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We can’t be changing anything pre cup final as that is the pinnacle. It did start to go wrong straight after this though. Even going into the next games v Astra it already started to feel like we were missing a lot. It’s a tough question to answer but I think Yngwie is spot on when saying it would only delay the inevitable. It doesn’t matter where we tweek our history, we were always going to end up back down the leagues. I don’t think anyone ever thought it would be this fast though. Relegation from the Premier was always going to happen eventually, however being reckless with our finances in the Championship was very much avoidable and therefore unforgivable.

Top v Bottom Again For the second week in a row Inverness face table toppers. This time it's Alloa Athletic after our win over last weeks toppers at Cove. Now into plus figures, the Caley Jags can focus on the teams directly above them in the knowledge that they can compete with the best in this league after the shackles have been taken off, the legacy from the Duncball era no longer restricting them on the park. It won't all be plain sailing, but those that witnessed the second half at Cove have said this was the best performance for a couple of years. A word of warning, Alloa come North unbeaten away from home on League1 business. For us, it's onwards and upwards as they say at the bottom end of the table. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Match/Ticket/Bar94/Info Battery Farm Appeal Thrown Out Bar94 Drop Off Point ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Going to the game today? Then drop your donation into Bar94 12:00 - 2:30pm to help the Community Development Trust to provide as many Festive Hampers as possible. The Community Development Trust holds free Christmas Lunches at the Stadium for elderly fans and delivers hampers to vulnerable and deserving fans in the lead up to Christmas. Please donate if you can to help make someones Xmas that little bit better. Click HERE for more detail. Venue Pld Won Drn Lst For Agst + / - Home 20 8 10 2 36 22 +14 Away 23 11 6 6 47 24 +23 Neutral 1 0 1 0 4 4 0 Total 44 19 17 8 87 50 +37 Looking at the stats, a draw seems to be the favoured result over the last three encounters with goals in every game. Overall, in a previous life the Caley Jags used to get the better of the Wasps but times have changed. They seem to be a more resilient side at the moment and wins breed confidence, that's why they find themselves leading the pack in the chase for promotion to the Championship. Last 10 Competitive Meetings 2 - 2 (A) 1 - 1 (A) 2 - 2 (H) 1 - 2 (A) 0 - 2 (A) 1 - 1 (H) 3 - 2 (A) 2 - 0 (A) 2 - 2 (H) 3 - 0 (H) The last encounter at Recreation Park ended all square when we threw away a two goal advantage after the introduction of seasoned campaigner Conor Sammon. Wasps Buzzing: 2-2 Inverness were without Charlie Gilmour, Flynn Duffy, Paul Allan, Ethan Cairns and Lewis Nicolson for the trip to Alloa although Jack Newman, Luis Longstaff and Keith Bray have returned to the squad after injury. Alloa have plenty experience in their ranks, notably Conor Sammon and Kevin Cawley and went in to this encounter off the back of a superb win over Partick Thistle last weekend in the Challenge Cup. Sammon started on the bench with Cawley joined by Luke Donnelly up front. Danny Devine gave Inverness an early lead with a tremendous birthday boy volley into the corner. Calum Macleod added a second but a few minutes later we were level when substitute Sammon and Luke Donnelly scored for the Wasps and despite a frantic last twenty minutes, that's how it ended. Our Season so Far on the park INVERNESS CT: D L D D W D D D L / W L D W Our season got off to a slow start with a draw at home to Dumbarton followed by a penalty defeat at Annan. Another two draws against Montrose (h) and Kelty Hearts (a) before our first win of the season over Queen of the South at the Caledonian Stadium. We beat Stirling Albion 3-0 to send us into a fourth Rnd tie away to Livingston thanks to a brace from Adam Brooks and a strike from Adam MacKinnon. That was followed up by us throwing away a two goal lead at Alloa to end up with a 2-2 draw six minutes later. A Danny Devine volley and Calum MacLeod with his first goal for the club were the scorers at Recreation Park. Last time out we had a disappointing 1-1 draw at home against Cove Rangers who opened the scoring through Adam Emslie. James Nolan on loan from Manchester United's youth squad levelled the game before the hour. Next up was a home game against Stenhousemuir. Quite frankly this was a dull game with neither side able to score although Musa Dibaga did make a wonderful