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Relegation Fight Intensifies Given our circumstances, our relegation fight looks likely to go down to the wire with Annan Athletic, and Kelty Hearts our main adversaries over the final five games. We still have to play Kelty, but our other games feature Cove (a) this weekend followed by Kelty (h). It's then a final three of Stenhousemuir (a), Arbroath (h) and a final game at Montrose (a) that will make or break our Admin season. All this will happen without Luis Longstaff, Alfie Bavidge and the rest of our longer term casualties. Cove will be without the suspended Mitch Megginson. Declan Glass and Arron Darge are facing a fitness battle. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Match/Ticket/Bus/Info ICTFC Monthly Magazine Admin Topic on CTO ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LINK ABOVE This issue contains: The latest from Head Coach Scott Kellacher Focus on feature with Danny Devine Charlie’s Chat – Latest from Interim CEO Charlie Christie Scott Young on the 30th Anniversary Dinner Staff Insight with groundsman Dale Stephen Loan Watch: Sam Nixon at Forres Mechanics ICT Academy Update ICTWFC with Karen Mason Meet the Player: Alfie Bavidge ICT Community Trust Column ICT Supporters Trust news Venue: H2H Pld Won Drn Lst For Agst + / - Home 7 4 2 1 18 10 +8 Away 5 3 0 2 6 7 -1 Neutral 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total 12 7 2 3 24 17 +7 You can see when the power shift started in earnest and that is all down to Administration as Cove have picked us off easily in the last two meetings since we caught them late in the League game back in November. Only half a dozen games ago we were banging in six and four goals at the Caledonian Stadiums. How quickly times can change Last 10 Competitive Meetings v Cove 1 - 4 (H) 0 - 2 (A) 2 - 1 (A) 1 - 1 (H) 2 - 1 (A) 6 - 1 (H) 1 - 0 (A) 4 - 1 (H) 1 - 1 (H) 1 - 3 (A) Happy New Year: Inverness began 2023 with a crushing win against Cove. Two from Billy Mckay and one from Danny Devine countered the opening goal from Jack Sanders. Two quickfire own goals within five minutes of the restart put the hosts 5-1 ahead. Mckay notched his hat-trick from close range as we ran away with the game. Big win to start the year, just what we needed. Jay Henderson started in his first game for the Caley Jags after a signing on loan for the rest of the season. Zak Delaney returned after injury but he was the only returnee with a sparse bench, Oakley and Boyd were the only senior outfield players on it with returning loan players. Gilmour and Logan missed out for Cove who had Iain Vigurs on the bench. After a minutes silence for the legend that was Pele, the game got underway on a crisp afternoon in the Highlands. Billy Mckay struck the post in the first minute from twenty yards. Megginson flicked a header just over five minutes later and Longstaff shot over after fifteen minutes as Cove got to grips with the pace of the game. Doran has a shot blocked by McKenzie and Billy Mckay put the rebound just wide. Hyde then saw McKenzie block with his legs as Mckay put him through on goal. Jack Sanders headed in the opener after twenty two minutes. Doran went close soon after, his deflected shot sliding past for a fruitless corner. Just after the half hour Billy Mckay drew Inverness level with a diving header from six yards after a Sean Welsh cross. Danny Devine put Inverness ahead five minutes before the break with a half volley into the bottom corner, Sean Welsh again the provider. A minute before the half time whistle, it was 3-1 when Billy Mckay netted from the spot after hand ball by Jack Sanders. Just after the interval a Dan Mackay shot/cross ended up in the net via Kyle McClelland. It's raining own goals now and Scott Ross was next to put through his own net. Mark Ridgers denied Fraser Fyvie and Luis Longstaff with excellent saves and Dan Mackay went close on the hour. Billy got his hat-trick and Dan Mackay went close to number seven. The three returning youngsters came on for the final ten minutes and more followed as we saw out the game. Who saw that coming??? And a Billy Mckay hat-trick INVERNESS CT The Season So Far D L D D W D D D L / W L D W W W L W L W W L W W L W D W / W L D L 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 the next 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, Dunfermline bound Keith Bray with his fourth of the season and Alfie Stewart. We got our revenge at home to QotS (1-0) with Alfie Bavidge scoring his fourth goal in five appearances. Alas it was a