Group E - Game Two

 

We face a midweek trip to Dumbarton Football Stadium for both clubs' second fixture in this seasons ViaPlay League Cup. Tuesday night at 7:45pm is the scheduled kick-off time for this group E fixture. Contrasting results in the opening games with Inverness easing past Bonnyrigg Rose 2-1 thanks to a stunning brace from Aaron Doran. A late header from Keiran McGachie gave the Rose the reward their endeavour deserved but it was Inverness that took the points. The Sons were hit with two late strikes from Airdrie in the last five minutes of their game. Nikolay Todorov and Lewis McGregor were the late saviours for the Diamonds at the Excelsior Stadium. In the other Group E game on Tuesday night, Bonnyrigg host Dundee at New Dundas Park.

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Ticket/Match/Streaming info

 

 Tuesday night we face Dumbarton away from home

 Tickets available online now or cash turnstile on Tuesday

 Dumbarton Stadium Bar open from 6.15pm

 Live Stream Info

Supporters Bus

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Memory Lane: We eventually got the better of Dumbarton in the 2018 Challenge Cup Final at MacDiarmid Park in Perth. It took a late strike from Carl Tremarco in the 93rd minute to ensure the Cup came North after Dumbarton had coped well with our efforts for ninety minutes. Tremarco stole in at the back post to bury a low cross from a young substitute called Mackay. Daniel Mackay was that lad. Tom Walsh was in the Sons line-up that day and he went on to play for us over two spells until his unfortunate knee injury. Dimitris Froxylias the enigmatic Cypriot played in the final and he was capable of producing the unexpected. Stuart Carsewell played and David Wilson was an unused sub for the Sons that day. Mark Ridgers and Aaron Doran are our only survivors from that game.

Last 10 Competitive Meetings - None since 2018

1 - 0 (A)

5 - 1 (H)

1 - 0 (N)

1 - 0 (H)

1 - 2 (A)

3 - 1 (H)

2 - 0 (H)

Latest Team News

Inverness tinkered with their selection in the opening fixture against Bonnyrigg. Whilst the scoreline remained close throughout, we were fairly dominant and should have been out of site before the last minute goal for the Rose. Some things worked and other things need worked on. It's still basically pre-season for us so we will not know our most suitable team selection at present, but that will come with more game time. The weather did not help on Saturday as a couple of monsoons dampened the atmosphere, but hey ho, we got the points. One or two still to make an appearance so I'll leave it for Billy Dodds to sort out. Good to see Roddy MacGregor get some game time at the weekend.

Can Aaron Doran keep this up>>>

 

Dumbarton: What can we expect?

The Sons will be playing in League Two this season. They finished last season in second place behind Stirling Albion but failed to progress via the play-offs. They suffered a 6-0 defeat to Annan Athletic in their first leg game and that put paid to any hopes of promotion . The return leg was a no scoring draw. They lost 2-0 at Airdrie in their opening Group E fixture but it took two very late goals to win the game. Former Caley Jag Nikolay Todorov was on the scoresheet for Airdrie.

Steve Farrell had this starting XI against Airdrie

Long; Lynas, Durnan, Blair, Wilson, MacLean, Pignatiello, Hilton, Ruth, Crighton, Young

Subs: Broun; Wylde, R Wallace, Byrne, T Wallace, Vata

Pre-Season for Dumbarton

1 July 2023 Dumbarton 2 - 3 Hebburn Town (Hilton and MacLean with the goals)

4 July 2023 Dumbarton 0-3 St Mirren

8 July 2023 Workington 0-4 Dumbarton (MacLean, Blair, Byrne, Vata with the goals)

 

 

7 minutes ago, caley100 said:

Thought we would do better than this!  mind it's just pre-season for us....

Bet Dodd's interview will contain the word 'disappointed'

As it should, shouldn't be loosing to a league 2 side.

2 minutes ago, Jack said:

As it should, shouldn't be loosing to a league 2 side

Same as the last few seasons.  No one with authority on the pitch.  Lots of energy, but running around like headless chickens.  As often as not, a forward pass goes to someone running back towards you, and he comes back 20 or 30 yards before passing the ball, sideways or further backwards.  Opponents always seem to be smarter, better placed, make better interceptions, and above all, finish better.  Sure we hit the bar and all that - but we weren't unlucky, it was poor finishing.

Very depressing.

Their in League 2 ffs

22 months and counting unless there really is a God 

That’s the treble gone already.

We leave our form player, Doran, on the bench???? And we play a certain way because the team is coached by the same coaching team year after year, so nothing changes. We are so predicable in the way we play, that most coaches can counteract our tactics now.

That’s a really poor result, even if we are still in pre-season mode.

Thanks Robert for the updates tonight - I was following from a theme park in Italy. What’s that phrase, a rollercoaster season?!

Same old by the sounds of it. Can't finish. Can't defend. These two cup games do not fill me with confidence for the season ahead. Early days of course. The next two cup matches may show some light on prospects. 

10 hours ago, caley1 said:

Their in League 2 ffs

22 months and counting unless there really is a God 

They have also won something like 6 games since January. Make no bones about it, League Cup Group Stage / friendly (call it what you will), last nights result was exceptionally poor.

Disaster. Our only hope to progress in the League Cup this year is that Dumbarton fielded an ineligible player.....

It's easy to say that it's early in the season, and we treat the league Cup games as pre-season games, but even if we played Dumbarton in a real pre-season game, we would expect to beat them, and would be worried if we didn't.

If we play the same tactics as the last few seasons, same coaches, same tactics, I can see the same outcome, boring ponderous football, passing the ball back and forth along the back four, and players looking for the backward pass instead of turning with the ball and driving forward. It doesn't matter what players they bring in, it's the coaching and tactics that are predicable. 

