Leaderboard

Fair play to the guys today. Gave it their best when few (if any) of our fans gave them any chance of pulling of a victory. The news that a good number of them will be shown the door was also looming over them. So I take my bunnet of to you lads. Going out 4-5 on penalties after a 2-2 draw oan a plastic pitch is OK in my book. Hope the journey up the A9 is an easy one!

Laughable article. Leaves out that Makwana couldn't prove he had the funds for the takeover Overlooks the shambles of the Puma deal, Harper transfer and 7,000 unread emails Doesn't refute a single claim made against him More garbage spouted by a serial liar who is scrambling to ensure he will get another job in the future.

For me the question is whether the leadership is there to galvanise that mindset in the players. I don't think Big Dunc has that belief so if he doesn't have it, he can't pass it on to the players. Barring a miracle, we are headed for administration and a 15-point penalty at a minimum. If that happens, DF has already given up and needs to be replaced with someone who will try to have the players scrap for every point ... I would rather go down fighting than meekly give up.

This is in today’s Daily Mail. I really don’t feel inclined to comment… not even to say that the man needs the kind of help that few involved with Caley Thistle would even want to lift a finger to assist him getting.

CHALLENGING TIMES AHEAD It certainly is challenging times ahead as we travel to Almondvale (Set Fare Arena) to take on Livingston in the Challenge Cup on Saturday 12th October. However there will be more challenging times ahead as we have set a deadline of the 16th October to see which way the pendulum swings. The leader in the polls at the moment is administration. That's the lesser of two evils. It looks unlikely at the moment that a realistic takeover bid will materialise in time to save our club, but administration is more palatable than liquidation, where the club, as we know it now, would cease to exist. Livingston know a thing or two about this subject. Their rise up through the leagues from 1995 was short-lived as they were plunged into administration on 3 February 2004 less than ten years after becoming Livingston FC from the ashes of Meadowbank Thistle, formerly Ferranti Thistle. It was 13th May 2005 before Livingston emerged from administration, following a period of financial turmoil in which the previous boardroom occupants were ousted to make way for Pearse Flynn's Lionheart Consortium. In July 2009 the club faced further financial problems and were on the verge of suffering liquidation before a deal was struck. It looks like we are living in a parallel universe. Livi went down to League Three before recovering back into the Premiership and currently sit in the Championship after being relegated at the end of last season. Will we have to follow that model as we look to get out of the mess left by Scot Gardiner and his negligent board? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Livi Match/Ticket/Supporters Bus info Don't forget: 2:00pm Kick-Off Open Meeting Full Video Save ICTFC Fund ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Livi are unbeaten and riding high in the Championship at the moment, third behind Falkirk and Ayr United, having won four and drawn for. They drew 0-0 with leaders Falkirk on Tuesday night which makes them one of the form teams and favourites for promotion this season back into the Premiership. Inverness are a mess on and off the pitch. Only one league win over Queen of the South in our opening round of fixtures and we sit second bottom of League 1. In our defence, our defence is fairly resilient, it's scoring goals that has been our Achilles heel. The last time we met Livingston was also in a Cup tie. We knocked them out of the Scottish cup in season 2022/2023 on our way to a jolly at Hampden Park for the Scottish Cup Final, virtue of a terrific 3-0 win at Almondvale. Billy Mckay with two tremendous strikes from distance and a Sean Welsh header. Let's wallow in this while we still can. Latest Team News <<<That was the Livi starting XI against Falkirk on Tuesday night. If you can name them all, well done. How unhelpful are these pictorial team lines without names unless you are a superfan! Jerome Prior (28), Ryan McGowan (5), Liam Sole (7), Scott Pittman (8), Stephen Kelly (10), Jamie Brandon (12), Stevie May (17), Daniel Finlayson (19), Michael Nottingham (21), Robbie Muirhead (23), Cristian Montano (26) Andrew Shinnie, David Carson, Samson Lawal and Reece McAlear were subs on Tuesday night. McAlear played the final fifteen minutes and Shinnie came on for the final five minutes. St Johnstone player Stevie May has always been a decent player and is at Livi on loan from Perth. Steve Pittman has three league goals and Robbie Muirhead and Stephen Kelly two apiece. Inverness Good news for our u18 squad who beat Hamilton 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw to progress into Rnd 4 of the Scottish Youth Cup. We might be needing these guys pretty soon... Charlie Reilly has a hamstring injury. Other than that it's as you were with Flynn Duffy, Lewis Nicolson and Ethan Cairns no doubt all missing out again. Keith Bray could be in the squad after playing a bounce game in midweek.

