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Hanging on Hamilton Accies hosted Inverness at New Douglas Park, the scene of the shoes-off protest a few years ago when we last tried to oust a failed manager. This time it's the Inverness board and Manager Duncan Ferguson who are under pressure to deliver. Sean McAllister was out but Charlie Gilmour started. Kevin O'Hara will be the main target man for the hosts and Euan Henderson likes a goal or two as well, with Lewis Smith an able provider. Accies were a bit of a bogey team for us at times and should consider themselves favourites for promotion against a team not noted for creativity, passion or scoring goals. It was on the Telly, and here's how it went. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The weather was perfect, unfortunately it's still an artificial surface for this first leg encounter at NDP and it was Inverness that got the game underway. It didn't take long for Accies to get their noses in front after we gave the ball away seconds after pinching it off Hamilton. O'Hara looked up some forty-yards from goal, spotted Ridgers ten yards off his line and floated the ball over him. The keeper back pedalled, the ball hit the post, bounced out, hit Ridgers on the back then bounced into the net. Poor goal to concede, but not uncommon for us at the moment. Since the substitutions, Inverness were more dominant as they pushed Accies onto the back foot. Pepple spun in the box and got his shot away from 12 yards but Lyness was able to smother the low shot which was too close to him. With five minutes left Danny Devine looked like he rolled his ankle trying to clear the ball. Always a worry on these pitches, With Ferguson having used all his subs Devine limped back on for the final few moments, but looks likely to miss the return leg. FULL TIME 2-1 A better showing from Inverness in the second half, especially with Lawal and Pepple on the park but it's Hamilton that take a one goal advantage up the A9 on Saturday. Lawal has been the standout performer in our last few games and surely he must start on Saturday. Pepple also did well, scored the goal, had an effort saved and got in a few balls across the box from tight positions. Still, a shocker of a first half and we must be up for it from the start on Saturday. The Messiah speaks>>> Devine will miss return leg. 90 minutes to get one goal. Date: 15/05/2024 Venue: New Douglas Park Attendance: 1389 (317 away) Referee: Graham Grainger Hamilton: 2 Manager: John Rankin Lineup: Lyness; Tumilty (Hewit 74), Owens, McGowan, Longridge, Henderson (Winter 66), Martin (Rose 74), Williamson, Barjonas (Redfern 46), L Smith, O'Hara (Hastie 90+6) Subs (not used): J Smith; Kilday, Hendrie, Murray Scorers: O'Hara (6), Owens (22) Booked: O'Hara (43) Sent Off: none Inverness CT: 1 Manager: Duncan Ferguson Lineup: Ridgers; Duffy (Carragher 46), Devine, Boyes, Longstaff (MacGregor 82), Kerr, Anderson, Gilmour (Lawal 46), Harper, B Mckay (Brooks 81), Alex Samuel (Pepple 67) Subs (not used): C Mackay; Ujdur, Savage, Austin Samuels Scorers: Pepple (68) Booked: Brooks (84) Sent Off: none a

  Play-Off Final 1st Leg   Having scraped into the play-off final, we find our route to Championship survival blocked by a two leg play-off encounter against a team we often struggled against, Hamilton Accies, one of lifes great relegation dodgers. They did eventually make the drop into League 1 a season ago but will fancy their chances against a struggling Caley Jags. They seemed to hold the Indian sign over us in season 2022/2023 with four wins out of five encounters, albeit one was a Challenge Cup game at NDP when we fielded a team of youths and Mark Ridgers during one of our worst peroids for injuries. We did win at NDP towards the end of that season with Billy Mckay scoring three minutes from the end. Overall, the stats are even, Accies one game to the good out of 31 meetings. