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Smokies for Xmas After our midweek demise at Cappielow, this game takes on a more meaningful role as we languish just four points off the bottom but have played a game more than Arbroath. A rude awakening brought Big Dunc's revolution to a grinding halt against Morton as we struggled to gain a foothold in a towsy encounter on a midden of a pitch. Dunc acknowleged we underperformed and the fans will be looking for an upturn in fortunes at home to Jim McIntyre's Arbroath after Dick got the seven year itch. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Match/Ticket Info ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Venue H2H v Arbroath Pld Won Drn Lst For Agst + / - Home 24 17 4 3 59 19 +40 Away 24 11 6 7 35 29 +6 Neutral 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total 48 28 10 10 94 48 +46 First meeting this season was Duncs first game in charge: The fans were looking forward to this one with a mixture of fear, trepidation, apprehension, pessimism, optimism and excitement in equal proportions. Dunc has certainly got the fans talking again and there's a feelgood factor lurking just round the corner. Rome wasn't built in a day, however Ferguson was not the foreman. Time will tell if this will be a successful appointment, but he has the full backing of the fans at the moment. Arbroath were off the back of a four game winning run. We were on downward spiral since the start of the season, the reason why Dunc is here now. As it happened, we escaped with all three points... Last 10 Competitive Meetings v Arbroath 3 - 2 (A) 2 - 4 (A) 2 - 0 (H) 4 - 1 (A) 1 - 1 (H) 0 - 0 (A) 0 - 0 (A) 0 - 0 (H) 3 - 0 (H) 0 - 0 (A) Dunc's reign of apprehension got off to a promising start at Gayfield as Inverness opened the scoring in the tenth minute through Luis Longstaff who scrambled the ball into the net after a Nikola Ujdur header was not dealt with by keeper Gaston. Longstaff then turned provider as Aaron Doran turned his driven cross into the net after half an hour. Other chances came and went: Nathan Shaw not catching his shot plumb from the edge of the box making it comfortable for Gaston to flop on the ball and save and Billy Mckay not making the most of a great break forward, his low shot a bit of a dolly for the keeper to block. HALF TIME 0-2 Billy Mckay added a third just after the interval lobbing Gaston perfectly with an assist from his own keeper Mark Ridgers. At 3-0 Shaw again might have done better when one on one with Gaston but he chose the wrong option and took himself too wide and the chance was gone. Arbroath came back into it with strikes from Ross Stewart and Michael McKenna to set up a grandstand finish. Stewart's goal was as massive a fluke as you will see. Ujdur attempted to thunder the ball clear on the edge of his own box. Unfortunately Stewart anticipated this and turned his back on the defender expecting him and ball to go flying forward. Alas it looks like it cannoned off his arse and it floated over the despairing flail of Mark Ridgers and into the net. Unbelievable, you couldn't write it, however, I just did. McKenna's goal favoured the hosts as it bobbled off a couple of bodies before he despatched it behind Ridgers off his near post with a tidy finish. With much biting of fingernails, Dunc got off to a winning start after a lengthy period of time added on and that means that we are no longer bottom of the table (just). Phew! FULL TIME: 2-3 Last Time Out Big Duncs Revolution came unstuck at a sticky Cappielow in midweek as we dished out Xmas presents early. Defensive sloppiness gifted George Oakley an opportunity which he gleefully accepted as he lobbed Ridgers with aplomb after twenty minutes. We struggled to string many passes together which saw us struggle to create much. The second half we were non existant for long spells as Morton were in our faces most of the half. No surprise when Jack Baird hammered in from six yards as we made the schoolboy error of chasing the ball leaving him in acres of space at the far post to kill the game. We did get a minor consolation with a close range header through Adam Brooks, but overall we were not really up for the battle as much as Morton were. Last Five: W D L W L Late goal specialists Raith Rovers conjured a 95th-minute winner to move top of the Scottish Championship and leave Arbroath stuck at the bottom. Aiden Connolly had the visitors in front on 19 minutes, pouncing after Sam Stanton's header was blocked. However, Arbroath levelled soon after with a Jermaine Hylton penalty after Liam Dick fouled Leighton McIntosh. Just as the hosts looked set to rise off the bottom with their first point in seven games, Lewis Vaughan struck. The striker sent a stunning finish into the top corner with the last kick of the game to seal a fourth straight league win and put Raith two points above Dundee United having played a game more. (This report from BBC Sport) Last five: L L L L L Big game at Tannadice as Raith Rovers visit Dundee United on Saturday With Arbroath losing to Raith Rovers in midweek, they are still rooted to the foot of the table on 12 points but they have a game in hand over Inverness on 16 points. We blew the chance to open up a more comfortable gap on the teams below and defeat on Saturday would put us right back into the mix for relegation. The other two teams below Inverness also meet each other on Saturday and that's another one to keep an eye on. Any team that can put a three or four game winning streak together will do themselves a masive favour. Latest Team News Dunc should be back in the dugout this weekend after his misdemeanours. Roddy MacGregor made the squad at Cappielow but was an unused sub. Wallace Duffy missed that one with a calf injury. Long term absentees still missing are Nicolson, Samuels and Doran. Jim McIntyre is the new manager at Arbroath after Dick Campbells reign came to an end after seven years. Must have been itchy. Smokies line up v Rovers in midweek Gaston Stewart Steele O'Brien Hamilton McIntosh Gold Jacobs (Norey 68) Slater (Lyon 85) Hylton Bird (Dünnwald-Turan 78) Subs not used: Adams: Stowe.

