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Dodds Sacked: Club Statement
It is with much regret that the club has taken the decision to terminate the contracts of Head Coach Billy Dodds and his Assistant Manager Barry Wilson with immediate effect. Sporting Director John Robertson and Academy Director Charlie Christie will take charge of the team in the interim period while we endeavour to find a new Head Coach in short order and applications will be accepted at footballdept@ictfc.co.uk

Record Breakers: Never had there been a better time for Raith Rovers to break the Caley Jags hoodoo! Inverness, without a win in their last eight games, and Billy Dodds and the management team under fire. A 23 year run of games without a win for Raith Rovers was brought to an end today when Jamie Gullan smashed home from 15 yards with five minutes left. It was harsh on Inverness who dominated for long spells earlier in the game, but it leaves the management with some tough decisions to make.

They'll be dancing on the streets of Raith: After more than twenty years of trying to beat the Caley Jags, Raith Rovers will never get a better chance to win a game against us than this weekend at Starks Park. The last time we lost, Steps were top of the charts with 'Stomp'. The untennable word is ready to hit the press as Inverness continue their downward spiral after eight big boy games in a row without a win and only one draw to show for it. No excuses anymore, we have underperformed everywhere we go and the current regime are taking this club down to the gutter

Smoked by the Smokies: Regardless of the eight changes made, it was another poor day at the office...
The stats don't lie no matter what team you put on the park. That's now seven defeats and one draw in our last eight big boy games (excluding the Inverness Cup Final). Where does Billy Dodds go from here? Most fans, if not all, are bringing out the untennable option. And along with Dodds, is it time for the whole board to resign. By the end of October, it should be clearer. We face Raith Rovers (a), Dundee United (h) and Arbroath (a) again. If we take nothing from these games, then there will be only one option.

In Dodds We Trust?: With no wins in seven games (six defeats and a draw), it's a welcome distraction this weekend as we travel to Gayfield Park Arbroath to take on the 'Smokies' in the third round of the SPFL Trust Trophy. That's no easy task now that Arbroath have pulled their socks up after an opening day trouncing from Dundee United and back to back defeats from Queens Park in the Championship. In saying that, the first three defeats have been against two of the frontrunners in the Championship. However, It might offer us an opportunity to further bed in our latest additions who featured in the draw against the Pars last weekend. Not only that, but it'll be good practice for the Championship encounter at the end of the Month.

FULL TIME: 1-1: The two new loan payers aquitted themselves well without setting the pulses racing. The defence did appear to be more rigid although we were found wanting at the equaliser. Nathan Shaw was the most likely to cause problems and so it proved. Poor decision by Ridgers to decide to flap at thin air for the goal but made amends to earn our point with a tremendous save later. Pars were much more direct than us and you couldn't grudge them their point.

We face Dunfermline on Saturday in what many believe could be a season defining encounter. Win and we will paper over the cracks for a while, lose and the only real option is wholesale change from the very top. As Richard Osman would say, we are pointless. The Pars have claimed four points from their opening fixtures; it's time to close that gap. A couple of new loan signings in the bag to help out, let's see what that brings...

WTF! Inverness went behind in the first minute when Cammy Harper scores an own goal. So much for cutting out errors at the back. We chased the game thereafter without creating too much and Calum Gallagher doubled our deficit after half an hour to make our task even more onerous. Austin Samuels hit woodwork and another shambles of a half closed at 2-0 for the hosts with Frizzell booked. Depressing stuff from the visitors with no cutting edge. Five minutes after the break Airdrie were reduced to ten men when Adam Frizzell received his second yellow card. Nathan Shaw scored to half the deficit with twenty minutes remaining. We threw everything at Airdrie but Rae was equal to all our efforts and we slumped to our sixth defeat in a row. What now Billy?

It's another tough away day for the Caley Jags as they head to the Excelsior Stadium for a Championship encounter against promoted Airdrieonians, a side that have already beaten us in the League Cup game at the Caledonian Stadium by the odd goal in five. It's scheduled for a 3:00pm kick-off on Saturday as Inverness look for their first points of the season and The Diamonds looking to consolidate their good start to life in the Championship.

