Caley goes down
By: Ian Rose |
6 Comments
More on this later — right now, I’m in no state for writing. Five years and 190 matches in the top flight have come to an end for Caley Thistle. Ross Tokely’s sending-off in the first half had us at ten men, and though there were chances, Micheal Higdon had the only goal.
Gutted.
It’s County next season for us. If we see any of our SPL rivals, it will be in a cup.
That’s all I have in me for now. Have a date out tonight - poor girl.
Category: Postgame
Falkirk and Caley: A Short History
By: Ian Rose | 3 Comments
On Saturday, the Bairns of Falkirk will visit the Highlands for the last time in the league for at least a season - that much we know. If Caley win (or draw, but don’t tell the boys), we stay up in the league and send Falkirk packing down to the likes of Ross County. If we lose, it’s us relegated.
I thought it might be time for a look at some of the matches we’ve played with the Bairns in days past. Here goes.
We’ve met Falkirk 18 times, 9 in Inverness and 9 away. Three of those have been cup matches, the most important coming this season, when Falkirk kicked us out of the Scottish Cup quarterfinals on their way to the final against Rangers. In fact, those three knockout meetings have led to three Caley losses … and with this weekend being a virtual knockout, it doesn’t bode well. In the league, the Bairns hold the slight advantage, with seven wins to our six.
Recent history is definitely on the side of the visitors. The last time we met was the most one-sided match in the history between us, with Falkirk murdering us 4-0. Before that, we had beaten them 4-1 and 4-2, but never 4-0. In fact, Caley has only won one of the last five matchups, 2-1 in Falkirk on goals by Cowie and Imrie. We are missing our all-time scorer against them, John Rankin with four goals, who now hangs his hat on the green side of Edinburgh.
The records don’t lie - we should be considered underdogs. But we have two things going for us - first, we are at home, and though that provided little help in the early season, our home form has improved. Second, as cynical as it may seem, we only need the draw, and this is a team that can grind one of those out - just ask Celtic.
Two days until it’s all over and we know. As I’ve told my friends here, I’ll be out Saturday night, drinking to the boys in blue and red, regardless. The only point left to be decided is whether it will be a celebration or a wake.
Category: By the numbersKillie 1-0 Caley … It’s a shootout then
By: Ian Rose | 1 Comment
I hate to quote myself, and I hate even more to be right, but this is what I had to say about the final match of our season a few weeks back: “If we’ve maintained our four-point lead to this point, then we can call it a survival party, but does anyone believe, the way this season has been, that it won’t come down to the final 90 minutes?”
I would have liked nothing more than for next week’s home match with Falkirk to be meaningless. Now it will be anything but that. If anyone wins that match, then its winner take all, with the loser going down. A draw is enough to keep us up and send Falkirk to the first division.
As for today’s match, we got a bit of what we deserved, if I’m totally honest. In the first half, we had good chances and played overall relatively well. But at the half, the Caley Thistle lost all momentum, and by 60 minutes, it seemed to all watching and listening that both sides were willing to take the point and be happy with it. It was, for the most part, a dreadful second half. Sometimes, when you sit back and relax, you’re made to pay for it in the end, and this was one of those days, as Killie stole a late one from the man who has to be SPL Player of the Month for May, Kevin Kyle. He has absolutely saved Kilmarnock.
So, it will come down to this. Next Saturday is our 190th consecutive match in the top flight, the end of our fifth season since promotion, and if we lose, it will be our last for at least a year. I’ll go on about this all week, but it hurts to remember that we were 20 minutes away from safety on Wednesday, up 2-1 over a Motherwell team with nothing to play for. The concession of that second goal was an absolute killer, and might well have doomed us.
Once the dark clouds retreat from my view of things, I must admit that the pure football fan in me will relish the idea of a playoff. What worries me is that all we need is a draw. I can only hope that we won’t settle for that. An early goalscorer instantly becomes a club legend. That will be one hell of a match. Mon the Caley.
Category: PostgameCaley 1-1 Hamilton … A chance wasted
By: Ian Rose | 2 Comments
It could have been a lot worse. With Falkirk getting a valuable point yesterday, a loss would have seen Caley within a single match of the bottom side. Motherwell also beat St. Mirren, so we gained on them. So from the glass-half-full perspective, a point is okay. The other way of looking at this, though, is probably the more realistic one. Three points were on the plate for us, and we only had the stomach to take down one.
