Caley Thistle Fans’ Panel: Supporters have their say at the halfway stage of League One season

Welcome to our second Caley Thistle Fans’ Panel – where we take a snapshot of views from supporters of the League One club.

Scott Kellacher’s team reached the midway point of their league season at the weekend.

A shock 4-1 home defeat against Paul Hartley’s Cove Rangers was a sore way for administration-hit Inverness to round off the most punishing of years.

Dropping out of the Championship under Duncan Ferguson, turmoil inside and outside of the Caledonian Stadium in the summer, and a financial survival mission led by former chairman and financial consultant Alan Savage has led to an emotional roller-coaster.

Since Kellacher replaced Ferguson in October, he and assistant player-boss Billy Mckay led the team to four league wins out of seven before they faced Cove.

ICT and Dumbarton, two clubs in administration, meet in the Highlands this weekend and the Caley Jags are three points ahead of their basement opponents and nine adrift of Annan Athletic, who are in eighth position.

Administrators BDO, along with Savage, are aiming to solve a car park issue with former directors in a bid to move towards finding a buyer for the club.

George Moodie, of the ICTFC Supporters’ Trust, and Sandy Sutherland, of The Wyness Shuffle podcast, offer their views going into the next round of matches.

ICT are now three points ahead of Dumbarton and nine behind Annan. Given the 15-point penalty, how do you assess the team’s survival chances?

George Moodie: Annan are definitely catchable. Teams are taking points of each other every week in this league and we still have to play them twice as well as having a game in hand on them.

A good run of wins will see us catch them before the end of the season.

Dumbarton will no doubt say the same about catching us and, whilst we haven’t had the best of results against them so far this season (with a 1-1 draw and a 3-1 loss), I still believe we can stay ahead of them.

It’s going to be an exciting second half of the season for supporters to follow and get right behind the team.

Sandy Sutherland:  I’d say chances of ICT surviving are still very strong.

We have a pivotal couple of weeks coming up with Dumbarton at home followed by Annan away. We need to take as many points away from them as possible and hopefully build on it, the remaining games against both sides will be massive between now and the end of the season.

I believe we’ve got one of the better squads in the league, despite it being so young.

There will be a few blips along the way which have been seen in the recent home fixtures but I still believe we will pick up more points than both Dumbarton and Annan. I’m cautiously optimistic it will be enough to get us out trouble, we’re long overdue a good end to a season surely!

I’d like to see us use home advantage more as we’ve only taken three home wins all season.

We are pulling in good crowds for this level and the singing section has provided a good atmosphere and that will only get stronger if we improve the home form.

Fans need to be mindful though that, with a youthful squad, we will endure afternoons like the 4-1 defeat to Cove where a lack of experience gets the better of us.

When the going gets tough, and especially for our own academy players who have been fast tracked into first-team football, they are in need of backing, not beratement.

What’s your take on the style of the side’s performances under Scott Kellacher and Billy Mckay?

GM: Kel and Billy’s style of play has been refreshing since taking over.

The previous manager’s style was too defensive and boring whereas now we look like we are an attacking team, not afraid to shoot from outside the box and are dangerous from set-pieces.

Given our league position we can’t afford to play too safe in every game. We need to go for the wins and whilst it’s a cliche, we have 18 cup finals still to play to finish (at least) eighth!

SS: With five less players to work with and a coaching staff made up of folks from the academy and volunteers, Kells and Billy deserve immense credit for the work they are doing.

They understand the severity of the situation we are in and I admire the bold approach they are taking to try and steer us to safety.

The only way we get out of the drop zone is by winning games and scoring goals, neither of which we saw enough of under Duncan Ferguson.

With a more attacking approach we are making full use of players in their more natural positions. Luis Longstaff has started to show what he can really offer the team as a wide player.

I’ve been really impressed with Paul Allan as well who looks better suited to being box-to-box midfielder whereas before he didn’t seem to suit Ferguson’s style.

It’s been good seeing young lads like Keith Bray and Robbie Thompson get a chance to showcase themselves more too.

Prior to Kells taking over, I would have described watching us as a bore-fest, but he’s completely changed that mentality. He’s doing it with a passion and sense of optimism that wasn’t there before.

An under-20s striker looks like being added in the January window. What other areas would you like to see bolstered going into 2025?

GM: We need someone to provide us with a different option up front, although I thought Ethan Cairns did well when he came on at the weekend.

We perhaps need cover at right-back as we do miss Jake Davidson since his injury.

We have a good young squad who are capable of winning games in this league.

Supporters need to realise that there will be the odd blip along the way and as long as these are one-offs and we keep winning games we have the players here already who can do a great job for us when given the chance.

For example, Matthew Strachan has been great stepping in at left-back and more game-time will only build up the confidence of all these young players.

SS: We are the second lowest scorers in the league and, while it hasn’t stopped us picking up wins, a more clinical edge up top would have probably seen us win more.

If we are signing a striker, I’d like to see someone who poses more of a physical threat to defenders, especially if we are having to go long in certain games, might not be so easy given limitations in who we can sign but it is definitely needed.

I would love to have seen more of (Dundee loanee) Charlie Reilly in an ICT shirt, but it’s looking unlikely we’ll see him again due to injury and his loan set to expire.

Administration won’t just limit us in signing players, but it may also prevent us from keeping some of our best players.

I’m hoping we can keep the squad as intact as possible throughout the window, it’ll ensure us the best possible chance of survival, but if offers come in I’d imagine the administrators will find that hard to turn down.

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