Pre-Merger

[gerx13]

quote BigPieMorayDosser

Can I ask the older ones amongst you how it was you became a Thistle, Clach, or Caley fan ?

I arrived in Inverness in 68, my father took me to watch Caley play. They won 6-1 against Lossie, I think? Anyway hated the strip for starters and thought the quality of the game was poor. The following week I was at Kingsmills for a 2-2 draw against the vale? Anyway this was not a drab game it had flair and excitement, all that was missing from the previous game. So I became a Jaggy and I have never regretted that choice!

Geography, family tie, etc., ?

Refugee fan from the football league.

And did you agree with the merger ?  And are you happy where you are now ?

Yes and no! Yes as it was the only way forward, the next stage in evolution of football in this town.

No because I knew it would be the end of the Jags and that the Caley fans, who were in the majority, would do their damnest to retain the Caley heritage. I admire the Jaggies who still fight to keep their heritage alive, but I can't stand beside them, as the formation of the league side brought conflict to my own heritage.

I don't expect ICT will be in this position come the end of the season, take it as a warning not to take things for granted. Bigger and better clubs have falling. ICT have earned the right to be an established SPL team but you have to earning that right every season or hope that there are at least one poorer team than yourselves, during a hiccup season. That's how the rest of us get by!

:001:

[Tichy_Blacks_Back]

Can I ask the older ones amongst you how it was you became a Thistle, Clach, or Caley fan ?

Through my father - took me to my first game in 1977.  Like others after that I never looked back and even though I have been lucky enough to play at Hampden Park (and scored may I add in the same end as Paul Ritchie) my best football memory is caught perfectly in a photograph I have of a group of young lads with their first cup taken in front of the stand at Kingsmills Park.  I like many others who visit this site can say I played at Kingsmills Park and that was the magic.  Football has moved on since those days (apart from maybe in Elgin  :001: ) but that is what your first club is all about (I am sure the young kids today whose first game is watching ICT will be feeling exactly the same).  As a traveller through work I have followed a number of foreign clubs - Tranmere Rovers (?), Manchester City (?), Rot Weiss Essen, Eintracht Frankfurt, CSKA and currently Cherno More but I will always be a Jaggie....

And did you agree with the merger ?  And are you happy where you are now ?

I was never adverse to going to watch Caley or Clach (football is football after all) and I was always supportive of the merger (maybe if I had been living in Inverness at the time and saw first hand what was going on I might have felt differently).  I still think what has been achieved in such a short time is incredible and proves that the decision and the dedication (dogged, mis-found - call it what you want) by those who could see where the future of Inverness football needed to go was correct.  Having said that I would still like to see a 4th Stand (oh and a small plaque on the wall on Kingsmills Road to say beautiful football was played here once)  :023:

[Kingsmills]

More than once surely. The Jags played beautiful football at least half a dozen times !

[Guest LadyChatterly]

Para 2 - it is not representative to take the 5000 people who turned out for one of the most famous events in Inverness football history and attempt to make a generalisation out of that, or even a substantial fraction of them. The vast majority of them were simply the one- or two-game Glory Hunters who would only very seldom be seen among the few hundred which was far more the norm at Telford Street.  We still see such Glory Hunters among the 7700 (5200 home fans) we now get under similar circumstances when the OF visit, but one suspects very seldom otherwise.

As far as County are concerned... let's look at why they did "reasonably well". Most importantly, the perception has been that a number of very wealthy directors have aided their finances hugely and have probably kept them above the water to a far greater extent than at Inverness with David Sutherland (who, by the way, was a Jaggie!) They also did not have the liability of finding a new stadium (although they did upgrade theirs considerably) and also for some reason a bigger proportion of Ross shire folk turn out than in Inverness - and that would be even smaller if it was Caley Only.

Have ICT ever taken that size of an away support anywhere?

[Kind of Blue]

Both SC semi finals had more than 5k ICT fans.  There was also well over 5,000  fans who went to Glasgow for Celtic Scottish cup game in 2000 (the one that got posponed).

Going back to CB's point, the 5,000 fans indeed consist of many folk who could not be considered Caley fans.  There was a genuine hype about the replay following on from the tremendous performance at home.

[Guest TinCanFan]

I have a question for the people who were against the merger of Caley and Thistle in 1994.  Even though you were against the merger do you now feel the merge was worth it because it brought SPL football to Inverness?

[SMEE]

I wasnt too keen on merging, for reasons i have stated elsewhere. But I did vote to drop the  Caley AND Thistle parts of the name as i foresaw the rivalries it would cause within our own support, and its still evident to this day!

I would say, in all honesty, i seem to miss enjoyment of the Highland League days more than anything acheived as ICT.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

but I will always be a Jaggie....

Feckin respect to that - I will always be a Howden Ender. It took me three years to get over the merger but we are sons of Sneck fer fecks sake. I dont give a feck who I drink, sing and stand with - even feckin Jeggies.

[Charles Bannerman]

I would say, in all honesty, i seem to miss enjoyment of the Highland League days more than anything acheived as ICT.

Smee... that's a very interesting point. So would I, except that since 1994 I have taken the opportunity of relying on Clach as a means of continuing my Highland League interest. I go there whenever I can which is perhaps easier for someone who wasn't especially affiliated to one of the three original clubs.

