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This could turn into a bit of a ramble... I've been on CTO for the best part of a year now. I've searched the forums but haven't found any posts where members explain why they came to be ICT fans. It struck me that as the club is only 31 years old there can't be anyone who (like many clubs fans) have been a supporter for generations. I do appreciate that there were two clubs before with a rich history, and I guess most will come from one of those two backgrounds but there has to be some who have made a choice. I've read Charles Bannerman's book "Against All Odds" and have no intention of dragging up any acrimony from the time of the merger, just wondering what made you choose ICT? For me, the seed was sown 20 years ago when I took a summer holiday in the Highlands (a 10 hour drive from where I live), although that seed took a long while to germinate. I've been a West Ham fan since April 1980 (I did it for a bet) and held a season ticket for 26 years, some of which I travelled home and away every week supporting the team (over 800 matches and 42 current English grounds visited, plus another ten or a dozen no longer in existence). It was against this backdrop of visiting football grounds that travelling up the A9 and seeing a stadium, that you could see into, right next to a main road took my attention [the only other one that springs to mind is Walsall next to the M6]. After this if it ever came up in conversation about having a Scottish team, ICT woud be who I "claimed" although I never really followed any results, just the occasional glance at the tables. I regularly listen to "The Price of Football" podcast, and in the late summer of 2024 heard Andrew Moffat from "The Wyness Shuffle" when he was on as a guest discussing the club's precarious financial position. I then downloaded and listened to a number of episodes of TWS, chucked a few quid in the pot of the crowdfunding effort, joined the ICT Supporters Trust and bought a shirt in an effort to try and help the club survive (clearly I'm no Alan Savage, but every little helps, right?). Administration then hit and I was invested in the survival battle, both on and off the pitch. I gave up my west Ham season ticket at the end of 2023/24, so following the ICT results from afar helped fill Saturday afternoons, and still do with few Premier League matches at 3pm on a Saturday. Maybe I've been lucky in my short time being invested that I didn't really have to endure Big Dunc's tactics, and have only known Kell's gameplans. That in itself is like a breath of fresh air to the, frankly quite boring Premier League down here. OK so the players may be more technically gifted but the "Guardiola" possession tactics that everyone seems to want to employ are dull. I'm really keen to get to some ICT games this season (maybe the 10 hour round trip to QoS next weekend will be my first). The crazy thing is that a plane to Inverness, match ticket and B&B are no more expensive than a train to the London Stadium and a match ticket, such are the PL prices. Anyway, enough of me, what's your story?

