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The Countdown Begins Hey Caley Jags fans, it's Hampden week as the build up to the Scottish Cup semi-final starts in earnest. Remember this image? What a history making day that was for the club. Legends every one of them. We had to do it without the suspended Gary Warren. Well Deja Vu! We will have to get through this one without our inspirational centre back Coll Donaldson who will be suspended, possibly even injured as well after hobbling off against Ayr. That's us done with the Championship for now as we take a sabbatical after beating Ayr United to jump back to third in the table. However, we have bigger fish to fry. That Championship sabbatical takes us back to Hampden for the first time since May 2015 when we did not too shabby as we lifted the Scottish Cup having beaten a resilient Falkirk 2-1. Our previous visit to Hampden saw an even greater performance as we put Celtic out of the Scottish Cup after an enthralling 3-2 win. Scenes! It all ended in 2015 with Graeme Shinnie holding aloft the Scottish Cup as depicted in Sopie Robb's fantastic painting. Let's start by giving you a wee flavour of these occasions and the build up to this seasons competition. This is what can be achieved with dedication, hard graft, a smidgen of quality, self belief, players playing for the badge, and a never say die attitude. Let's not forget the part played by our super fans who come out in force when needed.... Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines......... We will add something every day as the countdown continues, so check back on here daily for new updates. Long long time ago, there was a team called Inverness Caledonian who did many magnificent giant killing acts in the Scottish Cup over the years. League sides Airdrie, Stenhousemuir, Clyde, the list is almost endless as the non league side cut a swathe through the Scottish League sides. They put nineteen of them out of the national competition over the years prior to the merger and this was one of their finest moments, if not the complete giant killing act........... Inverness thistle were doing their own bit of giant killing culminating in their most memorable scalp, a 3-0 thrashing of Kilmarnock at Kingsmills in season 1984/85. The reward for this would be a trip to Parkhead. What a day that was, February 9th 1985. There were 'Big Kilmarnock Bunnet's' lying around the terraces and across the playing surface amongst a carpet of Kilmarnock supporters scarfs strewn across the pitch. They were not a happy bunch at full time looking to lynch the Killie board. Goals from Dave Milroy, Gordon Hay and Brian Fraser gave Killie there worst ever Scottish Cup defeat, something that still hurts them to this day. The jags other major claim to fame was the much postponed Scottish Cup tie against Falkirk FC. Due to be played at Kingsmills Park Inverness on January 6th 1979, it eventually went ahead 47 days later on February 22nd after 29 postponements due to a frozen pitch. Yes, 29, that's correct! When it did eventually go ahead Falkirk were 4-0 ahead before the interval. Bring on global warming I hear you say....... The Jags went on to play at Parkhead in the Scottish Cup in 1985 and suffered at the hands of a strong Celtic side. A certain Jimmy Calder being a substitute for the Jags at centre forward! Celtic: Latchford W McStay McGrain Grant (Archdeacon) McAdam O'Leary Provan P McStay Johnston MacLeod McGarvey (McInally) Scorers: McGarvey 9 P McStay 15, 63, 85 Johnston 30 MacLeod 89 Inverness: Fridge Skinner Wilson Sanderson (Fraser) Milroy Andrew Black Hay McDonald Oliver McLean (Calder) Attendance: 14,927 What a character Jimmy Calder was, often found sitting on the crossbar during quieter moments of games. He went from a part-time striker to a formidable keeper. On February 8th 2000, he was instrumental in knocking Celtic out of the Scottish Cup, something Inverness would go on to emulate another twice. Here's the proof starting at Parkhead.............. And again in 2003 at Inverness, Celtic fresh from beating Liverpool in Europe .............. The hat-trick was compete in 2015 with a little helping hand from Josh Meekings, not even Virgil van Dijk can stop us...... And following on from that dramatic defeat of Celtic at Hampden, we went on to lift the trophy at the same venue against Falkirk. And that's why Sophie got her paint brush out and reproduced that moment. So that brings us to this season, the William Hill Scottish Cup 2018/2019. The top three scorers so far are the prolific Stephen Dobbie - 7, Jordan White - 6 and Scott Sinclair - 5. It all started rather innocuously for the Caley Jags, a 1-1 draw with Edinburgh City at Ainslie Park. Shaun Rooney got the cup run off to a good start in the sixth minute but thereafter we struggled to make any improvement on the scoreline and the Citizens got their just reward when Liam Henderson sent the tie to a replay with five minutes remaining. The word embarrassment was used to sum up our performance on the day against League 2 Edinburgh City. The replay saw Jordan White score a hat-trick at the Caledonian Stadium as we ran out 6-1 winners. Tom Walsh (2) and Aaron Doran were the other scorers for the Caley Jags with Blair Henderson scoring for the visitors. Non League East Kilbride were next, and we only needed one game to dismiss them, albeit we made hard work of it and that's credit to Kilby who showed they were a well organised side. White, Doran, Polworth and an og saw us ease through 4-0. On the Sunday after our game, Hearts began their Scottish Cup challenge with a fourth round win over Livingstone thanks to a goal from Sean Clare. Our 5th round game would be a derby against County at Dingwall. This one would end in a 2-2 draw with County equalising in the third minute of time added on. We had led twice, Aaron Doran put us ahead before Ross Stewart levelled ten minutes after the break. Jordan White restored our lead until the tie was sent to extra-time by Josh Mullin. The previous day Hearts progressed by putting Auchinleck Talbot to the sword by 4-0. Berra, Mitchell, MacLean and Keena were the Jambo's scorers. The replay at Inverness against County was full of drama and the game went to extra-time and penalties. 2-2 after ninety minutes with no further scoring in extra-time led to a nail biting penalty shoot-out. Mark Ridgers woud make one save and Inverness converted all five from the spot to seal out place in the draw for the next round at Tannadice. The first team into the semi-finals were Celtic who beat Hibs 2-0 at Easter Road. We were second into the semi's after a wonderful 2-1 win at Tannadice where Joe Chalmers scored the goal of the round, an absolute peach. We were pegged back unjustly when Paul McMullan went down in the box but Aaron Doran scored with a header in time added on to put us on the road to Hampden. Aberdeen and Heart's would make up the semi-final pot after both won replays. The Don's dumped Rangers out and Hearts removed relegation threatened Championship side Partick Thistle 2-1 at Tynecastle. Joe's goal was so good, here it is in triplicate............. All the questions would be answered as the draw was made and the replays were completed on 12th of March. Hearts at Hampden and surprise surprise a 12:15 kick off. Plenty of previous between the sides although only one brief encounter this season. We played Hearts at Tynecastle in the League Cup and were summarily dismissed. Three goals in four minutes ended this contest before half-time. Here's a name that will send shivers down the spine of the Inverness defence. Uche Ikpeazu bulldozed his way through our defence on numerous occasions and scored twice. Odd game to be honest. We were a bit naive and paid the price for being too open and having a go. It ended up being a hammering. Oh well, there's always next time. We have a few players who have tasted life at Tynecastle. Keeper Mark Ridgers was on their books for seven years but only made three first team appearances. Brad Mckay made 40 appearances for Hearts in five seasons from 2010 onward. Kevin McHattie is the latest signing and he was on the books at Tynecastle for four years, pulling on the maroon shirt 83 times. However, there is one man at Inverness who beats them all, and he is a legend down Gorgie road. Inverness manager John Robertson. Robbo played 512 times for the Jambos in his 17 year affiliation with the club. In two spells at Tynecastle he scored an incredible 214 goals. He has raised the Scottish Cup before, he was an unused sub in 1998 when Hearts beat Rangers to win the trophy. Wee Robbo loved a derby goal, scoring 27 times against Hibs and has 16 Scotland international caps. He also managed Hearts for a short spell before being removed in one of Hearts' revolutions. There is one man who has made the transition in the opposite direction. Pacey winger Jake Mulraney who could well be in the Hearts side at Hampden after making some recent appearances for them in the Premiership. And that that brings us up nicely to the job in hand. Here's some pre-match chat at Inverness ***Latest Team News from Inverness*** As seen in the Jamie McCart interview, he is on the mend although it's touch and go whether he will be fit enough to start. Coll Donaldson is suspended after picking up his bookings in previous rounds. Sean Welsh is out for the season with a suspected broken bone in his foot and Anthony McDonald is ineligible due to the loan arrangement from parent club Hearts. Three of the 2015 Cup Final squad will be involved on the park on Saturday. Captain Carl Tremarco, influential midfielder and chief provider Liam Polworth and on form Irish wide player Aaron Doran whose goal at Tannadice got us into the semi-final. It's a big ask of the players against a solid Hearts side who came into this tie on the back of two championship defeats. A 3-0 away loss to Rangers and a 2-1 derby defeat at Tynecastle against Hibernian. Our last game was a hard fought 1-0 win at Somerset Park against the 'Honest men'. Hearts will be without long term absentees Steven Naismith and Ben Garuccio. Demetri Mitchell has returned to Manchester United. Bobby Burns could be in for a starting slot at full back but, unlike John Robertson, Levein has plenty of options to cover most eventualities. We will be outnumbered around 10/1 in the stands. On paper, it all points to a win for the Premiership side, however, we have previous with Hearts, even with nine men. Let's do this! I'm off to catch a train to Glasgow, so........................

