Charlie Christie: Opportunity missed for Inverness Caley Thistle as League One table remains wide open amid ‘unsustainable’ financial model for Highland club
Last Saturday’s home draw, our fifth of the season, was another match where I left the stadium feeling it was an opportunity lost.
Having started the game brightly and created two excellent chances, we fell behind against the run of play to a soft goal when we lost cheap possession inside our own half, and we never really regained control prior to the half-time whistle.
However, once we equalised early in the second period through a sharply taken goal from on-loan James Nolan, I fully expected us to go on and win the match, but again we struggled to turn our possession into clear-cut chances and two home points went begging once more.
The Scottish League One table makes strange reading at this moment in time with the top three sides Alloa, Montrose and Queen of the South having scored a combined total of 21 goals between them in 21 league matches played – averaging a paltry one goal per game.
When you consider that the top three teams in the championship have netted 34 times in 18 games it shows you that nobody in League One is setting the heather on fire attack-wise.
Obviously, the top three will attribute their current lofty positions to their excellent defensive statistics and credit to them. Indeed Montrose have only conceded three times so far which is impressive.
Strangely, Dumbarton, currently sitting in the relegation play-off spot, are joint top scorers with 10 goals in their 7 matches to date but, like us at ICT, have drawn too many games so far and are paying the penalty for that.
We entertain Stenhousemuir tomorrow – the other side to have scored double figures in League One – and we really need a win on the boards to keep us in touch at the top.
Hopefully it will be an open match where we can turn our possession into goal-scoring opportunities and give our supporters something to get fully behind.
It has been an incredibly challenging time for Inverness Caledonian Thistle off the pitch as we try to recover from the massive body blow of relegation at the end of last season.
Whilst it has been fantastic to see our core supporters rally behind the club, buy season tickets and club merchandise the financial picture is still bleak.
The ICT Supporters’ Trust have also played their part in revamping the stadium sports bar where both home and away supporters can now enjoy a pre-match refreshment in far more pleasant surroundings, and it would be good to see their hard work being rewarded with a good turn out tomorrow.
In my role as interim chief executive these past few weeks I have realised that the model the club has been running for quite some time is simply not sustainable – and certainly not in Scottish League One.
The drop-off in SPFL league fees alone has been eye-opening and again displays the huge disparity between each level in our game north of the border.
Some of the decision making at the club in recent seasons has certainly added to the difficulties we currently find ourselves in and, whilst most people associated with the club recognise the need for new and innovative revenue sources, I cannot understand the spending of large sums of money before any of this revenue has come to fruition.
That is not how well-run football clubs conduct their business and is not how ICT should be run going forward if we are to prosper once again.
