Shut that window

 

Second bottom Queen of the south come calling to the Caledonian Stadium to take on second top Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Saturday afternoon at 3:00pm is the kick-off. Queens have lost their last two fixtures and Inverness are without a win in their last three games. Time to close the transfer window before we have nobody left to play out the season.

Venue - H2H

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	20	12	2	6	36	24	+12
Away	19	8	7	4	33	20	+13
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	39	20	9	10	69	44	+25

OFFICIAL PREVIEW

Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts   1. Arbroath 21 10 8 3 33 15 38 2. Inverness CT 20 10 6 4 27 15 36 3. Kilmarnock 20 11 3 6 26 14 36 4. Raith Rovers 21 9 8 4 28 20 35 5. Partick Thistle 19 9 5 5 32 18 32 6. Hamilton Ac. 21 6 6 9 24 36 24 7. Ayr United 20 5 6 9 19 32 21 8. Morton 20 3 8 9 22 31 17 9. Q.O.S. 20 4 5 11 19 31 17 10. Dunfermline 20 2 9 9 18 36 15

 

FRIDAY 19:45

Partick v Killie

SATURDAY 15:00

  Ayr Utd v Morton

Dunfermline v Hamilton  

 Inverness v Queens

Raith Rovers v Arbroath

Inverness have picked up six points from the two games between the clubs this season, both ending 2-1 in favour of the Caley Jags.

CTO Summary from 25th September: Goals from Sean Welsh and Michael Gardyne were just enough to put Inverness back to the top of the table despite a worldy goal from Lee Connelly for the visitors. Inverness deserved the win but made hard work of it before Gardyne scored a superb volley to win the points and ease the fans nerves.

CTO Summary from 19th November: The visitors opened the scoring when Billy Mckay converted a first half penalty. They doubled their lead when he added a second from a superb Carson cross but Queens forced a tense finish when Lee Connelly smashed the ball into the net to give them hope. However Inverness saw out the game to claim the points and move a point behind leaders Kilmarnock who play Arbroath on Saturday. 

Last Time Out

The Caley Jags recovered from a goal down to draw with Raith Rovers last weekend. The points were shared thanks to two spectacular goals from Ethan Ross and Reece McAlear. A poor first half for the hosts saw Raith lead at the break but a better performance after the interval earned a share of the points although Raith will be aggrieved that they never ended their 22 year wait for a win over Inverness.

Queens were deservedly beaten by Kilmarnock in a 2-0 defeat at Palmerston. Alan Johnston had this to say about it on BBC Sport: "It was never a penalty. There was a tug of the shirt but I've seen it again and it was way outside the box. But we continue to give away cheap goals. We have a fight on our hands. That's for sure."

That's something like only four wins in 25 games since Alan Johnston went to Palmerston. The sort of form that gets teams relegated. Unfortunately, on the whole, we seldom take full advantage of this and often find ourselves struggling to dominate these games. That needs to change now if we want to remain interested in topping this league. Showing some urgency from the start would be an improvement on recent offerings. 

Latest Team News

Billy Dodds saw Sean Welsh return last week as a second half substitute against Raith Rovers. Aaron Dorran missed out with a thigh injury and is a major doubt. Youth player Harry Hennem will continue his loan spell at Brora Rangers until the end of the season. More disturbing news though if true is that Scott Allardice is allegedly out for the season if you believe the latest rumours. Another equally disappointing one is that Robbie Deas is the subject of a six figure bid by St Johnstone to lure our defender to McDiarmid Park, following the footsteps of defenders Jamie McCart and Shaun Rooney. Meh!

Next up for scrutiny will be Shane Sutherland...

As an aside, but equally annoying: Daniel Mackay has joined Killie on loan, and loan Ranger Kai Kennedy has gone to Hamilton Accies.

Willie Gibson should return for Queens who should also have former County and Inverness player Alex Cooper plying his trade at left back. Keeper Sol Brynn has been recalled by Middlesbrough but midfielder Don McMahon comes back from his loan to Dalbeattie Star.

 

He scores when he wants !!!!!

That’s more like it, good goal from Tom Walsh. More of that please. 

Edited January 15, 20224 yr by CaleyCiuin

Good goal from Walsh now have to get a third.

Feckin Carson slides the ball into the queens player...  to55er

A poor goal to concede. A Third needed for a win.

That was dire we can't hold on to win a game, another two points dropped!

Another poor result with only a point gained. 2 points dropped imo, not a league winning performance again. 

Waiting for Dodds to come out with ' disappointing '  in the first sentence.

