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Every Point is a Prisoner Apart from the top three teams, every point gained is crucial in the Championship, especially at the end of the table we find ourselves rooted to. Like us, Dunfermline hit a sticky patch but look to be over the worst and came away from Firhill with all three points on Friday night after nine winless games. We salvaged a draw in stoppage time at Arbroath. No rest for the wicked though, so it's back to action against our fellow strugglers on Tuesday night at 7:45pm. Ferguson has wholesale injuries to contend with for this one. It might be quicker to say who is fit. What could possibly go wrong! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Match/Ticket Info ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Venue H2H v Pars Pld Won Drn Lst For Agst + / - Home 24 10 9 5 31 22 +9 Away 25 9 11 5 30 27 +3 Neutral 2 0 1 1 3 4 -1 Total 51 19 21 11 64 53 +11 Overall, we have had the beating of Dunfermline over the years since we first crossed swords with them back in August 1999 where our first taste of Championship (Division 1) football ended in a 4-0 defeat at East End Park in front of 4865 fans. You can read the report on that game HERE. Five out of the last ten meetings have ended in draws with two wins apiece. Last 10 Competitive Meetings v Pars 1 - 1 (A) 1 - 1 (H) 2 - 0 (H) 1 - 1 (A) 1 - 2 (H) 0 - 0 (A) 1 - 0 (A) 1 - 1 (H) 1 - 3 (A) 2 - 1 (A) Our last home win over Dunfermline: 2 - 0 Looking promising...Inverness took a massive step towards a play off place by defeating Dunfermline Athletic for the first time this season. An encouraging but goalless first half where Reece McAlear had hit the post was replaced by a two goal second half with chances at both ends. The deadlock was broken by a man who only scores screamers. Reece McAlear lashed the ball across the keeper and into the top right corner of the goal from a difficult position wide on the inside right area. What a strike that was but it only woke the Pars up from their lethargy and they had three or four great opportunities before substitute Austin Samuels sealed the points after he sprinted on to a through ball from Aaron Doran to slot neatly behind Mehmet in goal. Comfortable thereafter for the remainder of the game and an excellent three points to strengthen our hold on third place with Raith, Arbroath and Partick all dropping points. Last Time Out A week after we let slip a two goal advantage over Partick Thistle, we salvaged a point at Gayfield with a 94th minute goal from Cammy Harper after loanee Adam Mackinnon had put Arbroath ahead ten minutes from the end. To be honest, we spurned far too many good opportunities, enough to win three games, but credit to the players for snatching a point at the death. Always a difficult venue, made moreso by a lengthy injury list that saw us without around ten players (Longstaff, Mullen, Ujdur, Boyes, Duffy, MacGregor, Lodovica, Nicolson) and a suspended Max Anderson who will miss the Dunfermline game as well. That left us with a sparse bench of only four outfield players, and not all of them were fully fit. Last five Championship games: L W L D D Dunfermline threw a relegation spanner in the works last Friday a week after they also drew with Arbroath to complete this wee quadrangle of fixtures. However, they landed us all in the kacke by defrauding Partick 3-1 at Firhill where shockingly poor refereeing decisions affected the result in Dunfermline's favour. Brian Graham should have had a hat-trick but officially is only credited with scoring once. Goals from Walcott, Todd and Benjamin turned this game on it's head, much to the chagrin of bottom clubs Arbroath and Inverness. Last five Championship games: D L L D W Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts Full fixture list on Tuesday night 1. Dundee Utd 24 15 6 3 49 14 51 2. Raith Rovers 24 15 5 4 44 33 50 3. Partick Thistle 24 10 8 6 47 40 38 4. Morton 24 10 6 8 34 28 36 5. Ayr United 25 8 5 12 34 45 29 6. Dunfermline 24 7 7 10 28 34 28 7. Airdrieonians 23 8 4 11 23 29 28 8. Queens Park 25 7 6 12 32 44 27 9. Inverness CT 25 6 8 11 30 32 26 10. Arbroath 24 5 5 14 25 47 20 Tuesday night 27th Feb all at 7:45pm Ayr United v Partick Thistle Dundee United v Airdrieonians Inverness CT v Dunfermline Queen's Park v Arbroath Rovers v Morton Latest Team News Jeremiah Chilokoa-Mullen is out for the season with a stress fracture in his back. We already have long term issues with Longstaff, Lodovica and Nicolson. Added to that list is Ujdur, Boyes, MacGregor, Duffy and now Charlie Gilmour who limped off injured to be substituted after an hour and is out with a knee injury. Alex Samuel managed to play the full game with his hand strapped and also picked up stitches after the tackle from Adam Mackinnon. Nathan Shaw was also a doubt on Saturday but played all 95 minutes as well. The good news is that Max Anderson is not injured. The bad news is that Max Anderson is suspended. Of our injured squad, Wallace Duffy and Alex Samuel look the most likely to make an appearance. Expect a another sparse bench tonight. We're injured, aren't we>>> The addition of Chris Kane to the Pars squad was a great bit of business for them in the January sales. Here's all of their new additions, all loans: Chris Kane, forward (St Johnstone); Xavier Benjamin, defender (Cardiff City); Malachi Fagan-Walcott, defender (Cardiff City); Brad Holmes, forward (Blackpool). Pars team at Partick on Friday night Mehmet Benjamin (Welch-Hayes 80) Hamilton Fagan-Walcott Todd (Moffat 67) Otoo Allan Edwards Holmes (Jakubiak 61) Kane McCann Subs Not Used: Little; Chalmers, Sutherland, Summers,