penalty save in the first half. Relegated Arbroath was our final game of the opening round of fixtures and despite creating enough chances, we came away from Gayfield with our second defeat of the League1 campaign. Away from League duty last weekend, we put up a good fight against Livingston in the Challenge Cup at Almondvale but lost out 5-4 in a penalty shoot-out after it finished 2-2 over the ninety minutes. Paul Allan and Charlie Gilmour were our scorers during the ninety minutes. Our first game in the second round of fixtures turned out to be Duncan Ferguson's last stand. It ended like his first game in charge, a win as we defeated Annan 1-0 at home. Administration and management removal followed by five players being released and fifteen points being wiped off our total. First game after Admin was at Dumbarton with Scott Kellacher as head coach and Billy Mckay his assistant on and off the park. Alas it ended in a 3-1 defeat after a promising first hour. Kelty Hearts came North next and went away with a point in a 1-1 draw. Kell's got his first win in week (unlucky for some)13, a deserved 2-1 win at top of the table Cove Rangers. Alloa up next at Inverness in matchday 14... ALLOA Athletic: D D W W D D WD L / W L W D Alloa had an eight game unbeaten start to League1. They began the League campaign with draws at home to Queen of the South and away to Dumbarton followed by a home win over Stenhousemuir and another win away to Annan at the same ground we lost 1-0. They drew 0-0 at Gayfield and the following week was Challenge Cup action and Alloa pulled off a shock 1-3 win over Partick Thistle who had opened the scoring through our olde 'friend' Brian Graham. However, three second half goals from Kevin Cawley (65', 76') and Scott Taggart (90'+5 pen) gave the Wasps a tremendous result and a home tie against Arbroath in the next round which they also won (1-0). That was Cawley's 79th & 80th goals for Alloa. Our first meeting with the Wasps ended 2-2 after we were two up. Meh! A win over Kelty followed by a draw at Montrose before Cove dished out their first defeat. However they followed that with a win away to Stenhousemuir before Arbroath gained revenge for the Challenge Cup defeat winning 1-0 for Alloa's second League defeat. November saw them hammer Annan 5-0 before drawing with Queens. In midweek they bowed out of the Challenge cup going down 1-0 at Championship side Dunfermline. League1 Fixtures all 3:00pm this Saturday Pos Team Pld Gd Pts 1 Alloa Athletic 13 6 21 2 Cove Rangers 13 5 20 3 Kelty Hearts 13 8 19 4 Arbroath 13 0 19 5 Stenny 13 1 18 6 Queen of Sth 13 -2 18 7 Montrose 13 2 17 8 Annan Ath 13 -13 14 9 Dumbarton 13 -6 12 10 Inverness CT 13 -1 +1 Latest Team News With Scott Kellacher getting the first win under his belt at Cove, hopes are high for another upset at home against Alloa who currently top the table. Charlie Gilmour returned at Cove and our goals were made in the Western Isles thanks to Adam MacKinnon and Keith Bray. Connall Ewan and Lewis Nicolson missed out last week. Former Caley Jags keeper Michael Fraser has been offering advice to cult keeper Musa Dibaga since Goalie Coach Stuart Garden was dismissed in administration. Waiting for official team news..... Alloa's team versus Dunfermline in the Challenge Cup in midweek is shown below. I notice that the keeper was a busy man starting and on the bench. A first half strike from McCann was enough to put the Pars into the semi-final. Noted that Sammon and Cawley started on the bench and keeper PJ Morrison was missing since we last played them, presumably Ogayi getting some game time. Connor Sammon, Luke Donnelly and Luke Rankin all have four League goals. Incidentally, defender Danny Devine tops our League1 scoring chart with three goals.

I have absolutely no doubt that our boys will win again this week. Being the underdog does suit us, and it's against the top of the table again - bring it on! Have fun lads

As you make your plans for tomorrow's game, please remember that Bar 94 is a drop off point for donations for the Community Development Trust's Festive Hampers. The bar opens at 12 noon, and donations can be dropped off until 2.30 pm. Both the Community Development Trust and the Supporters Trust will be very grateful for any donations you are able to make, whether that be goods for the hampers or financial contributions. Full details are in the post above, or here: https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/post/ict-community-trust-festive-activities There will be a raffle taking place in the lead up to the game, whilst the normal range of Dog Falls products will be available, including their 0.5% lager for anyone driving. We hope to see you there.