Inverness progress after dramatic shootout Inverness went through on a night of high drama after the game ended all square at 2-2. It was another bruising encounter and extra-time saw no further goals and penalties it was. Mark Ridgers saved one penalty and that was enough as Inverness went on to convert all five of their spot kicks, Nathan Austin with the final one. Jordan White was the local hero in normal time with both Inverness goals, twice coming from behind after Ross Stewart opened the scoring and Michael Gardyne grabbed a second for County. County resorted to type, some bare knuckle fighting broke out before the end when Van der Weg should have been sent off. Groundhog Derby stirs the passion. John Robertson made three changes from the side that slumped at East End Park. In came Coll Donaldson, Liam Polworth and Sean Welsh. On to the bench went Charlie Trafford, Shaun Rooney and Darren McCauley. County brought back five players that did not start against East Fife in the Challenge Cup. All the big boys were back in, with Scott Fox, Michael Gardyne, Billy Mckay, Keith Watson and Lewis Spence all starting. A great atmosphere greeted the players from both sides as they took to the park on a damp night, over 3600 were about to witness a night of high drama in the Groundhog Derby. The hosts started brightly and Tom Walsh fired a warning shot high over the bar in the second minute. Little did he know his night would be cut short in the 15th minute as he was replaced by Anthony McDonald after picking up an injury. Liam Polworth also fired wide as we gathered momentum. In the 22nd minute Inverness were undone as County surged down the right wing after winning the ball on the halfway line. Josh Mullin received the ball after good work by Marcus Fraser on the right and sent in a tantalising cross. Serial derby scorer Ross Stewart met the ball at the front post to head powerfully down and up and into the net via the crossbar. Good finish by Stewart, slightly against the run of play at that point. Inverness responded well to going behind and the game was being played at a frantic pace with no quarter asked or given. Substitute Anthony McDonald dragged a shot wide from the left side of the box as we searched for a way back into the tie, a corner given for that effort. Jamie McCart missed the best chance so far as he headed over from eight yards unchallenged, he maybe should have at least made the keeper work. Mark Ridgers was looking assured at corners and he had to save from Mullin as County tried to double their advantage. This game was not for the faint hearted and the half time whistle went with County holding a slender lead. Half Time 0-1 The sides swapped corners at the start of the second period and it was from another corner that Inverness were level. Joe Chalmers sent a curling ball into the heart of the box and big Jordan White rose highest to power a great header into the top corner. The North Stand liked that one, John Beaton not so much and he booked White for his celebration with the young team. Just after the hour, Scott Fox pulled off a tremendous save low down to his right as he saved a thumping shot from Liam Polworth. Similar to Doran's goal in the first game, but this time he kept it out with some assistance from the post. Five minutes later and County went back in front when Michael Gardyne picked up a loose headed clearance. He prodded the ball past two players before thrashing a low shot behind Ridgers from ten yards. A bit sloppy from Inverness but another good finish by Gardyne. White was now relishing the challenge and looked like he was enjoying himself as he played his best game since joining the Caley Jags, challenging well and laying off to fellow players. He got another header on target but Fox was well positioned to grab it out of the air. However, Jordan would not be denied and when Doran cut inside and fed Polly, he slid a great ball into the path of White who took a touch before finding the bottom corner from 15 yards. Superb goal and heading for extra time. Nathan Austin was creating havoc around the County defence with his awkward style as he poked his legs between defenders and sprinted forward. He headed one over from an inviting cross as we pressed for a winner. It looked like there was only going to be one winner before the end of the ninety minutes as we took charge. Coll Donaldson was absolutely bossing the County forwards, strolling around like Franz Beckenbauer, and why not. Jamie McCart was his able assistant and between them County were rendered ineffective. The ninety ended too soon for Inverness as they harassed the visitors in their own box, Fox fortunate not to concede a goal as he juggled with a ball facing his own goal, the post helping out again. Ninety Minutes 2-2 Extra time was slightly less eventful as both sides held what they had. In the second period Coll went down injured, but he was having none of that and he returned to the battle as tackles were flying in like they were going out of fashion. Carl Tremarco almost won it before the penalty shoot-out, his effort crashing off the bar after a scrambulation in and around the County box, great effort by the wee man and a let-off for County with Fox beaten. A couple of late free kicks for County were wasted as referee John Beaton went card happy. Gardyne started a brawl after a bit of man hugging with Charlie Trafford as they laid on the ground. Needless stuff, but Kenny van der Weg rushed in from nowhere to start some rather dangerous shoving and pushing. For me he should have been red carded for this assault. If he did that at an Inverness night club he would be in the cells. It seems that they must get this coaching from above, what with Stuart Kettlewell sitting in the main stand and Iain Vigurs in the South Stand. Brian Graham was out though as he appeared as a second half substitute. Anyway, I digress. After the dust settled the failure that is a Scottish referee booked van der Weg and Coll Donaldson when all around were squaring up to each other. Bare knuckle fighting on the park, but it was County that would be dealt the knock-out blow. Anyway, penalties it was. The winner will travel to Tannadice to take on Dundee United in the Quarter Final on the weekend of 2/3 March Here's how it went, County started the process in front of the away end. Gardyne 1-0 White 1-1 Fraser 2-1 Donaldson 2-2 McManus, penalty brilliantly saved by Mark Ridgers, 2-2 Welsh 2-3 Graham 3-3 Polworth 3-4 Draper 4-4 Austin for game set and match.They think it's all over..........it is now. 4-5 Coll Donaldson was my MotM for absolutely cigaring his way through the game. Jordan White was magnificent with his goals and general all round battling display. Liam Polworth was classy and showed it in abundance. Jamie McCart put in a great shift. Nathan Austin was sensational when he came on and caused County no end of problems. To be honest everyone did the fans proud and the celebrations at the end epitomised the desire and effort shown by the players. This was much appreciated by the fans who returned the favour with tremendous vocal backing, especially the young team in the North Stand. So, everybody, give yourselves a round of applause. We have had greater achievements, but this was drama of the highest order and the intensity and passion shown by both sets of players made this one of the best nights of football ever seen at the Caledonian Stadium. Players were almost on their knees long before the end of extra time and it was great to see the passion shown by our players after this well deserved win. Passion. I'll show you some passion said Coll........ Speaking on BBC Sport Inverness CT manager John Robertson: "We had the better of the game, we had the better chances. We've hit the post, we've hit the bar. There's two off the line in the last minute. Scott Fox has produced a wonder save. "We have been horrendous at penalties this season. We practised them yesterday. We actually had the players taking penalties from 15 yards out because if they can score from 15 yards, they can certainly score from 12 and all five of them scored." Robbo was delighted with the home fans contribution..... Ross County co-manager Steven Ferguson: "Proud of our team. It was a great cup tie and when it goes to penalties, it becomes that little bit of a lottery and somebody has to miss and it happens to be us. We accept it and we move on. "It's always disappointing to lose the lead. When it's a cup tie like that, it's to-ing and fro-ing all the time and we could've scored again and Caley could've scored again. As far as a cup tie goes, I think everything was squeezed into that." Two goal Jordan White talking after the game......... Night of high drama, have a look. Date: 19/02/2019 Venue: Caledonian Stadium Attendance: 3608 Referee: John Beaton Inverness CT: 2 - Inverness through 5-4 after penalties. Lineup: Ridgers; B Mckay, Donaldson, McCart, Tremarco, Doran (Trafford 101), Polworth, Welsh, Chalmers (Austin 76), Walsh (McDonald 15, McCauley 105), White. Subs (not used): C Mackay; Rooney, McHattie Scorers: Jordan White (56, 81) Booked: White (57), McDonald (58), Doran (66), Tremarco (84), Donaldson (120) Sent Off: none Ross County: 2 Lineup: Fox; Fraser, Draper, Watson, Boyle, Van der Weg, Draper, Mullin (McManus 78), Spence (Lindsay 66), Gardyne, Stewart (Graham 100), Mckay (Wallace 112). Subs (not used): Munro; Grivosti, Murray. Scorers: Ross Stewart (22), Michael Gardyne (67) Booked: Draper (89), Gardyne (90+2), Van der Weg (120) Sent Off: none a

KARMA BIG STYLE Inverness opened the scoring when Joe Chalmers cut onto his left foot and curled the ball into the roof of the net from sixteen yards for a sublime goal. Chalmers almost added a second but he volleyed onto the bar from six yards when the ball found him unmarked. The first half ended at 1-0 with Ridgers a virtual spectator. Substitute Paul McMullan blatantly cheated to earn a penalty and Nicky Clark slotted his second in two games. In a dramatic finish, Nathan Austin had a marginal offside decision go against him as he superbly headed home a Polworth free kick, however, Aaron Doran nodded home after a fantastic knock on from Jordan White to win the tie in the second minute of time added on. Hampden here we come..................... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A place in the semi-final beckoned for the winner and an opportunity for some welcome income to go along with the prestige of a kick about at Hampden. It doesn't get much better than that surely! The last time we were at Hampden Park we came home with a nice wee trophy to show for our efforts against Falkirk as local artist Sophie Robb depicts, despite Tommy Tremarco falling over the ball and making us sweat. That was in May 2015. The Arabs have waited a bit longer for Scottish Cup success. They lifted the trophy in 2010 beating the wee team from the Highlands in the final. The olde adage, big team big cup, wee team wee cup still stands today. A big home support were out in force today as they remembered James Jack, a local fan who sadly passed away recently and a minutes applause would break out in the 31st minute in his remembrance. To the game, and John Robertson made three changes from the side that lost at Tannadice on Tuesday night. In came Carl Tremarco, Aaron Doran and Jamie McCart, and on to the bench went Charlie Trafford, and Shaun Rooney with Kevin McHattie and Anthony McDonald out injured. Robbie Neilson has Fraser Fyvie and Cammy Smith back in but Calum Butcher missed out through injury. Frederic Frans is out for around six weeks. Over 7200 fans were on hand to watch this spectacle as United kicked off but it was the visitors that pressed high and forced United onto the back foot in the opening exchanges. Big Jordan White has grown into his role up front for the Caley Jags and he did well to hold up and feed the ball to Aaron Doran who fired the first effort towards goal. Benjamin Siegrist felt the need to push it round the post for a corner. Doran was teasing the United defence and he was brought down on the left side. Liam Polworth flighted a lovely ball into the box but White got under it and headed over from an inviting position. The opening goal would come in the 19th minute and a thing of beauty it was. We won possession on the halfway and Doran linked brilliantly with Polworth, a cheeky wee backheel from the wee man allowing Polly to chip a ball to the left edge of the penalty box where Joe Chalmers gathered. He stepped inside the defender and curled a magnificently sweet shot into the keepers top right corner. It was his first of the season and I doubt he will score a better goal. Three minutes later it could have been two and no more than our dominance deserved. A teasing ball from Doran skimmed off a defender and Chalmers came in behind to crack one off the bar from six yards. What a let-off for United. Tremarco made a trademark 'putting your body on the line' block as Peter Pawlett tried