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Polar opposites meet at New Central Park, Kelty as we head into matchday 27 for some in League1. Promotion and relegation are top of the agenda as the Caley Jags visit Kelty Hearts renewing the 'training ground derby' Aye, those were the days my friend, I thought they'd never end... The sides have met twice this season already. An opening day 0-3 win for the Caley Jags back in August set us off on the road to recovery and a 2-2 draw in the Highlands showed that we can take nothing for granted. We had to come back from two down as Innes Murray scored twice for Kelty before Devine and Zimba squared the game early in the second half.

KDM FINAL will be played at Firhill, Partick, on Sunday April 5 and will be shown live on BBC ALBA, kick-off 4.10pm.

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Match/Ticket/Bus/Info

KDM TROPHY @ FIRHILL

Scotland Wu23 V Dutch Wu23

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International Friendly

• Monday 2 March 2026

• 7pm kick-off

• Sarens PSG Stadium

• Free admission for all fans!

• Seating Main Stand only.

• Bar 94 for the match, opening at 1700 and again at full time.

• Kiosks open as normal in North Concourse and Bar 94 Kiosk.

• Bus Station : 1815 and returns 10 mins after the full time whistle.

• £2.70 single

Will we go with our KDM Team or will we revert to our standard League1 outfit. To be honest, if they were good enough to eliminate an Ayr United XI it would be reasonable to expect them to be able to cope with bottom of the table Kelty Hearts. However, therein lies the stumbling block. I would expect Kelty to show more fight than Ayr did given their predicament.

• Last Six League1:

• W W D W W D

Good form over the last six League1 games starting with a win at East Fife (0-2) & Alloa (3-1). A hard fought draw at Palmerston next where we led twice before being pegged back in a quality 2-2 draw. We beat East Fife comfortably 3-0 and followed that with our BBC Alba extravaganza at Broadwood (0-1). The last League game was that tough 1-1 draw with Stenny when we had Ben Brannan sent off with 20m left. On Tuesday night we beat Ayr Utd 1-2 to progress into the KDM Trophy Final where we will face Raith Rovers who beat Airdrie in a penalty shoot-out. Date and venue TBC. (Now confirmed as Firhill, 5th March 16:10)

Brannan was eligible to play at Ayr, but he will be suspended for the game at Kelty. I wonder if Liam Sole might be left out as well considering he was fortunate not to receive a red card at Ayr as he pushed his head into an opposition players face with what looked like a fair bit of intent. Naughty boy.

The KDM Trophy Final against Raith Rovers will be held at the 'NEUTRAL' venue of Firhill, Glasgow. For the removal of any doubt, that is FIRHILL PARK, GLASGOW. That's 58 miles from Starks Park and 170 miles from the Caledonian Stadium. Surely Perth was a better option? The final will go ahead at the Wyre Stadium at Firhill on Sunday April 5 and will be shown live on BBC ALBA, kick-off 4.10pm. Strewth!!!

Kelty almost took all three points at Cove last week but for a late equaliser from their hosts ten minutes from the end.

• Last Six League1:

• D L L D D D

Doesn't make for great reading but what you might expect for a team fighting to avoid relegation. They have stemmed the defeats and replaced them with draws. The first D was at home to Alloa (1-1) before two defeats to QotS (3-1) & Stenny (0-2). A decent 0-0 draw with Accies and 1-1 draws v Peterhead & Cove. Sandwiched in there, they put Cove out of the Scottish Cup on penalties away from home and gave a good account of themselves in a 2-0 defeat to the Pars in the Scottish Cup. So, not all doom and gloom as might have been suggested by the red and grey indicators. The defeats are against two of the top teams and they contained Alloa and Accies and were unfortunate not to take all three points at Cove.

Beware the scalded cat!!!

Attacking midfielder Ross Cunningham has returned to Kelty and scored on his second debut for the Fife club. Apparently he scored a screamer off the bench in the draw against Peterhead. Ross was last seasons player of the year for Kelty before he went to Stirling Albion. In his previous spell for the Maroons Ross made 73 apps and scored 20 goals, finishing joint top scorer in League1 for season 2024/25!

Ricco Diack is their top scorer in the League this season with 6 goals but he has since returned to Partick Thistle.

All games kick-off at 3:00pm on Saturday

1	ICTFC	25	28	48
2	Stenny	25	14	43
3	Alloa	25	15	40
4	QueenS	26	6	39
5	P'Head	24	-10	32
6	Monty	25	-12	32
7	E Fife	26	-20	28
8	Cove	26	-5	23
9	Accies	25	12	20
10	Kelty	25	-28	16

21 hours ago, tm4tj said:

Polar opposites meet at New Central Pak, Cowdenbeath

Shurely shome confushion over Shcentral Parksh?

Aye, olde habits die hard.

No stock car racing at Kelty

Not the greatest first forty-five of the season with defences on top although it was the visitors that had the better of it with the hosts keeper Gourlay the busier of the two shot stoppers. At half time this was the only League1 game without a goal with Stenny, Alloa, Peterhead and Montrose all ahead by a single goal narrowing the gap at the top to three points.

