Crucial Kelty Crunch Game

After a convincing 2-0 win at Peterhead in midweek, the Caley Jags head into the final three games of the season with a one point advantage over a relentless Stenhousemuir. A stunning Alfie Stewart free kick and an equally impressive team goal put into the net by Chanka Zimba saw us leap frog the Warriors with no room for error over the final 270 minutes. Kelty come North on the back of a great result against Montrose which has seen them narrow the gap to safety and they now sit five points adrift of Cove Rangers and two behind Hamilton Accies. With Kelty in as much need of points as us but for different reasons, then this could be a tough game all round but one we are well capable of dealing with after showing more conviction in the second half at Balmoor.

Don't forget to put your retro shirts on.

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Match/Ticket/Bus/Bar/Info

Bring a Friend for a Fiver

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All 8 Competitive Meetings

0 - 0 (A)

2 - 2 (H)

3 - 0 (A)

0 - 2 (H)

1 - 0 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

0 - 0 (A)

1 - 0 (A)

We were in the Pink at Balmoor on Tuesday night and warmed to the task with an assured performance to put promotion back in our own grasp, but there's no wiggle room with Stenny breathing down our necks. Keep it under your hat, but Alfie Stewart is turning out to be a great asset. He doesn't do tap-ins. Every one of his goals this season have been belters.

• Last Six League1:

• D W D D D W 

Not turning draws into wins has been a major stumbling block this season in our drive for promotion. We took the bull by the horns against Peterhead and took the game to them, especially in the second half where nobody would have complained had we scored half a dozen.

Here's a sobering thought. We have never beaten Kelty at home in the three games we have played in the Highlands with one defeat and two draws.

The diamond shaped midfield worked well at Peterhead, especially in the second half where we went for the jugular.

Chanka Zimba notched his 19th goal of the season at Peterhead and Alfie's stunner was his eighth.

Getting to the game

Bar 94 and Matchday Bus times for Saturday's game against Kelty Hearts.

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, when expect to be joined by some of the players.

Operated by Stagecoach, buses will leave the Bus Station for the Stadium at 1245 and 1415.

Buses return from the Stadium to the Bus Station 10 minutes after the full time whistle and at 1800.

The bus fare is £2 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.

Why not come down early, make a day of it, and wait to see the players after full time?

Saturday is Retro Shirt Day in Bar 94, so a chance to wear your all time favourite strip, whilst we also have excellent, high quality framed prints of the Stadium, produced and donated by member Stewart Coghill, available for purchase at £50 each.

Some great shirts over the years. Dig out your grandads olde shirt and wear it with pride, preferably without your grandad still inside it.

The Kelty recovery continued last Saturday with a tremendous 3-1 win at home to Montrose. An Arnott penalty and a brace from Cooper won the points at New Central Park. That followed on from an excellent 2-1 win away to Accies and an equally impressive home draw with Queen of the South who ended that game with ten men.

• Last Six League1:

• L D L W D W 

It's not been the best of seasons for the Maroons since we beat them 3-0 in the season opener back on the 2nd of August. Seems like a lifetime away now. However with the return of Cunningham, Kelty have a glimmer of hope in avoiding automatic relegation and that looked a forlorn hope a month ago.

January window signings:

In: Arran Pettifer, midfielder (Arbroath); Dylan Corr, defender (Morton, loan to permanent); Ross Cunningham, forward (Stirling Albion)

Loan in: Cammy Cooper, forward (Airdrie); Sam Fisher, defender (Dunfermline); Alasdair Davidson, defender (Dunfermline)

Pos	Team	Pld	Gd	Pts
1	ICTFC	33	34	62
2	Stenny	33	22	61
3	Alloa	33	14	50
4	QuotS	33	8	49
5	P'Head	33	-12	42
6	Monty	33	-15	41
7	E Fife	33	-25	34
8	Cove	33	-7	31
9	Accies	33	9	28
10	Kelty	33	-28	26

Going to the wire! How's your nails>>>

Inverness CT 62pts	THE RUN IN	Stenhousemuir 61pts
P'Head  0-2 ICTFC ✔️	14th April	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

Happily settle on a 1-0 victory as it’s the three points that’s important, however I believe this can be a 4 or 5 goal romp for us if the team applies the same mindset displayed impressively against Peterhead on Tuesday.