bridge too far at Arbroath and we went down losing three without reply. The Stenhousemuir fixture was postponed and was re-arranged for March 11th. We went to Kelty and came away with a narrow 1-0 win thanks to Alfie's 5th goal in 7 appearances. Montrose proved to be stubborn opponents and it took a superb diving header from Keith Bray to rescue a point in a rather turgid encounter after Sandilands had opened the scoring in the first half. A last gasp win at Dumbarton on the Saturday with Alfie Bavidge scoring his 6th goal in 9 games. Unfortunately Alfie was injured early on against Stenhousemuir in midweek but that didn't stop us running up a 4-1 win with goals from Brannan, Gilmour, Bray and Allan. Annan came North on Saturday in a six-pointer and it was a disappointing defeat after Annan parked the bus after scoring in the third minute. Next up was a 1-1 draw with Alloa despite hitting the woodwork twice and missing a penalty. Another bad day at the office last weekend at a wet and windswept Palmerston after Queen of the South blitzed us with three second half goals to run away with a 4-1 win in Dumfries. Meh! One win each and a draw in the League games so far this season but Cove also won the Scottish Cup tie 2-0 at Balmoral Park. They hammered us 4-1 last time out at the Caledonian Stadium Scott Kellacher was dealt a massive blow with the news that he will be without Luis Longstaff and now Alfie Bavidge for the remainder of the season. That's massive as we enter the final five. Latest Updates from Scott Kellacher talking to Paul Chalk @ P&J: Unfortunately Alfie Bavidge's second scan results will mean he will miss the last five games. Calum MacLeod returned last week coming on as a second half sub but he has a hip injury and Musa Dibaga was back in goal after his international trip abroad. Remi Savage was badly missed at Dumfries but will return for this one. James Nolan came off injured at Palmerston but no info regarding this although he has been seen training with the squad, so hopefully he is fit and good to go. Casualty List Luis Longstaff (groin op recovery) Alfie Bavidge (hamstring recovery) Lewis Nicolson (knee op recovery) Jake Davidson (knee op recovery) Calum Davidson (hip) Ethan Cairns (appendix post op) Jack Walker (tonsilitis) Shae Keogh (calf) Ben Corner (knee cartilage recovery) Pos Team Pld Gd Pts 1 Arbroath 31 18 57 2 Cove R 31 17 49 3 Stenny 31 11 49 4 Queen Sth 31 -2 42 5 Alloa Ath 31 4 41 6 Montrose 31 -4 39 7 Kelty 31 -1 37 8 Caley Jags 31 1 33 9 Annan Ath 31 -24 33 10 Sons 31 -20 13 LAST SIX: L W W D D L Six games in March for Cove starting with a 2-1 defeat at Alloa followed by a 3-1 home win over QotS and a big away win over Kelty (0-4). A 2-2 draw at Montrose and a no scoring home draw v Stenhousemuir was followed by last weeks top of the table clash at Arbroath that ended with a 1-0 defeat and a red card for Mitch Megginson. He will be a big miss for Cove, being the joint top scorer in League1 with 12 goals. Fear not Cove fans, Adam Emslie has bagged 9, Findlay Marshall has 7 and Fraser Fyvie 6. Defence wise, both sides have conceded 35 times, the big difference is that Cove have scored 16 more goals than the Caley Jags. Will Gillingham and Quinn Coulson are back in the squad while a late decision will be taken on the fitness of both Declan Glass and Arron Darge. One win each and a draw in the League games so far this season but Cove also won the Scottish Cup tie 2-0 at Balmoral Park. They hammered us 4-1 last time out at the Caledonian Stadium in one to forget. We did win here back in November. Caley Jags Get Vital Win: Top versus bottom ended in victory for the Caley Jags who climb into positive numbers at the foot of the table. Cove had made one change from the win at Dumbarton as they looked for their fifth win on the trot. Findlay Marshall replaced Arron Darge. For Inverness, graduate Sam Reid took his place on the bench with Lewis Nicolson missing. On the field, Charlie Gilmour returned to midfield to bolster the squad with Connal Ewan out injured and boss Scott Kellacher would be looking to get into positive numbers with his positive team talks. However, it only took Cove ten minutes to get in front through top scorer Mitch Megginson. Megginson failed to convert a first half penalty with Dibaga saving and two minutes later it was all square when Adam MacKinnon drilled high into the net. With 25 minutes left, Keith Bray popped up with a much needed and deserved winner. This was a great result played out at Cove, sharpened at Inverness but made in the Isle of Lewis.

