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Seeing as @Robert is slacking (the announcement was made almost 20 minutes ago ) the club have confirmed that Roddy MacGregor has signed a new deal taking him through to the end of the 2023/24 season.

In Dodds we Trust A wee break from the Championship this weekend as we face high scoring Buckie Thistle in the SPL Trust Trophy. That's the Challenge Cup to you and me of which we are the joint holders with Raith Rovers when Tunnocks Caramel Wafers were the sponsors. The game kicks off at 3:00pm on Saturday at the Caledonian Stadium, and if you can't make it to the ground, then live streaming is available from ICTV at a mere £10. Games against Buckie Thistle are like buses. None for years then two come along within months of each other. We do like a cup game against green and white hooped teams. We have a decent record against them right up to Scottish Cup semi-finals. This time it's Buckie Thistle, a team we put out of the Scottish Cup last season with a very late Daniel Mackay goal in a 3-2 win at the fishing town. It was scarcely deserved as Buckie were equal to a mostly youthful Inverness side, and despite going behind to a James Keatings goal after 35 seconds they fought back when Jack Murray deservedly headed Buckie level fifteen minutes in. A shot from distance by Sean Welsh restored the visitors advantage but a final flurry of activity saw Callum Murray equalise only for Dan to score two minutes later. Credit to Buckie for making this difficult for the youngish Inverness side and a trip to Dingwall beckoned and ultimately an away tie at Paisley where we bowed out of the cup to a late St Mirren goal. OFFICIAL PREVIEW PPV STREAM £10 Anyway, to the job in hand, a testing tie against a high scoring Buckie Thistle who sit second in the Highland League behind the Broch. Buckie have scored an incredible 31 goals in just seven games. A thumping 10-0 win over Keith the highlight. To get to this round, Buckie disposed of Brechin City at the Hedge by 3-1 with Sam Morrison, Sam Urquhart and Callum Murray scoring the goals in an impressive performance. Unfortunately Sam Morrison was red carded late in the game and will miss this tie. Buckie have already drawn with leaders Fraserburgh and the only blemish was a 2-0 reverse against Rothes. They warmed up for this game by trouncing Formartine United 5-1 away from home at North Lodge Park. Inverness are themselves in fine form in the Championship, winning their opening four fixtures on the trot, all by 1-0. An excellent well drilled performance at Rugby Park saw the Highlanders come away with all three points to put Inverness on top of the table on their own with twelve points from four games after Michael Gardyne scored his first goal for the club, a thumping shot from twelve yards palmed into the roof of the net by the keeper. Boom! Latest Team News It looks like some fringe players will be involved in this one with Barry Wilson seeing this as an ideal opportunity to give the likes of Cameron Harper and Billy Mckay some game time whilst resting up some of the guys that have put us on top of the Championship after four games. Michael Gardyne picked up an injury in training and will miss out. Maybe Cammie Mackay will get a run out between the sticks as well. However, there's a fine balance between resting players and still remaining competitive. Buckie are not to be underestimated. View full article

Ha ha, I’m not always glued to the club’s activities. Getting MacGregor and Harper on longer contracts is a great bit of business, and we do seem to be getting our act together with our best assets, given the extensions signed by Ridgers, Carson and Allardice over the last few months. I’d like to see Deas join the list of those extending, but this really gives us hope for the future. If they do get the opportunity to join a larger club, the fees we get will be helpful in sustaining the club, so a “win win” situation. Reading this has made my day!

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Got your Cammys in a twist there.

And Cammy Harper. Great news, investing in the future.

Encouraging result, and with so many changes makes it more satisfying. Quite a turnaround from the early season cup fiasco(s). Looks like defensively small tweaks ,drilled well into the team are making big differences...limit the amount of chances given away, and when there are chances - have guys in the right positions and the keeper set to make the saves. Certainly a better platform to build from.

Just to let you know Don , that with no replies to your ever excellent preview.....I consumed it with relish and think they are a fabulous feature on the site. There.................you have a reply now

Pretty easy in the end despite Buckie starting the better with a couple of really good chances to open the scoring. Lots of nice quick, crisp passing around the box but too often it amounted to nothing. Mckay and Jamieson impressed up front and linked well together. Nice header for Jamieson to open the scoring and there's something almost reassuring about Billy Mckay bagging goals in the red and blue of ICT. I thought Hyde gave a pretty good performance at RB as well. Nice to be able to make 10 changes and still steam roller the opposition irrespective of what level they are playing at. Buckie are no mugs but I felt we handled them pretty well for the majority of the game. Bring on Elgin...

Brilliant news. Well done to all concerned.

Really pleased with both contract extensions both players will get more experience staying with us for now and if they do move on in the future the club will get something for them unlike others that have gone for nothing in the past. Good for those working behind the scenes sorting out the contracts.

