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The Queens Head North It's an early chance for revenge after we were beaten in Dumfries nine days ago as Queen of the South visit the Caledonian Stadium on Saturday afternoon, having won 3-2 at Palmerston. They have climbed to third in the table with former Caley Jag Adam Brooks scoring for fun in recent games. Luis Longstaff has trained this week and if he shows no reaction he will be included in the squad. Queens could top the table on Saturday night should they win and other results go their way. Our target is a win over Queens with Annan failing to win and that would put the Caley Jags up to eighth. Plenty of incentives for both teams to do well and that should make for another entertaining encounter. Remember to try the new improved bus service for home games. For 3 pm kick offs, buses leave the Bus Station at 1 pm and 2.15 pm. Buses return from the Stadium 10 minutes after the full time whistle and again at 6 pm. Stagecoach operates these journeys as normal bus services, open to all passengers, and at no cost to either the club or the Supporters Trust. Passengers holding Under 22 or Senior Citizen and Disabled Concessionary Cards will travel free on the service. For other passengers the fare is £2.40 for a single journey. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hospitality/Match/Ticket/Bus/Bar Bus to game Sponsorship ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Venue for H2H Pld Won Drn Lst For Agst + / - Home 22 13 3 6 39 26 +13 Away 21 8 7 6 36 25 +11 Neutral 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total 43 21 10 12 75 51 +24 Over the years we generally held the upper hand over the Doonhamers with home advantage showing a greater chance of taking all three points. Administration has it's knock on effect though and this will be a tougher ask than previous years. Last 10 Competitive Meetings 2 - 3 (A) 1 - 0 (H) 1 - 2 (A) 2 - 2 (H) 2 - 1 (A) 2 - 1 (H) 1 - 1 (A) 0 - 1 (H) 3 - 0 (A) 3 - 1 (H) It's one win each so far this season. A 1-0 win back at the end of August with Billy Mckay notching a first half winner during the Ferguson era. The next game was re-scheduled, hence the two in nine days with Adam Brooks grabbing a brace. Alfie Bavidge and Keith Bray had pulled us level but substitute Jordan Allan nicked the winner ten minutes from the end. A long journey home with no points after putting so much into the game. Maybe we can repay them this weekend. INVERNESS CT The Season So Far D L D D W D D D L / W L(11)D W W W L W L W W L W Since Scott Kellacher was handed the reins in game 11, there has been a more positive approach to our matches which has resulted in improved performances and a more enjoyable matchday experience all round. Alas we were brought back to earth with a disappointing result in our last game of 2024, a crushing 1-4 defeat at home to Cove Rangers. We'll have to put that one down to a bad day at the office. However, we bounced back in our first game of the second half of the season in the six pointer against Dumbarton with a hard fought 2-0 win. That win over Dumbarton was a vital one and the introduction of Alfie Bavidge was a welcome one as he opened the scoring early in the first half. Charlie Gilmour slotted in the clincher in the second half to give us a cushion over the Sons and to narrow the gap on Annan to seven points. We took part in the only League1 game last weekend and came away from Annan with a resounding 3-0 win, Alfie Bavidge netting again with Keith Bray and then Billy Mckay from the spot. *It was then on to Palmerston on the Tuesday night but in a five goal encounter we went down 3-2. Alfie Bavidge notched his third goal in three games and Keith Bray added a second but goals from Adam Brooks (2) and Jordan Allan kept the points in Dumfries. We bounced back with a resilient 1-2 win at Alloa in our third away game on the bounce, Keith Bray with his fourth of the season and Alfie Stewart his first. Up next a revenge mission at home to QotS. *There were plenty of positives to be taken from the defeat against Queen of the South in last midweek. Alfie Bavidge is on form with three from three and Keith Bray added his third League goal of the season. Luis Longstaff was a big miss at Palmerston having been injured at Annan last Saturday and missed out again at Alloa. Scott Kellacher on Luis Longstaff: “He’s back in contention, he’s trained a fair bit so we’ll see how he gets on. He got through training today [Thursday] so we’ll see how he is tomorrow [Friday] and take it from there. He’s been back training a couple of days so that has been ideal to get him back involved with the squad.” Full Preview from Scott Kellacher Pos Team Pld Gd Pts 1 Arbroath 20 8 34 2 Stenny 22 5 32 3 Queen of Sth 22 -1 32 4 Cove 21 9 31 5 Kelty Hearts 21 9 31 6 Alloa Athletic 22 3 29 7 Montrose 21 -2 25 8 Annan Ath 22 -19 21 9 Inverness CT 22 2 19 10 Dumbarton 21 -14 07 L D W D W W Queens recent run of form has lifted them up to third in the table. A loss at Kelty was followed by a home draw against Annan Athletic then a win over Cove Rangers before drawing with Alloa Athletic. There was the Cup defeat against St Mirren where they gave the Premiership side as good as they got but just fell short and they picked themselves up to beat the Caley Jags in Dumfries in a five goal thriller. They then scored three again against Dumbarton. Adam Brooks has scored four in his last two games, five in the last six League matches and six League goals for the season. Meh! This was their starting XI against the Sons. With Harry Cochrane and Kyle Doherty out there were starts for Josh Walker and Lewis O'Donnell. Taylor Charters, a 23 year old midfielder, has joined on loan from Carlisle United this week for the remainder of the season and goalkeeper Murray Johnson has returned on loan from Hibs. Forward Leighton McIntosh has now left Queens.

