🏆 KDM TROPHY FINAL 🏆

It's been a long slog but we have battled our way through to the final of the KDM Trophy where we will face Raith Rovers at the neutral venue of Firhill in Glasgow. It's been quite a journey since we played our first Challenge Cup game at Elgin back on the 12th of August last year. Eight months and another ten games later we will face-off against Championship side Raith Rovers in the final. It's been some trek and we are unbeaten up to the final having won all ten matches so far scoring a total of 41 goals and conceding 8, eliminating two Championship sides in Partick Thistle and Ayr United, won a penalty shoot-out, had one game postponed, scored a club record nine goals in a mismatch against Dumbarton, beaten League1 rivals Stenhousemuir and had Alfie Bavidge knocking in four in one game. Who ever said it was a Mickey Mouse Cup? It certainly caught the eye more once the knock-out stages started with the introduction of the Championship sides and we are now on our way to our sixth final. We lost our first in a dramatic penalty kick defeat to Alloa Athletic back in season 99/2000. In 03/04 we beat Airdrie 2-0 and in 09/10 we let a two goal lead slip against Dundee to lose out in an entertaining five goal final. We returned to the final in 17/18 to defeat Dumbarton 1-0 with a late Carl Tremarco goal when extra time looked likely and the 19/20 final was shelved due to the covid crisis when we were due to play Sunday's opponents Raith Rovers. The trophy was shared then, so this weekend we can play for the right to get our hands on the trophy legitimately.

This will be our opponents Raith Rovers fifth appearance in the final having won it three times. They have reached the final in four of the last six seasons it has been contested, the tournament being cancelled in season 2020/21. Their last two KDM fixtures to get to the final saw them eliminate Championship sides Queens Park and Airdrie in penalty kick shoot-outs.

💰There's £150,000 up for grabs if you win and a not too shabby £100,000 for the runners-up. Either way, that's a lot of dosh 💰

Chanka Zimba is suspended, but it transpires that his suspension is for League games only, therefore he will be eligible to play on Sunday but will miss the League game at Stenhousemuir. However, he was on International duty for Zambia against Argentina on April 1st. Lionel Messi shared the same pitch with Chanka for half an hour in Buenos Aires. Trust me, it was a real thing, not AI and not an April Fool. Well done to Chanka for getting recognition after a good season at the Caley Jags. A great achievement to go from an early bath at Recreation Park Alloa to the Estadio Alberto J Armando in Buenos Aires, a stadium capable of 50,000 plus crowds. Memories made for life!

Back home, Liam Sole is free from suspension and will be available should he now be injury free. Danny Devine missed out last week through injury and another two or three were possibly carrying knocks.

We will also need to keep an eye on the game at Ochilview with Stenhousemuir hosting Hamilton Accies as the run in for the League1 title gets serious. Well, Stenny won 3-0 to go top of the table for now.

Weather watch: It looks like Dave is coming over the weekend with strong winds and heavy rain forecast. Make sure you take a kite with you.

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

Match/Ticket/Info

📣Matchday Important message📣

Barry Wilson Interview

Carl Tremarco Interview

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

Thistle go to the Wyre

Ticket Prices @ Firhill

• £20 – Adults

• £12 – Concessions (65+ and students)

• £6 – Juveniles (ages 12–16)

• Under 12s – Free if accompanied by a paying adult.

• Anyone under the age of 12 must enter with an adult.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle supporters will have access to tickets in the Jackie Husband Stand Sections 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Club Singing Section

Supporters wishing to purchase tickets in the ICTFC Singing Section should select Section 2 of the Jackie Husband Stand.

Last time out, and on the telly, we had a massively disappointing home draw with QotS where we looked jaded and devoid of ideas.

• KDM Trophy

  12/08/25 4-1 Elgin City(H)

  26/08/25/ 4-1 Aberdeen(H)
  05/09/25 2-1 Binos(H)
  23/09/25 6-0 Dundee(H)
  11/10/25 4-1 Forfar Ath(A)
  11/11/25 6-0 Dundee Utd(H)
  16/12/25 9-0 Dumbarton(A)
  06/01/26 P-P Partick Th(A)
  13/01/26 3-3 Partick Th(A)
  2701/26 1-0 Sten'muir(H)
  24/02/26 2-1 Ayr United(A)
  05/04/26 - Raith Rovers(N)

We will need all hands to the pumps if we are to lift the trophy. Chanka Zimba appears to be free to play on Sunday but will miss the crunch title match at Stenhousemuir. Hopefully Liam Sole and Danny Devine will be fit and maybe we can have our best right back this season in Calum MacLeod starting. It's no use sitting in for ninety minutes against Raith Rovers and then wondering what if! We need to be clinical and pacey, not sloppy and pedestrian. In our favour, we are at our best when we are underdogs!!!

