Life after Robbo

With John Robertson already off to Tynecastle, Donald Park stayed behind to take charge for one game. 

It was a gutsy performance which saw Caley Thistle head home with a point. ICT started with the same team that beat Livingston. The main talking point of the day was the referee whose decisions led to much criticism and debate. 

The early exchanges saw the home side have good attempts from Craig Brewster and Billy Mehmet with Mark Brown having to be on top form to tip the latter's 30 yard shot over the bar. 

Caley Thistle were still finding their feet on the plastic but Juanjo was doing well running at The Pars defence and giving them a hard time of it. Graham Bayne was also working hard and Barry Wilson was making some fine runs down the right wing. But it was the home side who took the lead just before the half hour. Richie Byrne fed a through ball to Craig Brewster who in turn found Billy Mehmet and the midfielder passed the ball to Darren Young and his shot from 25 yards flew into the corner of the net. 

ICT should have been level moments later when Richie Hart was left in the clear with only the goalkeeper to beat but the midfielder shot high and wide. Minutes later the referee was embroiled in controversy when Scott Wilson brought down Juanjo it took several minutes to sort things out before the free-kick was taken.

Half Time: 1-0

No more incidents or goals so the second half began and this time the controversy was in the Caley Thistle box when Barry Nicholson went down after Mark Brown had gone for the ball. The referee obviously thought that Nicholson had taken a dive so gave nothing - strangely there was no yellow card. 

ICT continued to look for an equaliser and Russell Duncan's fine run and shot and then Bayne's good effort saw Derek Stillie in the home goal having to look lively and make good saves from both efforts. 

An equaliser was on the cards and it came in the shape of substitute Liam Fox, a goalscoring hero in the recent Kilmarnock fixture. Roy McBain's corner fell to Fox and his fine shot from the edge of the box took a deflection off Ross Tokely and landed in the back of the net. The goal was no more than Caley Thistle deserved for an excellent second half performance on a pitch that was now really tricky due to the incessant rain. 

Full Time: 1-1

During the game we had a tale of two goalkeeping incidents. Firstly Mark Brown pulled off a tremendous save from a back header from Stuart Golabek which the ICT captain eventually managed to scramble back and clear before the ball finally went out for a corner kick and more bizarrely we had the sight of Pars keeper Derek Stillie doing a juggling act with the ball as he attempted to make sure that Barry Wilson did not find the back of the net. In the end a fine away point.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dunfermline: 1 (Darren Young 28)

Team: Stillie; Wilson, Skerla (Byrne 19), Shields, Tod (Derek Young 60), Nicholson, Thomson,

Darren Young, Mason, Mehmet (Donnelly 75), Brewster

Subs Not Used: Langfield; Labonte, Bradley, Butler - Booked: Wilson (39), Young (51), Donnelly (84)
 

Inverness CT: 1 (Fox 79)

Team: Brown; Tokely, Dods, Munro, Golabek, Wilson (Keogh 84), Hart (Fox 71), Duncan (Black 77),

McBain, Juanjo, Bayne

Subs Not Used: Fraser; McCaffrey, Thomson, Prunty - Booked: (Bayne 9)

Attendance: 4921

Referee: Iain Brines