By Chris Mac
October 29 2004

Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Airdrie United meet at McDairmid Perth in the Bells Challenge Cup final, to sort out the first silver wear of the Scottish Season

Versus

Airdrie United to the Final

The road to the final began with a home match against third Division Montrose, two goals secured us second round continuation and a draw that would see us play Greenock Morton twice in one week.

After being beaten 3-1 in the League by Morton away from home, the second leg of the cup was going to be eventful,  Little niggles here and there through out the game but it was Airdrie who proved to be stronger on the night and secured us entry into the next round with a 2-1 win. This also let Morton know they were not going to have things all there own way in the league.

Round three saw us travelling North to Bridie country on a Tuesday night for a game that would prove to be much easier than first thought, a fine 2-0 win over Forfar  secured us a place in the semi final.

The semi final and Airdrie were on our travels north again, this turned out to be a far better game than first envisaged, Jerome Varielle sent off and one of the best goals scored by an Airdrie player for many a year, scored by Alan Gow after a fantastic solo attack from the half way line. The goal scored by Alan Gow in extra time took Airdrie United into it's first ever final and Airdrie fans in general into our forth challenge cup final.

Inverness to the Final

Inverness began the season in the Bells Challenge cup with one of the longest journeys possible in any of the Scottish senior divisions, Inverness to Gretna probably a 6 hour journey by bus and all to see Inverness win 5-0.

In the second round Caley had a closer tie to home Peterhead in the third division, they secured a 2-1 away from home.

A local derby for the third round saw Inverness take on near neighbours (well near for the Highlands) Ross County, their first home tie saw them win 1-0 and a place in the semi-finals versus Raith Rovers.

Another long Journey for Inverness as they travelled south once again, in hope of securing themselves a place in the final of the Bells Challenge Cup, Antonio Calderons Raith Rovers were the hosts and by all accounts they were hammered, 4-0 the winning score line and now  it is............

The Final

Inverness Caledonian Thistle -V- Airdrie United.

Sandy Stewart is playing his cards close to his chest this week and expects four of the five players, who are out injured after the massacre at Broomfield performed by John McVeigh and his hatchet men from Stenhousemuir, to train tomorrow and be ready for Saturdays game "I am really looking forward to Sundays game, but a final is unlike any other match, so if we can keep things tight we may surprise Inverness, who are undoubtedly favourites for the game." The injured players are Jerome Vareille, Stephen McKeown, Alan Gow, Mark Roberts and Stephen Docherty

From reports in the press Sandy thinks he has found a weak spot in the Inverness team and his hopes are to exploit this.

Inverness manager John Robertson  goes into the game as favourite in fact the bookies are only offering odds of  8/11 on Inverness and 3/1 for an Airdrie win.

More details on injuries will be made available when they are known.

Previous Meetings

Inverness Caledonian Thistle wins   draws   Airdrie (old) wins League 6 2 4 League Cup 0 0 1 Total 6 2 5

Biggest Airdrie Win

2001/2002

Scottish Division 1

Airdrie (old)

6-0

Inverness Caledonian Thistle

Biggest Inverness Win

2000/2001
Scottish Division 1	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	4-0	Airdrie (old)

Latest Match

2001/2002
Scottish Division 1	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	1-0	Airdrie (old)	30-03-2002

This is going to be our toughest game of the season so far and it is very hard to predict which way it will go.