They'll be the first Inverness Junior side since 19 oatcake.

Surely they will fail the admissions process if they continue to play in North Kessock? I know Alness United tried to be admited a few years ago but were denied. However I am not sure on the ground requirements, but wish them luck anyway.

They state that they meet the requirements at North Kessock and I would assume that their application woild not be considered at the AGM if they didn't (the SJFA would have sent a delegation to inspect the facilities).

Alness got as far as being on the AGM agenda - but at the meeting the SJFA Officials recommended they be denied because of the ground. I don't think they were voted on. Their application I'm pretty sure was mentioned in a Lok meeting.

SJFA ground standards are low. Enclosed pitch and a changing room block inside the ground is about it.

Just to confirm that Inverness City have been accepted in to the Juniors. They will start in North Div 2. I had heard that the NRJFA said no to there admission due to there ground but they were overuled by the SJFA or something along that lines.

What teams will City be up against then?

Take it they will have to do a fair bit of travelling!!

Most of the teams will be based in Moray, so that's roughly an hour away for many of the away trips.

Bishopmill United (Elgin)
Buckie Rovers
Burghead Thistle
Deveronside (Banff)
Fochabers
New Elgin
RAF Lossiemouth
Whitehills

And I think Nairn St Ninian will be coming down from the First Division, so they will be Inverness City's closest opponents.

Maybe with Inverness's inclusion..Alness Uinted will get over thire arse's and get the proposed ground plans they have had for the last 8 years into play.

Doubt it though.

Good luck to Inverness City and welcome to the Juniors, are there many other teams up and around the Inverness area that would be able to step up to the Juniors and would have a suitable ground to do so??

Not really.

In fact this move makes me wonder what is happening with the North Caledonian League. As I understood it, Inverness City were formed to bring NCL fitba back to the city after ICT and Clach pulled their reserve teams out of the league a few seasons back, so this switch has me a little puzzled about the change in direction from ICFC and a little concerned for the NCL as it has lost some clubs in recent seasons.

Link

Inverness City will be playing at the Northern Meeting Park which is excellent news for them IMO. It's in a brilliant central location, is fully enclosed, and has an ancient 800 seater grandstand and so will probably be the most picturesque ground in the league being situated right behind the Cathedral.

anyone know anything about forthcoming fixture lists/admission prices/KO times etc?
do IC have any links(formal or not)with ICT?

Not sure but their website has a link to the ICT website - enough to put me off.

I will probably go and see a game out of curiosity and convenience though.

if thats the case ill give them a miss

As far as I am aware they have absolutely no links with ICT. They are chummy with Clach though.

Beat me too it Lossie Loon i'm pretty sure they don't have any links with ICT

Whats the standard of the Juniors in Moray?

Overall very low, definitely the weakest of all the Junior leagues. A gauge of their quality is displayed in the Junior Cup year in, year out.

Here are the 2007-08 scores in league order

Lossiemouth Utd: Lost 2-1 to Hillhead in R2 (R1 bye)
Buckie Rovers: Lost 1-0 to St. Roch's in R1
Bishopmill Utd: Lost 14-0 to Newtongrange in R2 (R1 bye)
New Elgin: Lost 5-1 to Ardrossan Winton Rovers in R1
Burghead Thistle: Lost 7-0 to Auchinleck in R1
Deveronside: Lost 5-2 to Montrose Roselea in R2 (R1 bye)
RAF Lossie: Lost 7-0 to Maybole in R2 (R1 bye)
Whitehills: Lost 4-1 to Benburb in R2 (R1 bye)

In the 2006-07 competition, New Elgin shipped 12 to Lok while Burghead, then in the league above lost 14 against Kelty.

As cmon has said it is a poor standard compared to the bigger Junior leagues down south. Any good players get snapped up by Highland League sides in this area. Inverness City would get a better standard of football in the North Caledonian League. And considering they didn't have the quality to finish in the top two, they might not get promoted as fast as they think they can.

Though if Inverness City can establish themselves in the North Premier League, they'll take on Clach for players IMHO.

That's entirely possible. I think what could hold people back is the regard in which people around here have for the Highland League. Down south the Juniors is more prestigious than Non League football, but that isn't the case up here. I think it would simply come down to money at the end of the day (i.e who pays the most). Plus now with every Highland League side getting entry into the Scottish Cup is a very important incentive to anyone thinking about joining either the Junior ranks or the Highland League.

Though of course the North Premier winners qualify also.

Yeah absolutely. If Inverness City were genuine challengers to win it, I think players will always want to play for a team that wins trophies. Clach are guaranteed entry every year to the Scottish Cup, which is a major carrot to dangle in front of players. I certainly think a very succesful Inverness City side would help promote the Junior game up here, and they certainly could be more of a draw than Clach. I think the tradition of the Highland League will still be a major factor in deciding. However money as I stated will ultimately be the most decisive factor.

It will certainly be interesting to see how Inverness City fair in the Junior ranks.

am i right in saying IC take on Rothes in a friendly on Friday night(4th July)?

I have a feeling they are but are being held up by THC legal deprtment about ground purchase.

If they are then they're making a bad start to their Junior career. No Junior club is permitted to play any match whatsoever until the 19th of July.

I'm sure he meant "joint training session" instead of friendly...

Just out of interest Jamie, but why are Junior clubs not allowed to play until 19th July? Has that rule been around for a while?

Yes, the rule has been around for a while.

The rule is actually the 3rd Saturday in July, which this year is the 19th. Until 4 or 5 years ago, it was the fourth Saturday in July.