to get a shot away. Tenacious defending from Tommy. The 31st minute saw a rousing round of applause for James Jack as the whole stadium joined in. United had settled into the game a bit more but the Highland rearguard were repelling the feeble United attacks and Mark Ridgers was a mere spectator other than grabbing a few crosses with confidence. The first penalty appeal for United passed without action from the referee. He would be fooled later in the game. A dominant performance by Inverness in the first half who could easily have been three up. However, the strike from Chalmers it was that separated the sides. Half-Time 0-1 The procession continued in the second half and Polly fired one straight at the keeper. Neilson had seen enough rubbish from his side and removed Cammy Smith to replace him by Paul McMullan who would play an active part in their equaliser later in the game. If memory serves me right, this is not the first time same player has managed to con a referee. The one way traffic continued though and Polly and Chalmers threatened to add a second. It was Charlie Trafford who was inches away from it with a thunderous drive that whistled high past the post with maximum power. United had brought on Morgaro Gomis by now and he seemed to add a bit of steel to the Arabs midfield. They managed to create an opening for a strike that was similar to Trafford's effort. This one from McMullan was a legitimate effort that Ridgers had to deal with, diving to his right to beat the ball away, Coll Donaldson completing the clearance at the expense of a corner. From the corner we failed to execute a decisive clearance and United burrowed into the box. White stuck a toe out and McMullan felt a tap on his boot. His delayed reaction told me he thought about it before leaving his two legs behind to con Steven McLean into awarding a penalty. Like Tuesday night, Nicky Clark took it and like Tuesday night he put it behind Ridgers in a replication penalty. Undaunted we took up where we had left off, on the front foot and big Jordan was denied twice as he forced his way into the box, Siegrist doing well to smother after he had turned his marker. Doran also was foiled by the keeper. With ten minutes left Nathan Austin thought he had scored with a magnificent header across the keeper. The celebrations were cut short when the linesman flagged for offside. Wow, that's some eyes that man has as this must have been down to millimetres. Great effort from the Inverness sub. The board showed that there would be three minutes of time added on as the game was heading for a replay. We still looked the most likely to win the game and in the 92nd minute Doran paved the way for Robbo to sprint onto the pitch in joyous celebration. Brad Mckay would take a throw in deep down the right flank. He launched a beauty into the box where big Jordan was in between two defenders. He won the ball cleanly to head flick it into the box and there was Aaron arriving at the right time to head the ball bravely into the net with Siegrist scrambling the other way across his line and a boot almost connecting with Doran's ear. Scenes! Cue wild celebrations from Robbo, the players and the visiting fans. What a climax to the game and you could see what it meant to all involved. That'll be Robbo out of breath for the week after his exertions. Off to Hampden for a semi-final game and a day out for our fantastic support. Also a wee financial boost for the accountants who will be chuffed about this. Rooney and Austin picked up late bookings as we frustrated United into submission. One booking we could have done without was an earlier one for Donaldson at the dubious penalty award. Aaron Doran was MotM, and not just for his goal, his all round game showed he was a menace to United from the start. To be honest you couldn't fault anyone in a total team performance. Jordan White has become a fans favourite after a stuttering start at Inverness and he showed yesterday how important he is to our game plan. Chalmers was incredible as well and Liam Polworth showed his value with some great through balls. Unsung heroes all over the park and none moreso that Charlie Trafford who was immense in the engine room. So, a cup semi-final to look forward too. We will find our destiny after the Partick v Hearts game tonight. Action can be seen on the BBC Sport website Here's an ecstatic Robbo talking after the game......... Enjoy.................. Here's another version of the game............. Date: 03/03/2019 Venue: Tannadice Attendance: 7274 Referee: Steven McLean Dundee United: 1 Lineup: Siegrist; Seaman, Reynolds, Robson, Connolly, Harkes, Fyvie (Gomis 64), Clark, C Smith (McMullan 53), Pawlett, Safranko. Subs (not used): Laidlaw; Watson, Booth, Nesbitt, Stanton Scorers: Clark (pen 67) Booked: Fyvie (58), Safranko (85) Sent Off: none Inverness CT: 2 Lineup: Ridgers; B Mckay, Donaldson, McCart, Tremarco, Doran, Polworth (Rooney 90+3), Trafford (Austin 77), Welsh, Chalmers, White. Subs (not used): C Mackay, McCauley, MacGregor,, D Mackay, Hyde Scorers: Chalmers (19), Doran (90+2) Booked: Donaldson (69), Rooney(90+4), Austin(90+5) Sent Off: none a

Cup Quarters Back down to Tannadice for the second part of the two game Arabfest as we face Dundee United in the quarter final of the Scottish Cup, having lost the first installment 1-0 on Tuesday night in a very close Championship encounter. 30th May 2015. A day we never thought would be possible. One that is etched on the minds of all Caley Jags fans, right up there with Feb8th 2000. So, here we are again, the prospect of returning to Hampden for a Cup Semi-Final and with it the opportunity to earn a few bob. Dundee United have confirmed that there will be a cash gate at the Cup game. Cash prices are set at Adults £20, Concessions £10 The @feddusc are holding a minutes applause in the 31st minute of tomorrow's match in memory of, loyal United fan, James Jack. We'd ask all #ICTFC supporters attending tomorrow's match to to share in this mark of respect This tribute to James is from the Federation of Dundee United Supporters Clubs. With great sadness, the Dundee United Family lost one of our finest a few weeks back when James Jack sadly passed away aged just 31. In tribute to James on Sunday before the game against Inverness there will be a march from The Snug Bar at 3pm to Tannadice to which all are invited. In addition there will be a minutes applause held during the game at the 31st minute in remembrance of a true gent . RIP James Jack Tuesday night saw John Robertson trying to rest some of his creaking squad. Tom Walsh and Anthony McDonald missed out through injury with Carl Tremarco and Jamie McCart on the bench. The only goal of the game came from the penalty spot after Coll Donaldson went through the striker. Nicky Clark put Ridgers the wrong way and that was enough to win all three points. United are expecting a big crowd for this tie with allegedly upwards of 6000 advance ticket sales already off the shelf. A trip to Hampden for the semi-finals will be the reward for the winners and more importantly, especially for Inverness, a wee financial boost for the coffers of our cash strapped club. The other ties in the round begin with Hibs v Celtic. Now that's an interesting one, what with Brenda Rodgers leaving and Neil Lemon arriving at Parkhead. Might even be worth watching just to hear the songs. Oh the banter! The game ended Hibs 0-2 Celtic (Forrest, Brown). Aberdeen v Rangers, another injury strewn fixture should have some wonderful poetic chants. I expect a few renditions of "Who's that lying over there......." with witty retorts of "Sheep shagging bastards." I suppose we'll just have to go with our elongated stereotypical Highland reserve and long standing erstwhile chant of "Give me an I..........." The Partick v Hearts game. Will the "Red and Yellow" drown out the "Hearts Hearts Glorious Hearts". It's down at Tynecastle they play. Would you believe it! The draw for the semi-finals will take place immediately after the Firhill clash on Monday night. I would be more concerned if I were a Dundee United fan after the performances of both sides last Tuesday. While we rested two or three, United with their lush depth of squad went for the points. They achieved that although we could easily have picked up a point with some better finishing or choice of ball around the box. Carl Tremarco and Jamie McCart will surely return to the back four giving us a more familiar look. Tom Walsh will be a major blow should he not recover though. It turns out that the much maligned Jordan White is one of the top scorers in the Scottish Cup this season. Who knew? The big man has his knockers (ooh err missus), but he has been knocking them in in the cup, a hat-trick against Edinburgh City helping the cause. Leader Stephen Dobbie is out of the competition, so let's give Jordan our support and see if he can top the scoring charts, starting with a couple at Tannadice on Sunday. Inverness have major doubts over the fitness of Tom Walsh and Anthony McDonald has a groin injury. Jamie McCart should be fit enough to resume with the squad but defender Kevin McHattie is out after suffering a couple of injuries in midweek. Knee and shoulder problems will sideline him. Listen to Robbo ahead of the cup game at Tannadice...... Robbie Neilson will be without centre back Frederic Frans and Calum Butcher. Frans will be out for around six weeks with a groin injury. Rachid Bouhenna will return to bolster the squad. If you like a wee flutter, our site partnership with FansBet can offer you something. Just click on FansBet to get started. "Remember to select CaleyThistleOnline when you register and you’ll be helping us support ICT fan causes." 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Quick start settles tie Inverness eased into the last sixteen of the Scottish Cup after removing Lowland League side East Kilbride from the competition. The opening half hour ended the tie as a contest as goals from Jordan White, Aaron Doran and Liam Polworth put the hosts three up before the break. Craig Reid unfortunately turned a cross into his own net to end the scoring midway through the second half. Suspended duo Shaun Rooney and Brad Mckay returned to the starting XI, as did George Oakley who partnered Jordan White up top in a 4-4-2. Tom Walsh is out with a broken foot and Coll Donaldson has had groin surgery, Jamie McCart deputised in central defence. East Kilbride had a couple of familiar faces, David Proctor and Chris Humphrey both started for Kilby. It was a brisk afternoon as just under 1200 welcomed the teams onto the park with the 16th minute on the minds of many. Inverness wanted to get off to a flier and they did just that. Shaun Rooney had already tested keeper McGinley and a minute later Jordan White was on hand to open the scoring when the ball found him in the box and he slotted home. That warmed the palms of the fans but in the sixteenth minute the palms were roasting when a tribute for Dawn Sinclair filled the stadium with applause. Lovely tribute from everyone in the stadium for the youngster who sadly passed away recently. That lifted the players once more and in the 21st minute Aaron Doran tidily dispatched the ball behind the keeper as he guided a low shot from beyond the edge of the box into the bottom corner. The hosts were in full flow with White and Polly going close and it was no surprise that a third goal was added when Liam Polworth finished with aplomb, firing high into the net from ten yards in the 27th minute. McGinley made a fantastic save to deny a lively George Oakley, the keeper flying high across his goal to keep out a roaster from George who had turned his marker brilliantly before unleashing a shot from around twenty yards. Former Motherwell winger Chris Humphrey tested Mark Ridgers with a high strike, but the keeper was able to palm it away. That was East Kilbride's best moment of the half. Half Time 3-0 Ex-Inverness player David Proctor had to retire five minutes after the break and was given a warm reception as he left the field to be replaced by Scott Stevenson. Inverness passed up on a great opportunity as Brad Mckay, in his 100th game for the Caley Jags, skied one from close range when he should have scored. The urgency had gone from the Caley Jags and East Kilbride enjoyed their fair share of the ball without really troubling Ridgers. With twenty minutes left Craig Reid diverted a harmless cross into the net to make it 4-0 with McGinley stranded, the cross looking to be heading nowhere until Reid stuck a leg out. There would be no further scoring and only Nathan Austin will be able to explain why he delayed long enough to allow McGinley to block his point-blank effort when he should have bulged the net. It mattered not as the game played out and ended with Inverness going into the pot for the last sixteen. It was a comfortable afternoon for Inverness but East Kilbride can be heartened by their second half display where Inverness were unable to punish them with any authority although a couple of howlers could have added some polish to the result. Speaking on BBC Sport, Inverness Caledonian Thistle manager John Robertson said: "It was comfortable but we made it comfortable by a very, very fast start. "I'd like a winnable home tie. We want to progress. We've got a proud record in this competition and just four years ago we won it." His counterpart, East Kilbride manager Stuart Malcolm said: "It's a huge step up for us going from the Lowland League to play against Inverness. We didn't start overly well and they put us to the sword. "The second half was much better. We had a couple of half chances. Inverness were excellent. They are entirely professional and did a good job." Here's the highlights from Caley Jags TV And to round off a good day, did you all cash in with the superb offer from CTO Sponsors FansBet We're looking to start strongly against East Kilbride in the Scottish Cup. Our partners @Fans_bet have boosted odds of 4/1 on ICT to be leading after 10 minutes. Sign up here http://bit.ly/2OBvlLv & select Caley Thistle Online to help us support the forum and ICT fan causes. And would you believe it, another Highland derby in the Scottish Cup. Date: 19/01/2019 Venue: Caledonian Stadium Attendance: 1196 Referee: Mike Roncone Inverness CT: 4 Lineup: Ridgers; Rooney, B Mckay, McCart, Tremarco, Polworth, Chalmers, Welsh, Doran (MacGregor 85), White (Austin 62), Oakley (D Mackay 70) Subs (not used): C Mackay, Harper, Trafford, McHattie, Scorers: White (6), Doran (21), Polworth (27), Reid (71, og) Booked: none Sent Off: none East Kilbride: 0 Lineup: McGinley, Reid, Proctor (Stevenson 49), Howie (Russell 87), Coll, Humphrey (McNeil 71), Brady, Holmes, Anderson, Malcolm, Woods Subs (not used): Kean; Craig, Longworth, Winter. Scorers: none Booked: Woods (60) Brady (80), Sent Off: none a

