Everything about Inverness Caledonian Thistle F C totally explained
George Fraser |
manager =
Craig Brewster|
league =
Scottish Premier League |
season =
2007-08 |
position = 9th |
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Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club is a
Scottish football team based in the city of
Inverness. They currently play in the
Scottish Premier League and are currently managed by
Craig Brewster.
They play in
blue,
red,
black and
white strips, and are nicknamed
Caley Thistle, as well as
Caley Jags and the less commonly used
Red and Blues. Their away shirt is all black. Their home ground,
Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, is situated beside the
Moray Firth, in the shadow of the
Kessock Bridge. ICT's top scorer ever is
Dennis Wyness who has scored 101 goals to date. Their motto is "The Pride of the Highlands". Their current mascot is called Nessie.
History
The club was formed as
Caledonian Thistle F.C. in
1994 following the merger of
Caledonian F.C. and
Inverness Thistle F.C., both members of the
Highland Football League, to fill a vacancy in the
Scottish Football League. The club amended its name to
Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C. in 1996 at the request of
Inverness District Council.
After a promising start to their inaugural season, Inverness Caledonian Thistle eventually finished sixth in the
Third Division in
Season 1994-1995. The following season, they finished third and, eventually, in
Season 1996-97, they won the Third Division Championship.
The club then spent two seasons in the
Second Division and, after a closely-fought season, finished runners-up in
Season 1998-99; a feat which saw them promoted to the
First Division.
Season 2003-2004 could be regarded as the club's most successful to date. In
November 2003, they defeated
Airdrie United 2-0, thanks to goals from Steve Hislop and
David Bingham, to win the
Scottish Challenge Cup, and also reached the
Scottish Cup semi-final, losing a replay 3-2 to
Dunfermline Athletic after a 1-1 draw at
Hampden Park. However, the best was still to come. On the final day of the season, Inverness defeated
St Johnstone 3-1, with goals from Paul Ritchie, David Bingham and
Barry Wilson and, as a result, pipped
Clyde to the First Division title. This made them eligible for promotion to the
Scottish Premier League (SPL). However, SPL rules stated that all member clubs must have a stadium with a minimum capacity of 10 000 seats. Caledonian Stadium didn't and this left the club's board with a dilemma: either to remain in the First Division (like
Falkirk the previous season) or to groundshare with
Aberdeen, over 150 km (over 100 miles) away. After consulting with supporters, the board decided the sacrifice of one season in
Aberdeen would be worth it for Premier League football.
After a change in SPL rules during the
2004-05 season to only require 6,000 seats for SPL membership, Caledonian Stadium was made a valid SPL venue after a rapid ground expansion, which added two new stands. The stadium was renamed as the 'Tulloch Caledonian Stadium' in honour of the building firm which completed the work in only 47 working days. The chairman of Tulloch,
David Sutherland CBE, was also chairman of the club at the time. Caley Thistle returned to playing in Inverness, playing and defeating Dunfermline in their first SPL game in their own ground on
29 January 2005 2-0 thanks to goals from
Barry Wilson and then player manager
Craig Brewster
.
The team is also famous for its
Scottish Cup victories over
Celtic in
2000 and
2003: winning 3-1 at
Celtic Park
, resulting in the memorable headline "
Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic Are Atrocious" in
The Sun which is now framed in the foyer of Caledonian Stadium, and 1-0
. Caledonian Thistle have also knocked other SPL teams out of cup competitions, including
Motherwell
and
Hearts
.
Over the first ten years of their existence the club had been responsible for a total of 11 'shocks' and as a result had gained themselves a reputation as being 'giant killers', but following their promotion to the SPL, they've now joined the ranks of the 'giants' themselves.
Caledonian's run of cup victories over Celtic came to an end following 2 goals in the last 4 minutes of their fifth round tie held at Caledonian Stadium on
25 February 2007 after the home side had led 1-0 for the majority of the game thanks to a
Graham Bayne goal. .
