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Xmas Grinch's Inverness went to Glasgow for their pre-Xmas fare looking for three points for their Xmas stocking. In the end we were stuffed like Turkeys and got our chestnuts roasted. We looked like Turkeys in the first half as Partick knocked in two simple goals through Brian Graham and Kyle Turner. Meanwhile Inverness were at sixes and sevens as they tried to stem the flow without success whilst failing to make an attacking contribution to the game. After the interval McKinnon and Muirhead added early goals like the Grinch to completely ruin Xmas for the Highland folk. Doran nicked a consolation but Mullen added a fifth immediately. To add insult to injury, Duffy was red carded, probably too embarrassed to wait until the end. A few more should have walked with him. Embarrassing stuff from Inverness. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Billy Dodds was still without a squad of injured players as we went to Firhill on the Friday before Xmas hoping for a wee present from the West End. Sean Welsh, Zak Delaney and Billy Mckay returned after injury but Danny Devine, Cammy Harper and Nathan Shaw were now missing and only five on the bench including Mark Ridgers who is still on the naughty boy step. Sounds like plenty of work for our new director, alphabet man, to contend with. For Partick, Scott Tiffoney has been out for a couple of months and has been missed as Partick floundered. Still, a strong squad with a full bench for the Maryhill Magyars. Inverness were in their red'nblack away strip for this one as Partick kicked off in a mostly yellow kit. There appeared to be a false dawn following good pressing by the visitors in the opening exchanges but it was Partick that forced the first corner where Brian Graham snatched at his opportunity and hit it wide into the side net at the back post. That was just a warning. Who else but Brian Graham tapped in the opener after an Aiden Fitzpatrick cross picked him out inside the six yard box. All too easy for the big striker. Almost a second from a similar break down the left five minutes later but the defence scrambled it clear. It had been all Partick since the opening five minutes as Inverness failed miserably to build anything whatsoever, totally devoid of any attacking intent. As if by magic, Dan Mackay managed to get a cross into the middle where Billy Mckay spun but his shot from the edge of the box was weak and easily gathered by Sneddon. Dan Mackay was looking our man most likely to succeed with the limited time he was having on the ball, but his moments were fleeting to say the least. The replica second goal came from Kyle Turner after a tremendous diagonal ball from Lawless found Harry Milne whose low cross was turned into the net by Turner five minutes before the interval. HALF TIME: 2-0 Aaron Doran came on at the interval replacing the ineffective Steven Boyd. Mind you, they were all ineffective, or maybe just defective. Max Ram continued where he left off in the first half, in fact he went one better picking out absolutely nobody for a throw in to Partick out of nothing. Men against boys as Partick scored a third after Graham unselfishly knocked down a ball for Cole McKinnon to drill home from fifteen yards. FFS, a fourth followed minutes later after a corner was met early by Muirhead at the near post and planted firmly behind the keeper to surely loosen the shoogly peg holding Dodds' coat. We have been an absolute shambles for seventy minutes here and it will get worse. We got a consolation goal from Aaron Doran but that just angered Partick who went up the park and scored a fifth goal through Danny Mullen moments later. Wallace Duffy saw red when he tugged back a player bursting forward. Just what we needed on top of all our injuries. To be honest it could have been more as we failed to participate in the game. A late goalline clearance denied Partick number six as the game petered out. As it was, that was our heaviest defeat by Partick Thistle who didn't need to be anything other than competent. FULL TIME: 5-1 Match Reaction from Alsy: ICTFC playing like a team assembled from random characters found in the car park 20 minutes before kick off. What’s going on here? From CTO: 5-1 is embarrassing, and now down to 10 men. Something is beyond wrong. It can’t all be blamed on injury and bad luck, surely it is managements job to manage and motivate ???? That’s what’s lacking Here's a cutting assessment from the Immortal Howden Ender Any match report simply has to focus on the 109 supporters who had to suffer this total embarrassment. Even if 10-20% left before the final whistle which in itself is a rarity and basically sums the whole night up. I did stay until the