News /Game News
Inverness Caledonian Thistle vs. Ayr United
SPFL Championship
Friday 30th April 2021. Kick-off 7.45pm.
Tonight (Friday), the Honest Men head to Inverness for the final game of the league campaign looking to secure Championship football for a fourth successive season. The Honest Men have their destiny in their own hands and know a point in the Highland will steer us clear of the League 1 play-offs.
While the squad will be fully focused on the job in hand, supporters will be forgiven for having one eye on events at Gayfield where Arbroath and Greenock Morton go head-to-head. If United are unable to take anything from Inverness we will be looking for the Red Lichties to do us a favour and defeat the Ton.
Opposition
Inverness saw their promotion hopes ended last weekend with a 3-0 defeat at league Champions Heart of Midlothian. Caley Thistle sit in fifth place in the table, four points behind Dunfermline Athletic.
A run of six consecutive wins as they played up a back log of games - including Scottish Cup victories over Buckie Thistle and Ross County - propelled Neil McCann’s side into promotion contention but draws against Queen of the South and Dundee then the defeat to Hearts mean Inverness will remain in the Championship next season.
Team News
The full squad is fit and available for selection.
The Manager Says:
Head to Head
Ayr United wins: 8
Draws: 13
Inverness wins: 19
Six of the last eight meetings between the sides at the Caledonian Stadium have ended in a draw.
Last Meeting:
Inverness were 2-0 winners at Somerset Park in the last meeting between the sides. Daniel Mackay and Shane Sutherland scored either side of half-time for the Highlanders in February.
United’s last trip to Inverness saw on loan striker Innes Cameron open the scoring for the Honest Men in the 57th minute but Bulgarian striker Nikolay Todorov denied us a first away win over Caley Thistle since 2003 with a 86th minute equaliser.
Match Officials
Match Officials:
Referee – Craig Napier
Assistant Referee 1 – Ross Macleod
Assistant Referee 2 – David McKniff
Live Coverage
The game is available to watch for £10 on the SPFL Matchcentre: https://ictfc.com/ppv-info-ictfc-v-ayr-utd
As we support Scottish football’s boycott of social media in response to continuing racist and discriminatory abuse online, team news and goal alerts will be available at https://ayrunitedfc.co.uk/inverness-v-ayr-united-updates from 7pm
HonestMen Picks:
Download the new HonestMen Picks app on Apple or Android and predict Friday’s match action for a chance to top the live leaderboard and a share of the £500 prize pot.
Obviously it is a massive game but it is one we are all looking forward to. We have absolutely everything to play for and the players know that. First thing that we need is the same commitment we got last week, the boys put everything into the game. We know that we need to take something from the game, what happens is in our destiny as if we get a positive result nothing else matters. Our remit when we came in was to stay in the Championship and if we can do that tonight the work for next season will start tomorrow.