Hamilton has been a tough opponent all season, with 2 losses and 2 draws in our four matches, but today we should have had the advantage. We were at home. We had a fresh pair of legs, and the most dynamic player on the pitch, in Filipe Morais. We got the opening goal, and an hour in were still up 1-0. Most importantly, we played 25 minutes a man up, after James McArthur was sent off for a high tackle on Morais.
If there’s a theme to this season, it is this: we couldn’t close the deal. We played well today, and could have very well won 3-1, but again Dougie Imrie and the rest of the strike force (except Richie Foran, who had a good game and a very good goal) just couldn’t finish.
So, we are left now essentially where we were last week, in 9th place, four points from bottom. With Hamilton, Caley, Kilmarnock and Falkirk all picking up a single point, the big loser of the week was St. Mirren, who lost a point to all of them. Here are the bottom standings now:
8. Hamilton : 38 pts (-20 GD)
9. Caley : 36 pts (-19 GD)
10. Kilmarnock : 35 pts (-13 GD)
11. St. Mirren : 34 pts (-19 GD)
12. Falkirk : 32 pts (-15 GD)
We now enter the most important week of the season, with two of our remaining three matches on Wednesday and Saturday. First, midweek, we travel to Motherwell, who are now safe and have nothing but pride to play for, and Falkirk go to Hamilton. A win for the Accies means safety, and we’ll be cheering them on for it. Meanwhile, St. Mirren will look to stop their bleeding against Killie. If we win and Falkirk loses, we are safe for 2010.
Saturday takes Caley on the road to Kilmarnock, and Falkirk hosting St. Mirren. If there’s a game that Falkirk needs to win to survive, its this one, and they know it. We cannot afford to lose the next two matches. If at the final whistle next Saturday, things are as they stand, with Caley four points from bottom, we’ll be safe. If it’s any less than that, we’ll face a potential relegation playoff on the final day when we host Falkirk.
Could have been better, could have been worse. There remain three teams below us, and with two of them playing each other Wednesday, we know for sure that whatever happens, we can only drop to tenth midweek. Mon the Caley.
Category: PostgameCaley wait for Saturday’s results
By: Ian Rose | Add Comments
No comment on the match that could very well decide the SPL title this Saturday, because as much as I hope it’s a cracker, the result doesn’t much matter to me. While Caley’s survival is still in question, there’s no time to be bothering about the top of the league. There are more important matters to attend to at the bottom.
Caley sit 9th place as I write this post, a single point above both Kilmarnock and St. Mirren, and only four from bottom side Falkirk, with 4 matches remaining. We did ourselves a world of good last weekend with a 2-1 win over St. Mirren, and if we can beat Hamilton on Sunday, we’ll be on 38 points, with four teams behind us in the table.
But before Sunday comes Saturday, and this Saturday, Caley are spectators. Killie and Falkirk will take the pitch, and you have to think that whoever loses this one is the favorite to go down. Despite their early form, Kilmarnock have been absolutely horrible over the late stretches of the season, and have only a single league win in 2009. Lucky for them, that win was a 3-0 demolition of none other than their weekend guests Falkirk. St. Mirren look to get their feet back under them against Motherwell, who have to be hungry after first barely missing out on the top six, and then losing to the last-place Bairns.
If I had to make a guess, I’d say Motherwell over St. Mirren, which is good news for Caley. The Killie-Falkirk one is tough to call. Killie were dominant last time, but Falkirk is I think the more dangerous side right now. As much as I’d like to keep the four-point advantage on them, I think they’ll just tip it, and close to within a point of the Caley.
We’ll be watching. If things go right, and there’s still four points and a game in hand between us and the drop, we will have all the confidence in the world going into Sunday with the Accies. If not, well, we’ll see what this team is made of. Mon the Caley.
Category: Hear the noiseSt. Mirren 1-2 Caley, and us into 9th
By: Ian Rose | Add Comments
There are days that you can do no wrong, and it was that kind of day for Caley defender Ross Tokely. Winning everything in the air, perfectly timing tackles, and sinking the winning goal in a relegation six pointer. Those are the kind of days you remember.
Caley looked the better side for long stretches of today’s match, and took the lead early on a Grant Munro goal (a good striking day for the defenders). We took that lead into the half, but lost it around 70 minutes against the run of play. The early second half was dominated by Dougie Imrie, who absolutely destroyed the St. Mirren midfield and very nearly gave us the winner. But that honor would go to Toke, and why not? Again, fantastic man of the match day for Big Ross.
After Ross’ heroics, the moment of the afternoon has to go to Ian Black, who cleared a would-be equalizer off of the line in the dying moments. Well done, Blackie - you’ll be missed when you become a damned Jambo.