As someone new to attending away games, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of ICT fans at the match last night.  Imagine it can vary widely but what is the typical travelling support to league matches? I imagine games in and around Glasgow area attract some 'away' fans now living there which can boost numbers.

Last night's result was disappointing and hoping it doesn't scupper our chances of another cup run this year.  Promotion to the Premier League has to be the focus for this year though so I hope we are still in the experimental period before we kick off for real on the 5th August against Queens Park...  

17 minutes ago, robbo1985 said:

As someone new to attending away games, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of ICT fans at the match last night.  Imagine it can vary widely but what is the typical travelling support to league matches? I imagine games in and around Glasgow area attract some 'away' fans now living there which can boost numbers.

Obviously depends on the ground, form, transport links etc. but normally there will be anywhere between around 100 fans up to a couple / few hundred. A lot of ICT fans will end up in the central belt after leaving the Highlands for jobs or tertiary education so for a game against the likes of Partick Thistle we might take a pretty good crowd along. I think there's definitely been an increase in our away support over the last few seasons. More of the Young Team head to away games now I think (possibly for the reasons above) which is good to see.

29 minutes ago, RiG said:

Obviously depends on the ground, form, transport links etc. but normally there will be anywhere between around 100 fans up to a couple / few hundred. A lot of ICT fans will end up in the central belt after leaving the Highlands for jobs or tertiary education so for a game against the likes of Partick Thistle we might take a pretty good crowd along. I think there's definitely been an increase in our away support over the last few seasons. More of the Young Team head to away games now I think (possibly for the reasons above) which is good to see.

Thanks RiG, estimations may be well out but it looked like we possibly had up to 200 fans there last night , which given the midweek kick off and nature of the match looked impressive.

Looking forward to many more away trips this year and travelling back up the A9 with a win! 

Hopefully this poor performance will bring everybody back down to earth., There is no hiding this season and excuses for the next 4-6 games are going to lessen and lessen. The Diamonds has become, as Doddsie alluded to, a must win game. That should provide some answers to the spirit and the tactics. Keeping the faith at the mo. 👍

Thankfully not relying on the official website for the result of last night's much as would still be none the wiser 🤷‍♂️🙄

17 minutes ago, robbo1985 said:

Thankfully not relying on the official website for the result of last night's much as would still be none the wiser 🤷‍♂️🙄

If you drop them an email or a voicemail they'll get back to you with the score within 4-6 weeks. 

33 minutes ago, robbo1985 said:

Thankfully not relying on the official website for the result of last night's much as would still be none the wiser 🤷‍♂️🙄

If you try Twitter you might get a more updated response if it needs to be club driven. I’m quite happy with LiveScore when not at the action though.

I go on the club website about once a month and don’t really see it as needed for news. 

5 hours ago, Jaggernaut said:

passing the ball back and forth along the back four, and players looking for the backward pass instead of turning with the ball and driving forward.

I didn't see many games last season, but I saw so much of that on streaming broadcasts during the covid seasons.  And again last night.

I feel like suggesting that the club should introduce a fine for a player doing that when it was unnecessary.  A few quid for every time someone does it. 

OK, it's impractical - imagine the arguments about whether it was necessary or not.  But there must be some way of incentivising players not to go backwards. 

We are so good at playing the ball from the edge of the opponent's box all the back to Ridgers.  If we could do that in the other direction we'd be world-beating!

4 minutes ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

But there must be some way of incentivising players not to go backwards. 

They'll be doing this because that is the way they've been told to play. The incentive is that if you don't do what the manager tells you to do then you'll get dropped. Presumably the manager is happy for them to focus on keeping possession rather than take a more positive, but more risky option.

5 minutes ago, DoofersDad said:

They'll be doing this because that is the way they've been told to play. The incentive is that if you don't do what the manager tells you to do then you'll get dropped. Presumably the manager is happy for them to focus on keeping possession rather than take a more positive, but more risky option.

You're right, of course.  I would argue that it's less risky to lose possession midway inside your opponent's half than on the edge of your own box.  But what do I know?

34 minutes ago, DoofersDad said:

They'll be doing this because that is the way they've been told to play. The incentive is that if you don't do what the manager tells you to do then you'll get dropped. Presumably the manager is happy for them to focus on keeping possession rather than take a more positive, but more risky option.

Yes, I watch Dodds standing at the games while they pass it back and forth, and he doesn't shout at them to stop it, so they must be carrying out his orders, and when the ball goes to Harper, his first thought is to pass it backwards, instead of being proactive, he doesn't do it when he plays in midfield. Every other team his us hard and fast, while we seem to wait for our opposition to get back into their shape and then try and play through them, which in most cases, we can't. 

45 minutes ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

You're right, of course.  I would argue that it's less risky to lose possession midway inside your opponent's half than on the edge of your own box.  But what do I know?

Remember the days when the CM passed it in front of the full back for him to run on to. Haven’t seen that happen for years. Seems to be always slightly behind the man. Safety first every time. Not droning on about the good old days, sure everything’s technically better these days, but the entertainment value is zero, and the rise in admission prices is shocking, far beyond inflation.

Edited July 19, 20232 yr by The Mantis

55 minutes ago, DoofersDad said:

They'll be doing this because that is the way they've been told to play. The incentive is that if you don't do what the manager tells you to do then you'll get dropped. Presumably the manager is happy for them to focus on keeping possession rather than take a more positive, but more risky option.

If you watch non league matches in front of a few dozen souls, you can usually hear the manager threatening them with this …