Wasps @ our Byke Nov2024

[tm4tj]

Top v Bottom Again

 

For the second week in a row Inverness face table toppers. This time it's Alloa Athletic after our win over last weeks toppers at Cove. Now into plus figures, the Caley Jags can focus on the teams directly above them in the knowledge that they can compete with the best in this league after the shackles have been taken off, the legacy from the Duncball era no longer restricting them on the park. It won't all be plain sailing, but those that witnessed the second half at Cove have said this was the best performance for a couple of years. A word of warning, Alloa come North unbeaten away from home on League1 business. For us, it's onwards and upwards as they say at the bottom end of the table.

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Match/Ticket/Bar94/Info

Battery Farm Appeal Thrown Out

Bar94 Drop Off Point

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Going to the game today?

Then drop your donation into Bar94 12:00 - 2:30pm to help the Community Development Trust to provide as many Festive Hampers as possible. The Community Development Trust holds free Christmas Lunches at the Stadium for elderly fans and delivers hampers to vulnerable and deserving fans in the lead up to Christmas. Please donate if you can to help make someones Xmas that little bit better.  

Click HERE for more detail.

 

Venue

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	20	8	10	2	36	22	+14
Away	23	11	6	6	47	24	+23
Neutral	1	0	1	0	4	4	0
Total	44	19	17	8	87	50	+37

Looking at the stats, a draw seems to be the favoured result over the last three encounters with goals in every game. Overall, in a previous life the Caley Jags used to get the better of the Wasps but times have changed. They seem to be a more resilient side at the moment and wins breed confidence, that's why they find themselves leading the pack in the chase for promotion to the Championship.

Last 10 Competitive Meetings

2 - 2 (A)

1 - 1 (A)

2 - 2 (H)

1 - 2 (A)

0 - 2 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

3 - 2 (A)

2 - 0 (A)

2 - 2 (H)

3 - 0 (H)

The last encounter at Recreation Park ended all square when we threw away a two goal advantage after the introduction of seasoned campaigner Conor Sammon. Wasps Buzzing:  2-2 Inverness were without Charlie Gilmour, Flynn Duffy, Paul Allan, Ethan Cairns and Lewis Nicolson for the trip to Alloa although Jack Newman, Luis Longstaff and Keith Bray have returned to the squad after injury. Alloa have plenty experience in their ranks, notably Conor Sammon and Kevin Cawley and went in to this encounter off the back of a superb win over Partick Thistle last weekend in the Challenge Cup. Sammon started on the bench with Cawley joined by Luke Donnelly up front. Danny Devine gave Inverness an early lead with a tremendous birthday boy volley into the corner. Calum Macleod added a second but a few minutes later we were level when substitute Sammon and Luke Donnelly scored for the Wasps and despite a frantic last twenty minutes, that's how it ended.

Our Season so Far on the park

INVERNESS CT:  D L D D W D D D L  / W L D W  Our season got off to a slow start with a draw at home to Dumbarton followed by a penalty defeat at Annan. Another two draws against Montrose (h) and Kelty Hearts (a) before our first win of the season over Queen of the South at the Caledonian Stadium. We beat Stirling Albion 3-0 to send us into a fourth Rnd tie away to Livingston thanks to a brace from Adam Brooks and a strike from Adam MacKinnon. That was followed up by us throwing away a two goal lead at Alloa to end up with a 2-2 draw six minutes later. A Danny Devine volley and Calum MacLeod with his first goal for the club were the scorers at Recreation Park. Last time out we had a disappointing 1-1 draw at home against Cove Rangers who opened the scoring through Adam Emslie. James Nolan on loan from Manchester United's youth squad levelled the game before the hour. Next up was a home game against Stenhousemuir. Quite frankly this was a dull game with neither side able to score although Musa Dibaga did make a wonderful penalty save in the first half. Relegated Arbroath was our final game of the opening round of fixtures and despite creating enough chances, we came away from Gayfield with our second defeat of the League1 campaign. Away from League duty last weekend, we put up a good fight against Livingston in the Challenge Cup at Almondvale but lost out 5-4 in a penalty shoot-out after it finished 2-2 over the ninety minutes. Paul Allan and Charlie Gilmour were our scorers during the ninety minutes.

Our first game in the second round of fixtures turned out to be Duncan Ferguson's last stand. It ended like his first game in charge, a win as we defeated Annan 1-0 at home. Administration and management removal followed by five players being released and fifteen points being wiped off our total. First game after Admin was at Dumbarton with Scott Kellacher as head coach and Billy Mckay his assistant on and off the park. Alas it ended in a 3-1 defeat after a promising first hour. Kelty Hearts came North next and went away with a point in a 1-1 draw. Kell's got his first win in week (unlucky for some)13, a deserved 2-1 win at top of the table Cove Rangers. Alloa up next at Inverness in matchday 14...

