Something was rumbling over the summer in the Highland Capital of Scotland. By the time league football returned, the name Thistle was attached to two Inverness club names.
In the run-up to the 1994/95 bid to join the Scottish League, an acrimonious merger was happening between Caledonian FC and Inverness Thistle. It was the right thing to do, the greater sum of its parts gave, what was then a town, now a city, a greater chance of success.
In 1974, when a place was available in the very closed shop Scottish league set-up back in the day, a third team from Edinburgh, Ferranti Thistle, (changed to Meadowbank Thistle to avoid the commercial nature of the original name), was voted in by the member clubs ahead of Inverness Thistle, who went for a solo application back then. The outcome was largely due to the self-preservation aspect of the clubs. Inverness was an awful long way from the central belt in the minds of club Chairmen. The A9, a dangerous as it still can be these days, was in truth a shocker back in the ’70’s, with no small town or village left off the narrow, twisting trail it took. It did take a while, but that is no excuse for once more overlooking the Highlands.
A tale of two ThistlesSomething was rumbling over the summer up in the Highland capital of Scotland. By the time league football returned, Thistle was attached to two Inverness club names.In the run-up to the 1994/95 bid to join the Scottish League, an acrimonious merger was happening between Caledonian FC and Inverness Thistle. It was the right thing to do, the greater sum of its parts gave, what was then a town, now a city, a greater chance of success. n 1974, when a place was available in the very closed shop Scottish league set-up back in the day, a third team from Edinburgh, Ferranti Thistle (changed to Meadowbank Thistle to avoid the commercial nature of the original name), was voted in by the member clubs ahead of Inverness Thistle, who went for a solo application back then. The outcome was largely due to the self-preservation aspect of the clubs. Inverness was an awful long way from the central belt in the minds of Chairmen. The A9, as dangerous as it still can be these days, was in truth a shocker back in the ‘70’s, with no small town or village en route not driven through. It did take a while, but that is no excuse for once more overlooking the Highlands.
Post entry into the league in 1994, there have been a few fans from both sides of the merger that just never came to the party, preferring to stay away and romantically drown in the nostalgia of the “good old days”. Yet, could any Invernessian really say that the coming together wasn’t worthwhile? Almost from season one, the merged club went on a journey, with a variety of landmark moments throughout a glorious and ultimately tumultuous first thirty years. The high point was undoubtedly winning the Scottish Cup in 2015, as well as pushing Aberdeen to a penalty shoot-out in the League Cup Final a year before. Finishing third in the Premiership, qualifying for Europe was also unthinkable back in 1994.
These were all undoubtedly the true highs, as well as the viral sensation, almost before “going viral” was a thing; “Super Caley Go Ballistic……”, you know the rest. Even as the flames of trauma were circling, we made the 2023 Scottish Cup Final, and despite being a Championship side, we put in a shift and proud display against the World Record Holding Treble winners (sic). None of this would have happened without the city’s biggest two clubs pulling their collective weight.
Yet, I have always come across a negative attitude. This notion that it wasn’t so much a merger as a take-over, a sentiment largely from those of a red and black Thistle persuasion. Some, not all, seemed to bring to the table a harbinger of doom. Well, in a curious sort of way, those voices got what they wanted when ICT, as Inverness Caledonian Thistle often gets coined, went through a painful Administration last season. Those who care about the club will forever be grateful to Alan Savage for having the courage, the conviction, and a willingness to use his own money to get the club back on an even keel. The horrendous tales of woe, and the minutiae of this dark period in the clubs history, I will leave for you to find on the Information super highway, should you be unfamiliar with the whole debacle. Suffice to say, a lasting legacy is a shiver down my spine comes every time I hear the word concert!
Throughout this story so far, I am perhaps more than most able to view the whole period from ‘outside’ looking in. I was a Meadowbank fan, and when they got moved, lock, stock, and angst ridden barrel to Livingston, the vacuum was filled by this brand new club, Caledonian Thistle. Inverness was added later. I came to the table with fresh eyes and none of the baggage of those who faithfully supported their Invernessian Highland League clubs back in the day. Perhaps, courtesy of Meadowbank trumping Inverness Thistle, I was more drawn to the blue and white half, Caley, as the club is very often known.
In recent years the club has tried everything to appease those aggrieved, making the away shirt essentially a Thistle nod with red and black stripes, while also selling hats and scarves solely in those colours too. Personally, I don’t agree with that merchandising strategy, and if they were going down that division route, where are the blue and white options as a counterbalance? I hope this marketing idea goes away, particularly now as the club strives to pull people together and get those disillusioned by recent events back to the stadium. It feels like ICT are on the cusp of a new and exciting journey now, more later.
Given the issues at ICT, those clever owners of what once was Loch Ness FC seem to have found a niche worthy of exploiting and potentially serving up a ready-made fanbase. They eventually put that Loch Ness on ice when it appeared that “cult” shirt sales alone couldn’t sustain the brand. From the ashes of such a great name has risen a club called Inverness Thistle. They have been placed directly into the sixth tier (three below ICT’s current status) in the North Caledonian League. The club has gone straight to the red and black stripe. There is no sugar coating it, the idea is to create an identity that will appeal to those with a Thistle in their heart.
