Pre-Season Round-up
The 8 game pre-season ended with 7 wins and 1 loss. Details of the team lineups and brief summaries can be found here.
11/07: ICT 2-0 Qatar U21: The first match of the 2007/08 pre-season was a 2-0 victory over the Qatar national U20 squad. The match was played in Castel Del Lago, Italy as Caley Thistle based themselves at their Italian training camp in Montecatini for the second successive season.
The first half, played in a 4-4-2 formation, was goalless but Caley Thistle had plenty of possession. Charlie Christie made 8 substitutions at half time and one more in the second half as most of the squad got a run out. The second half formation was changed to 3-5-2. Ross Tokely scored for Caley Thistle in the 46th minute and new signing Dean McDonald got the second five minutes before the end of the game.
Team: Fraser (Ridgers 46), Tokely (Kerr 70), McCaffrey, Munro, A McDonald (Hart 46), Wilson (Sutherland 46), Duncan (Cowie 46), Rankin (McBain (46), Morgan (Paatelainen 46), Wyness (Bayne 46), McAllister (D McDonald 46).
14/07: ICT 2-1 Universitatea Craiova U21: The second match in Italy pitted Caley Thistle with a very physical Romanian side who had a player sent off but then brought a sub on to go back up to 11 players (bizarre !). Youngster Garry Wood scored with a header in the 35th minute and Dean McDonald showed some nice skill just after the break to round the keeper and score his second in two games.
Once again, Charlie Christie started with a 4-4-2 formation but changed it at half-time this time to 3-4-1-2 with Dennis Wyness playing as an attacking midfielder.
Team: Fraser, Tokely, Munro, Kerr (Wyness 46), Hastings (A McDonald 46), Sutherland (Wilson 46), Cowie (Black 46), McBain (Duncan 46), Rankin (Hart 46), Bayne (McAllister 60), Wood (D McDonald 46).
17/07: Elgin City 0-3 ICT Back on home soil, and it was third division Elgin City who were next up and unlike Italy there were less substitutions and a more settled 4-4-2 formation.
The goals in this game all came from midfield with Barry Wilson scoring in 38 minutes, John Rankin in 46 and Richie Hart in 62 but the main talking point would be whether Marius Niculae would be playing? The Romanian International player put pen to paper earlier in the day, but would not feature as his contract was subject to the granting of a work permit.
Team: Fraser, Tokely, McCaffrey, Munro (Kerr 79), Hastings, Wilson (Vigurs 65), Hart (Sutherland 65), McBain, Rankin (Wood 74), Bayne, Wyness
18/07: Clachnacuddin 0-2 ICT The team for this match showed Caley Thistle’s depth of squad with youngsters Garry Wood, Iain Vigurs, Guy Kerr, and Zander Sutherland (who had all played the previous night) as well as Jamie Duff and Ally McDonald (who had not) taking the field at some point in this game alongside another seven first team players. Sitting this game out were a full squad of first team players - Fraser, Tokely, McCaffrey, Munro, Hastings, Wilson, Hart, McBain, Rankin, Bayne and Wyness as well as Marius Niculae who was not eligible yet.
Two trialists played for Caley Thistle in this game. One was Andrew McNulty (17), a young Irish keeper that Charlie was considering for the U19 squad and Phil Marsh (20) the ex Man Utd youngster who can play up front or in defence came on in the latter stages of the game.
The first half was a goalless affair with Clach – featuring another 6 ex-ICT players – proving very difficult to break down and it took until the 76th minute for Caley Thistle to score with a nice solo effort from Zander Sutherland. Garry Wood extended the lead a few minutes before the end after he was fouled in the box and took the resulting penalty himself.
Team: Trialist, Duff, Kerr, A McDonald, Cowie, Black, Duncan, Morgan (Vigurs 60), Paatelainen (Sutherland 72), D McDonald (Trialist 72), McAllister (Wood 60)
21/07: Keith 1-5 ICT Caley Thistle were Keith’s opponents for this match – a testimonial for Darren Still – and a strong ICT side ran out 5-1 winners against the Highland League champions. It took until the 42nd minute for Caley Thistle to break the deadlock with a Barry Wilson free-kick and Dean McDonald extended the lead just before half-time with the first of two goals in this game for him. Dean got a second goal in the 64th minute before John Rankin hit a late double in the 85th and 88th minutes to complete an easy win.
