Robert

I joined the Trust last year but am not on the Board, so other than bolstering the membership I’ve not had the opportunity to make a positive contribution, largely due to other commitments. However, and just a thought, with your clear passion for the club, if you are going to Saturday’s game, why not go along to the Caley Club or the Sports Bar before the game and discuss your thoughts and concerns with Board members. Why not join up and look to join the Board at the next opportunity, allowing you to influence the direction of the Trust and the relationship with the club?

Good to see the club supporting the Trust by encouraging new members: https://ictfc.com/supporters-trust-recruitment-drive Hopefully it gets a positive response.

Also Garry Wood for Inverurie, and he missed a penalty.

This makes the 90 minutes sound more positive than FrontRow’s comments from the ground. One cleared off the line early on and a disallowed goal, but the stats imply we did well to get a point: https://ictfc.com/arbroath-0-0-ictfc-06-08-2022 Draws have been our Achilles heal too often in recent seasons: a win next Saturday is needed or we will be playing catch up in what looks like being a tight league.

Andy MacRae and Josh Meekings scored for Brora at Clach today.

0-0 at full time. Carson booked in stoppage time. Only 4 attempts in the whole game so sounds like a point gained rather than 2 lost but we need to get into winning ways soon. Sportscene didn’t even bother to give a full time report.

Doran on for Mckay after 75 minutes, a minute after our first attempt of the second half.

Samuels on for Oakley after 56 minutes, then Boyd on for Mackay after 67 minutes.

Half time 0-0. Oakley has picked up a booking. From the BBC stats, Arbroath have had 54% of the ball with 5 attempts, 3 on target, and we have had 3 attempts, 1 from Mckay on target. Delaney on for Duffy at the start of the second half: an injury?

Our starting 11: Ridgers Carson Duffy Devine Harper Shaw MacGregor Allardice Mackay Mckay Oakley Our subs are MacKay, Delaney, Nicolson, Hyde, Doran, Boyd and Samuels https://mobile.twitter.com/ICTFC/status/1555906809600294912/photo/1

Time to change that this afternoon!

Harry Hennem has joined Wick on loan.

There is no reason why Board members need to be born and bred Invernessians. In my opinion, what matters is that those involved have the desire to contribute to the Board, to make a positive difference and to work with the club to enhance it, both on and off the pitch. They are giving their time voluntarily for no financial or other gain, so should get our collective support. Having a varied Board with different backgrounds is important for it to work well. I consider myself a local, but only moved to the Highlands when I was 4, spent my school days in Fort William, then ended up in the central belt and I only lived in Inverness (first time round) in 1992. Work then took me away for a number of years before returning 8 years ago. That in no way detracts from my passion for the club.

Devine’s carrying an injury and may require an operation so I think he will be used sparingly. A better option, if he’s sufficiently fit, would be to start him and replace him when he’s done all he can in the game.

I agree, I think MacGregor is better when pushed further up, but our injuries meant he was in central midfield with Allardice, and I think that contributed to Queens Park having the upper hand in midfield. I’m not sure how long Welsh is out for, whilst injuries mean Carson has to be at right back. Ideally we’d have two of Allardice, Carson and Welsh in central midfield (with Hyde as back up) and MacGregor playing off Mckay but dropping back to bolster the midfield when required. I think teams know how to play us and as we try to push the full backs up, we end up a bit exposed at times. Once we have Deas back, and Devine and Welsh fit, I’m sure we will be much stronger, and we then have Sutherland and Walsh to come back later in the season. In the meantime, we must sharpen up our passing game, as too often we gave the ball away tamely, with all players really guilty of it, including those regarded to have had good games. Boyd looked lively so is worth more game time, whilst I think Delaney will come good with a more experienced defender alongside him. I like Duffy but he’s not yet the leader that Devine and Deas are, so we didn’t really have anyone marshalling the defence, and it showed at times. Watching Queens Park’s goal again, what a gift to give away. We’d several opportunities to tackle the player but didn’t, then the shot was pretty weak but somehow landed up in the net. We should have snuffed it out in midfield rather than allowing the run. We are already playing catch up so we don’t want to slip up at Arbroath next week and fall further off the pace.

The club’s report: https://ictfc.com/match-report-ictfc-1-1-queens-park-30-07-2022

But only on alphabetical order!!

Noted today: Jordan White for County. Kevin McHattie for Buckie. Andrew MacAskill for Buckie. Jordan Roberts for Stevenage. There are rave reviews on line for Gary Warren in Clach’s win today. Seemingly he’d only had one training session with the team but marshalled the defence and strolled through the game.

That was a poor performance, particularly in the first half. Queens Park could have been well ahead at the break and we were lucky to get back to 1-1 just before the break. For their goal, the player picked the ball up around the half way line, ran forward with no meaningful challenges and scored. Mckay too his goal well after Boyd won a ball he’d no right to. Boyd was the pick of the first half for me with a few efforts on goal. The second half was better but we never really looked like winning. We lost the battle in the middle of the park with Queens Park looking faster and getting most of the second balls. I think we need to consider playing three in there as teams know how to play us. It will mean sacrificing an attacking player but guys like MacGregor can get up in support. Too many passes were slack and wayward but we can improve on that and there were some very good passages of play. The defence looked better once Devine came on, but he’s carrying an injury so may not get much game time, and we missed Deas, whilst both ‘keepers had a couple of decent saves. The pick for me over the full game was Mckay but I was disappointed in a few of them, particularly Samuels, whilst Mackay is not at his best yet. At least we didn’t lose, as we could easily have done and we possibly deserved to. Arbroath next week will be tough.

I did it for the first time last season. It is a bit of fun and I hope more sign up for it.

Following last night’s debacle, Motherwell and Graham Alexander have parted company. Is that a record: binning a Manager before the league season has even started?

Ali Riddle has joined Clach on loan.

Sean Welsh has had to undergo an operation on his knee but he’s not expected to be out for long. Danny Devine was going some routines on the pitch last Saturday before kick off so is hopefully nearly ready. I read in the Courier (I think) that Allardice is a doubt as he got a broken nose in the Cove game. Deas is suspended for the first two league games. I’m looking forward to this one. It is early days and we won’t be able to draw conclusions, but this is a game we need three points in to get us off to a good start.

Sorry Scotty, I should have done this when the opportunity first arose. That is three bought.

Sligo won 2-0 tonight so 3-0 on aggregate. We need to see the cup game at Motherwell as one we want to win and can win, and hopefully we set up a lucrative last 8 match. Sligo are currently 5th in a 10 team league, 20 points off both top and bottom. They may have benefitted by playing in what is mid season for them, but the result is embarrassing for Scottish football.