Devine nets winner

Inverness ground out a result at Hamilton thanks to a Danny Devine goal before the break. It was a rather dour encounter and one where Darian Mackinnon earned himself two yellow cards in ten seconds..............is that a record. 

The least said about this game the better with fans less than impressed by the quality of play on display. 

John Hughes left out Jordan Roberts and Andrea Mutombo, with Iain Vigurs and Danny Williams starting. It may just be me, but I find it odd that a player not wanting to stay at Inverness gets a start ahead of guys who would give an arm and a leg to play. David Raven was of course left on the bench. No surprise there.

RIG was at this game and here's his report.

Really poor end of season affair lightened up by MacKinnon being a colossal ned and scrapping with his coaching staff as he was bundled off the pitch and one of the ICT fans charging across the stand to celebrate the Williams 'goal' before realising it had been chalked off 

For some reason, after turning in a wonderful performance against Partick, we seem to have returned to our timid, non threatening, slow passing game. Whereas Draper and others had been snapping at the heels of Partick players winning the ball and providing great support further forward for the likes of Storey we seemed significantly less inclined to attack with anyone other than Storey, Williams and Polworth. Draper and Tansey were lined up exceptionally deep with Meekings and Tremarco seldom supporting on the flanks. It was like we had put the brakes on for this one despite 7th place and some potentially important prize money up for grabs.

The best move of the game for us came when Storey scampered free on the left flank and crossed for Williams who finished well but had apparently just drifted offside. Hard to tell from where we were. A quick free kick from Vigurs released Devine and he tackled the ball into the net. Decent finish for a defender. Hamilton had largely been restricted to shots from range with a couple looking like they flew pretty close to OFW goal.

Half Time 0-1

Second half was sadly a very timid affair from us in attacking sense best exemplified when Williams had the ball on the right flank and the ICT players alongside him stood completely still. There was little movement off the ball to create space for either a pass or for the player who had the ball. We seemed happy to knock the ball around and protect the one goal lead. Draper (I think) did find Polworth with a superb through ball but he shot right at McGovern.

MacKinnon, perhaps the biggest ned in Scottish football, was sent off for clashing with Vigurs. Looked like he threw an elbow in the direction of Vigurs after a challenge which strangely brought only a yellow card before he then mouthed off at the ref and was shown a second yellow. As he went off he clashed with the Accies coaching staff and was restrained before appearing to launch himself at whoever was holding him back. Bizarre.

For most of the latter part of the second half we were defending deeper and deeper as we clung on to the lead. Hamiltons best chance came when a clever and quick free kick nearly caught us out but somehow the final shot from an Accies player, from about 3 yards out, was ballooned into the retail park.

Full Time 0-1

Not going to complain too much about a win but having seen what the team can do when it is set up correctly it seems bizarre to put the brakes on and reign the side back.

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