Down to the Nitty Gritty
There is life outside of the SPL and for Inverness it begins this Saturday in Fife as ICT tackle Dunfermline Athletic in the first SFL1 game of the season at East End Park.
Dunfermline have been out of the SPL since a deflected Rory McAllister strike saw them relegated in Inverness in 2007. Like Dunfermline, Rory has dropped down the leagues as well now playing and scoring regularly for Brechin City.
Down to the Nitty Gritty There is life outside of the SPL and for Inverness it begins this Saturday in Fife as ICT tackle Dunfermline Athletic in the first SFL1 game of the season at East End Park. Dunfermline have been out of the SPL since a deflected Rory McAllister strike saw them relegated in Inverness in 2007. Like Dunfermline, Rory has dropped down the leagues as well now playing and scoring regularly for Brechin City. Saturdays Opponents Dunfermline, a club once managed by the legendary Jock Stein amongst others, have seen better times, reaching the UEFA cup quarter finals in season 61/62 before going out to Ujpest Dozsa of Hungary on a 5-3 aggregate. They went one better in 1969 when under the guidance of George Farm they narrowly lost out 2-1 on aggregate to Slovan Bratislava in the semi-finals of the Cup Winners Cup. Scottish Cup winners twice and having also won the first division title in 1989 and 1996 the Pars like plenty teams before them are finding out it’s not so easy to bounce back to the SPL. Dunfermline was formed in 1885 and their home strip is predominantly black & white vertical stripes since 1909. For the first few years of their existence the home strip was a plain maroon top accompanied by blue shorts, perhaps this was an unlucky strip as four years later they maybe had second thoughts as they slumped to one of their heaviest ever senior defeats, losing 1-11 in October 1889 to Hibernian. I’m sure Johnboy was at this game along with Buffy the Par, maybe they can help out with the scorers. Former Inverness Thistle manager, the enigmatic Jim Leishman MBE, is back at Dunfermline as Director of Football and they have a new manager since we last tangled with them as Jim McIntyre replaced Stephen Kenny in 2008. One of life’s great mysteries is how did Dunfermline Athletic come to be known as the Pars? Well, to be honest, better men than I have tried to unravel that conundrum, but my favourite suggestion is that the teams drinking habits had something to do with this. One of the earliest theories claims that when the club were young and connected with the local cricket club, the footballers were somewhat renowned for their performances at the bar and gained the appropriate handle of the ‘Paralytics’ this has since been shortened to The Pars that we now recognize today. Maybe that’s why they lost so heavily to Hibs. Games to remember Cast your mind back to Sunday 15th August 2004, those heady days at Pittodrie as Stuart Golabeck started the ball rolling, literally, by scoring our first ever SPL goal in front of two sets of traveling fans twelve minutes into our second match with a twenty yard strike into Stillie’s bottom corner, the ball rolling over the line to the delight of the majority of the 1,972 crowd. Our season had started disastrously at Almondvale as Livingstone whipped the new SPL boys 3-0, a result which saw them top the SPL table on that Saturday evening….. Oh my, how times have changed. We saw some Spanish flair in the 70th minute as Juanjo backflipped his way across the Pittodrie turf after securing our first SPL points. One notable player for the Pars that day was our much maligned ex-manager Craig Brewster, a legend at Dunfermline but to become less appreciated at Inverness after his return. Not many familiar faces left from that game. Teams that day were as below. Inverness CT: Brown, Tokely, McCaffrey, McBain, Golabek, Keogh, Hart, Munro, Juanjo (Prunty 88), Bayne, Hislop (Wilson 23). Subs Not Used: Fraser, Dods, Duncan, Proctor, Black. Goals: Golabek 12, Juanjo 70. Dunfermline: Stillie, Shields, Scott Wilson, Skerla, Byrne (Darren Young 45), Dempsey, Nicholson, Mason, Scott Thomson, Hunt (Donnelly 71), Brewster (Mehmet 75). Subs Not Used: Langfield, Lyle, Labonte, McKeown. Dunfermline have played a big part in ICT’s memorable games. The Scottish cup semi-final in 2004, with The Pars going into the final after a replay. ICT’s first game in the First Division resulted in a convincing 4-0 win for the Pars at East End Park. Smith, Reid, Thompson and Petrie scored for a rampant Pars side. ICT’s first SPL game in Inverness, when Barry Wilson curled home a brilliant 25 yarder to send the home fans into raptures. Brewster the player scored the second in a 2-0 homecoming celebration. After all, SPL football in the Highlands took a long time coming, but when it arrived, it arrived with a bang. In sixteen league encounters, ICT have won seven, Dunfermline have won four with the points being shared on five occasions Back to reality For ICT this weekend, we will be missing Eric Odhiambo still out injured and the suspended pair of Ross Tokely and Richie Foran, who will be major omissions from our squad. Barrowman showing no signs of being match fit will miss out. Lee Cox looks to have made the Ian Black slot his own after some impressive displays in the cups and Dougie Imrie seems to have rekindled his fire with two assists and a goal in the defeat of Annan last week. Sanchez has that Latin flair, scoring with aplomb, and Eagle had an impressive second half, swooping to head his first goal for the club. I would expect a similar line up to the one which started against Annan, with possibly Esson replacing young Kyle Allisson in goals and Latvian Naurus Bulvitis retaining his central defensive pairing with Captain Grantie. Proctor and Hayes could be added to the squad after recovering from knocks, with Proctor the likely replacement at right back. Soccer super skill entertainer Lionel Djebi-Zadi will be an important player this weekend. He showed some samba skills last week, although the overhead goal from the halfway line has still to materialise. Dunfermline have been scoring freely in the CIS cup with former Hearts striker Andy Kirk bagging a brace as did midfielder Steven Bell. David Graham scored the other goal in the five nil romp over Dumbarton. The pars have some menacing players with ex-Inverness target man Graeme Bayne partnering Kirk up front. Willie Gibson signed from Killie bolsters the Pars midfield. Former Newcastle and Aberdeen full back Stephen Glass will captain the side. Neil Macgregor is the latest addition to the Dunfermline squad which has the perfect SFL blend of experience and upcoming youngsters. TM4TJ Prediction This is a tough game to start the campaign with. We have never beaten Dunfermline at East End Park in the First Division. Both teams scored a few goals in the CIS cup games, albeit against lesser opposition. This game will be an excellent benchmark for the coming season as the Pars may well feature in the top few teams in the league. Both teams are solid defensively with plenty of dig in the middle and the difference could be the missing pair of Tokely and Foran for Inverness. We can be shot shy at times, whilst Kirk and Bayne are no strangers to the back of the net. Joe Cardle is suspended for this game. With that in mind I am tempted to sit on the fence, but not wishing to put a damper on anyone’s day out I feel that the Pars may prove too strong for us in Dunfermline, although we will be more than capable of reversing this back in Inverness. Unfortunately, I am predicting Dunfermline to edge a tight game, but keeping fingers crossed for ICT to get off to a good start.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now