Return of the Mac fails to inspire embarrassing Caley Jags. 

Prodigal son Billy Mckay returned to Inverness as Richie Foran pulled off a signing coup to set the fans buzzing prior to this fixture and he went straight into the starting XI. Aaron Doran, Josh Meekings and Billy King all missed out for the visitors as Massimo Donati and captain Michael Devlin returned after suspension for the hosts. 

However, it took Accies only ten minutes to open the scoring when Alex D'Acol scored from a corner with the Inverness defence looking sheepishly at each other. Greg Tansey spurned an opportunity to level the score from the spot but Gary Woods saved. Grant Gillespie scored two minutes into the second half with Fon Williams not looking too clever. Rakish Bingham lashed in a third after more shoddy Inverness play.

Shoes have come off for less serious predicaments. It's time for some tough talking at the Caledonian Stadium.

Old Caley Girl witnessed this one and it's suffice to say that she was less than impressed with the display from the Caley Jags, despite the introduction of new signing Billy Mckay. Here's her report from the SuperSeal Stadium................

The Caleyaway faithful turned up at New Douglas Park with renewed hope following the morale boosting return of the prodigal son Billy McKay. However, this optimism was to prove short lived and misplaced with a Tuesday night horror show from ICT. Its 8 years since the infamous shoes off protest and to be quite honest if there had been another display of shoes this week it would not have been undeserved.

It was clear from the off that Hamilton were well aware how important this game was and it didn’t take us long to see which team was up for the fight and which wasn’t. Ali Crawford had the first chance of the game but shot over the bar and Billy Mckay had a good chance a few minutes later but shot wide. However, just a few minutes later Hamilton were ahead with D’Acol heading home from close range from a Crawford corner.

With 26 minutes played ICT were thrown a potential lifeline with Darian MacKinnon fouling Billy Mckay in the box and a penalty was awarded. There was a collective sigh of relief when our usually reliable penalty taker Greg Tansey stepped up, but this proved short lived. He fired the ball towards the right hand corner but Woods went the right way and saved.  At that point the writing was on the wall that it wasn’t going to be a good night for us. To be fair to Tansey, Woods did very well in saving his shot but that wasn’t much comfort to the travelling fans. At this point the heads went down and we resorted to punt after punt that rarely got anywhere near Anier or Mckay.  Tansey and Vigurs collected first half yellows and Crawford went off injured in 32 mins.

Half Time 1 – 0

If we thought things were going to improve second half we were sadly mistaken. Two minutes after the restart Hamilton were 2 ahead, Grant Gillespie firing the ball into the right hand corner of the net. In 58 minutes Draper was replaced by Cole and a few moments later Hamilton were three ahead, Bingham shooting from outside the box into the top right hand top of the net. Ebbe replaced Anier in 75 minutes but this was a shambolic display from ICT.  I can’t remember anything of note in any way positive in the second half from an ICT perspective at all.

Full Time 3 – 0

With the midfield missing in action and unable to get the ball effectively to the strikers and the defence having a collectively poor night then this had only one outcome. In fact I’d suggest it was the worst display I personally have seen from an ICT team in years. The players looked disorganised and tactics seemed non-existent, headless chickens at times.  Another worry, apart from now being adrift at the bottom of the league, is that Hamilton look more than capable of being up for a scrap but we seem to be falling more apart as the games are played.  Richie Foran sounded emotional in his post-match interview and was scathing of the players but at last seems to have admitted to himself that we are in a relegation battle.  With a four year deal a change of manager is not an option so we just have to hope that somehow Foran and his players can pull off a miracle and get us out of this mess. On this performance the jury is out that they can.

OCG MotM –  Ok, not sure anyone deserved this award at all but if I have to pick a player I’d have to go with Billy Mckay, who must wonder what he has done coming back to this shambles of a set up. My MotM tho is going to the guys and girls of Caleyaway, all 139 of those present on Tuesday night, who deserve much much better than they spent good money to watch. 

Here's the SPFL video from the SuperSeal Stadium. Parental guidance is advised as it's another horror show from the Caley Jaggies.

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