final whistle just to ensure that I had witnessed the worst ICT performance ever. I usually include comments on the tactics and the formation but I couldn’t suss out who was playing where and what their roles were. The main one to confuse me was Carson as he appeared to be just roaming around the midfield area and rarely where the play was taking place. Welsh meanwhile was the man looking for the ball to be played to him but usually lobbed the ball forward to Billy McKay surrounded by four defenders!! It may be cruel but Ridgers is the biggest miss of the lot. MacKay looks to have lost all his confidence and that evidently affects the defence in front of him. And add to that the system of holding a line is unknown as is pressing the ball. Who scouted Barrett who makes Djebi-Zadi look like Carlos Alberto. Duffy was unfortunate to get a red but probably looked at it as a blessing. Billy McKay tried but he simply looks fed up as does Dan. He intermittently held his hamstring and he must have been hoping that it will keep him out for a few weeks. And why were our players slipping so often and why was Oakley kept on the bench and why were there more of a smattering of the kids who apparently did us proud at Hamilton. At least Doran showed glimpses of his old self. I am going to stop as I could go on and on. It is absolutely obvious that Dodds has lost the dressing room and the support. Sure there are injuries but selection and tactics are non existent. We will survive but is that enough? It may cost to get rid of Dodds and his supporters but a deal has to be done sooner than later as the support will surely dwindle. To me seeing fellow supporters and the social aspect is what will keep me going at the moment. At this time of year Dodds is Ebenezer Scrooge and we need a Jacob Marley to haunt him as soon as possible, OR, we will all be stuffed. Merry Christmas to you all - well apart from?? From CTO: I think it's not unreasonable to say that was probably the weakest starting XI the club has ever put on the field (recent Hamilton game aside) and I'm including 3rd division days here. A number of these guys are simply not professional footballers, and these are Dodds' signings. 9-1 on aggregate from our two visits to Firhill this season is quite the statistic yet Gardiner and Co. will do nothing. The club is in terminal decline and we need radical change NOW! Cringe... Date: 23/12/2022 Venue: Firhill, Partick Attendance: 2243 Referee: Peter Stuart Partick Thistle: 5 Manager: Ian McCall Lineup: Sneddon; McMillan (Holt 62), Brownlie, Muirhead, Milne (MacKenzie 68), Turner, Bannigan, McKinnon, Lawless (Mullen 68), Graham (Weston 80), Fitzpatrick (Lyon 79) Subs (not used): Mitchell; Smith, Stanway, Dowds Scorers: Graham (16), Turner (39), McKinnon (53), Muirhead (57), Mullen (74) Booked: none Sent Off: none Inverness CT: 1 Manager: Billy Dodds Lineup: C Mackay; Barrett, Duffy, Ram, Delaney, Boyd (Doran 45), Welsh, Carson, Hyde (Strachan 80), D Mackay, B Mckay Subs (not used): Ridgers; Bray, Oakley Scorers: Doran (73) Booked: none Sent Off: Duffy (77) a

Firhill for Chills It's not a TV spectacular for us on Friday night as we venture down to the big smoke after the freeze to take on Partick Thistle at Firhill. All Championship games this week are to be played on Friday evening at 7:45pm with our game at Firhill your preferred Xmas viewing if you stream it from Partick TV, or maybe not given our TV horror earlier in the season when Partick romped home 4-1. We had last weekend off after New Douglas park was deemed unplayable whilst Partick beat Ayr 3-2 to re-ignite their failing season. Partick are fifth on 27 points and we slipped to seventh on 23 points with Raith jumping above us after drawing with Arbroath. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Match/Ticket/Supporters Bus Info Partick TV Carnihan & Nicolson Half season tickets on sale now MD CCST Orth MFSEM FRCS ICTFC ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Venue Head 2 Head Pld Won Drn Lst For Agst + / - Home 24 11 6 7 38 33 +5 Away 23 6 6 11 24 34 -10 Neutral 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total 47 17 12 18 62 67 -5 Home advantage historically denotes the winner in these fixtures and we tend to find Firhill a difficult place to pick up wins with only six in twenty-three attempts. Last 10 Competitive Meetings v Partick Thistle 1 - 0 (H) 1 - 4 (A) 1 - 0 (H) 2 - 1 (A) 0 - 1 (A) 3 - 3 (H) 0 - 0 (A) 3 - 1 (H) 1 - 3 (A) 1 - 3 (H) Here's our overview from our last visit to Firhill Firhill Flops: 1 - 4 A Brian Graham double gave Partick a first half lead. For the first the defenders got the wrong side of him, the second a gift from the Inverness defence with a loose pass across the box. It was a