Inverness CT 1-1 Falkirk - Report

Home draw

Caley Thistle were unable to repeat Saturdays result and could only salvage a point from the game after a very poor showing in the first half saw them go a goal down after only 18 minutes when dire defending gave Higdon acres of space to get his shot on target.

A double substitution at half time saw Rooney and Barrowman replace Vigurs and Wood.  The resulting change in formation allowing the ICT Players to do what they do best, get the head down and get stuck in, and the reward for that came in 80 minutes when Flinders was left floundering and Rooney managed to stick the ball away on his second attempt.

Rumours were rife on the forums during the build up to the match that Brewster would leave the team unchanged coming in to the Falkirk game and on picking up my team lines on the way into the game I realised that was exactly the case.

Despite Saturday’s victory many people were dreading the outcome at home if we remained unchanged and it didn’t take long for those fears to become a reality.  We lined up with a 4-5-1 and the usual midfield “tactics” of using the wide players on the opposing side to their favoured foot.  One of our most creative midfielders when going forward, Vigurs, was shackled up in the middle playing some kind of holding roll, and the players you’d normally expect to play the holding roll were situated on either side of him.

We sat very deep from the off with the midfield pressed hard against our back line, this coupled with the confusing midfield formation seemed to result in chaos and players all tripping over each other and when we did manage to obtain possession we were so tightly bunched that we had nowhere to safely distribute the ball and play ourselves out of trouble and successfully up the park.

Imrie and Duncan did manage to get a couple of efforts at the Falkirk goal, but these were long range and did little to trouble Flinders.

Richard Hastings wasn’t having the best of games, and his poor defending led to the opening goal in the eighteenth minute when he allowed Lovell an almost free header on a McCann cross.  The ball fell to Higdon on the edge of the area and he had all the time in the world to tee up his shot and send it across goal to the far corner.  Confusion amongst our own in the box left Esson unsighted and rooted to the spot.

Higdon should have added another only moments later when a long high ball from a set piece was played into the box.  Again Hastings failed to put any pressure on the receiving player and Bullen managed to head the ball through to Higdon who should have done better than to shoot wide of the mark.

With Caley Thistles determination to get everyone back to defend set pieces and corners it left little opportunity at the other end, but on the few occasions we did manage to deliver a ball into the box from corners and set pieces it was clear that Flinders was having a bad night.  This didn’t appear to go unnoticed by the bench, but their attempts to change things on the 30 minute mark by pushing Imrie forward and moving Vigurs out wide only seemed to generate more confusion for ICT, and with us sitting so deep and the forwards having to drop back to the centre line to get anything of the ball it did little, if anything, to put pressure on the Falkirk goal.

McCann looked to have taken a bad knock with about 5 minutes to go in the half and this was confirmed when he was substituted for Barrett just before the break.

Half Time:  0 – 1

A double substitution on the restart for ICT saw Rooney and Barrowman replace Vigurs and Wood, at last a proper 4-4-2 formation and the midfield was re-jigged to put players in their more “natural” positions.

It was instantly recognisable that this was going to have a positive impact on ICT’s participation in the match, which for the first 45 had amounted to little more than them being passengers.  We were pushing forward more, the midfield were no longer sitting on the laps of the back 4 and everyone had space to play football.

Tokely turned from zero to hero in the second half, when he started linking up well down the right and we were starting to put more pressure on the Falkirk goal and the balls into the box were causing trouble for Flinders who did well to stop a close range effort from Imrie.

65 minutes in and Barry Wilson is called back to the dugout, some quick instructions from the Manager and his assistant before he takes to the field to replace Don Cowie who appears to be walking with a slight hobble.

ICT really seemed to come to life at this point with Wilson making some great runs on the right and overlapping to great effect with Tokely.  

Brewster seemed to be getting a little frustrated that Imrie was failing to get corners and set pieces into the “danger zone” and instructions were relayed on to the park that Barry Wilson was to take over this roll.

A blatant foul went totally ignored by the referee denying us a penalty but we continued to pepper the box with cross balls and corners and our reward came in the 80th minute when a link up between Tokely and Wilson on the right send Wilson forward before crossing the ball back in to the middle for Rooney.  He skied his effort but Flinders mistimed his clearance and as the ball bounced Ian Black couldn’t get over it and his touch came off the bar and fell to the head of Rooney who wasn’t going to fluff it a second time.

Chances were coming for Caley Thistle as the clock started to run down.  Tokely heading narrowly wide from a Wilson corner and another missed clearance by Flinders bouncing around a bit before being played through to Wilson and the back post, unfortunately the pace on the ball caused problems and Wilson could only direct the ball over the bar from 3 yards.

Full Time:  Inverness Caledonian Thistle 1 – 1 Falkirk

Probably a fair result over the 90 minutes, but had we gone out from the start in the same manner as we did in the second then I have little doubt it would have been a whole different story.  Brewster has been criticised heavily by many since his return, but surely he can’t fail to see how chalk and cheese our first and second half performances and come to the realisation that if he cuts our players loose a little in their natural positions then they are more than capable of putting on the kind of performance that the fans are looking for and getting the results we deserve.

Just how much has been learned will no doubt be evident on Saturday when we play hosts to an erratic Heart of Midlothian FC.  If Brewster is reading this, can we please start the Hearts game the way we finished the Falkirk one…thanks.