That was shyte, Once again we struggle against the lower teams.

Not going to win this league with these results at home.

Frustrating, disappointing but sadly no longer surprising

A wasted opportunity to gain ground on our promotion rivals.

We need to do so much better.

Willie Collum, eh?  Bloody hell!

Today’s result confirms that we just aren’t good enough to win this league. The playoffs will end in disappointment too.

4 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

Today’s result confirms that we just aren’t good enough to win this league. The playoffs will end in disappointment too.

Sadly, I have to agree and, if we do find ourselves in the Championship again next season, we will have to give very serious consideration to who we want to be our manager.

That felt like Caley Thistle 2-2 Officials. 

From where I was sitting, the first goal was offside, albeit the officials would not have had a decision to make if Deas (I think) had not made a wayward pass.

The linesman flagged offside for the second and we had taken the free kick before Collum stopped the game and awarded the goal.

There were only 479 there but it’s the loudest booing of officials I’ve heard in a long time, and it was justified.

True, we made enough chances to win the game but squandered them, but I left the ground and drove home really feeling the officials robbed us. What did the goals look like on the livestream?

Edited January 15, 20224 yr by Robert

We simply dont have enough quality

If all else fails, blame the ref...

4 minutes ago, Robert said:

 What did the goals look like on the livestream?

The first one - couldn't tell, because our last defender, Broadfoot IIRC, was offscreen when the pass was made.  Ross Tokely reckoned that he had played the Queens attacker onside, and that the goal was good.

The second one - couldn't tell, because the camera was looking at the goalmouth from the centre line.  As you say, the linesman flagged, and, when Collum was finally persuaded to consult him, it was so brief that there cannot have been any exchange of information.  Barely time for Collum to say "I'm in charge here!".

When the referee becomes a large part of the story, especially when that was so predictable, then something has gone badly wrong.

I was one of the 479 who were at the stadium and don't think I have ever seen such an inept display from all three officials.Collum was his usual over officious self while the standside assistant allowed a blatant offside goal to stand and his partner in crime originally flagged the QOS equaliser offside and then allowed the referee to overrule him. Having said that it didn't help that once again we failed to beat a lower placed team at home.

28 minutes ago, Satan said:

If all else fails, blame the ref...

I’m not, but he played a major part.

The first goal stemmed from a poor pass (although I felt the goal was offside at the time), and the linesman flagged clearly at the second.

However, we created more then enough chances to win and would have won with better passing and more composure.

But as Alan has also said, the officials were woeful today.

The management need to channel the aggrieved feeling into a turnaround in our performances and results to keep us in contention.

After 7 games we had 19 points.

After 21 games we have 37 points.

18 points from 14 games is relegation play off form, not promotion contenders’ form. 

Edited January 15, 20224 yr by Robert

Blaming the officials deflects from our failings.

We are a team which huff and puff but lack quality and cutting edge.

Another very poor display, not helped the atrocious Collum. A good referee should be almost invisible in a game, not vying for the starring role. In my pre-season prediction, I said that I thought ICT would end up outside of the playoffs, and if we keep producing performances like this and dropping points, that's where we're heading. We are desperately needing to beef up the squad, and need some new faces quickly. Another game where we couldn't fill the bench and our options to change things were limited. We are desperately needing to find some players who can beat a man and get a shot away, too many times we took too much time on the ball. Three points are a priority in our next game.

We got a break of the ball for our goals and both were put away well. It would be good to review offside decisions and clarify. It felt like a game we ought to have won as have a few other games. Surprised at Macgregor coming off; maybe protecting him ? Duku had an opportunity near the end but could not get a shot away in the box; not convinced he will score in the league at all. There was a shout for Jamieson to come on as he looks like he could score ? The Queens goalie brought in on loan had a good game. Today's game signalled that at best we may stay in the play offs. 

18 minutes ago, Robert said:

The first goal stemmed from a poor pass (although I felt the goal was offside at the time), and the linesman flagged clearly at the second.

Watching the stream I thought their first goal was onside, from a good pass The reason the ref overruled the linesman for the second was that it was that the ball came off an an ICT player, so no offside, but it was hard to tell.

Have to agree with posts so far.Officials desperate,just desperate,  but we were not much better and are a shadow of the team we were at the beginning of the season.Q of the S were the better team first half.No way will we win the league playing like this. In fact if we don't get a grip we will not make playoffs. 

 

Edited January 15, 20224 yr by Douglas Mackenzie

If ever there was a team needing new blood.... ICT is it.

It was Carson that diverted the ball back into the Queens players path.

Still think we need proper fullbacks.