All great news welcomed, forward thinking by the Club wonderful to hear. Yes Deas please next in line, He has been outstanding and aquitted himself so well as one of the mainstays of the Team against Buckie. Duku too, the energy machine of the front, I am so looking forward to seeing him play alongside Billy I have feeling that will be a golden pairing.

I also look forward to the previews and reports. Keep up the good work!

Nae hair here in full agreement with naelifts! Thank you and keep up the good work. It makes a huge difference to us in far flung places.

Pretty decent summary but though McDonald was probably our most creative player in 1st half. Created chances for McKay and Jamieson, had a couple of decent ones himself as well and was brought down for the free kick that got Jamiesons goal. Also broke up play from a Buckie corner and if Jamieson had played the pass 2 touches earlier then he would have had a good one on one. A very different player to Walsh, likes to wander and play through the lines which is nice to see, allows the full backs to overlap as him going inside pulls their full backs away meaning a cb has to come out. Certainly think he tired, maybe after the knock in 1st half, from my vantage point , on the other side of the ground it lookeed like a dead leg, maybe wrong though, but considering ge has been out for a long time with injury I thought he looked dangerous. Think there were a lot of opportunities to get the ball wider quicker yesterday, instead it was recycled across and back allowing Buckie to get behind the ball. You can see difference in Mackay and Duko...Billy comes short which allowed Mcdonald, jamieson to make runs behind their defence, whereas Manny likes the ball jn a higher position to hold up and wait for support. Good to have options to change the style.

Also encouraging that we have now played 465 minutes of competitive football without conceding a goal.

An interesting and enjoyable afternoon. Buckie are a decent side and showed why they are doing so well in the Highland League. They defended in numbers making it difficult to find a way through, yet they broke with pace and seemed to find it easier to penetrate our defence and to create chances. They were unlucky with a great effort hitting the woodwork and had two further chances in the first half when a lack of composure spared our blushes. The introduction of players who have not been starting this season was very welcome. There were decent performances all round with Jamieson particularly catching the eye. However, a consequence of making so many changes was a lack of bite in midfield which led to Buckie getting into dangerous positions a bit more than was comfortable. We kept possession well, but I would have liked to see us be a bit more adventurous in taking players on, playing the cute passes in behind the defence and looking to shoot more often. For all our possession, we didn't create a lot and only had 10 attempts at goal. But today was not about putting on a show, it was about giving players game time whilst being good enough to win. In that sense, the game was a great success and I am sure the coaching staff will have learnt a lot from today's performance. We showed today that we are a team with good depth, and that must be a cause for optimism moving forwards.

An efficient and professional job. Banana skin avoided. A few fringe players got some game time and Billy found his scoring boots. A decent afternoon's work. Credit to Buckie too for making it so competitive for so long.

A comfortable score line but it flattered us a bit. When I saw the line up, with only Deas starting from the recent league starting line ups, I was a bit worried that we were underestimating Buckie. We only had three recognised defenders in the team and none amongst only four subs named. Broadfoot, Devine, Carson, MacGregor, Gardyne and Duku were not involved at all, but it meant valuable game time for those coming in. We lined up with Hyde at right back and Duffy alongside Deas at centre half. Mckay was playing the number 10 role with Jamieson the striker. Buckie tested MacKay early on and then hit the post with him beaten in the fifth minute. After that scare, the game settled down with us dominating possession and Buckie typically having all eleven players behind the ball, making it hard to break them down. We tended to play down the left, with Harper and Doran prominent, whilst on the right McDonald was tending to be infield. The opening goal was a finish by Jamieson at the back post. He was looking lively and hit the bar shortly after. After half time, the same pattern continued, with our second coming from Harper. I’d need to see it again to see exactly what happened. Walsh had replaced McDonald by then and he was in on the ‘keeper which was probably enough to ensure Harper’s effort went in. Mckay had been quiet but got two late goals, although the first was heading across the goal until it hit the ‘keeper’s leg and went in. Good to see him back doing what he does best! Really a case of a good job well done, but not our most inspiring performance. Of the players we’ve not seen much of, MacKay had a few saves to make. I thought Hyde did well out of position at right back, growing into the game and getting forward more in the second half. Allardice replaced him late on, continuing our trend of playing central midfielders at right back! Duffy looked solid at centre half alongside Deas, with Deas talking the whole defence through the game. It is good to see Harper back and he got more influential as the game went on. Welsh was pulling the strings in midfield but both he and McAlear were struggling to find passes to break down the defence. Doran had a lot of good touches and was trying to create. I’m not sure if McDonald is fully fit and he was not that influential, although he did have one good effort. He was drifting inside so we lacked an outlet on the right wing at times. Mckay was quiet until he popped up with his goals. That will do for me every week though! Jamieson was busy and deserved his goal. He was probably my pick as our top player on the day. A bigger test awaits next weekend against Partick but we do have strength in depth in the squad now.