Leaderboard

I thought that this might be of some interest, it's not Inverness Caledonian Thistle, but an Inverness Thistle/Caledonian select that had a very memorable game on the 21st September 1921. Tottenham Hotspur, the English Cup holders, who defeated Wolverhampton Wanderers in the final by one goal to nil, visited Inverness on a tour of Scotland and played the Inverness Thistle/Caledonian in a challenge match at Telford Street Park. To the surprise and jubilation of the large crowd, who paid a total of £100 to watch the match, the Thistle/Caley select team defeated the English side by 6 goals to 3. It was the only match that Spurs lost on their Scottish tour. The Thistle/Caley team, it is interesting to note, was captained by Mr. Roderick Fraser of Thistle, was one of the few players still living in Inverness when this article was printed in the Inverness Courier in 1971. The manager of Spurs, Mr. Pat MacWilliam, was an Inverness man, who had played for Thistle, Newcastle and Scotland, and the Spurs left-back Bob MacDonald, wad a former Caley player. The Spurs side, which included four internationalists, took an early lead and, stated the Courier report at the time, "crisp passing of the ball, ease of movement and certainty of purpose, characterised their play." But MacDonald the Thistle centre forward equalised, and for the next half hour the spectators were treated to a delightful display of artistic football. After sterling work by Docherty and Robertson, the Caley combination, Lamb of Thistle scored with a beautiful shot, and after Spurs had equalised, Lamb and MacKensie of Thistle scored further goals to give the home select a 4-2 lead against their distinguished opponents at half time. The dash of the home forwards continued to upset the Spùrs in the second period, and Robertson of Caley had the satisfaction of scoring a fifth goal, before Spurs pulled a goal back. J. Sutherland of Thistle brilliantly saved a penalty by Dimmock, the Spurs outside left. Before the end MacDonald added another goal giving the home select a well merited 6-3 victory. The teams were:- Thistle/Caley Select:- J. Sutherland(Thistle), A. Sutherland(Thistle) and Mitchell(Caledonian), J. Fraser(Caledonian), D.Fraser(Caledonian) and R. Fraser(Thistle) captain, Docherty(Caledonian), Robertson(Caledonian), MacDonald(Thistle), Mackenzie(Thistle) and Lamb(Thistle). Tottenham Hotspur:- Hunter, Clay and MacDonald, Archibald, Lowe and Grimsdell, Walden, Lindsay, Beed, Thomson and Dimmock. After the match the teams were entertained to supper in the Caledonian Hotel. Many of the visitors, including Mr. MacWilliam, congratulated the local playerson their well ddeserved victory, which they said, showed that there was little wrong with Highland football. During their three day stay in Inverness, Spurs had enjoyable drives to Cawdor Castle, Culloden, Strathglass and Cannich. It would be great if ICT could arrange a game, anywhere near this stature, for their 25th anniversary.

In regards to the Arbroath-Bon Accord game, my understanding is that Bon Accord were actually a cricket side who the SFA mistakenly invited. They had actually meant to invite an Aberdeen side called Orion FC, who later merged with two local sides to form the current Aberdeen FC.

Might just be a spoon full.

At last, a Sugar Daddy.

The one and only memorable thing Billy Mckay did for us in his 2nd spell was the late overhead kick against Rangers. Actually think that could be the only memorable thing of last season full stop

Blair, if you are for real, why ask on here? Why not just phone the club and ask to speak with Danny MacDonald the COO? If you have the kind of money to offer in sponsorship that would help the club in a significant way, you will be made most welcome. Can you stretch to a new playing surface? It could be called the Blair pitch project.

In the first case, I see that the SFA haven't got any more efficient over the years..... and in the second, I didn't realise that Alan Savage had been sponsoring football for that long!

Get in touch with the club or chairman. you will be welcome with open arms.

Caley Stan sums it up well. We dominated the first half without ever really threatening to score the goals needed to put us into a comfortable lead. Oakley was incredibly wasteful. Staggering that he gets a free ride from our fans when Baird was crucified any time he missed a good chance. We simply cannot afford to pass up the kinds of chances he did yesterday if we want to get a few more wins on the board. United were posted completely missing in the first half but the introduction of McDonald at half time and later on McMullan brought them a lot more joy and they had the measure of us for most of the second 45. I don't really know what their goal was like. They had a throw in about 30 yards from goal and I looked away for a couple of seconds only to turn round when I heard the home fans cheering Mulraney and Doran coming on helped us stem the tide a wee bit and get us back on the front foot on a few occasions towards the end of the game but again we didn't create too many clear cut chances to get a winner. And that is us in a nutshell really, plenty of the ball but very poor in the final third. Stan mentions Polworth being wasteful yesterday and whilst i agree I would also say that when he gets into those positions there is precious little movement ahead of him to seek out. There's no Billy Mckay type player hanging on the shoulder of the last defender looking to be played in on goal. Our crossing from wide areas is pretty poor and hold up play by the main striker isn't good enough and we turn the ball over before they get support up to assist. Defensively however I thought we were pretty decent yesterday, certainly less mistakes compared to Tuesday night and some other games recently. Even without Donaldson I thought we coped quite well with United for the most part despite being under the cosh in the second half. Warren mopped up a lot of attacks but Seedorf defensively was poor. Apart from Warren I thought Bell and Tremarco were probably our standouts. Bell brings a real energy to our attack buzzing all over the place to try and support Oakley whilst Tremarco is much more solid at LB than Calder. If we want to win the Challenge Cup next weekend we will need to up our performance again but I'm not too sure if some of these players have much more to give.

We were well on top in the 1st half with Vigurs afforded loads of space to spray the ball about but we failed to convert the dominance into chances and the chances that did come were squandered by Oakley. In the 2nd, United had us sussed - they stymied Vigurs and targeted Seedorf from the opening seconds and got a lot of joy down their left. Even so, we remained a threat on the break where Polworth was wasteful. Ridgers, Warren and Tremarco had good games and Austin looked decent. But I'm worried. Worried that Dumbarton will have the measure of us, that we won't be able to break them down, that we'll lose our discipline in the face of their physicality and, most of all, that if we lose the final it will have a big effect on a psychologically fragile team. Next week's game could be far more important than the Challenge Cup.

Brechin won’t save us from the playoffs. The real worry for me is that back to back wins for Dumbarton creates the feeling of a winning run for them, increasing confidence and leading to better performances in games that they may not have been expected to pick up points in. We, on the other hand, do not appear to know where our next points are coming from. We need to win the game with Brechin and the two with Dumbarton. That would take us to 39 points. The most points that has ended up in the playoff is 42. I’m not sure where any other points are coming from unless we find a serious upturn in form.

Blair for chairman, I say.