Inverness come back falls just short



It only took Inverness three minutes to concede at Fir Park when John  Sutton scored from the spot after he had been fouled by Ross Draper. Inverness struggled to make much headway and Motherwell doubled their lead from an unexpected source, Gary Warren heading home an own goal superbly after half an hour. Graeme Shinnie took the bull by the horns and drove at the Well defence before firing the visitors back into the game ten minutes into the restart. This sparked Inverness into life and they took the game to Motherwell, but despite dominating the second half they just failed to get back on level terms, and it was summed up When Billy McKay hit the post deep into injury time..

A crowd of 4482 saw Motherwell's last home game and that included 80 Inverness fans, and one snare drum, and they also saw Iain Vigurs and Stephen McManus have a go at each other to add to the occasion .......................................

ICTRoughi will tell us how it all unfolded

CaleyAway has closed the curtains for the final time of season 2013/2014. What a memorable season it has been for the CaleyAway troops with many highs and some lows. The final destination was Fir Park against high flying Motherwell who had secured European football for next season after Aberdeen beat Dundee United 3-1 at Tannadice. Well done to Motherwell!

The Caley Jags made two changes from the side that got a draw against Dundee United last Saturday. Caley Thistle welcomed back stand out right back David Raven to the team also stalwart defender Gary Warren returned. Josh Meekings was still struggling for fitness meaning that Danny Devine was given another chance to impress Yogi adding to the defending options. Danny Williams and goal scorer from last weekend Ryan Christie were dropped to the bench.

Stuart McCall named an unchanged team from the side that got the victory over St Johnstone last Saturday.  

I got into Fir Park and read the programme only to be disappointed to see who the referee was for the game and you guessed it, Willie Collum. What a nightmare. If I knew a couple of days ago I would have made a trip to the bookies to stick on an Inverness red card, he seems to have something against us. The last two games he has refereed he has sent off three of our players in the two games!

Motherwell kicked off the first half and we played with very nice passing football until Willie Collum decided that the headlines weren't about him and decided to give Motherwell a penalty - shock horror. Ross Draper tripped John Sutton in the 3rd minute in the box gifting the 'Well an early chance to gain an advantage over Inverness. Sutton converted very convincingly to send the Motherwell faithful into jubilation mode.
 

To further the disappointment, Iain Vigurs crossed the ball into the box from a corner; unfortunately Warren sends the ball in to our net.

Lionel Ainsworth came close to adding to the woes with a great effort, smashing the ball off the crossbar in the 36th minute of the game. At this point you just got the feeling it wasn't going to be our day.

HT Motherwell 2-0 Inverness CT  

A special mention to CaleyThistleOnline’s young member ‘CaleyCalum’ who participated in the half time entertainment of rolling a giant inflatable ball into the goal from the half way line. Calum was against a Motherwell fan to see who could roll it into the goal the quickest with the winner receiving a whopping £150. Calum was unfortunately beaten to it by roughly 15 seconds but it was a valiant effort by him nonetheless.

The Caley Jags got the game restarted and we seemed to play with more urgency about us which we were sadly lacking in the first half.

Stand in captain Graeme Shinnie drove through the middle leaving Craig Reid in his trail. Shinnie went for a long ranged shot from 20 yards which took a deflection to reach the middle of the goal past Lee Hollis to make it 2-1.

The goal gifted the team a ray of hope to show there was still life in Caley Thistle and we seemed to be well up for a fight. Game on!

In the 58th minute Greg Tansey had a well struck shot from distance needing Hollis to get both his hands to it.

Tansey again delivered the ball into the box in the 61st minute for Warren to get a head to it to try and redeem himself from the earlier own goal but it was agonisingly close over the crossbar.

We continued to dominate the possession and never gave Motherwell a look in – we looked like we should have been 3-0 up!

Aaron Doran tried to get the ball into the box in the 80th minute with a really strong case of handball when the ball connected with Shaun Hutchinson’s hand but the claims were denied and Inverness were given the corner instead. Tansey delivered a decent cross to be met by a rushing Gary Warren but it was déjà vu for the Caley Jags defender

Greg Tansey had a well struck free kick through the middle in the 85th minute which rocketed at goal only for Hollis get his feet to save it from going in to the ‘well net. – Lucky bar stewards!

Billy Mckay was fed the ball from a header by Tansey only to hit the ball off the post in time added on. I give up with football!

The annoying thing that I took away from Fir Park last night was the fact the best team didn’t win.

FT Motherwell 2-1 Inverness CT

My overall thoughts of the game is that I felt the first half we were sitting too deep and passing about at the back too much meaning we were inviting too much pressure to gift Motherwell two easy goals. The second half was pretty much a replica of the first half of last Saturday and that's how I really want us to play with great intensity getting the ball forward causing trouble for the opposition. I really don’t understand this Jekyll and Hyde thing we have going on at the moment! We gave it a right good go right enough but the effort of the lads should be applauded rather than looking at the defeat. I am most definitely looking forward to the final home game of the season on Sunday with St Johnstone with the fight for fifth place at stake – you don’t want to miss it!

Roughi's Ratings:-  

Brill - 6 - Made some really good saves to keep us in the game
Raven - 7 - Good to have Raven back and made some timely tackles
Warren - 6 - Scored an OG but was still making good tackles and couple of decent headed chances
Devine - 6 - Had a good game but at times we were missing Meekings although I really like how Devine plays the game
Tremarco – 6 – Played his usual game, got caught out at times, had a headed chance in the second half
Draper - 6 -  Solid enough through the middle, caught out giving away the penalty but good through the middle
Tansey - 7 -  I am really liking Tansey in this team. He has been a good signing but just needs to start cracking the ball outside the box more than he does because he can score from distance – very close last night
Watkins - 6 – Overall good performance from Watkins being a general pest for the ‘Well defence
Doran - 6 – Same as Watkins, a pest for the Motherwell defence.
Shinnie - 8 – Stand out performance from Graeme. Attacking and defending I just thought he was superb – Good goal too!
Mckay - 6 – Again the lack of support up front hindered Mckay but he gave it his all as usual and nearly scored but unfortunately the ball hit post instead of the net.

Subs:
Williams - 6 – He shown some good pace at times as he usually does and brought some good attacking options when he came on

Christie - 6 –  Same as Williams, helped with the attacking options the role behind Mckay and shown some nice touches.

MOTM: Graeme Shinnie – His overall game was just superb both in attacking and defending. Good chance outside the box and scored a good goal to boost the morale within the squad. I just really hope we keep a hold of him over the summer – very consistent player!

Motherwell: 2
Lineup: Hollis, Reid, Hutchinson, McManus, Hammell, Ainsworth (Anier 78), Lasley, Vigurs, Francis-Angol (Moore 79), Sutton, McFadden (Kerr 55) 

Booked: Vigurs (75)
Sent Off: none

Inverness CT: 1

Lineup: Brill, Raven, Warren, Tremarco, Shinnie, Watkins (Christie 75), Devine, Draper, Tansey, McKay, Doran (Williams 65)

Booked: Tansey (22)
Sent Off: none