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Aaron Doran was a substitute for the Caley Jags in his testimonial game against local rivals Ross County, who aired their new strip for season 25/26 Both sides fielded strong line-ups with the hosts benching Doran and fielding two trialists on from the start. Doran was in good company with Billy Mckay, Luis Longstaff and new signing Jordan Alonge on the bench beside him. A bright and breezy afternoon for this 2:00pm kick off with County getting the game underway, kicking towards the North Stand. Ronan Hale bagged the opener in the seventh minute with a great finish, Cornelius with the assist. Ross Laidlaw in the County goal saved from Wotherspoon ten minutes before the break, but right on the interval Hale scored from a thumping free kick to double the visitors advantage. HALF TIME: 0-2 Changes were made at the interval by County with Inverness waiting until the hour before McKay, Longstaff, Robbie Thompson and new signing Jordan Alonge were introduced. Billy Mckay brought Laidlaw into action with twenty minutes remaining. The main man came on to an appreciative round of applause from a decent support, replacing Wotherspoon on 70 minutes to say his farewells. More subs followed by both as everyone got involved in the play. Sub keeper Logan Ross denied Eamonn Brophy near the end. FULL TIME: 0-2 Decent workout for both sides. Ronan Hale showing his class with two great strikes, but today was not about the result, it was to show our gratitude for a great servant to the club. Thank you Aaron Doran

