Kelty Hearts Broken 

The two previous encounters this season had ended all square but this Training Ground Derby at New Central Park went the way of the visitors thanks to a strike from Alfie Bavidge.

Scott Kellacher had a full squad to pick from with James Nolan dropping down to join new signing Ben Brannan on the bench and Billy Mckay was up front with Alfie Bavidge. Charlie Mulgrew had a defender trialist on from the start who turned out to be Kirk Broadfoot but top Scorer Ross Cunningham missed out. After a goalless first half the Caley Jags upped the pace and Alfie Bavidge opened the scoring with twenty minutes remaining. A late scare as Kelty bounced a header off the crossbar following a corner but the visitors held on for the win in what turned out to be a great day for the Caley Jags with all others round about them losing. Happy days!

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In less than ideal conditions and after a cagey opening it took ten minutes before Paul Allan had the first attempt in earnest when Luis Longstaff's ball in was met by the midfielder, his effort saved by Adams in goal. Kelty were perhaps shading the early exchanges and from hereon they dominated the first forty-five although the visitors had a couple of great opportunities to open the scoring. Lewis Moore saw Dibaga save his effort from outside the box and midway through the half he shot wide from inside the box. The Inverness defence were working hard to contain the eager Maroons, blocking a couple of efforts from outside the box and it remained goalless at the break. The second half saw the Caley Jags up their work rate and they took control of proceedings from the whistle. Adam MacKinnon had a long range shot saved and Alfie Bavidge missed the target as we rolled our sleeves up. Connor Allan went close with a shot from inside the box on the hour and Blaine McClure fired a free kick wide. However, it was the visitors who were now in pulling the strings. Billy Mckay and Charlie Gilmour went close as the pressure mounted on the hosts defence and they combined to set up Bavidge for a great team goal to open the scoring from close range, Alfie's fifth goal in seven appearances. A late surge from the hosts as they tried to salvage something from the game saw Scott Mercer head onto the bar following a corner with ten minutes remaining. Despite this late flurry and seven minutes of time added on, Inverness kept the Hearts out and closed the gap on Annan to just two points with a game in hand.

5th goal in 7 for Alfie, that's some return since he came in on loan.

Mantis summed up on CTO: We were very poor first half although as Kell says we had the best two chances. Defensively, Devine and Savage were in total control and Kelty, minus Cunningham, never really looked like breaking us down. Will be interesting to see Kelty’s penalty claim on the highlights. Second half we started at a decent tempo with Bray and Longstaff causing a lot of problems down the right, and you could feel the pressure building. We spurned a few chances before finally scoring.
We might have tied the game up as we then had to endure a nervy few minutes at the end, during which Devine and Savage were both booked. Meanwhile the Annan game, which was a few minutes ahead of us, ticked on past the 97 minute mark. Thought Billy was more effective in his deeper role than in recent weeks and very happy that nobody snapped up Charlie in the transfer window. He even avoided a booking this week…

Alfie Bavidge’s goal to give us all three points yesterday! pic.twitter.com/bgGZ9ekfDV

— Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC (@ICTFC) February 23, 2025

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