Another significant recent event has been the signing of
Romanian international Marius Niculae, who became the first Romanian to play in the Scottish league system and one of the most important players in the team as the season progressed.
Another famous victory occurred on the
16 December 2007 when the club went from being 2-0 down to Celtic to win 3-2. The Inverness goals were scored by
John Rankin,
David Proctor and
Don Cowie.
Marius Niculae was influential throughout the game, although he didn't score.
On Saturday
9 February 2008, club captain
Grant Munro scored the club's 1000th goal in a 1-1 draw with
St Mirren.
Inverness recorded their highest ever scoreline in the
SPL in a 6-1 win over Gretna on the 2nd May 2008.
Highest attendance
The club's highest 'home' (league) attendance actually occurred while they were groundsharing with Aberdeen at Pittodrie. With Inverness fans in the traditional home end and Aberdeen fans filling the away end, a record attendance of 9,530 was set on 16th Oct 2004. This record may stand for some time, as the crowd that day was bigger than the current capacity of Caledonian Stadium.
The club's highest 'home' (cup) attendance was also recorded in a venue other than the Club's home ground. A crowd of 11,296 watched Caley Thistle v Rangers on the 9th March 1996 at Tannadice in Dundee. The game had been switched to Dundee as the club's home ground (Telford Street Park at that time) was deemed unsuitable for the tie.
The highest attendance recorded at the Caledonian Stadium is 7,753, set on
20 January 2008 against Rangers.
Managers
Caley Thistle have been managed by five managers since they joined the league:
Sergei Baltacha had been manager of
Caledonian F.C. prior to the merger and he carried on as Caley Thistle manager after the merger in 1994. However, he only lasted one season, leaving in the
summer of 1995 to be closer to his family in
Perth.
Baltacha was replaced by Huntly manager Steve Paterson, who to date is the club's longest-serving manager. During his seven and a half years as manager, from the summer of 1995 to December
2002, Paterson succeeded in taking the club to the
Scottish Football League First Division. He also steered ICT to their famous 3-1 Scottish Cup victory against Celtic in 2000. In November 2002 Paterson was strongly linked to the vacant manager's position at
Dundee United. However, he chose to stay with Caley Thistle for another month, after which he left, along with assistant
Duncan Shearer, to become manager of
Aberdeen.
Paterson was replaced by
Hearts legend John Robertson, whose two-year reign as manager was an exceptionally successful period. Under Robertson Caley Thistle won the Bell's Cup, gained another Scottish Cup victory over
Celtic, this time 1-0 thanks to a goal on the stroke of half time by club record scorer
Dennis Wyness and won the First Division Championship, taking the club into the SPL. Robertson eventually left to become Hearts manager and was replaced by
Dunfermline's Craig Brewster as player-manager.
Brewster succeeded in keeping the club in the SPL. He also introduced new training regimes to increase player fitness and was successful in steering the club to good results against a number of established Premier League sides, including Rangers, Celtic, Motherwell, Hearts and Hibs. However, after a period of just over thirteen months at the club he left to become the new
Dundee United manager after the sacking of
Gordon Chisholm.
Former player
Charlie Christie was appointed manager on
27 January 2006, after a successful spell as caretaker manager following the departure of Brewster, during which time Caley Thistle achieved three wins out of three games played, including a record victory for the club in the SPL as they beat
Falkirk 4-1 away from home. He resigned on the 19th August 2007 because he felt enough was enough and that the best move for him and his family was for him to step down as manager of Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club.
The club also has a
Director of football, former Caley Jags player
Graeme Bennett.
Current squad
» For recent transfers, see List of Scottish football transfers 2007-08.
Out on loan
Honours
Scottish First Division(1): 2003/04
Bells Challenge Cup: 2003/04
Scottish Third Division(1): 1996/989Further Information
Get more info on 'Inverness Caledonian Thistle F C'.
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