Aaron Doran ICTFC Legend This Saturday it's a day to say thankyou to a club legend. Aaron Brian Cogan Doran has given the main chunk of his footballing career to the Caley Jags since joining from Blackburn Rovers having previously been loaned out to Milton Keynes Dons and Leyton Orient. He was initially signed on a six month loan deal by Terry Butcher, making 14 appearances scoring 3 times. His debut was as a substitute for Stuart Duff in a 2-0 defeat by Aberdeen on 26th January 2011. His first goal came against St Mirren in a 3-3 draw some three weeks later on the 12th of February 2011. Here is how we saw it on CTO: the Saints managed to clear the danger temporarily, the ball only came as far as David Proctor, who threw a dangerous looping ball into the box. Adam Rooney seemed to get some sort of touch on it and as the ball bounced beyond Richie Foran, Aaron Doran came steaming in at the back post and fired it into the roof of the net. (This portion of the match report was brought to you by the miracle of BBC highlights: I was in the bog at the time.) His third Caley Jags goal was a belter. A spectacular curling effort from distance against St Johnstone in a televised 3-0 game on 25th April 2011. Pick that one out. He was then signed on a permanent deal at the end of the season and he embarked on a fantastic career at the Caledonian Stadium spanning 13 years until injury cut his time here short and he left under a cloud of controversy created by the Scot Gardiner oligarchy and with a damaged knee to contend with. That was the low point of a tremendous career, littered with goals, assists, flair and a Scottish Cup winners medal round his neck. Who can forget his brilliant precision assist for the opening goal in the final against Falkirk back in 2015. Superb. A great footballing brain in a career blighted by injuries. Aaron was painted by talented local artist 👩‍🎨 Sophie Robb, a big Caley Jags fan herself, holding the Scottish Cup aloft in 2015. In total, he made 392 (118 from the bench) appearances for Inverness scoring 57 goals. His last appearance sadly lasted only 19 minutes when he was helped from the pitch with another serious knee injury against Raith Rovers on 19th April 2024, a sad end to his playing career at the Caledonian Stadium, although unknown to us at the time, worse would follow. He is second only to Ross Tokely in appearances. A Scottish Cup winner and a Challenge Cup winner and also played in the Scottish Cup Final in 2023. He was the Supporters Player of the Year in 2023. When he left Inverness in June 2024 he joined up with Ryan Esson at Strathspey Thistle where he now helps with the coaching and still helps out on the pitch. So much so he managed to score against the Caley Jags in a recent pre-season game. All the best Aaron. Not many can top these stats Full Name: Aaron Brian Doran Cogan Born: May 13th, 1991 (Charleville, County Cork, Ireland) Height: 5' 7 Position: Winger Signed: January 25th, 2011 First Manager: Terry Butcher Left Club: June 10th, 2024 Career Stats: 392 appearances, 57 goals Debut (as sub): January 26th, 2011 - Inverness CT 0 - 2 Aberdeen (League - ) Full Debut: February 5th, 2011 - 5 - 1 Morton (Scottish Cup - Rd 5) First Goal: February 12th, 2011 - St. Mirren 3 - 3 Inverness CT (League - ) Here is Aaron's career strikes against the County. He does like a wee goal against the gudgies. Some additional information. This game will be a full pre-season friendly for both teams. Aaron will obviously feature at some point in the game but both teams will be fielding strong teams. We are hoping some ex players may be able to join us a bit later in the bar for a catch up. There will be buses running, times will be confirmed but as you have noticed parking will be limited so this could be a good option for many of you. Match tickets can be bought online at eticketing.co.uk/ictfc Bar 94 will be open from 11:30 and will reopen at full time, with the usual range of products (and we have held the price of a pint of Dog Falls at £5). We hope to see you there to enjoy what the Testimonial Committee have lined up for the day. With the circus taking place in the car park, please use the matchday bus if you are able to as parking will be restricted at and around the ground. It leaves the Bus Station at 1145 and 1315, returning from the Stadium 10 minutes after the full time whistle and at 1700. The fare is £2.70 single (contactless payments or cash accepted), and Over 60 / Disabled and Under 22 Concession passes are valid, giving free travel on the service to passholders. Stagecoach have advised that all revenue taken on the service on Saturday will be donated to Aaron's Testimonial Fund, so that is another great reason to use the service, as Aaron will be directly benefitting from your journey. From the Official ICTFC SITE On behalf of the Aaron Doran Testimonial Committee, tickets are now available for Aaron Doran’s testimonial with Ross County. Aaron Doran Testimonial ICT v ROSS COUNTY – SATURDAY 5th JULY 2025 Kick off 2:00 pm Tickets for this match, which is kindly sponsored by Mackellar Engineering Ltd are now on sale. Tickets are priced at £15 and £5 (under 16s only) and can be purchased at Caledonian Stadium or online from eticketing.co.uk/ictfc Home support will be housed in the Main Stand only for this game purely to reduce the costs for Aaron and the away fans will be accommodated in the South Stand. Should you wish to join Section 94 they will be taking up temporary residence in Lower B of the Main Stand. Aaron has served ICT for over 13 years, which is almost unique in modern day football, and it is hoped that supporters will recognise this loyalty and attend the game in numbers. It has been some time since ICT and Ross County have opposed each other and, with the game being played on the last weekend prior to the season commencing, the club’s will be fielding their strongest teams. Both clubs have been busy signing new players so come along and see them in action. It is appreciated that as this game is being played at the start of the school holidays some supporters will not be able to attend the match and if they would wish to support the Testimonial they can make a donation either by buying a ticket for the game or via bank transfer to Santander: Account name: Aaron Doran Testimonial Sort Code 09-01-29 Account no 34452181 View full article

Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC are delighted to confirm the signing of winger Liam Sole on loan from Livingston until January 2026, subject to SFA clearance. Liam, 25 years-old, started his career at MK Dons and has short loan spell with St Albans City before joining Nottingham Forest. He then returned to St Albans City for 2022/23. Sole signed for Maidstone United ahead of the 2023/2024 season, and was part of the side that knocked then English Championship side Ipswich Town out of the FA Cup in January 2024, becoming the lowest ranked side in the English football pyramid since 1978 to reach the last 16 of the FA Cup. Liam then signed a pre-contract with Livingston for season 2024/25 and was part of the squad which won the Scottish Challenge Cup and promotion to the Scottish Premiership. We’d like to thank Livingston FC for their assistance with this matter. Welcome to Inverness, Liam! Winger/attacking midfielder Liam Sole arrives on loan from Livingstone. Just as well he was not Rob, Richard or Ruaridh...