Do this for Dawn Scottish Cup action this Saturday as two of the youngest clubs in Scottish football lock horns at the Caledonian Stadium, Inverness. Ten year old East Kilbride from the Lowland Football League take on 25 year old (soon) Inverness Caledonian Thistle for a place in the last sixteen. Can we ask all fans to support this tribute to Dawn please............ ICT has lost a great friend and supporter with the sad passing of Dawn Sinclair, who would have celebrated her 16th birthday on Saturday 19 January with a party at the stadium following the Scottish Cup tie against East Kilbride. A period of applause in the 16th minute on Saturday will be a fitting tribute to the teenager, who was a familiar face at games and at events run by Supporters, the most recent being a night out at Rollerbowl. She loved wearing her ICT strip and her proudest moment was being at Hampden in May 2015 to see the club lift the Scottish Cup. Tribute to Dawn on the Official ICTFC site. To the game on Saturday. What do we know about East Kilbride FC? Well they play at the K-Park Training Academy in Calderglen Country Park. But there's a lot more to them and they have something in common with us. They have also played Celtic in the Scottish Cup....... The original club were formed in 1871 and folded a number of times in the early days. Their first recorded game was a 1-0 defeat by a Queens Park XI. The present club were formed in May 2010. Jackton Boys Club and Stewartfield F.C. were merged and later EK Diamonds and EK Wanderers were incorporated to form the club as we now know them. The team played in the Scottish Amateur Football League prior to being elected into the senior leagues in June 2013. They were elected to play in the newly formed Lowland League for season 2013/2014. They were granted full SFA membership in April 2014 and therefore could enter the Scottish Cup from season 2014–15. Their first Scottish Cup tie was a 1–0 first round win at Lothian Thistle. East Kilbride won the 2016–17 Lowland League, and progressed to a promotion/relegation playoff with Scottish League Two club Cowdenbeath. They missed out on promotion to the SPFL after losing a penalty shootout. Their big moment on the big stage came in February 2016 when they hosted Celtic in the Scottish Cup at Airdrie's Excelsior Stadium. It took goals from Scotland striker Leigh Griffiths and new signing Kazim-Richards to see off EK 2-0. A great effort from the Lowland League side. They warmed up for this tie with a 5-0 thrashing of Gretna 2008 and as the League table shows they are on course to top the table this season. There's a couple of guys we have definitely heard of. Ex Caley Thistle utility player David Proctor plays for them as does Chris Humphrey the former speedy Motherwell wide player. There's an interesting article in the Daily Record about Proc. Inverness have been without the injured George Oakley and Nathan Austin recently. Coll Donaldson has had groin surgery and will miss out, but our two suspended players, Brad Mckay and Shaun Rooney will return. Our last outing was a 1-0 victory over Ayr United last Saturday when a Jordan White goal secured all three points. You can see Jordan speaking ahead of this cup tie below. Let's do this for Dawn! CTO Sponsors FansBet have a wee opportunity for you to cash in as we're looking to start strongly against East Kilbride in the Scottish Cup. Our partners @Fans_bet have boosted odds of 4/1 on ICT to be leading after 10 minutes. Sign up here http://bit.ly/2OBvlLv & select Caley Thistle Online to help us support the forum and ICT fan causes. Also another odds they have for us ..........Caley Thistle To Win and Both Teams To Score @ 37/20 If you like a wee flutter, our new partnership with FansBet can offer you something. Just click on FansBet to get started. "Remember to select CaleyThistleOnline when you register and you’ll be helping us support ICT fan causes." FansBet are partners with Supporters Direct Scotland and already have many impressive stories of giving back to and empowering fans, ranging from funding away travel, share purchases, backing safe standing projects and many more. You can read some of FansBet’s Giving Back stories on their blog at https://blog.fansbet.com/fansbet-giving-back/partners/fan/ Always remember to adopt safe gambling and responsible policies.

Replay Required Shaun Rooney scored the opening goal six minutes before the break when he headed home a Liam Polworth set piece at the back post to put Inverness ahead. However, Liam Henderson levelled the tie with five minutes left to force a replay for The Citizens. The replay will be held on Tuesday 4th December at 19:45. Mantis was on hand to catch the celebrations after the opening goal. Full report to follow................... Inverness faced a tricky away tie at Ainslie Park in the third round of the Scottish Cup against Edinburgh City. This tie had all the potential ingredients to be the proverbial banana skin match against a side making a name for themselves in League Two on the artificial surface of Ainslie Park. Just ask Alloa who were dumped out of the Challenge Cup after having led The Citizens 2-0. A home tie against East Kilbride awaited the winner of this game. City were without the services of Josh Walker, John Dunn, Danny Handling and Brad Donaldson but Adam Watson was back in the squad. Big striker Blair Henderson would be the main danger for the visiting defence and the experienced former Partick Thistle defender Conrad Balatoni will be tasked with keeping Austin & White out of the box. The Caley Jags started with George Oakley on the bench and Nathan Austin and Jordan White up front. Shaun Rooney returned to full back after injury. No place in the squad for Aaron Doran on the artificial surface. Plenty of youth on the bench as well. RIG was in attendance and was less than impressed with his afternoon's entertainment............. The performance was devoid of creativity, as it has been for weeks on end now. We've been so sluggish in pretty much every game aside from the Derby match for the last couple of months with no real sign of improvement. You could copy and past pretty much everything I have said after games against the likes of Alloa, Dundee United, QotS and so on about our lack of penetration in the final third and passing up the few chances we do create. Today we were again wasteful in the first half and then in the second half we went very defensive and sat back inviting pressure on to us and paid the price. Odd line up. McCart was at left back and did fine. Not sure who was meant to be going on in front of the defence though. Walsh was deployed on the left, Chalmers and Welsh in the middle with Polworth drifting across the pitch behind Austin and White. Having two up helped keep City pinned back for the most part but White was really poor today. Wouldn't have minded seeing Oakley and Austin getting some time up front together. After the subs we seemed to be playing three at the back (Mckay, Donaldson and McCart) with MacKay and Walsh on the left and right flanks respectively, Chalmers, Trafford and Welsh in the middle with Polworth behind Oakley. Looked like Ridgers lost the ball for the City equaliser dropping it at the feet of one of their players but they probably should have scored long before they did testing Ridgers with some decently struck long range efforts prior to that. Massively disappointing from us, particularly in the second half, where we completely took our foot off the pedal and paid the price. We're not good enough to get by on one goal and really should have gone for the jugular. City were barely a threat in the first half so it's concerning how we much let them back into the game and how poor again we were in an attacking sense. A performance that we really shouldn't be happy about and I'm sure Robertson and the players aren't happy either. As you can see in the video, we did squander a couple of guilt end chances, but that's a recurring theme.The second 45 offered little joy and RIG was rightly miffed at the overall performance but not overly surprised at the result. ymip was straight to the point:- "Quite frankly an embarrassment of a performance and result. Could see it coming for much of the second half. We barely troubled their keeper and are badly in need of some creativity. Far too passive and lacking any kind of cutting edge. Very poor." So peeps, not a great deal to enthuse over but at least we get another crack at getting into round 4, but then again, so do Edinburgh City. Here's the highlights from the Ainslie Park debacle........... Date: 25/11/2018 Venue: Ainslie Park, Edinburgh Attendance: 867 Referee: David Munro Edinburgh City: 1 Lineup: Antell; Thomson, Balatoni, L Henderson, McIntyre, Smith, Black, Laird, Taylor (Watson 70), Shepherd (Rodger 84), B Henderson Subs (not used): Morton; Hall, Lumsden, Kennedy. Scorers: L Henderson (86) Booked: Laird (66) Sent Off: none Inverness CT: 1 Lineup: Ridgers; Rooney (Trafford 74), Donaldson, McCart, B Mckay, Chalmers, Welsh, Polworth, Walsh, Austin (Oakley 55), White (D Mackay 71). Subs (not used): Hoban; Brown, Harper, MacGregor Scorers: Rooney (39) Booked: none Sent Off: none a

