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“He’ll be dancing in the streets of Crystal tonight.”

I would think more of Ross County if they fielded the occasional Highlander in their first team. Or even a Scotsman!

Mixed feelings as Annan has a couple of fantastic pubs between the station and the ground 🍺. New Bayview is in a pretty uninspiring location near the docks - a bit like the Longman then. Seriously though it’s a welcome change and for our many East of Scotland based fans there’s a new direct rail link between Edinburgh Waverley and Leven station which is within walking distance of the ground. We have only played there once as they moved mid-season and it was played on a Sunday in our promotion season in 1999 with an early kickoff as their lights weren’t ready. We lost 3-2 after playing for most of the game without Paul Cherry who was red carded. Like ourselves, Dick will surely have a rebuilding job as many of his squad will not have the legs for the step up to League 1.

To add balance, Caley Thistle had a pop up shop in the big Tesco on two consecutive Thursdays and Fridays, the first being in the lead up to the Arbroath game. I happened to be in and stopped for a chat and they’d had a lot of interest with a lot of people stopping to chat. They were in Eastgate at Easter too, with players making appearances. Community engagement takes time to build, but it is good to see the club trying again.

Aye. When someone asked recently how we could attract more fans back, the discussion quickly turned to ticket prices. But my first thought had been "Get known again, through a lot of presence in the town and community!".

True but I think East Fife could do quite well in League 1 whereas Annan would have been down at the bottom again.

So we can look forward to winding Dick Campbell up again! Not upset at seeing Annan going down as it saves one marathon journey for the team.

East Fife are in League 1

Billy was reborn in the last three games. He (undeservedly IMHO) too some stick during his barren spell, but his influence on the younger players and his craft and guile cannot be understated. He didn’t expect to be playing 90 minutes most weeks, but the release of Brooks and injury to Bavidge forced it. Cairns was our only option and his departure indicates that he is maybe not ready for this level. Credit to Billy, he never hid. Next season, I hope we have a striker, signed or on loan, who can really take the weight off, so Billy is under less pressure. Is Keogh not a striker rather than a midfielder? If we lose Musa, bringing Gill back on loan could be a good option if he and Celtic are agreeable. I’m delighted to see the short term deals offered to Nicolson, Davidson and Corner. To me, that shows we’ve learned from how the likes of Walsh, Sutherland and Doran were treated, and want to give players every chance to get rehabilitated. Another welcome change by the new regime

All the best to Eagle4Caley for Crystal Palace's chance of a first piece of silverware

Absolutely! And if he thought the ball was within his area, he would have clutched it with both hands. It is hard to imagine a much clearer goal scoring opportunity than Haaland would have had. Perhaps VAR were confusing Haaland with Hojlund, in which case they might have been justified in thinking there was little chance of him scoring. Glad that Palace won though. Love to watch Eze play.

Congratulations to Cove on winning the battle for the right to play us 4 times next season!

Delighted for you too, Eagle4Caley. I too have a soft spot for Crystal Palace, having lived for part of my misspent youth in a flatshare in Bensham Manor Road in Thornton Heath. I remember that Sainsburys had to give up the shared carpark for a day each fortnight when a home game was on.

I would suggest that the keeper resorted to desperate measures because it WAS a clear goalscoring opportunity into an open goal.

No - they've said that it's because it wasn't a clearcut goalscoring opportunity. Haaland was heading slightly wide of the goals. But they didn't even give a free kick! I didn't think the penalty was correct either. Silva possibly wouldn't have reached the ball, or have been able to do anything with it. Palace's goal was fantastic!

Not just Scotland that has dodgy VAR decisions! Insufficient evidence that the keeper handled the ball outside the box so no red card.

Was thinking the same today, good luck 🤞. I have a soft spot for Crystal Palace always keep a look out for the scores, as its my family's local team (from Thornton Heath) before they moved up to Inverness in the 70s

Hopefully he’ll be ‘feeling glad all over” by the end of the day. Good luck to you buddy

Why did you feel the need to donate to 'them' ? Surely easier to plead poverty and walk by?

Well done BC. they are going to Belfast for the Northern Ireland super cup. Each kid costs about £800 for the trip with parents (granda chipping in also) paying £250 and the rest fundraising. my grandson was in last years u 13 team and had a great time. They have several levels of competition, top teams represented, Celtic, Man Utd, spurs, Bournemouth , Leeds Utd etc. even a team from Chicago. County were against Linfield, Ballymeana, Stevenage, Bermuda and Glenavon. https://supercupni.com/ your donation might help ict get another Adam mackinnon in a couple of years time. Grandson was away last week in Madrid with Dingwall academy. They played games and had stadium visits at both madrid grounds as well as taking in the atletico madrid v real sociedad game, which was 4-0. i remember back in the early seventies a trip with the Inverness high school footie team was to Forres, Elgin and Banff on a Saturday, where sometimes they would open the school canteen and serve us pie, beans and chips. My, how times have changed.