Great topic ! I am one of the locals (or ex-locals) and grew up supporting Caley. I lived in Dalneigh, which was the traditional hotbed of Caley support and from my home in Hawthorn Drive we used to see the players run down the street on their way from Telford Street to what they used as a training pitch at the park beside Dalneigh Primary School a few nights a week. I am an IT guy so when the club was formed in 1994 I started this website which has gone through many incarnations in the last 31 years, including a 10-year spell where it was either the "almost official" and then the "official" site of the club before reverting back to being fully independent. Met some great characters through this website over the years whether at the club, locals, ex-pats, or indeed those who decided to follow the team for some other reason and from some other place. Back then the people travelling from afar were deemed as "InterNutters"! and we often met up when they travelled first in the Caley Inn when Don and Brigit were the landlords, then, latterly in the Innes Bar where Colin offered us a home. Had what I thought to be the best season ticket seats in the stadium, right above the tunnel in the main stand and over the years our initial group of 4 dished out some very spicy 'banter' which nowadays might get us kicked out of the stadium! As many know, one member of our group is no longer with us, and I became an ex-pat myself in 2003 after moving to Canada. I kept the site going because Caley Thistle is in my blood, I will always be an Invernessian, a Highlander, and a Scotsman (in that order). It also keeps me in touch with friends and family from the UK. My voice may now have an odd twang of Canadian in it at times, and I may have fallen into using some North American words but a couple of pints back in Inverness and the old accent and vocabulary is back. Where possible, my trips home are timed with one eye on the football calendar as much as anything else. Over here, I have been a Toronto FC season ticket holder since they formed in 2007. I was actually committed to a season ticket in 2006 before the team was officially formed, before there was a manager, before the stadium was built and before we had any players. Much like supporting ICT, supporting another acronym like TFC has also been a roller coaster ride of epic proportions. I have seen lots of highs and lows with both teams, whether it was winning the Scottish Cup as an ICT supporter or winning the MLS Cup and Supporters Shield as a TFC supporter or finishing dead last as TFC or being in the Caledonian stadium the day we were officially relegated from the Premiership. The experience is different, but oddly, despite the difference in scale, and the fact that the owners of TFC have more money than we can dream of (they own TFC, The Toronto Maple Leafs, the Toronto Raptors and multiple concert and sporting arenas around the city as well as lots of other stuff) some things feel weirdly like they are happening in a parallel universe they are so similar. There are also another few ICT fans at TFC. Some I have converted as they are mates (including one boy who is also a West Ham fan - and West Ham did play the All-Star game in Toronto a few years ago BTW [link1] [link2] ) whereas one or two are actual ICT fans who have travelled back to Inverness (and to the cup final as well) to watch the mighty ICT! Perhaps @luvgravy will reappear to tell his own story. My son (12) is currently forging his own pathway in football. He was on the books with Toronto FC Juniors until COVID hit and after that programme did not get restarted afterwards, he now plays what they call 'Rep Soccer' over here . Rep is competitive football from ages 4-13, probably closest resembling the Inverness Street League ... but his team travel all around the Northern suburbs of Toronto so 1-2 hour drives are not uncommon. This summer we had tournaments in Niagara Falls and Montreal which were fun. We were just at his tryouts for the season that starts next month for his next age group (U13) and looks like he will get into what they call the High-Performance / Talented Pathway program. For me that means twice the cost and twice the travel as we may have to go as far as Niagara Falls (2.5hr drive one way) or Ottawa (4 hr drive one way) for games instead of just around Toronto, but he loves it. If he enjoys it and can develop his talent, then that's what matters! Realistically, he is more Messy than Messi and for some reason he supports Spurs and Real Madrid (mainly because of Son, and Vini Jr) but he will learn 😉! I would love to see him run out at the Caledonian Stadium in a Caley Thistle top as a player, rather than a mascot, which he did on that fateful day we were relegated, but there is a long road to travel before he does that for any senior team ... we can dream. Anyhow - will wrap this up now and say I am looking forward to reading more potted histories from others ...

I too am an Invernessian now living in Forres. But I was down in Sheffield - torn between Blades and Owls - when ICT Were formed as a result of the merger. I was also from Dalneigh so I was a Caley fan. I remember my first game - a win - against Buckie Thistle standing at the Howden End aged 7 with my Dad. This was around 1962 and the team I remember featured the Van Dijk -like Alan Presslie, the goal machines Chic Allan and Davy Johnson, the Neild brothers, and later on, my school mate Gordy Fyffe. Returning to Scotland in 1997 my first ICT game was like a dream. I went alone and delighted in the familiarity of supporting my home team. For the last 10 years or so illness and disability have reduced my supporting to the armchair variety but having been an early Internutter alongside the late Gordyfromsneck and Mr Biro I delight in keeping connected via CTO and now the Supporters Trust. All the best to supporters old and new wherever you come from.

Well well, another supporter south of the border...English too? I am a Crystal Palace supporter of 50odd years [and we have finally won something!], but have supported Caley properly [i.e. going to match] since 2013. How did I get here? It was the famous 'supercaleygoballistic' cup win against Celtic that first brought the club to my attention, I later fancied supporting a Scottish club, then a highland tour trip with my eldest daughter inc' a cheeky stop by our driver at the stadium sealed it [plus ICT playing in the same colours as Palace]. I manage two to three trips year up to either 'home' or 'away'. My wife sometimes comes up for the 'home' games I am doing an 'overnighter' which she enjoys and Inverness and the area is lovely. I live in South London, so usually fly from Gatwick, but also Luton [Thameslink helps] I have even taken the train to Edinburgh [from Kings Cross] and last January did away to Queen of the South [Dumfries] mid-week stopping at Carlisle. I once did an overnight Megabus sleeper from London Victoria to get to an early kick off Cup semi-final [we beat Virgil van Dijk's Celtic] , and have been known to get an overnight coach home after games near Glasgow or Edinburgh. My family laugh at how I like to plan the logistics of trips [how many modes of transport can I use], but I do love doing the away games as you get to see more of Scotland, and the away support is fab [Dumbarton away this year was simply superb]. I tend to plan well ahead to get good deals on hotels/fares. I have just retired but start University this month so funds are a little tighter, but I am flying British Airway to Inverness from Heathrow and back in the same day this November having got a great deal on fares! Our recent history has been chequered to say the least but things are looking bright again, I absolutely love supporting Caley and have been to three cup finals, along with trips to places like Dundee, Ayr, Livingstone, Airdrie, Dunfermline, Partick Thistle and Stenhousemuir [although it was Queens Park playing us...don't ask!], Covid cost me a trip to Kilmarnock, and gales cancelled my visit to Hearts. So welcome aboard, you'll enjoy the ride...maybe see you in East Fife next spring