This was our first win in almost a month, the last one coming against these same Buddies. Cheers, St. Mirren.
It was a day for the 2-1, as Falkirk, Hamilton and Dundee United also won by that scoreline. The shuffle at the bottom of the league continues now, as Caley jump from 11th to 9th, leapfrogging defeated St. Mirren and Kilmarnock. The standings in the bottom half now:
7. Motherwell 41 pts (-9 GD)
8. Hamilton 37 pts (-20 GD)
9. Caley Thistle 35 pts (-19 GD)
10. Kilmarnock 34 pts (-13 GD)
11. St. Mirren 34 pts (-17 GD)
12. Falkirk 31 pts (-15 GD)
So we’re still 4 points from the drop, but now with three teams below us instead of one. That’s a day I’ll gladly accept. Mon the Caley.
Category: PostgameSt. Mirren v. Caley Preview
By: Ian Rose | Add Comments
The date is: 1-May-2009
Caley Thistle is: 4 points safe, sitting 11th above only Falkirk, and two points below Kilmarnock, St. Mirren and Hamilton.
We head to St. Mirren for the start of the post-split season tomorrow. This season’s final five matches are essentially a month-and-a-half-long relegation playoff, with five of the bottom six sides in real danger of the drop. Six points separates Kilmarnock in 8th from Falkirk in 12th.
Injuries to St. Mirren make this a very shaky time for the Buddies, and a mostly healthy Inverness should be able to do some damage. Even though their home form is pretty decent, I have to think that we can manage at least a draw. Falkirk is playing Motherwell, who are going to be hard to predict in these matches. On one hand, they are the best side in the bottom half, without much doubt. On the other hand, they have nothing to play for, since they can’t advance in position above 7th, and can’t realistically drop to last and relegation. How they perform could be a huge x factor over the coming weeks.
I’m going to go out on a bit of a limb for my boys this week, and predict a 2-0 Caley win, away at St. Mirren. Along with a Falkirk loss to the Well, this would put us possibly one matchday from safety. The opposite, a Caley loss and a Falkirk win, would make the margin only a single point, and probably cause me to finally lose my full head of hair.
This is a huge weekend for the bottom five. Whoever wins their match, especially among the three tied on points at 34, can breath a huge sigh of relief. We’re all Motherwell fans this weekend as well, hoping that Falkirk won’t be able to break out of their funk. In all honesty, I hate to see the Bairns headed down, and I’d prefer to lose Killie, St. Mirren or Hamilton. But anyone, other than the Caley, will do just fine.
Category: Match PreviewThe Final Five
By: Ian Rose | Add Comments
The SPL has split into its top and bottom halves, and once again, the Caley Thistle find themselves on the lower, fighting to stay in even that. As it stands, we are four points ahead of Europe-and-Scottish-Cup-final-bound Falkirk in the race for survival. Here are our final five fixtures. I promise none of them will turn out to be Tigh’s wife.
2 May: St. Mirren v. Caley Thistle
10 May: Caley Thistle v. Hamilton
13 May: Motherwell v. Caley Thistle
16 May: Kilmarnock v. Caley Thistle
23 May: Caley Thistle v. Falkirk
Which means (holy hell) the last match of the season might well decide who goes down. We have four matches of work to avoid that being an issue, so let’s look at how we’ve fared in these fixtures lately.
St. Mirren v. Caley:
The Good News is that in our most recent meeting, the Caley ended up on top by 2-1. The bad news is that its been two seasons and three matches since we’ve been able to get a win in Paisley. Overall, though, our record is about split with the Buddies, and despite the recent Andy Dorman phenomenon, they don’t have a lot in the way of goalscorers. Nor do we. Could easily be a draw.
Caley v. Hamilton:
Our three meetings this season have ended in two 1-0 wins for the Accies and one recent 1-1 draw, so only a fool would bet on many goals here. On form, Caley is definitely looking better than the rapidly sinking Accies, but home has been none too comfortable for Caley so far.
Motherwell v. Caley:
We’re a bit unlucky to draw an away match with the one side in the bottom half not seriously threatened with relegation, and it’s never fun to have to play on the joke of a pitch at Fir Park, but we’ll have to make due. The Caley have gone six league matches without so much as a point against the Well, and haven’t won on their ground since 2006, when we pulled off a 4-1 shocker on three second-half goals. The toughest match of the post-season, though maybe the least important, since all the others are basically relegation six-pointers.