lacklustre performance from the visitors in the first forty-five with Billy Mckay having the best effort after an Aaron Dorran lay off, but David Mitchell was equal to the shot to deny the striker from twelve yards. We almost gifted a third early in the second half with a short header back, but Ridgers stood tall to deny Graham his hat-trick. A third did come from the spot after Carson was alleged to have brought down his man. Kevin Holt kept his cool to slot home. Anton Dowds bulleted a header home with five minutes left to add to our miserable night. George Oakley powerfully headed a consolation in time added on, but that won't detract from the rubbish on show tonight. Embarrassing night for the Caley Jags, and on national TV too! Current form over the last six games Partick beat League leaders Ayr 3-2 last Saturday Overall Home Away Pos Team Pld W D L F A W D L F A W D L F A +/- Pts 1. Dundee 6 4 2 0 9 4 2 1 0 3 0 2 1 0 6 4 +5 14 2. Queens Park 6 4 1 1 17 7 2 1 0 8 3 2 0 1 9 4 +10 13 3. Morton 6 3 3 0 10 4 2 0 0 6 1 1 3 0 4 3 +6 12 4. Ayr United 6 3 2 1 12 8 1 1 0 3 1 2 1 1 9 7 +4 11 5. Cove Rangers 6 1 4 1 11 10 1 1 1 4 3 0 3 0 7 7 +1 7 6. Partick Thistle 6 2 1 3 10 11 2 0 1 8 5 0 1 2 2 6 -1 7 7. Raith Rovers 6 2 1 3 9 11 2 1 1 9 7 0 0 2 0 4 -2 7 8. Arbroath 6 0 4 2 4 9 0 2 1 2 4 0 2 1 2 5 -5 4 9. Inverness CT 6 0 3 3 5 11 0 3 1 4 5 0 0 2 1 6 -6 3 10. Hamilton Ac. 6 0 1 5 7 16 0 1 1 6 7 0 0 4 1 9 -9 1 All games FRIDAY 23RD DECEMBER 7:45pm Arbroath v Queen's Ayr Utd v Dundee Cove R v Accies Rovers v Morton Partick Th v Inverness CT We did beat Partick last time out at the Caledonian Stadium on 7th October He scores when he wants: 1 - 0 A first half where defences were on top offered little opportunity for either side to create the clear cut chance required until the half hour when Robbie Deas pounced on a loose clearance within the box. His header was bundled away from goal a yard from the line by two defenders with Mitchell floundering. A couple of minutes later and Mitchell was called into action to scramble the ball away low down at his post from a Duffy header. Billy Mckay clipped one over the bar after a tremendous turn and run by Daniel Mackay. Kyle Turner was red carded for what appeared to be a slightly high tackle on Roddy MacGregor and Inverness ended the half knocking on the Partick door. Cammy Harper brought out a super save from Mitchell with 65 minutes gone, diving high to his top left corner. Ten minutes later Billy Mckay opened the scoring with his fifth goal of the season, drilling home from twelve yards after good work by MotM Dan Mackay. Kevin Holt came close to an unlikely equaliser with a low shot across the face of the goal ten minutes from the end, but Partick rarely threatened. Oakley had an effort kept out on the line acrobatically by Holt as Inverness looked to close out the game. However, Inverness saw out the game to go joint top of the table after their fourth win in a row. That'll do nicely. That win put us joint top. A couple of weeks later it all went tits up and we now have no wins in our last 7 League games. Latest Team News We have had an extra week to get more bodies back, but given the seriousness of most of our injuries the extra time off is like a drop in the ocean. The Ridgers rift saw Mark playing with the youngsters at Accies a couple of weeks ago. Our last meaningful game was on the 3rd of December when we went down at home to Dundee 0 - 1. Bily Mckay and Sean Welsh missed that one but I would imagine they might be available for this one. If not, why not! This isn't the team lines for the Dundee game, it's just the players that were unavailable: Ridgers, Deas, Delaney, Welsh, Allardice, MacGregor, Walsh, Sutherland, Mckay, Samuels. There may be others, the list is inexhaustible. Off the Park: Panos Thomas: MD, CCST Orth, MFSEM, FRCS as a Director of ICTFC. It's not an anagram, it's our new director. Eck's Partick peek: Reveals nothing new happening at Firhill. They did beat Ayr last week with goals from Milne, Graham and Lawless in an entertaining five goal encounter. Harry Milne beginning to attract a bit of attention. Of course Brian Graham likes a goal against the Caley Jags. As normal, Partick will have a full bench to pick from with the likes of Dowds, Holt and Mullen starting on the bench last week. Off the Park: BBC Sport 14th December: Former Glasgow Rocks owner Duncan Smillie has been confirmed as strife-torn Partick Thistle's new chairman. Chair Jacqui Low and six directors resigned last week after recent fan protests followed the Partick Thistle FC Trust becoming majority shareholder. Smillie was the only director not to resign and has become interim chair until the end of the season. Not just us that are in some turmoil then!

