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

Shaw looks nothing like the player we saw back end of last season. Hopefully things can turn around for him soon

6 hours ago, Satan said:

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

I bet it was close after that late 'stonewall' penalty claim 😆

From my comfy vantage point some 460 miles South of the stadium, I though we played quite well. Utd weren't brilliant though so maybe that made us look better? Devine was my man of the match. Not sure about Carragher though. As mentioned in other posts, too many safe passes and defo should have picked up a yellow. We had several chances to pull the trigger but, for whatever reason, decided to pass it back or go square. Harsh that we didn't get at least a point as I thought we were the much better side. I also had to chuckle when Dodds mentioned the lack of options on the bench. Broomhill are up next so hopefully we can use this match as shooting practice before heading to Starks Park 

Shaw is a right winger and is being played in the wrong position imo. I really wish we would take risks in the final third and cross from deep/more often. It was maddening and boring to watch. Back to John Hughes style, hard to beat but don’t have the quality Hughes had on the books. 
 

Ironically we look like we need a striking coach, but you’d think with Dunc and Billy we’d be well covered in that dept. Hopefully our philosophy changes and new faces make for a new dynamic for us.

1 hour ago, Northern_jaggie said:

Shaw is a right winger

Right???  He's so left-footed, his right one is only there to make up the numbers 

Losing to another late goal was a sickener as I thought we were the better team on the night.

As others have said, we took the safe option too often and as a result didn’t make best use of our wingbacks.

Shaw and Longstaff are out of position when we play with 3 (or 5) at the back, which doesn’t let them be as creative as they can be.

On a positive, if we can maintain that level of performance against other teams and be prepared to shoot on goal we should survive ok. Just a pity it’s Raith in our next league game.

If we (DF) are going to continue 3/5 at the back then we don't yet have the 11 players to pull it off, particularly in centre midfield/behind striker. Longstaff and Shaw aren't the solution.

We played very well in 2/3 of the pitch but were woeful up front.  I just don't get the negativity of the approach.  It is as though the tactic is to pass to feet through the defence for a final tap in for a goal.  That is never going to happen.  When Longstaff first came here, he looked like an exciting player who would take defenders on and have a pop at goal.  It seems that was coached out of him by Dodds and that is continuing under Fergusson. Time and time again both he and Harper had the ball wide and had the chance either to take the defender on or to play a ball into the space behind the defender and just about every time they cut inside and played a safe ball square or backwards. I'm not for a minute suggesting a gung ho approach, but we do urgently need to introduce a bit more positivity in our forward play.

By far the most positive thing on the night for this old codger was the brilliant support from the youngsters in section E.  For a change there was some real atmosphere in the ground which made the rather boring fare on the park seem somewhat more exciting than it really was.  I'm sure the team really appreciated it too.  Well done guys!

I totally agree with DD about the young supporters in the north stand. The atmosphere was fantastic and I hope that they will come to more home games this season. 

I would echo a lot of what has been said and the main point being the need for another striker (one that can score goals preferably 🤔) and for current players to be more direct in the final third. However that said we wuz robbed last night 🥷🏻 a ninja steal that. Also I was thinking the penalty decision would have been given in most other professional leagues at the moment; but really I came to the conclusion that it would actually have been given if it was at the other end of the pitch.  Different subject the Dunfermline game cancelled due to waterlogged pitch ?? There’s a bit of debate around that one 🤣🤣

Dunfermline v Airdrie game off (waterlogged pitch)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tony Watt at the back post! 🪄

With minutes to go, the Dundee United skipper finally breaks the deadlock in Inverness!#BBCFootball pic.twitter.com/YmFZofIfMq

— BBC Sport Scotland (@BBCSportScot) January 12, 2024

 

Again from afar on the box I thought that there were a lot of positives. I thought Carragher was solid and has a lot more to show. He evidently did not want to make any errors in his first outing and was probably told to play tippy happy, plus he has got to get used to the system and players around him. Devine was excellent. I have always viewed Shaw as being a number 10 as he doesn't have the pace of a wide man. Playing Billy deep was ridiculous, leaving Longstaff as a lone striker which he clearly isn't. I would also have liked to see Harper as a wing back as he is more effective there. Modern coaching is all about tippy happy and playing out from the back so we may have to accept that. But we need a LOT more movement up front and more pace out wide.