Scottish Cup time Inverness add a new name and venue to their list of opponents as they take on Edinburgh City in the third round of the Scottish Cup at Ainslie Park, Edinburgh, the game kicking off at 3:00pm on Sunday 25th November. A heads up from Graeme the City man who mentioned he was looking forward to welcoming us all to Ainslie Park on Sunday. "I'd suggest getting there early, there's not many (4) turnstyles, so a fair old queue tends to form for larger crowds". Cheers, However, it's just us that's coming so maybe we don't qualify as a big crowd.............. Ainslie Park is actually the home of Spartans FC, but with Meadowbank undergoing some major refurbishment, City will be ground sharing until Meadowbank has been modified. Incidentally, Hibernian Ladies also play out of Ainslie Park. "The nearest place to the ground to get a pint, (exluding a carry out from Morrisons) is Here " Other than that there's not a lot about, a couple in the other direction towards Granton. Although the grounds not far from Leith/Stockbridge/west end- all probably about 10 minutes in a taxi. Graeme concluded, "Going to enjoy the day whatever happens, splashed out on hospitality. it's a pity the games been moved to the Sunday. Have the utmost respect for fans travelling out with the central belt".... Thanks Graeme, have a great day whatever. Caley Stan is yer man for the millennium man Preview, (yuppies for you Scarlet) and he has not disappointed with this one................... Who the feck are Edinburgh City? It’s a legitimate question without a straightforward answer. An amateur team called Edinburgh City existed between 1928 and 1955, including a period in the Scottish League and a 3-2 victory away to Hibs in the 1937/38 Scottish Cup First Round. The Edinburgh City Social Club continued to trade thereafter, and in 1986 gave permission for Postal United (an East of Scotland League side formed in 1966) to revive the name. The new club hopped around various Edinburgh locations before settling at Meadowbank Stadium in 1996 following the demise of Meadowbank Thistle (formerly Ferranti Thistle, without whom Inverness Caledonian Thistle would not exist!). Postal United/Edinburgh City had an undistinguished existence in the EOL, winning it only once, in 2006, but the team kicked into gear at the perfect moment with the formation of the Lowland League and its accompanying pyramid play-off in 2014. City had harboured a longing for Scottish League membership since the turn of the century, failing with bids for vacant spots in 2002 and 2008, and seized upon the opportunity to win that place on the park. They won the title in its second season by a 19-point margin but lost the pyramid semi on penalties to Brora Rangers, a certain Stuart Kettlewell with the decisive strike. The following season they horsed the league again - a 15-point margin this time and followed it up by defeating Cove Rangers and East Stirlingshire to claim a place in the SPFL. They finished 7th and 9th in their first two seasons in League Two, largely retaining the squad that had taken them up. They sound like a bunch of non-league haddies, we’ll pump them stupid, right? A year ago, maybe. But something has happened since then. Edinburgh City are on an outrageous run of form, winning 10 out of their 12 league games this season (with no draws!) and sitting top of League Two. Last week, they progressed to the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup with a penalties win over Alloa. What changed? They brought in a fair few players with full-time experience. At the back, Craig Thomson has played over 100 games at that level between Hearts and exile in Lithuania, and Conrad Balatoni played around 200 before joining City in the summer - both are just 27. Midfielders Marc Laird and Josh Walker have spent most of their careers in the English League Two, while up front, Danny Handling and Scott Shephard have significant top-level experience with Hibs and Falkirk respectively. But its Blair Henderson who’s been the star of the show this season - the 24 year-old striker was scoring a goal in every other game for Annan and Berwick but has upped that this season scoring 18 goals in 21 appearances in all competitions. Manager James McDonaugh has not been shy about taking credit for Henderson’s run, and indeed, the progress that City have made since he took over a year ago – see this interview at about 41mins on the Totally Scottish Football Show. McDonaugh, without any playing career of note, came through the ranks of the Hibs youth coaching system which means he must be a protégé of our own Donald Park. Jim Jeffries is also working for City as Technical Director. There must be money involved here but I haven’t found it. OK, but we have a glorious history in this competition, we pretty much are this competition, why the hell are we playing these no-marks in November? I thought the Scottish Cup started in January anyway. Our star has fallen, my friend. And they keep messing about with the early rounds of the Cup. This game, falling on November the 25th, will be the earliest we have ever started a Scottish Cup season and it’s the first time we’ve entered before the rest of the elite since 1999. The bookie that sponsors the competition was tweeting earlier in the week that we haven’t lost a 3rd round tie since 1999, and while that is technically true, we have fallen at the first hurdle on two occasions since then, albeit in what is now called the 4th Round (Hibs in 06/07 and Dundee last season). Someone will write a book about our exploits in the Scottish Cup someday (hopefully not that guy who wrote ‘Against All Odds’, that was pish), but the message here is clear: We don’t lose these games. Don’t say that, I’m getting worried now. What will Robbo do? Every time I write a preview I drop a heavy hint that I think Robbo will start with a 4-4-2 and he never does but this time I’m happy to predict that Robbo WILL start with a 4-4-2. It’s how he chose to start the season, all our strikers are fit now, and it’s how we mounted our wonderful comeback last week. I’ll be genuinely shocked if two out of Oakley/White/Austin don’t start. He’s stated that we will play our strongest available team, and with Shaun Rooney back in the squad, there will be decisions to make at the back. I’m going to need a drink before this, good thing Meadowbank has loads of good pubs nearby. Hard lines. Meadowbank is closed for refurbishment and City are groundsharing with Spartans at Ainslie Park for the next three seasons. This is fitting in a way given that City/Postal, Ferranti and the old Edinburgh City spent much of their time at the nearby but now defunct ‘City Ground’, often sharing with Spartans. Ainslie Park is a bit weird for lower league travellers - it’s a thoroughly modern facility with two 3G pitches and a five-a-side cage. With no pubs within staggering distance, and a limited number of turnstiles, some of the more boisterous elements among our away support may struggle to make the first half. Edinburgh City are stressing the importance of arriving early, the game is well-priced at £12/6 with under 12’s Free, and I hear the macaroni pies are delicious. As Noddy Holder used to say, My friend Stan got a funny old man............... ?

Mission Impossible? Seventeen years on and the result that shocked Scottish Football still sends a shiver down the spine of Caley Thistle fans. Supercaleygoballistic...... you know how it goes, gets an airing every time these two clubs meet, especially in the Scottish Cup. At the time nobody thought it was possible. Inverness were being dismissed with contempt borne through ignorance. How could a mid-table first division side knock the mighty Celtic out of the Scottish Cup on their own patch. Well, they did, and they did it in style. Celtic were no longer invincible and Inverness wrote themselves into the history books. The damage was far reaching at Parkhead and heads would roll in the aftermath of that game. Feb 8th 2000 is etched on the minds of Inverness Caledonian Thistle fans, just as the Lisbon Lions are for the Celtic faithful. Is it possible for the current crop of Caley Jags players to emulate their predecessors and cause what would be a major upset, considering Celtic's dominance in the domestic game this season and given the transformation made by manager Brendan Rodgers? The simple answer has to be NO and there are a number of reasons for that. Not least the current form of Celtic, sweeping all before them and 27 points clear in the Premiership. The present squad have overtaken the run by the famous Lisbon Lions. The Celtic squad is littered with International players. Brendan Rodgers has moulded his own style into the Celtic team and has brought some excellent quality to the team like Moussa Dembele and Scott Sinclair. They have scored a phenomenal 65 goals in 24 league games whilst conceding only 16. That's 2.7 goals scored per game and a meagre 0.666 against per game. Is that a sign of the devil? But it's not what Celtic have to offer that concerns me. It's what Inverness don't have to offer that is the greater worry. We are bottom of the Premiership on merit alone. We fail to keep clean sheets on a regular basis, only 2 from 24 games. We are scoring goals at a rate of 1.16 per game. We have no current International players on our books, other than a couple of squad reserves in Owain Fon Williams and Billy Mckay and crocked Kevin McNaughton. Our manager is a newcomer to the job, unlike his counterpart who has a proven track record at the highest level. We no longer have the element of surprise on our side. Playing each other three or four times a season has scuppered that. Man for man, our current team could not lace the boots of our Feb 8th 2000 squad. We no longer possess players that play for the jersey, willing to lay it all on the line for ninety minutes and go through the pain barrier just to pull on the famous Inverness Caledonian Thistle strip. All over the park we could replace present players with golden oldies. Jimmy Calder was somewhat unorthodox as a keeper, but he could keep the ball out of the net and saved around 50% of penalties he faced. Ross Tokely was maybe not the most gifted, but was a difficult man to get beyond and solid in the air and worked well going forward. Stuart Golabeck: Toughest tackling full back I have ever seen. Scared of nothing and had enough pace to cover for big Bobby. Richard Hastings, a young fit Canadian International with plenty of energy. Bobby Mann was an absolute colossus. Calmness personified in the face of adversity and on his day the best centre back in the country. Mike Teasdale, always there when you needed him and skillful for a big lad. Mark McCulloch, no nonsense tough tackling midfielder who never shirked a challenge. Barry Wilson, how we could do with him now, a tremendous pacey winger with skill in abundance and a goal threat. Paul Sheerin was able to keep a cool head and fitted the Caley Jags ethics. Charlie Christie was one of the most talented players to come from the Highland League, twinkle toed and dedicated to the cause. Dennis Wyness, legend and goal scorer extraordinaire. Kevin Byers, Martin Glancy and Martin Bavidge all did their bit as well. Every one of them would not look out of place in today's side and most would be certain of a start every week. Let's not forget Pele. His philosophy was score more than the opposition. It worked well most of the time and entertainment value was top drawer. Back to the present day though and we have got to rise to the challenge, albeit a daunting one. Current form shows that Celtic are bullet proof and we are favourites for the drop. The Bhoys brushed aside St Johnstone in their last game thanks to a dubious penalty going their way and ran out big winners, scoring five after coming from 2-1 behind, Moussa Dembele scoring a hat-trick after coming on around the hour mark and bagging a hat-trick in 24 minutes. However, this is cup football and we are forever optimistic. We have to believe that the impossible is possible. Richie Foran never shirked a challenge as a player and this is one challenge he will relish. Let's not forget that we have dumped favourites Celtic out of the Scottish Cup on three occasions now, so maybe it's not such a big deal any more. Thought it might be worth mentioning that Celtic have only dropped one point this season. Now who could that have been against? Tom Rogic will miss another few months of action after an ankle operation ruled him out for the forseeable future. Stuart Armstrong and Leigh Griffiths look set to sit this game out as they near fitness but won't be risked. Why should they be when Dembele and Sinclair are on the books along with a squad of full international players. Josh Meekings will be missing for at least another couple of months. That's a blow as we have struggled defensively from the start of the season. Kevin McNaughton and Lewis Horner are other long term casualties. David Raven played the ninety minutes against Dundee as did Jamie McCart, but he will be unavailable to face his parent club in the cup. Brad Mckay could step in and Ross Draper has been known to drop deep to play in the back line when we have no other options available. Billy Mckay has had two games to get to know the current incumbents and that will benefit him greatly. Billy King came back against Dundee and showed up well. tm4tj prediction:- If I'm being realistic then we should have no chance whatsoever and this could be a rout. But as I said, it's cup football and away from the pressure of gaining league points. It's a difficult place to go and get any sort of result but that's what we have to do. We were not given a scooby in 2000 and it's the same now. Here's hoping we can get stuck in and emulate the class of Feb 8th 2000. However, I'm not holding my breath on that as wins at Parkhead are as scarce as an Iceberg Lettuce. Celtic to be in the hat for the next round leaving Inverness to concentrate on avoiding relegation. Nostalgia is making a comeback. Here's the respective sides that played that famous game 17 years ago. Celtic 1 (Burchill) Jonathan Gould, Tom Boyd, Olivier Tebily, Stephane Mahe, Vidar Riseth, Colin Healy, Regi Blinker, Lubomir Moravcik, Eyal Berkovic, Mark Viduka and Mark Burchill. Ian Wright replaced Viduka at half-time after the Aussie took the huff. It mattered not a jot. Key players such as Henrik Larsson and Paul Lambert were unavailable through injury. Shame! Inverness CT 3 (Wilson, Mann, how dare they say that Moravcik scored it, Sheerin pen) Jim Calder, Mike Teasdale, Stuart Golabeck, Bobby Mann, Mark McCulloch, Richard Hastings, Paul Sheerin, Ross Tokely, Barry Wilson, Charlie Christie and Dennis Wyness. Kevin Byers, Martin Glancy and Martin Bavidge all made late appearances in the game. Key players such as....................erm, they were all on the park beating Celtic.

