Wotherspoon Derby

 

With David Wotherspoon jumping ship for the glamour of a big club prepared to buy themselves out of trouble at all costs, Big Dunc has the TV reality task of stopping Jim Goodwin's almost all conquering Dundee United. They have slipped up a little of late and Morton beat them last weekend, so they are far from invincible, but then again, we are not world beaters yet, despite a convincing Wotherspoonless win at Ayr last Saturday. The game is a 7:45pm kick-off on Friday night at the Caledonian Stadium or a seat in your own house with the BBC Scotland channel turned on.

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Match/Ticket Info

James Carragher

Sean Welsh has left the Building

Zak Delaney follows him out the door

Harry Hennem's next

Lewis Hyde loaned out

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Venue H2H v Arabs

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	34	10	10	14	35	44	-9
Away	29	7	11	11	37	43	-6
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	63	17	21	25	72	87	-15

United hold the upper hand overall but Inverness competed well in the two games played this season. A 1-0 defeat in the Doddsball era and a 1-1 draw in the last encounter at Tannadice as Big Dunc returned North of the border.

Last 10 Competitive Meetings v Dundee United

1 - 1 (A)

0 - 1 (H)

1 - 2 (A)

0 - 3 (H)

1 - 4 (A)

0 - 3 (A)

0 - 1 (H)

0 - 2 (H)

2 - 1 (A)

0 - 1 (A)

Point on the Road:  1 - 1 Dunc's return to Tannadice would be hindered by some key players missing. Welsh and Longstaff failed to recover but Boyes and Wotherspoon were in the starting XI. Sheridan was on the bench which looked a bit devoid of flair. United had a strong line-up with Ross County loanee Jordan Tillson replacing the injured Docherty. A big crowd of over 7500 were on hand with 270 visiting fans making the journey in eternal hope. Inverness opened the scoring through Shaw, but Holt levelled the game quickly. United had the possession but Big Dunc went back up the A9 with a hard earned point. Tremendous point on the road.
It was a backs to the wall performance at times but our defence was up to the task of slowing down the top scorers in the Championship. Mark Ridgers was in superb form with his back five blunting the top scorers. Full marks to Ferguson for adapting the shape with key players missing at a difficult venue. Two brilliant goals and a point on the road at the league leaders den.The Big Dunc revolution gathers pace.

Last Time out

A Morgan Boyes brace in the second half and a first half gift for Billy Mckay from Ayr keeper Albinston saw Inverness get their first win in six outings at Somerset Park despite the best efforts of the eager Logan Chalmers who notched the Ayr goal and generally tormented us for most of the game. However we challenged well and got our rewards in an entertaining game to run out worthy winners and jump Ayr in the table.

Last Five Games: L D D L W 

A George Oakley hat-trick was enough to beat the Arabs at Tannadice last weekend. 2-0 down, United fought back through Fotheringham and Moult before the break and thought they had done enough to earn a point, but Oakley thought otherwise and cracked a tremendous long range effort in off the post to win it for the visitors with two minutes left. Sandwiched in between the defeats to Raith Rovers and Morton are 3-0 wins over Arbroath and Partick Thistle and a goalless draw against Queens Park

Last Five Games: L D W W L 

 

We play tonight at the Caledonian Stadium.

Been chilly all week but the covers have been down since Monday with the forecast of frost all week.

Arbroath v Ayr below us is one to keep an eye on and look out for Queens Park after Callum Davidson has been appointed as manager this week.

Morton are the form team just now and will be looking to get into the top four soon.

Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts   1. Raith Rovers 20 13 5 2 37 26 44 2. Dundee Utd 19 12 5 2 42 10 41 3. Partick Thistle 20 10 5 5 41 32 35 4. Airdrieonians 20 8 3 9 19 23 27 5. Morton 19 7 4 8 23 26 25 6. Dunfermline 19 6 5 8 24 24 23 7. Inverness CT 20 5 6 9 23 24 21 8. Ayr United 19 5 4 10 25 38 19 9. Queens Park 19 4 5 10 24 38 17 10. Arbroath 19 5 2 12 23 40 17

Latest Team News

Wotherspoon has jumped ship but won't feature for either side on Friday night. James Carragher, a centre back, might be included in our squad? Sean Welsh has left Inverness with immediate effect and will be moving South having played a total  of 143 games, scoring 16 goals. Defender Zak Delaney has also left. Youngster Harry Hennem has also departed. Lewis Hyde has been loaned out to Brora Rangers for the rest of the season.

Not many sound bytes coming out of the Caledonian Stadium this week regarding team news. Will update when/if we hear any team news.