The Junior season officially runs from the 3rd Saturday in July to the 3rd Saturday in June, and no games, competitive or friendly, without special permission (i.e. outstanding league fixtures or cup ties - special permission would be refused for friendlies) can be played in the time between. Hefty fines are imposed on clubs who do it.

errr....why?does that mean juniors dont play friendlies at all?i always thought friendlies were seen as quite an important part of the preseason.more to the point,if im around at the time of the "joint training session" will i be able to see it?will i be charged?etc

If the game's on, they'll have to charge a tenner a head to cover the fine.

Friendlies are played by SJFA clubs from the 3rd Saturday in July onwards. The competitive games usually begin in early August.

Sometimes the "joint training sessions" are played as three thirds of 30 mins each. Any early Junior "friendlies" will be played as these and will officially be closed doors bounce match affairs. I'm guessing that the ICFC friendlies may have been organised before their election into the Juniors and they will have to change them to "joint training sessions" instead.

When do the fixtures come out then?

http://www.footballcentral.org/sfa/associa...th/fixtures.cfm

If there was a pyramid system would Pollok have the team and Facilties to match the Senior teams in the 3rd division, Results seem to suggest they are a top Junior side but do they have a good supporter base? And could they hold there own against these teams?

At present our facilities are not particularly great. At the following link you'll find a gallery which shows the ground.

The link also details our gates (hi, low, average, league average) from 1998. The figures will show that over our league programme we tend to average 550+. Crowds are falling though, but that's largely down to us kicking off the past few seasons against Setanta live games and a number of times this year we had home games played against Scotland on Sky or the Old Firm fixture - Neilston and Petershill I think were both affected.

The league attendances were:

Auchinleck (693)
Neilston (432)
Cumnock (490)
Shotts Bon Accord (457)
Arthurlie (683)
Beith (587)
Bellshill Athletic (544)
Petershill (441)
Irvine Meadow (824)
Kilsyth Rangers (320)
Glenafton Athletic (750)

http://pollokfc.co.uk/clubinfo.htm

On the pitch, well who knows? We (IMHO) played very well against Montrose and were unlucky to not win at Links Park. I don't think we were outclassed in either game. We had played Alloa in pre-season and for a spell in the 2nd half played them off the park but some late kamikaze defending saw us snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

I think we'd be at our level in a Regional division within the pyramid.

A cracking stadium they way they should be, I am sure with healthy crowds like yours you would be an excellent addition to the SFL however I am sure its good to play against your old rivals and beat the so called big boys in the Scottish Cup!

That's just it - we're 100 years old and have a solid Junior history with traditional rivals. We are a progressive club though and will be watching any pyramid developments with interest.

It's interesting to look at the histories of the five applicants.

Annan Athletic (1942) - began in the Juniors in the 1940s, switched to England when the Dumfries JFA folded, came back to Scotland in late 70s, 10 years in South of Scotland League then have spent last 20 years or so in East of Scotland League.

Edinburgh City (reformed 1986) - A highly unsuccessful amateur Scottish League side that lived on in name through a social club after the football section folded. Brought back to life when Postal United changed their name to Edinburgh City in 1986. Switched to Meadowbank when it was vacated in mid 1990s after latterly playing at Fernieside Rec.

Preston Athletic (1945) - an unsuccessful Junior side that switched codes in 1994, nice new stadium built by local authority.

The Spartans (1951) - formed as an Edinburgh Universities Old Boys side eventually playing out of Edinburgh City's old stadium.

Cove Rangers (1922) - The oldest applicant but most of their history was spent in Amateur football. They switched to the Juniors in 1985 and joined the Highland League a year later.

The point being - none of the above have a history that dates back to Pre WW2 in the same organisation. Just a thought but maybe they lack ties to where they are.

Inverness City play their 1st game at the Northern Meeting Park on Saturday at 2.15pm. Link

Did anybody ever establish who were the last junior club in Inverness? I see having checked Highland Hundred that Citadel had a short spell as a junior club in the 30's after dropping out of the Highland League, has there been another Inverness Junior club since then?

As far as i know Citadel were the first & the last..

I could well be wrong though, and if i am, there will be plenty on here too correct me.

The Scottish Juniors Centenary book lists an Inverness junior team, "Catch My Pal", as having taken part in the Junior Cup one season in the 1920's. The name has some connection with the tempererance movement.

From Brian McColl's site of just about everyone

http://www.geocities.com/br1anmccoll/clublisti

Senior


Junior


And there may be more without Inverness in the name - including

http://www.geocities.com/br1anmccoll/catchmypal

catch my pal were North Cledonian Champions in 24-25 (Wiki)

There is a thread on Scootish league.net which covers this debate too

http://www.scottishleague.net/forum/viewto...ad524c2bdaf7b7a

My uncle used to play for 'Craig Dunain Cosmos' in the welfare in the late 70's early 80's. He worked at the Craig & was not a patient before anyone starts..

Don't know what to do know. I would have definitely gone to the Inverness City game but i also want to see the Clach game as it's Scottish Cup. Hmmm.

A few guys in my year and / or the year(s) below me play for Inverness City. The Mason twins still play for them?

The two Masons play, Colin is the captain of the side. They won 4-3 against an excellent Buchanhaven today.

Went along today and really enjoyed the game. Thought Inverness were going to get a bit of tanking when they went 3-1 down but they showed great spirit (and got a bit of luck with the penalty and late own goal!) to turn it around and win 4-3. It looked like a very good setup all round, theyve got the Northern Meetings Park looking great and there was a good atmosphere. Must say theyre putting Clach to shame with all the advertising around town and a very good website. They deserve to do well and Ill certainly go back and watch them again.

I was at the game too, I spoke to the tv man who was covering the game and he says it was a penalty he has it on camera so don't know when it will be shown, the place is looking good but still needs a lick of paint, The programme was excellent in all hope that they do another next week?

What sort of gate was there for the side's debut in the city itself?