It's Coming Home as Harry Claims the Match Ball: A fairly youthful Inverness XI took to the pitch bolstered by Doran, Duffy Samuels and a couple of newstarts in Brooks and Harry Lodovica who set the tone with a first half hat-trick. Lewis Mackie bagged the last goal after Calum Ferguson scored for Clach.  That meant that Inverness CT have now won this trophy eight times. 🏆

Inverness Cup 'Final': The Inverness Cup has been revived and there will be a 'one off' game to decide who will look after this substantial trophy for the next year when it will all be done again between the Caley Jags and Inverness Clachnacuddin. It's a whopper of a trophy capable of holding many a dram and it was first played for in 1895 when Caledonian won the inaugural event. Last played for in season 2005-2006, Forres Mechanics are the current holders. The 'Can Cans' are the oldest association football club in the North of Scotland and are one of only two original teams to play in the Highland League since its first season in 1893, the other being Clachnacuddin.

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It's the Inverness Cup this Tuesday at Grant Street Park, 7:30pm kick-off.

 💸 Pay at the Gate (Cash or Card)

£10 Adults, £5 Children/Concessions

The natives are no happy on CTO with many asking for a total clearout from top to bottom, questioning the length of contract offered to Billy Dodds. The buck stops at the very top and that is a massive concern for all. Top scorer Billy Mckay was a forlorn figure and was not best pleased at being subbed. Something is wrong that's not right. Sort it now before we leave this league at the wrong end of the table.

Matchday two will see us head to Somerset Park Ayr for a tough game against the Honest Men. It's a standard 3:00pm kick-off and both clubs will be looking for better results after drawing blanks in the opening day fixtures when Ayr went down 3-1 at Morton and we lost 2-1 at the Caledonian Stadium to Queens Park. Like us, Ayr have brought in five new faces for this campaign and lost some familiar faces. Notable outs are the Championship's top scorer Dipo Akinyemi who has gone to York City and long time servant Michael Moffat who spent eleven years over two spells at Somerset Park scoring 77 goals in 263 appearances.

A question for all those who aren't happy with how things are at the club.  What are you going to do about it?

Queens domination on this fixture continued as they went in at half time one goal up through Dom Thomas. Tommy Robson added a second just after the break and in a late push Jake Davidson scored for the hosts. Keith Bray was denied a last minute leveller by McKenna.

With his 102nd goal of his Caley Thistle career scored against Airdrie, William Robert Mckay became our top scorer ever surpassing the 101 goals of 'Sir' Dennis Wyness. What an achievement that is from Billy who is in his third spell at the Caledonian Stadium. Billy joined Inverness from Northampton Town in 2011 but there was little hint of what was to come when he made his debut in August 2011, replacing Aaron Doran in a 2-1 home win over Killie. He was sparingly used and often played out of position and suffered injury issues as well.

League Cup Over & Out: With Dundee winning only 1-0, that was no use to either club and they both leave the League Cup at the end of the group stages. Zach Robinson's 60th minute header was not enough to put Dundee ahead of Raith Rovers to claim a slot in the draw as one of the three best of the rest. For Inverness, we meddled with our starting XI and Harry Lodovica made an appearance in the second half. Danny Devine, Sean Welsh, Roddy MacGregor, Charlie Gilmour and Adam Brooks were nowhere to be seen, hopefully being prepared for the start of the Championship next week.

Dens Park is the venue on Sunday for what will no doubt be our final league cup game of this 'pre-season' in a 3:00pm kick-off. All is not lost yet, but you would have to be of the eternally optimistic variety to imagine us turning this one around given our current state of readiness for the challenge ahead. We can still qualify in second place, but that will require us to win by two clear goals to turn the goal difference around, but given our apparent pre-seasonal lackadaisical performances then that's unlikely, but not impossible. I won't be holding my breath. In the other game in group E, Airdrie take on Bonnyrigg with Dumbarton having played all their games.