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Match/Ticket Info ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Accies Access: Admission: Adults £20, -18 & +65 £10. Accies season ticket holders 1/2 price on production of their cards at the gate. Cash only at turnstiles. Card payments at shop Venue Pld Won Drn Lst For Agst + / - Home 17 5 4 8 25 23 +2 Away 14 7 2 5 20 18 +2 Neutral 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total 31 12 6 13 45 41 +4 He Scores When He Wants:  2 - 1 A long trip on a Tuesday night to face your bogey team is not ideal, especially when it gets to the business end of the season. That's what faced the Caley Jags as we looked to win our sixth game on the bounce against struggling Hamilton Accies who have already beaten us four times this season. Inverness could go third, but Accies would be hoping to put some distance between themselves and bottom side Cove Rangers. As it turned out it remained goalless at the interval with Deas seeing a header saved by Fulton just before the break. Connor Smith scored direct from a free kick after the interval but Nathan Shaw equalised three minutes later. Billy Mckay won all three points with a poachers goal in off the post with three minutes left and that's how it ended. Phew! Last 10 Competitive Meetings v Accies 2 - 1 (A) 1 - 2 (A) 0 - 3 (H) 0 - 2 (A) 0 - 1 (H) 4 - 0 (H) 1 - 1 (A) 1 - 2 (H) 1 - 2 (A) 2 - 1 (H) How did we get into this mess Our demise has been well documented this season in the Championship where we got off to a poor start before relieving Billy Dodds of his duties after winning 1 point in our first six games. In comes our saviour, Big Dunc. However all is not well and we just kept our heads above water thanks to Arbroath being rubbish. Onto the play offs and an insipid performance at Links Park left us all wondering if our time has come to drop into oblivion. Our performance certainly would not look out of place in the lower leagues. We clung on for a 0-0 draw away from home and scraped a 1-0 win at Inverness with Billy Mckay saving our blushes with his 112th goal for the club and most important to date. Everything about the club has negative undertones at the moment. Well travelled and long suffering Caley Jags fan Gringo said:  "That was my first game of the season and my first chance to see with my own eyes how gash ICT have become. That was one awful unentertaining game and by far the worst I've seen from the team I support. No passion, no urgency, no desire, no creativity...nothing. Square balls across the back line time after time. Can't keep possession. Can't shoot. Two game against a part time outfit and we can only bag one goal. There needs to be drastic improvement against Hamilton and I fully believe Dunc is incapable of doing that with this bunch of players. Hamilton will be a tough hurdle to overcome and I fear the worse".  John Rankin's Hamilton Accies on the other hand are rightly in a positive mood after an excellent season in League 1 finishing second to all conquering Falkirk and conceding the same amount goals as the Champions. Hamilton's stats for their League campaign with (ict in brackets). Won 22 (10) Drawn 8 (12) Lost 6 (14) Goals for 73 (41), Goals against 28 (40)  Top Scorers Kevin O'Hara 16 Euan Henderson 10 Ahkeem Rose 7 Lewis Smith 5 (Lewis also tops the assist chart with 11) Kyle MacDonald 5 Reghan Tumilty 5 ICT loan player Jake Davidson has also bagged a couple of goals for Accies but will be ineligible to play. Hamilton did face Championship opposition in the Challenge Cup, losing 4-1 to Raith Rovers. That game was nicely poised at 0-1 until Lee Kilday was red carded after 54 minutes. Raith capitalised and scored a further three goals with Zanatta netting for Accies. Let's not forget, Accies also have an artificial surface which is something Ferguson bleated about after the Montrose game at Links Park. Accies team v Alloa: Lyness; Longridge, Kilday (Owens 68 ), Barjonas (Rose 68 ), Henderson (Hastie 78 ), Martin (Murray 84), O’Hara, L. Smith, McGowan, Tumilty, Williamson (Davidson 45). Subs Not Used: J. Smith; Redfern, Winter, Hendrie.   Inverness latest Team News Here's Dunc's briefing: Sean McAllister out with recurring injury. Sounds as though the rest will be as you were and Charlie Gilmour is hopefully fit to play some part. Don't look for any drastic changes.    

