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Massive three points Dom Thomas missed out again for Queens Park who had former Inverness Captain Sean Welsh and Cillian Sheridan starting with Will Tizzard back in defence. James Carragher and Remi Savage were missing from the heart of the visitors defence who had Luis Longstaff and Aaron Doran getting a rare start. Just under 1500 fans rattled around inside the national stadium for the proverbial six-pointer at the bottom of the table with Inverness looking to get out of the play-off place and Queens one point ahead at the start of the game. In a tense first half Cammy Harper scored a stunning free kick after Cillian Sheridan had handled 25 yards out. Boom! That's how it ended despite QP upping their game in the second period as Inverness kept them at bay. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hampden Park was rocking as the game got underway and there was an early corner for the Spiders after Luis Longstaff blocked an effort from Jack Thomson in the second minute. Billy Mckay was fouled on the edge of the box but the free kick was wasted by Cammy Kerr who fired well over the bar. Sean Welsh had an effort blocked from the right side of the box after twenty minutes. With little happening in the opening exchanges, the visitors opened the scoring out of the blue through Cammy Harper direct from a free kick. Top corner from Harper from around twenty-five yards. What a strike to grace Hampden Park. Mckay shot over after being fed towards goal ten minutes before the break. Alex Samuel was denied by Ferrie five minutes before the interval as the keeper saved in the bottom corner to deny the striker from distance. On the stroke of half time Ruari Paton shot over and it remained 1-0 to the Caley Jags. HALF TIME: 0-1 Queens made two changes at the break with Robson and McKinstry replacing Tizzard and Carse. Ridgers saved a thumping low effort from Cillian Sheridan after the restart and Welsh headed wide followed by Jack Turner being denied by Ridgers as Queens Park showed their intent after a poor first forty-five. Sub McKinstry was next to try as he shot wide, but the pressure was mounting on the visitors goal. Ferguson made his first change of the afternoon, replacing Longstaff with Samson Lawal. The wee midfilder saw no takers for a cut back after Mckay sent him into the box. Ridgers saved from Paton as Queens looked to get back on level terms. Mckay saw Ferrie stop him and Paton was denied another twice by Ridgers as the clock ticked down. Inverness held on to take a valuable three points home in the relegation battle. Check pulse..... And breathe... FULL TIME: 0-1 What a strike from Cammy Harper to lift us above Queens Park. Immortal Howden Ender summed up like this: Well I wouldn't exactly say that it was comfortable but we looked in control for the most and survived some hairy moments. Ridgers wasn't really tested but that is due to the back four being simply immense. Devine was absolutely outstanding and Boyes, Duffy and Harper were close behind. What a free kick from Harper which turned out to be the winner. Kerr played in a strange position in a cross between a full back and wing back. Anderson outshone Longstaff although committment was never in doubt. Billy would have had a comfortable brace in days of yore. Samuel is a McGinn version of a centre forward and sure knows how to win a foul. Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts We have scraped ourselves into eighth. Still work to do yet though. 1. Dundee Utd 33 20 8 5 68 22 68 2. Raith Rovers 33 18 8 7 52 42 62 3. Partick Thistle 33 13 12 8 58 50 51 4. Airdrieonians 33 15 6 12 44 38 51 5. Dunfermline 33 11 9 13 39 44 42 6. Ayr United 33 12 6 15 50 57 42 7. Morton 33 11 8 14 40 42 41 8. Inverness CT 33 9 11 13 37 37 38 9. Queens Park 33 9 9 15 43 56 36 10. Arbroath 33 6 5 22 34 77 23 Date: 13/04/2024 Venue: Hampden Park, Glasgow Attendance: 1463 Referee: Alan Muir Queens Park: 0 Manager: Callum Davidson Lineup: Ferrie; Thomson, Wilson, Tizzard (Robson 45), Longridge, Turner (Mauchin 74), Welsh, Carse (McKinstry 45), Scott (Williamson 84), Paton, Sheridan (McLeish 74) Subs (not used): Wills; Bruce, Fox, Bannon Scorers: none Booked: Welsh (86) Sent Off: none Inverness CT: 1 Manager: Duncan Ferguson Lineup: Ridgers; Duffy, Devine, Boyes, Harper, Longstaff (Lawal 55), Kerr, Anderson, Doran (MacGregor 77), Alex Samuel, B Mckay (Pepple 80) Subs (not used): C Mackay; Ujdur, Austin Samuels, Brooks Scorers: Harper (25) Booked: Doran (76), MacGregor (85) Sent Off: none a

We're off to Hampden~den~en~n It's a trip to a less than full Hampden Park for us in the next stage of the relegation battle after we dodged a bullet last week against Arbroath. Goal difference wise we are the best placed of the bottom four clubs. Our defence is also better than the other bottom four, in fact we are second equal defensively in the Championship, however what has let us down is scoring goals and in that department we are second worst in the league, only two goals better off than relegation certainties Arbroath. We did put four goals past Queens Park last time we were there. Unfortunately that was followed by three defeats and two draws in our next five games and we lost at Inverness when the Queens visited back at the beginning of February. The only certainty here is that the Hampden Park crowd record of 149,415 from 1937 won't be broken. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Match/Ticket/Travel Info ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Venue H2H v QP Pld Won Drn Lst For Agst + / - Home 14 4 5 5 16 17 -1 Away 9 6 0 3 19 13 +6 Neutral 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total 23 10 5 8 35 30 +5 Only the last eight games since Queens Park came up into the Championship and QP are streets ahead of us since then. The 3 - 0 win was a League Cup encounter 14 years ago courtesy of these guys with goals from Lee Cox (20), Eric Odhiambo (55), Ross Tokely (58) Ryan Esson; Ross Tokely, Grant Munro, Stuart Golabek, Kevin McCann, Russell Duncan, Lee Cox, Nick Ross, Gil Blumenshtein, Adam Rooney, Dani Sanchez. Subs: Jonny Tuffey; Chris Innes, Roy McBain, Eric Odhiambo, Shane Sutherland Full report on that one came from hislopsoffsideagain (click on the 3-0 scoreline above) Last 8 Competitive Meetings since QP came up. 0 - 1 (H) 4 - 1 (A) 1 - 2 (H) 1 - 2 (A) 0 - 2 (H) 0 - 0 (H) 1 - 2 (A) 1 - 1 (H) 3 - 0 (H) 1 - 2 (H) Hampden Success: 4 - 1 Danny Devine had recovered from the knock that saw him limp off against Raith Rovers on the hour last week. Sean Welsh and Luis Longstaff were on the bench. Grant Savoury, Charlie Fox and Craig Napier missed out for the Spiders. Jack Turner put Queens Park ahead early in the first half before Max Anderson levelled the match ten minutes later. Jack Thomson hit the bar, Mckay deemed offside when putting a loose ball into the net after Wotherspoon's header was saved and that prompted some words of comfort for the referee for which Big Dunc eventually ended up in the stands at the break. After the interval Inverness eased themselves up into sixth place in the league with goals from Nikola Ujdur, his first for the club, David Wotherspoon and a Billy Mckay penalty. (For Full report click on 4-1 scoreline above) Last Time Out Inverness made hard work of taking the points from all but relegated Arbroath. We dominated the first half and but for some brilliant saves from Max Boruc we could have gone in three or four goals to the good at the break. As it was Wallace Duffy scored on half time and that should have given us something to build on against a poor Arbroath who were simply going through the motions. As per usual, we failed to take full advantage of the numerous opportunities and paid the price when Leighton McIntosh hammered home a wind assisted shot from the edge of the box. We huffed and puffed somewhat thereafter before the energetic MotM Alex Samuel turned and thrashed in the winner from fifteen yards for a belter of a goal. It was a crucial strike that has all but relegated Arbroath and it keeps our hopes alive of avoiding the play-offs. Last Five: D L D L W Queens Park had a day to forget last weekend at Hampden as Champions in waiting Dundee United put five past them. It didn't look likely after the first half when they trailed by a single goal from Fotheringham on the stroke of half-time. However four goals in a fifteen minute spell from Moult, Graham, Fotheringham again, and Sibbald put Queen's back in trouble and United on track for the Premiership. Last Five: D D W L L Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts Table ahead of Morton v Dundee United on Friday night. 1. Dundee Utd 32 19 8 5 64 21 65 2. Raith Rovers 32 18 7 7 52 42 61 3. Partick Thistle 32 13 11 8 58 50 50 4. Airdrieonians 32 14 6 12 42 37 48 5. Dunfermline 32 11 9 12 38 42 42 6. Morton 32 11 8 13 39 38 41 7. Ayr United 32 11 6 15 45 57 39 8. Queens Park 32 9 9 14 43 55 36 9. Inverness CT 32 8 11 13 36 37 35 10. Arbroath 32 6 5 21 34 72 23 FRIDAY 12TH APRIL Morton v Dundee Utd SATURDAY 13TH APRIL Airdrieonians v Dunfermline Ayr Utd v Arbroath Queens Park v Inverness CT Raith Rovers v Partick Thistle Latest Team News Duncan Ferguson has much the same squad to select from as last week. Luis Longstaff came off the bench on Saturday after being out for a couple of months with a knee injury and will be back in the squad again for Saturday. Carragher, although he did play, and Ujdur had a bit of a bug last weekend. However Carragher is now a doubt after feeling his hamstring. Other than that not much has changed apart from Remi Savage, who has not recovered after he got a boot in the face from Cammy Kerr. Apparently Kerr's boot is OK but Savage is suffering from minor concussion and will miss the next couple of games. Maybe that was Kerr ensuring he gets a game this weekend. Here's our underfire Gaffer looking like Sherlock Holmes with his pipe>>> Callum Davidson will be smarting after the drubbing they took last week. That's seven goals in their last two games with none scored. Word of warning though, they still have Ruari Paton who has sixteen goals this season. They also have our often broken ex-captain Sean Welsh and Cillian Sheridan who surprisingly has bagged a couple of goals since leaving us. He looked like an unfit Sunday League pub player when at the Caledonian Stadium. Dom Thomas, who scored the winner last time Queens came North, has scored eight, but he was missing last week. He does enjoy a goal against us. Could Davidson be keeping him under wraps for the six-pointer against us this weekend? Last weeks QP flops: Ferrie Thomson Wilson Bannon Longridge Turner (Sheridan 53) Welsh (Tizzard 85) McKinstry (Carse 53) Scott (Bruce 52) Paton McLeish (Mauchin 62) Subs Not Used: Wills: Fox, Robson, Williamson Latest from Queens Park: Ben McPherson, Patrick Jarrett and Grant Savoury continue to be injury absentees with Dom Thomas’ fitness being monitored closely in training this week after missing the last two games.