‘To be honest, it's difficult to see why anyone would want to buy a small, lowly Scottish league club miles from most places, which can't possibly sustain itself through football income alone’ ‘hasn't Savage talked about him leading a consortium being a way forward?’ Well said snorbens. Your first point is the question that we (the club and the fans), have IMO been tumbling over for the past decade or more as we try to understand the club’s true and real position in the Scottish football whilst dealing with the expectations of the fans, City and region giving the limitations in the arena we / they operate. As has been well documented in CTO and other outlets we have insufficient fan numbers to make the football operation viable. That’s unlikely to change as simply the population in the Highlands is too small to support two teams. Throw in competition from the old firm and other more comfortable alternatives (cinema, gaming), it’s hard to see where the numbers we need would come from. The clubs rise and achievements over the past 30 compete admirably with other comparable provincial teams. But there has also been a slow steady decline with neglect and overspending our reach resulting in where we currently are. As you (and others) rightly point out we need the new owners (being positive they materialise), to look at a different model for financing the operations. To your point 2, Alan Savage has no question about it, saved the club from going under IMO. I question whether ICTFC would have had any proper future if K Mahwana had succeeded in buying the club with SG still around. I do hope AS is part (steers) any consortium or group that takes over for a couple of years. He has the club at heart I’m sure and has invested heavily (1M by the time we’re out of Admin?), to let the club travel down the same error strewn road. It may be there will be some significant changes for the club and fans that we have to accept as part of any new regime. Just wish him good health! bc

My original point about staying up in the division, and the significance of climbing out of the playoff/relegation zone wasn't really based on prize money or anything financial as such, but more that as a League 1 team we are (slightly) more attractive than we would be as a League 2 team. That attractiveness also increases if any potential buyer looks at the fact that we technically started on -15 points and were still able to claw our way to safety. That shows potential. Next season, assuming a 5-point penalty instead of 15, we are effectively 10 points better off starting the season that we were this year so the potential to aim for the championship is far greater. If we can make it back to the championship, then as noted, we will play 'bigger' teams with bigger support and although the prize money is still **** compared to Premiership it is higher but, more importantly, it would be a remarkable show of resilience and potential. The last 30 years have showed we definitely have bags of potential if the management of the club can be done right ...

I hear what you're saying and every extra penny is important but we need more than a modest increase in income to have a financially viable club. At best there's a small handful of clubs in Scotland who survive without external income and Snorbens is right about the need to develop the stadium location. For that to happen then you need someone willing and able to invest many millions and then be happy for the club to be a benefactor. Ross Morrison seemed to want to do that but his pockets weren't deep enough and his (or his sidekicks) ideas were way too speculative and poorly executed.

To be honest, it's difficult to see why anyone would want to buy a small, lowly Scottish league club miles from most places, which can't possibly sustain itself through football income alone. Unless you are rich and daft enough to put a seven-figure sum into it every season. So then you have a look to see what other possibilities there might be. Makwana was a fantasist, of course, but some of his ideas indicate the thinking that's needed. And then you run into problems about change of use of the land, so the council would have to be involved, and that would take more time. Who knows? All that may be happening now. And, without going back and checking, hasn't Savage talked about him leading a consortium being a way forward? Which would also take time to set up.

Pretty much agree STFU what you’re saying regarding prise money outwith the SPL is buttons. That said the Championship has a few ‘bigger’ teams (if I can call them that), that brings along more decent size away supporter, eg Patrick, Falkirk & Dunfermline. Helps with modest increase of income and fans riling each other. Can’t think of any team this season bringing more than 100 away fans. bc