MATCH POSTPONED AGAIN AFTER PITCH INSPECTION WATERLOGGED PITCH

6th December -

Game to be played at Haddington on 10th December 7:45pm.

Scottish Cup Underdog Day

It's a first for the Caley Jags as we face Lowland League side Tranent in the 3rd Round of the Scottish Cup in front of a sell out crowd at Foresters Park. Unfortunately for dogs, they won't be able to see this one as they have been banned due to the expected sold out crowd. Our Middle East correspondent is The Mantis who gives us this insight into what we can expect when we get to Foresters Park to meet the Belters.

An ex-mining town of about 12000, about 6 miles from the Edinburgh boundary and now bypassed by the A1. A working class town compared to the more douce Haddington where Moff and RiG live. People from Tranent are traditionally known as Belters and this nickname has transferred to the team. The Battle of Prestonpans (Johnnie Cope and all that) was just along the road.
In common with a few other mining towns in the Lothians, Tranent has an annual Gala week and crowning of the Gala Queen.

Notable connections with ICT are Ian Black, whose father and grandfather were also footballers, who played 132 times for us between 2004 and 2009, and Steven Hislop, who was assistant manager at Tranent.

Thanks to Mantis for this preview 👍

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

Match/Ticket/Info

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

The team was formerly named Tranent Juniors and won the Scottish Junior Cup in 1935. In 2018 they moved from the Juniors to the new pyramid setup and were promoted to the Lowland League in 2022. They currently lie 3rd, equal on points with Bonnyrigg, and 4 points behind leaders Clydebank. The club's motto, which you will see writ large at our end, is "Lie Forrit" which means roughly "go forward". The match is a sellout at about 1350 of which we have been allocated 400. We will be entering from the main road where the ground is up a short alley. We will be on the uncovered grassy banking while the home fans will be under cover down the side.
Parking shouldn't be a big problem. There is also an Asda right across the road where I have parked before. There are a few pubs in the town and I wouldn't be too fussed about them but apparently Whispers, just along the High Street, is connected to the club.

⏰ Gates open: 2:00pm
🎟️ 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐎𝐔𝐓 - No cash gate
🔴 Home Supporters:
Access via both the High Street Gate and Berts Gate
🔵 Away Supporters:
Access via Top Gate only - entrance from the High Street
🥧 Pie Hut:
Open to both sets of fans
Cash and card accepted

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

This was our last squad in the 1-1 draw at Alloa which showed three changes in the starting XI from our slick win over Queen of the South last weekend on the telly.

Last 6 in League1

1. ICTFC 2-2 Kelty

2. P'Head 0-1 ICTFC

3. ICTFC 1-0 Monty

4. ICTFC 1-0 Cove

5. ICTFC 4-0 QotS

6. Alloa 1-1 ICTFC

Just to reinforce the ticket situation. This game is currently sold out. No tickets will be on sale at the ground.

It was a less than impressive performance at Alloa but we still came away with a point against one of the better organised teams in the league who will no doubt be challenging for the top slot. Certainly a banker for a play off position.

Our pedigree in the Scottish Cup has been great over the years from non league right up to winning the Scottish Cup in 2015 and again reaching the final a few years ago where we went down to Celtic.

However, we are now the ones facing the potential banana skin whereas we were normally the underdog, a position we were more comfortable with. This time, it's Tranent who will fancy their chances. Beware the underdog, the only dog allowed in the stadium this weekend.

Tranent beat Caledonian Braves 2-1 last weekend with this squad at their disposal. Cammy McKinley opened the scoring 10 minutes before the break, drilling in from 10 yards following a long throw. The Braves squared the game early in the second half before a 94th minute header by Danny Handling secured the points. Euan Bauld was MotM in this one.

Tranent got to the third round by beating Pollock 3-0 in the first round and disposing of Dundee North End by the same score in round two.

More from Mantis: The manager is Robbie Horn, who took Bonnyrigg into the SPFL.
They have a few players with SPFL experience. Dean Brett (#14) is the right wingback and at 32 has a lot of experience, having made 149 appearances for Cowdenbeath before getting sacked for gambling offences and stepping down to the LL with Bonnyrigg.
Midfielder Danny Handling made 55 appearances for Hibs. They also have Reece Mullen, on loan from Alloa.
Top scorers up till present date are Harry Girdwood (#12) with 12 and Cameron McKinley(#9) with 11.
Mantis saw them once this season when they were hammered 5-0 by Clydebank although they had 10 men for most of the game.

Last week they defeated Caledonian Braves 2-1 with the following team. They are having a decent season and wins breed confidence of which there is plenty around Foresters Park at the moment, and rightly so!