Megginson being out through suspension is a plus for us! Always considered him a dangerous player. Rotten ground and location. Always an unpredictable venue for me to gauge any form or past history. Just hoping it’s our day irrespective of injuries, form or venue and we come back up the A96 with the 3 points. bc

The chips are down and our recent results have been poor, but for reasons I can’t fathom, I fancy a narrow win or at least a point. I hope I’m right!

I was at the cup game back in December. We played really well I felt and was only defeated by a ref who didn't want extra time. Hopefully our young lads will have taken lessons from last week and grab at least a point.

Good preview as always Don! I am hoping we can pull the rabbit out of the hat and get three points

All the best tomorrow lads. Hopefully the sun will be shining on ICT . C'mon Caley

We were defeated by our inability to score goals and finish teams off. Should have been 4 up at half time. Its symptomatic of our season in any games without Bavidge and sadly I worry tomorrow will be more of the same. Worst away day in the league, in an awful location and terrible stadium and no atmosphere. Expect us to outnumber the home fans.

Oh dear, I’ve gone for Edinburgh City to win. At least one of us will lose out, although at least I’m not at risk of being eliminated: good luck!

Montrose v Arbroath draw @ 3.5 ta… All the best Gringo - rooting for ya

This part is not quite accurate. The 10% voting right is an enhancement on a specific set of 108 shares held by the Supporters Trust. At present, this is equivalent to them holding just over 400,000 shares. They also hold an additional 13500 shares (or there abouts), which have normal voting rights. It's that 413,500 (ish) number which would be counted in any vote held, regardless of the number of other shares cast in that vote. In actuality, if every share was cast in a vote, they'd have (marginally) over 10%. However, the fewer shareholders voting, the greater that % becomes on any specific vote. e.g. 2 million shares involved in a vote would mean ST would have around 17% of the vote....413.5K/(2M+413.5K)% As you correctly point out, anything over 75% would give authority to change the company articles, and they could simply strike off the Supporters Trust voting right by way of a special resolution....if so minded. The voting right also has an interesting history...and I'm happy to receive any corrections to the following, especially from the early days. Originally sitting with the members club, the 108 shares each carried a 10,000 share voting right. Not sure if anything changed in between, but... Around 2002 it was changed to facilitate the investment made by Tulloch/DFS at the time, however there was an (unfortunate?) quirk in the calculation implemented that meant the more shares held, the lower the voting right got! When this was highlighted to the main shareholders at the time, they almost instantly agreed to a correction, but there was a lot of negotiation around what the change should be. We wanted 15%, some of the main players wanted 5% (and more money to secure that)....we settled on 10%, and it got unanimously backed by all the big shareholders at the AGM in 2011.

The ST’s 10% voting right - which is not a shareholding but a fixed 10% in any vote irrespective of shares - wasn’t mentioned at last week’s press event. Its effect would be to require anyone wishing for total control, which I think requires 75% of voting strength, to hold 83% of the shares to achieve it, and this perhaps helps partly explain why AS is setting his sights high. I don’t know what the ST’s position is on possibly surrendering this right, even if this os required, but if AS could amass 75% voting rights, I believe he would have the clout to make the necessary arrangements to force that if he insisted - but I am sure he is also savvy enough to know that he needs to take the fans with him. As regards a shift of stadium, I would personally be quite happy to move from East Longman to a better location such as UHI, but I’m not clear how realistic this would be in terms of land availability (which was even a problem in 1994) and cost. In the case of the latter, just how willing would external parties be to hand over or contribute cash or assets to a football club that has already gone through massive amounts of other people’s money (I would estimate anything up to £15 million in the last 30 years). I would caution against any view that people will put their hands in their pockets simply because it’s Caley Thistle - especially since the club is only now beginning to recover from the largely self-inflicted injury of its battered image and credibility among local movers, shakers and business people.

