Ayr Pressure

 

With our Premiership aspirations hanging by a thread, we entertain Ayr United on Saturday with our winless run having been extended to eight games after the 3-3 draw with Partick Thistle, albeit an improved performance, but the end result all too familiar recently. The game is scheduled for 3:00pm on Saturday, weather permitting, with storms due in midweek. Dudley seems to have bypassed Inverness, but Eunice is coming, so fingers crossed it misses us as well, however, snow is forecast so beware. Storm Ayr are coming North fresh from retaining the bragging rights after their excellent derby win over Killie; no pressure then.

MATCH/TICKET/STREAMING INFO

Venue - Head2Head

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	21	10	10	1	35	20	+15
Away	22	10	5	7	42	28	+14
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	43	20	15	8	77	48	+29

Last 10 Competitive Meetings

2 - 2 (A)

1 - 0 (H)

2 - 2 (H)

2 - 0 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

0 - 1 (A)

2 - 0 (H)

2 - 0 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

3 - 1 (A)

Loaded heavily in our favour, the stats don't lie, or do they? Only one defeat to Ayr at home on all competitions would seem to make Inverness odds on favourites to win this one. Unfortunately, we, the fans, know better. Our recent form has been poor and we are winless in eight.

The previous encounters this season show a 1-0 win towards the end of August during our opening gambit of the season.

CTO summary: Walsh nicks it: A slightly damp morning opening out into a muggy but calm afternoon in the Highlands made for near perfect conditions for this game. However, the football did not match the weather in a dour first half and it was goalless at the interval. Ayr rattled the top of the stand at the start of the second half as the game came to life. Tom Walsh looked to have opened the scoring when he bundled an inviting cross from Manny Duku behind the keeper after 54 minutes with Sean McGinty in close proximity trying to clear the ball. Joe Chalmers put a shot across the face of the Inverness goal that went narrowly wide. Walsh missed a glorious chance to double the lead moments later but pulled his shot across the face of the goal as well. Robbie Deas also missed an opportunity for a second goal, firing the ball over the bar from a great position inside the box. The game was more open but Inverness held on for their third 1-0 win of the season and top the league jointly with Killie.

In the return fixture at Somerset Park we threw away an early advantage to draw 2-2, the slump was well and trully on. 

Another opportunity missed! At a windy Somerset Park, Inverness took the lead early on when Sean Welsh met a Tom Walsh cross at the back post unchallenged to head into the net. The lead only lasted a couple of minutes as Joe Chalmers scored after a corner with a couple of defenders being grappled to the ground as Chalmers slotted home. Gardyne was causing all sorts of problems and his next angled cross into the box was missed by Mckay but it bounced through and into the goal to give the visitors the advantage at the break. Reading levelled with a low shot eight minutes into the second half, Ridgers not covering his near post sufficiently. No more scoring partly due to Aidan McAdams in the home goal and another great opportunity to get back on top went abegging with Partick winning 1-0 at Rugby Park.

Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts Dunfermline v Partick Thistle postponed 1. Arbroath 24 12 9 3 38 18 45 2. Kilmarnock 25 13 4 8 31 19 43 3. Inverness CT 25 10 9 6 33 23 39 4. Raith Rovers 25 9 11 5 34 27 38 5. Partick Thistle 22 10 7 5 37 22 37 6. Morton 24 6 9 9 29 34 27 7. Hamilton Ac. 25 6 9 10 27 40 27 8. Ayr United 25 6 8 11 23 38 26 9. Dunfermline 25 4 11 10 24 40 23 10. Q.O.S. 24 4 7 13 25 40 19

FRIDAY 18th FEBRUARY

Dunfermline P v P Partick Thistle

SATURDAY 19TH FEBRUARY

Hamilton v Morton   

Caley Jags v Ayr United

    Kilmarnock v Raith Rovers

Queen Sth v Arbroath

Last time out

Inverness came from behind three times to secure a point against an impressive Partick Thistle. Brian Graham was a thorn in our side again, claiming a hat-trick although the first one appeared to come off the shins of Wallace Duffy. We hit back through Billy Mckay, Shane Sutherland and a last gasp header from the enterprising Kirk.

Ayr United won the Ayrshire derby as they came from behind to beat Kilmarnock 2-1 at Rugby Park to stun title favourites Killie. Fraser Murray had opened the scoring early in the first half but Ayr levelled soon after through Sean McGinty and he scored the winner with ten minutes left to stun their hosts.

Latest Team News

Billy Dodds will definitely be without Scott Allardice and Danny Devine. Somehow, Roddy MacGregor has disappeared from earth, possibly been abducted by a Chinese tennis player. If anyone spots him, can they call MacGregors Bar to let us know that he's safe and well. Thanks in advance. Aaron Doran has missed the last month but is back in training and Tom Walsh has thrown his hat into the injured squad over the last couple of weeks. Thankfully we are covered up front with Sam Pearson looking good last week, but for some unknown reason we never looked at bringing in defensive cover from the start of the season, we'll soon be going with one at the back.

New Ayr manager Lee Bullen will be looking for more of the same attitude displayed in the derby win over Killie. Here's his starting XI from the Killie game played in front of 7,560 fans. Adeloye and Rowe came on as second half subs, with Ayr playing a 4-4-1-1 formation.

1McAdams

2Houston4Muirhead5McGinty3Reading

22McKenzie6Murdoch8McInroy14Maxwell

18Dempsey

19Ashford

There's been a lot of changes at Somerset Park since we last played Ayr. Our own Eric has been busy checking out their latest coming and goings. So, basically, a new look Ayr United will be here looking to improve their poor record at Inverness.

