. Our attack has a lot more options now, do we want Longstaff and Sole playing at the same time [given that Allen can also get in a good cross] Where should Bavidge play, and should Zimba start with him? Is McKay better as a slightly deeper No10 now, or as a wise super-sub brought on after 60mins if Wotherspoon is tiring? Nice options to have, given where we were a year ago. We do need to get more crosses in, but I will take a pedestrian win, 3points, no goals conceded and no injuries, a few more times over a long season [rather than an excellent performance and getting our pockets picked like we did against Stenhousemuir] starting with QotS away this weekend. I am sure we will rack up a few thrashings against sides this season too