Just to keep @Moogthurso happy, I'd not be upset if we offloaded the CEO to free up money for players.

This is a must win game in my view. Lose this and we're back in the mire [were we actually out of it?] after all the hard work to get us the table a wee bit.

Can someone tell Jake Davidson to pass to his own teammates please. Harry Lodovica spends most of his time on the pitch on his backside, after falling over. Ship those two in January for starters please.

Regardless of the result, one can only expect a decent turnaround during and after the January window. Have to remember that most of this squad is a Doddsy hodgepodge and Dunc only came in just before the free agent window closed. He's done well enough to do what he's done, being only his 3rd loss in 11 (2nd if you leave out Tuesday's game cos *technically* he wasn't in charge). But he'll have the entirety of January to freshen up both the defensive and forward lines and kick out the fodder. Sheridan is an easy boot, Brooks and Lodovica are both young and are somewhat decent, but look out of their depth, so not all hope is lost for them and they just need time, but leaving us with Mckay and Spoony up top is a recipe for disaster should one get injured or need brought off. Defense needs a massive shakeup too. Ujdur is running a one man band at the minute and the last two games have shown that, given his mistakes that are so unlike him. He's played the full 90 in nearly every game since he joined us, so its no surprise that he'd be knackered.

Extremely poor performance today. That's as bad as I've seen us under any manager.

1-2 FT, FFS. Two defeats this week to sides who were near the bottom of the league. Is it the case that the new manager bounce is over and we are back to being as p1sh as we were under Dodds? Surely not?

Did anyone else see this BBC Sport headline and nearly choke on their cornflakes? For the avoidance of doubt, it not Billy!

Nice one by Big Dunc and the players involved: https://ictfc.com/ictfc-visit-highland-childrens-unit/

I’m sure we are all painfully aware that we have lost quite a few games this season in the dying minutes. Meanwhile, most of Raith’s wins seem to have come from late goals. Someone in the pub told me tonight told me that he saw a league table calculated on the basis that games ended after 80 minutes and it had us up in 3rd, whilst league leaders Raith would be 8th. Is this true? And what can we do about it?

I think majority of fans would be elated if the club got rid of our ceo . Total waste of money and as unpopular as they come .

Ferguson's first job was to stabilise the team. He did that by finding a starting 11 and formation that was working and getting results. Dodds hadn't managed that. That has been disrupted due to some of that starting 11 being unavailable for various reasons, and not having sufficient quality on the bench. We'd already seen frailty with subs at the end if games. We might have hoped to have got to January without these challenges, but not to be. Unfortunately, I don't think the January window will bring the changes we'd like to see because we don't have money to be paying players off and bringing new ones in. The fact we're taking free agents on trial in December indicates the market we might be able to shop in. Ferguson has, to my knowledge, never talked about promotion play offs and has been fairly clear that he was tasked with survival. The best we can hope for is that some of these fringe players improve with the game time they're getting and we cobble together enough to be above the relegation spots at the end of the season. Given how things were looking a few weeks ago, I'd be content with that.

And there was me thinking Arbroath were struggling to put 11 players on the pitch, and only 3 outfield subs.

Oops, that result was a tad disappointing. Had expected 6 points from the games this past week and hoped for more but I always thought the Morton game would be a tough ask. Previously I’d have been very despondent but don’t feel that way tonight. I see it as a blip in our new world with the hope and expectation that Big Dunc will eventually manage to clear out the dead wood and get the squad fine tuned in the way he wants. One thing for sure, yet again we’ve been shown there ain’t no easy games in this league. The margin between the play-offs at either end of the table is very fine indeed and there will be no room for complacency in the second half of the season.