Hampden Success Danny Devine had recovered from the knock that saw him limp off against Raith Rovers on the hour last week. Sean Welsh and Luis Longstaff were on the bench. Grant Savoury, Charlie Fox and Craig Napier missed out for the Spiders. Jack Turner put Queens Park ahead early in the first half before Max Anderson levelled the match ten minutes later. Jack Thomson hit the bar, Mckay deemed offside when putting a loose ball into the net after Wotherspoon's header was saved and that prompted some words of comfort for the referee for which Big Dunc eventually ended up in the stands at the break. After the interval Inverness eased themselves up into sixth place in the league with goals from Nikola Ujdur, his first for the club, David Wotherspoon and a Billy Mckay penalty. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In the eerie atmosphere of a sparse Hampden crowd, Billy Mckay had an early effort deflected behind for a corner which came to nothing. However it didn't take long for the Spiders to get their noses in front when Dom Thomas' delivery into the box was turned in by Jack the Turner. The visitors hit back on twenty-one minutes when Max Anderson met Nathan Shaw's cross to fire the ball behind Calum Ferrie. On the half hour another ball in from Shaw saw Ferrie save from Mckay. A minute later Mckay turned provider but defender Nikola Ujdur's effort was also stopped by Ferrie in the home goal. Ujdur and Mckay almost linked up again but Mckay was just short of getting on the end of his shot. Touch wood, but it was Inverness that looked most likely to get the next goal with Mckay adjudged offside after Wotherspoon's header was saved then Shaw and Anderson made Ferrie work for his money. Touch wood was appropriate as Jack Thomson struck the bar before Ridgers then saved from Stuart McKinstry as the Spiders came back to life just before the break. Duncan Ferguson also spaked into life just on the interval and was sent to the stand by referee Craig Napier for a second yellow. Settle down Dunc! HALF TIME 1-1 Tit for tat opening to the second half with Paton blocked at one end and Ferrie saving from Wotherspoon at the other end after a counter attack with Cammie Harper. Anderson saw an effort put behind for a corner, and from that corner Nikola Ujdur headed Harpers ball into the box behind Ferrie to put Inverness ahead. Better was to come after seventy-five minutes when November's Player of the Month David Wotherspoon scored his fifth goal for Inverness to put us 3-1 ahead on the day. Spoony then earned us a spot kick when he was taken down by substitute Cameron Bruce, and who else but Billy Mckay scored from the spot with a low shot into the bottom corner. The play was broken up after this by a spate of substitutions and that was our first win over Queens Park in six games. FULL TIME: 1-4 Happy Days! Our biggest win of the season, first goals for Anderson and Ujdur, with Spoony and Mckay also hitting the back of the net. All this with Ferguson sent to the stands at half time. Plenty room for him there in an empty National Stadium. Inverness move up to sixth in the table and we play Morton at Cappielow on Tuesday night where a win would see us jump another place to fifth. More match reaction to follow>>> Highlights from QP>>> The Goals >>> Here's Naughty Boy Dunc>>> Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts Morton v Inverness on Tuesday night - Arbroath v Raith Rovers Wednesday night 1. Dundee Utd 14 10 4 0 34 6 34 2. Raith Rovers 14 10 3 1 26 17 33 3. Partick Thistle 15 7 4 4 31 25 25 4. Dunfermline 14 6 3 5 18 15 21 5. Airdrieonians 15 5 2 8 14 21 17 6. Inverness CT 14 4 4 6 17 16 16 7. Ayr United 14 4 2 8 17 26 14 8. Queens Park 14 3 4 7 19 31 13 9. Arbroath 13 4 0 9 17 27 12 10. Morton 13 3 2 8 14 23 11 Date: 09/12/2023 Venue: Hampden Park Attendance: 1203 Referee: Craig Napier Queens Park: 1 Manager: Robin Veldman Lineup: Ferrie; McPherson, Bannon, Reid, Robson (Bruce 70), Thomson (Longridge 60), Spong (Tizzard 70), Turner, McKinstry (Hepburn 61), Thomas, Paton Subs (not used): Kane; Healy, Jarrett, Mauchin, McCormick Scorers: Turner (10) Booked: Turner (17), Bannon (66) Sent Off: none Inverness CT: 4 Manager: Duncan Ferguson Lineup: Ridgers; Duffy (Davidson 84), Ujdur , Devine, Boyes, Shaw (Longstaff 81), Gilmour (Welsh 90+1), Anderson, Harper, Wotherspoon (Lodovica 83), B Mackay (Brooks 83) Subs (not used): C Mackay; Delaney, Sheridan, Thompson Scorers: Anderson (21), Ujdur (59), Wotherspoon (75), B Mckay (80 pen) Booked: none Sent Off: none a

