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It was good to hear Alan Savage talking about Dougie Macgillvray being at the meeting today. It would be fantastic if DM could get back with the club in some capacity . I think it is also way overdue that his massive contribution to the club should be recognised in a formal way.

Kelty Hearts Six Pointer Alert With Kelty Hearts seemingly in free-fall, they have parted company with their manager Charlie Mulgrew after a disastrous run of one win in eleven games since he took charge in January. That run has yielded just six points from a possible thirty-three which has scuppered their play-off hopes unless they drop further into the relegation zone, then anything is possible. However, not all the news coming out of the Caledonian Stadium this week is about events on the park. It has been a massive step in the right direction as the news broke that Alan Savage has been accepted as the preferred bidder by the Administrators (BDO) " A BDO spokesperson said: “We are delighted to have reached this milestone and would like to place on record our thanks to Alan, the loan creditors, shareholders and everyone at the club for their cooperation and for working so hard to get us to this point.“Our focus now is on progressing the CVA to ensure a successful exit from administration and secure the future of the Club. Together with Alan, we will look to firm up timescales in this regard as soon as possible.” Happy Days, and the feel good factor has returned to the Caledonian Stadium ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Match/Ticket/Bus/Gig/Info Calum Jones Gig/Bar94 Alan Salvage Preferred Bidder ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2025 Apr 12th League (League 1) - H - Feb 22nd League (League 1) 1 - 0 A 641 2024 Nov 2nd League (League 1) 1 - 1 H 1,502 Aug 24th League (League 1) 0 - 0 A 692 2022 Jul 9th League Cup (Group Stage Group G) 1 - 0 A 601 Only the four competitive meetings between the two clubs and you can't get a fag paper between the two sides. The last encounter saw Alfie Bavidge bagging the winner in the second half. Kelty Hearts Broken The two previous encounters this season had ended all square but this Training Ground Derby at New Central Park went the way of the visitors thanks to a strike from Alfie Bavidge. Scott Kellacher had a full squad to pick from with James Nolan dropping down to join new signing Ben Brannan on the bench and Billy Mckay was up front with Alfie Bavidge. Charlie Mulgrew had a defender trialist on from the start who turned out to be Kirk Broadfoot but top Scorer Ross Cunningham missed out. After a goalless first half the Caley Jags upped the pace and Alfie Bavidge opened the scoring with twenty minutes remaining. A late scare as Kelty bounced a header off the crossbar following a corner but the visitors held on for the win in what turned out to be a great day for the Caley Jags with all others round about them losing. Happy days! 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 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 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! We bounced back with a rout of our own as a Keith Bray hat-trick sunk Cove Rangers 3-0 at Balmoral Park. What a result that was! With Bavidge and Longstaff out for the remainder of the season, how timely & satisfying was it to see Keith Bray bang it a hat-trick at Cove last Saturday. A great all round team performance with Alfie Stewart providing all three assists. Latest Team News: Remi Savage returned to the defence last week after suspension and Calum MacLeod came on as a sub after missing the game at Palmerston. Pos Team Pld Gd Pts 1 Arbroath 32 19 60 2 Cove R 32 14 49 3 Stenny 32 8 49 4 Queen o Sth 32 0 45 5 Alloa Athletic 32 7 44 6 Montrose 32 -5 39 7 Kelty Hearts 32 -7 37 8 Inverness CT 32 4 36 9 Annan Ath 32 -26 33 10 Dumbarton 32 -14 16 Following Tuesday's announcement regarding the resignation of Charlie Mulgrew, it has been confirmed that Thomas O'Ware will take charge of the team for the remainder of the season. Tam will be assisted by the coaching team of David McGurn, Jamie McDonald and Dean Robertson. Last Six: D L D D L L Kelty's last six is the worst run in League1 right now. The draws were against Montrose, Stenhousemuir and Arbroath with a heavy defeat at home to Cove (0-4), an away loss at Annan (2-1) and the crushing 6-0 defeat at home against already relegated Dumbarton. Ross Cunningham is joint top scorer with Mitch Megginson of Cove. However, he is suspended for this one. Scott Williamson has seven. Here's the players warming up ahead of this crucial clash at the Caledonian Stadium on Saturday. With big Mulgrew offski, Tam has stepped in to fill the gap after Charlie only won six points from thirty-three leaving Kelty dangling just above the relegation zone. With Lord Salvage looking to invest in the club, it's happy days down at the dump after a season of hurt. So much so, that there is a sing-song at the stadium after the Kelty game starting at 18:00. What's not to like!

The BBC reports Savage as saying that Lionel Nessie will be reinstated as mascot. That seals it for me!

You know me Don. I have nothing but respect for Kenny. I did not like the way it ended for him. He was caught between a rock and a hard place and resigned the day we got relegated. I was there that day (unfortunately) and my son was one of the two mascots. I dont think Kenny got run off for running the club that way however, it was more to do with the fact that he put too much faith in Richie Foran and was ultimately too loyal to him when results did not work out. Loyalty and faith in your employees are wonderful qualities in most businesses but apprently not in football as we know. Being an honourable man, he resigned when we got relegated as he knew the buck stopped with him as the Chairman. He is and always will be regarded in my eyes as one of the best Chairmen we ever had, and in my opinion, those that followed him began the demise that led us to where we are today.

