Draw at the top

A freezing Tulloch Caledonian Stadium saw a tight 1-1 draw Caley Thistle pushed Dundee hard to gain revenge for the heartbreak of the Alba Challenge Cup Final.

Leigh Griffiths opened the scoring for the Dee’s before Adam Rooney equalized shortly after the break.

A freezing Tulloch Caledonian Stadium today saw a tight one all draw between I.C.T. and league leaders Dundee as Caley Thistle pushed hard to gain revenge for the heartbreak of the Alba Challenge Cup Final. Leigh Griffiths opened the scoring for the Dee’s before Adam Rooney equalized shortly after the break for the home side.

Only two games survived the weather today and both finished as draws, the other game saw Partick draw 2-2 with Queen of the South.

The Dens park side nearly had a goal to celebrate after just seven minutes when Leigh Griffiths neatly slid the ball through to Colin McMenamin but the ex-Gretna man couldn’t put the ball past Ryan Esson, who tipped the ball round his post for a corner.

The opening goal came right on the stroke of half time when Lionel Djebi Zadi scythed down Leigh Griffiths and referee Mr. Nicholls had no option but to point to the spot. Griffiths made no mistake from the resulting penalty, smashing the ball into Ryan Esson’s top left hand corner, with the Caley Jags keeper going the wrong way, leaving Jocky Scott’s men with a slender half time lead.

Half Time 1-0

The Highlanders first tested Rab Douglas through the most unlikely of players, Djebi-Zadi charged 20 yards with the ball before releasing a vicious drive from distance which was well tipped over by the Dundee stopper.

Inverness continued to press for an equalizer and nearly got it in the 50th minute. A strange indirect free-kick was given, no more than 8 yards out, Douglas was booked for marking his 6 yard box. Richie Foran pulled his leg back to shoot and Douglas ran off his line before Foran hit the ball, referee Nicholls pulled out the red card but as he realized that he had just booked Douglas and was quick to put the card back into his pocket. The free kick was rolled across by Foran, only for on loan midfielder Stuart Duff to chip the ball onto the crossbar.

The leveller came six minutes later after an extremely careless back-pass from Brian Kerr was picked up by Adam Rooney, who ran all the way through and slotted the ball through the legs of Rab Douglas for his eleventh goal of the season.

However, the worst was not to come for the away side and their summer signing Gary Harkins, who received the first of his two yellow cards on 68 minutes, stupidly throwing the ball away after it went out for an Inverness throw.

Inverness pushed for a winner and Lee Cox should have scored after Duff played the ball on to Danni Sanchez, who threaded the ball through for David Proctor whose cut-back was fired over the bar by the former Leicester player.

The winner should have arrived when Adam Rooney put Sanchez through on goal but he put the ball wide when it looked easier to score.

Harkins day was summed up with 5 minutes to go when his tackle on David Proctor was given as a second yellow by the man in black.

Dundee nearly stole it in the 91st minute when a mix-up between Narius Bulvitis and Djebi Zadi was capitalised on by Griffiths but his shot was expertly saved by Ryan Esson to cap off an impressive performance for the ex-Aberdeen man.

Full Time 1-1

After the game, Adam Rooney said that he thought Inverness deserved all three points and can go into next week’s game with Ross County with much more confidence and due to it being a derby game, the players will have a bit more of an incentive to get all three points.