I thought it was a pretty even match but in Hale County had a match winner. Sadly both goals started through poor play by us: losing possession cheaply for the first then giving away an unnecessary free kick in a dangerous area for the second. Wotherspoon brought out a tremendous save by the County goalkeeper when we were only one down but otherwise we didn’t carry much threat up front, although we looked a lot better after Longstaff and Mckay came on. I don’t recall County bringing our goalkeepers into action, other than picking the ball out of the net, until substitute Logan made a good block to stop a third. We need to find potency in the final third and avoid silly errors, but other than that I thought we matched them. It was great to see Aaron on the pitch again, and he got the send off he deserved from a decent crowd and afterwards in Bar 94 which was again busy today.

A massive thank you to everyone who participated in the fundraising activities for Aaron in Bar 94 before and after the game on Saturday. The raffle for a signed Ryan Christie Bournemouth top attracted an incredible number of entries, and the winning ticket holder was in the bar after full time to receive the top. We did not expect bids for the signed Testimonial strip to reach £300, that was just incredible! Thank you also to those who bought entries in the football cards or in the time of the first goal competition. It was good to hear from Aaron in the bar after the game, and to hear the tributes paid to him by Danny Devine and Ryan Esson, and a lot of selfies were taken too. Stagecoach are donating the revenue from the matchday bus to Aaron's Testimonial Fund, and to those who used the service in total you contributed to a donation of around £220. Aaron took time to speak to the regular matchday bus driver and season ticket holder Neil before the last journey departed. It was great to see such a large crowd paying a fitting tribute to Aaron at the match itself and thank you again to everyone who participated in the activities in Bar 94.

Just to clarify, the Supporters Trust offered to take on the running of the bar early last season, following a period when the those previously in charge of the club had run it down to the extent that very few fans used it and there were even thoughts of closing it completely. We rebranded it as Bar 94, improved the appearance, enlisted volunteers to staff it, extended the opening hours, introduced new products (particularly draught beers supplied by Dog Falls) and worked with Stagecoach to introduce additional matchday journeys timed to allow fans to spend time in the bar. However, the club pays for all the stock that is sold, and all revenue taken in Bar 94 is retained by the club, who also incur all the overhead costs, rates etc for the area, despite only being able to take income on 20-25 days each year. We have tried to keep prices affordable, but fully appreciate that football can be an expensive pastime, but we do need to ensure that the club profits from the prices charged. The Supporters Trust is not involved in the running of the servery that is in the bar area (or any of the other serveries around the ground), although we are very conscious that the queues to get served can be very long, particularly at half time. We have fed this back to the club, and know that the serveries are one of a large number of issues that the club has thoughts about. Where we run activities in the bar, such as raffles or football cards (and this season we have a new time of the first goal competition), the proceeds are retained by the Supporters Trust, and we look to use any income we have to improve the matchday experience (obviously the revenue from such events yesterday was going to Aaron's Testimonial Fund). As bar users are aware, we have carried out a lot of improvements, some purely from the work of our volunteers, but others that came with quite substantial costs, particularly the new ladies toilets, replacing those that were removed at Covid. We have seen usage grow substantially, which we and the club are very grateful for, as the bar users are helping the club to generate much needed income. We have only been able to achieve this through the work of our volunteers, to whom we extend our sincere thanks. Thank you also to everyone who has used Bar 94 since we reopened it last Autumn, and you can keep up to date on bar and bus times in the dedicated thread here:

Aaron looking resplendent in his testimonial kit. Aaron recently spoke about his testimonial match and the challenging end to his time at the club. He expressed gratitude for the support from fans during his 13-and-a-half-year tenure, especially after his contract ended while awaiting surgery for a knee injury. Doran highlighted the club's lack of communication regarding his injury and surgery. “I have had two surgeries booked in by the physio, Dan (Cluett), for May 22 and May 29, and the club cancelled them both..." That led to a fundraiser organized by former teammate Shane Sutherland to cover the costs. Time for us all to give something back to Arran to show our appreciation of his time at Inverness CT.