0-0 at half-time seems to be very familiar. Next, Kells will sub some attackers around 60-70 minutes, and the newcomers will win the game.

So he'll put them on from the start in the next game. And the same thing will happen

An hour gone and it's a bit worrying that we are struggling at Kelty whilst all others apart from QotS are making progress.

Time for changes if it's not working.

10 mins to go and still 0 0, Stenny winning come on guys get a goal!

0-0 full time.

That’s four points we’ve dropped to Kelty now.

Still all in our own hands though with three home games in a row to come: time for Fortress Inverness.

Well I'm sure as hell this will give Stenny a bigger boost than us, once again we have the big majority of shots but don't convert against the worst team in the league! Not happy.

7 minutes ago, caley100 said:

once again we have the big majority of shots but don't convert against the worst team in the league! Not happy.

Don't look at the Stenny-Cove stats, then. Cove clearly ahead on most stats - except the one that counts.

Struggling to think of a better example of ‘2 points dropped’. Scrappy first half with a handful of half chances for us. A more dominant second half with a handful of clearcut chances and it’s incredible that we didn’t put any of them away, but some of the finishing was really poor. Great away support but we all left disappointed.

I suspect all those mid week away games and the cup are catching up on us but the squad is good so shouldn't be a problem?

Always likely to be a reaction after Tuesday’s A1 performance, I’m sure we’ve had top v bottom already this season with similar results. We dominated the whole second half but on the odd occasion we managed to break through their back line our first touch was lacking, especially Bav.

Kelty had a decent share of possession but never posed a threat. Easy to see why they’re bottom but they were prepared to throw their bodies on the line. Although we’ve won games late on by bringing on subs, I thought it had the opposite effect when Billy and Longstaff, and later Zimba, came on.

Well one to forget.

Some thoughts after driving up the road.....

Im with big Dunc...lol Plastic pitches are awful. We are a better team on grass. Plastic is a leaveller it seems.

We never do things the easy way. Have to commend Kelty on doing their job. Agree with Mantis though they never looked like scoring.

The subs were too late and we not the correct ones imho. Longstaff wasnt at his best. Zimba seems to have lost his sparkle. Poor Willox looked rabbit in headlights. Not the game for him imo. I dont get Paul Allen being preferred over Chalmers especially today.

Im glad next couple games at home. If and actually it is if at moment, we go up then I wont miss L1 officials. Just so poor but not the reason for dropped points today though. I will miss half time bars though..lol

Only good thing about today was seeing the good people of Caleyaway and the pies...lol Top class pie!

10 hours ago, old caley girl said:

Only good thing about today was seeing the good people of Caleyaway and the pies...lol Top class pies

Pies won the day😃. Sounds like a decent support travelled again to support the team. Hope the message registers with the players the level of fan backing they get far exceeds any other club in this division. Plastic pitches are a ‘leveller’ as OCG says but they are here to stay and we will face them (and better organised ) teams in the championship, so don’t use that as an excuse. On any given measure (or statistics as quite a few like), ICT should have comfortably dealt with and dispatched Kelty.

Stenny have stubbornly but steadily managed to keep a door open on challenging for the top spot, (So credit to them for doing this). We have the players and ability in the next couple of matches to maintain our points advantage.

Let’s see our management and players deliver.

bc

No travelling for a few weeks now as we now have three homes games on the bounce. A massive chance to gain nine points but, as we know, there are easy games these days but the opportunity is there, we just have too grab it.

Games this midweek

Tuesday 3rd March

Monty 1-1 Kelty 88m__________________ Accies 0-1 Stenny 75m

• 

• Also playing tonight, but not in our league yet

Pars 3-0 Staggies after 90m

Smokies 1-1 Honest Men after 90m

38 minutes ago, tm4tj said:

Games this midweek

Tuesday 3rd March

• Accies v Stenhousemuir

• kick off 20:00 👀

  

This is an interesting tie. Wipe away the penalty points deducted Hamilton would be ‘in-there’ fighting for a play off place I reckon. It may just a little more difficult (let’s hope so), for Stenny to carve out three points by just turning up, (time will tell).

If Stenny do claim full points it turns the focus onto our players and manager for the weekend match with Montrose.

bc

Full Time scores tonight

League 1

Monty 1-1 Kelty F/T

Accies 0-1 Stenny F/T

Also playing tonight, but not in our league yet

Pars 3-0 Staggies F/T

Smokies 1-1 Honest Men F/T

Pos	Team	Pld	Gd	Pts
1	ICTFC	26	28	49
2	Stenny	27	16	49
3	Alloa	26	17	43
4	QOTs	27	4	39
5	P'head	25	-8	35
6	Monty	27	-12	34
7	E Fife	27	-22	28
8	Cove	27	-6	23
9	Accies	27	11	21
10	Kelty	27	-28	18

Stenny grind out another result so we will have to be at our best on Saturday for three points!