ALLOA Athletic: D D W W D D WD L  / W L W D  Alloa had an eight game unbeaten start to League1. They began the League campaign with draws at home to Queen of the South and away to Dumbarton followed by a home win over Stenhousemuir and another win away to Annan at the same ground we lost 1-0. They drew 0-0 at Gayfield and the following week was Challenge Cup action and Alloa pulled off a shock 1-3 win over Partick Thistle who had opened the scoring through our olde 'friend' Brian Graham. However, three second half goals from Kevin Cawley (65', 76') and Scott Taggart (90'+5 pen) gave the Wasps a tremendous result and a home tie against Arbroath in the next round which they also won (1-0). That was Cawley's 79th & 80th goals for Alloa. Our first meeting with the Wasps ended 2-2 after we were two up. Meh! A win over Kelty followed by a draw at Montrose before Cove dished out their first defeat. However they followed that with a win away to Stenhousemuir before Arbroath gained revenge for the Challenge Cup defeat winning 1-0 for Alloa's second League defeat. November saw them hammer Annan 5-0 before drawing with Queens. In midweek they bowed out of the Challenge cup going down 1-0 at Championship side Dunfermline.

League1 Fixtures all 3:00pm this Saturday

Pos	Team	Pld	Gd	Pts
1	Alloa Athletic	13	6	21
2	Cove Rangers	13	5	20
3	Kelty Hearts	13	8	19
4	Arbroath	13	0	19
5	Stenny	13	1	18
6	Queen of Sth	13	-2	18
7	Montrose	13	2	17
8	Annan Ath	13	-13	14
9	Dumbarton	13	-6	12
10	Inverness CT	13	-1	+1

 

Latest Team News

With Scott Kellacher getting the first win under his belt at Cove, hopes are high for another upset at home against Alloa who currently top the table. Charlie Gilmour returned at Cove and our goals were made in the Western Isles thanks to Adam MacKinnon and Keith Bray. Connall Ewan and Lewis Nicolson missed out last week. Former Caley Jags keeper Michael Fraser has been offering advice to cult keeper Musa Dibaga since Goalie Coach Stuart Garden was dismissed in administration.

Waiting for official team news.....

 

Alloa's team versus Dunfermline in the Challenge Cup in midweek is shown below. I notice that the keeper was a busy man starting and on the bench.  A first half strike from McCann was enough to put the Pars into the semi-final. Noted that Sammon and Cawley started on the bench and keeper PJ Morrison was missing since we last played them, presumably Ogayi getting some game time. Connor Sammon, Luke Donnelly and Luke Rankin all have four League goals. Incidentally, defender Danny Devine tops our League1 scoring chart with three goals.

 

 

[+CaleyHedgehog]

I have absolutely no doubt that our boys will win again this week. Being the underdog does suit us, and it's against the top of the table again - bring it on! 

Have fun lads

[IBM]

Looking forward to the game tomorrow and hope for another win against the league leaders which would build up confidence within the team.  It would be great if we could string a few wins together and get more points on the board 

[ICT Supporters Trust]

Bar 94 will again be open after today's game until 6 pm.

The Player of the Match Award will take place, sponsored today by Dog Falls, and the first team squad will be present.

Before the game, the bar is open from 12 noon, with last orders at 2.30 pm. The bar is also the Drop Off Point for donations for the ICT Community Development Trust Festive Hampers.

We hope to see you before and / or after the game.

[tm4tj]

Looks like the man that presses the record button has been found by the administrators. No team news available so we will just have to wait for the team lines at the back of 2:00pm.

I'm not aware of any new injuries, so maybe along the same lines as Cove.

[tm4tj]

Alloa:

Morrison; Taggart, Mckay, Neill, Waters, Virtanen, Scougall, Buchanan, Donnelly, O'Donnell, Rankin

Subs: Ogayi; Graham, 

McDonnell, Hetherington,  

Thomson, Nevan, Honeyman, Cawley, Sammon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[KennySim93]

Gilmour makes it 1-0!  Get in!

[KennySim93]

Another huge win!  Going by the stats, we were pretty dominant for the most part too.  With Annan losing and Dumbarton drawing it makes it even better for us, the gap now "only" 9 points.  That's us beaten top of the league twice in a row now and with each passing week I'm getting more confident we can get out of this.  Despite being a very inexperienced team, we've proven in the last 2 weeks that we can beat any team in this league.

 

Edit:  Unfortunately Dumbarton have got a VERY late winner so the gap to Annan in 9th is now 10 points.  Makes the win for us even more crucial.

Edited November 16, 2024 by KennySim93

[big cherly]

Great result. Just keep going and only focus on the next game. Nothing else matters! 