PerfICT provides the concise report from Saturday's game at Elgin The game kicked off in beautiful sunshine, with ICT facing into a low, irritating sun. Caley Thistle started brightly, with a spell of reasonable pressure culminating in a decent strike from Tansey from the edge of the area which was well parried by the keeper. Elgin responded with some pressure of their own, which was ultimately rewarded with a goal. Vigurs picked up the ball in the deep, but dithered and got dispossessed. In trying to win it back, he made a clumsy challenge, resulting in a free kick on the edge of the box, right of centre. Nicholson hit the free kick low at the right end of the wall. From where I was standing, it went under the last man in the wall and OFW failed to keep it out, despite getting his hand to it. Caley Thistle responded almost immediately, with Doumbouya meeting a great cross to power into the net, but the goal was disallowed, presumably for a push. Undeterred, ICT continued to press and Cole burst into the box down the left, cut in and placed a beauty in the right corner to equalise. Further chances came ICT's way late in the half, with Doumbouya, Cole and Warren all going close. HT 1-1. The second half was altogether more comfortable for Caley Thistle, with long spells of possession, with Elgin restricted to hitting on the break. Cole was bossing things with pace and tricks aplenty - Elgin had no answer to him. Doumbouya spurned several good headed chances, one well saved, one off the bar and one glaring miss. Vigurs nearly atoned for his mistake, with a great free kick off the bar. Finally, Doumbouya connected with a great cross from Doran (I think) and squeezed it into the net, possibly courtesy of a deflection. While ICT continued to dominate possession after the goal, Elgin looked increasingly dangerous on the break. Anier came on for his debut, with the inneffectual Boden making way. Anier controlled a tricky ball well and hit a good effort straight at the keeper from the edge of the area. In the dying minutes, Elgin created several decent chances, but Warren in particular excelled in blocking close-range shots during the last minute stramash! FT: 1-2! Date: 21/01/2017 Venue: Borough Briggs, Elgin Attendance: 3624 Referee: John McKendrick Elgin City: 1 Lineup: Waters, Cooper, McPhee, Mchardy, Nicholson (Stewart 29), Reilly, Dodd (Reid 64), Cameron, McLeish, Sutherland, Moore (Gunn 73) Subs (not used): Watson, Bruce, Cullen, Wilson Scorers: Nicolson (25) Booked: McPhee (53), McHardy (78) Sent Off: none Inverness CT: 2 Lineup: Fon Williams, Tremarco, Warren, Polworth, Doran, Vigurs, Tansey, Boden (Anier 76), McKay, Doumbouya, Cole Subs (not used): Esson, Ebbe, Brown, Sutherland, Gilchrist, MacLennan Scorers: Cole (32), Doumbouya (66) Booked: Doran (76) Sent Off: none

Another Chance. For one of these sides, their season is about to get worse. Hibernian travel North for this Scottish Cup replay at Inverness, hot on the heels of their League Cup final defeat at the hands of our dear neighbours and Highland compatriots, Ross County. It's a 7:45pm kick off at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, the prize for the victor will be a semi-final meeting with Dundee United and a tremendous opportunity to reach the Scottish Cup Final against either Celtic or the Rangers. The first game at Easter Road ended in stalemate as Hibs failed to capitalise on their early superiority. Inverness were content to faff around and wait for something to happen and it did. Hibs scored early in the second half through James Keatings with a smart finish. This roused Inverness and Andrea Mutombo scored an equally impressive goal after great work by Lewis Horner who chased a ball to the bye line before sliding a ball into the box where Jordan Roberts touched it on to Mutombo. He was calmness personified as he rolled the ball under his studs before lashing it home with his left peg. Rumour has it that around eighteen passes were involved in that goal. Both sides will have players returning for this game. Inverness have been seriously understrength of late with a full team of potential starters missing. One bright note on Saturday was the return to action of Richie Foran who injected some urgency and leadership on the park in what was an otherwise luckless display as we went down to legendary timewasters Hamilton Accies. Gary Warren and Carl Tremarco missed that game through suspension, and eight or nine others were out injured. Hibs will have their talismanic top scorer Jason Cummings back and he can be a handful with his shoot on sight ability. Former St Mirren player John McGinn has been called up to the Scotland set up and will also be a menace and Anthony Stokes knows his way around. Kevin Thomson is a seasoned pro and James Keatings is energetic enough to cause problems. Liam Henderson is another that looked promising for Hibs along with Lewis Stevenson. All in, Hibs are not short of talent and this will be another tough test for both sides. Latest team news:- Inverness will be without Greg Tansey, the latest to suffer the archaic rule of two bookings and yer out. It'll be jumpers for goalposts and three corners a penalty next. However, to balance that, Carl Tremarco and Gary Warren should return after their misdemeanours saw them miss the Hamilton match. Richie Foran had twenty minutes against Accies and looked OK. Meekings has started training but there is no hint of a return for Raven, Vincent, Doran, Brill, Fisher or Mutombo. Alan Stubbs will have Jason Cummings back after he missed the first game through suspension. Dylan McGeouch is a major doubt after he limped off in the first game and he missed the League Cup final. tm4tj prediction:- We have had a rough time of it lately and a win here would be a tremendous confidence booster. Hibs have been poor of late as have we, but going down to Morton, Dumbarton and Queen of the South in successive Championship games is not the sign of a side deserving of a promotion shot despite their tremendous facilities and potentially massive fanbase. I said it before the first game that we would go through after a replay and I will stick by that prediction, but only if we up our energy levels and compete from the off. We will certainly need to monitor Jason Cummings closely, but it's what we do at the other end that is more important to the outcome of this tie. We have been less than impressive when trying to create anything and even less impressive getting shots on target. That has to change or we will be handing the Cup back to Hampden Park and then their will only be one Cup left in the Highlands.

The defence of our trophy. Inverness continue the defence of their trophy at Easter Road in a 2:00pm kick off on Sunday in the quarter finals of the William Hill Scottish Cup. This will be the last quarter final to be played and we already know the outcome of the Saturday cup games. The Rangers thumped Dundee 4-0 in the early game and ten man Dundee United knocked Ross County out as Billy Mckay scored the winner in a thrilling 2-3 win at Dingwall. Celtic take on Morton in Sundays early kick off and the Cappielow club will be hoping for a repeat of the league Cup result from three years ago when they put Celtic out after extra-time. Hibs have won the Scottish Cup twice. That in itself is not unusual, but their last triumph in this competition was back in 1902 when they defeated Celtic 1-0 at Celtic Park in front of 16,000 fans. That's 114 years and counting. Incidentally, Inverness Caledonian beat Stranraer 6-1 in the first round that same year before going down 5-1 at Ibrox against Rangers. Hibs have reached the Quarter Finals by beating Raith Rovers 2-0 away from home and then coming back from the dead to draw 2-2 at Tynecastle. In the replay, Hibs went through thanks to a Jason Cummings strike. However their top scorer will miss the tie against us as he is suspended after being red carded Inverness made it here after needing a replay to dispose of Stirling Albion 2-0. Andrea Mutombo scoring the goal of the round in that replay. Jordan Roberts was the match winner as he replicated Mutombo's feat by scoring a spectacular winner at Fir Park against Motherwell in a 1-2 victory. Hibs are coming into this game off the back of three defeats in a row in the Championship and have now slipped down to third in the division as these results take their toll. Morton, Dumbarton and Queen of the South were the teams that beat the Hibees and Falkirk are now above them in the league. Inverness have little to shout about. We have slumped to ninth in the Premiership after a series of frustratingly grim performances and gifting goals like nobodies business. It's four games since we won, beating Aberdeen 3-1 with a stirring performance, but erratic form, injuries and suspensions have curbed our desire to entertain and we now find ourselves staring at the heart of the relegation battle. Defeat at Tynecastle has thrown our season into despair and just when we thought our injury predicament was getting better, we had nine players out receiving treatment and Ross Draper suspended. Yogi has been proclaiming the Hibernian side this week and despite criticism from some fans regarding his comments I tend to agree that Hibs are a miss to the Premiership. If nothing else, it's a great day out in Leith and one of the better grounds in Scotland. It's the usual posturing prior to games and bigging up Hibs will help to make them more complacent. I'm sure Yogi will be looking to end their cup run despite his history with the Easter Road club. It's all part of the game. Alan Stubbs will be without a trio of suspended players. Jason Cummings, Paul Hanlon and Marvin Bartley. John Hughes will have Ross Draper back after his suspension and the good new continues with Josh Meekings and James Vincent likely to be added to the squad as they recover from injury. Andrea Mutombo is a doubt but Richie Foran, Aaron Doran, Alex Fisher, David Raven, Nat Wedderburn and Dean Brill are all out. tm4tj Prediction:- I'm taking Inverness to get into the semi-final, but it might take a replay to sort this one out. Our wafer thin squad has been exposed recently, but it's great to have Draper back and with Meekings and Vincent set to return things are looking up. Scoring goals is a problem and Miles Storey and Jordan Roberts will be the men asked to do just that. Hibs will miss the tenacity of Cummings up front, but in John McGinn they have one of the most talented players in Scotland. Anthony Stokes is another who will provide a challenge for any defence and he knows the way to goal. I'm banking on our midfield holding the key to our success here and our passing game to frustrate Hibs and their big support, I'm just not sure who will be scoring the goals. Replay up North and Inverness to progress.

