This match was another chance for ICT to lift their first senior trophy since being founded ten years ago. Despite the final being in Perth, I wanted to go to Inverness to savour the Cup Final atmosphere!
The journey starts on 24/10/03 in the suburbs of Coventry. The taxi arrives at 06:45 to wizz us off to Coventry station to catch the train�..South! We are heading for Rugby to pick up the 07:27 departure for Glasgow, which runs from Euston via the Trent Valley line, which avoids Coventry and Birmingham. The reason I chose this service was to avoid Virgin Train�s new Voyager trains, which are grossly uncomfortable and noisy.
We arrive in Glasgow on time at 12:20 and head for the Hogshead pub near Queen Street station to take on refreshments before heading for Inverness via a Perth connection. Inverness is reached at 17:10.
Saturday involved a walk around the city centre to savour the atmosphere�but there wasn�t any. No colour�s on display, no �good luck� message and the mood was very very lethargic. Real disappointments all round. The afternoon was taken up by watching ICT reserves take on Keith Town down at the Longman. They lost 3-1 but gave a fair bit of entertainment during the afternoon.
Come Sunday and its round to the Innes for the short bus ride down to Perth. What a sloooow journey that was as we struggled up the hills of the A9. The various Innes regulars provided entertainment on the bus.
Pre-match drinks were had at the Letham Farm Hotel much to the delight of the barmaid�not. ICT supporters overran the place and all had a good time. The short walk to the ground was full of pre-match laughter and anticipation of a great day for ICT.
We settle into our seats for an historic event. The first half was nothing special as ICT failed to find an opening on the Airdrie goal and it ended in a disappointing 0-0 score-line. The youngsters of ICT and Airdrie, who had a �beat the goalie� contest, provided HT entertainment. ICT won easily of course.
The second half started the same way as the first finished which was very dull and none productive. The match was turned on its head when ICT brought on Steve Hislop. He�d not been on the field many minutes when he provided the cross for David Bingham to head home after 73 minutes to put ICT 1-0 up. This caused much leaping about and I was 14 again!!!. Further joy was had a few minutes from the end when Hislop put us 2-0 up and effectively sealed the match. It was a truly great experience to see ICT lift and then parade the cup to the travelling fans.
The journey back to Inverness was very noisy. A half-hour stop over in Pitlochry turned out to be an hour as the celebrations went on. We arrived back at the Innes around 21:30 to continue the celebrations.
The journey home the next day meant catching the 07:55 train down to Edinburgh whilst nursing a slight headache!!. From here it was a half-hour bus ride across to Edinburgh Airport for the 14:15 Flybe flight to Birmingham where we touched down at 15:20. We were home by 16:30 saving something like two hours on our usual route. Flying is becoming a regular event in the travel plans of the Gringo�s.