Big Boys Turn Pitch Inspection GAME OFF After the Challenging Cup last week where the young Inverness team gave Accies a good game, it's the turn of the big boys this weekend, weather permitting, to see if they can end our poor run and take some much needed points back North before we slip too far off the pace. This game is scheduled for Saturday 17th December at 3:00pm at New Douglas Park or if you prefer the sponsors name of 'The Fountain of Youth'. It was certainly very apt last week as our u18 players performed very well and Accies played their part ending the game with ten of their Academy players on the park. So well done all round, the future is bright, the future is Youth. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Match/ticket/supporters bus info Half Season Tickets on Sale ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Venue Pld Won Drn Lst For Agst + / - Home 16 5 4 7 25 20 +5 Away 12 6 2 4 17 15 +2 Neutral 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total 28 11 6 11 42 35 +7 Accies are starting to get the hang of beating us with results over the last six encounters well in their favour apart from the 4-0 pumping we dished out as we prepared for the play-offs last season as Accies wound down. This is just the second Championship fixture against Accies this season with them winning the first game at the Caledonian Stadium back in October. CTO Report: 0 - 1. Winter comes early: Inverness failed to stretch their unbeaten run to six League games and in the process failed to top the league on their own whilst Accies lifted themselves off the bottom with this win. With a raft of injuries, it was always going to be a difficult task to maintain our recent run of wins. Andrew Winter opened the scoring from close range in a dour first half. No further scoring left the home fans disappointed with events on the park where injuries were the only winner. The youngsters were there last week in the Challenge cup and acquitted themselves very well in a 2-0 defeat. Last 6 Competitive Meetings v Accies 0 - 2 (A) 0 - 1 (H) 4 - 0 (H) 1 - 1 (A) 1 - 2 (H) 1 - 2 (A) Only Accies have been worse than us over the last six games. Recent results table Overall Home Away Pos Team Pld W D L F A W D L F A W D L F A +/- Pts 1. Ayr United 6 4 2 0 14 7 2 1 0 7 3 2 1 0 7 4 +7 14 2. Dundee 6 4 2 0 9 4 2 1 0 3 0 2 1 0 6 4 +5 14 3. Queens Park 6 4 1 1 17 7 2 1 0 8 3 2 0 1 9 4 +10 13 4. Morton 6 3 3 0 10 4 2 0 0 6 1 1 3 0 4 3 +6 12 5. Cove Rangers 6 1 4 1 11 10 1 1 1 4 3 0 3 0 7 7 +1 7 6. Raith Rovers 6 2 1 3 9 11 2 0 1 8 6 0 1 2 1 5 -2 7 7. Arbroath 6 1 3 2 4 8 1 2 1 3 4 0 1 1 1 4 -4 6 8. Partick Thistle 6 1 1 4 9 13 1 0 1 5 3 0 1 3 4 10 -4 4 9. Inverness CT 6 0 3 3 5 11 0 3 1 4 5 0 0 2 1 6 -6 3 10. Hamilton Ac. 6 0 1 5 7 16 0 1 1 6 7 0 0 4 1 9 -9 1 SATURDAY 17th DECEMBER 3:00pm Dundee v Cove Rangers Hamilton v Inverness CT Morton v Queen's Pk Partick v Ayr Utd Rovers v Arbroath Latest Team News Billy Dodds still has plenty of issues to deal with. Danny Devine, Dan Mackay and Sean Welsh all returned recently but Welsh's return was fleeting as he missed the next coupe of games. Our brittle captain has been sorely missed but Billy hints at a possible return for maybe a couple of absentees. Eck's Accies update: Manager (at the moment) John Rankin has some injury worries in the midfield area with Lewis Spence and Marley Redfern both out with knee injuries.