Cup Defence. It's time to continue the defence of our trophy as the Scottish Cup fifth round draw takes us to Fir Park to face the 1952 & 1991 winners Motherwell. It's not the most glamorous of ties and certainly a tougher one than we would have liked at this stage, and one that Motherwell will feel they can win, but that's the luck of the draw I suppose. The transfer window came and went and it caused a bit of a stushie up North with the Greg Tansey affair taking all the headlines. The on off saga detracted slightly from the fact that Inverness did add a couple of players to our squad. Liam Hughes and Ryan Williams are both midfielders and will hopefully add a bit of craft to the squad. So, rightly or wrongly, Greg Tansey remains an Inverness Caledonian Thistle player for now amid much speculation and guesstimating. Greg's official agent is blaming a third party for all the confusion. We'll not add to the mystique and leave it at that, content that he will be pulling on an Inverness shirt this weekend. This is a cup game, but as far as league form goes there's not much between the sides and home advantage could be the deciding factor. Inverness sit just three points above Motherwell, the main disparity being a much superior goal difference. We have sored more and lost less showing a difference of 13 goals in our favour. We have played twice already this season and it's one win apiece. We opened our campaign with a 0-1 defeat to Motherwell in the Highlands. We were in a transition period then, prior to our injury ravaged era and went down rather tamely to an early Wes Fletcher goal. In the reverse fixture at Motherwell we pulled of a surprise but nonetheless welcome 3-1 victory. A Greg Tansey penalty and a Miles Storey deflected strike saw us go in at the break two ahead. Iain Vigurs scored a superb volley after the break before Louis Moult pulled one back for the Well. But that's how it ended, 1-3 for Inverness and a mini revival started in December to boost our points tally. Motherwell made their way to this stage by thrashing Cove Rangers 5-0. They took just two minutes to open the scoring through Moult and were 2-0 up after six minutes when Scott McDonald scored. Further counters from Marvin Johnson and Stephen Pearson put them in at the break four up and Pearson added his second to end the scoring after the hour. Since that game, the Steelmen have been thrashed 6-0 by Hearts, lost 2-1 to County, drawn with Dundee and lost a late goal when slipping to defeat at Partick. While Motherwell were cruising into the next round, we made heavy weather of our tie at Forthbank and Stirling Albion fully deserved another crack at their Premier opponents. It took two spectacular goals to see off the Binos in the replay, many Inverness fans just happy to get into the draw, but not overjoyed by another lack lustre performance. Their pessimism justified in our next league game, a drab 0-0 draw with Partick following on from defeat at Kilmarnock. Carl Tremarco is the latest player to extend his contract. That comes on top of Gary Warren, Ryan Esson and Ross Draper putting pen to paper, so some good news for Caley Jags fans after a nail biting transfer window comes to a close. Inverness can call on their new signings to boost the squad. Yogi looks likely to flood the midfield given our lack of strikers available. Dean Brill is almost ready to pull his gloves on, but Aaron Doran and Josh Meekings are out. James Vincent has been a recent omission and his box to box play has been missed. Richie Foran and Jordan Roberts continue their rehab on the bench. The unfortunate Alex Fisher is out for six weeks with a chipped ankle bone. Motherwell have added Morgaro Gomis on loan from Hearts, and he is eligible for this game. A couple of notable outs is David Clarkson who has been loaned to St Mirren and midfielder Liam Grimshaw has returned to Manchester United. There's not much fresh news coming out of Fir Park, but defender Ben Roberts is reported to be struggling to make this one. tm4tj Prediction:- It's a chance to forget the rigours of league football and serve up a footballing treat for the fans. Inverness as holders will be looking to remain in contention and Motherwell will be hoping home advantage will benefit them. On paper, it should be tight. Louis Moult will be one to keep an eye on. He has scored 13 goals this season and has picked up 5 yellow cards, so one way or another, an exciting prospect. We have been under the hammer recently, struggling to create sufficient opportunities for Miles Storey, but the young striker has been plugging away and the goals will come, eight so far for him. Our last game at Fir Park saw us run out 3-1 winners, it'll be tighter than that and might take a replay to sort this one out. Of course, we have put Motherwell out of the cup at Fir Park before. Barry Wilson scored with a spectacular goal from all of 75 yards. I believe next season it will be up to 80 yards, gets better with every passing year. Bring it on! The romance of the Cup goes on for some teams. Ross County have an intriguing home tie against the first Junior side to reach the 5th round, Linlithgow Rose. They are well travelled in their quest for cup glory having been to Galashiels, Inverness, Wick and Forfar. Good luck to Ross County in that one. The big tie is the Capital clash that pits Hearts at home to Hibernian, a club looking for their first Scottish Cup triumph in over a century. And good luck to East Kilbride as they try to inflict Celtic's third domestic defeat in a row. We are all East Kilbride. Shock troopers Annan Athletic were rewarded with a home tie against Greenock Morton after pumping Hamilton 4-1 in the last round. There's an early kick off at Ibrox where Championship leaders the Rangers take on Premiership strugglers, managerless Kilmarnock, and an all Premiership game at Tannadice as basement side United play Partick Thistle. The final tie has Dundee visiting the Sons of the Rock at Dumbarton.

Mutombo stunner settles ICT Inverness eased into the 5th round with a 2-0 win over Stirling Albion, but it took two superb strikes from Andrea Mutombo and Iain Vigurs to settle the tie against the League Two side. Danny Devine was returned to the heart of the defence after suspension at the weekend and Andrea Mutombo was given a start. Danny Williams was at left back with Carl Tremarco out. A brisk night met the players as they emerged from the tunnel and the crowd was kept to a minimum with Sky Sports covering the game. The first dangerous action of the tie was when Danny Williams brought down Steven Doris on the edge of the box. Doris took the free kick himself and curled his effort over the bar. Encouraging start for the Binos and they foraged forward again only to be blocked on the edge of the box at the expense of a corner which came to nothing as Ross Smith shot just wide. It's the League Two side that were making all the early running against a struggling Inverness, but Gary Warren almost scored with a header after a corner, however the ball got smuggled away from the six yard box and away from danger. Andrea Mutombo is able to showcase his twinkle toed skills and he curled a shot just over after fifteen minutes as Inverness begin to get to grips with the game. Five minutes later and Liam Polworth shoots over as the early Stirling threat seems to have evaporated, but the home side will need to up their accuracy if they want to progress. Back come the Binos though and Ross Smith heads wide to make sure Inverness are kept on their toes. Mutombo has had enough though and goes on another dazzling dribble. This time he cuts in from the left and ends it by exploding the ball behind Chris Smith from 25 yards into the keepers top right hand corner. Extreme goal from the one man showing the ability to get behind the Binos defence. It's all Inverness now and constant pressure brings about a couple of half chances but the final shots get snuffed out, Vigurs and Draper looking to add the second. Despite dominating, we are still finding it difficult to create any premium opportunities to get the second goal and too many crosses and passes are going astray allowing Albion time to regroup and remain in contention. Goal apart, that's another uninspiring 45 minutes from Inverness against a resolute Stirling Albion as the half fades out. Half Time 1-0 The poor touches and poor lay offs continue at the start of the second half, but as Inverness break forward, Ross Smith earns a booking for stopping Danny Williams dead in his tracks. Mutombo is still the one stretching the back line of the visitors defence and he pings a ball across goal, but the defenders hook it clear. Flattering to deceive springs to mind as Inverness play the ball back and fore across the Binos defensive line before once more overrunning the ball. Ten minutes into the half and a free kick causes a bit of urgency in the Inverness box before Mark Lamont fires over from outside the box. Better spell for the visitors as they force a corner and another scrambulation in the home box. Mutombo is still the main threat and he earns a free kick 25 yards out. Iain Vigurs wastes the chance as he hits the defensive wall. He would atone for that a few minutes later. Inverness broke from the back at pace. Raven fed Storey who held the ball until Draper found space. He raced forward before cutting back to the incoming Vigurs who guided the ball into the top corner from 18 yards for another stunning goal. Pick that one out. Inverness once more on the ascendency but more overplay results in Williams crossing behind after some tidy midfield passing. Draper got booked for upending Lamont, a bit soft looking, but it is Ross Draper, and Storey forged his way down the left after riding two challenges. Vigurs goes down in the box and all he got for his troubles was a booking. Oh dear. Two nil up, but we have been here before, Albion not blown out yet with 20 minutes to endure as Storey has an effort saved. Craig Beattie enters the tie as Stirling look to get back into the game, Ross Smith leaving the field and Alex Fisher replaces Liam Polworth with fifteen left. Tremendous work by Williams down the left allows Storey to thrash a ball goalwards, but Smith is equal to it and palms the shot away for a fruitless corner. Richie Foran and Jordan Roberts get some game time as Draper and MotM Mutombo leave the pitch. That sparked the visitors into life again as they forced a couple of corners, but it was Danny Devine that almost curled in a third goal, the ball almost shaving the outside of the post as it went just wide. Jordan Roberts' impact was almost instant. He was booked minutes after coming on. Oh well, we have waited long enough to see him on the park, I suppose any publicity is good publicity. Oh ffs, Alex Fisher is helped off the park with what looks like an ankle injury, that's all we need, and Stirling Albion end the game as they started, on the front foot. A free kick from Doris, a corner and a lob from Darren Smith going narrowly over the bar with Fon Williams stranded. Full Time 2-0 This game was won by the home side with the aid of two tremendous goals, both contenders for goal of the round. Stirling battled hard but it was Inverness who controlled the game and created the chances to get themselves into the next round where Motherwell await. Tonight's MotM goes to Andrea Mutombo. He did a power of work tonight dragging defenders all over the place and his trickery saw him ghost past a few in tight situations. His goal was a tremendous individual effort after drifting in from the left wing then unleashing a stunning strike from 25 yards. Miles Storey did nothing right in the first half but did plenty of unselfish sprinting after the break, unlucky not to score on a couple of occasions. From a selfish point of view, it would have been nice to score a barrowload of goals, but it's credit to Stirling Albion that we never as they stuck to the task and finished the game at our end of the park. Good luck to them for the rest of the season, the banana skin put away for another year. It's Fir Park for us on the weekend of 6th February in the 5th round Date: 19/01/16 Venue: Caledonian Stadium Attendance: 1231 Referee: Mat Northcroft Inverness CT: 2 Lineup: Fon-Williams, Raven, Warren, Draper (Foran 82), Devine, Tansey, Williams, Polworth (Fisher 76), Vigurs, Mbuyi-Mutombo (Roberts 82), Storey Subs (not used): Esson, Wedderburn, Brown, Sutherland Scorers: Mbuyi-Mutombo (28), Vigurs (61) Booked: Williams (3) Sent Off: none Stirling Albion: 0 Lineup: W.Smith, Mazel, Forsyth, McGeachie, R.Smith (Beattie 75), Robertson, Johnston (Cunningham 69), Comrie (Lamont 50), Doris, D.Smith, Dickson Subs (not used): Binnie, Hamilton, Verlaque, Kouider-Aissa, Scorers: none Booked: R.Smith (50) Sent Off: none 0 Quote Edit

