Inverness CT 3-3 Ayr Utd - Report

Late penalty earns point

It took another last gasp Adam Rooney penalty for ICT to snatch a deserved point against Ayr United at the Caledonian Stadium this afternoon.

Once again, bad defending and not taking chances at the other end cost crucial points that would have taken us above Ross County into 2nd place. It took another last gasp Adam Rooney penalty for ICT to snatch a deserved point against Ayr United at the Caledonian Stadium this afternoon.

Yet again, it was another case of bad defending and not taking our chances at the other end that cost us a crucial three points, points that would have taken us above Ross County into second place.

It was the home side that showed their signal of intent right from the off and could have taken the lead if Irish striker Adam Rooney had connected better from Jonny Hayes’ knock down instead, his sliced effort rolled into the arms of Stephen Grindlay in the visitors goal. But, it was Ayr that took the lead, a soft free kick, conceded by Rooney was curled in by Chris Mitchell and a hapless Ryan Esson could only watch as his failed attempt at a punch clear was knocked down by Ryan McGowan into the path of Tam McManus who drilled towards goal, it his Latvian defender and spun against the post and at the feet of captain Andy Aitken who slotted into an open net. Some awful defending saw Ayr go two up just six minutes later, a wild pass from Chris Mitchell just outside the box split the ICT defence and fell to Mark Roberts who rounded the advancing Esson to roll home beyond the lunging Bulvitis who attempted to clear off of the line. ICT immediately tried to pull back and a whipped Hayes free kick was just knocked wide by fellow Irishman Richie Foran. Just three minutes afterwards; Hayes was on the prowl down the right wing again and his cross was well controlled by Foran who laid the ball back to Russell Duncan to strike from 25 yards but his bullet was well saved by Grindlay.

The goal back did come just one minute before half time; Ayr never got the ball out of their own half and loyal right-back Ross Tokely bent in a cracking cross which evaded everybody in the penalty area apart from Richie Foran who knocked into the net for 2-1.

HALF TIME: 1-2 

ICT flew out in the second half and it was nearly an own goal that saw Terry Butcher’s side level. Another fantastic cross from Tokely was knocked towards goal by Aitken only for Grindlay to keep the ball out, and the referee judged it to have not crossed the line. ICT seemed to get closer and closer to that equalizer and when one of ICT’s thirteen corners found its way to Foran at the back post, they looked destined to get it. It was another whipped ball from Hayes to the near post where Rooney flicked onto Foran who nodded against the post, much to the despair of the ICT faithful. The goal finally came in the 64th minute, some smooth passing from ICT eventually found his way to the workhorse that is Jonny Hayes who curled home exquisitely past Grindlay for his sixth league goal of the season. But.... just a few minutes after, there was another setback from ICT the persistent chasing of Tam MacManus was put to good use, he raced after a long ball from the defence before rifling past Ryan Esson to give the Honest Men an undeserved lead. That meant that ICT were chasing the game again and it took a dubious penalty decision from the referee to give ICT a lifeline in the fourth minute of injury time. A lot of bottle is needed to step up for a last minute penalty, but this is the second time in a month Rooney has had to do this, and just like the Partick game a few weeks ago he blasted beyond Grindlay to gain a point on highland rivals Ross County who lost to Partick and to keep ICT’s 8 game unbeaten run intact.

Full Time 3-3