Don’t care what Stenny do. We should be confident to master our own destiny.

bc

Edited April 17Apr 17 by big cherly

Confident for this one if we can keep up the form from the last couple matches. Here’s hoping Cove can take something from Stenny as well. If they drop points we could all but secure the title in Fife next week. What a party day that could be.

That’s a poor first 45 from us. Need a big improvement second half. At least Stenny are losing but let’s make this count.

Get Wotherspoon and Billy on!

Yesssssss! Come on Caley Thistle 😊

Stenny lost 2-0. Hang on boys and it's in our hands next week away down in Fife.

We are going up ... we are going up! I can almost taste it. Stenny at home to an inform Alloa next week and us away at an out of form East Fife. If we win and Stenny win - we go up! All we need to do is win next week! Apologies ... I'm that excited, a little bit of wee came out!

Well done to all. Following this on text on the train home from Glasgow, very hard work! I would gather that 3 points is all the matters

Going to have to win it for ourselves. We now have to play two teams desperate for points.

Alloa are now safely in the playoffs, and Montrose are safe in mid-table, so neither might put up much of a fight against Stenny.

Great day for us! Yes we had an easier fixture than Stenny, but we still had to get the win.

Two games left, one win or 2 draws makes us champions, but let’s win it at East Fife please.

Did not appear to be very convincing, but a win is a win. Well done lads. One more win or even two draws guarantee us the title I'll take that! Well done to Cove for doing their bit today.

Onwards and upwards!

7 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

one win or 2 draws makes us champions,

Assuming Stenny don't get two 8-0 wins! 😄

14 minutes ago, buckett said:

Assuming Stenny don't get two 8-0 wins! 😄

Well I've already pointed out that they will be playing two teams with nothing to play for

A hard earned 3 points. We weren't the best team today (that was Kelty IMO), but their lack of any striker potency and our use of the wind / planned crowding of the goals at the corner, was enough to harness the desired three points.

For once I can give Kellacher credit to understand our first 45 minutes was poor and changes were needed. Longstaff provided much needed width and the timing of the other subs was spot on. (Always feel Spoony offers that vision and quality of passing we need).

You can only deal with the opposition and weather that you face, so well done securing the three points. Almost there!!!

bc

Added footnote. I thought highly of the Kelty No 35 Brydon (I think). Commanded the Kelty defence (with the exception of our goal), was mobile and always seemed to be available to receive the ball. His passing was good and lastly was the closest to nearly scoring a goal for Kelty with a left foot shot in the second half. My MoTM and one to keep an eye on if Remi moves on in the summer!

bc

Edited April 18Apr 18 by big cherly

Poor game and we seemed lacking in energy and urgency on the first half. Substitutions and change on formation helped in the second half but we started to sit way too deep after we scored. Thus gave Kelty plenty of space to attack us but fortunately they were so poor. Felt Kellagher should have been telling yhe team to get higher up the pitch but for whatever reason we didn't. A better team than Kelty could have punished us.

Still, a win is a win so let's go and finish the job next week

Finally the referee, he was simply dreadful and inconsistent with his decisions. We definitely got done by him.

That was a pretty shocking performance, but a wins a win. Another win next week to wrap it up please.

Our league tables working again keep it going lads.

1 hour ago, KennySim93 said:

That was a pretty shocking performance, but a wins a win. Another win next week to wrap it up please.

A win is definitely as win! I thought Kelty might be hard to turn over, but we got over that hurdle, after the two good performances against Stenny and Peterhead, maybe nerves or lack of energy got the better of us...but Stenny failed at Cove, which I thought was possible. East Fife won't be walk-over but a week to rest/prepare and hopefully a desire not to take promotion to the last game should do the trick

Kelty won the toss and hoped the wind advantage would help them in the first half: it didn’t.

Second half we deservedly overcame them to win.

Job done.

We move on.

Edited April 19Apr 19 by Robert

Were it not for the 5 point deduction, we would have become league champions yesterday.

(That’s assuming of course that everything this season turned out the same as it would have if we did not have the deduction!)

I stay just a mile or so from New Bayview so really looking forward to what should be a great day.

Paul Allan's corner kick dropped onto the goal line. Massive 3points

24 minutes ago, DWH said:

I stay just a mile or so from New Bayview so really looking forward to what should be a great day.

Nip along and open up some more seating...

42 minutes ago, tm4tj said:

Paul Allan's corner kick dropped onto the goal line. Massive 3points

Hard to tell from that video how it went in, and this ‘spot the ball’ pic from P&J doesn’t shed much more light. Keeper’s positioning looks questionable!