GAME INFO
ICTFC v St Johnstone
William Hill League 1
Saturday 19th July
3pm kick-off
Caledonian Stadium
The Group so far..
ICTFC started Group F on Tuesday night with a 2-0 win against Elgin City thanks to goals from Billy Mckay and Luis Longstaff. Our free week was last Saturday.
St Johnstone started the group on Matchday One with a 3-1 against East Kilbride, coming from a goal down. Second-half strikes from Jamie Gullan, Adam Sidibeh and Mackenzie Kirk started the Saints’ Group Stage campaign with a win. They had their free week on Tuesday night’s round of matches, they picked up a pre-season friendly against Dundee United where they drew 1-1 with striker Mackenzie Kirk on the scoresheet again.
Head Coach Scott Kellacher
On the St Johnstone match
“We’ve watched them twice now and they are a good side with good players. They are still finding their feet, in terms of getting ready for the start of the league because their focus will most likely be to try and win their league.”
“It’s a good test for us and we’ve played a couple of Championship sides in pre-season, both Ross County and Partick Thistle, they were both very hard games. We played well in both matches for large spells but just lost our way a couple of times in both games.”
“When you go up a gear, you come up against players that can hurt you and we have to make sure we’re switched on and don’t make any silly mistakes.”
“You expect them to come here and have a go to win the match. Hopefully that makes for a good game of football because we’ll be doing the same.
On this season’s squad
“I think we’ve got more experience this season and what happened last season will stand us in good stead in terms of that balance between youth and experience.”
“We’ve got that bit more experience on the bench too, there’s more competition for places and that can only be healthy. It was hard on the younger boys we had on the bench last year, they were big games, and we knew what we had to do.”
On facing our third Championship side already and how it can be used going into the league
“That was my aim for pre-season, I wanted to get minutes into the players legs against the Highland League sides and we sometimes left ourselves short, with a few injuries, for those matches. I then wanted the games against Ross County and Partick Thistle to be tough matches. They were good tests for us coming up against good players and we’ll learn from them. Hopefully it’ll stand us in good stead going forward.”
On managing in the league cup group stage
“You are trying to get the balance right in terms of getting the players fitter and getting them sharper. You’d like to have an extra two weeks before the competitive football starts, and I think that’s why you see a lot of upsets but that can be quite exciting.”
“You can see sides are still tweaking their teams and trying to get minutes in the players legs. I think it’s a good competition and some sides use it as pre-season games.”
Squad recruitment
“We’re still looking to try and get two or three in. We’re looking for a striker but also we’re looking for that defensive player that can cover a few positions, that is quite important.
Player Preview: Joe Chalmers
On the league cup group stage
“I think for a manager, the league cup groups must be a difficult spell as it comes so early. You are trying to get your squad together, get ideas across and games are coming thick and fast. You’ll be watching people’s minutes and injuries too.”
“I was delighted on Tuesday night [v Elgin City] to get underway. The pre-season games have purpose behind them but don’t have the same excitement. Having seen the teams playing on Saturday, we were waiting to get going on Tuesday.”
On the feel-good factor currently at the club
“Everything is positive, of course there’s a few things behind the scenes the club are working on and there’s some difficulties.”
“We’re starting the league with the minus 5-point deduction, but the staff and players are positive. Over pre-season we’ve become close as a group, the new boys have fitted in well and everyone has helped with that.”
“Everyone you speak too, including the fans are really positive and now it’s up to us to play well on the park, get good results and keep that positivity going.”
On the team’s style of play suiting him
“That was a big attraction for me, the way I play I rely on a team playing a certain way. Whereas other boys who have different attributes can play in any style of football.”
“The way I play and go about my business it is suited to one style, I can do other styles, but to get the best of me I’m best at a place where it is about passing the ball and Inverness have always had that style from what I can remember. The Manager here is massive on it.”
Ticket & Matchday Info
Tickets Prices: Adult: £15, Over 65s: £10, Under 16s: £6