With a 1pm kick off for Thistle’s first ever league match, a mere 5 minute hop with car across the Kessock Bridge from the Caledonian Stadium, who were playing at 3, both fixtures were possible. ICT were involved in a mini historic first ever league fixture versus Peterhead, which I didn’t want to miss. However, beforehand, I endeavoured to get my head around what was going on by attending the Inverness Thistle v Fort William debut of this new club.
The cage at North Kessock has one side where spectators can congregate, and perhaps given the magnitude of what those running the club are hoping to achieve, it was a surprisingly healthy attendance for a North Caledonian League match with more than 200 in attendance. The wind was cool, the rain was frequent, and a jacket was needed, but then I realised that the bottom of my ICT coloured shirt was showing below it. There was a devil in their midst, so to avert any more stares, I tucked it up inside the jacket. “After 31 years, who would have thought it. It’s great to be back without those……..”. The rest I will leave to your imagination. It was the first comment I had overheard, and it was pushing my blood pressure up right from the off.
Fort William, a club with a renown cult status of their own (although I am uncertain if post regular Highland League thrashings, they’ve retained such a large sympathy vote), certainly had my support, even if it was just quietly. They started the brighter and looked more likely. A quarter of an hour in, a poor shot squirmed under the keeper to give the Fort the lead. Alas, the linesman on the spectator side belatedly put his flag up, no goal. With merely a handful of Lochaber visiting fans in attendance, the incredulity was nil. It certainly wasn’t the chap who shot, but with no VAR (thankfully), in the officials we trust.
The visitors merely dusted themselves down and kept pressing, and were rewarded with a goal not long before the break when a Thistle player inadvertently, but under intense pressure, headed the ball high and handsomely into his own net. Fort William were good value for the lead.
It should be stated at this juncture that the standard was rudimentary at best, and neither team looked slick. Occasionally, I will watch a match from the ninth tier of the East of Scotland League, and it is fair to say that most teams at that level would wipe the floor with these sides.
A catering van on the street outside was doing brisk business in Lorne sausage rolls amongst other tasty bites at the break. The second half set off in a similar pattern, with the Fort looking more dangerous, but gradually, perhaps those debut nerves subsided and Thistle started to do more than just earn the occasional corner. As it was, a mini purple patch at the start of the last 15 minutes of the game didn’t just see the home side equalise, but within three minutes they’d found themselves in front. It would be a winning start for Thistle, after all. Danny Marshall will go down in history of the first Inverness Thistle mark 2 as the first scorer in an official game, squaffing home following a pinball episode from a corner.
Fort William are prone to late collapses, and when I saw them at Tain St Duthus last season, they somehow managed to conjure a 2-2 from leading comfortably 2-0 going into the last minutes. However, by old Fort standards, a win, a draw, and now two defeats it’s not the worst CV of results from my four game viewing roster. For Inverness Thistle, they will be hoping it is the start of something that starts to pull more of the red and black scarves at ICT away, but that journey will be long and maybe ultimately futile, given how Loch Ness were disbanded at the whim of a few.
A five minute whisk down the A9, over the Kessock Bridge, and I was headed to the more familiar and relaxed surrounding of Caledonian Stadium, where my great Italian friend Stefano was attending his first game here for 7 years, complete with his Berliner girlfriend Andrea, viewing only her third ever game, with the first 2 being Pokal Cup Finals at the Olmypiastadion. Both when Dortmund were playing in the final.
Well, the match might not have lived up to that sort of billing, but the 2025/26 Inverness squad have a certain confidence and ability that looks set to trouble many a side in the third tier of the Scottish pyramid. Having survived with a limited and very young squad last term, they brilliantly overcame a 15 point deduction to survive. The mandatory minus five point start was wiped out here on just the second day of the league campaign here, where the Peterhead goalkeeper was the man of the match with at least three absolutely top stops to prevent the two-nil scoreline becoming more.
It would be a comfortable, if not a spectacular win, where ICT dominated the ball and rarely gave the travelling Blue Toun support anything worthy of note to cheer. Perhaps after Kelty, my bar was set too high, but the standard of inter-play, understanding, and team spirit is a joy to behold.
No one involved at ICT is taking anything for granted, but while the Steve Paterson days of “if you score three, we’ll score four”, might not quite be back, this ICT side, like last term too, plays football on the front foot, and they are a cracking watch. The team and the fans are united, with the strongest bond I can recall for some years between everyone, under the excellent guidance of Scott Kellacher in the dugout and Alan Savage in the boardroom. For the first time in years, there is a sense of anticipation, dare I say, excitement attached to proceedings. A feel-good factor that we hope will run and run, just lose the red and black only merchandise though.
There is a long road ahead for both clubs, with finances on completely different levels. As to what those running Inverness Thistle hope to achieve remains to be seen, but even at some juncture scaling the heights to the Highland League would require a proper ground and floodlights. Is this a castle built of sand? Only time will tell, but I will leave the last word to the world of Monty Python, whose humour can encapsulate a situation in a nutshell.
“The purpose of this year’s expedition is to find traces of last year’s expedition. They were going to build a bridge between the two peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro.”
“But there is only one peak sir.”
“Oh yes, so there is. That explains a lot, anyway…. “
Football Adventures with James Rendall 