Ryan Christie for Scotland tonight.

Think the attendance was announced as 943.

I’m not going to waste any more of my valuable time or energy on that man.

Well, ‘the cats out the bag’ now and hissing and scratching. Whether we like it or not we’re now hearing the starting rebuff by Scott Gardiner. Many more to come in the weeks and months ahead I fear. Now hoisted up by A Savage and bulk of fans as the evil villain, for right or for wrong, we need to hear SG’s account of things (over his full period of CEO) and start to systematically disprove or accept each argument he puts up. It’s going to be a slog I feel dredging through 5 years of verbal (unrecorded) decisions and what individuals were involved plus the 7,000 + unopened emails. I’m sure we will find more than a few of SG accusations will be difficult to disprove, and we should be prepared for some unsavoury comments regarding the members of the past and current board being ‘aired’. We might see and hear from good old Ketan again. (That will be fun at least)! Maybe too late now, and both SG & AS can’t resist a kick at each other, however I hope some deal can be done between the respective parties at this late stage and avoid the solicitors costs and any settlement fee running way into the Million plus figure. bc

Since I haven’t fully retired yet, I’m reluctant to say too much, and must say that Stephen McGowan is generally pretty good. I seem to recollect that it said somewhere in the piece it says that “ICT/AS were approached for comment” but in this situation, I’m not sure that standard device is carte blanche to fire on with one side of the story - especially when it’s as controversial as this and it’s being fed to you from a clearly highly polarised viewpoint. I wouldn’t criticise Stephen for not being as intimately familiar with the story as our local press pack, but given that’s clearly the case, I think that makes accepting what Gardiner says without balance a bit risky - especially when you are likely to get bullshit steered past you.

Gardiner of course showed during his tenure how much he cared for the local community and businesses...

The suggestion that Savage has inflicted reputational damage on Gardiner is quite amusing. I think most of us had come to this conclusion some time ago!

GTF !!!!

The good: immaculate playing and singing, incredibly close to the sound of the records. Great sound. Decent effects. The not-so-good: I saw a show, not a band playing. Virtually no communication with the audience (who were very enthusiastic). No attempt to build a rapport with the audience. Maybe one or two smiles all night between band members. No enthusiasm. Otherwise it was just a bunch of people very professionally going through the motions. Not the slightest touch of spontaneity. So, it depends on what you are looking for. In a live band, I look for spontaneity, audience interaction and the building of a rapport, deviation from studio recordings, improvisation. This wasn't my idea of a live band - this was actors going through their script, which just happened to be music. So I have concluded that single band tributes are just not my cup of tea!

If we retain the services of the current manager, then we are the lame duck and will be relegated. He all but conceded that yesterday and over the last two seasons has shown nothing to indicate he can get the best out of any of our players be those veterans, loanees, or youngsters. When he comes out in the press to say that with a 15-point penalty, we will be relegated then that is not a rallying call, but the talk of someone who has given up. He might privately believe we will be relegated, and he may be right depending on how decimated our squad becomes under an administrator, and he might even publicly say it, but I would expect any manager to also say that while it may happen, we will fight tooth and nail to try and prevent it. His on-field reputation is as a hardman, battling with opponents and not giving up, but it has not translated to football management. For me, we need to replace him, but the question is with who. I said in another thread about one of our former players like Tokely, Esson, Warren etc. but as pointed out, perhaps an administrator would not allow this, given it might cost compensation to the club any of them are at currently. Looking inward, I would be happy with Charlie as a short-term measure (if he were up for it personally) or perhaps there is someone else locally who has the qualifications and is currently not in a position or is in one that would allow a 'mutual termination'. If they are willing to get the players battling on the field to save the season and potentially the club, then that's already better than what we have.