I'll give some credit to Arbroath here. They played pretty well and closed us down very well indeed. They kept a very disciplined narrow, high line and we simply lacked the inventiveness, skill and pace to deal with it. When we did get through or round them, it was noticeable how often a defender managed to block the cross. The resulting corners rarely provided the Arbroath defence any problems. There were a few good passing movements but we lacked the final cutting edge. As we have seen time and time again this season, there is a reluctance to have a shot at goal and a lack of conviction when we do. Gaston had very little to do, but when he did get the ball, he held on to it as long as he could. In the first half, Ujdur simply couldn't cope with Hylton, so replacing him and bringing Longstaff on made sense. I'm surprised though that Big Dunc waited so late before making other changes, but that was maybe because he didn't think anyone on the bench would do any better than those already on it. Hopefully we will pick up a gear when Welsh and MacGregor are back to fitness, but the sad fact is that at the moment, we are just not very good.

Beaten twice in a week by the two teams who were bottom at the start of the week. Very soft goals gifted yet again.The defence are leaking too many daft goals.Oh how we miss Carson at right back.That said we had nice toutches and had spells of good pressure.51/49 to us in first half.I'm afraid after our first 11 we are struggling.Knew we were finally doomed to a loss when I saw the subs. Included Sheridan and Harry. At least Dunc will know who to ship out January.Still feel confident with big Dunc at helm because if anyone can inspire this team it's him,even though he has to prove himself as a Manager.Two bad results don't mean we are doomed.We have January to get fresh blood in hopefully with a bit of talent.

Lose 2 in a row and I'd be expecting a rant from Mr F.

Not sure why we can't get a P&R in place permanantly on non matchdays? Reduces traffic in town from the A9 side anyway and stops the Highland Council whinging about emissions, and provides a source of income for us

Dunc does love a sub....lol In fact several of them. I think this is the reason

Half season tickets on sale now, which may benefit anyone who didn’t renew due to the previous managerial regime. They are valid from the Morton game on 30 December: https://ictfc.com/join-big-duncs-highland-army-2023-24-ictfc-half-season-tickets-on-sale-now/

A big chance for our Champions League commentator and player. Whilst he has not produced much so far, we should recall that Billy took months to score his first goal for the club. If Cillian starts tomorrow, he will have a lot to prove if he wants to stay when his contract ends. On the basis that Wotherspoon does move on, Billy and Cillian might be a good partnership too. That said, we presumably thought Morton would be a pushover but given the actual result, Arbroath will once again be an incredibly tough game.

Not heard much of that over here to be honest. Although as his mother is from Winnipeg (affectionately known over here as Winterpeg due to the length of, and insanely low temperatures experienced in, Winter), its unlikely that any potential signing for his 'hometown' Valour FC in the Canadian Premier League would cause any media ripple. It would also not necessarily be a step up in level or in wages so perhaps unlikely. John Herdman who gave him his first Canada cap resigned from the Canada job late last year and is now manager of Toronto FC in MLS. He does have a rebuilding job on his hands after TFC finished dead last in MLS last season, but not sure a 30+ midfielder is top of the list unless he sees him replacing Michael Bradley who retired. Nothing I have heard from any friends who have a closer ear to the ground than me.

From the P&J today.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle Women will face a somewhat different challenge this weekend – hosting Dutch outfit Leeuwarder Zwaluwen. The match will take place at the Highland Football Academy in Dingwall due to pitch availability, kicking off at noon on Sunday. It has come about thanks to a connection through Caley Jags defender Janina Morgan, who is half-Dutch and has connections with the north second tier outfit – step five of the overall Dutch women's football pyramid.

The only entertainment Sheridan has ever given me was what he once wore on Sportscene!

Sheridan came in after Big Dunc became Manager. It was clear he was a risk, hence the short term contract, meaning neither party was stuck with the other if it did not work out. I’d anticipate him moving on in January but it is vital we keep the other player signed in the same way, Wotherspoon.

Away days for me are always on the east side of the country as I have family there. yesterday decided to travel on the supporters bus for the first time for a league game. great experience. as a “stranger”, found the people very friendly, the craic was good, and the quiz on the way home was great entertainment. well done to all who run this smooth operation. when buying my tickets on queens park website there was an invite to away fans to use their city ground bar. The first 50 free pies drew me in. Pint + iron bru + pie( I got number 48 as there were 3 pies remaining) £5.60. Great value considering a pie at Hampden was £4.50. oh and bye the way watching a very good performance from the team, and seeing Wotherspoon goal, build up and execution, was the icing on the cake. In real time it was a thing of beauty.

Wotherspoon is a doubt for tomorrow too.