Diamond Presents: A rank rotten first half where we gifted goals to the Diamonds was our downfall. Having got back into the match with a superb strike from Charlie Gilmour and a record breaking goal from Billy Mckay we looked likeliest to go on and win the game. However Todorov had the final say with a late winner to end our League cup chances.

One shining light was the second half performance of Keith Bray who made a few marauding runs forward. A bright future ahead for this young man. Is he a modern day Ted McMinn?

DEAL or NO DEAL: Yes folks, it's the annual merry-go-round game played at every football stadium in the Country.  Here is the first draft from CTO based on information in the public domain. This will change over the next few weeks and we will update as and when we see the information.
Let's start at the top and work our way through this as the names are released in the close season break.

Best for Inverness on a difficult day was Wallace Duffy. What an invitingly sumptuous cross for Dan Mackay to power in a diving header. Cammy Harper on the other flank was equally impressive against Celtic's wide players and in midfield David Carson and Sean Welsh battled hard to stem the possession that Celtic were always going to dominate. We struggled up front working off scraps but substitute Dan Mackay scored that brilliant late power header to give us hope, albeit only fleeting. In general our defence stood firm for large parts of the game, seemingly working to a plan. Much better than many Premiership teams fared this season. Nobody hid in this game but we were restricted to what we could by a quality treble winning side. Blood, sweat and tears of pride.

As the season draws to a close we will not see so many of these guys here next season, but it has been an abstract pleasure reporting on our once again rollercoaster of a season.

See you all back refreshed for 23/24. 

The wait is over: Having lain idle since the 5th of May Championship flop against Ayr United, the long wait for the Scottish Cup Final is over for the Caley Jags. I imagine the stattos amongst us will be searching their Guiness Book of Records to find out the biggest winning margin in the Scottish Cup Final. I'll save you the bother. Renton 6-1 v Cambuslang on 4th February 1888. Or, ominously, Celtic 6-1 Hibernian on 6th May 1972. Are we about to change records?
Win or lose, I hope you all enjoy the occasion. 

Semi-Final Joy: With a VAR assisted penalty, Billy Mckay opened the scoring early in the first half. Dan Mackay headed in the second from an inviting Jay Henderson Cross. Falkirk had their moments, Callumn Morrison hitting the post after some defensive indecision on the edge of the box. However, we did our own post hitting and Billy Mckay wrapped up the victory in the second half with a well taken finish, his 100th goal for the Caley Jags. That ensured our progress into the final. Nathan Shaw was unfortunate twice off the post and Falkirk were denied a consolation by some dogged defending. All in, comfortable in the end and Hampden calling once more.

The last time we played Falkirk at Hampden in front of 37,000 fans, it was a history making event. I don't really need to tell you how that worked out, but for those that were on another planet, we won the Scottish Cup by beating Falkirk 2-1. Since then both clubs have underachieved and hit the skids. Falkirk are now trying to get themselves out of league 1 and we are desperately trying to keep ourselves in the Premiership play-off slot after a horrendous season littered with injuries to the whole squad. A third round struggle past Stirling Albion before we went through to the 5th round by default against Queens Park, but since then have comfortably disposed of Premiership opposition in Livingston and Kilmarnock. Falkirk got here by putting six past Wick Academy before a narrow 2-1 win at Alloa. They then dumped media darlings Darvel 5-1 and in the quarter final put out Ayr United. On paper we will be the bookies favourites. That's not something we are normally comfortable with and I fully expect Falkirk will also fancy their chances in this one, and rightly so. Be warned!

Applause for Tommy Cumming set the scene on a dry but breezy afternoon. As it panned out it ended all square. Dundee were quick out of the blocks and pestered Mark Ridgers early on without creating the clear cut chance to open the scoring. Level at the break, the Dark Blues continued in the same vein after the break and made the breakthrough on the hour when Lyall Cameron scored. However we have been resilient of late and substitute Austin Samuels earned us a point with fifteen minutes remaining as we came back at Dundee to quieten their raucous support who firmly believe Billy is a short rotund person born out of wedlock!