Leaderboard

Game of Two Halves A rousing round of applause rang out from the crowd on the sixth minute in appreciation of the dedication of John Mackenzie, AKA the Immortal Howden Ender who sadly passed away last week. A fitting tribute as cheering and clapping broke out around the ground and one in which he would have loved to have led the way. Rest in Peace my well travelled friend. You would have enjoyed the first half. The second I'm sure you would have had some choice words for in your aftermatch summary. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It was the proverbial game of two halves. Inverness were miles ahead in the first half and rubbish after the break. Plenty of possession and slick movement with new signings Flynn Duffy and Adam Mackinnon prominent in attacking moves. Charlie Gilmour brought out a tremendous reflex save from keeper Long, however most of the good work petered out when we got into the final third but we took the lead on the stroke of half time when Danny Devine sneaked in behind the defence to nod in unchallenged at the back post from a corner. Hey ho we all thought, lifes not so bad after all. Wrong!!! We allowed Dumbarton to dominate the next half hour and they deservedly levelled through Carlo Pignatiello as we seemed to go back into our shell. Niang was booked a second time for persistent fouling and reluctantly left the field when he was red carded. Billy Mckay cracked one off the bar and Charlie Gilmour and Remi Savage were denied by the keeper but it was a bit of an anti climax after a promising first half. Jack Newman also had to make a good save five minutes from the end to keep the score level when he denied Mumbongo. FULL TIME: 1-1 Flynn Duffy and Adam Mackinnon ran the show in the first half but we were strangely subdued after the break and got what we deserved. We reverted to sideways and backward passing and one can only assume the players were under orders to hold onto the ball rather than look for more, especially once Dumbarton were reduced to ten men. We really need our senior players to lead by example, but the likes of Longsraff and Mckay were not at the races today. This League should be the catalyst for Longstaff to take on defenders. Sadly he was guilty of backwards thinking instead. It was a mirror image of the League Cup game against Bonnyrigg. Three up at the break then absolutely nothing after the interval and playing second fiddle. The trialist keeper for Inverness was believed to be twenty-four year old Spaniard Musa Dibaga who has previously been at Whitehill Welfare and Boness United. Robert on CTO summarised thus: I thought we were pretty good in the first half and deserved to lead, and it could have been more if players had seen the runs on the shoulder Brooks was making. Gilmour came very close but the goalie somehow kept it out. We didn’t turn up after the break until we’d conceded, then we woke up a bit but couldn’t get a goal, Mckay coming closest when he hit the bar, and both goalies pulled off good saves late on. We also had a clear penalty turned down, with everyone seeing the handball apart from the officials. It was really a repeat of last season. Plenty possession but lacking the cutting instinct and taking the safe option too often. MacKinnon looked good and Duffy had a decent first half but faded after the break. He should have been subbed at the same time as MacKinnon. I’d like to think we will at least be competitive in this league, but we need to be more clinical than we were today. Date: 03/08/2024 Venue: Caledonian Stadium Attendance: 1469 Referee: Dan McFarlane Inverness CT: 1 Manager: Duncan Ferguson Lineup: Newman; Bray (Ferguson 84), Davidson, Devine, Savage, Duffy, Gilmour, Mackinnon (Macleod 67), B Mckay, Brooks (Thompson 84), Longstaff Subs (not used): Trialist (gk); Strachan, Corner, Walker, Keogh, C Mackay. Scorers: Devine (44) Booked: Brooks (57), Devine (85) Sent Off: none Dumbarton: 1 Manager: Stevie Farrell Lineup: Long; Lynas, Shiels, Durnan, Miller, Orsi (Mumbongo 74), Gray, Hilton (Blair 83), Niang, Ruth (Clark 83) Wallace (Pignatiello 46), Subs (not used): Blair, McGuffie, Grivas, O'Neil. Scorers: Pignatiello (59) Booked: Hilton (26), Niang (56, 79) Sent Off: Niang (79) a