We have a striker that can score goals, it's just unfortunate that he spends most of the game having to drop deep into midfield in order to get involved in play.  Mckay must be the most frustrated player on the park, as well as the one covering most ground.

Shaw must be the second most frustrated due to being played in the middle, instead of out wide where he was way more effective earlier in the season.  He's one of if those gangly kind of runners that make him hard to tackle (similar mould to Daisy and Tokely).

I've not seen much of us this season, but last night we looked very slow on the counter.  This was allowing utd to get players back in numbers.

I'm not a fan of hoofball, but you can't expect to get up the park quickly with sideways passing, and someone needs to tell our midfield there's no rule that says they have to stop at the half way line when in possession.

Our players are more capable than they're being allowed to show, and I'm worried Ferguson is 'doing a Dodds' by not playing a system that suits the players we have available.

Subbing on one of the shortest players in our squad just before a set piece with only 3 mins to go was a bit of a strange one.

The denied penalty claim isn't what cost us the draw, conceding a goal did that.  Unfortunate that 'the best keeper in the league' was caught napping.  Regardless of who else is around him, he should be taking that ball with ease every time.

 

 

Edited January 13, 20242 yr by STFU

Listening to off the ball just now and concensus was that if VAR were there it would been a penalty without doubt. 

Michael Stewart also spoke about ICT after the game and said defence looked good, And the midfield although they passed the ball about well there was a complete lack of ideas of how to convert the possession into goal opportunities. 

Shaw was poor and has been this season, Longstaff runs about looking like he doesn't know what he's meant to be doing. Gilmore and Carson were OK and at least add a bit of steel to our midfield.

Only hope we can score a goal next week as our home record is horrendous. 

What irks me somewhat is why did we sign Sheridan? Does his contract state he must get on the park during the game? He fluffed his header last night when the net should have been bursting.

Longstaff should be an out and out winger. He has quick feet and a few tricks to show but we need to get the best out of him.

Sideways football is painful to watch when you can pick out a better option from your sofa. Really annoys me😡

Last night was a dilemma. No season ticket for the first time in over 10 years so it was 'should I stay (at home and watch on TV) or should I go (and watch in person)' 

I watched on TV. Now before I get pelters, 

- it's mid January

- money is tight at this time 

- it's cold

- recent matches I have attended have been sooooooooo boring tactically and a yawn to watch

- our CEO remains on post, wearing his Sevco tie

- our Chairman is invisible and silent

So, that's why I sat at home watching it. 

The status quo will remain off field, hopefully on field brightens up soon or more games will be missed by me into the second half of the season. 

Edited January 13, 20242 yr by Duke of Inverness

All Half time scores

end the games now.

Arbroath 0-0 Ayr

Morton 1-0 Partick

Rovers 1-1 Queen's 

12 minutes ago, tm4tj said:

All Half time scores

end the games now.

Arbroath 0-0 Ayr

Morton 1-0 Partick

Rovers 1-1 Queen's 

I'd rather Partick and Raith win... 

Queens 2 - 1 up now, Welsh scoring on debut.

Delaney subbed off injured after 12 minutes

Longing for the post telling us Scott Gardiner has left by mutual consent 🙏

Looking at our League results this season, goals we have conceded from the 80th minute onwards have cost us 10 points.

We let teams come on to us too much late in games too often and it is showing in our results and league position.

Yes it’s a massive issue for us this season. Three possible causes I can think of -

1. poor tactics towards the end of matches

2. lack of fitness

3. Substitutions weaken the team 

36 minutes ago, Robert said:

Looking at our League results this season, goals we have conceded from the 80th minute onwards have cost us 10 points.

We let teams come on to us too much late in games too often and it is showing in our results and league position.

In addition, we have yet to gain a single point from the 80th minute onwards.  If those stats were reversed, we would be right up in the title mix.  Clearly it is something the coaching staff need to think about.  In one way it seems surprising because we do keep possession reasonably well and that should serve us well when defending a lead (or a draw).  I think there are 2 issues here.  Firstly, our ability to keep the ball and good defensive shape breaks down when opponents take a few more risks and press us harder when they are looking to score late on.  Secondly, when we need to do the pressing, we simply haven't got what it takes in the final third.

43 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

3. Substitutions weaken the team 

This. We have such lack of quality and depth the drop off between first team starters and the bench is possibly the biggest gap I can recall. So little options to change or turn a game.

I don't know if it is my imagination but every time Billy McKay is substituted  we seem to capitulate and lose late goals