Forthbank Stalemate Stirling Albion rightly took all the plaudits in this fourth round tie as Scottish Cup champions Inverness Caledonian Thistle were made to look more like chumps as they struggled to a scoreless draw against the League Two part timers. The weather relented sufficiently for this game to go ahead as Inverness began the defence of their trophy in Stirling. The last time the clubs met here in the cup Inverness trounced the Bino's 6-1. There would be no such outcome this time as the home side had done their homework and negated anything the visitors had to offer, which in truth was very little. An encouraging away support were on hand to witness our opening defence and many left disappointed at our inability to create anything resembling a chance, although everyone was grateful for the opportunity to rectify this in the replay on Tuesday 19th of January. New signing Alex Fisher started on the bench along with Andrea Mutombo and perennial bench warmer Jordan Roberts. Danny Williams filled the vacant left back position in Carl Tremarco's enforced absence. Stirling made three changes from the side that flopped against East Stirling the previous week. Out went Ross McGeachie, David Verlaque and Mark Lamont, and in came Ross Smith, Craig Comrie and Phil Johnston. Craig Beattie was on the bench. A relatvely lively opening from the visitors saw little happening but Danny Williams had a shot well saved by Chris Smith in the eighth minute after linking neatly with Liam Polworth. It would go on to be a dreadful first half with Inverness allowing their opponents to get bodies behind the ball with their painstakingly slow build up play which made for little entertainment for the crowd. The first half came and went without much ado as the fans waited for something to happen. Half Time 0-0 Yogi had seen enough of the ineffective and out of position Nat Wedderburn and pulled him off at the break, replacing him with Alex Fisher in the hope that this would inject a bit more urgency about events. Miles Storey, David Raven and Danny Devine all came close in a more up tempo second half, but we were still too intent on boring Stirling Albion into submission, but the Bino's were having none of it and were probing well on the break. Darren Smith fired over the bar five minutes after the interval and that was a warning shot for Inverness. But our pedantic style was inviting a shock and Owain Fon Williams denied Willie Robertson after the hour. Craig Beattie entered the fray as the game trudged towards a climax and you could smell the banana skin being peeled. We almost stood on it and Gary Warren prevented the slip when he blocked a Steven Doris effort which looked as if it might have gone in. Greg Tansey fired one just wide but we could not put ourselves into the hat on our own and Stirling Albion deservedly joined us. Full Time 0-0 This was not about what we didn't do, it was all about what Stirling Albion did and they thoroughly deserved another crack at us. We should not be taking this lightly and can consider ourselves fortunate to get another chance to right the many wrongs. The MotM were all wearing Bino's white and red and they collect that accolade as a team. Congratulations to Stirling Albion. For Inverness, it's time to take stock and ask ourselves if we really did enough against a team 32 places below us in the Scottish Football tier system. I think we all know the answer. Alternative Maryhill was at the game and made these observations:- Disappointing performance. I know that our default strategy is to sit deep and build from the back, but I thought that yesterday would be an opportunity, against part-time players from a league below, to press higher up the park and try to overwhelm them early in the game. For the first ten minutes it looked like we were going to do that, with Storey and Williams both looking particularly lively, and Stirling's left back looking vulnerable. However, we then reverted to the deep-lying, low-tempo approach and created next to nothing for the rest of the half. Stirling were quick and direct down the right hand side, and looked threatening on a couple of occasions, although their moves tended to fall apart when they got to the edge of our box. We had a few more chances and close shaves in the second half, but rarely forced the Stirling keeper into saves. Fisher doesn't seem to have much pace, although he may need time to get up to the pace of competitive games, but he did add a bit of presence up front, and it may be that, if they play together, Storey starts to play a more roaming role, dropping deeper to collect the ball and taking it out wide when required - he was doing that anyway yesterday, but there was rarely any support for him until Fisher arrived. I don't have too many fears for the replay, but we will need much more of a cutting edge and more ability to press teams if we are going to get anywhere near where we did last season. Players of the calibre and directness of Watkins and Shinnie were sorely missed yesterday. Stirling Albion: 0 C Smith, Mazel, McKinlay (McGeachie 12), Forsyth, R Smith, Robertson, Johnston (Lamont 62), Comrie (Beattie 79), Doris, D Smith, Dickson. Subs (not used): Verlaque, Cunningham, Kouider-Aissa, Binnie (GK). Inverness CT: 0 O F Williams, Raven, Warren, Devine, Wedderburn (Fisher 46), Tansey, D Williams, Polworth, Draper, Vigurs (Mbuyi-Mutombo 79), Storey. Subs (not used): Roberts, Brown, Sutherland, MacRae, Esson (GK). Referee: Mat Northcroft Crowd: 1,224

Title defence begins Inverness start the defence of their trophy in the 4th round of the Scottish Cup on Saturday against Stirling Albion at Forthbank Stadium with a 15:00 kick off. We have played there before in the cup, and in January 2007 ran out big winners with a 6-1 scoreline. Craig Dargo grabbed a couple and Dennis Wyness, Roy McBain, Barry Wilson and Alan Morgan completed the Inverness scoring. David O'Brien got the Bino's goal, but it was the Highlanders that cruised into the next round. 1521 attended that game, I wonder how the crowds will fare for this one? We put Dundee United out in the fourth round thanks to a Russell Duncan screamer but we fell foul to two late goals by Celtic in the quarter final. We had led through a Graham Bayne goal after 18 minutes, but were caught out as Celtic equalised through Steven Pressley in the 89th minute. We had our thoughts on a replay but Kenny Miller stunned the Inverness fans by scoring in the 91st minute to send us crashing out of the competition. Just goes to show that losing late goals is nothing new for us. Celtic went on to lift the trophy that year. The clubs have met six times, mostly in our early days in the Second Division. Inverness have won four, Stirling one and the other game was a 2-2 draw in Inverness. We have scored 12 goals at Stirling in three games, conceding only twice. The tie Stirling Albion won was a Challenge Cup game at Forthbank in 96/97 when they won 3-1. Back to the future though and Stirling Albion have made their way to this game by beating East Fife 1-0 after a goalless draw nine days earlier. In the third round, the Bino's trounced lowland league side Cumbernauld Colts 6-0. Steven Doris and Craig Beattie both scored braces and Kyle Lander and Sean Dickson completed the scoring. With most of Scotland suffering from serious flooding and snow issues plenty of folk will be keeping an eye on the weather forecast prior to this game. Stirling Albion have tried their best to re-assure everyone that the weather and pitch should be OK, but as we know, that can change swiftly. Ross McMillan is out for Stirling Albion with a hamstring problem and he should be the only absentee. The Cup holders will be without Carl Tremarco who was sent off after stumbling over the ball in last seasons final before bringing down the Falkirk player in attempting to rectify his error. Josh Meekings has missed recent games and Jordan Roberts has not been tried out although he has been on the bench. Otherwise, Inverness will be on familiar lines as recent weeks, although Tobi Sho-Silva has left the building. tm4tj Prediction:- Stirling Albion come into this game off the back of a surprise 3-2 defeat to struggling East Stirling who are propping up League Two and they were also beaten 3-1 by East Fife in the previous game. Stirling sit just outside the play off position in fifth place. Inverness are on a high after an excellent derby win over Ross County and are unbeaten in five now having entered the top-six. No disrespect to The Bino's who are having a solid season, but if we can't get ourselves into the draw for the fifth round then there's something wrong. Miles Storey is looking to get back on a scoring run, and who would bet against him notching our 1500th competitive goal. Now that he is staying at Inverness for the rest of the season, watch him go! I doubt this will be as easy as some would have us believe, but we should be strong enough to progress. Away win for me and Inverness' ball to be in Gary Anderson's hand soon. ***Latest News*** Inverness have added six foot three Englishman Alex Fisher to their squad and the 25 year old is apparently eligible to be included in todays team if seleced. Fisher is an out of contract striker signed after leaving Torquay United by mutual consent. He had scored 7 goals in 22 appearances for the Gulls. His arrival could open the ICT exit door for another out of favour striker at Inverness in the shape of Dani Lopez. Partick Thistle are the first side through to the next round of the cup after they knocked out St Mirren 2-1 last night. From Bino's website Admission: Adults £15, Seniors & Students £10, U16s £5. Cash at the turnstiles. Fans: Albion supporters should use turnstiles 1, 2 3, & 4 in the West Stand. Turnstiles 7, 8, 9 & 10 will be open in the East Stand for ICT fans. Replay date: If the game ends in a draw, the replay will take place at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium on Tuesday January 19.