Was glad to hear the Dougie M was around yesterday. I know that there have been well publicised "differences of opinion" when it comes to DM, DFS and AS and likely others too, but the three I mention there have all done their best to move us forward in the past and its nice to think all three may have some role in moving us forward in the future. Even if it's only a tacit nod that AS is the man to take us forward by giving up shares, it's still an important milestone and validation of AS. In October we thought we might be playing amateur league at the Bught so I will take that! I like the location but the stadium itself has never been completely suitable. We went for the one big stand, hoping for big things I guess, that would fund the construction of three other similar large stands in years to come. Perhaps we should have gone for 4 smaller stands from the off and create a compact but great little ground for our needs. Thats not a criticism of who went before, but an observation purely from hindsight. Indeed. I think if you take bits and pieces from various articles, you can work out what bits of the plan might be. Caledonian Stadium will be vacated in the future with a plan to move to UHI. Timescale to be determined based on how this can be financed. Current stadium land to be repurposed / subleased to generate income for the club and/or AS and investors either as a one-off or on an ongoing basis as part of an expanded border to the freeport. Off field expenditure to be curtailed and reverted back to a model of fiscal responsibility. Club to be sustainable and aim to break even as a mid-level championship side each season. Youth system to be given more prominence (and funding). The hope being that we not only develop our own talent but also can generate income if and when these players move to other clubs either through transfers or development fees. Have other players come in with a point to prove. Charlie alluded to this, and we have seen quite a few of these players over the years who turned into club icons. Those who may be overlooked elsewhere or are coming back from injury and have a point to prove. ICT can be a shop window, or like some, a place they end up making home. Re-establish relationships and reputation with other clubs so we can get loans of the calibre of Alfie Bavidge and others on a yearly basis. Show we are player focused in terms of looking after their wellbeing which we lost sight of in the last few years.

It would be a shame if Caley were to leave the Longman, if only because the Moray Firth/Black Isle is such a picturesque backdrop. Rivalled by our administration in arms, Dumbarton, on that score. Fantastic, though, that we look to have an immediate route forward and exit from administration, fingers crossed. Hoping there'll be a great buzz around the place for Kelty tomorrow.

Even then my NAPS bets wont stick.

Hopefully s/he's reduced their salary demands.

Not playing anymore.

Now that we know Alan Savage is the preferred bidder to buy the club we can now put the past few years of mismanagement etc to one side and start looking at new beginnings with someone competent that has the club at heart and I am certainly certain will run it very well. As was already pointed out in the Administration thread, work already seems to be getting done regarding recruitment next season with trialists coming up plus in this period, the under 18s are also training with the first team so Scott Kellacher can look at them and see who is capable of stepping up to the first team for next season. Hopefully most of the current first team squad can sign up on new deals so that the rebuild isn't as tough a job as it would have been! One thing that should certainly not be in question is the management team because Kells and Billy have done a REMARKABLE job so Alan doesn't need to be looking at managers because we have one that I 100% believe in to mount a title/promotion push for next season. I am fairly confident that nearly ALL fans of this club will be as delighted with this news as I am because, at one point during this tough few months, I was seriously concerned we were not going to have a club going forward :caleyscarf: : caleyscarf:

Your AI has some strange ideas about the markings on the pitch And what bridge has it brought in?

I think it’s being highly disrespectful to Charlie… damning him with exceedingly faint praise like that!

Thing is, most of the future development will already be sketched out. Alan Savage is usually two steps ahead of the rest, no reason to think its any different now.

The matchday buses will be operating as normal for tomorrow's game against Kelty Hearts. Buses leave the Bus Station at 1300 and 1415, returning from the Stadium 10 minutes after the full time whistle and then at 1800. Concession passes are valid on all journeys, with the fare for non concessions being £2.40. Bar 94 will be open from 1200 before the game whilst after the game it will remain open for the Calum Jones gig. Courtesy of Stagecoach, a free coach will operate after the gig to the Bus Station and the Caley Club.

Looking forward to getting the focus back solely on the football. Some have hesitations and that's me too but we have a lifeline and need to embrace it to ensure best chance of success.

A refreshing topic. Not out of the woods yet, but certainly very positive on the surface. With Charlie Christe perhaps having the interim tag removed from his title, and I personally hope that this is the case, we would have a CEO with intimate knowledge of the club from all areas of operation from the commercial side to the team management side and of course including youth development. Charlie is utterly invested in the club on a level far more than financially and deeply cares for it as any interview you hear shows this. The article I posted in another thread also shows he has a plan to blend youth and experience and to try to get the most sustainable and engaged squad possible. People wondered what he could do for the club after he stepped down as manager. I think this is his role. https://archive.ph/3gzWH With Kells at the helm as manager, we have done well. He has quietly learned his trade under multiple other managers both good and bad and hopefully taken the good stuff into his arsenal. His press conferences are a breath of fresh air, and fan engagement is higher than it has been for years. Although I have not worked it out, his points-per-game ratio must surely be up there among the best so long may that continue. Couple that with the circumstances he is operating under and to not go with him as manager would be sheer lunacy. Billy as his assistant is also a bit of a no-brainer. I am also good with Alan Savage as preferred bidder. Again, we have someone with strong local ties and a desire to see the club come out of the current malaise. Somone who has been involved before and has shown a genuine affection for the club. We may have questions along the way, not least over the 100% ownership statement, or other mechanics of any offer, but no-one else has seriously thrown their hat (and their money) into the ring either on an interim basis like he did, or with a plan for the future and without him this entire conversation might have been moot. Pretty sure there will be many bumps in the road both on and off field in the ensuing days, weeks and months, but at least that roadway seems to be more visible now.

Hope so. Also liked this article that may have passed by a few folk: https://archive.ph/3gzWH