Excellent piece TM4TJ From STV in case anyone missed it

Just a word of praise to those that undertook some ground general tidying-up. I noticed that the place looked a lot smarter with simple but clear improvements at the small detail. The perimeter of the pitch and ‘path’ had been cleared of weeds and growth for the first time in I-don’t-know how many years. I’m past such activities, but for me it is evidence of a club trying to get back some pride in its self and for the fans attending. Well done. Achieved its goal for me! bc

An enjoyable occasion, and if someone had been able to capitalise on the two great scoring opportunities in the first 5 minutes, the score would have been more to my liking. Suicidal passing in front of our goal presented County with their two goals, there are times when you need to just blooter the ball up the park rather than smarta**e tippy-tappy. Just a bit too casual sometimes. However, it was all about Aaron Doran and today's attendance was better than many of the league games last season - a mark of the esteem in which the man is held. An afternoon well spent!

Great write up Don! Aaron has given us so much over the years, Also Some nice words by Ryan Esson and George in Bar94 after the match. The game was not much to shout about from our perspective, Lots of tippy tappy stuff, with county being a lot more direct and the score shows it. The striker up front Ojo? did not do much to impress, Strachan at LB was guilty of a few poor passes but seemed to sort himslf out in the second half, However at times it was like watching Duncball as we seemed to have a nosebleed when we got near their box. County keeper had an easy day for sure as i think our striker issue has not been resolved. However as Don says it was all about a legend that is Aaron Doran!

Hi Mantis, Understand the root cause issue you’ve identified, however it is a problem for ICT if people give up buying a ticket. Gone it seems are the days when you just turned up and paid cash for entry. You now need to provide your name, address and other personal details (credit/debit card) to simply apply for a match ticket. Introduce the potential glitches where any part of the above or platform provider (ie ticketing.co.uk) kick-in, then it becomes a chore. I don’t know how many times now where I have just shut down a purchase (eg paint) due to coming up against such grind. The club should make it as easy as possible for match access/ tickets to be purchased. If cash turnstiles cannot be reintroduced then a clear notice on the club ticket site that tickets are available for purchase at the ground right up to kick off IMO. tuppence worth. bc

Excellent report Donnie and full marks also to those involved who made this happen.

You're doing a great job with what you have. Thank you for your efforts. Most of us appreciate it. Sadly, there is always one!

Thing is, at least from what the supporters trust are providing you're not paying over the odds by any comparable metric. If you can't afford a pint then that's a shame but that doesn't mean that it's overpriced. I don't understand what your employer has to do with it 🤷‍♂️

I'm not sure this is the correct thread for this. This one is about Aaron Doran and his testimonial. There are many things that can still be improved in the matchday experience, no one is daft or arrogant enough to think otherwise. I'm also sure both the Trust and Club would welcome constructive thoughts on where they can do better. However, it's also pretty clear that you're not listening to the posts of other contributors to this thread.

I take it back. It appears I haven't a clue where CaleyCiuin is coming from.

Form an orderly queue… Big Dunc’s book is on a short term sale on Amazon Kindle store at £1.99 🤮

Glad Kel's interview is there as it saves me typing much the same (twice recently I've had longish posts disappear). An excellent performance with a total collapse of about 10 mins when PTFC scored 3 times and could have had another couple. We looked more like the Championship club in the first half but they obviously got a rocket at half time. I think Munro will be an excellent replacement for Musa. Chalmers and Allan made a good pairing and Remi and Danny were composed as usual. Millen looks OK at RB. Not sure if Ojo is the goalscorer we need based on one viewing. The PTFC fans were all wanting the manager to nick him off us before he got back on the team bus. A horrible venue, a bit like Cove, where we shouldn't have to play again with any luck as Petershill are in Tier 7 and are unlicensed atm. It was my 58th venue watching ICT otherwise I wouldn't have bothered as I've been a couple of times before.

