It's not how we imagined it

Well, it's the scenario that no Caley Jags fan wanted. If we could have chosen one team to stroke off our last game of the season title deciding clash, Hamilton Accies would probably be the peoples choice. It doesn't bother me that we have had previous with Accies over the years regarding relegation, it's the fact that they are the form team in the league on three wins on the bounce and if you remove their 21 point deduction, they would be sitting third in the table on merit. Add in the factor that Accies need at least one point, dependant on another result, to have any hope of avoiding the relegation play-off but a better option for Accies is going for all three points. We are also well aware that they have top strikers in Oli Shaw and Kevin O'Hara and they are the third top scorers in the league with 53 goals behind us and Queen of the South. The other major stumbling block is our own form. We are hell bent on drawing our way to the title with four draws over the last six which has included playing teams in the relegation zone. Whilst we are unbeaten in the League over 17 games we could have been out of site long before now. Instead of that we have turned wins into draws and are paying the price for our failure to kill games off when well on top. That price is no finger nails left and confidence draining away from the park to the stands. Here's a thought to cheer us up. Our last defeat was 18 games ago when we lost 2-1 at Montrose. On Saturday Stenhousemuir visit Montrose looking to win the title

Apart from all that we have nothing to worry about!

Of the three previous meetings this season: We were blown away 3-1 at NDP on a miserable day during Storm Amy in October: Accies blew Inverness away with Amy spoiling our day. Goals from O'Hara, McDonald and Shaw were enough to win the three points and send Accies to the top of the table. Bavidge scored our counter but we dropped to third with Stenhousemuir second. We exacted revenge back in the Highlands before Xmas with a 4-0 thrashing of Accies. It was a convincing win for the table toppers with goals from Mitchell Robertson, Chanka Zimba, his 13th of the season, substitutes Alfie Bavidge and Billy Mckay. Boom! In the last meeting away at Broadwood an Alfie Bavidge goal separated the sides in a scrappy affair. At that stage, the Caley Jags moved 5 points ahead after beating Accies 1-0 thanks to Alfie Bavidge's first half header.

With County relegated at Kirkaldy after a 3-2 defeat to Raith Rovers, Airdrie will be in the relegation/promotion games against the League1 teams who finish in second, third and fourth places.

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Match/Ticket/Bar94/Bus/Info

Bring a Friend for a £5 - u12 £1

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This was our squad that struggled on the artificial surface at Bayview. It took a brilliant strike from Billy Mckay to rescue a point in the 89th minute after Michael McKenna had given the Fifer's the lead shortly after the interval. That was goal No 131 for Billy and could prove to be his most crucial strike yet.

• Last Six League1:

• D D D W W D

Liam Sole has been struggling with a calf injury and has missed out recently. We badly need his pace up front in an attacking manner.

• 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?

Accies are on a three game winning streak as they try to escape the relegation zone. To be honest it would be an unbelievable achievement should they escape after a 21 point deduction for gross mismanagement. We all know how that feels.

Accies Manager Darian MacKinnon has been named as MotM for April with three wins on the bounce. May the curse be with you!

• Last Six League1:

• D L L W W W

Accies drew 2-2 at Cove before losing the next two at home to Kelty (1-2) and a 3-0 loss at Stenhousemuir. They have since made a sprint for the finishing line beating Alloa 1-0, Montrose 0-2 and last time out beating Peterhead 3-1. Those results have taken them close to safety and they sit one point below East Fife and three points below Cove Rangers but with a much better GD than both. All to play for at the bottom but it depends on the result at Cove v East Fife to determine their destiny combined with a result at Inverness other than a defeat.

Oli Shaw has scored three times over the last six games. He is the leading scorer in League1 with 19 goals. In comparison our best League scorers this season is Chanka Zimba with 11 and Alfie Bavidge with 10.

Steven Bradley will need rehab after picking up an injury at Montrose.

It will be some achievement should Accies avoid relegation, but to do that they need to not lose which is not in our best interest.

• Inverness CT deducted 5 points as per SPFL rules on clubs suffering an insolvency event

• Hamilton Academical deducted 6 points following breaches of multiple SPFL Rules. 

• Hamilton Academical deducted 9 points following SPFL Disciplinary Tribunal. 

