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Another week of turmoil In a week where we started with hope and optimism we suffered defeat at home to Annan Athletic and then the Administration movement went from static to plumbing the depths before a powwow brought it back to status quo. We needed to fill the gap left by Musa Dibaga's sojourn to Gambia for World Cup qualifiers against Kenya and Ivory Coast and have done that with an emergency loan in Celtic's youth keeper, 18 year old Aidan Rice. We hope it will end on a lighter note with the game against Alloa to look forward to this Saturday, (without Longstaff and Bavidge). The joys of Admin in League1. We will stick to the on field events on here and will provide links below to certain Admin Statements. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Match/Ticket/Bar94/£5offer/Info Aidan Rice GK Administrators Statement March17th Allan Mackenzie Pow Wow March19th CTO Topic on Admin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you haven't got any friends, borrow some! Venue: H2H Pld Won Drn Lst For Agst + / - Home 21 9 10 2 37 22 +15 Away 24 12 6 6 49 25 +24 Neutral 1 0 1 0 4 4 0 Total 46 21 17 8 90 51 +39 Twenty-one home games versus Alloa since 1994 when they came North and played out a 2-2 draw at Telford Street in front of 1,150 fans. None other than Hugh Dallas was the referee Caledonian Thistle (as we were called back in the day) were in the lead for a long time in this game, had territorial advantage for most of it but in the end were fortunate to earn a draw. They had chances in the early minutes through McCraw and Lisle but Jim Butter saved well. In 18 minutes Charlie Christie collected a Martin Lisle pass and weaved past McCormack before scoring with a blistering 20 yard drive. In 67 minutes Barrie Moffat equalised after a McAvoy cross and in 78 minutes Neil Bennett put Alloa in front. Caley Thistle fought back with efforts from McKenzie and MacMillan but it took until the 86th minute before they equalised. Keith McCulloch handled in the box and Mike Andrew scored from the resultant penalty. Report by Ian Broadfoot Last 10 Competitive Meetings v Alloa 2 - 1 (A) 1 - 0 (H) 2 - 2 (A) 1 - 1 (A) 2 - 2 (H) 1 - 2 (A) 0 - 2 (A) 1 - 1 (H) 3 - 2 (A) 2 - 0 (A) We are unbeaten against Alloa this season and could have won all three given that we were 2-0 up in the first encounter during the Duncball era. Having gone two ahead through goals from Devine and MacLeod we were pulled level just six minutes later when Sammon and Donnelly quickly restored parity. Danny Devine lashed in the opening goal from twenty-two yards in the seventh minute to give the visitors the perfect start. After the interval MacLeod gave us some short lived breathing space following a swift break forward as he drilled the ball across the keeper into the bottom corner, however Conor Sammon quickly pulled a goal back with a great header three minutes later into the top corner finishing a well built move from back to front. Moments later it was all square when Donnelly looped a ball behind Dibaga after a long throw from Taggart and a touch from Sammon. Having been well in control we were now under the cosh but despite some hairy moments towards the end it finished all square. INVERNESS CT The Season So Far D L D D W D D D L / W L(11)D W W W L W L W W L W W L W D W / W L Since Scott Kellacher was handed the reins in game 11, there has been a more positive approach to our matches which has resulted in improved performances and a more enjoyable matchday experience all round. Alas we were brought back to earth with a disappointing result in our last game of 2024, a crushing 1-4 defeat at home to Cove Rangers. We'll have to put that one down to a bad day at the office. However, we bounced back in our first game of the second half of the season in the six pointer against Dumbarton with a hard fought 2-0 win. That win over Dumbarton was a vital one and the introduction of Alfie Bavidge was a welcome one as he opened the scoring early in the first half. Charlie Gilmour slotted in the clincher in the second half to give us a cushion over the Sons and to narrow the gap on Annan to seven points. We took part in the only League1 game next weekend and came away from Annan with a resounding 3-0 win, Alfie Bavidge netting again with Keith Bray and then Billy Mckay from the spot. It was then on to Palmerston on the Tuesday night but in a five goal encounter we went down 3-2. Alfie Bavidge notched his third goal in three games and Keith Bray added a second but goals from Adam Brooks (2) and Jordan Allan kept the points in Dumfries. We bounced back with a resilient 1-2 win at Alloa in our third away game on the bounce, Dunfermline bound Keith Bray with his fourth of the season and Alfie Stewart. We got our revenge at home to QotS (1-0) with Alfie Bavidge scoring his fourth goal in five appearances. Alas it was a bridge too far at Arbroath and we went down losing three without reply. The Stenhousemuir fixture was postponed and was re-arranged for March 11th. We went to Kelty and came away with a narrow 1-0 win thanks to Alfie's 5th goal in 7 appearances. Montrose proved to be stubborn opponents and it took a superb diving header from Keith Bray to rescue a point in a rather turgid encounter after Sandilands had opened the scoring in the first half. A last gasp win at Dumbarton on the Saturday with Alfie Bavidge scoring his 6th goal in 9 games. Unfortunately Alfie was injured early on against Stenhousemuir in midweek but that didn't stop us running up a 4-1 win with goals from Brannan, Gilmour, Bray and Allan. Annan up North on Saturday in a six-pointer and it was a disappointing defeat after Annan parked the bus after scoring in the third minute. Scott Kellacher will still be without Luis Longstaff who has a hamstring injury and missed the last three. Kellacher said in midweek to the press: “Alfie won’t be involved this weekend. The scan came back a wee bit unclear so he is waiting to do another scan. “He has to rest for probably the next 10 days to see if it settles down, and then they will try to get another image of it. Then we’ll know where we go from there. “We also have two or three wee niggles, but hopefully we’ll be clear after tomorrow.” Hopefully MacLeod will return after injury as we were a bit thin on the bench last week against Annan. This will be a tough game with Alloa still on course for a play-off place at the top end and Inverness still trying to avoid a play-off place at the bottom end. Our task will be made more difficult because of injuries to Longstaff and goal machine Alfie Bavidge. However, we showed that we can cope without these players in the entertaining win over Stenhousemuir, but the flip side was our inability to break down Annan last week where a bit of composure might have gone a long way to keeping Annan at arms length. I've been well impressed with Ben Brannan in his couple of games with us. He will be an important player with his driving runs forward and long throws and he's not scared to have a pop. Our defence will need to keep a 'Luke' out for Alloa's main scorers as they are amongst the higher scoring sides in the table with 43 goals. Pos Team Pld Gd Pts 1 Arbroath 29 17 53 2 Cove R 29 18 48 3 Stenny 29 12 48 4 Alloa Ath 29 5 40 5 Queen of Sth 29 -5 38 6 Kelty Hearts 29 0 36 7 Montrose 29 -7 33 8 Inverness CT 29 4 32 9 Annan Ath 29 -23 30 10 Dumbarton 29 -21 09 Last Six: D W W W L L Alloa started their last six with a 2-2 draw at Montrose. Wins at Kelty (0-2), home to Annan (4-3) and Cove (2-1) before losing their last two (2-3) at home to leaders Arbroath and a 3-2 defeat at Palmerston last week. Despite the recent defeats they remain in the fourth play-off position eight points above Inverness. Luke Rankin tops their scoring charts with 8 goals followed by Luke Donnelly on 7 and Connor Sammon with 5. Starting XI v QotS last week This will be the 47th meeting between Caley Jags and the Wasps, also known as Alloha Athletic, One game was played at a neutral venue and that was the 1999 Challenge Cup Final played at the Shyberry Excelsior Stadium, Airdrie with an Attendance of 4,043. Alloa came out on top after an entertaining encounter, winning 5-4 on penalties after a 4-4 draw. Bummer for Paul Sheerin who scored a hat-trick including two penalties but failed to score his spot kick in the shoot out. Meh! Bitter disappointment for Caley Thistle as they lost their first ever senior cup final on penalties. They came from behind three times in normal play then again in extra time to take the game to a penalty decider. Alloa took the lead in 20 minutes when Gary Clark hit a low ball past Les Fridge from 15 yards. Barry Wilson equalised in 29 minutes with a neat chip over the keeper. A defensive error let in Mark Wilson to score Alloa's second in 33 minutes but Paul Sheerin equalised from the penalty spot just after half time. This lasted 2 minutes before Martin Cameron made it 3-2 with a 15 yard angled volley. Another penalty goal by Sheerin made it 3-3 in 56 minutes. 14 minutes into extra time Alloa again took the lead when Martin Cameron beat the defence and ran on to score. Paul Sheerin completed his hat trick 8 minutes from time with a 16 yard shot. It was 4-4 on penalties after the regulation 5 attempts each. Alloa keeper Mark Cairns was the hero when he scored to make it 5-4 then saved Mike Teasdale's penalty. The Cup was on its way to Alloa after an exciting match. Alloa Penalties (Irvine, Boyle, Cameron, Little, Cairns) Beaton miss. Inverness Pens (McCulloch, Tokely, Byers, Wilson) Sheerin, Teasdale saved. Match report written by Ian Broadfoot