Raith Rovers last squad out in a comfortable 3-0 win over Ayr United who have since sacked Scott Brown. Surely it's not that embarrassing losing to Rovers A brace from Innes Cameron and one from Richard Chin sealed Broon's fate. Rovers have had a disappointing season by their own standards and sit just outside the top four. Dougie Imrie is now the boss having taken over from Barry Robson in November.

Raith's KDM:

• Rovers 5-2 Accies

• Rovers 1-0 QotSth

• Q Park 1-1 Rovers (1-3 pens)

• Airdrie 1-1 Rovers (3-5 pens)

• Jai Rowe scored 3 v Accies

• Easton has two KDM goals

Championship stats >

• Raith have 34 for & 34 against

• ⚽ Dylan Easton has 8 goals

• ⚽ Jack Hamilton has 6 goals

Rovers have claimed the trophy three times in four attempts. In season 2013/14 they beat Rangers by a solitary goal in the Ramsden Cup. Former Caley Jag John Baird scored the winner at Easter Road in front of almost 20,000. Having shared the Tunnocks Caramel Wafer Trophy in 2019/20 with the Caley Jags; one for you and one for me, they then won it two seasons later when they beat Queen of the South 3-1 at the Excelsior Stadium with two headed goals from Matej Poplatnik and a strike from Ethan Ross. It was then known as the SPFL Trust Trophy. In Season 2022/23 they lost out in the final 1-0 to Hamilton Accies when it was still the SPFL Trust Trophy, with Reghan Tumilty the scorer. That brings us up to date where they play the Caley Jags at Firhill on Sunday 5th April.

The Final Countdown has started>>>

Inverness CT 58pts	THE RUN IN	Stenhousemuir 60pts
ICTFC NO ⛔ GAME	4th April @ 15:00	3 STENNY - Accies 0
🏆 KDM FINAL - ICTFC 🏆	5th April @16:10	🏆📺 Raith Rovers 🏆
STENNY v ICTFC - 📺	11th April @17:30	STENNY v ICTFC - 📺
Peterhead v ICTFC - 📺	14th April @19:45	STENNY - No ⛔ Game
ICTFC v Kelty Hearts	18th April @15:00	Cove v STENNY
East Fife v ICTFC	25th April @15:00	STENNY v Alloa
ICTFC v Accies	2nd May @15:00	Montrose v STENNY

43 minutes ago, Robert said:

Tongue in cheek, where on earth are you 😂😂??

My grass is soaking and will take time to recover from last night’s snow as I cut it on Thursday, which now seems a big mistake.

The squad needs to put today behind them and focus on five more cup finals in the league.

It is also a message that, whilst we saw off Partick and Ayr, we’ve a way to go if we do go up.

I don't care if the grass is wet. The mood I was in when I went out, I would have got down on my knees and chewed the grass short myself! I had a tidy of the shed instead - it felt good to throw some crap around for a bit!

Edited April 5Apr 5 by ClickbaitProponent
typo

Frustrating watch, just sloppy all round and mistakes were punished. If we were going to persist with playing out from defense then I feel Alonge and Zimba shouldn't have come off sooner as they struggled to get into the game. Could have done with an extra experienced head on the pitch for the game. For all the fuss we made signing Witherspoon in the summer, don't feel like he's played much and is a bit wasted.

Funny how Zimba plays against the world’s best then looks out of his depth against Raith Rovers. Must be the jet lag!

So disappointing. Thought Wotherspoon did more than Sole and Alonge put together in the small amount of time he was on. Seemed very self-inflicted, and hope it doesn't affect us going forward. Talking of which, does someone want to tell Joe Chalmers which direction we play in - every move was backwards!

9 minutes ago, Caleyjag said:

So disappointing. Thought Wotherspoon did more than Sole and Alonge put together in the small amount of time he was on. Seemed very self-inflicted, and hope it doesn't affect us going forward. Talking of which, does someone want to tell Joe Chalmers which direction we play in - every move was backwards!

Alonge got the free kick for Alfie to redeem his bad pass which he passed where and when the captain directed. I can't see what Millen has done to get his starting place.

I was surprised when Sole came off the pitch - I hadn't realised he'd been on it.

