Caley Jags pay the penalty

Partick Thistle survived to earn a point after the woodwork saved them twice and keeper Jamie Sneddon denied Sean Welsh from the spot after guessing the right way. Inverness were well on top but it's only a point which means Killie pull further away at the top. Performance of the day was from Arbroath who came from two down to beat Dunfermline Athletic 4-2.

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Inverness were looking to bounce back after their midweek shocker against Arbroath and being knocked off the top perch, and Partick were hoping to get back to winning ways after drawing with Morton and Dunfermline in their last two. Neither club would achieve what they were hoping for in a 0-0 draw.

David Carson was still on leave and Cammy Harper was not ready to return with Shane Sutherland posted missing.

RIG saw the game like this:

Obviously if you don't take your chances you can't really say you deserved to win but we should have got the three points yesterday. We had by far the better chances but for some good saves, desperate defending and a bit of bad luck we just couldn't force the ball into the net. Walsh, Gardyne and Mckay all had great chances in the first half (still don't know what happened with the Walsh effort as I was sure it had gone in and turned to celebrate). Welsh's penalty was poor but Sneddon timed his movement off his line well. I always feel that penalties should be struck high(er) rather than low as it makes it easier for the keeper to get a stop. Doran hit the bar / forced Sneddon into a save not long after and also had another "penalty" claim waved away (though it looked like it was outside the box) before MacGregor turned a close range effort over the top.

Partick seemed very subdued. Aside from a disallowed goal towards the end, which would have been oh so cruel, I can't really think of any time Ridgers was overly troubled. Sure he had saves to make but they were all pretty comfortable. Odd move from McCall to move Tiffoney over the ICT left after Deas got yellow carded. I assume he wanted Tiffoney to try and draw a foul and second yellow from Deas but he wasn't up for that and completely snuffed one of their better players out of the game. It was superb performance from a defender on a tightrope for so much of the game.

Duffy on the other side was also much improved, perhaps as a result of having Walsh in front of him. Allardice and Welsh dominated the middle of the park and we looked a lot better attacking with Mckay, Doran, Gardyne and Walsh although we still aimed a few aimless balls towards Mckay were he was dominated in the air by the Partick CBs. With MacGregor and Jamieson coming on later on this seemed to disrupt us more than anything but I guess the likes of Doran were tiring and we needed to freshen things up.

Despite not getting the win that was easily one of our best performances of recent weeks and I would have taken a point before the game but given how it played out it was definitely 2 points dropped.

Onto Ayr next week!

Although this was a much improved performance from Tuesday night's dismal showing against Arbroath, the lack of a cutting edge came back to haunt us. Walsh and Gardyne both hit the frame of the goal which denied access to the net and with Sneddon guessing the right way to dive we missed out on a glorious opportunity from the spot. Best on the day were Scott Allardice who was back in midfield, Aaron Doran and Wallace Duffy back in at right back.

From YouTube

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