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This is the face of someone who cares. Hopefully the whole team to feels the same way.

Honestly, if we are happy trying to stay up in this way, it is an acceptance of how far we have dropped our standards. if we lose the first goal, we are beaten, simple as that. And to think how a bad referee decision can change things (early red card/penalty) to go with this mentality won’t help us. we should expect better

Was driving home and was thinking how on earth have we fallen so low in standards.We are struggling to stay in the championship and we play and look like a first division team. Today should have been high tempo,slick passing and exciting football.When you rely on a 1-0 score and hope you can keep the other team out,it is a very risky strategy.IF we survive in this league,serious questions need asked about how we have become so poor.

Can't believe how negative ICT have become changed days horrible to watch hope they can be more adventurous v Hamilton or we will be in trouble

Well that was a hard watch and not impressive.Second last in championship plays 4th in 1st Division and we struggle in both games. The first half was dire.No tempo,no drive,no do or die.I thought everyone would be fighting for everyone at ICT as a club whose jobs rely on us staying up.Thank goodness for Ridgers, Lawal and Gilmour. At least Billy got us the all important goal,but we have to be honest ICT we're poor and really need to give themselves a good talking to. Maybe we were nervous today because so much relied on a win,but st this level we need to be better.

Scraped past part-time Montrose. They'll have to improve dramatically against Hamilton!

Job done, but it was all very laboured against a part time side who are mid table in League 1. Still our chances of surviving in the Championship have basically doubled today, from 1 in 4 to 1 in 2, and that’s what we needed to do today.

I think we will come through this but still can't understand why Keith Bray was allowed to go on loan when he was our most creative player in the early part of the season and Nicola Udjur has been warming the bench for months when he was our best performing centre back. Strange goings on.

I understand that argument, but I do think that they have something to gain or lose. Loanees are mostly guys who are looking to develop their career, and thus to impress their home club, or, indeed, other clubs. One way or another, they are in the shop window. So "not giving a sh*t" wouldn't be a great career move. On the other hand, playing your heart out for the jersey that you happen to be wearing would certainly be a good sign, in my book. Maybe I'm just too idealistic. Hope not.

Why would we make this so difficult? So many Caley fans are far from Inverness. Crazy that Montrose manage a simple online process but we can’t. It’s on Alba, so already up against getting a good crowd without this nonsense. I would have come through from Aberdeen with the kids even though they’re still traumatized by the dross served up at Links Park.

Cannot fathom the complete apathy to winning football matches by the players and management. Absolutely no idea what formation we were playing and who is meant to be supporting Samuel up front. The only time McKay got in the box he scored, the rest of the time he was playing 2 yard sideways passes on the half way line. Really struggled to pick a standout today, only the sunshine made it bearable.

We didn’t have the guile to break them down in the first half; thankfully the goal they got was ruled offside. At that point there was concern so second half put the pressure on and Billy scrambles the ball in. Then we sit deep and invite them to have a go they duly accept and really ought to have got an equaliser but for an excellent save from Ridgers. A wins a win. Hamilton should be a harder task but I suspect more tight games. We will require to play better and hope for a fair wind

A brutal and nerve wracking watch. Our tactics are so negative. We should be taking the game to teams especially part time sides. Hamilton is going to be a tougher game.

Everyone but macgregor as a sub. Dunc needs to give his head a wobble.

Goal Billy Mckay

They did some things very well resulting in the success but they didn't put in place anything to make it more sustainable or to deal with future setbacks, to make the club resilient. People are multi-faceted, they can be successful in some ways and unsuccessful in others. Another factor that feeds into all the complaints that I see on this thread and elsewhere when discussions on the state of the club are the fact that we don't have a real plan, a leader, a philosophy around the whole club. The only thing is "we need to get back into the top flight because we can't afford to be in this league". No-one is taking a long term view, about what sort of club we want to be off the pitch or what sort of team we want to be on it. I'm currently watching the Partick v Airdrie play-off game and I think about Airdrie. They got promoted last year, finished fourth this year. They have an identity, they have a style of play, a mix of young players released by other clubs or from their own youth team added to some more experienced players - it's reminiscent of the sides we had that got promoted. They aren't perfect and I think Partick will probably win this game but Airdrie have something that we just don't. Airdrie built this under Ian Murray, when he left for a bigger job, they had a plan in place that continued but also developed. What do we have? The signing and managerial strategy is clearly made pretty much day-to-day. We apparently used to have a Director of Football, who I would assume had to plan these things. I would also almost guarantee that Airdrie's wage bill is far lower than ours, their overall budget will be lower too.