[Satan]

16 minutes ago, KennySim93 said:

Another huge win!  Going by the stats, we were pretty dominant for the most part too.  With Annan losing and Dumbarton drawing it makes it even better for us, the gap now "only" 9 points.  That's us beaten top of the league twice in a row now and with each passing week I'm getting more confident we can get out of this.  Despite being a very inexperienced team, we've proven in the last 2 weeks that we can beat any team in this league.

 

Edit:  Unfortunately Dumbarton have got a VERY late winner so the gap to Annan in 9th is now 10 points.  Makes the win for us even more crucial.

We have 15 goals in hand over Annan, they will finish bottom with Dumbarton 9th.

We are only getting better.

[LisleRightPeg]

Another great 3 points. We just need to worry about our results and not focus on what others are doing. These last few games really have shown how bad Big Dunc is 

[STFU]

2 minutes ago, LisleRightPeg said:

Another great 3 points. We just need to worry about our results and not focus on what others are doing. These last few games really have shown how bad Big Dunc is 

I'm sure there's still a few Ferguson apologists who'll try and tell us the squad was the problem and not the manager.

Regardless we can't change what's come before and need to keep putting in performances like we've seen the last few games.

The football is entertaining and the players have a growing belief in themselves.  Not a bad performance from any of them today and hopefully Davidson's injury isn't as bad as it looked.

Special mention for young Thompson who acquitted himself very well today. Left everything he had to give on the pitch.

Also to Billy "who says I can't last 90 minutes" Mckay who was unfortunate not to be on the scoresheet today.

[Huisdean]

Another well deserved win although we had to work hard to get it. Some outstanding performances from our younger players.

Once again however, Another dreadful refereeing performance which almost cost us.

[+snorbens_caleyman]

2 minutes ago, STFU said:

I'm sure there's still a few Ferguson apologists who'll try and tell us the squad was the problem and not the manager.

Given that the squad is now just a smaller subset of the squad that he had, that would not be a logical argument, Captain 

[Eagle4Caley]

I can't tell you how happy I am!

We just need injuries kept down to minimum...does anyone know why Bray was missing?

Early in the season, but Dumbarton winning today brings QotS within range if we can win next weeks 6pointer

[Robert]

A well deserved win.

I thought we were excellent in the first half, but was worried when Alloa had a spell early in the second when we were taking risks and getting lucky at the back.

We got back on top and Gilmour took his goal well, and you could see how much it meant to all the players.

We then closed the game out, despite the best efforts of the referee. Mckay was very unlucky not to be on the score sheet and we hit the post.

Longstaff is a player transformed now we are playing him wide again, and was outstanding when playing on the left. Gilmour and Thompson were very good too, and credit Dibaga for the clean sheet and running the clock down.

We seem more streetwise under Kellacher too.

A very satisfactory afternoon (despite the referee). 

Edited November 16, 2024 by Robert

[Council Juice]

Great win! That's 3 wins in 5 and only 1 defeat. Let's hope we can keep that form up. Gives us a chance to stay in the division.

[forresjags]

Good stuff again, and 3 points in the bag.

First time I have seen Robbie Thompson other than the odd substitute appearance and he looks pretty decent.

[IBM]

57 minutes ago, Eagle4Caley said:

I can't tell you how happy I am!

We just need injuries kept down to minimum...does anyone know why Bray was missing?

Early in the season, but Dumbarton winning today brings QotS within range if we can win next weeks 6pointer

Bray was injured in training not bad hopefully.

[RednBlackComeback]

Had Ferguson still been in charge we'd have lost that game today. The performance was night and day to his tenure. The players are playing like footballers now and not robots. Much more purpose and intent.

Onwards and upwards!

[IBM]

The best game of football I have seen in a long long time!  Full credit to Scott and all the team for giving us a good bit of entertainment and a well deserved win today  and as others have said the referee Colin Whyte was ***te as well. 

[+snorbens_caleyman]

45 minutes ago, Council Juice said:

Great win! That's 3 wins in 5 and only 1 defeat. Let's hope we can keep that form up. Gives us a chance to stay in the division.

It also shows anyone interested in buying us that we have great potential.  Every match when in adminstration is an important part of our sales pitch.

[the cat]

Well what a transformation   we look like a team who wants to win for each other.  This young team are getting more confident  with every game. Abley backed by Billy and Danny   it's great to see the fans are right behind them  and credit to the new management. And what about our new keeper  he deserves lots of credit too   another MR   well done guys 

[Charles Bannerman]

I think it’s very significant that this team has defeated the league leaders on two consecutive Saturdays. That’s a very decent indication of the quality of the side and, watching this afternoon’s game, I also couldn’t help but get the feeling that technically, a lot of these players are above League One standard.

That to me is all very positive in this campaign to escape the bottom/ bottom two in the 22 games that remain.

[Charles Bannerman]

37 minutes ago, IBM said:

and as others have said the referee Colin Whyte was ***te as well. 

That’s been one of the revelations from this drop to League One - the quality of officiating is a lot lower.