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Just to let you all know that Eric Davidson (ictewd) passed away this morning 1st March 2023. He was admitted to the hospice on Friday and he said "at least I will get WiFi in there and will try and do team lines etc as it will give me something to do". Unfortunately he was unable to manage anything and passed away this morning. Eric was a keen follower of rugby in his younger days and would have been a regular at the Barrel Vault. Eric was not a prolific poster on here, but did a tremendous amount of work in the background. He was a quiet unassuming man and after joining BT he did some studying to make his way to being a precision tester at BT, and a good friend since the 70's and along with Iain (IBM) has been working behind the scenes to help keep the site stats ticking over. Typical of Eric, he was happy to work in the background whilst others would get the glory and went about his CTO business in a dilligent and professional manner. I will miss him greatly for his contributions on here, probably unnoticed by many. More importantly, he will missed by all who knew him. Condolences to all friends and family, especially his wife Anne. x

In addition to what Don has said about Eric I got to know him when he started with BT and in the late 80’s and early 90’s worked with him. He was excellent at his job locating the cable faults and was always willing to lend a hand while we were doing the repairs often working long hours. With his great sense of humour we always had a good laugh and thoroughly enjoyed the work. We became good friends and met up at the football and stood in the west stand and were the early Section 94 before moving to the North Stand when it was built. A good friend to many he will be sadly missed.

I disagree. Main benefit of getting a new manager in now is that he can start looking at the squad and deciding who stays/goes and identifying needs for next season. As it is, we're in danger of losing the opportunity to keep players who might be looking to secure their future, and will choose elsewhere etc. Get Dodds to feck, get a new appointment made and let's not start next season in any more of a back foot than we have to.... assuming we don't go bust first!

On the Road Again After a battling 1-1 draw at Dundee, we are off on our travels again, this time it's even further afield as we visit Somerset Park, an often fruitful venue over the years. On Saturday, it's a 3:00pm kick off as points become difficult to collect at both ends of the table. Inverness are still bottom of the recent form table with only 4 points from a possible 18. Ayr have faltered recently but have 8 points from their last 6 games. Talismanic striker Billy Mckay will return after being red carded at Hamilton a fortnight ago. Billy is still seven goals short of being level with Dennis Wyness as our all time record scorer. Reece McAlear is now at Somerset Park but Logan Chalmers' loan spell has ended and the experienced Michael Moffat is at Glenafton. Unfortunately events off the park are overtaking events on the park. See Club Statement below £££ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Match/Ticket/Supporters Bus info Club Statement Get Well Soon Cammy Ticket Update v Killie School strikes, We've got your back ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Get well soon Cammy Venue H2H v Ayr United Pld Won Drn Lst For Agst + / - Home 23 10 11 2 38 24 +14 Away 24 11 6 7 45 30 +15 Neutral 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total 47 21 17 9 83 54 +29 Head to Heads v Ayr tend to favour Inverness over the years, but due to our decline in fortunes more recent results are more equal. 3 wins for ICT - 2 wins for Ayr and 5 draws over the last ten encounters. Ayr have become more difficult to beat over the last couple of years. They came up into the Championship in 2018 and we held the upper hand for the first couple of seasons but they are now capable of holding their own and under Lee Bullen are more difficult to prise points from these days. Last 10 Competitive Meetings v Ayr United 2 - 2 (H) 1 - 0 (A) 2 - 2 (A) 1 - 2 (H) 2 - 2 (A) 1 - 0 (H) 2 - 2 (H) 2 - 0 (A) 1 - 1 (H) 0 - 1 (A) From CTO Last October 1 - 0 - Ayr Pressure Not Enough: Ayr started the day three points ahead of Inverness. They would end the day level. Plenty of pressure from the hosts in a dominant first half but the nearest they came to a goal was a Mark Mckenzie header that came off the bar and the same player missed from six yards after being set up by Dipo Akinyemi. Inverness would be relieved to get to the interval on level terms. Cammy Harper glanced in a header just after the break to open the scoring. That's how it ended after a difficult ninety minutes but it's three wins on the bounce on the road. FRIDAY 3RD MARCH 7:45pm Hamilton v Arbroath SATURDAY 4TH MARCH 3:00pm Ayr United v Inverness CT Cove R v Dundee Partick v Rovers Queen's v Morton Last Time Out Inverness, off the back of two miserable defeats against Hamilton, battled for a plucky 1-1 draw at Dundee. Fortunate as it was we showed a bit of fight. Dundee will feel aggrieved that they never took all three points having a goal disallowed for a dubious offside decision and hitting the woodwork twice. To rub salt in the wound, Harper's equaliser took a massive deflection to wrong foot the keeper and put the Dundee fans on the verge of tears. At least Billy Mckay should return after suspension. Ayr United drew a blank last Friday at Stark's Park against Raith Rovers, with ICT's Scottish Cup hero Jamie MacDonald denying Ben Dempsey from the spot to ensure it remained goalless. They have been slipping up in recent weeks D W L L D. Their only win was a routine 5-0 thrashing of Cove Rangers at the end of January. This season's encounters show that we won the first one at Ayr 1 - 0 and drew the reverse fixture in the Highlands 2 - 2 Shaw shank redemption: Nathan Shaw earned Inverness an unlikely point as he scored his second of the game with three minutes left. That levelled the score after Dipo Akinyemi had put leaders Ayr United ahead with his 14th goal of the season less than ten minutes from the end. Shaw had given the hosts an early lead which they held until the 66th minute when Mark McKenzie bundled into the net from close range. This was a better point for Inverness who still had nine players missing although Danny Devine came into the back four before going off after being injured with fifteen minutes remaining. Latest Team News Billy Mckay returns after suspension. At least he should add some much needed potency to the attack. Still waiting for around five players returning from injury. Sutherland, Walsh, Woods, Ram and MacGregor. Samuels is now getting game time as is Allardice, Deas and Harper but all four are still building up to maximum efficiency after returning from longer term injury. Deas played in midweek in a young side at Forres to get some more minutes in his legs. RIP Eric: It's at this point over the last couple of years I would insert a section written by fellow CTO member and friend ictewd. Eric, without prompting, would gather any updated information about our opponents and offer it to me for adding to the preview. Without fail, Eric would investigate and I would receive an eMail every Thursday ahead of the fixtures. He was also responsible for helping to get our site stats in order and was willing to do this throughout his illness borne with great dignity. I have known Eric for over fifty years and he was an unassuming guy but very intelligent and self motivated. He was the consummate professional in all he did and I/we will miss him greatly for his diligent professionalism as he carried out his many tasks on CTO. Sadly Eric passed away this week and I for one will miss his eMails and quiet sense of humour and the endless hours of brain crunching stats he input and more importantly, his friendship. I offer sincere condolences to his family and friends at this most difficult of times. RIP Eric Davidson This ones on me Eck Ayr United have scooped up Chris Maguire an experienced attacking inside forward once of Aberdeen and Sheffield Wednesday. Dylan Watret has signed his first pro contract at Ayr and featured against Raith Rovers. Frankie Musonda returned to action in a reserve game against Hibs last week. Josh Mullin is now a permanent signing and former Inverness midfielder Reece McAlear has come in on loan from Tranmere Rovers. That's he of the thunderous goals from outside the box; beware! Loan ended: Logan Chalmers, forward (Dundee United); Bradley Young, forward (Aston Villa). Loan out: David Bangala, defender (Cove Rangers); Finn Ecrepont, defender (Stranraer); Michael Moffat, forward (Glenafton).