The wait is over Having lain idle since the 5th of May Championship flop against Ayr United, the long wait for the Scottish Cup Final is over for the Caley Jags. The Semi-Final was played out on the 29th of April, a 3-0 win over Falkirk guaranteeing our place in the final where we will face the daunting task of stopping forty time Cup winners Celtic from winning the treble. Not an easy task I hear you say. However, you've got to be in it to win it, and we find ourselves in our second Scottish Cup Final in eight years. We have a long way to go to catch up with Celtic though as this will be their sixtieth appearance in the final. I imagine the stattos amongst us will be searching their Guinness Book of Records to find out the biggest winning margin in the Scottish Cup Final. I'll save you the bother. Renton 6-1 v Cambuslang on 4th February 1888. Or, ominously, Celtic 6-1 Hibernian on 6th May 1972. Are we about to re-write the record books? Check all the records at Scottish Cup Records. Win or lose, I hope you all enjoy the occasion. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The route to the final Inverness struggled to overcome a stubborn Stirling Albion side at our entry level in the Scottish Cup 3rd round. Dale Carrick had opened the scoring in the 27th minute but Wallace Duffy levelled five minutes later. Max Ram then put us ahead five minutes before the break and we all breathed a sigh of relief. However, the Binos were not finished and Carrick scored a second in stoppage time before the interval. With twenty minutes left Aaron Doran scored what proved to be the winner, but credit to the visitors for making us work extra hard to get through to the fourth round. The 4th round tie with Queens Park turned from gloom to joy. After beating Inverness 2-0 on the pitch, Queens Park were dumped out of the Cup for fielding an illegible player in the shape of Euan Henderson. How fortuitous. Has anyone ever won the Cup after being knocked out? The 5th round saw Inverness face Premiership opposition away from home at Livingston. Fear not as Billy Mckay scored a brilliant brace to add to a Sean Welsh header to put us into the quarter final. 6th round was another Premiership scalp with Kilmarnock visiting the Caledonian Stadium on a snowy March evening. Despite suffering an early setback when Vassell scored in the third minute, the Caley Jags dug deep and overcame Killie with a Billy Mckay penalty and a superb Sean Welsh strike in the middle of a snow storm. Semi-Final: It was a re-run of the 2015 final with Inverness taking on Falkirk for for a place in the final. Inverness proved to be too clinical for the Bairns with another brace from Billy Mckay and a superb header from Dan Mackay. Always a step ahead of the Bairns, it was a relatively comfortable passage into the final, where one would imagine Celtic will provide a much sterner test. Hampden Calling... Again Celtic's route to the final: 4th Round: Celtic 5-0 Morton - Mooy x2, Furuhashi x2, Turnbull. 5th Round: Celtic 5-1 St Mirren - Maeda, Hatate x2, Hyeo-gyu, O'Riley. 6th Round: Hearts 0-3 Celtic - Mooy, Furuhashi, Vickers. Semi-Final: Rangers 0-1 Celtic - Jota. Celtic seemed to scrape through their ties scoring fourteen goals for the loss of only two. Surprisingly the bookies see Celtic as favourites to lift the Cup. Meh, what do they know! Inverness warmed up for the final with a hastily arranged kick-about against Dungannon Swifts in County Tyrone on 20th May. It ended 3-1 for Inverness and the whole squad managed to get a kick of the ball at some stage of the game. There was also an alleged closed doors practice against Nairn County. Celtic's month was somewhat fuller. After defeating Rangers in the semi-final on 30th April, they beat Hearts 2-0 at Tynecastle. They followed that by losing 3-0 at Ibrox in the final old firm derby of the season then drew 2-2 with St Mirren. A midweek game at Easter Road on the 24th May resulted in a 4-2 defeat for ten man Celtic. Looks like they're knackered now and we will be full of beans after a month off However, a week before the final, they played their last Premiership game of the season against Aberdeen at Parkhead. That's Aberdeen, the third best placed team in the Scottish Premiership. Looks like they were out in full force this week having rested half their team over the last couple of games and they trounced Aberdeen 5-0. Just let these stats sink in against Scotland's third best football club this season. Celtic--------VVVVVVVV--------Aberdeen Celtic 76% - Possession - 24% Aberdeen Celtic 20 ------- Shots ------- 0 Aberdeen Celtic 8 -- Shots on Target -- 0 Aberdeen Celtic 10 ------ Corners ------ 2 Aberdeen On the plus side, we have knocked Celtic out of the Scottish Cup on three occasions. Contrary to popular belief we did not get to keep them for that. There was the SuperCaleyGoBallistic in 2000, followed by the week after beating Liverpool in the UEFA Cup in 2003 (Henrik Larrson and all), and who can forget the Hand of Josh thriller in the 2015 semi-final before we went on to lift the Cup against Falkirk. Overall, we have beaten Celtic seven times in competitive games and drawn seven times. Stats will show that Celtic have won thirty-four times. Fortunately, stats don't win games. Latest Team News Inverness CT have a full squad to pick from after a month off apart from Sutherland and Walsh. In saying that, the likes of Roddy MacGregor has had little game time in his recovery from injury, so some may not be 100% fit. ***Look back in later in the week to hear from Billy Dodds ahead of the final*** Celtic have a squad full of Eastern promise and full international players. Let's not dwell too much on that. Furuhashi took a knock against Aberdeen but it's not a major concern? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Player of the Season Awards In some sort of clandestine ceremony on Monday night, the seasonal awards were handed over, cloak and dagger style at the Caledonian Stadium. Unsurprisingly Billy Mckay was the big winner. Is it written in the stars for Billy to move level with the legendary Dennis Wyness in this Scottish Cup Final. Now that would be some story! Congratulations to all the winners. Well deserved Player of the Year Awards 2022/23 Tonight the winners of our Player of the Year awards were presented with their awards. Players’ Player of the Year 2022-23 was Billy Mckay, as presented by Head Coach Billy Dodds! Players’ Young Player of the Year 2022-23 was Cameron Harper, also presented by Head Coach Billy Dodds. Fans Player of the Year 2022-23 was Billy Mckay, as presented by Laura Grant from the Supporters Trust! Fans Young Player of the Year 2022-23 was Nathan Shaw, as presented by Lady Kath Fraser from the Supporters Trust! Goal of the Season 2022-23 was Billy Mckay’s second goal v Livingston, as presented by Barry Wilson. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On yer bike Steve Message from Joonya Many of you may remember The Highland March - a walking event between the final two league matches of ICT's season, of which took place every year from 2003 to 2015. Well, two of us former marchers have come together to do something different in the build up to the Scottish Cup Final. Steve 'Yompa' Taylor (formerly known as 'InterTheNet') will be donning the lycra to cycle from Caledonian Stadium to Hampden Park IN A DAY. Steve sets off at 3am on Tuesday 30th May, and I will be joining him as the support driver. We'll be doing this for charity, with all monies being split equally between MikeysLine and the Celtic Foundation. Both of these charities provide mental health support to people of all backgrounds, in and around Glasgow and the Highlands. We invite you to follow us on Twitter (@Road2Hampden) where you will find the Just Giving page. Please donate what you can, if you can. Thank you ICT have supported MikeysLine since their inception in 2015, and John Robertson is an ambassador for the charity. They provide Mental Health support to people across Inverness and the Highlands. But why Celtic Foundation too? Over recent years, supporters of the foundation have helped Yompa raise money and awareness for the Solving Kids Cancer charity. It's his way of giving something back, at a time when two teams with history in this competition come head to head in the final. Every donation helps, and we'd like to thank everyone for their support ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FANZONE Here's Scooty & the Skyhooks plus good luck messages The Wyness Shufflers have been busy and here's your Cup Final podcast 'Back to the Future' from the guys RIGHT HERE What's in it for you: Two and a half hours of all things Caley Thistle. The pre-match venue, memorable games with Celtic, ICT Legends with Stuart Golabeck, Ross Tokely, James Vincent, Dennis Wyness and current captain Sean Welsh and don't miss Sandy's Scottish Cup Final tune. Well done guys, a great effort. Your pre-Cup Final entertainment for Caley Jags fans. Provided by the fans for the fans: Get yourself along to The Ferry before the game for some pre-match Shenanigans & Schiehallions. Three bars available Food available Families Welcome Face painting Doors Open: 11:00am Entertainment from 12:00 > 4:00 Bus to game (maybe) BUY TICKETS £4 Where? The Ferry 25 Anderston Quay Glasgow G3 8BX

Semi-Final Joy It was an early start for most Inverness fans on the Saturday morning as they headed to the National Stadium to get behind the Caley Jags. The first train out of Inverness saw some weary eyes on the 05:30 to Queen Street. Wiser ones went down the night before to savour the occasion. Falkirk fans? Well they were subject to a gruelling half hour journey before the scheduled kick-off time of 12:15pm. Alfredo's was a popular choice for pre-match aperitif's before heading in the direction of the National Stadium. Hampden Park was less than a quarter full as these two teams met once again in the Scottish Cup. The winner will go on to the final where either Rangers or Celtic will be the prize for getting there. Inverness were in their first choice home strip and the Bairns were in their dark blue on a brisk but dryish Saturday lunchtime. With a VAR assisted penalty, Billy Mckay opened the scoring early in the