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.

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

Match/Ticket/Bar94/Bus/Info

Bring a Friend for a £5 - u12 £1

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

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

Clyde v Accies on BBC Alba just now...

Pars v Partick on BBC Scotland just now...

Both ended 1-1.

Very surprised at Accies only drawing, I expected them to score a couple more once they went 1 up 😱.

I watched the Pars v Plastic game. Thought it was a good game and Pars were robbed by that awful ref. Result leaves it nicely poised for the 2nd leg. IMHO if either of these sides reached the 'promised land of the VAR ridden SPL' I'm not confident they will last the pace.

Alloa v Stenny live on BBC Alba - Kick-Off 7:45

Looks like Stenny are joining us in the Championship barring a collapse in the second leg.

Happy for that. Over the course of the season, they have got the job done and deserve it.

The ground staff, left to right, Cambell Stephen, Dale Stephen Groundsman, Terry C. MacQueen, Fraser Stephen.

Looks like Roy's finally seen the light

12 hours ago, bishbashbosh said:

Looks like Roy's finally seen the light

They have milked him dry.....at least he will have about 10 staff caravans to re-let to tourists....

56 minutes ago, CELTIC1CALEY3 said:

They have milked him dry.....at least he will have about 10 staff caravans to re-let to tourists....

They have recognised that the higher paid members of the squad never managed to gel into an effective team. They are actively recruiting for next season and have learnt lessons from ICT's "togetherness". I expect most of the caravans will be in use next season. With an analysis of what went wrong, together with MacGregor's continued financing, I expect County will comfortably win the title. Hope I'm wrong - I often am!

1 hour ago, DoofersDad said:

They have recognised that the higher paid members of the squad never managed to gel into an effective team. They are actively recruiting for next season and have learnt lessons from ICT's "togetherness". I expect most of the caravans will be in use next season. With an analysis of what went wrong, together with MacGregor's continued financing, I expect County will comfortably win the title. Hope I'm wrong - I often am!

Rumoured we are looking at signing two of them. I would also take Connor Randall if he fancies staying in the area another couple of years, decent player, but is 3 underachievers too many.

5 hours ago, bishbashbosh said:

Rumoured we are looking at signing two of them. I would also take Connor Randall if he fancies staying in the area another couple of years, decent player, but is 3 underachievers too many.

With the exception of Andrew Bannerman, the ex-Chief Executive of Raith Rovers F C and Gardyne, if my memory serves me right, we have quite a good record of rehabilitating Ross County players who have signed for us. There is Billy Mckay......

Edited May 15May 15 by CELTIC1CALEY3
Update

6 hours ago, bishbashbosh said:

Rumoured we are looking at signing two of them. I would also take Connor Randall if he fancies staying in the area another couple of years, decent player, but is 3 underachievers too many.

Who are those we are rumoured to be looking at?

2 hours ago, Robert said:

Who are those we are rumoured to be looking at?

Dylan smith and wait for it…… Big Jordan.

PS…….I would take Noah Chilvers. County were heading for top 6 in the SPL, he did his knee in, was out for months and the decline of county started as they begun dropping to the bottom and into the championship. Only returned to squad in April this year with 3 games of the season remaining, wasn’t up to speed for those games..

He made them tick before the injury.

I will leave it to the management team to get players in, too many county players would be a bad thing for us.😃

Edited May 15May 15 by bishbashbosh

If they don't go pear shaped, then Accies will be playing in League1 again after a 4-3 win over Clyde last night giving them a 5-4 aggregate win over the Bully Wee. It has to be said that Clyde gave them a run for their money (no pun intended), but all the same in a footballing sense, that's some achievement for Accies to avoid relegation after a 21 point deduction. 👏

The big match today seen hundreds of stewards and a considerable amount of police and yet they couldn’t control it.. If the fans want on the pitch then nothings stopping them.

22 hours ago, ICTPaisley said:

The big match today seen hundreds of stewards and a considerable amount of police and yet they couldn’t control it.. If the fans want on the pitch then nothings stopping them.

I don’t get or understand this view or position ICTP. Are we such a people that feel we are incapable or unwilling to challenge riotous and aggressive behaviour on our football fields?

I’m going to separate the club from the behaviour here. It can be any clubs fans where a section are almost at encouraged to be in attendance but they have their own rules that are out with the considered norms of acceptable behaviour and consequences. The authorities and clubs need to come down hard on the Neds. - Again revenue trumps everything and comes before principles.

In the title decider we had a number of Hearts players physically threatened (never mind the verbal ) by Celtic fans. Completely unacceptable - End Off!

I will keep repeating the line. It is only one step to where a fatal incident occurs before the hand wringing and politicians superficial condemnation begins. Watch this space!!!!!!!

bc

Edited May 17May 17 by big cherly

23 hours ago, ICTPaisley said:

If the fans want on the pitch then nothings stopping them.

The SPFL statement released today notes that going onto the pitch has been a criminal offence in England and Wales for 35 years. Just sayin'...

3 hours ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

The SPFL statement released today notes that going onto the pitch has been a criminal offence in England and Wales for 35 years. Just sayin'...

Well this is exactly the kind of stance that needs to be taken. My point was our club could spend so much more on stewards and a police presence but ultimately it’s going to do nothing. Our club don’t have the power here.

Harsher punishments need to be brought in, if that is matching laws in England and Wales then excellent. Is there a problem down there with this kind of thing? Outside of that banning fans from attending is the next step.

12 hours ago, ICTPaisley said:

Harsher punishments need to be brought in, if that is matching laws in England and Wales then excellent. Is there a problem down there with this kind of thing? Outside of that banning fans from attending is the next step.

Generally people in England keep off the pitch, but there are occurrences, especially when titles are won, where it happens. As West Ham have never won a title I don't know what the consequences for fans are that do this - my guess is nothing if it's just seen as exuberence. I was at the Ethiad a couple of years ago when they won their 4th title in a row and the pitch was invaded (see below) but I didn't hear of anything being done. It was all good natured.

West Ham have had disgruntled fans fun on the pitch - they have been dealt with by the law and issuing of bans which include (I believe but don't know as fact) having to hand over their passport to authorities if/when that club is playing in Europe, although that might have been if it happened in a European game. Theoretically a "football banning order" prevents you from access to any stadium in the country, but I don't know how it's co-ordinated. For the most part it works as a deterrent.

What ever happened to the Rochdale fans that invaded the pitch a few weeks ago when they scored a goal which looked like securing the title at the time, only for York to spoil the party by scoring a late equaliser that in fact won them the title 🤔🤔? It seems to have gone very quiet on that front 🤔.

Four men arrested and charged, but I didn't see the outcome.