I will refer to my signature and the quote from AS himself .... "It’s not a train set – it’s a proud member of the SPFL" : Alan Savage [30/07/2024]" If ANYONE - and that includes AS - is treating ICT as a power play or a plaything like that proverbial train set then that is not right and is not acceptable. Like everyone else here I want what is best for our club, but also like most, I am just a normal working guy, and just can't afford to 'do the right thing' by the club in that way. I will do what I can in terms of shares, donations or merchandise purchases, but I cant match what Savage, Morrison, Sutherland et all have done in the past or may do in future. Currently, I will give AS a fair bit of leeway as he has stepped up and put money where his mouth is (again). All of those power-brokers who were at that meeting have similarly done their part at one time or another including RM who we know made some bad choices but still sunk seven figures into the club. The minutiae and semantics of that is for another topic. There are also a lot of other instances over the years where previous leaders of our club have done unseen or unknown things to make sure costs were controlled at the club, picked up by someone else, or paid out of their own pockets. I can see AS' point to an extent in wanting control. When he was chairman previously, he did not have that and there were well documented power struggles and personality conflicts that basically led to his resignation. I know I am over-simplifying that part of our history, but I can see him not wanting the same scenario this time around if he is trying to save the club and ends up meeting 10 different dissenting voices each time we try to take a step forward. I have reservations over the 100% ownership thing unless it comes with some form of protection and succession plan should he himself lose interest, or possibly more likely, that as he ages, he is less able to manage the day to day running of a football club and those who take over from him are uninterested (the Gretna scenario). If 'clearing the decks' so to speak is simply a mechanism to tidy up and remove current shares and debts and then to offer these to a new owner, or as a brand new public share issue, then that's more acceptable but as someone said, the devil will be in the details and we dont have those details. For me however, the 10% voting right of the Trust should be non-negotiable. Their relevance and value has always been questioned in some corners over the years, but there is no denying what they have also done during this time, the value it brings, and hopefully that they will continue to do provided they have some say and some skin in the game... The other thing here is to wonder about the end game. Something that sticks in my head is the mention of relocation to UHI. Personally, I am not against this as such. I love the Caledonian Stadium, but if we are honest, and look at it in terms of practicality, the stadium is not in the best location, and a smaller purpose-built stadium, with training facilities, shared with UHI and perhaps sponsored by donors to UHI or corporate sponsors, and with shared costs makes a lot of sense provided it could be financed somehow. This would free up the current site for other activities if that parcel of land could be added to the freeport. I have no idea if any of this is possible, but provided any activity in this area was for the benefit of the club and secured a future for us then I would not be automatically opposed. I am not opposed to any consortium or person making a profit from this kind of venture, provided the club gets its fair share and does not get ripped off. The city is not so big that UHI is too far away. The transport links are ok, and if there were public transport on matchdays then this makes it just as convenient for some (and inconvenient for others) as the Caledonian stadium. Time will tell whether we are erecting a statue of AS and other benefactors in front of the Caledonian Stadium (wherever it is) or if he is written into history with some of the others who are on our personal sh** lists because we regard them as having tried to kill our club. For me, the club would already be dead thanks to the actions or inactions of others by now, so AS is still on my statue list and not my **** list! I really hope it stays that way!

There's also an impact in training where things like mini/small games can't be undertaken to the same extent through lack of numbers. Players may also be less likely to commit as physically during games because they know if they pick up a knock (or a booking that leads to suspension), there's less cover available. Whatever way you look at it, having a third (or more) of your squad out, no matter who they are, is bad.

Such is the standard of match officials .... Totally feckin clueless! Didn't get to see our pen claim, Bet it was another crap ref.decision.

If you freeze the play when the pass is made for our disallowed goal Bray is clearly onside.

Are the wheels falling off the Gringo juggernaught? MrsGringo loses her spot at the top and @Gringo is on the brink .................... Week 27 Jodie Carnie: 296.30 Mrs Gringo: 287.90 CDN Girl: 237.40 Robert: 233.20 SOS: 222.00 Scotty: 212.70 TheCaleyOne: 212.00 MrCaleyjag: 207.80 Caley Canary: 192.80 Caleyjag: 182.90 Noho: 151.50 The Mantis: 144.70 Gringo: 15.00 5/13 correct