• Hamilton Academical deducted 6 points following SPFL Disciplinary Tribunal 

Pos.		P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	PTS
1	Inverness CT*	35	20	11	4	58	23	35	66
2	Stenhousemuir	35	17	13	5	48	27	21	64
3	Alloa Athletic	35	15	8	12	49	34	15	53
4	Queen of the South	35	13	12	10	54	46	8	51
5	Peterhead	35	12	7	16	48	62	-14	43
6	Montrose	35	11	9	15	48	65	-17	42
7	Cove Rangers	35	9	10	16	41	44	-3	37
8	East Fife	35	9	8	18	34	61	-27	35
9	Hamilton Accies *	35	16	7	12	53	40	13	34
	Kelty Hearts	35	5	11	19	31	62	-31	26

Everyone available according to Scott Kellacher

After tonight's final Championship games

Ross County Relegated - Airdrie in play-offs.

Semi-Final: 1st Leg Tue 5th May 19:45 4th in L1 v Airdrie

Semi-Final: 1st Leg Tue 5th May 19:45 3rd in L1 v 2nd in L1

Semi-Final: 2nd Leg Sat 9th May 15:00 Airdrie v 4th in L1

Semi-Final: 2nd Leg Sat 9th May 15:00 2nd in L1 v 3rd in L1

Final: 1st Leg Wed 13th May 19:45 Lowest remaining seed at home

Final: 2nd Leg Sat 16th May 17:30 Highest remaining seed at home

I've had a bit of sympathy for Accies fans over the season with the mess the management has made of their club and the subsequent points deductions. We know what that's like. But a lot of the sympathy has disappeared having seen what a tiny number of supporters bothered to support their team in what was a must win match. The manager and team have done brilliantly to get in touching distance of survival and yet there were just small numbers of fans dotted about in the South Stand. Compare that with our fans selling out the away accommodation against East Fife and then the Home support yesterday. How the Hamilton players must have wished that they could have had the kind of support we have!

1 hour ago, old caley girl said:

Can you add north stand loo issues lol

What issues, I never noticed any. Apart from lots of elbowing at the doors I had a most refreshing and unencumbered visit to the toilets. Plenty of standing room as well.😃

bc

Edited May 3May 3 by big cherly

37 minutes ago, tm4tj said:

Last one for the season out of 64 I think (including friendlies)

Cheers IBM keeping the stats ticking over.

Cheers Scotty keeping the site ticking over.

It would be remiss of me (taking the liberty of all other posters) to not thank you tm4tj for your immense input over this (and previous) seasons for your diligent, humorous and informative pre and post match reports.

The most important contribution to the forum IMO.

Well done, and looking forward to your reports next season from the CHAMPIONSHIP league.

bc

Edited May 3May 3 by big cherly

Well said bc, I’m sure we all echo that, and are grateful for all the unseen effort that goes into the previews, reports, stats etc.

Edited May 3May 3 by Robert

A vlog from yesterdays game, lots of well kent faces...

Presumably someone somewhere has a similar stage proclaiming Stenhousemuir as winners?

18 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

Presumably someone somewhere has a similar stage proclaiming Stenhousemuir as winners?

Someone check eBay and reclamation yards across Stirlingshire this week

5 hours ago, tm4tj said:

A vlog from yesterdays game, lots of well kent faces...

Oh wow, John gets around. He was at my other club AFC Totton for our play off final victory last season on the south coast of England and did a video on that too. Lovely guy. https://youtu.be/z3kW_XLAwBo

CHAMPIONS

Great wee double act 👏

1 hour ago, ryjayy said:

Someone check eBay and reclamation yards across Stirlingshire this week

I suspect Ross County have already bought it and painted over Stenhousemuir and 2025/26...however big Jordan will not stand on it next May.

2 hours ago, Yngwie said:

Presumably someone somewhere has a similar stage proclaiming Stenhousemuir as winners?

It actually came on the helicopter.

I thought about this too and it reminded me of when Rangers had their display boards on show in a skip outside the ground the next day.

