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Inverness CT -V- Raith Rovers - Ch Cup - Preview


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Joint holders clash

 

It's the second game of a hectic period for the Caley Jags as the joint holders of the Challenge Cup meet at the Caledonian Stadium on Tuesday night in a game that kicks-off at 7:45pm. This season it's called the SPFL Trust Trophy and last time it was held it ran out of time with Inverness and Raith being awarded joint custody of the Tunnocks Caramel Wafer Challenge Cup for 2019/2020. No event for 2020/2021 as covid was the only winner that season. Inverness have held the Challenge Cup three times with Raith holding it twice. Falkirk have the most victories with four wins.

MATCH INFO & TICKETS

PPV STREAMING £10

OFFICIAL PREVIEW

Venue Head 2 Head Pld Won Drn Lst For Agst + / -
Home 17 13 2 2 36 13 +23
Away 14 7 4 3 27 17 +10
Neutral 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total 31 20 6 5 63 30 +33
First Competitive Meeting
Sep 25th, 1999 League (H) 0 - 2
Most Recent Competitive Meeting
Oct 23rd, 2021 League (Championship) (A) 1 - 1
Last 10 Competitive Meetings
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1 - 1
(A)
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1 - 0
(H)
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1 - 0
(A)
draw.png
0 - 0
(H)
win.png
2 - 0
(H)
draw.png
3 - 3
(A)
win.png
4 - 1
(H)
win.png
2 - 1
(H)
win.png
1 - 0
(H)
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4 - 3
(H)

Despite our recent run of form, we hold the Indian sign over Raith Rovers with only two defeats in seventeen home games in all competitions, and that was not yesterday (Oct 2000)...

This season it took a super strike from Roddy MacGregor to separate the sides back in August and more recently at Starks Park Aiden Connolly and Sean Welsh scored the goals in a 1-1 draw where Ross Mathews was sent off on half time for Rovers.

Billy Mckay is our top scorer with 10 goals for the season, half of those coming in the Challenge Cup including a hat-trick against Elgin City in the last round. The Caley Jags put Buckie Thistle out in the previous round 4-2 with Mckay and Jamieson scoring braces.

Raith got here by virtue of beating East Fife 3-1 at Starks Park. Tait, Connolly and Poplatnik the scorers for them. They put Forfar Athletic out before that scoring the only goal of the game.

Latest Team News

The mystery continues as the tough winter schedule kicks in and with an unwanted Scottish Cup replay coming up against Morton, the frailties of our wafer thin squad will no doubt be severely tested over the next few weeks. Unfortunately there is some unfinished personal business that is disrupting the squad and it's affecting performances on the park. It's about time the club acted professionally on this and make the paying public aware of the situation to avoid further embarrassment.

A good chance to progress, but also a great opportunity to give some of our fringe players some more game time and those returning from injury. Manny Duku seems to have lost his way, but maybe he fancies a game against his old club and the likes of Cammy Mackay, Harper, Duffy, McDonald and Jamieson are all in need of getting some mileage on the park.

Scott Kellacher ahead of the Raith game

May be an image of text that says "SCOTTISH CUP FOURTH ROUND DRAW MOTHERWELL Inverness aledonian WILL PLAY EST. 1886 MORTON GREENOCK FC LTD 18 74 SCOT SCOTTISH CUP ORIGINAL MOMENTS. UNFORGETTABLE MEMORIES. 1873"

 

 


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I agree. I am generally a fan of this competition affording as it does the only realistic opportunity for the majority of SPFL clubs to win a national knock out tournament and I have thoroughly enjoyed the days out afforded by our ventures into the final over the years.

However, with a truly massive league game and a cup replay coming up, we can't afford to hive tonight's match any sort of priority.

Raith may very well feel the same way which ironically might lead to an entertaining and competitive game of football.

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Oh dear, that was another two hours of my life that I'll never get back.  Could have been doing my tax return or regrouting the shower.

As I keep saying, the problem is not the defence.  It's our complete inability to score.  (make up your own Gardyne joke here)

And I've never seen so many left-footed penalties.

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Wasn't able to get to the game today but did manage to try out the ICTV coverage for the first time.  It was good to see a number of the younger players in the starting line up with MacInnes and Carnihan coming on  for debuts later in the game.  With so many changes it seemed pretty obvious that this was all about resting players with a busy schedule of more important games coming up.  Stand out for me was Cameron Harper who was always positive going forward and looking to play balls into the gaps.  Cammy MacKay looked pretty solid between the sticks which is encouraging but other than that, there was not much to enthuse about.   The ICTV coverage was pretty decent though.  Shooting practice before Friday's game, please.

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Well I thought the morton game was bad but this was dire. After a couple of good moves in the first half, we seemed to lose any tactics we had by just kicking the ball up the park. Where does all the coaching go, where is all the combination play and the triangles that you need to play good football? I know that it's not the greatest cup competition but it's a chance for fringe players to show what they've got, but on this show, apart from harper and Mackay, it isn't much.

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Clear from the outset both teams had their minds on bigger challenges.

We were (slightly) the better team and Jamieson should have scored late on. The pass from McAlear to Walsh to create the chance was superb.

Other than that, not too much to get excited about.

MacKay was rarely tested and after a shaky start had good distribution.

Welsh was at centre half and was comfortable until replaced like for like by Allardice. I thought Deas marshalled the defence well, with Carson and Harper both getting forward effectively.

I thought McAlear had a decent game, apart from his free kick, and he was very close with a good effort early on.

Walsh seems to have been practising crossing as he seemed less erratic.

Not sure what conclusions to draw: it’s all down to Friday and next Tuesday whether we were right to sacrifice tonight’s game.

Good to see the two youngsters, although they were a bit “rabbit in the headlights”. It will have done them good though and the young right back had one very decent challenge that won a goal kick.

Just don’t let Shane take a penalty in a shoot out: 2 misses out of this season!

 

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I thought this was quite interesting. Liked Welsh at CB as he has far more vision with forward passes. Cammy played really well. Carson’s battle with Zenatta first half was interesting. Reece looked better apart from woeful free kick. Mcdonald and Jamieson got game time. Cammy in goals looked confident (he normally scares me) Overall the better team and considering how well Raith have been going, and how experimental our team was, I think that’s not a bad nights result. Haven’t seen a game with so many off side calls ! Fine  margins. 

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The game had a nil nil feel from the start, the only good thing was it was warmer than Saturday!  We have better players out on loan that would have featured tonight and it might have been better but I think being on loan and missing out will benefit the club in the long term.  Our league game on Friday is more important and I hope it's a better game.

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Well that was a poor advert for championship football!  95% effort and 5%skill.  Both teams were guilty of some shocking passing, Mixed in with some dire attempts on goal, And the one piece of skill ended with a total fail from Jamieson, super ball across to an unmarked Jamieson, smack it first time? No  took too long to sort himself out giving keeper plenty to block attempt.   Very poor, He'll no be the answer to our goalscoring woes. 

And what the feck was Shane doing at the pen, jeez summed up his performance tonight...shyte.

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8 hours ago, FrontRow said:

Cammy in goals looked confident (he normally scares me)

The few times that I have seen him recently, I have been impressed by him.  His positioning is good, and he has made saves when he has had to.

In particular, his distribution is so much better than Ridgers'.  He nearly always gives it to one of our players, instead of Mark's aimless punts down the pitch, which often actually miss the pitch completely :lol:

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