As detailed in the Bar 94 and Matchday Bus Service thread, Bar 94 will be open from 1130 and will reopen at full time, with the usual range of products (and we have held the price of a pint of Dog Falls at £5). We hope to see you there to enjoy what the Testimonial Committee have lined up for the day. With the circus taking place in the car park, please use the matchday bus if you are able to as parking will be restricted at and around the ground. It leaves the Bus Station at 1145 and 1315, returning from the Stadium 10 minutes after the full time whistle and at 1700. The fare is £2.70 single (contactless payments or cash accepted), and Over 60 / Disabled and Under 22 Concession passes are valid, giving free travel on the service to passholders. Stagecoach have advised that all revenue taken on the service on Saturday will be donated to Aaron's Testimonial Fund, so that is another great reason to use the service, as Aaron will be directly benefitting from your journey.

Aw. Been a few years since i met Dave and Kay last. Condolences to all friends and family. A stawart indeed. Thanks for that tribute Scotty......said it all

Trigger to be pulled today ... rest of week will be hard to get reliable access to FTP and other resources I need to complete the upgrade and want to get this up and running before the start of season. Please be aware that the site may be down periodically and also that some things may not work or appear as normal !

Preparations continue: Work in progress today Have deleted almost 2000 accounts that have not logged in since 2023 and have never made a post. Have deleted a couple of forums that are not used. Have rolled a couple of under-utilised nostalgia forums up under the Olde Inverness forums with a view to merging. Have rolled a couple of our editorial forums into our main editorial discussion forum in the same way (only visible to members of the editorial team and mods) Still on the to-do list Working on reducing the number of user groups we have by simplifying some of our permissions. Delete (most) accounts that have not logged in since 2023 except those who were prolific posters. Archive the forum for all posts prior to 2023 that have not had any activity in the last year, so they are in a separate table (or database). Should speed things up and make it quicker to navigate current posts. Again, no data should be lost and if a post or thread suddenly becomes relevant again it can be unarchived. A couple of additional forums may be converted to clubs - still talking to the folk who do/would run them.

Ok I am confused as to how you think it runs without electricity and rates etc. The Supporters Trust run the bar with volunteers and it has been a huge success. It has provided much needed cashflow over last season in administration. I am not sure there are many places where you will get a pint for less than £5

County were in the top tier last season and other than the 2 goals there wasn't that much in it. We're missing a reliable confident striker and that was the difference. Maybe Oho will slot in if he's done enough to impress Kel but watching at Nairn and yesterday I can't say he impressed me.

That is a shame you have come away from Bar94 with the opinion that it's overpriced. As Robert said, like for like, it's substantially cheaper than bars in the town. Not just the beer. This has been achieved by it being run exclusively by volunteers. But that's just life, you can't please everybody.

What’s your issue with the bar? Prices have been frozen at last season’s prices with a pint £5 which is a lot less than you will pay for the same beer elsewhere in the area.

Great that Aaron got the send off he deserved. A decent crowd and a couple of good goals from County, especially the second. They didn’t look that good ( other than Hale), but we were not at it at all. I know it’s still pre season, but that was not a team that looked anywhere near good enough to be competitive at the top of league 1. The weather was good and overall I enjoyed the game, but same old poor matchday experience, long queues at the kiosks, over priced bar 94 and poor stewarding!!!! Some things will never change. ☹️

Someone in the bar after the game said that Ross County only agreed to the game on the basis it was played as a competitive friendly so I think they played it very differently than we did. I agree with Robert's assessment and as painful as it is I try to keep in mind that we're currently a league 1 club that's rebuilding on and iff the park. As others have said the online ticketing system is painful to use and I also resorted to phone. A stark contrast to the simplicity of buying tickets for Clach and others during pre season. All in all it was still an enjoyable few hours in honour of a great player who still looks like he'd be worth having on the books.

Cannot make it so donation made. Spoke to Aaron quite a few times and he was and is very humble. Surprised at his height but he was 3 inches taller until Virgil van Dijk leaned into him and placed his arm on his head at Parkhead as Aaron wormed into the box. The ref supported van Dijk!!