 

The Arabs have added New Zealand forward Alex Greive from St Mirren to their squad this week. Craig Sibbald will be suspended after his 88th minute red card against Morton. Archie Meekison should make a return to the United squad but Declan Gallagher and Ross Docherty will miss out. Louis Moult is also a doubt.

Dundee United team v Morton

Walton

 

Grimshaw   Graham   Holt   McMann

 

Sibbald    Tillson (Glass 45)

 

Fotheringham (Cudjoe 86)   Watt   Middleton

 

Moult (Mochrie 45)

 

Subs Not Used: Newman; Petrie, Denham, Freeman, Duffy, MacLeod

Wonder if the colour of our opponents tops (home or away) will impact the CEO's mood more than the end result?

35 minutes ago, bdu98196 said:

Wonder if the colour of our opponents tops (home or away) will impact the CEO's mood more than the end result?

Six

It's been a very cold day here today but due to warm up to 6 degrees this evening so should be a good night for the football I will be wrapping up well before heading down and hope we can sneak a win!

In the ground now after a full body search! What's going on, never seen queues so long 30 minutes before kick off and never been searched before a game?

Carragher on from the start? No Ujdur?  Starting shortcock?   3 at the back then.  

Feckin hope they lift for this home game.

Did they whip yer flares off ya?

2 minutes ago, tm4tj said:

Did they whip yer flares off ya?

Good job your flares are still in the wardrobe mannie!

So its listed as 5 4 1 set up on BBC!!!!  

4

4

1

1

Mackay off, Brooks on, this would be a great time for the lad to score...maybe..

Utd score late again. Feckin typical.   Too many wasted chances, too many poor players in our side.

We couldn't score in a brothel for 80 odd minutes. Then we bring on Sheridan. Doomed!!

FFS, another sickening late defeat this season. It was destined for 0-0, with us being slightly the better side. Then a wicked deflection of Utd’s cross off Carson made it fall into Watt’s path when it wasn’t going anywhere near him otherwise. And to rub salt in a good penalty shout for handball doesn’t go our way. 

We did a lot of things pretty well, but didn’t get any luck tonight.

Could’ve done with Wotherspoon to add a bit of craft to our attacks.

5 minutes ago, Duke of Inverness said:

We couldn't score in a brothel

Exactly what I said to my wife! 

Not impressed by Carragher.  Too many safe, easy passes that did nothing, and lucky not be booked.

But that's not where the problem is.    I have a can of 3-IN-ONE that has more penetrative power...

Canna score, shocking home record  and big dunc signs a defender...  

Sickened to lose that one so late on.  We looked really organised, some excellent possession football but absolutely no cutting edge. We desperately need more pace in midfield and in the forward areas.  If we get that we'll be fine. It was particularly grating to hear Billy Dodds talk about our poor bench and the lack of options to change the game considering its his squad.

Not convinced on throwing Carragher in from the start, think he was culpable for the goal along with Ridgers who went down in stages.

Gutting to lose but it highlights the urgency on bringing in a couple of additional midfield/attacking players.

Edited January 12, 20242 yr by Hiro

I thought we played pretty well tonight,passed the ball well and were on top for long spells.We need to shoot for goal more often rather than play about outside the box.

Devine was immense tonight,but to be honest I think the whole team played pretty well just a pity we never took our chances and for that we paid the price.0-0 would have been a fair result.

Just missing that cutting edge

Edited January 12, 20242 yr by Douglas Mackenzie

Tbh I think just one quality ball player would have made all the difference tonight, someone in the middle who could take the ball on the turn in tight areas..all the time we were turning back and the ball went sideways or back to Devine, he must have had a lot of touches.

Billy doing 2 jobs for the price of one again. If we're not careful we'll burn him out.

Tough result to take.

Edited January 12, 20242 yr by Satan

On a brighter note, our manager didn't get sent off tonight.

3 hours ago, givmeaccccc said:

In the ground now after a full body search! What's going on, never seen queues so long 30 minutes before kick off and never been searched before a game?

I always thought you were a shifty looking guy 

Just gutted   we matched them all over tonight but as Satan said we pass the ball far to much sideways and backwards instead of driving forward and having a shot at goal.  If you don't have a shot you will not score goals!

To many players looking to take the safe option when a little more ambition is needed.

Unbelievably for large parts of the game we never played with a a striker with Billy dropping so deep.

Whatever formation we are playing it's not working, No wonder we are struggling to create and score with five defenders and Gilmour sitting just in front of them. 

Last 5mins we showed some desire but as always to little to late.

 

 

 

We badly need a creative midfielder and a striker not defenders! My first impressions on Carragher was he isn't any better than what we have/had. He loves a safe pass and just looked to foul Utd players. Danny Devine was superb tonight. Let's hope results go our way tomorrow 

Edited January 12, 20242 yr by BobbyDazzler