.......and finally....'Registered office address changed from C/O Bdo Llp, 2 Atlantic Square 31 York Street Glasgow G2 8NJ to Sarens Psg Stadium Stadium Road Inverness IV1 1FF on 9 September 2025'.....

Its Ticket Time !!Almost there ... as the graphic says: 11mins and 50 seconds until I can officially apply for tickets for the 2026 World Cup courtesy of FIFA partner VISA's presale window. Having said that, all of this was after well over 90 minutes of the spinning dots tantalisingly telling me I was almost there, and then the countdown timer starting at 30 minutes! All the while while I was keeping my fingers crossed that my browser didnt crash or I had some other IT failure happen! The actual process of applying for the tickets after the window opened up and gave me FIVE MINUTES to complete my info after waiting two hours was pretty simple. Fill in a little extra data from your FIFA profile, add your credit card number and off you go ... So thats that then, I am on the list to try and get tickets for either Scotland (if we qualify) or for any game in Toronto which might include one Canada game and whoever else might be drawn here. So whats next?According to the site, thats all there is for now. I now wait until 29th September to find out if I was lucky enough to get something in the draw and if so I believe I can score up to 4 tickets. If nothing awarded for this then I am keeping the eyes peeled for any and all other opportunities to get an order in. FIFA dropped the news last week that "dynamic pricing" would be in effect. This is basically the same type of surge pricing that Uber uses for their services when busy and can see the cost rise two or three fold or more! It can however also work in reverse and dynamic pricing for the Club World Cup recently held in the USA as a pre-cursor to the main tournament saw tickets drop as low os USD$4 per ticket !!! FIFA have however said that no tickets will drop below the absolute minimum cost of USD$60 per ticket. Personally, I don't care who it is playing the game, although I would obviously like it to be Scotland -V- Canada or some other meaningful game for me personally, but I just want to be able to take my son and wife to a game so we can say we experienced the World Cup!! I think that is something my son will remember long after I am dead and gone! Plan B?Oh yes, one must always have a plan B. Not sure it will work for the family, but I also submitted an entry last month to be a World Cup volunteer in Toronto. If I cant pay to get in the stadium, then maybe I can volunteer to get in for 'free'. Its a bit of a longshot, and you could find yourself based anywhere from the airport to a hotel, to some random street in downtown Toronto, or if you are really lucky then maybe you could be an 'ambassador' greeting players or VIPs to the stadium, escorting them to the expensive seats and hoping to not only soak in the atmosphere but also get a glimpse of the game. The list of positions seems daunting and the application process did seem like a bit of a psychological test to see if you had the warm and fuzzies required for dealing with thousands of well-oiled fans ... We will see Plan C?Guess I will have to watch it on telly like the rest of us ... Fingers crossed I dont need a new Telly !

Just got this note from the club: Mr Alan Savage will be holding a press conference, to give an update on the club, at 11am on Friday 12th September in the boardroom at the Sarens PSG Stadium.

from the archives (2003) .... [click to view full size]

I was a big fan when I was at school, but my kids got me a Monty Python box set a few years back and it's so dated. A tenner and it's yours. You can collect the tenner off me at the next home game.

Our latest podcast has dropped! This episode features the usual chat about recent and forthcoming matches as well as interviews with Liam Sole and Joe Chalmers which is nice. Have a wee listen!

A new podcast dropped yesterday with a shorter format to reflect on the recent games. Featuring @ALSY and @BA as well as Paul Chalk and your copper bottomed host Moff. https://open.spotify.com/episode/2pTlOcZ7Pq5F3KOF4qgxG7 And if you haven't listened to it yet the season preview is worth a listen if you have a spare 2 hours and 46 minutes! https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Iay42MKdGXcGEOQUXgfx8

Megapod has dropped featuring interviews with Cammy Harper and Martin Bavidge in addition to the usual football related chat and nonsense.