| Full name | Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club | ||
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| Nickname(s) | Caley Thistle, ICT | ||
| Founded | 1994 as Caledonian Thistle | ||
| Ground | Caledonian Stadium, Inverness (Capacity: 7,819) |
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| Chairman | George Fraser | ||
| Manager | Terry Butcher | ||
| League | Scottish Premier League | ||
| 2010–11 | Scottish Premier League, 7th | ||
| Website | Club home page | ||
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| Current season | |||
Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club (also known as Caley Thistle or ICT) are a Scottish football club from Inverness who compete in the Scottish Premier League. They are currently managed by Terry Butcher and assistant manager Maurice Malpas. Having won the 2009-10 First Division title in their first year back in the division since 2003-04, Inverness competed in the SPL again for the 2010-11 season, in which they finished seventh.
Formed in 1994 as Caledonian Thistle F.C., they play in a royal blue kit with a red strip across the top of the shirt. Their away shirt is white with splashes of red and blue, with red shorts. Their home ground, Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, is situated beside the Moray Firth, in the shadow of the Kessock Bridge. Its construction was promised in their election to the Scottish Football League,[1] the former ground of Caledonian F.C. being used until it was complete.
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Caledonian Thistle F.C. formed in August 1994 following the bitter merger of Caledonian and Inverness Thistle, both members of the Highland Football League. The new club was formed to apply for a vacancy in the Scottish Football League created when the league restructured in 1994 to four divisions of ten teams each, and was elected to the Scottish Third Division along with Highland derby rivals Ross County. The club's name was amended to Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C. in 1996 at the request of Inverness District Council, who had contributed £900,000 towards the development of Caledonian Stadium.[2]
After a promising start to their inaugural season, the club eventually finished sixth in the Third Division in Season 1994–95. 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 to Livingston 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, with 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 greatest achievement was on the final day of the season, when 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 the club eligible for promotion to the Scottish Premier League (SPL). However, SPL rules at that time 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 100 miles (160 km) 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 reduced the requirement to 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 local building firm that completed the work in only 47 working days. The chairman of Tulloch, David Sutherland, was also chairman of the club at the time and remains a major shareholder in the club.[3] The club 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.[4]
The team are also famous for their Scottish Cup victories over Celtic in 2000 and 2003: winning 3–1 at Celtic Park,[5] resulting in the headline "Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic Are Atrocious" in The Sun which is now framed in the foyer of Caledonian Stadium,[6] and 1–0.[7] Inverness also knocked other SPL teams out of cup competitions, including Motherwell[8] and Hearts.[9] 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". On 25 February 2007, Inverness's run of cup victories over Celtic came to an end following two goals in the last four minutes of their fifth round tie at Caledonian Stadium. Having led 1–0 for the majority of the game thanks to a Graham Bayne goal, Steven Pressley equalised before Kenny Miller netted the winner in stoppage time.[10] However, another victory against Celtic occurred on 16 December 2007, this time in the league, when the team came from being 2–0 down to win 3–2, with goals scored by John Rankin, David Proctor and Don Cowie.
A significant event in the club's history was the signing of Romanian international Marius Niculae,[11] who became the first Romanian to play in the Scottish league system. Niculae was involved in the club's 2007–08 campaign and played at UEFA Euro 2008, before leaving for Dinamo Bucureşti. He later became involved in a dispute with the club over a share of the transfer fee that was not paid to him when he left. As a result, Inverness were ordered by FIFA to pay £133,000 to the player.[12] The club are appealing against the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.[13]
During season 2008/09, the team incurred a number of bad results and struggled near the bottom of the SPL. Eventually, manager Craig Brewster was sacked after a run of seven consecutive defeats, ending with a 1-0 loss to Hamilton Academical.[14] This was the first time the club had sacked a manager, and the fans had previously voiced concern about Brewster's ability.[15] Brewster was replaced by former England international Terry Butcher, who was unable to avoid relegation, despite an initial improvement in results. The club's tenure in the SPL eventually ended in May 2009 after suffering a 1-0 home defeat to Falkirk.[16] Their final total of 37 points was the highest-ever for a team finishing bottom of the SPL.
After a slow start to their first season back in the First Division, which looked set to be won at a canter by runaway leaders Dundee, who were 15 points ahead in January, Inverness put together an astonishing run of form which saw them go on a 21-match unbeaten run. On 21 April 2010, Inverness secured promotion back to the SPL with two games to spare after Dundee lost 1-0 to Raith Rovers. Inverness became the first team in ten years to secure an immediate return to the SPL. The team went on to celebrate their promotion with a 7-0 win away at Ayr United, their largest ever away win in the SFL. On the final day of the season, Inverness beat Dundee 1-0.
As part of the push for promotion in 2009-10, Inverness went on an unbeaten away run in the league that continued through the entire 2010 calendar year, culminating in a 1-1 draw against Hearts at Tynecastle on 18 December.[17] This extraordinary run ended in defeat at St. Johnstone on 2 January 2011 where the Perth side won by a single goal. At the split, Inverness narrowly missed out on a top six spot, eventually finishing in a club record-equalling 7th place.
Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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For recent transfers, see List of Scottish football transfer winter 2011–12
Six players have represented their country whilst contracted to Caley Thistle. These are Pāvels Mihadjuks (Latvia), Richard Hastings and Davide Xausa (both Canada), Marius Niculae (Romania), Jonathan Tuffey (Northern Ireland) and Owain Tudur-Jones (Wales national football team).
Caley Thistle have been managed by six managers (Craig Brewster on two separate occasions) since they joined the league in 1994:
Sergei Baltacha had been manager of Caledonian prior to the merger and he carried on as Caley Thistle manager after the merger in 1994. He remained in charge for only one season, leaving in 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 Inverness for another month, after which he left, along with assistant Duncan Shearer, to become manager of Aberdeen.
Paterson was replaced by former Hearts player John Robertson, whose two-year reign as manager was an exceptionally successful period. Under Robertson Inverness 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. 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 Inverness 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 19 August 2007 due to the pressures of the job, and because he believed it to be the correct decision for him and his family.[18] He has now resumed his former role, running the club's Centenary Club lottery.
A short time after Christie resigned, Craig Brewster was reappointed. This was a controversial decision by the club, as Brewster had left to manage Dundee United only 18 months previously. He was eventually sacked in January 2009, after a run of seven league defeats.[19] Prior to this, the ICT supporters had become increasingly concerned about poor performances and rumours of dressing room unrest, leading to a protest by fans at the team's 1-0 defeat by Hamilton on the weekend before the sacking[20]
Brewster's successor, the former England international Terry Butcher was appointed on 27 January 2009, along with Maurice Malpas as his assistant.
The club also has a Director of football, former Inverness player Graeme Bennett, appointed while Steve Paterson was manager.[21]
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 16 October 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 Inverness v Rangers on the 9 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.
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