Just got home to sunny Berkshire after a wonderful couple of days back in Inverness. All 6 of us thoroughly enjoyed the game and thought our first half performance in particular was outstanding. So much better than most of the performances watched on Alba in recent weeks. A pity about the unnecessary pitch invasion before the game ended which made me worry for a few minutes that the ref might abandon the game.

As others have said Bar94 was really buzzing pre match and enjoyable to be part of. We then treated ourselves to the hospitality package which, one again, was excellent. Our 6 shared a table with 3 Aberdeen supporters whose hobby is going round as many grounds in Scotland sampling their hospitality offerings. One of these 3 won 2nd prize in a raffle which was taking place. It was a football signed by our whole championship winning side and the Aberdeen supporter very kindly gave it to me, as he realised it would mean more to a Caley supporter than it would to him. An extremely generous and much appreciated gesture. The ball is already taking pride of place amongst my personal Caley memorabilia.

Only downer for us was that BA managed to lose the hand luggage of 2 of our group on the way back to London, having insisted at Inverness airport that it would have to be checked into the hold as there was limited space for hand luggage in the cabin on an absolutely full plane. After waiting more than an hour at the luggage carousel BA finally found out that the missing bags were still in Inverness, and that they would try and get them to us in the next few days. But even all that hassle will not spoil our memories of a wonderful, and fully deserved victory. Well done to all concerned.

Onwards and deservedly, upwards!

I must say, I really enjoyed yesterday as the atmosphere was electric. From the moment we walked in just after 1430hrs, the crowd beside us in the north stand were singing non stop and creating a very enjoyable atmosphere that even the stewards were enjoying!! That **** Martin Hughes was even orchestrating the crowd in the whole of the North Stand at one point so I really don't know what caused him to break the law in the way he did, I was even going to defend him until I saw on Twitter late last night what he did to young school aged kids!!!

As has been said, we were excellent for most of the match and Accies terrible. The early goal certainly settled nerves imho and the party was in full swing when Billy scored the second 😀.

I will certainly be back again but probably back in the main stand because it's easier to see the action from there lol, all the goals were scored up the far end typically 😂.

2 hours ago, big cherly said:

What issues, I never noticed any. Apart from lots of elbowing at the doors I had a most refreshing and unencumbered visit to the toilets. Plenty of standing room as well.😃

12 hours ago, Caley Mad In Berks said:

Just got home to sunny Berkshire after a wonderful couple of days back in Inverness. All 6 of us thoroughly enjoyed the game and thought our first half performance in particular was outstanding. So much better than most of the performances watched on Alba in recent weeks. A pity about the unnecessary pitch invasion before the game ended which made me worry for a few minutes that the ref might abandon the game.

As others have said Bar94 was really buzzing pre match and enjoyable to be part of. We then treated ourselves to the hospitality package which, one again, was excellent. Our 6 shared a table with 3 Aberdeen supporters whose hobby is going round as many grounds in Scotland sampling their hospitality offerings. One of these 3 won 2nd prize in a raffle which was taking place. It was a football signed by our whole championship winning side and the Aberdeen supporter very kindly gave it to me, as he realised it would mean more to a Caley supporter than it would to him. An extremely generous and much appreciated gesture. The ball is already taking pride of place amongst my personal Caley memorabilia.

Only downer for us was that BA managed to lose the hand luggage of 2 of our group on the way back to London, having insisted at Inverness airport that it would have to be checked into the hold as there was limited space for hand luggage in the cabin on an absolutely full plane. After waiting more than an hour at the luggage carousel BA finally found out that the missing bags were still in Inverness, and that they would try and get them to us in the next few days. But even all that hassle will not spoil our memories of a wonderful, and fully deserved victory. Well done to all concerned.

Onwards and deservedly, upwards!

Aw which table were you on? I was at table 11. Wish Id known I would have popped over to introduce ourselves

OCG

We were at table 10. We must have been right next to you. And maybe also for the match, we were in row 11. Yes, it is a real pity we could not have met and introduced ourselves after so many years together on this site. In Bar 94 before we went into hospitality I did have a good look round to see if I recognised anyone from previous visits, but no luck.

After the game in hospitality, with things running late because of the pitch invasion etc, we had to leave at 6pm to get our taxi back to our hotel, which was just after our two young players were introduced, so we missed the man of the match presentation and any other post game speeches, which was a shame.