Who are the absolute cretins within our support that forced Billy Mckay to post this on X "Not big on social media, obviously gutted I’ve cost the boys 3 points tonight hold my hands up! And listen I’m happy to take abuse or criticism at me no problem had it plenty of times in my career. But to shout my son then abuse me to him I don’t think is acceptable.

Perfectly understandable. Wasn't going anywhere anyway. Singing Section is far better in the North Stand and gets more people involved

Welcome Leeds Supporter. Sincerely hope some these comments haven't changed your mind. Keep following. I always remember the welcome I got on my first visit back in the early 90's when it was Caledonian F.C. I also remember the welcome i got when I first joined this forum. I was invited back to the Caley Inn after a game (now, sadly, gone to the history books) and I was never allowed to buy a drink. Amazing welcome. How times have changed.

It's going to be difficult to avoid play offs. As others say, the club is going backwards with no sign of any desire from the top for anything to change. Desperate and depressing times.

We are in a real dog fight with a bunch of loanees who will be leaving in April. Will they go toe to toe against Morton, will they scrap for everything against a rejuvenated Queens, will they have the guile and wit to take points off Raith. Some have never experienced proper adults football. It looks more like our management team have totally underestimated this league.

Scrappy game. Score the penalty early and probably a 1-0 win on the cards. Not to be and a stalemate ensued. In the circumstances Dunfermline ought to have went for it however despite a bit of late pressure couldn’t score either Bizaare we find ourselves with no midfield. We didn’t lose and a lot of effort from the team but needed a bit of quality. The proverbial relegation fight is on now…

Two poor teams tonight. The penalty was our only real chance but we couldn’t take it. Devine made a miraculous clearance off the line shortly after the penalty. That apart, nothing of any real note. At least we didn’t do our usual and concede in the last 10 minutes. It was a patchwork side. Still 3 5 2 with Kerr in midfield, where I thought he’d a good game.

That was a hard hard watch. We are actually going backwards.

Ayr, Airdrie and Queens Park winning makes it a bad night all round.

The land the stadium sits on belongs to the common good fund. That means the road monetised the use of the land and I'm sure they'll have received that back, and maybe more, for the rent we've paid over the last 30 years.

The fact that the council may or may not have been 'cash strapped' back then is irrelevant when the money came from the common good fund - its not council money - they are just administrators for the fund.

With the West Stand now being abandoned will the club finally designate an official singing/standing section? This way those who want to will know where it is and those who don't want to can (or will have no choice but to) move their season ticket seats.

As Winston Churchill once whispered to me in a London bunker - "Johndo, Once more unto the breach dear friend".

WIDE BIRTH !!!! Call the feckin midwife

If 'LeedsSeasider' has read this thread he's probably thought, Jesus I'm giving those bumpkins a wide birth from now on.