Departures

Cameron Salkeld - forward -has left the club due to long term injury

Nick McAllister - back - on loan to Clyde FC until end of season

Michael Miller - midfield - on loan to Stenhousemuir FC until end of season

Joe Chalmers - midfield - Transferred to Dunfermline FC.

Jonathon Afolabi - forward - was on loan from Celtic recalled and now at Airdrieonians Fc

Steven Bradley - forward - was on loan from Hibs recalled and now at Dundalk FC

 

Arrivals

Blaine Rowe - right back - on loan from Coventry FC U23 until end of season.

Kerr McInroy - defensive midfield - on loan from Celtic FC until end of season

Ben Dempsey - attacking midfield - on loan from Charlton FC U23 until end of season

Ryan Gondoh - left wing - the Ghanaian has signed from Wealdstone FC until May 2023

Paul Smith - centre forward - has returned after loan spell at Cumnock Juniors FC ( that should have toughened him up a bit )

Sam Ashworth - centre forward - signed from Crawley Town FC until May 2023

Fraser Brydon - centre forward - has been promoted to first team from Ayr U18s

 

Manager

Lee Bullen has had several spells as Caretaker manager of Sheffield Wednesday FC and was recently manager or their U23 side

Age: 50 Years 
Appointed: Jan 7, 2022
Contract expires: May 31, 2024

 

 

 

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We are the diddy men.

Beginning to feel like groundhog day: get to Saturday; optimistic about the game; think our furtunes will change; game kicks off; get to half time

Sigh 😕 

Remember when we used to be able to get to half time at 0v0, I'd take that as a bonus 

Things need to change, right now. Could be BDs biggest team talk to date 

3 minutes ago, MrCaleyjag said:

Beginning to feel like groundhog day: get to Saturday; optimistic about the game; think our furtunes will change; game kicks off; get to half time

Sigh 😕 

Remember when we used to be able to get to half time at 0v0, I'd take that as a bonus 

Things need to change, right now. Could be BDs biggest team talk to date 

Yep because it could be his last and rightly so because this form is nothing short of abysmal and totally ******* unacceptable! 

Game over, season over.

More poor defending 

Change is needed and until such times I'm afraid things will continue on a downward spiral  

Carson sent off   

 

The last time we were this bad and we all spoke like this was when Foran was in charge and look how that ended.

Had we not got 19pts from the first 7 games we'd be in that said same situation.

Everyone is asleep at the wheel and drastic change is needed now.

Surely to **** this dud will be GONE by Monday, even our chairman can't be stupid enough not to act. 

 

Every single one of them owe us an apology because its just abysmal! 

Absolutely garbage. Literally nothing positive to take from this 'performance'. 

Drastic action needs to taken but I figure we'll limp our way to the playoffs if we're lucky. 

The more time Dodds has had to impose his methods and make this his team, the worse we get.

Off you pop Dodds !🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

It would be a mistake to say that our season is falling apart.

It actually fell apart weeks ago with a few poor results by our opponents papering over the cracks which have now become crevices.

Our coaching staff are clueless and have no idea how to arrest the decline.

We might just pip Partick or Raith Rovers for the final play off place if we are lucky but have no prospect of progressing through the play offs on current form.

Time to turn our minds to next season and, within our limited resources, have a serious think about what coaches and players we need for a proper sustained promotion push.

Bitterly disappointing from where we were. Too late to save this season but it is patently obvious, even if it wasn't before, that root and branch change is required.

I'm sorry but Dodds has got to go after this debacle. Another absolutely pitiful performance with no sign of any coherent game plan. We are a club in freefall. 

Failure from top to bottom. I've no idea what the answer is

Where do we go from here? I dunno....

Great cross 😂

2-1 last push in the last 5 to get a point

On 2/17/2022 at 9:06 PM, Robert said:

I can’t explain why, but I’ve a good feeling about Saturday’s game and am looking forward to a home win.

I am pleased that I could not bring myself to share your optimism.

That would have been even more crushing and soul destroying.

I have no interest in hearing what Billy Dodds has to say post match.

I have heard it all before and it wore very thin a very long time ago.

 

Tokely nailed it on comms; no workrate, no heart, no desire. 

Ayr Utd by far the better team then again we make alot of these teams look good with terrible defending.

10 games left now wonder if we can do anything to end on a high. Maybe enough to stay in a play off place then again not holding out much hope off going up via the play offs

2 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

I have no interest in hearing what Billy Dodds has to say post match.

I have heard it all before and it wore very thin a very long time ago.

 

Only thing that changes in his talks is the team name we are playing against. 

1 minute ago, ymip said:

Tokely nailed it on comms; no workrate, no heart, no desire. 

Agreed. If it were a lack of skill or ability that was the main issue that would be easier to take.

However, the bigger issue is a lack of desire and commitment which is very much harder to stomach.

The ease with which poor teams from the bottom half of the league can come up here and get a comfortable 3 points without having to do anything special is pretty sickening.

Another dismal performance.Absolutely shocking and Sutherland doesn't get hooked at half time and then we take off possibly our better players.I no longer drive home despondent as I am now well used to it.3rd plays 8th and they (8th)have one shot on target in the first half and score.All after Harper gives away the ball at the halfway line. Carson gets a stupid first booking and he is walking a tight rope for the rest of the game.Inevitable he walked.Lacked any fighting spirit again.

Edited February 19, 20224 yr by Douglas Mackenzie