CELTIC1CALEY3

Devine made a first class tackle early in the first half to deny Dunfermline. Throughout the game he was calm on each of the seven times Dunfermline hit our woodwork. He popped up with our goal.

Actually joking about Dunfermline hitting the woodwork seven times - but it was even funnier watching it live. In many ways this was a very lucky point but as we improve hopefully we beat Dunfermline next time around. Great to see Sean back on the park. 

Another planning application affecting the club https://wam.highland.gov.uk/wam/simpleSearchResults.do?action=firstPage. The club have been using the gym and pool for many many years but the owners of the retail park hope the Council agree to a 'Change of use of health and fitness centre to ten-pin bowling centre and indoor inflatable activity course with associated bar and dining facilities and amusements.'

It is certainly a challenge to maintain viable sporting facilities. We can but hope that the councillors who celebrated ICT FC winning the Scottish Cup look favourably on the Battery Project as if affects the Club and hopefully its gym and swim facility.

That's two weeks in a row that Davy Carson gets subbed and we concede!! Thought we got a bit cocky early in the second half and by not adding to the score gave Ayr a chance to get back into the game. Max Anderson was quite a miss methinks second half. Based on Friday night's TV game, Dunfermline next Saturday will be very tough. However, things are beginning to brighten up. In some ways today's performance was not as good as the draw against United so plenty of work next week on the training ground. Latterly Under Dodds home crowds raced for the exits after games. Today it was noticeable how the crowds at the end gathered to acknowledge the team and Manager.  Moving in the right direction.

Great performance. Great atmosphere. Before Dodds and Barry left it looking like the word in 'Pride of the Highlands' had to be changed. The word 'Pride' returned yesterday. We keep working.

Aberdeen thought playing a similar side last year was easy. So far this season we have not achieved much in cup competitions but before then we have three massive league games. One step at a time methinks.

Where can we find a hopeless team to play when we enter the Scottish Cup this year? 

Dodds never really struck me as someone who could motivate players.  He had his chance to do this especially with all our injuries last year. Then at the start of this season with some new faces and few injuries he completely lacked that skill. 

In terms of loans, remember that Sean, Roddy and Wallace will be back soon. 

Morton sink to the bottom.  

30 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

Here’s an observation that just struck me after writing that - our happiest times have been with defenders as manager (Paterson, Butcher, Hughes). Then a succession of forwards got us to where are today. 

Robbo got us into the Premier League. 

Will he stop the Dick Campbell wise cracks? That is the question. 

From a personal perspective, to have Scott Brown as our next manager would be quite an achievement. I never really liked him as a layer but his career has moved on. Interestingly, he signed a new 2 year contract shortly before he was sacked by Fleetwood after they made a very poor losing start to the season. They remain second botton to Cheltenham who have yet to score a league goal after 9 games! So he would feel very much at home here in the Highlands but with him being back in Scotland the Inverness players would be bursting a gut to start getting results again. 

Born in Dublin, O'Dea played for Home Farm before he was signed by Celtic as a teenager.^[1] After making his way through the reserves and academy side, he made his first-team debut for Celtic in the Scottish League Cup against St Mirren in September 2006.^[2] A month later, O'Dea made his league debut against Inverness Caledonian Thistle,................................

Davie Carson was turned inside out for the goal, Mark was very slow to react. Beyond that the highlights showed some effort on our part to score. In some ways it would be nice to hear someone in the club mention relegation is clearly a possibility if we continue as now. That would recognise the situation. My concern is that the Cup Final created an illusion as did Billy becoming all time top scorer.

Roll up, roll up, roll up ....for the great points give away. Something has to give fairly soon and if it is the 'ICT points give away promotion' again the Club has to act. With Ayr losing last night here's hoping that everyone wakes up to day for at least 100 minutes of playing time...and more if needed. We are surely not as bad as the current perception indicates.

In terms of change - i.e. giving one or two people notice - we are quite rightly in the dark in terms of privacy.  Unless there are some tangible performance clauses in contracts or notice periods are short, it is probably unlikely that we can afford to change things within management.  We do not appear to have leaders on the pitch. Sean Welsh is prone to injuries but offers motivation. He has been missed but additionally we need someone like Bobby Mann to act as an anchor and motivator.  Is there anyone out there....?

4th August 2023   Manager Billy Dodds says Inverness Caley Thistle are a scalp for other teams now. Billy Dodds believes Inverness Caledonian Thistle's cup exploits last season will have others looking at them as a scalp in the 2023/24 Championship.

2-0 with Arbroath winning...........

We normally provide longer contracts to Managers after reaching Scottish Cup Finals and then so far get relegated.  We can but hope that if results remain poor and without a string of injuries that there is some wriggle room on ending Dodd's contract.  Something has to change soon.  Arbroath play Queens Park next Friday so a point for them leaves us where we currently deserve to be. We have two weeks to put in a decent performance at Airdreonians. It is unlikely that we will hammer them. 

Dodds did say pre match that once we cut out silly mistakes we will give a side a good hammering. Still a minute or two to achieve that today. 

Two visiting Dutch visitors concluded that the referee was poor. We cannot blame him for our 70 minutes of lacklustre play. However, hopefully that is the end of our pre-season friendlies or else we will be bottom after the next two away games. 

The compilation video is quite some piece of collating for whoever put it all together. It is quite interesting to see how many headers Billy has scored.  A great achievement.  Ross County were not expecting his volley.  Looked fantastic from behind the goal. 

Our first success this season - keeping the score down to 1-0 and eliminating Dundee from the competition.  Max Ram back and a few others getting invaluable experience or game time.

In retrospect it might have helped if the Club had made it clear that because of the Cup Final players were required to have 28 days rest...and that as a result, the League Cup was a bigger challenge for us this season because of the Cup Final late date in the previous season.

Pleased that Big Harry has been signed. Big challenge for him but his height up front changes our attacking options.

I was not present on Tuesday night but swearing at staff in some workplaces is deemed serious misconduct. 

We have recently seen too much emphasis put on Billy beating our scoring record. Great....but....

For the bigger picture let's hope two poor defeats and a less than convincing win against Bonnyrigg create a big wake up call before we end up bottom of the Championship after our first three games.