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Looking at the results of play-offs this weekend, with Arbroath losing to Dunfermline and Airdrieonians losing to Alloa, Stenhousemuir seeing off QotS, means we have a line-up so far consisting of ICT Livingston Arbroath* Raith Rovers* Queens Park* Ayr United Greenock Morton* With one from either Alloa*/Stenhousemuir (Alloa for me please, but who do you guys think will come up?) Then it's a shoot out between Partick & Dunfermline for the right to face either St Mirren or Kilmarnock in the Play-off I think Dunfermline might see off Partick, whilst I reckon it's St Mirren rather than Kilmarnock* So then Dunfermline/St Mirren Final...who would win that?? (I have starred* teams I fancy watching away) I'm thinking the line-up for next season will be completed by Alloa, Partick & St Mirren. (be fun to see if I get any of those right!) ----- Meanwhile in League 1... I reckon Hamilton will stay up, so with Ross County and Airdrieonians down there with QotS and one from Stenhousemuir/Alloa, I think that is quite a competitive league for next season

Dust Settled – Reflections I wanted to allow some time to pass to let Saturday’s result sink in and look at a few things as we look to a return to the Championship after a two-year unwelcome sojourn in League 1 (Div 3 to me). I wanted to extend my review beyond the match its self and consider other aspects of the day and an attempt to look a little ahead at issues that I consider will have an influence on the club’s direction. So that said my apologies in advance for a longer post. # Up Front – Alan Savage 1 Stating the obvious, without Alan Savage’s timely intervention Saturday would never have happened. Possibly some other business consortium or heaven forbid an individual like Ketan Makwana could have ended up owning the club. In either of those scenarios prevailing the likelihood of a secure and settled ICT succeeding in the same period is (to me) almost impossible to realise. - So it’s a thank you Alan Savage for financing and saving our club from its darkest hour to wining the League One. #Football Match ICTFC – Hamilton Accies 2nd May 2026 ICT – Not much to add to what already has been said. We finally managed to come out on top of the league on the final day of the season. A draw was good enough however a deserved, if somewhat easier match than expected and victory was achieved. ICT were excellent IMO in the first half. We took our foot off the peddle in a mundane second half and ended the last 15 minutes trying to run down the clock, (offering hope to the Accies). Hamilton – An underwhelming and surprising poor performance. Possibly the turmoil they have been through this season caught up with them and reflected in their commitment on the day. Happy to receive it from a ICTFC position. For me they only came awake in the final 10 minutes of the match. Management Kellacher – McKay. Churlish not to respect Scott Kellacher’s finest moment as the Manager. He achieved the objective of winning promotion to the Championship, so congratulations Kells. That said I believe this could and should have been achieved much earlier and without going into the final game with the jeopardy of the potential for coming 2nd if results didn’t go our way. I expect a few L1 managers reckon they could have done equally well with the players we had on our books. I’m hoping Kells has learnt more amount best team selection and substitutions (when and type) for next season as the focus will be greater. Stenny – A word for the best part time team in Scotland IMO. No matter what some think of their robustness and tactics, the players and manager earned my respect for the season just ended. # Match day Attendance – A crowd of over 5000 for the final league match. Whilst it is silly to think we can get anywhere near these numbers for most championship matches (ave 2500- 3000 IMO), it shows the potential exists for coming up with a marketing plan to attract greater numbers back (for some high-profile matches). This is more than just a winning team on the park IMO. The ‘product’ (whatever that is, and I touch on a few things below) has to make it appealing to more than the core die-hards. On a negative point; the club had clear signs (through early sale of tickets) that a large attendance was expected. I expect and would have hoped this was the case early in April as we led the league. For me, a number of elements came up short or were overwhelmed on the day of the final match (I list a few below). If we any aspirations of looking to step up from the wee plucky highland team in Inverness to being consider say a St Johnstone, Dunfermline or a Falkirk then we have to be more professional IMO on how we deliver our match day product (or experience if you want). Facilities (i) Catering Stock – Sold out at main stand-south kiosk. (Don’t know how he others fared). I went down 5 min before HT. Good size queue and was told no hot food left at kiosk. Quavers or Wotsits take it or leave it. Oh dear – what a missed opportunity. Surely, we had a hunch a couple of weeks in advance more grub would be needed. I don’t know what contract the club has in place for pie etc, but it can’t be exclusive, i.e. you can only buy our pies but we can only provide so many? (ii) Staff – The queue at the kiosk was staffed by friendly competent people. They were overwhelmed however by the sheer numbers. More than half the queue cut their losses as the second half started and hence again revenue was lost. Could the bar counter (unused) not have been considered in advance for this large game to speed up sales. I understand it’s mostly volunteers that ‘man’ the kiosks. A catering company support staff could have been cost effective consideration. (iii) Toilets – I made fun at a post from Old Caley Girl regarding the toilets (for the North Stand). I don’t know the details (queues)? However here again is a shortcoming for what should be considered in anticipation of large crowds. Security – Where to start. I was hoping that a repeat of the previous Accies visit to our stadium was unlikely as we would have been alert and wary of the events and antics of that day and made provision to prevent any repeat on the match on 2ndMay. It was clear to anyone in the main stand the stewarding and security for the match was severely inadequate. The result was the inevitable charging onto the park my mostly and predominately youths and kids when the moment presented itself. I condemned the Old Firm fans for their behaviour at the Cup OFM. – I can’t sit and write here a good number our fans didn’t do exactly the same and run towards the leaving Accies fans goading for some ‘action’. – Things deteriorated and no amount of announcements to ‘leave the pitch’ were going to stop the kicking and punching that occurred in front of our ( and the many children attending) eyes. - Police were called of course to restore order, but the fact remains the club ICTFC are solely responsible for the safety of all fans attending the match. I don’t know the security officer for the club, however this goes directly up to the CEO and Mr Savage. C Christie’s duties and responsibilities as CEO extend beyond simply trading and buying players. Yes security at matches cost money and if questions weren’t asked then the unsavoury events of 2nd May will (as sure and night follows day) happen again. #Alan Savage 2 Tenure – Alan Savage has already given notice he is looking for either a rich individual or a consortium of interested like minded people to express any interest in the future of the club. This is admirable of him as he knows the future stability of the club depends ultimately on someone else taking control of the reigns (whether under his ownership of another arrangement). He has done a remarkable job saving the club and being the prime enabler in getting us to the Championship and I for one will always be grateful. He is in his mid-seventies and will look to spend more time on the golf course and at Old Trafford. I understand AS’s son is more a rugby and golf nut, so in my book that means ICTFC is low down his bucket list. Life after AS. – For me it’s obvious the fans need to take on broad the need the club’s future without AS steering the good ship ICTFC within the coming few years. Just hoping someone or something will step up is fraught with the poor leaderships of the post Terry Butcher / Scottish Cup years recurring. C Christie has been said to look at retirement, so the CEO role may need to also be filled in the next 3-5 years. What role or influence does the Supporters Trust now have /play at the Board meetings in such matters. # Next season Management team – Scott Kellachar and Billy McKay will have the opportunity to continue their management rolls in the Championship next season. There will be a greater focus on the results as more teams are full time and the standard and physicality is a step up from the League 1 we just left. Ultimately the only criteria that matters is winning games and the management will be measured on that mark. I wish them both every success. Players – The usual change out as ever will occur over the summer. The best players will have the tempting offer of more money or a higher league. Others will leave and new ones will come in. County being in League 1 provides us a season advantage of not having to compete with Sir Roy’s money. Hopefully the player pool can compete in the Championship to deliver positive results. Fan base – I expect a return to the increased level of supporter to the 2000-2300 level for the Championship matches. The opposition is of a higher quality and will hopefully lead to more teams offering a challenge. They will in turn bring with them more fans than we experienced in League 1 thus helping to generate some atmosphere. Stadium – A real isolated, lonely and open stadium IMO with poor views from the North and South stands we have little opportunity but to carry on with it. That doesn’t mean we can’t spruce it up to make more appealing for the fans attending. I mentioned kiosk queues earlier though I imagine any improvement would cost too much. The bar has been greatly improved, however the remainder of the stadium could do with some remedial action. i.e. OCG mentioned the ladies’ toilet; the handrail and other steelwork are rusting, weeds at the perimeter of the park and general overall appearance could do with a lick of paint. Expectations (next season) For each fan to determine what they believe is achievable and realistic. The Championship is IMO our real level in Scottish Football and I would settle for not being immediately relegated next season. In closing, As with other ICTFC fans I want the club to succeed and be successful going forward and realise its full potential. For me this requires the club to embrace a more hard-headed and professional approach to its running operations and football decisions. Alan Savage has laid the foundations to allow us to recover and set us on a route to this objective. Have we (the people/fans interested in the club) the whereabouts to make this happen in the next few years – Time will tell. Trust it wasn’t too much of a slog! 😃 bc