Little Consolation Inverness will face Hamilton Accies in the Play-Off final after nervously scraping past part-time Montrose who were eventually reduced to ten men when Blair Lyons was sent off after an off the ball incident in the 84th minute involving Morgan Boyes. Inverness had dominated throughout, but failed to capitalise on their possession, and as per the entire season failed to create much of note. The first half was livlier than the first leg, but the same problems showed up our lack of quality. We started with no wingers and Billy Mckay as usual in a withdrawn role. It's not worked all season, so why should it suddenly work now. A woeful first half ended goalless and it was on the hour and out of the blue when Billy Mckay prodded in from three yards to score the only goal of the game following a corner. Cammy Harper had smacked the outside of the keepers right hand post as he cut in from the left prior to this but chances were at a premium. We had to rely on the ever alert Mark Ridgers to deny Ali Shrive's vicious shot from 15 yards to keep us ahead as Montrose were still in the tie after 75 minutes, but that was the only real effort of note from the visitors although Ridgers was quick off his line in the first half to snuff out a through ball. With Lyon's red card went any hope Montrose had of taking the game further, but fair play to them and their vocal following for making a fist of it against a rank rotten Inverness side. It's little consolation to know we are through to the final play-off games against Accies, as we have big problems to iron out if we are to retain our Championship status. We won the battle today, but the war still has a long way to go. It's Montrose that take all the plaudits, but it's Inverness that are still in the play-offs. Wednesday May 15th Championship play-off final, 1st leg Hamilton Accies v Inverness CT Live on BBC ALBA, kick-off 8.05pm Saturday May 18 Championship play-off final, 2nd leg Inverness CT v Hamilton Accies Live on BBC ALBA, kick-off 5.30pm Date: 11/05/2024 Venue: Caledonian Stadium Attendance: 2089 Referee: Alan Muir Inverness CT: 1 Manager: Duncan Ferguson Lineup: Ridgers; Carragher, Boyes, Savage, Duffy (Gilmour 76), Kerr, Anderson (Lawal 46), Harper, McAllister (Longstaff 47), B Mckay (Brooks 66), Alex Samuel (Pepple 75) Subs (not used): C Mackay; Ujdur, Devine, MacGregor Scorers: B Mckay (59) Booked: Pepple (90) Sent Off: none Montrose FC: 0 Manager: Stewart Petrie Lineup: Gill; Williamson (Brown 60), Quincy, Dillon, Steeves, Webster, Machado (Hester 61), Gardyne (Masson 68), Graham, Lyons, Callaghan (Shrive 68) Subs (not used): Mathews; Watson, Hermiston, Batchelor, Craig, Scorers: none Booked: Graham (88) Sent Off: Lyons (84) a

  Play-Off Second Leg   It's only Half-Time in the League 1/Championship semi-final play-offs. Both games are finely poised, Inverness v Morton scoreless and Accies v Alloa level at 2-2. Inverness had a shocker at Links Park on the artificial surface. However, the reality of the matter is we showed no urgency whatsoever and played second fiddle to Montrose throughout the game. Many fans have said this is the worst team they can remember in the clubs short history. No passion, no swashbuckle, nothing, just completely flat and zero dimensional. Only Lawal and Ridgers were given pass marks by the less than impressed Caley Jags support. As much as we have criticised the Caley Jags performance on Tuesday night, let's not lose sight of the fact that Montrose are a decent League 1 side with a good blend of experience and talented prospects. For our part, let's keep them as a good League 1 side and that means no room for faffing about. Time has run out now, there's no hiding places and no room for shirkers. Ditch the sideways passing or put goal posts in front of the Main Stand and tuck shops. Gardiner, Morrison and the rest of the suits. Are you listening to the fans, because nothing seems to have changed and the standard of football on display is driving people away from the Stadium. Here's a selection of comments from the forums on CTO, have a gander: An utterly shameful performance tonight. Mortifying to be in this position but to approach the game with such little intent or urgency is unforgivable and up there with one of the most insipid performances I can recall in such a crucial game. Genuinely one of the most depressing experiences in 30 years of watching ICT. I simply cannot see us staying up with this group of players and management. Just got home and realised that instead of travelling to Montrose and enduring that p1sh, I could’ve stayed at home and watched the Eurovision semi-final! Awful game.  Caley were outplayed and outfought all over the pitch.  As others have said, only Lawal gets pass marks - the only one to show a bit of urgency and desire. (perhaps Samuel, too, but he was just so isolated).  Lawal's run down the left with a great little turn gave us the only thing to cheer about, and then his shot off the bar, of course.  That was it.  Imagine if we had a former Scotland U21 midfielder who had played for the club on over 100 occasions, born and bred in Inverness and brought through our youth system. Imagine he’d been available since January. I doubt he’d be as good as the loanees though so no point imagining anything apart from life in League 1  Not really shocked by the result it’s the same old crap week in week out bar the odd lucky result .And by odd I mean ODD  Simply not good enough. Can’t believe a former (striker) manager plays a team the way he does! We are a disgrace to the jersey so far. Absolutely honking. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Match/Ticket Info ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Latest Team News Not much has changed since Tuesday, but word has it that Danny Devine is a doubt. However, it's at the other end of the park where most of our troubles lie. Carragher and McAllister are available, Devine a doubt as suggested, and Charlie Gilmour training on grass. Think we all need some after Tuesday night...    Mark will be a vital player for us on Saturday.   Montrose have three strikers who have totalled over thirty goals between them, so danger all around the box. We can not afford to be complacent, and we need to show more urgency, passion and quality than we displayed at Links Park.  