Over the season, you would expect things to balance out, so our league position after match 36 should reflect our overall performances across the season rather than any individual refereeing decision. We can all point to refereeing decisions that went against us whilst we tend to forget those that went for us (apart from Meekings’ hand ball!) but when it happens at key points in the game and seems to affect the outcome, it is only human nature to point to it. I’ve left games convinced we’d had wrong decisions, only to find out later that they were correct. Officials have a difficult job and I’m sure not many of us would want it. I don’t believe any referees deliberately make wrong decisions (and I laugh at the Old Firm conspiracy theories), but some are clearly not up to the job. As said in the posts above, it seems that poor decisions may have cost us two points on Saturday. However, Saturday’s result on its own will not determine where we finish in the league. If we feel an injustice, we should be using that to galvanise the players to get three points tomorrow.

Lizi's line at the end of her post saying that we had "once again" been let down by poor officiating did prompt my question, but I'd also just listened to Ferguson's post match interview and seen the twitter posts by the club yesterday which come across as an attempt to distract attention from the long term issues. Terry Butcher was very good at getting everyone fired up on the back of any injustice, but never blamed it for our league position or cup performances etc. He was also one to call out our own poor performances. Under Dodds, and now Ferguson, it's all about how great the team were and lack of luck or poor decisions being what's cost us. Deflection from the real issues.

Hi everyone, I attended my first Caley game last weekend on a complete whim as I was visiting close to the area. My hometown is Blackpool and I support Blackpool (I loved seeing Nathan Shaw score that third goal as a product of our academy) but as life has taken me around a bit I now live in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, not far from Leeds. I also follow Pontefract Collieries home and away because of this. 8th tier of English football. I wanted to join the site to firstly say I really enjoyed the hospitality of your club. We spoke to a few locals around the city before and after the game and they were very welcoming us of foreigners. Secondly, the football was brilliant. Now, I know I may come in to some criticism for this but it was like watching lower league English football but with an immaculate pitch. However that is EXACTLY what I want to see in a football match. Lastly, and my only criticism of your wonderful club would be the home atmosphere. I expected booming when the third goal went in last week but it fell flat. Even at 2-0 up it was very quiet. I’d love you to create more of an atmosphere. Get that drum banging and get singing guys!! It’ll make a massive difference to your results! I’ll be forever keeping my eye out for your results now. Hope you manage to string a few wins together and get up the table. Come on Caley. Cheers

I’m hoping they’ll be here until May when the league season ends!

The bunch of loanees were the standouts tonight. Not sure where your thinking comes from to question their commitment. Cammy Kerr easily the best player on the park tonight

Most problems at the club have come via Gardiner . He is the root of the problems at the club and if Morrison keeps backing this guy then afraid he needs to go too as between them are ruining the club and only pulling it backwards .

Very disappointing only taking 2 points from these last two games - my increasing worry now is whether we’re capable of beating Hamilton, or anyone else from League One, in a playoff

Thought they had a fairly strong squad tonight and a full subs bench, apart from late pressure at the fund they were happy to get the point.

Gardiner needs shot out of a cannon back to Weegieville

One shot on target . . . . and that was the penalty! Says it all! If we escape relegation it'll be a miracle!

Been so many bad games lot of nominees for worst game lately

Other than losing a late goal tonight couldn't have gone any worse. We absolutely had to win at least one of these games against Arbroath and Dunfermline and we've not done that. We are nailed on for 9th. A lopsided squad with a manager who is resistant to change.

How bad a watch was that ?? Embarrassing game of football .If anything it’s getting worse .

Start 6-2-2 and if we need goals later on bring the entire bench on and then it’s 2-2-6!

2 - 0 and a hat trick

Got a bad feeling about this one.

Was over there for their game on Sunday and the difference is night and day. 1. Queues for scran aren't out the wazoo and they actually have enough staff to hack it. Staff also appeared to be entirely made up of local teenagers/college students, which presumably kept costs down 2. Ample free space outside to mill about in and get food and do activities in (similar to Gardening Leave's grand tailgate visions, not that we have space for it). 3. (Nothing we can do about it but) pints, glorious pints, with a partial refund scheme where if you bring your cup back rather than binning it, you get a discount on the next one, and they had vendors going up and down the stand with drink. 4. The ground itself is quality, nearly all of it is terraced/safe standing and the entire stand behind the goal is up on its feet throughout. Unlike here where you've a higher chance of taking a Werthers Original to the back of the skull for letting someone out than you are seeing us win a game. There is things we can probably take away from it, but as for us going over there for a friendly, as much as I'd like it to happen, I can't see it happening any time soon, but I can't see why we can't get a partnership scheme set up where we get dibs on their academy players who are needing that extra kick up the arse in terms of gametime.