A sincere thank you to everyone who has participated in the prize draw to date. We are aiming to raise as much as we possibly can to assist the club to cover its running costs. After the great initial interest, which saw us reach our initial target in a week, we have stretched the target and hope to beat that before the closing date of 2 December. If you have not entered so far, or if you wish to enter again, it is easy to do so. Just follow this link: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/inverness-caledonian-thistle-signed-stadium-print Remember that there are bargains to be had, with 6 entries costing £50 and 12 entries for £100 (usual cost £10 per ticket). Full details are available here: https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/post/ict30-unique-print-online-draw The prize is truly unique. Good luck!

Depends what you mean. I don’t think we’ve ended up in the seaside leagues because we’re a diddy club. We’ve maybe become a diddy club by atrocious management and by being in Lge 1. The Championship should be the absolute basement for ICT if the club was run by competent, ego-free individuals who recruited wisely. Most of the clubs I mentioned above have been relegated but bounced back just like we did in 2010. We’re certainly a bigger club than Airdrie, Queens Park and Morton, and possibly Livi and Ayr, who are all now a division above us. Admittedly the whole pyramid is riddled with clubs who have fallen from grace. In a ‘sliding doors’ situation, if we had stayed up in 2017, with County going down in 2018, the balance of power would possibly have shifted, although our squad of 2015 badly needed a rebuild, and Yogi/Richie wouldn’t have been capable so we would have had to recruit somebody who was. As Charles says, the election of County alongside us in 1994 was probably unfortunate. I would have had Elgin in rather than County, and that’s without hindsight …

Ross County's promotion to the SPL, which saw the fanbase divided and the beginning of a significant drop in attendance at The Dump.

Hamilton 3-0. Foran punted that day and we would have stayed up that season I'm pretty sure

In pure financial terms, the biggest match in our history was the 2023 Scottish Cup Final (wow, it was as recent as last year?!) If we had somehow defied the odds against Celtic one more time, we would not only have won the cup (again) but would have earned guaranteed group stage European football, which would have been amazing for the fans and would have earned us £5m which we could have used to strengthen the squad and quickly get back into the top flight.

The appointment of Scot Gardiner. It was from there that an already declining situation went totally belly-up. However I fully agree with what STFU says about subsequent events being influenced by earlier ones. But purely from an Inverness perspective, and with the benefit of hindsight, I could also argue that Ross County being elected to the SFL along with Caley Thistle in 1994 was an absolutely critical event because it’s turned out that the inner Moray Firth has proved unable to sustain two large clubs. County fans would of course suggest differently….

Oh... The Kenny Cameron legacy, The start of the demise.

Two games that still rip my knitting nearly 20 years later. 2005-6. We are at home to Partick in round 4. We are in the Premier and they are two divisions below us. We have come from behind and lead 2-1. With eight minutes left, Liam Fox is put through on Kenny Arthur but blooters it straight at the keeper. In stoppage time Paul Ritchie wins Partick a penalty which they convert for 2-2. We dominate the replay but go out after one of the worst sets of penalties ever seen, I.e. before the one at Forthbank. Both the ugly sisters were already out and that was the year Hearts beat Gretna in the final. Even worse: 2006-7 and we are at home to Celtic in the quarter-final. For most of the game we lead through a Bayne strike and Celtic rarely threaten. With three minutes to go we are taunting the disguised Tims in the north stand who are leaving early. Then from a corner, Pressley heads the equaliser and we are resigned to a trip to Parkheid for the replay. Then Kenny Miller hits the winner. With Rangers already out, the other semi-finalists are St Johnstone, Hibernian and Dunfermline.

I was going to say the appointment of Foran as manager, but you are right to go back a stage further. The relegation that followed under Foran well and truly set us on the slippery slope we’ve been hurtling down for years. Having said that, maybe a different course of action then would only have delayed the inevitable? We punched above our weight for years, and relegation was simply bound to happen to a club our size.