Which is why it seems all the stranger than our club does not maximise ways to bring in money like similar clubs our size. Hospitality barely runs and is so expensive when it does it only suits corporate. Other clubs do different levels of hospitality to suit all pockets. We didn't even push merchandise at Christmas. Partick and Ayr have fantastic bars at the ground with food and both are packed to the rafters. Our sports bar is awful. Poor fare and service. They changed the season ticket tiers without explanation scraping the 16-25 bracket. I'm told when this was introduced it was the most popular ticket. Young adults this age are more likely to attend regularly rather than young children who I suspect disappear to other activities and when parents have to pay for them. Our SM offering is so sanitised compared to before. Other clubs smaller than us have far better media offering again maximising income. Yes go after battery farms, concerts etc. But don't forgot the day to day money which surely all adds up. Oh and don't get me started on how top heavy we are on management off field. Hardly needed. Local knowledge for corporate stuff sadly lacking too.

I notice in his post match interview Ferguson blamed a slow pitch for his teams inability to move the ball forward. Did he not mean his slow players? My two year old next door neighbours son could move quicker

After getting a taste this week of what Championship football is like, maybe Montrose thought nah your alright, enough of this tedium, we’ll just stay where we are thanks!

Apart from scoring 5 goals in their semi-final, Hamilton have finished League 1 with a goal difference of +45. Not really looking forward to these two matches with our current form and glaikit manager. Is he Richie Foran in disguise?

On this shocking display we have found our level - Division 1

…and breathe! That was a struggle and now it gets harder. Hopefully this result will give them some confidence against Hamilton but I doubt they’ll get any confidence from the performances against Montrose.

Full time 1 - nil so another two games next week.

So far, this is shocking!

Congratulations to CDN Girl for claiming the 2023/24 NAPs title CDN Girl: 287.80 Gringo: 259.00 The Caley One: 226.40 Jodie Carnie: 206.50 Scotty: 203.00 Robert: 202.00 Caleyjag: 201.80 MrCaleyjag: 158.40 NOHO: 120.20 Mrs Gringo: 115.50 The Mantis: 111.50 SOS: 91.50 Caley Canary: 76.50 Caley Braveheart: 72.30 Old Caley Girl: Bankrupt Crown Jaggie: Bankrupt IHE: Bankrupt Wyness101: Bankrupt Joonya: Bankrupt Well done also to @Gringo @TheCaleyOne @Caleyjag @Jodie Carnie @Robertand @Scotty for turning in a profit although in some cases, if it were real money, you'd be struggling to buy a pint Not been the easiest, at times, this season to post however will be back in July/August for the 2024/25 season. Hopefully we can maintain the same participant levels, or maybe even entice others to play also.

It’s hard to imagine us winning comfortably under this manager. If we go 1 up I think we are more likely to try and defend the lead than to kill off the tie.

It's do or die today. My heart says a comfortable 3-0 win but my head says a close encounter with us scraping a 2-1 victory. Tbh I'll take either.

Someone once told me that we were trying to sign Paddy Flannery but ended up signing Glancy due to a communication mix up.

I will miss the game as I’m only flying back to Inverness tomorrow evening, but it definitely is a “must win” game. We all know we are in a bad place financially, but losing doesn’t bear thinking about. I said on Tuesday we should be on the front foot and take the game to Montrose. The opposite happened and that can’t be the case again tomorrow. I will be glued to updates on my phone, hoping for the best but also fearing the worst. I hope there is a big crowd that gets behind the players from the start, and helps them get the win we desperately need. But given the club is struggling for cash, why on earth is the Sports Bar not going to be open?

