Kilmarnock -V- Inverness CT - Report - S/C
Our week of woe continued at Rugby Park as the misery worsened, not only by the defeat, but injuries to key players which will hamper our challenge for a top four finish over the next few weeks. Two second half goals from Paul Heffernan were enough to see off a battle weary Inverness as injuries removed captain Richie Foran and influential midfielder Anrew Shinnie from the action before half time.
League Cup, no more. Scottish Cup, no more. And defeat at Paisley in the SPL will be followed up by the visit of Celtic next weekend. Aye, it's been a tough few days and it looks like getting even tougher.
Ryan Esson got a rare outing in goal and Ross Draper missed out through suspension. Nick Ross started in midfield and David Raven returned after missing out at Paisley in midweek with an injury. Killies Mark O'Hara kept his place in the starting eleven but Paul Heffernan began on the bench, although he would play a big part in the outcome of this game after Cillian Sheridan limped off at half time.
Capital Caley will have a full report when he recovers from his travels............
Saturday concluded an absolutely disastrous week for Caley Thistle. Defeated in a penalty shoot out to Hearts seven days previous and dropping three points at the Midden on Wednesday. The Caley Thistle faithful were hopeful that we could get over our League Cup heart break by storming into the Quarter Finals of the Scottish Cup. But an under par performance from the Caley Jags saw them crash out of the cup with a 2-0 defeat at Kilmarnock. It is the third time in twelve seasons that we have been eliminated from the Scottish Cup at Rugby Park, and probably our worst performance at Rugby Park in a long time.
A number of the Caley Thistle ‘Juanjo’ fans made their way to the usual Killie assembly point, the Hunting Lodge. With it’s declining number of customers we fear that we won’t be back there despite the good hospitality over the years. I certainly hope it can be turned around. From there it was off to Rugby Park with the hope that we can extend our stay in the cup.
Due to Scottish Cup rules, both teams had to have fewer substitutes than they would have had in an SPL game. Conor Pepper and Liam Polwarth looked on from the stand. The first half was pretty poor. Richie Foran received a caution after only a couple of minutes after a challenge on Mark O’Hara. It was a sluggish start from both teams and ICT were soon dealt a blow when Foran pulled up with an injury to be replaced with Philip Roberts. This was Roberts time to make amends for his League Cup penalty miss – or so we hoped.
After half an hour both teams had half chances from far out but weren’t really testing Ryan Esson or Cammy Bell in the ICT and Killie goals respectively. Caley Thistle were dealt another blow when Andrew Shinnie had to come off with an injury and was replaced with new signing Charlie Taylor. Taylor impressed on his debut but the loss of Shinnie and Foran was a real blow to the team. Cillian Sheridan forced Ryan Esson into a good save just before half time but it was looking more and more likely that there would be a stalemate going into half time.
Half Time 0-0
Inverness just couldn’t get going and any attempt at flowing build up play was just not working this time. Killie were starting to edge it and deservedly took the lead on 58 minutes with Paul Heffernan driving the ball into the bottom left corner of the goal after a unlucky intervention by Taylor went astray off the legs of Warren. Caley Thistle did carve out a few chances but never looked like they were going to score. With every attack, the ball would go astray, possession would be lost, balls over hit or timid shots at Bell in the Kilmarnock goal.
New signing Jordan Gibbons replaced Nick Ross with ten minutes to go. But Kilmarnock were always looking like they would get the second goal and Esson pulled off a couple of good saves to keep Caley Thistle in it. However there was nothing he could do to stop Kilmarnocks second in the 85th minute. Ross Barbour assisted Paul Heffernan who slotted the ball into the middle of the goal to seal the victory with a neat back-heeled flick.
Full Time 2-0
Despite elimination from the Scottish Cup there was some positives for ICT. Esson played well and commanded the box effectively. Despite shipping two goals the defence played very well. New signing Charlie Taylor impressed. However in general it was a poor team performance and the lads will need to really raise their game for next Saturday if they want to repeat their heroics from Celtic Park earlier in the season.
For his composure and another solid performance my Man Of The Match is David Raven. Hopefully the whole team can click again against Celtic next week to get our title challenge back on track. This has been a week to forget. But we are second in the SPL. Despite our cup woes, we can still go forward in the league. Hampden however will have to wait.
Highlights available @ BBC Sport
2nd Feb 2013 Scottish Cup Rugby Park, Kilmarnock Kilmarnock 2 - Heffernan (58, 85) TEAM: Bell, Tesselaar, Fowler, McKeown, Barbour, O'Hara, Sissoko, Dayton (Hay 70), Gross, Sheridan (Heffernan 45), Perez SUBS: Letheren, Pascali, McKenzie Booked: Hay (88) Sent Off: none Inverness CT 0 - TEAM: Esson, G.Shinnie, Warren, Meekings, Raven, Tudur-Jones, Ross (Gibbons 81), Foran (Roberts 16), A.Shinnie (Taylor 31), McKay, Doran SUBS: Reguero, Devine Booked: Foran (1) Sent Off: none Referee Willie Collum Attendance 3172
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Scotty in Reports 2012-13 ·
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