Kilmarnock v. Caley:
No fixture in Caley’s history has produced as many goals as the matchup with Kilmarnock. In the past four years, we have fought out a 4-3, a 3-3, two 3-1s, and a 4-1. There will be goals. In the past two seasons, its been all to the home side, but Caley’s road form this season, and Killie’s astonishing inconsistency, should make this anyone’s fitba game.
Caley v. Falkirk:
This one, folks, is for all the damned marbles. If we’ve maintained our four-point lead to this point, then we can call it a survival party, but does anyone believe, the way this season has been, that it won’t come down to the final 90 minutes? Last time we met, Falkirk wiped the pitch with us, 4-0, and they’ll come in with all the confidence in the world if the margin is less than three points. This is a match that we need to concentrate on winning before it starts, but if it comes down to it, it will be an impossible one to predict if only because neither team has consistently shown it deserves either survival or the drop.
This is a season without a Gretna, without a team just begging to go down. There are five teams that could realistically be facing the likes of Ross County next season, and we are most certainly one of them. I wish it wasn’t a week away, because to be honest, I’m already nervous. Mon the Caley.
Category: Hear the noiseRequest denied
By: Ian Rose | 4 Comments
I received this email today from ICT:
Ian,
As you will appreciate the crest is part of the club’s intellectual property rights and as such is licensed to a number of commercial partners for their use. In the circumstances we are unable to grant you the right to use the crest.
Regards
Mike Smith
Chief Executive
ICTFC
Of course, I’m disappointed. I liked to believe until now that the reach of the FootballDataCo culture, the idea that total brand control rather than outreach is the way for football to move forward, hadn’t quite yet spread to Inverness. Mike Smith’s email tells me otherwise. And though I am disappointed, I’m not disappointed in the club. Executives come and go, as do business strategies and ideas. They are temporary, and they represent the club itself in only the most legal sense. The club is more than its current leadership. As I told Smith and the rest of the front office in the initial email, they are fully within their legal rights to deny use of the crest. The easiest thing for me to do now would be to criticize them and rant about how their short-sighted, old-media ideas are holding them back, but what this comes down to is a simple disagreement. I believe that the club is better off spreading its brand than protecting it, and better off embracing its fans than not. The front office is more conservative in their views, wanting control of the brand in an internet age where that is increasingly difficult, maybe impossible.
The Wolves Offside held a contest to decide their new Offside crest, and though that’s a tempting idea, I don’t think that’s what I’m going to do. To be honest, this blog is not primarily for Caley Thistle fans. It caters mostly to football fans in general, and attempts to give Caley Thistle a place at the table in terms of the new media coverage that the big clubs take for granted. And so, I’ll be choosing a new crest for the Caley Offside. Any suggestions are welcome, and thanks for your support.
Category: Caley Thistle Team NewsCaley 1-1 Hamilton … just barely enough
By: Ian Rose | Add Comments
Caley Thistle goes into the SPL split with a four point lead over bottom side Falkirk with draws for both today. We took the most dangerous road to a draw, going down early to a James McArthur goal. That was the first goal for Accies in over 550 minutes, and so conceding to this side at all is a shame. Hamilton made the risky call to sit on their goal, doing a lot of defending and a fair bit of time-wasting as well, but Brian Kerr was able to bring us back with a deflected shot with about five minutes left in regulation. There were chances for both sides in the five or so minutes of stoppage, but no finish for either, and we gather up our 32nd point of the season.
Elsewhere in the league, both Falkirk and Kilmarnock equal our result on the day, with scoreless draws against Hearts and Dundee United respectively. The story of the day, though, was St. Mirren, taking out Motherwell 2-0 and clinching a top-six finish for Hibs. It’s a huge result for the Buddies, rising them to 34 points, where they sit even with Killie and Hamilton. So, here’s how the bottom half of the league looks:
7. Motherwell : 41 points (-8 GD)
8. Kilmarnock : 34 points (-12 GD)
9. St. Mirren : 34 points (-16 GD)
10. Hamilton : 34 points (-21 GD)
11. Caley Thistle : 32 points (-20 GD)
12. Falkirk : 28 points (-16 GD)
The Well are, despite their loss today, plenty safe from the drop. Everyone else is very much in play. Five games remain, and all of them are essentially relegation six-pointers, especially the one against Falkirk. The Bairns will feel that they have a chance to stay up, especially with their recent 4-0 dismantling of Caley. On form, Hamilton are probably worst, and I would put a tenner or so on St. Mirren staying up the way they’re playing. It’s going to be a great run in. Mon the Caley.
Category: Postgame
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