I don't think you can pinpoint an exact moment where it all went wrong but I think it's somewhere around 2012. We got relegated in 2009, maybe slightly unfortunately with a record points total at that time, and then we gave Butcher leeway to rebuild and he did a great job. He then built more and created the cup winning squad that Yogi inherited, the zenith of the club up to this point. However, during those years when we had regular SPL football, a manageable financial situation (easily recoverable losses, external investment, cup runs, Europe money, transfer fees, money for managers etc) what investments did we make off the park? What improvements were made to the infrastructure of the club, both in terms of facilities for the fans and players? None. We still train at Fort George as far as I can see, the ground hasn't been touched or improved in years, and is now starting to fall apart. We don't have any facilities at our ground like a proper bar or decent food or excellent hospitality. You can extend this to off the pitch too and this is one reason why I don't entirely blame Morrison and Gardiner for what's happened to the club. We generally operated OK in the top flight, the losses were coverable when they happened and some years we made money. However, we didn't do anything to generate off the pitch revenue, something that coudl safeguard the clubs future. Gardiner and Morrison have taken a lot of stick for the concerts and the battery farm but they've had to do this because there was nothing there before. We didn't even control the land that the stadium is on, IIRC, and were paying money to another company for it. Eventually every club of our size gets relegated and we completely failed to plan for that in any sense - on the pitch, financially, from a business standpoint. If people remember the summer after we went down it was chaos, we had three different Chairmen, we were releasing players via social media, putting our press releases every day (Twitter account liked porn - statement, Duncan Shearer released by text - statement). It was clear no-one know what to do and really no-one has known what to do since. Everything that's happened to the club since stems from that failure. The Chairman and the CEO are trying to do positive things but failing because they are hamstrung by issues out of their control as well as their own incompetence. In the meantime the club throws huge money on players and managers, makes massive losses but is at the same time massively penny pinching. Watching the Montrose game via their stream I recall the Covid season where we had one of the worst streaming offerings in the entire league. other clubs have kept streaming and probably make a trickle of cash from it but we huffily insisted ours was fine and now don't do it at all. The only way I can see this improving is if an outside party buys the club and is willing to invest proper money in it, which I can't see happening or the current backers underwrite another few million quid and we finally manage to claw our way out of the situation we are in, we flukily get a managerial appointment spot on. I can't see either happening to be honest - I fully expect to be relegated and to spend a few years in League One.

I still can’t comprehend that if we lose on Saturday we will be relegated! How has it come to this? Even if we win another two tough games will follow. Surely if we go down those making decisions and managing the club will go? Even if we stay up the changes have got to be deeper and wider than the Chairman recently stated,for sake of this Club!

Aye but it was Montrose not Monaco!

My first time too and will definitely look forward to next season. Dropped like a stone in the second half and even forgot to get a bet on last weekend

Aye some game and atmosphere! Dunno how many but we had filled one stand. That was some team, they would rattle this lot.

20 years ago today, Clyde 1 ICT 2. Scorers Keogh and Hislop. SPL football beckons.

2nd leg incoming folks!!! Clean sheet, still in the tie and heading to the home leg - if this was in Europe everyone would be raving about tactics being spot on. Clearly Caley playing like a big team which is showing our and Duncs ambitions

Agree. But……… rules are rules. Everyone has to play to them. If they don’t what’s the point of playing at all.

It would be nice to get a report on how our young players out on loan developed at there respective clubs. I know Bray + Thompson struggled to get much game time at Elgin and Spartans at times. Cairns netted a few at BOD. I heard Walker was impressive at Forres. Not sure about Mackay and Strachan at Nairn. Are all of these boys out of contract?? Bar Harper there are no local players involved under Ferguson which is a disgrace. *Edit Nixon was also at Forres

Congratulations to CDNGirl in winning the NAPS Bragging Rights title. Thanks also to you, @MrCaleyjag, for keeping this going. Looking forward to going again next season.

QPs poor administration may very well be a valid point but I doubt I could live with the embarrassment of badgering the SFA to avoid the playoffs via this route. We are where are because we deserve to be - and if we’re worth our place in the Championship then we darned well have to go out and prove it by winning the four playoff games.

Thanks for running it again this season and we’ll done to CDN Girl. I look forward to seeing if I can do any better next season!

Thanks for running it and all your hard work, my first year playing it and really enjoyed it .

We can and will if it goes to penalties! We have to score.

6 defenders on the pitch. Going for the jugular

"Biggest game in the clubs history" ....we now enter a series of those. As Yngwie says.....its a little scary. Whatever happens I still say that I've enjoyed the extraordinary ride . Our success has been beyond expectations......our name has gone global.......pride in this should see us over the line. But, as others have said......how many of our current jobbers actually give a sh*t? We will find out over the next couple of weeks.

An utterly shameful performance tonight. Mortifying to be in this position but to approach the game with such little intent or urgency is unforgivable and up there with one of the most insipid performances I can recall in such a crucial game. We finished the game with 6 defenders on the park and showed little or no desire to actually win the game. The tactics are garbage, players bang out of form start and play far too long. Substitutions are predictably bizarre, negative and far too late to make an impact. Ferguson was up the tunnel almost before the final whistle. Gardiner also disappeared extremely quickly. Genuinely one of the most depressing experiences in 30 years of watching ICT. I simply cannot see us staying up with this group of players and management. Beyond grim.