Maybe next time I'm up we can get our act together better and at least meet to say 'hello'.

CMIB (Sandy Stewart)

Match Highlights from ICTFC

22 hours ago, Caley Mad In Berks said:

Just got home to sunny Berkshire after a wonderful couple of days back in Inverness. All 6 of us thoroughly enjoyed the game and thought our first half performance in particular was outstanding. So much better than most of the performances watched on Alba in recent weeks. A pity about the unnecessary pitch invasion before the game ended which made me worry for a few minutes that the ref might abandon the game.

As others have said Bar94 was really buzzing pre match and enjoyable to be part of. We then treated ourselves to the hospitality package which, one again, was excellent. Our 6 shared a table with 3 Aberdeen supporters whose hobby is going round as many grounds in Scotland sampling their hospitality offerings. One of these 3 won 2nd prize in a raffle which was taking place. It was a football signed by our whole championship winning side and the Aberdeen supporter very kindly gave it to me, as he realised it would mean more to a Caley supporter than it would to him. An extremely generous and much appreciated gesture. The ball is already taking pride of place amongst my personal Caley memorabilia.

Only downer for us was that BA managed to lose the hand luggage of 2 of our group on the way back to London, having insisted at Inverness airport that it would have to be checked into the hold as there was limited space for hand luggage in the cabin on an absolutely full plane. After waiting more than an hour at the luggage carousel BA finally found out that the missing bags were still in Inverness, and that they would try and get them to us in the next few days. But even all that hassle will not spoil our memories of a wonderful, and fully deserved victory. Well done to all concerned.

Onwards and deservedly, upwards!

Glad you had such a great trip Sandy...any suggestion that those staff at Inverness Airport were Ross County supporters by any chance??

On 5/2/2026 at 5:26 PM, Yngwie said:

Gutted not to be there, been on a car journey all after for a family occasion so had to make do with Radio Scotland’s very disappointing coverage. They only went to our game for goals and the penalty and the reporter wasn’t very good. 3 separate tiInes, including the full time score, she said it was 2-2. Was very confusing!

Agree entirely. I had Radio Scotland on as well. The commentary was Killie v Dundee Utd and I was in the car during the first half - all well and good - what seemed a comfortable 2-0 lead. My son and his girlfriend have just bought their first house and I was driving over there to help them get it sorted. Last I heard it was 2-0 before I had to turn the volume down quite a bit when we we talking about what needed doing next. I must have half heard the same bit as I'm also convinced she said it was 2-2. When I got to turn it back up again and heard the result I was surprised - pleasantly so, obviously.

Maybe an odd time to choose to make this public, but Gary Naysmith is off to manage Ayr United in the Championship. Announced the day after Stenny drew 1-1 at Queen of the South with the return leg coming up on Saturday.

Alloa 1-0 Airdrie.

Accies beat Forfar 3-1 at Station Park in their quest to stay in league1.

Dunfermline beat Arbroath 1-0

1 hour ago, The Hammer said:

. TBH the amount of opinion on different things probably warrants a thread on it's own

Yeah, I was of a similar mind but the Accies match was instrumental and directly related to many points. I was also to lazy to start a new topic!

bc

Edited May 7May 7 by big cherly

Airdrie drop out of the Championship, therefore the team joining us in the Championship will come from Alloa, Stenny or Qots.

Stenny 2-2 heading for penalties.

Stenny win on penalties

Alloa v Stenny for place in Championship

Got to look at Stenny for potential signings, what a good team they’ve been this year and if they come up with us then raiding them has a double benefit!

I’d expect that Naysmith will take the best to Ayr.

3 hours ago, Yngwie said:

I’d expect that Naysmith will take the best to Ayr.

A lot of part time players have very good full time jobs with football providing an additional income for a great pastime. So I suspect not too many options there when you also factor in accommodation issues.

4 minutes ago, CELTIC1CALEY3 said:

A lot of part time players have very good full time jobs with football providing an additional income for a great pastime. So I suspect not too many options there when you also factor in accommodation issues.

I tend to agree with this. He might get one or two at best. The rest will likely stay as the cream of the part time players. We used to implement a hybrid, I wonder if we could do similar for any top part timers up this way.