14 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

Disappointed that we let a lumbering donkey score twice against us…..

Thing is Cameron’s physicality is what we will most likely come up against with most teams if we achieve promotion (and there has to be a degree of uncertainty about that just now).

We had our ‘big’ forwards in Zimba and Alonge on the park today. It will take a couple of days to make a sensible assessment of today’s defeat (ie game plan / tactics). A difference for me (on first impressions) was our service to our forwards was poor to non existent for the most. - They had to fall deep to get any possession, as such their strengths (not running) went most unused.

Raith to the contrary used the large amount of space we afforded them (by sitting too far back) to get their ball players to put pressure on our defence.

Mistakes happen to the best of players. AlfieS is one of our top players IMO, but today it just didn’t work for him. (Just unlucky for an off-day to occur).

We certainly missed Danny at CH. Remi is a (VG) sweeper. But he needs a large CH in front of him to be effective. We suffered I feel today not having that bulk.

The match and cup run is now done and history. We have too much to look ahead to feel sorry for ourselves. Move on and prepare for the Stenny match.

bc

Edited April 5Apr 5 by big cherly

Our attacking players were pretty disappointing. Bavidge looked lively when he came on, but it was all over by then.

Edited April 5Apr 5 by Yngwie

I blame everything on Stenhousemuir.

That aside, we did remarkably well to get to this Cup Final.

26 minutes ago, luddite said:

Alonge got the free kick for Alfie to redeem his bad pass which he passed where and when the captain directed. I can't see what Millen has done to get his starting place.

Ah ok, let me refresh, it FELT like Wotherspoon did more than the other two :-)

High percentage of our passing today either missed the intended target or was intercepted with costly repercussions.

Players off form or the tombola selection preventing vital partnerships developing?

Who knows, a poor performance to go with the terrible (but justified) result.

We don't have the time for an extended period of navel gazing. This needs to be put behind us quickly, time to focus on the week ahead.

It's a sad day when the highlight of our weekend was County getting pumped 0-4 in a six pointer relegation battle. ☹️

1 hour ago, Yngwie said:

Bavidge looked lively when he came on

Really?

Watched the game on Alba. Wish I hadn't. Awful to watch. Sloppy all over the pitch. It's going to take a monumental effort by Kells to get these players motivated for the final games of the season. Bouncing back from that performance to beat Stenny is not going to be easy. Lose that then we have to feel it's all over. We really do need to avoid the play offs.

Congratulations to Dougie in what has been a difficult year for him

7 minutes ago, tm4tj said:

Congratulations to Dougie in what has been a difficult year for him

Refreshing, direct and honest. Hope the bloke takes some solace from the victory for what he and his wife have been through.

bc

Looking for positives from yesterday, I found that there is a pleasant canalside walk back from Firhill to the city centre, with houseboats on it, which I didn’t know about.

I was also surprised that from the path you can see the vast majority of the pitch.

40 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

Looking for positives from yesterday, I found that there is a pleasant canalside walk back from Firhill to the city centre, with houseboats on it, which I didn’t know about.

I was also surprised that from the path you can see the vast majority of the pitch.

As Billy Fish and i wandered along the canal heading for refreshments yesterday i happened to notice a cormorant flying along the canal towards the city! not very often will you see one of these birds in Maryhill!

Well, that was a hard watch. Only for about 10 minutes leading up to H/T did I feel we might have a sniff of a chance. I can't help feeling that we are burned out, and I really can't see us winning this league, and the liklihood of playoffs certainly doesn't fill me with confidence.

Come on lads, prove me wrong. Onwards and upwards

Decent day out spoiled by 90 minutes of football.

Always going to be difficult when you gift your opponents 3 goals.

As always we lacked speed and imagination up front, something that has been screaming out for attention for most of the season : when Raith got their chances they were ruthless.

Disappointing but hopefully we can put that behind us next saturday.

I thought the tactics might have been changed or tweaked after the boys had warmed up on the pretty bobbly pitch?

1 hour ago, The Mantis said:

Decent day out spoiled by 90 minutes of football.

We had a fab day out bar the 90 mins.

16 hours ago, DoofersDad said:

I was surprised when Sole came off the pitch - I hadn't realised he'd been on it.

The time I noticed him was when Munro had caught the ball, Sole was in acres of space on the left and asking for the ball to launch an attack, Munro saw him but instead of throwing it to Sole he stuck with the usual tactic, rolled it out to the right for us to play out from their, we got dispossessed and bang, 3-1.

Raith tinted highlights - ICTFC are still looking for their highlight