Utter Drivel Inverness had a couple of fresh injury concerns ahead of this first Leg play off encounter at Links Park, and with the effect an artificial surface can have on recovering players James Carragher and Sean McAllister were benched with Samson Lawal getting a rare start. Alex Samuel had recovered from his face knock and will be our main target up front. Montrose had top scorers Kane Hester, Blair Lyons and Graham Webster on from the start with chief assister Michael Gardyne probing and providing the ammunition. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A bright start for Montrose as they ventured into the Inverness box a couple of times in the opening few minutes without troubling Mark Ridgers in goal. The visitors looked edgy on the unfamiliar surface and found it difficult to get forward, but that's nothing new for us to be honest. In the ninth minute Ridgers pulled off a brilliant save low down to his left to deny Graham Webster after determined work by Blair Lyons down the left. Webster got plenty power on his shot but Ridgers did enough to put the ball behind for a corner. Bit of pinball in the box after the corner but Ridgers eventually mopped up the loose ball. Fifteen minutes in and it's the hosts that are making all the early running with Inverness opting to pass sideways and backwards. Half an hour gone and the current Championship side have failed to muster a decent attempt on goal. Shockingly poor display from us, a spinning turn and drag from Samson Lawal our only highlight. Ridgers was called into action again as he denied a deflected shot from Kane Hester and then we had to look sharp to block another effort from him before scrambling the ball out for a corner. Meanwhile we continued to play possession football which has never won anything and troubled no defence ever. ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz. Rudely awoken from my slumber by an effort from Alex Samuel slipping by the post five minutes before the break as we eventually tried something. Oooft, almost on the interval and Lawal smashed a tremendous strike from over twenty-five yards but it smacked the junction of the bar and out to safety. Bit of a stramash in the home box as Pixie Lot followed a seagull heading towards the Inverness box. When Pixie caught up Montrose were awarded a free kick in their own box. We woke up briefly as half time approached but up until then it was shockingly poor. No urgency, no direction, no hope of staying up if this continues. HALF TIME: 0-0 Samuel got the first proper effort of the second half away as he shot from the edge of the box , but Cammy Gill was equal to it as he saved low down to his right. Montrose responded and Danny Devine did well to block a fierce shot on the edge of the Inveness box from Shrive. The pace of the game had thankfully picked up since the interval and Billy Mckay was close to linking inside the home area. However it was Montrose that went close again through Lyons. On the hour Duffy replaced Savage and Callaghan came on for Shrive. Ridgers easily gathered a flicked header as Montrose threatened from a free kick. Lawal found himself with the ball at his feet 10 yards from goal but he hastily stabbed his shot goalwards and Gill gathered comfortably. Ridgers did likewise as Webster tried a first time volley with twenty minutes left. Another free header from a free kick bounced past Ridgers' post as Inverness struggled to make any headway. With fifteen minutes left Carragher and McAllister entered the game. Inverness were reduced to hoofing the ball anywhere out of defence as Montrose looked to up the pressure. Another really poor gutless performance from Ferguson's side who will have to do much better if they are to stay up. Utter drivel springs to mind. FULL TIME: 0-0 All to play for on Saturday, but don't hold your breath... However, if we continue like this, it will be our final game this season. Best performer for us was Samson Lawal, the only bright spark on the field. Alloa 2-2 Hamilton was the other semi-final score tonight. On this evidence, I doubt either side will be quaking in their boots. Delighted not to lose aren't we... Some folk are easily pleased! Date: 07/05/2024 Venue: Links Park, Montrose Attendance: 1043 Referee: Chris Graham Montrose FC: 0 Manager: Stewart Petrie Lineup: Gill; Steeves, Dillon, Quinn, Graham, Webster (Williamson 78), Shrive (Callaghan 60), Brown (Machado 78), Gardyne, Lyons, Hester (Hermiston 85) Subs (not used): Mathews; Masson, Cochrane, Batchelor, Craig Scorers: none Booked: Steeves (45+3) Sent Off: none Inverness CT: 0 Manager: Duncan Ferguson Lineup: Ridgers; Kerr, Devine, Boyes, Savage (Duffy 60), Longstaff (Carragher 77), Lawal, Anderson (McAllister 77), Harper, B Mckay (MacGregor 83), Alex Samuel (Pepple 83) Subs (not used): C Mackay; Ujdur, Austin Samuels, Brooks, Scorers: none Booked: Anderson (30) Sent Off: none a