first half. Dan Mackay headed in the second from an inviting Jay Henderson Cross. Falkirk had their moments, Callumn Morrison hitting the post after some defensive indecision on the edge of the box. However, we did our own post hitting and Billy Mckay wrapped up the victory in the second half with a well taken finish, his 100th goal for the Caley Jags. That ensured our progress into the final. Nathan Shaw was unfortunate twice off the post and Falkirk were denied a consolation by some dogged defending. All in, comfortable in the end and Hampden calling once more. Key moments: 6th minute: Jay Henderson's cross from the right deflects off the hand of defender Leon McCann. VAR went into action and after a quick check Nick Walsh pointed to the spot. Billy Mckay stepped forward to send a clinical penalty high to the keepers left. 1-0 10th minute: A lofted ball over the head of Devine makes him chase back towards Ridgers. Burrell in hot pursuit forces Devine and Ridgers to hesitate and the keepers clumsy clearance falls to Callumn Morrison. He rolls the ball goalward from outside the angle of the box but it bounces away from goal off the base off the post before Duffy and Deas block and the finger wagging begins in the Inverness defence. 24th minute: Maksym Kucheryavyi heads into Mark Ridgers midrift from the centre of the box. 34th minute: Jay Henderson curls a sumptuous cross into the box and Daniel Mackay heads downwards emphatically into the bottom corner. Spectacular cross and finish. 2-0 57th minute: All over bar the shouting. A long diagonal ball to the far post from Dan Mackay picks out a supercool Billy Mckay who calmly guides the ball behind Kinnear for another superb goal. That's 100 now for Billy Mckay. 63rd minute: Nathan Shaw smacks the post with a deflected shot that has the keeper beaten. Unfortunately it bounces clear. 65th minute: Comedy defending as Inverness try to help Falkirk to a consolation goal. Robbie Deas was short with a pass back as he tried to knee the ball back to his keeper. Gary Oliver picked up the loose ball but his cut back was blocked. It came back to him on the byeline but his second effort was headed clear by Danny Devine who was already lying full length on the deck, his head on the byeline to knock the ball away. 68th minute: Nathan Shaw weaved his way into the box and opened up his body to curl a low shot goalwards. It beat the keeper but bounced off the same post before agonisingly rolling along the line and clear of goal. 77th minute: Last throw of the dice from the Bairns saw Ridgers make a comfortable save from Ola Lawal to keep a clean sheet and the wind was now well and truly out of the Bairns sails. 93rd minute: Nick Walsh closes the game with a few peeps of his whistle. Game over at 3-0, Final v Celtic to come on June 3rd after they beat Rangers 1-0 on the Sunday. Highlights can be seen on BBC Sport Falkirk manager John McGlynn: "You can't give Inverness a goal start. They are the type of team that lap that up. But you can't legislate for such a soft goal as well. I'm not the first to be in this situation [with VAR]. "We had opportunities. I'm proud of the way the players played. But we didn't have the quality Inverness did." Inverness CT striker Billy Mckay: "We're delighted, it couldn't have gone much better. Roll on June. I thought we were ruthless. It's a weird feeling because we could've been out. Now we're in the final. "I knew [the third goal] was my 100th [for the club]. I wanted to stay on for my hat-trick. All round it's a pleasing day." Whist we were at Hampden, some important Championship games were played out. So, it's all to play for in the final league games of the season next Friday night. Friday night: Dundee 0-0 Cove Saturday 3:00pm: Ayr Utd 1-0 Raith Morton 2-1 Queen's Partick 2-0 Arbroath Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts Couldn't be tighter at both ends of the table 1. Dundee 35 16 12 7 61 37 60 2. Queens Park 35 17 7 11 60 47 58 3. Partick Thistle 35 16 8 11 63 43 56 4. Ayr United 35 15 10 10 59 42 55 5. Inverness CT 35 15 10 10 51 45 55 6. Morton 35 14 12 9 51 42 54 7. Raith Rovers 35 11 9 15 44 47 42 8. Arbroath 35 6 15 14 29 47 33 9. Cove Rangers 35 7 10 18 37 73 31 10. Hamilton Ac. 35 7 9 19 31 63 30 Friday night 7:45pm Arbroath v Accies Cove Ran v Morton Inverness CT v Ayr United Queen's v Dundee Rovers v Partick Date: 29/04/2023 Venue: Hampden Park Attendance: 12877 Referee: Nick Walsh Falkirk FC: 0 Manager: John McGlynn Lineup: Kinnear; Williamson (Yeats 67), Donaldson, Mckay, McCann, Henderson (Lawal 77), McGinn, Kucheryavyi, C Morrison (Wright 61), Burrell (Oliver 61), Kennedy (Nesbitt 61) Subs (not used): P Morrison; Rowe, Allan, McGuffie Scorers: none Booked: none Sent Off: none Inverness CT: 3 Manager: Billy Dodds Lineup: Ridgers; Duffy (Delaney 79), Devine, Deas, Harper, Henderson (Boyd 84), Welsh, Allardice, Shaw (Hyde 85), D Mackay (Doran 73), B Mckay (Samuels 78) Subs (not used): C Mackay; Ram, MacGregor Scorers: Mckay (7 pen, 57), D Mackay (37) Booked: Deas (45+1) Sent Off: none a

