After a brief trip to the Scottish Football Hell that is known as the First Division and battling the Ghosts of Scottish Football past like Jocky Scott, Inverness Caley Thistle is back in the SPL this year. For their hard work in winning the First Division last year, Caley is rewarded by a visit from Celtic in the SPL opening weekend. Of course, Celtic fans know too well that the long trip up north is never guaranteed of anything, noting that one Cup game that Caley fans will never let us forget a few years ago. Seeing that Caley’s been away for a bit, I thought it prudent to catch up with Ian Rose, Caley blogger for theoffside.com. I met Ian when I was working my blog game at theoffside. Ian was very patient with me through my goading of huns and questionable language (which not all parties enjoy apparently, whoops!) while I was with The Offside. While Ian is a huge Caley and Scottish National Team supporter, we can’t hold that against him. Even if we could, we would still be in awe of the awesome beard that he fashions on a daily basis. Paul Bunyan looks like a pre-pubescent boy next to that beard (do people across the pond know who Paul Bunyan is?) Regardless, onto the questions that Ian was nice enough to answer, despite my passive-aggressive questions.
Firstly, welcome back to the SPL. What was the Caley fan base’s reaction to relegation? Did it hurt the club or did it act as a phoenix for ICT, being reborn, etc?
Thanks. Â It’s great to be back. Â I think it was initially pretty hopeless in a lot of Caley households. Â With the lone promotion spot and with County and Dundee spending big to make a push for the SPL, it was always going to be a tough season. Â As much as I’d like to say we all united around the team in its darkest hour, etc etc, there was a lot of negativity, but it was a great (and happily short) trip back. Â Now we have the opposite challenge – can we take a dominant performance in the second tier and translate it to a good performance in the top flight?
Any satisfaction from taking jammy Falkirk’s spot after they fell ass backwards into survival when Caley went down?
Yeah, we would have been happy to take anyone’s spot in the league, but Falkirk’s was especially sweet, since they were the ones that came to our house and beat us on the last day to send us down. Â They can stay down a few years, as far as I’m concerned. Â Bring County up, so we can send them down, or maybe give us twice the number of trips to Dundee next season.
Celtic fans can only dream of their greatest rival being relegated (no names, please). After being apart for a few years, what was it like taking on Ross County again last season? Was there any extra satisfaction winning the league while County was a contender for the title as well?
It was great to see the Staggies again in meaningful games, and of course even better to send them back to Dingwall crying. Â The winning streak last season was pretty magical on its own, but along with chasing, then passing, County, that definitely added something. Â They had a great run in the Scottish Cup (ahem), but in the league, they didn’t have it to finish the season. Â We did. Â End of story. Â I hope they win the first division this year, because I want it to be a Caley goal, in Dingwall, that sends them down in their first season up.
If there was any negative reaction and voting with their feet for Caley fans after relegation, they must have surely been back after Caley’s run to the First Division Title? Give us a brief description of Caley’s journey from First Division Hell and back. How was Caley able to pip the Tartan Special loving, jet pack riding, mustachioed maestro Jocky Scott and Dundee from behind?
I’d love to say it was all Caley, and to give us our due, we had a great run. Â Richie Foran and Adam Rooney were the best offensive players in the league last season, and Ryan Esson really earned his stripes in goal. Â A lot of it came down to tough defending, something Caley’s always been known for, and something that fancy-football teams from Glasgow sometimes mistake for leg-breaking dirty play. Â Jocky Scott can ride his jet pack all he wants, but when he runs into Ross Tokely, one of them is going to end up hurt, and it’s not likely to be RossCo. Â But as I started to say in the beginning of this, I’d love to say it was all down to us being good, but it was also down to Dundee being fairly shockingly poor down the stretch. Â The front office wanted the SPL, the fans wanted the SPL, but the Dundee players never showed that they had any intent on making it happen in the second half of the season. Â We were better, hands down.
After being down, what are the expectations from the Caley fan base for this upcoming season? In your humble opinion, are these expectations realistic?
Caley fans are realistic, and more so after our trip to the nether regions of Scottish football. Â For me personally, survival is the number one thing. Â If at this time next season, I’m talking to you about league matches with Celtic, I’ll consider that a decent season, even if we finish a poor 11th. Â In all honesty, we proved last season that we were the best of the second tier, but until we survive a season, this team is still the bottom of the top tier. Â It will take time to be able to say we’re anything else. Â So survival comes before anything else. That said, we’ve always been a dangerous cup team, but have tended to fail in the quarterfinals. Â I’d love to see a cup semi this season. Â Those two things, and I’m happy as a clam.
Purposely ignoring the Hun that is currently employed as your manager, what type of football should we expect to see from Caley? Will they pack it in against Celtic and Rangers like most other SPL teams try to do? If they do, will they play that way all the time or open it up against the lower rungs of the SPL?
He’s not just a hun – he’s an English hun. Â But he has his uses. Â Butcher showed last season that against sides we could beat, he’s not afraid to go for big, dominating wins. Â We had a commanding goal difference because when we faced minnows, we didn’t beat them 1-0 like Dundee and County did, we beat them by four or five. Â That said, will we play three up front against Celtic? Â No, we’re not stupid. Â Our best chance against a team that’s better than us is to play defense and midfield football, with the strikers getting one or two chances to steal it. Â We will go into Old Firm matches assuming that the opponent is better than us, but I don’t expect that mentality in many other matches. Â We can beat Hibs, we can beat Hearts, and despite our awful record against them, we can beat Aberdeen, so I’d like to see 2 strikers against the Edinburgh sides. Â Our best chance against the Kilmarnocks and St. Mirrens of the league, though, especially at home, is to beat them by multiple goals and take chance out of it, and that’s what I expect to see.
How’s Caley’s pre-season friendly results gone? Any new off season signings worth noting?
It’s been relatively quiet on the transfer front. Â There are new names, but the core is going to be the same, Esson in goal (with Tuffey challenging and playing in some cups), Proctor Tokely Munro in the back. Â Probably the biggest question mark is our midfield, but I haven’t honestly seen them play enough to comment on any of the new names. Â Up front, it’s very much last year’s team as well – Foran and Rooney with Odhiambo and Dani Sanchez for support. Â We’re a little striker-heavy, especially for a team that as you say will play some matches with only one. Â The preseason friendlies have gone decently, for what they are, and we won our league cup first round match 3-0, so I’ll take that. Â Like I said before, when we are the better team, I want to see multiple goals, and that philosophy seems to have survived the summer break.
Finally, who should Celtic fans be looking out for to play upfront alone and hope for a long ball to convert on the counter?
I should probably say something like “your mother” here to keep the tone of the question up. Â But I’d say Adam Rooney. Â He’s your kind of player – smart, great accuracy, and Irish as the day is long. Â I hope to see him beside Foran and either Odhiambo or Sanchez a lot at home, but not against the Celts.
Good luck regaining the title and all that. Â I suppose it’s your turn.
Special thanks to Ian for taking time to answer my questions. Check out his blog if you’re looking for all Caley, all the time at www.caley.theoffside.com
I’ve always disliked Caley from that Sunday night in 2003. The game before was a meeting of circumstance 2003 it became personal.
They were a marriage between two bango duelling cousins who really should have no place in my mind. Ross Tokley. Jesus makes Kirk Broadfoot look like pele.
Dundee deserve to shot for allowing them to comeback up. I wish we could send them backdown but that’s a fate I want for Killie.
A 7 0 whooping tomorrow will make up for that.
Foran reported to be out of the match for Caley and for the next 3 weeks, so look for Caley to pack it in even more tomorrow. Ready for the season to get underway!