I just saw the name and have broken out in a nasty rash, high blood pressure and an extreme feeling of nausea and sickness. Hope it settles down later otherwise I'm off to the vets.

Dont forget our kids. Out of our loanee players how many can progress to the next level? Robbie Thomson, Sam Thomson Shae Keogh Etc. How many of our current youth team go out for another year on loan at the next level? How many new youth players transition into this group? And unfortunately how many move on. This is the area of the sustainable club transition I am most interested in.

Airdrie drop out of the Championship, therefore the team joining us in the Championship will come from Alloa, Stenny or Qots. Stenny 2-2 heading for penalties. Stenny win on penalties Alloa v Stenny for place in Championship

The club has announced the results of the players’ and fans’ votes: Players’ POTY: Remi Savage Players’ Young POTY: Alfie Stewart Fans’ POTY: Alfie Stewart Fans’ Young POTY: Calum Macleod Top Goalscorer: Alfie Bavidge

My thoughts on the damage/confrontation As the crowd was more than double our biggest crowd of the season, how many were actual fans in the North Stand invasion group. I met a few people on the day that a know to be big fans of other clubs. They were not involved in any way in the damage or altercations, but how many were in amongst the young team mainly gathered behind the goals. I agree the stewarding was a major part of the problem. They should have got the overspill into the seated area instead of encouraging the pi55he4ds to climb on the wall and carry on with their pre-planned exuberance. The club knew how many tickets they sold therefore they should have been better prepared for all eventualities, including pies... There were some fans who were too drunk to have been allowed into the stadium and the orchestrator in front of the 'mob' was seen to be the centre of a few arguments on the park amongst our own fans. I witnessed one of our regular fans having angry words with him on the park and threatening to report him to the police for whatever he did. All in, it was a very predictable outcome to what should just have been a day of celebration. With regards to the damage to seats. There is no excuse for that. Someone must know who did it. Report it. This trend has been growing in the lower leagues for some time now with bricks thrown at buses, youths confronting away fans etc. Back to Green Street days

Quite simply, those found to have damaged seats etc, should be named and shamed, with photographs etc. Too many young people, for they are not fans, think they can do anything they want in today's society and suffer no consequences as punishment seems to be frowned upon by the authorities. Rant over.