Looking forward to this game and seeing Aaron in an ICT shirt again although it will be for the last time, I hope there is a good turnout for him and it will be good getting back to the football again.

Popped down this afternoon to buy a ticket for Aaron Doran’s testimonial after three failed attempts to buy one via the e-link. Wasn’t going to miss giving Aaron the well deserved recognition for his long service to the club. One of the most gifted players IMO to pull on a ICT top. That aside it concerned me a little my failure to get an e-ticket may have been experienced by others, who eventually just gave up. Result - fan for the day and income lost. Never done social media sites but expect hackers are ‘out there’ so that might trigger some access restriction? Just raising it as I’m sure it will be experienced by others when wanting to buy a ST or just a single match ticket. Don’t know what is possible to remedy or make it simple to get into the matches. Flares and security may have done it for cash turnstiles, but I can’t help feel it’s another turn off for potential fans (income). PS looking forward to a long awaited ICT - RC derby again (even a so called friendly). Finally - Thank you Aaron! bc

Top top player, in my humble opinion. Hope there is a great turnout for Aaron on saturday.

unfortunately - its caused by our out-of-date stats program putting too much stress on the server with what they call 'long queries" because it is using an older version of PHP. Basically it does not kill the query after done and the load on the server increases over time until its unsustainable. I have to close down SQL (you will get a database error) and then disable stats for a while until it settles down (stats pages unavailable) ... and then it all works again for a few weeks until I have to repeat the process. I did that when I read Mantis' post last night so it should work now ... just have to re-enable the stats later today.

another group shot I came across from the Innes. Originally posted this to the memory page for Big Stew!

That is a wonderful tribute Scotty.

No idea but in my opinion he was totally useless, created nothing and although a big physical lad he was nudged off the ball all the time

Correct, How dare he complain’ bc

As I posted, it’s overpriced. I had my two kids with me. It’s not just the beer, it’s all products. My opinion, my comment.

I have bought a ticket too, although I cant get up to Inverness, I had the same problem with using my private browser, but then used my work computer and had no issue. Anyway hope everyone has a great day, we beat County and no player gets injured. Aaron deserves a proper send off (BTW if that is this years home shirt Aaron is wearing I like it alot)

I had this problem on iPhone and it worked first time when I switched to iPad. As I explained over on P&B, where ICT were getting a bit of stick, it’s an eticketing.co.uk problem and not an ICT problem as I had exactly the same issue and solution a couple of weeks ago when buying concert tickets.

We’ve been drawn at home to Lossiemouth on 6 August in the first round. If we win that we are at home to Strathspey on 20 August. In recent years, we have forfeited home draws and played the games away so that may happen this season too.

Earlier today, we updated our members following our July Board Meeting. You can access the update here: Update to Members: July 2025 - Discussions - CaleyThistleOnline As you will be aware from his updates, as part of the improvements he is making to the site, Scotty has set the Supporters Trust Forum up as a club and a subforum of this main forum. If you follow the link above to visit the page with the Update to Members, please join the club, which allows you post or comment on posts in the Supporters Trust Forum. If you are not already a member of the Supporters Trust, we would be delighted if you decided to join, which is easy (and only £5) here: https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/join-us

A nice tribute Scotty, I remember them both from the early away days, a lovely couple. Condolences to Kay and her family.

Sad news. My heartfelt sympathies to Kay if she still comes on here. My biggest memory is after his heart op, many moons ago. At half time I came up to him and clapped him on the arm, and he yelled in pain and cursed loudly. This was in the main stand as well, causing some people to pause in unwrapping their Werthers. Apparently they took veins from his arm for the op.

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

I've got a CD with Peatbog fairies and Spiers interview to their music, must dig it out and put it on here. Big Dunc was out of his depth with delusions of grandeur of getting our players to emulate Real Madrid.

Now that the Supporters Trust have zero shareholding, what other means are they looking at to ensure they can fulfil they're constitutional responsibilities? Things such as....but not limited to.... - Giving fans a stronger voice in the running and ownership of their football club. - Ensuring that fan interests are considered in decision-making.