Life in Administration

Starts on Saturday at Dumbarton Stadium in the Scottish League 1 with Inverness now deducted fifteen points which puts us twelve points below our hosts this weekend. Unfortunately, five players have been released along with the management team of Duncan Ferguson, Gary Bollan and Stuart Garden. So far, we have retained the bulk of our squad including our senior players with Scott Kellacher taking on the head coaching role assisted by none other than Billy Mckay. They will also be given further assistance from Charlie Christie and the rest of the youth squad trainers. So, it's almost as you were without our management team and a 15 point deduction. The downside so far is the dismissal of four contracted players and loan keeper Jack Newman. More details later in the preview. Good luck to those released through no fault of their own.

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Administration Info on ICTFC

Match/Ticket/Travel/Info

5 Players let go (1 loan)

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Our Season so Far on the park

INVERNESS CT:  D L D D W D D D L  / W  Our season got off to a slow start with a draw at home to Dumbarton followed by a penalty defeat at Annan. Another two draws against Montrose (h) and Kelty Hearts (a) before our first win of the season over Queen of the South at the Caledonian Stadium. We beat Stirling Albion 3-0 to send us into a fourth Rnd tie away to Livingston thanks to a brace from Adam Brooks and a strike from Adam MacKinnon. That was followed up by us throwing away a two goal lead at Alloa to end up with a 2-2 draw six minutes later. A Danny Devine volley and Calum MacLeod with his first goal for the club were the scorers at Recreation Park. Last time out we had a disappointing 1-1 draw at home against Cove Rangers who opened the scoring through Adam Emslie. James Nolan on loan from Manchester United's youth squad levelled the game before the hour. Next up was a home game against Stenhousemuir. Quite frankly this was a dull game with neither side able to score although Musa Dibaga did make a wonderful penalty save in the first half. Relegated Arbroath was our final game of the opening round of fixtures and despite creating enough chances, we came away from Gayfield with our second defeat of the League1 campaign. Away from League duty last weekend, we put up a good fight against Livingston in the Challenge Cup at Almondvale but lost out 5-4 in a penalty shoot-out after it finished 2-2 over the ninety minutes. Paul Allan and Charlie Gilmour were our scorers during the ninety minutes.

Our first game in the second round of fixtures turned out to be Duncan Ferguson's last stand. It ended in like his first game in charge, a win as we defeated Annan 1-0 at home. Administration and management removal followed by five players being released. First game after Admin is at Dumbarton this week...

Dumbarton:  D D D D D D L L L  / W  Dumbarton started the season with six draws on the trot followed by three defeats. It was only last week that they recorded their first league win of the season in their tenth League fixture with an excellent 1-3 away win at Gayfield. Arbroath had opened the scoring through Tam O'Brien after ten minutes but Carlo Pignatiello replied ten minutes later. A Dylan Smith og and a last minute goal from Finlay Gray ended the scoring as the Sons celebrated their first win in style..... just in time for our visit, meh!

Our first game of the League1 campaign was against Dumbarton at the Caledonian Stadium on the back of disappointing League Cup group stages for both sides. It was also the game where Johndo was remembered in the sixth minute. I wonder what Johndo would make of all this. As already said on CTO, plenty of scope for his CTO Xmas pantomime with villains in abundance and a hero in Alan Salvage.
Game of two halves: 1-1 A rousing round of applause rang out from the crowd on the sixth minute in appreciation of the dedication of John Mackenzie, AKA the Immortal Howden Ender who sadly passed away last week. A fitting tribute as cheering and clapping broke out around the ground and one in which he would have loved to have led the way. Rest in Peace my well travelled friend. You would have enjoyed the first half. The second I'm sure you would have had some choice words for in your after match summary. It was the proverbial game of two halves. Inverness were miles ahead in the first half and rubbish after the break. Plenty of possession and slick movement with new signings Flynn Duffy and Adam Mackinnon prominent in attacking moves. Charlie Gilmour brought out a tremendous reflex save from keeper Long, however most of the good work petered out when we got into the final third but we took the lead on the stroke of half time when Danny Devine sneaked in behind the defence to nod in unchallenged at the back post from a corner. Hey ho we all thought, lifes not so bad after all. Wrong!!! We allowed Dumbarton to dominate the next half hour and they deservedly levelled through Carlo Pignatiello as we seemed to go back into our shell. Niang was booked a second time for persistent fouling and reluctantly left the field when he was red carded. Billy Mckay had cracked one off the bar and Charlie Gilmour and Remi Savage were denied by the keeper but it was a bit of an anti climax after a promising first half. Jack Newman also had to make a good save five minutes from the end to keep the score level when he denied Mumbongo.

Here's the fixtures for this weekend and this is how the table looks after we were deducted 15 points. Meh!

Latest Team News

With administration comes redundancies. First to go was Duncan Ferguson and his coaching staff of Gary Bollan and Stuart Garden. Four players were released although the bulk of the experienced players were retained. No surprise that Cameron Ferguson was released. Bit part striker Adam Brooks was also released along with the promising left back Flynn Duffy who has been recovering from a punctured lung after looking lively in the five games he did play. Wallace Duffy was the most experienced player to be released after coming back into the squad since being ignored at the end of last season, in total making 113 appearances and scoring five goals. Big comedown for Wallace having been our MotM in the Scottish Cup Final against Celtic in 2023. I'm sure we all appreciated the efforts of those released although like every team, we have our boo boys who picked on the unfortunate. In this instance young Cameron was the brunt of most ill feeling which probably stunted his development whilst here although one wonders would he have been here had his father not been the manager.

Some may say that the release of the management team is a step in the right direction as many questioned our style of play since Ferguson arrived. It looked like a case of keep the ball at all costs and don't be rushing up the park. We were set up to hold what we had with little directness. That led to too many draws and late defeats as we regressed. That aside, he can't be faulted for his gesture of not drawing a wage and I wish him and his team good fortune for the future.

Duncan Ferguson gone. 

• Gary Bollan gone
• Stuart Garden gone

Players out

• Cameron Ferguson (12 appearances, not ready at this level)
• Adam Brooks (7 goals in 41 appearances)
• Flynn Duffy (recovered from a punctured lung)
• Wallace Duffy (113 apps, 5 goals)
• Jack Newman (loan ended back to Dundee United...maybe)

On the plus side, Scott Kellacher has been promoted to Head Coach with Billy Mckay as his assistant player coach. Charlie Christie appears to be assisting as well, possibly overseeing/helping with the coaching along with the rest of the clubs youth coaches. Good luck Scott and Billy, all the best and all at CTO will get behind you and the boys as we attempt to play.... Against All Odds as Charles Bannerman once said. (No truth in the rumour that his next book will be entitled Against All Frauds)

Given the circumstances, I imagine we will be along similar lines to last time out without Wallace Duffy in the starting XI. It will be interesting to see how we set our stall out under Scott and Billy. Good luck guys.

Dumbarton's last Starting XI in the win at Arbroath.

Carlo Pignatiello scored in the first fixture at the Caledonian Stadium and he scored last week in the 3-1 win over Arbroath.

Pignatiello, Ruth and Durnan have all scored three League goals.

Dumbarton have the leakiest defence conceding 17 goals whereas we have only conceded 7 times. The Sons are third top scorers with 14 goals, twice as many as our shot shy players.