Just donated this morning to the Ross County under 13’s at Inches Tesco. Half a dozen boys and girls with swinging buckets kitted out in RC strips supported by 4 adults and a kid on a bike doing a sponsor cycle sideline. Just another one of old uncle Roy’s well oiled machine publicity and coin generating initiatives (on our own patch), that we seem somehow beyond our club. Noticed plenty of adult celtic and rangers tops also evident on large girths! Just saying!! bc

Memory man Mantis strikes again: A disappointing result for the visitors in this last game of 1998, unusually played on a Sunday and with a 1345 kick-off - East Fife's new stadium has as yet no lights. The Fifers started well and in 7 minutes John Martin hit a first-time shot wide. A minute later Martin was set up by Tommy Harrison but his shot was pushed onto the bar by Jim Calder. The visitors began to dominate and in 17 minutes a Barry Wilson cross was headed over his own bar by Johnston with Paul Cherry in attendance. In 21 minutes a Moffat volley screamed past the post at the other end. Wilson and Mclean both had chances for Caley Thistle before Paul Cherry was sent off in 37 minutes for a foul on Peters. Gilbert Allan opened the scoring in the last minute of the first half when he raced onto a Moffat pass and clipped it past Calder. Mike Teasdale turned the game in a five minute spell when he scored one goal and made another. In 63 minutes he headed home a Paul Sheerin cross for the equaliser then 5 minutes later he provided the cross for Scott McLean he put the visitors in front with a headed goal. The lead only lasted 6 minutes before substitute Lee Dair made it 2-2 with a cracking shot from 18 yards. With Caley Thistle pressing for a winner they were devastated to lose a goal 3 minutes from time, John Martin headed home to give the Fifers all 3 points. With Clyde losing and Livingston drawing, Caley Thistle end the year in second place, 6 points behind Livingston and 5 ahead of Clyde.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1AMABc8xwo/ Seen this and thought of many entertaining half time escapades involving Lionel Nessi eggs and spot the ball style grids.... Maybe just easier to get a highland cow....

Excellent post Long Man! You are absolutely right about Duncan being a very decent bloke (albeit his “caber” comment is typical patronising central beltism which I resent) who was drawn into a job that was beyond him. This was result of money the club didn’t have being thrown at him by a narcissistic CEO who turned everything he touched into dust. I would also contend that part of the stick Duncan got from the fans was actually a product of growing frustration at the pig’s ear and the toxic atmosphere that were created by Gardiner. You make an intriguing point about what might have happened if Billy Dodds had stayed, and I agree that the team would probably have stayed up… but I believe that this would have prolonged even further the catastrophic Gardiner - Morrison regime to the extent that by the time it did collapse, the club would have been beyond saving and the only outcome would have been liquidation. As a result, Scot Gardiner’s ego trip appointment of Duncan Ferguson not only accelerated Gardiner’s own welcome demise, but also brought the club’s situation to a head just in time to save it from disappearing altogether.

Big Dunc's comments about our club and the fans show him as a little man in terms of taking responsibility for his own failings. He criticises the club's facilities as a disgrace, and whilst we all know they are pretty poor, he should have ensured he knew what facilities the club had before he took the post. Or was he just so desperate for a job that he didn't even bother to find out the first thing about the club before taking the money? He criticises the fans for not liking his style of football. He suggests we would rather see a caber being tossed but that he likes his teams to play football. Well, the problem was that the fans want to see a footballing team and we weren't getting that with his over-emphasis on possession. Not only has the football been far more entertaining since he left, it has also been far more successful, despite his successor having to lose players due to the administration and having restrictions on what players could be brought in. He also criticises the fans for abuse of his son, Cameron. Now, I don't condone the abuse young Cameron got in any way, but he wouldn't have got any abuse if he hadn't have been here. Big Dunc seems to take no responsibility for his nepotism of putting his son into a team well above the ability of the poor lad. He wasn't good enough and he shouldn't have been here. He criticises the Board (fair enough!) but makes absolutely no mention of our former CEO who took the credit for signing Big Dunc and who therefore would have had a responsibility for appraising him of the facilities and circumstances of the club. It seems Big Dunc isn't big enough to say anything about the person most people feel is most responsible for the club's problems and consequently for his redundancy.

He will forever be able to say that he lost his job due to administration, but after a 2-6-2 record in 2024/25 (12 pts) and some horrible football, I think he would have been long gone had the administrator not saved his bacon and sacked him. To be fair, he did only lose two games in 24/25, but his style saw us turn potential wins into 6 draws in 10 games. His replacement put up a 14-4-8 W-D-L record over the rest of the season, still losing games, sometimes when we shouldn't, but those draws turned into wins and that was a huge factor in staying up. I wanted to like DF at ICT, and some of his banter was - and still is - entertaining to listen to, and I even appreciate him taking a pay cut before administration, but if he had been left to continue the season, even for another month then I think we would have been relegated or at least in the playoffs again. Kell's record in his first 10 games was 6-1-3 (19 pts) ... which was 7 points more than Dunc's first 10 games ... and we missed the playoffs by 7 points! If he did not get punted on the first day of administration, the conversation we are having now might have been very different.

Clearly we were mad to get rid of him!

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/may/02/duncan-ferguson-questions-everton-rangers-dundee-united-newcastle-scotland The Guardian is asking for questions for Big Dunc, ahead of the publication of his book. I have submitted the following question: "What do you think of Inverness Caledonian Thistle's performance this season after you left them, and after they were deducted 15 points for going into administration?" I doubt if it will see the light of day

They were there at the door threshold and couldn’t pass without noticing the RC colours and kids. Why donate - just habit. Do it for all kids. Cheerleaders trip to Miami, Local schools, Balloan boys. Umpteen other buckets. Can’t take it with me. bc