1	Kelby Mason
2	Sam Young
3	Robbie McIntyre
8	Sam Jones
9	Cameron McKinley
12	Harry Girdwood
15	Dean Brett
19	Josh Grigor
21	Ben Miller
23	Conor Doan
24	Euan Bauld

Tranent v Bankies

Pie Forrit

🔜🏆 Tomorrow we're in Scottish Gas Scottish Cup action as we face TranentFC at Millfield Park, Haddington
🎟️ All existing tickets remain valid for the rearranged fixture.
Please note: this remains an all-ticket match - there will be no cash gate available on the night.
Have a Ticket and can't make the game now? Please email [email protected] to request a refund.

And then after the rain, the wind came...

6 hours ago, The Mantis said:

Parking is rubbish though and it's a wee bit out of town but walkable, accessed by a narrow country road. I would have played it at Musselburgh.

They installed a path on the other side of the hedge from the road so access is a lot better now. Give yourself about 10 minutes from the town centre to walk down.

Worth noting that there will only be one turnstile open tomorrow night and with a big crowd anticipated I'd expect some long queue times.

Tranent Football Club

Due to a higher-than-expected number of refund requests, a limited number of tickets have now been made available for tonight’s rearranged Scottish Gas Scottish Cup Third Round tie against Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC.

⚠️ Please note: Only refund requests received before 12 noon today will be processed.
🎟️ Tickets are now available via Fanbase at the links below! ⤵️

Home Support: bit.ly/4rLNncY
🔵 Away Support: bit.ly/3MqPL8Y

Great start with Robertson scoring at 17 mins. but.... they just scored!

Zimba to make it 2 .1 !!

What’s the attendance like. Reach 1000?

I turned down the opportunity last night to accompany my wife's relatives to Stenny vs Annan.

Would have made a significant difference. BBC says the attendance was .... 84

28 minutes ago, big cherly said:

What’s the attendance like. Reach 1000?

1007

29 minutes ago, big cherly said:

What’s the attendance like. Reach 1000?

1007

Snap

Given the tight scoreline and how strong our line up was, I’ll be interested to hear from those there how we played as, from the BBC text, we made heavy weather of it.

However, winning the game is what mattered.

I hope Wotherspoon is not badly injured.

Job done. Through to the next round where we ought to have a good chance of progressing further.

22 minutes ago, Robert said:

However, winning the game is what mattered.

Quite agree. Potential banana skins wrote all over it. Well done to Tranent who by all accounts made a fist if of it, and came away with their reputation intact if not some Cudos for there league.

A word to the ICT fans that managed to attend. Makes all the difference to the team I’m sure.

Good result, no question. We could have slipped up here easily. Well done the team and management on achieving a good result.

Any dugs managed to get in? 🐕

bc

Edited December 10, 2025Dec 10 by big cherly

We were absolutely woeful second half and Tranent never tired. They pretty well dominated the whole half. They were screaming for a penalty right at the end when Munro seemingly battered their player, but we were down the other end. It’s a win though.

1 hour ago, The Mantis said:

We were absolutely woeful second half and Tranent never tired. They pretty well dominated the whole half. They were screaming for a penalty right at the end when Munro seemingly battered their player, but we were down the other end. It’s a win though.

Oh dear. Stay classy Tranent.

14 hours ago, The Mantis said:

We were absolutely woeful second half and Tranent never tired. They pretty well dominated the whole half. They were screaming for a penalty right at the end when Munro seemingly battered their player, but we were down the other end. It’s a win though.

There's a bit of a trend here where we start off games well and dominate the first half only to fall apart in the second half and play really poorly. Don't know what the reason is but it is worrying and will come back to bite us at some point unless it's fixed.

13 hours ago, ICTPaisley said:

Clear Penalty. Can’t see from the video where the refs position was, can only assume he was viewing the incident down field opposite goal keeper Munro. Linesman should have intervened, but as normal these officials prove useless.

As others have said, We got through; nothing else matters. - We might have used up however a good bit of our ‘Cup-luck’. Either that our name is on the cup. - I thinks it’s the former!

bc

Edited December 11, 2025Dec 11 by big cherly

I'll just park the bus here

4 hours ago, big cherly said:

Clear Penalty

Jim Calder needs to be consulted on this before we can be certain!!

1 hour ago, tm4tj said:

I'll just park the bus here

Sadly, vandalism by young Tranent “fans”.

5 hours ago, big cherly said:

Clear Penalty. Can’t see from the video where the refs position was, can only assume he was viewing the incident down field opposite goal keeper Munro. Linesman should have intervened, but as normal these officials prove useless.

As others have said, We got through; nothing else matters. - We might have used up however a good bit of our ‘Cup-luck’. Either that our name is on the cup. - I thinks it’s the former!

bc

Dodgy ref lover strikes again!

No penalty! ball travels away from goal indicating goalie got there first. Definite head to fist.