This also reflects my own attitude to the merger right at the start in 1993. For the first 3 months I was a bit sceptical about it, but probably would not even have been that if I had realised the huge progress which it would catalyse for Inverness football. In particular I was apprehensive about losing a Highland league presence in Inverness where the League was formed, so when Clach pulled out of the merger in the August, that was a problem solved for me.

Although I was a Caley fan when I was young, latterly I had always had a lot of regard for all 3 Inverness clubs so when Clach pulled out I immediately saw this as the continuing Inverness presence in the Highland League while the other two got together to create the national dimension.

And what a season for Inverness football 2003-04 turned out to be with ICT winning the Challenge Cup and the First Division and reaching the semis of the Scottish Cup while Clach won the Highland League and the League Cup and reached the Qualifying Cup Final!

[SMEE]

Charles, I have always had a soft spot for Clach, having grown up with a lot of their fans and the craic was always excellent down there. I like to see them do well and look out for their scores. I have enuff difficulty in coping with the ups and downs involved with being a fan of ICT without looking to increase my frustrations

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Lets face it - When the merger happened none of us could ever foreseen (well apart from me) that we would climb the ladder so quickly. The SPL was just a dream then. I actually wish that some of my Howden Ender compatriots could have joined me on this journey which has been one feckin **** up after another. And that would have suited the feckin Clachers as well.

[Charles Bannerman]

We've possibly started another thread here - "Back in 1993 - what did you expect?"

From my own point of view I think I sort of expected to become another Montrose or Albion Rovers or similar. Possibly, in addition to years of watching the Highland League, I didn't know football well enough at the time to think otherwise. As a result, when Dougie McGilvray asked me to phone the Off the Ball studio so he could place his bet with Tam Cowan that ICT would be in the SPL by 2004, I thought Dougie had lost it.

One thing I have become very aware of over the piece, and this was a strong feature of the merger too, is the tiny margins by which certain vital steps in the process have taken place. I need look no further than 2004 for two examples of that in the First Division title win followed by the SPL eventually opening the door.

I would also say that I can't help but have a wry smile about the complaints about the Board on other threads, given the unbroken rise over which so many directors have presided over the years.

All of this helps me see the Rebel point of view too. Set against expectations which might not have been all that high, I can understand but not necessarily agree with a preference to stay in the Highland League as Thistle or Caley rather than drift into merged mediocrity in the SFL.

But if, on September 9th 1993, someone had visited the Rannoch Lodge and the Muirtown and said "I can GUARANTEE that the club you are being asked to vote to form will be in the SPL by 2004"... what might the outcome and the immediate aftermath have been?

Ian Broadfoot might still have found himself writing a book in 2004 but, given its very different nature, I very much doubt if there would have been enough drama for me to produce one in 1997.

[Kingsmills]

My expectation at the outset was rather more optimstic. I expected Caley Thitle to become a bit of a yo yo club oscilating between the premier league and the first division. So far, I've been presenly surprised by our tenure of at least four consecutive seasons in the top league.

I was misguided enough, however, to strike a very ubstantial wager with a former colleague when the club set out on it's great adventure that we would be in the top tier by 2003. I had hoped that, as we'd both moved on since then, that he had forgotten but no such luck !

[beachcomber]

Can I ask the older ones amongst you how it was you became a Thistle, Clach, or Caley fan ?

Geography, family tie, etc., ?

And did you agree with the merger ?  And are you happy where you are now ?

Good question -

How you became a Thistle, Clach or Caley fan - perish the feckin thought that I'd ever have supported any of em.

Did you agree with the merger - couldn't have given a toss, it was a means to an end to see SFL football in the highlands, but as a nice little bonus  it was worth it to see the anguish from Kingsmills and Telford St. Good riddance to both of em.  :rotflmao:

And are you happy where you are now ? - To be honest, I didn't see them being much more than a 1st division middle table team with maybe the odd excursion upwards, so I've been fairly amazed at the progess.

[old caley girl]

I for one think it is really important that the Caley and Thistle names live on. It is important to remember the origins and previous heritage of the club. I also miss the HL days but I think it might be because I was young then !

[Guest TinCanFan]

When Caley and Thistle merged why didn't they make ICT's colours a neutral colour like green or pink?  That would've stopped all the fans talking about biased shirts etc.

[Charles Bannerman]

TCF... you're not the first person to ask this question (as Messrs Cordiner and Byrne of INE would have told you!)

This is horrendously complicated. The colour of the strip was a major sticking point in the merger agreement. The original arrangement for 94-95, at a time when the Caley side were being particularly aggressive, was "predominantly blue" - which meant a Caley strip. Jags threatened to pull out just as the first game was about to be played. This would have sunk the whole venture and league football in invwerness so reasonable concessions were made which kept them in at the 11th hour. One of the effects of these was that in the second season the strip became 25% black and red through vertical stripes. It's been variations on that theme more or less ever since.

If you can get a copy of Against all Odds, it's explained in full there.

[Guest TinCanFan]

Thanks for that and I doubt you'd be in favour of a pink ICT shirt!

[The Mantis]

Aye, do what the old book plugger says, it's actually rather good  :023:

Actually, the away strip from 1994 looked a bit pinkish from a distance as it was red & white stripes. A bit like pyjamas to be honest.

[Charles Bannerman]

Aye, do what the old book plugger says, it's actually rather good  :023:

Actually, the away strip from 1994 looked a bit pinkish from a distance as it was red & white stripes. A bit like pyjamas to be honest.

And presented by the Caley committee to the rebels in a further gesture of appeasement as being like "an old Caley away strip".