RayBees Posted January 6, 2008 Author Share Posted January 6, 2008 Do you think there kicking themselves now ? Having a football club that makes profit is rare as well as ICT could gain an extra 300 maybe from Clach fans at their gate.do you go to ICT games now ? Do i go to ICT games? What Waspie said. I can't see how Clach would be kicking themselves at keeping themselves in existence. I've started going to a couple of their games and plan to go to more. Yes the standard is pish and they actually get crowds of about 150 so ICT wouldn't really gain anything if they went under. I doubt the Clach fans would change to watching them anyway. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 Ive been wondering what the biggest rivalry was in Inverness back in the pre-merger days. People always seem to talk about Caley - Thistle but going by the honours lists Thistle were the third power in Inverness football with Caley and Clach well out in front. Geographically Caley and Clach would also have been more local than Caley and Thistle, would Caley - Clach not have been a bigger rivalry? Or was it that Clach were poor in the last decade or so before the merger and as such the Caley - Thistle rivarly grew? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayBees Posted January 6, 2008 Author Share Posted January 6, 2008 Ive been wondering what the biggest rivalry was in Inverness back in the pre-merger days. People always seem to talk about Caley - Thistle but going by the honours lists Thistle were the third power in Inverness football with Caley and Clach well out in front. Geographically Caley and Clach would also have been more local than Caley and Thistle, would Caley - Clach not have been a bigger rivalry? Or was it that Clach were poor in the last decade or so before the merger and as such the Caley - Thistle rivarly grew? I've spoken with PRS about this. You're dead right that Clach were and will remain ahead of Thistle in the honours lists but the vast majority of Clach's success came before 1950. They won 8 of the first 13 Highland League titles. Beyond 1970 Clach really only won trophies occasionally and in their bankruptcy season (89-90) they got only 3 points, conceding 151 goals in 34 games! Thistle had more success in this period. In my years as a Caley fan (late 80, early 90s) Thistle were bigger rivals but PRS has told me of the Clach support being particularly notorious in the 70s. Caley's biggest rivals though IMO were Elgin and Ross County ahead of Thistle. I didn't really feel much animosity towards the Jaggies as we always beat them. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Shaker Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 No one ever really hated Thistle, except my grandfather who spent many an afternoon at Kingsmills howling abuse at Thistle directors for being sponsored by a whisky brand owned by the Japanese. Caledonian were always the bad guys, except when playing Elgin when they became everyones buddy. Clach still have 'an element' in their support. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reina Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 Caley v Elgin games used to be wild. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest highlander Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 I very much doubt Clach are "kicking themselves" now. And they dont even get 300 fans at their games anyway. Waspie, If 50 extra fans because of the lack of Clach go to ICT games- an average of 15 home games a season- Average gate prices £24.00. That would be worth £18,000 a season. ( Not including Merchandise, and Catering money) Bearing in Mind the average youth player costs around £9,000 a season. Say after 3 seasons one of the six youth players paid for by the addition revenue is a special talent. An english club Pays £ 1 Million for him. !! !! Another Point proved by the highlander. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 Waspie, If 50 extra fans because of the lack of Clach go to ICT games- an average of 15 home games a season- Average gate prices £24.00.That would be worth £18,000 a season. ( Not including Merchandise, and Catering money) Bearing in Mind the average youth player costs around £9,000 a season. Say after 3 seasons one of the six youth players paid for by the addition revenue is a special talent. An english club Pays £ 1 Million for him. !! !! Another Point proved by the highlander. Except the logic that Clach going under means 50 of their former fans start following ICT is seriously flawed . Cheers for info RayBees, I did wonder if it would be down to Clach being less of a power as time went on. Does anybody know if Citadel and Clach were rivals?? Again that would have been a pretty local rivalry. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1896 Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 Fantastic picture. Tragically both grounds have been demolished. There is nothing left of either. Caley's ground has been replaced buy a carpet shop and an electronic shop and Thistle's ground is now houses and an old folk's home or nursery i think. You can find other pictures on the following websites: www.caledonianfc.co.uk www.invernessthistlefc.co.uk invernessthistle.co.uk/home.htm Very nice pictures. It's a shame that the ground is demolised. I've another question; why didn't the Caley-fans restart with another club? Like the Wimbledon-fans did with AFC Wimbledon? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayBees Posted January 6, 2008 Author Share Posted January 6, 2008 (edited) Cheers for info RayBees, I did wonder if it would be down to Clach being less of a power as time went on. Does anybody know if Citadel and Clach were rivals?? Again that would have been a pretty local rivalry. I think they might well have been. If the Citadel bar (RIP) is anything to go buy their fans must've been equally as rough as Clach fans. I've another question; why didn't the Caley-fans restart with another club? Like the Wimbledon-fans did with AFC Wimbledon? I think there a number of reasons as to why this is: Firstly, the situations are different. Wimbledon were basically taken over and moved to another town under a different name whereas Caledonian Thistle (as it was then) played initially at Caley's ground in mainly Caley colours using almost completely Caley players so some who were opposed to the merger chose to accept it after it happened as the new team were seen as "basically Caley anyway". Secondly, the diminished number of fans who were left had no resources as most of them (my father included) had spent a lot of their own money on a court case to try and stop the merger so their was no money to create a new club with a new ground. Finally, some fans did set up an amateur league club called Caledonian but i'm not sure if they are still around. Edited to add, 1896, if i could start a new club i would! Edited January 6, 2008 by RayBees 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest highlander Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 Except the logic that Clach going under means 50 of their former fans start following ICT is seriously flawed .Cheers for info RayBees, I did wonder if it would be down to Clach being less of a power as time went on. Does anybody know if Citadel and Clach were rivals?? Again that would have been a pretty local rivalry. Actually it wasnt a non existing clach i was on about. It was the senario if Clach, Caley and thistle had all merged. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PRS Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 No one ever really hated Thistle, except my grandfather who spent many an afternoon at Kingsmills howling abuse at Thistle directors for being sponsored by a whisky brand owned by the Japanese. Caledonian were always the bad guys, except when playing Elgin when they became everyones buddy. Clach still have 'an element' in their support. Even I didn't hate Thistle, I actually felt sorry for them as they always had such a poor support. A successful Clach team would probably pull in a bigger support than either Caley or Thistle in Highland League days. They were and probably still are, a community club and that community supported tham in big numbers when they were successful. When Clach won the Highland League in the mid '70s, they took a massive support to Caley park, easily outnumbering the home support. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest clacher2 Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 when clach won the league 4 years ago they were getting just under 500 a game, which is about what most 3rd division clubs were picking up. the final day of the season they played in front of almost 1000 people, the same day ict had 6-7k packed into our wee ground, was a brilliant day all round, every pub in town was packed and the portland was about 50-50 with folk coming from both grounds. everybody was positive about clach at the time, everybody thought it was clachs time to really stamp themselves on the face of sneck football, get a few hundred season tickets sold, build a stand etc... nothing came off it that summer and theyve been back in the doldrums ever since. id say its almost inevitable they will eventually come under caleys wing as an outlet for youth players, how thatll sit with the highland league ive no idea but theyre a generation away from being a complete non-entity, so what choice will they have? itd be good for them to start breeding local talent anyway, im sure all the young players in inverness and the north who wouldve in the past looked to a club like clach for a game would be happier spending 3-4 years on ict or even countys books before getting anywhere near a competitive game as it is, a side effect of election to the league that they may not have been considered at the time. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICTChris Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 id say its almost inevitable they will eventually come under caleys wing as an outlet for youth players, how thatll sit with the highland league ive no idea but theyre a generation away from being a complete non-entity, so what choice will they have? itd be good for them to start breeding local talent anyway, im sure all the young players in inverness and the north who wouldve in the past looked to a club like clach for a game would be happier spending 3-4 years on ict or even countys books before getting anywhere near a competitive game as it is, a side effect of election to the league that they may not have been considered at the time. I remember when I was a kid Clach playing with their 50 year old manager in goals because they had no players and losing the first 20 games of a season (or something like that). Compared to then, they are doing pretty damn well. I don't know if using them as an outlet for youth players would be very productive - since we've gone into the SPL we've sent players on loan to lower league clubs rather than Highland League. Rory is at Peterhead, Garry Wood at Montrose, Alan Morgan went to County, Zander and Ally Ridgers to Elgin City. The standard between what's needed in the SPL and Clach is too wide for us to get value out of it. We did send a few players to the HL when we were in the SFL I suppose. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMEE Posted January 26, 2008 Share Posted January 26, 2008 Technically we've finished 3rd in Division 1 thanks to Airdrie going defunct. Technically, Ross Co ONLY got into the SFL coz Elgin cheated to win HL. Technically, Ross Co ONLY got into SFL 1 coz of league restructure.....any of the previous 100 yrs and they would have stayed put in Div 2 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FilthyMack Posted January 26, 2008 Share Posted January 26, 2008 Technically, Ross Co ONLY got into the SFL coz Elgin cheated to win HL. Technically, Ross Co ONLY got into SFL 1 coz of league restructure.....any of the previous 100 yrs and they would have stayed put in Div 2 Du-u-uh. Have you any idea why 2 places became available for league election? I think you'll find both ICT and Ross County are ONLY in the league because of restructuring. I especially like the one about cheats being denied the chance to prosper though. Must be the ICT mentality. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMEE Posted January 26, 2008 Share Posted January 26, 2008 Du-u-uh.Have you any idea why 2 places became available for league election? I think you'll find both ICT and Ross County are ONLY in the league because of restructuring. I especially like the one about cheats being denied the chance to prosper though. Must be the ICT mentality. I refer to you lot getting into the First Div by default, not the initial expansion of the SFL. County got in to SFL on the strength of 2 maybe 3 sucsessful seasons. They were hardly a HL superpower! Prior to that...they had pretty much done diddly squat! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FilthyMack Posted January 26, 2008 Share Posted January 26, 2008 I refer to you lot getting into the First Div by default, not the initial expansion of the SFL. County got in to SFL on the strength of 2 maybe 3 sucsessful seasons. They were hardly a HL superpower! Prior to that...they had pretty much done diddly squat! What's your point caller? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Shaker Posted January 26, 2008 Share Posted January 26, 2008 Prior to that...they had pretty much done diddly squat! More than Inverness Caledonian Thistle had ever achieved prior to being elected. They'd never even won a game. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayBees Posted January 30, 2008 Author Share Posted January 30, 2008 Being a sad b*****d, I was trailing through the excellent Scottish Football Archive website and got in touch with them to update the Caley information. So, you can now see a profile page on the club and they've even created a lovely tribute to the greatest footballing arena Inverness ever saw - Telford Street. There's even a handy map to where it used to be and where now stands Currys . PRS, if you can think of any other info for the club page drop them an email. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 Technically, Ross Co ONLY got into the SFL coz Elgin cheated to win HL. Technically, Ross Co ONLY got into SFL 1 coz of league restructure.....any of the previous 100 yrs and they would have stayed put in Div 2 It had nothing to do with Elgin cheating. Elgin were run by a shower of idiots that lacked the professionalism of putting together a proper bid. County's proposals was the best of all five clubs, however Inverness gathered more votes as they really should have had a team in the SFL long before 1994. Inverness was always going to win the most votes, but it was County that had marketed themselves the best. Plus our Scottish Cup record 91-94 was phenomenol, everyone knew how good a side we were. I refer to you lot getting into the First Div by default, not the initial expansion of the SFL. County got in to SFL on the strength of 2 maybe 3 sucsessful seasons. They were hardly a HL superpower! Prior to that...they had pretty much done diddly squat! If we had to finish second we would have done. All three teams got promoted with 5 games left. Each of the three clubs could have won the league that year. Also that same restructuring enabled Caley to get to the SPL. If the SPL wasn't expanded to include twelve teams in the top tier, there would be no guarantee you would have reached the SPL. Yeah we were lucky we had a good team, lucky we won all those games, and lucky we scored all those goals. We were also lucky to rob you of £27.5k two weeks ago as well. Get it up ya! Caley Thistle thank you very much for the £92.5k for John Rankin. Now Smee go away and w**k off Captain Hook. Again apologies to RayBees and PRS for taking the thread off topic. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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