SCOTTISH CUP SEMI-FINAL 2023 APRIL 29TH 12:15 Kick-Off FALKIRK v INVERNESS HAMPDEN PARK GLASGOW

2015 Revisited The last time we played Falkirk at Hampden in front of 37,000 fans, it was a history making event. I don't really need to tell you how that worked out, but for those that were on another planet, we won the Scottish Cup by beating Falkirk 2-1. Since then both clubs have underachieved and hit the skids. Falkirk are now trying to get themselves out of league 1 and we are desperately trying to keep ourselves in the Premiership play-off slot after a horrendous season littered with injuries to the whole squad. A third round struggle past Stirling Albion before we went through to the 5th round by default against Queens Park, but since then have comfortably disposed of Premiership opposition in Livingston and Kilmarnock. Falkirk got here by putting six past Wick Academy before a narrow 2-1 win at Alloa. They then dumped media darlings Darvel 5-1 and in the quarter final put out Ayr United. On paper we will be the bookies favourites. That's not something we are normally comfortable with and I fully expect Falkirk will also fancy their chances in this one, and rightly so. Be warned! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ticket & Bus info from ICTFC Supporters Club Buses Full ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Venue Pld Won Drn Lst For Agst + / - Home 27 8 5 14 35 42 -7 Away 23 7 6 10 29 33 -4 Neutral 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total 50 15 11 24 64 75 -11 Falkirk are one of the few clubs out with the Premiership that have had the better of us over the years in head 2 head encounters. In the early years since we crossed swords in 1999 we always found Falkirk to be a difficult side to beat. Only 15 wins from 50 encounters is not one of our better stats. We have fared better in recent years with the Cup Final in 2015 being the pinnacle. The 0-2 home defeat shown below in the stats was the first meeting after the Cup Final win. Last 10 Competitive Meetings 0 - 0 (H) 2 - 2 (A) 2 - 3 (H) 1 - 0 (A) 1 - 0 (H) 1 - 3 (A) 4 - 1 (H) 1 - 0 (H) 0 - 0 (A) 0 - 2 (H) Click the link below for our full report from the Scottish Cup Final, brings a tear to a glass eye..... We went in at the break a goal to the good after getting to grips with the game halfway through the first period, Marley Watkins finishing with aplomb after a seven man move. Carl Tremarco was sent packing after 75 minutes after he miscontrolled a ball and then scythed down Blair Alston as he sped goalwards. Schoolboy error from Carl that was punished five minutes later when Peter Grant headed powerfully home from the vacant left back position. However, an unlikely hero came forward and James Vincent applied the finishing touch after Jamie MacDonald spilled a Watkins shot. The rest is history. 2015 Scottish Cup Final May 30th Scottish Cup (Final) 2 - 1 N 37,149 Anyway, back to the future and another tough game is expected against a Falkirk side who will finish second in League 1 and will be looking for promotion through the play-offs. Three former Inverness players in their ranks at the moment. Defenders Coll Donaldson and Brad Mckay along with winger Kai Kennedy who will be a handful. Mckay and Kennedy scored in a 4-1 win over Alloa at the weekend. Kennedy has scored five goals in his last four games. However, League form goes out the window in cup games, especially at Hampden where the vastness of the arena with less than full stands can turn it into a training like atmosphere. The daunting task of beating one of the Old Firm at a packed Hampden does not appeal to many, but it has been done before although the bookies won't be expecting that to happen whoever teachers the final. LAST WEEK Dundee broke our run of six straight wins with a draw at the Caledonian Stadium last Saturday. They opened the scoring through Lyall Cameron before Austin Samuels levelled with fifteen minutes left. A hard earned point in a game where Dundee looked like running away with the points for over an hour. Our late comeback meant that ultimately it was a deserved point but Dundee might disagree with that. Falkirk warmed up by trouncing Alloa Athletic 4-1 at Recreation Park. Brad Mckay, Kai Kennedy and a brace from Liam Henderson did the damage. Kennedy on a good spree just now with some spectacular dead ball strikes this month. Coll Donaldson did his bit. He was booked on half time. The third goal enabled them to rest some legs ahead of this one, unlike us who had to battle hard for the full ninety plus minutes. FanZone The word on the street is that the pre-match watering hole will be Alfredo's. It's known as Alfie's Sports Bar on West Nile Street. Alfie’s is located at 146 West Nile Street, G1 2RQ. This is a few minutes north of Glasgow Queen’s