Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C.

Football club infobox
clubname = Inverness Caledonian Thistle


fullname = Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club
nickname = "Caley Thistle"
founded = 1994 (as Caledonian Thistle)
ground = Caledonian Stadium, Inverness
capacity = 7,711 | chairman = flagicon|Scotland George Fraser
manager = flagicon|Scotland 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 a royal blue kit, with a red strip across the top of the shirt, and are nicknamed "Caley Thistle", as well as "Caley Jags" and the less commonly used "Highlanders". 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, Wyness has since left the club to join St Mirren F.C.. Their motto is "The Pride of the Highlands".

History

The club was formed as Caledonian Thistle F.C. in 1994 following the merger of Caledonian and Inverness Thistle, 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 did not 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 Brewstercite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_prem/4214189.stm|publisher=BBC Sport website|title= Inverness CT 2-0 Dunfermline|date=29 January, 2005] .

The team is also famous for its Scottish Cup victories over Celtic in 2000 and 2003: winning 3-1 at Celtic Parkcite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sport/football/636000.stm|publisher=BBC Sport website|title=Caley's minnows slay Celtic|date=8 February 2000] , 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 [cite web | last = Grant | first = Michael | title = A Second Chance to Go Ballistic | publisher = Glasgow Herald | date = 2002-10-02 | url = http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20021020/ai_n12579086] , and 1-0cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_div_1/2871857.stm|publisher=BBC Sport website|title=Super Caley do it again|date=23 March 2003] . Caledonian Thistle have also knocked other SPL teams out of cup competitions, including Motherwellcite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_div_1/3532159.stm|publisher=BBC Sport website|title=Motherwell 0-1 Inverness CT|date= 6 March 2004] and Heartscite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scottish_cup/1780004.stm|publisher=BBC Sport website|title=Super Caley shock Hearts|date=26 January 2002] .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 have 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. cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_cups/6389245.stm|publisher=BBC Sport website|title=Inverness CT 1-2 Celtic|date=25 February 2007] .

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 did not 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.

Honours

*Scottish First Division(1): 2003/04
*Bells Challenge Cup: 2003/04
*Scottish Third Division(1): 1996/97
*Inverness Cup(7):1995/96, 1997/98, 1998/99, 1999/00, 2001/02, 2004/05
*North of Scotland Cup(2):1999/00, 2007/08
*North Caledonian League Winners(2):1994/1995, 1997/1998
*Chic Allan Cup Winners(2):1994/1995, 1998/1999
*Football Times Cup Winners:1998/1999
*PCT Cup Winners:1998/1999
*North Cup Winners:1999/2000

Highest attendance

---

thumb|left|Caledonian Stadium, shot from Kessock Bridge, looking east. Scottish FA Cup, 4th Round, Inverness 2 v 2 Partick Thistle. Partick scored from the free-kick.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:
*flagicon|Ukraine Sergei Baltacha (1994-1995)
*flagicon|Scotland Steve Paterson (1995-2002)
*flagicon|Scotland John Robertson (2002-2004)
*flagicon|Scotland Craig Brewster (2004-2006)
*flagicon|Scotland Charlie Christie (2006-2007)
*flagicon|Scotland Craig Brewster (2007-Present)

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. He is now working in the youth department.

The club also has a Director of football, former Caley Jags player Graeme Bennett. [ [http://www.ictfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/Chairmen/0,,10447,00.html Inverness Caledonian Thistle Board of Directors] ]

Current squad

"As of 8 October 2008. Squad numbers are for the 2008-09 season."

Players out on loan

:"For recent transfers, see List of Scottish football transfers 2008-09."

References

External links

* [http://www.ictfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/Home/0,,10447,00.html Official site]
* [http://www.caleythistleonline.com 'CaleyThistleOnline' ~ Independent Fan Site]
* [http://www.inverness.vitalfootball.co.uk 'Inverness Caledonian Thistle at Vital Football]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sport/football/636000.stm BBC report on Scottish Cup defeat of Celtic, 8/2/2000]
* [http://www.soccerbase.com/teams2.sd?teamid=482 Caley Thistle on Soccerbase]
* [http://www.caleythistleonline.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=277 Caley Thistle First Team Squad]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/i/inverness_ct/default.stm Inverness CT BBC My Club page]