Haven’t been on here for a couple of years but had to login. Sad news. Called out on numerous occasions over the years for higher order transmission faults. Two of us To go to the affected telephone exchanges, usually in the middle of the night. We would prove exchange equipment at each site by checking launch and receive light levels. Usually proved to a cable fault. Lightning, digging it up with jcb or one night around strontian some thieves were nicking spans of overhead copper cables. 2 cables present, 50 50 chance. They cut the fibre cable, no value but isolating a community. Knew then which one was worth cash. Would report our finding to the control to be told the precision tester is on his way. Wasn’t just round Inverness, all over the highlands. eric would arrive , do his magic on the fibre and get a distance measurement to the fault for openreach jointers to repair or replace the cable. Very likeable colleague. Rip Eric.

I remember Eric from many years ago. He was playing rugby in the morning and football in the afternoon. An absolute machine and a really decent guy! Rest in peace.

The way I see it, are the players not already unsettled? Everybody kind of knows that Billy will not have his contract renewed at the end of the season. Its like watching somebody work out their notice period. Do you get the best out of a person during that time? Then in turn, does Billy get the best out of the players we have knowing that he will not be there come the end of the season. Id be much happier to see Billy go now, get a new manager in, steady the ship and start looking as sorting out contracts for next season.

Sad news Eric was a lovely guy

Terrible news. I knew Eric from his Barrel Vault days but I haven't been in his company for many years. A really nice guy, a pure gentleman. Rest in peace Eric. Here's to you bud.

Assuming that Dodds's contract expires at the end of the season, then the payoff he would get for being sacked is relatively small (about 3 months if it happened now) and decreasing. Wouldn't make much of a dent in the cash flow. But to be honest, unless they have some magician lined up who could take over and guarantee (!) results immediately, I don't see the point in changing managers now. I don't think we will be relegated. Get the season over and done with, then make the wholesale changes that are needed - and which should be being planned right now.

That’s good. I was impressed when I met him a couple of times and he got all the advertising boards sold, which hopefully has helped the next set of accounts a bit. I felt it harsh that he seemed to be the fall guy for the concert debacle rather than those who got us into the mess in the first place. He was also a very good hospitality host so can hopefully rebuild that side of things too.

Always a sad day when we lose a Forum Member but a great tribute from tm4tj above.

Very sad to hear this, knew he'd been unwell for a while. Lovely guy RIP Eric

Aww.. Didn't about Eric passing! A good bloke and my neighbour in Fairfield Rd for many years.

I did not know Eric, but ever since TM4TJ brought him and IBM on to help with the stats and other background tasks, it has been great. His input and effort getting us up to date, was immense even though he was unwell. It speaks volumes about someone's character when they offer to do this type of unsung work and are happy to stay in the background and just offer assistance without any fanfare. I am also absolutely blown away that in the midst of his illness, he was still thinking of doing updates from the hospice. My sincere gratitude goes to Eric for all he did, and my condolences go out to his family and friends in their sad loss.

Not a rumour.

Worse...how?!

Feckin Happy Clapper

Well, 8 league matches in 2023 and only Hamilton could beat us, and we have progressed to the Cup QFs. Performances could and should be better but could also be much worse.