I enjoyed watching the young team yesterday. They played some good football and created some very good chances especially in the second half. Walker and Thompson were the pick of the bunch for me. I wonder if they are Jack & Robbie’s brothers?? Good to know we have a conveyor belt of good young players. Hopefully some of these lads are snapped up and utilised in the first team if we still have one come Wednesday

Will be interesting if we are in administration by then. This must be why your graphic shows a number of enthusiastic fans cheering on an empty stadium from the side of the A9

Although I think it’s obviously helpful that this appeal does well, I also think it’s a relative sideshow that has been overtaken by what now looks like inexorable momentum towards administration. This £200K is chickenfeed in a much bigger game. Also at today’s press conference where the manager expressed slender hopes of staying in League One after a 15 point deduction, Charlie Gilmour spoke very well, saying that if the penalty did happen then it would have the effect of galvanising him and probably others to rise to the challenge. Looking back through the history of this club, I think of a number of episodes of improbable success and rescue such as the club being formed at all, defeating Celtic three times in the Scottish Cup, coming back from 3-0 down against Ayr, cantering home in the First Division in 2010 after looking dead and gone in February, winning the First Division in 2004 with victories over Clyde and St Johnstone, getting into the SPL through a wad of red tape etc etc. One thing that does worry me, though, is whether the same spirit is there these days?

fixed it for you. I do sympathise a little with him because the administrator is going to cut anyone who gets a high wage or who is getting put up in accommodation or generally has a large footprint in terms of cost in some way. That will leave us with the boys really and that would be a tough ask for any manager, let alone one that can't buy or even loan a win.

According to Ferguson, a 15 point deduction would see us relegated: "If we get a 15-point deduction, we are not going to be able to stay in the division unless we probably win every game and every other teams loses every game. It would be a nearly impossible task. One we would try to overcome and win games, but if administrator comes in and cuts the squad, which I think he would do, it would really be a tough ask. The 15-point deduction would more than certainly relegate us." https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c8djl80rl8mo It would see us 12 points behind, yes, but we'd have 27 games to claw that back!!! That said, if Ferguson's still here then I agree - we will be relegated (15 point deduction or not)!

Probably not... but... The biggest local celebrity right now has to be Karen Gillan - starring in blockbuster movies with The Rock, and in the Marvel universe ... as well as apparently a guest role in the Simpsons last year (didn't know that one). I am sure MikeysLine benefitted greatly when she started posting about them. Was she ever an ICT fan? Might she be persuaded to tweet something out or ask some of her billionaire friends if they want to finance a football club? If its good enough for Deadpool to own a club... edited to add: This is exactly the approach I took in 2019 when the club asked for similar ideas and I ended up asking someone over here. I figured nothing ventured, nothing gained and was shocked to get a positive response. Shame it was never followed up when I passed it along and when they re-visited it this year, the guy who had been keen previously basically said "thanks but no thanks" as they had moved on with different plans since then.

A couple of starters with first team experience. Shae Keogh, Ben Corner and the keeper. Accies have always had a decent Academy set-up. 19' | 0-1 Goal. Hamilton Accies take the lead through Charlie Rundell. Sam Thomson levels 23m Keogh off injured 40m HT: 1-1 PENS: Accies went 2-0 up before Gavin Thomson scored for ICT. Szymon Rebilas saved Accies next penalty then Sam Thompson netted his spot-kick. Rebilas saved again and Accies did likewise from Ben Corner. Accies went 3-2 ahead and Leo Walker scored for ICT, 3-3. Once Accies missed their next penalty, up stepped Archie Kerr to score for ICTFC and we progress to the next round! GET IN!

This has to be the most amazing headline we have seen in the last six months 'Directors have to take responsibility for not taking control of financial situation at Inverness Caley Thistle.' Surely anyone who takes on the role of Director of a company knows it comes with legal and governance responsibilities as opposed to an ego trip! This is an admission of neglect. GB is one of those last standing who clearly did not realise what their role was. Credit to him in some respects for not being spineless and resigning.

That wasn't my point, I'm not doubting the above regards an accountant role. I'm asking if you know for a fact the club accountant didn't challenge the CEO? If you don't know that for a fact or only accept they may have, then you can't throw accusations around like your last statement. Blame the board and the CEO.

Our emotional last game before administration?

Am guessing you wouldn't be seeing administration as such a great thing if your job was on the line.

The trouble is that there only 6 of the available 13 days remain and the appeal has only reached 37% of its target - including a £20,000 donation that’s likely to be a one off. I just don’t see anything practicable that could achieve the necessary acceleration in the very short timescale. Two other points. This appeal was floated as having the purpose of avoiding administration which, it emerged four days after its launch, had been the preferred option of AS and the Board anyway. And secondly, I’m not sure that there’s any intrinsic significance of the £200,000 figure since it looks to me that they are just looking to bring in money to make administration happen.