Street and the Bus Station. Apparently it opens around 8:00am. It would be rude not to.... Google Link to Alfies Sports Bar There's also a post match Bar for celebrating or drowning your sorrows. Koelschip Yard 686-688 Pollokshaws Rd, Glasgow G41 2QB Listen to the latest Podcast from The Wyness Shuffle Join Moff, Riley, AY and Wyness Shuffle debutants Sandy Sutherland and Calum MacDonald as they begin the countdown to the big one by looking back at our recent excellent run, hearing from a few familiar voices, and speculating on who will be running out at Hampden next Saturday. Let’s Shuffle to HAMPDEN CALLING That should keep you busy for a while on the train down to Glasgow Latest Team News David Carson is suspended for this one and Lewis Nicolson is cup-tied to add to Sutherland and Walsh who will no doubt be watching from the stands. Our missing souls of Roddy MacGregor and Max Ram might be added to the squad as Billy hints at in his media preview. Sean Welsh missed last week against Dundee with a knock but will return this week. Wallace Duffy made a welcome return last week with the impending suspension of Carson for this game. Falkirk manager John McGlynn had this starting XI against Alloa: Kinnear Williamson Donaldson McKay McCann Henderson McGinn Kucheriavyi Morrison Burrell Kennedy Subs: P Morrison; Rowe, Allan, Nesbitt, McGuffie, Yeats, Wright Oliver, Lawal Callumn Morrison is top scorer this season with 13 goals. Kai Kennedy and striker Rumarn Burrell both have 9 goals.

Hearts beat faster The maroon Hearts certainly were beating faster after the break as they upped the intensity and bulldozed their way through the makeshift Inverness rearguard, Uche Ikpeazu the man who caused most damage. He opened the scoring four minutes after the break and John Souttar volleyed in the second after the hour. Sean Clare put the icing on the Jam Tarts performance scoring a third from the penalty spot to end the contest with quarter of an hour to go. It was always going to be a big ask of the Championship side who were without Coll Donaldson and Sean Welsh with Anthony McDonald unavailable due to his loan agreement from Hearts. We contained Hearts fairly comfortably in an uneventful first half, restricting them to snatching at efforts and blocking confidently when needed. I presume Craig Levein had some harsh words to say at the interval as Hearts were a different beast after the break and progressed to the final after easing ahead and staying on the front foot. We did have a couple of moments at 1-0 down when Joe Chalmers was denied by a combination of Zlamal and his crossbar. Jamie McCart also had the ball in the net but celebrations were halted by the linesmans flag. Very tight decision. However, It's Hearts that will return to Hampden for the final whilst we try to get into the premiership via the back door, helped by Falkirk beating Dunfermline whilst we were at the National Stadium. That's our run in this seasons competition over after going down 3-0 to Hearts. No disgrace really and not unexpected given the resources available at both clubs. It's not a day for recriminations, but a day to rejoice in our wonderful run to the semi-finals where Hearts proved to be too big an obstacle for us to overcome. I'll let the video evidence tell the story of the game. Suffice to say, a great day out was had by all and we can be proud of the clubs achievement in reaching this stage of the national cup competition. It all happened in the second half. What if this, what if that. It's all immaterial now as the Jambos upped the pace in the second half and left us chasing shadows for the most part, Chalmers with our best effort off the bar and McCart unlucky to be flagged offside as it appears that Jake Mulraney was the man that sent him clear on goal. What a 'finish' by McCart but it was not to be. Thereafter Hearts were in control and deserved the win. Good luck to them in the final, and commiserations to the Caley Jags who got tremendous backing by their small but enthusiastic band of followers. Half Time at Hampden Park and the Hearts fans are bathed in sunshine.... Here's the action from William Hill Scottish Cup page on YouTube Robbo was philosophical as ever................ The second semi-final saw Celtic beat nine man Aberdeen 3-0 to set up a final clash with Hearts. Date: 13/04/2019 Venue: Hampden Park Attendance: 21011 Referee: Don Robertson Hearts: 3 Lineup: Zlamal; Smith, Souttar, Berra, Burns, Haring, Lee, Djoum (Bozanik 76), Mulraney (Clare 71), Keena (MacLean 64), Ikpeazu Subs (not used): Brandon, Wighton, Shaughnessy, Doyle Scorers: Ikpeazu (49), Souttar (66), Clare (pen 74) Booked: Djoum (60) Sent Off: none Inverness CT: 0 Lineup: Ridgers; Rooney, B Mckay, McCart, Tremarco (McHattie 59), Trafford (Austin 75), Polworth, Chalmers, Doran, Walsh, White (McCauley 83) Subs (not used): C Mackay, Brown, Harper, MacGregor Scorers: none Booked: Rooney (51) Sent Off: none a