Robert

I’ve retained Sky Sports as I quite enjoy Sunday matches but it’s probably a luxury I could do without. I’ve never bothered with the other subscription providers. The Champions League lost its appeal for me when they allowed more than one team in from countries. I much preferred it when they had the European Cup, Cup Winners Cup and UEFA Cup. Money talks though.

Rescheduled for Tuesday 12 December with a 1945 kick off.

Again sensible to give him a short term deal to see how he does. Hopefully, like Wotherspoon, he does enough to warrant an extension. We have been light on goals so the focus has been on the correct part of the pitch since Ferguson joined. I wonder if any of the squad will be “released by mutual consent” in January.

Logan Chalmers for Ayr and Nathan Austin for East Fife today.

Wonder if these will withstand a dishwasher? https://shop.ictfc.com/product/big-duncs-highland-army-mugs

We’ve hardly seen him this season so hopefully game time will benefit him.

First year apprentice defenders Sam Nixon and Jack Walker have joined Forres on loan until 4 January.

Match postponed: https://ictfc.com/greenock-morton-match-postponed/

Meant to ask: is there a story there about something happening after the game?

I was also told by someone in the club that Welsh played through an injury as he was wanted for the cup final. As a result he missed pre-season and still had to shake the injury off. I didn’t see what happened on Wednesday as he was flat on his back by the time I was aware there was an issue so it may have happened off the ball. He seemed to be holding his back which means it could be a different issue. He came straight back on and played for 10 minutes so it may be that he was subbed as a precaution or he thought he could run it off. I don’t think he missed that many games last season although I have not checked any stats.

Highlights and the club’s report: https://ictfc.com/nairn-county-2-2-ictfc-nairn-county-win-7-6-on-penalties-18-10-2023/

The article says he came off with a swollen knee, so it must have been during the game.

Worryingly the P&J article has worrying news on our injury position: https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/sport/football/inverness-caledonian-thistle/6225495/ex-aberdeen-forward-jay-emmanuel-thomas-on-trial-caley-thistle/ Doran is out for a few months. Boyes has an eye injury, whilst Welsh, Wotherspoon and Devine all picked up knocks last night, although Wotherspoon will be ready for Saturday. It is good to see Ferguson being much more informative in his interviews than his predecessor.

Alex Cooper has turned up at Brora.

Not sure what you are on Moog! Other than his goals, I thought Lodovica was poor. He should have had us out of sight in the first half. I love your optimism though.

A goal, an assist, a booking and a couple of unsporting moments from Ross Tokely last night against us in the North of Scotland Cup.

He scored with two great strikes in the second half, but that apart I thought he was poor. He passed up several good opportunities at 0-0 and gave the ball away too cheaply throughout the first half in particular. I wouldn’t have been upset if he’d been hooked at half time.

I agree. Of the starters, only Devine, Thomson, Welsh and Wotherspoon looked capable of breaking into the starting line up. The youngsters, Nixon who started and the subs who came on, all looked promising, so hopefully several make the grade with us.

Kellacher and Esson were in charge tonight. Ferguson was sitting in the officials area with Gardiner. There was a surprisingly large crowd, with a good contingent of Caley Thistle fans. As I said above, the youngsters were most prominent for us, especially Thomson. Welsh was running the show and it disrupted us when he went off. Lodivica, in particular, had very poor touches in the first half and spurned a few decent chances, although his two second half strikes were excellent. The Nairn goalie had a great evening and seemed to hold onto everything, with several excellent saves. Too often we looked to pass when we should have shot. All in all, we shot ourselves in the foot in a game we should have won comfortably.

12 very good penalties plus one from Brooks that went through the goalie. Unfortunately the goalie saved the 14th from Delaney so Nairn win 7-6 on penalties. A good enough game but a very embarrassing outcome given the strength of our team. For me really only the youngsters get pass marks.

2-2 at full time. Penalties loom. Two good strikes by Lodovica but we should never have been behind in the first place given the chances we spurned. Man if the match by a mike was the Nairn goalie. At least eight saves, three of them excellent.

We should be out of sight but a mix of poor finishing, slack touches in the box and good saves by the Nairn goalie meant we couldn’t score. Then Tokely headed in from a free kick just before half time so we are 1 down! Welsh went down off the ball (I think) but came back on for 10 minutes so hopefully it is a precaution that he is now off.

Nairn have a “cash turnstile” as an alternative to buying tickets in advance. It may be that cash means cash and they don’t take cards.

Hopefully he makes an impact and justifies a longer deal than just to January.

It seems Ferguson is making a positive impact with the players and they are buying in to his ideas, based on this article: https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/sport/duncan-ferguson-axes-automatic-days-off-at-caley-thistle-w-329492/