Great Effort by Young Team Accies took an early advantage of the young squad Inverness had assembled and opened the scoring after only three minutes through an own goal. The young team responded well when Calum Mackay did brilliantly down the left and his cross made it's way to Keith Bray but his diving header was tipped round the post by Jamie Smith. Minutes later Mackay went through on goal but his shot caught the side netting. Tiehi and One replied for Accies with Ridgers gathering Tiehi's effort and One heading wide before a deflected shot from Winter earned a corner for Accies. Aaron Nicolson shot just wide midway through the half. Accies doubled their lead when Reegan Mimnaugh turned in Andy Winter's low cross. Mackay and Nicolson came close again. Just before the interval Mark Ridgers denied Gabe Forsyth from 25 yards. 2-0 at the interval with the young guys performing brilliantly and Jamie Smith the busier keeper, but Accies with the all important goals. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Just after the hour Ryan One did well down the Accies left and his shot was parried by Ridgers and Caley Thistle get clear. Inverness made a couple of changes with twenty minutes left. Alistair Nixon & Calum MacLeod on, Ryan Barrett & Duncan Proudfoot off. 83rd minute Daniel MacDougall & Lewis Mackie on, Jack Walker & Aaron Nicolson off. 87th minute Danny Gillan on, Mark Ridgers off. Accies ended the game with ten players that had come through their own Academy as the game ran away from the Inverness XI who had acquitted themselves very well. Match reaction to follow>>> Fantastic effort from Ryan Esson's young charges, they can be really proud of their performance. Date: 10/12/2022 Venue: Caledonian Stadium Attendance: 488 Referee: Duncan Williams Hamilton: 2 Manager: John Rankin Lineup: J Smith, Doyle, McGinn Owens, Shiels, Winter (Morgan 84), Mimnaugh (Latona 66), De Bolle (Newbury 71), One, Tiehi (Black 84), Forsyth Subs (not used): Fulton; O'Reilly, Ryan, Zanatta, L Smith Scorers: Nixon (4 og), Mimnaugh (33) Booked: Tiehi (10) Sent Off: none Inverness CT: 0 Manager: Ryan Esson (u18's coach) Lineup: Ridgers (Gillan 87); Nixon, Barrett (A Nixon 72), Walker (MacDougal 84), Carnihan, Strachan, Proudfoot (Macleod 72), Bain, C Mackay, Bray, A Nicolson (Mackie 84) Subs (not used): All five used Scorers: none Booked: none Sent Off: none a

Kidz Kup By all accounts, a young Inverness XI will travel to Hamilton to play Accies in the SPFL Trust Trophy amid a controversial decision by the Caley Jags to try and rest players as an unprecedented injury crisis ravages the club. The game is scheduled for a 3:00pm start on Saturday. Here's the Official Statement from the club. Despite this, the Supporters Club are still running a bus to Hamilton at 10:00am to get behind whoever will be taking to the field in the name of Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Match tickets are priced at an amazing Xmas special of £3:00. Ryan Esson will be in charge of the young team as far as I know. Good luck guys. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ICTFC ACADEMY TWITTER ACCOUNT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well done to the ICT Supporters Travel Club who are backing the players whether they are 16 or 36 Book your seats HERE or call 07462 218717 to get a seat on the bus. At the risk of facing a backlash from the authorities Inverness have let their intentions be known that they will be massively understrength for this SPFL Trust Trophy game. They are looking at the bigger picture which is obviously the Championship, but I wonder what the sponsors feel about this. It's difficult to conjure up a meaningful preview for this one given that the Official Site has little to no information regarding the u18 squad. I imagine the squad will have the likes of out of favour keeper Mark Ridgers in goal, or maybe not as they must have an u18 keeper of their own. It's probably best for you to make up your own preview for this one as off the field ICTFC are fast becoming less media friendly than Welfare League clubs of the 70's. Come on guys, time to get your act together. I'll try and find out more, but it needs to be released by the club before we can find out who or what are our likely squad players for this weekend. I'll wait...just like I have to do every weekend as we are normally the last team to release squad details. Pull your socks up. Anyway, good luck to whoever plays in this one, can't really do much worse than the present crop of first team substitutes who have struggled recently. Here's Ryan to give us an insight into the predicament. This was one of the more recent releases by the club regarding the u18's. Not sure how Accies will react to our plight, but they also have a job to do. Here's Eck's insight》》》 No new signings have arrived at New Douglas Park. Manager (at the moment) John Rankin has some injury worries in the midfield area with Lewis Spence and Marley Redfern both out with knee injuries. Lucas De Bolle is out with concussion and not expected back in action until the end of the year.