Charlie gave three of the under 19 squad a run-out in this game – Jake Inglis started the game and both Stuart Leslie and Dale Gillespie came on as second half subs.
Team: Fraser, Inglis, McCaffrey, Hastings, A.MacDonald (Kerr 46), Wilson, Cowie, Duncan (Gillespie 70), Rankin, Bayne (Leslie 60), D.McDonald
22/07: Inverurie Locos 2-5 ICT Along the road to Inverurie and the Locos were the opponents the next day. This was another testimonial, this time for Steven Park and Caley Thistle once again scored 5 times but as with earlier friendlies, the squad was changed again and this time none of the players from the previous match made an appearance.
It was the Locos who scored first but a Markus Paatelainen header in the 28th minute got the sides back on level terms. A Loco’s free kick hit the post from 25 yards in the 35th minute but it was Dennis Wyness who showed how it should be done from that distance with an excellent strike from the same distance after losing his marker in the 43rd minute.
5 minutes after the restart, Rory McAllister made it 3-1 netting an easy chance after the Loco’s keeper had blocked a Richie Hart effort. It was 4-1 in the 63rd minute as Wyness slotted home a Ross Tokely cross and although Loco’s netted in the 85th minute, Garry Wood restored the three goal cushion a minute later. Team: Ridgers, Tokely, Duff (Horne 75), Munro, Morgan, Sutherland, Hart, McBain (Vigurs 64), Paatelanien, Wyness (Wood 64), McAllister. Sub (unused) Watt.
25/07: Peterhead 2-1 ICT If Aberdeen are our stumbling block when it comes to the league then Peterhead have to be the same when it comes to our pre season preparations. Wednesday nights loss was ICT's third in 3 years to the Blue Toon with ex-ICT striker Martin Bavidge netting twice in the first half.
The ICT fans who turned out got a chance to see French trialist Joinville in action and it is believed he will play a part in our final pre-season match against Ross County on the 28th before Charlie Christie makes a decision on whether to sign him.
A number of ex-ICT players lined up against us and Bobby Mann caused us problems in only 12 mins when new signing Dean MacDonald had to be carried off the field following a tough challenge from the big man.
Ross Tokely crossed from the right and it was met by the head of Richie Hart to pull it back to 2-1 just before half-time.
The only action in the second half was the 8 substitutions and the game closed out a 2-1 victory for Peterhead. Team: Ridgers (Fraser 63), Tokely (Kerr 80), Trialist, Munro, Hastings (Black 74), Cowie (Wilson 53), Duncan (McBain 53), Vigurs (Rankin 53), Hart (Sutherland 63), Wyness (Paatelainen 63), McDonald (McAllister 12)
28/07: Ross County 1-2 ICT Caley Thistle ended the pre-season with a 2-1 victory over second division Ross County at Victoria Park. County were the last opponents for Caley Thistle before next week's Premier League opener against Rangers.
Fielding what could very well be the opening day lineup (minus Ross Tokely who was suffering a slight back strain), Caley Thistle started brightly but it was County who had the better of the opening exchanges.
With 5 former County players in the opening lineup for ICT and two former ICT club captains in the County lineup it was sometimes hard to tell which team was in division 2 and which was the SPL side. County had 3 or 4 good chances before they took the lead in the 34th minute. A defensive blunder let Barrowman in and despite the best efforts of Grant Munro to get back and clear it he could only watch as it deflected off him and into the net.
Caley Thistle should have equalised soon after but a Wyness effort was saved by Bullock and then McAllister hit the rebound over the bar. McAllister had another chance before the first half ended but hit the post.
It took until the 69th minute for ICT to draw level. A Rankin corner dropped into the box and Grant Munro was there to strike it into the roof of the net.
In 72 minutes, it was a similar scenario but a different defender scoring. Rankin corner, into the box, McCaffrey hits it home from a tight angle to make it 2-1.
Team: Fraser, McCaffrey (Duncan 82), Trialist*, Munro, Hastings, Wilson (Sutherland 65), Hart (Cowie 46), McBain, Rankin (Black 76), Wyness, McAllister (Wood 80)
Subs: Ridgers, Morgan, Paatelainen
*Trialist was Giany Joinville
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