I predict a riot

Of course we are!

I would say we were denied a pretty clear penalty for handball when it was 0-0, and in saying that I am not saying officials are out to get us nor am I trying to deflect from the team’s deficiencies, I’m just telling it like it is, as are others. Is that allowed?!

Tbf, when we were **** under dodds the referees were often cited along with injury crisis any time we had more than just Welsh and doran out. It seems to ba a default for many fans rather than accepting its the team, manager, coaches that are failing over 36 games not individual decisions in ever undesirable result.

Looked like a rhetorical statement rather than a real question, in direct reply to the post above it. @lizi's post did refer to poor officiating on numerous occasions which is up for debate but as it is the match thread then I think that's fair. We don't like to see dangerous tackling go unpunished or being encouraged at best. Any ICT unfair bias is also up for debate as well, my personal viewpoint is that lack of quality officials as well as the hindrance of VAR on 'top level' ones is affecting the overall standard.

I didn't accuse anybody of anything. I asked a question in order to open it up for discussion. Given the club's social media posts from yesterday it seems to be a mindset they're trying to encourage. As you are someone who tends towards defending/supporting all the club do are you in agreement with them? I'm all for calling out poor refereeing, but I don't buy into the intimated (by some) conspiracy that they're out to get us. These things tend to even out and the biggest factor in us being where we are in the league is that our football just isn't very good.

What are you on about? You're entertaining and quite good at getting the bites. I'll give you that

Some posters on here here need to get their facts right… so I’m correcting you because you are very wrong! In 1995/96 - by which time the merger had been done and dusted several months previously - Inverness District Council voted to award the club £900,000 from the council budget towards the approach road to the stadium - a road which has now paid for itself many times over by opening up the entire Harbour area. However the Council - note the Council - got itself into the most terrible mess because a group of councillors and officials tried to stop payment, hence putting the entire stadium project in danger. With time running out before IDC went out of existence in favour of Highland Council on 1st April 1996, it looked as if the grant couldn’t physically be paid, making court action apparently unavoidable, until HC CEO Arthur McCourt managed to have the money paid from the Inverness Common Good Fund. The reality here is that Inverness District Council were most definitely the “bad guys” back then when they almost secured the demise of the club because a stadium was an SFL membership condition, and when a solution was eventually found, the spin off for the entire city was enormous. Best to check what really happened when you are intent on stirring

So can whoever is playing Duncan’s inflated wages not foot the bill for the German trip? Fail to see how you know who is paying what are you on the board ? Dougal

We slide back, to where we rightfully should be based on our income and fanbase. Which unfortunately some seem to be unable to comprehend. We are a championship club and there are plenty around bigger than us who'd love the peak years we enjoyed - morton, Ayr, falkirk, Dunfermline etc. Anyone who actually thinks we were ever a permiership top 6 club longterm is deluded.

Gardiner killing our club through his **** management and decisions. What a wonderful appointment he has made to manage the club . Sooner this unpopular Hearts reject is shown the door the better . A lot of turmoil this club is in has a hell of a lot to do with him . Enough is enough GTF

No defenders on the bench? Probably because we’re starting 6 of them….

Pot kettle black springs to mind if I was to correct you about your so called facts over the following years I’d be able to write and publish my own book . My point still stands that it’s outrageous a cash strapped council would throw 900k at ICT especially when it came out of the Inverness common good fund. Anyway I thought you left this forum after you threw all your toys out of the pram in inconsolable tears and a highly entertaining tantrum from memory. Not a man that keeps his word then eh? Again correct me if I’m wrong Dougal

Nothing to do with the fact that we're all just a little bit biased?

They have been poor since the winter break they had.

Thought the purpose of town-twinning was to provide jollies for Councillors, VIPs etc., all sponsored by the generous Council Tax payers!

^^^^ this is the short sightedness I talk about I think the above is more due to the fact that ICT fans willing to travel to yokel villages are thin on the ground. What do you think big Duncan is getting paid then ? what an odd post Dougal