Scotty

United canter home against cart horses Dundee United once more emphasised the gulf in class between these two sides as they strolled to victory against a clueless and punchless Inverness Caledonian Thistle. There appeared to be little between the sides in the opening exchanges, but that all turned when a looping John Rankin effort found the top corner and Inverness reverted to type after that. Scott Robertson shouldered home a second before tormentor in chief Johnny Russell scored a sublime third to end the contest with twelve minutes remaining. Another defeat for Inverness and Terry Butcher must be wondering if he has anything left in the tank to offer his struggling outfit. I doubt many of the Inverness supporters expected much from this match, but it's still disappointing to be proved right and the alarming rate that we are shipping goals must be of some concern to the Caley Jags management. Of equal concern is our inability to fashion any clear scoring opportunities and we looked as though we could have played for a fortnight without seriously troubling Pernis in the United goal. We must be a joy for any opposition defence to play against given our lack of aggression in front of goal. Terry Butcher thrust a hastily repaired Roman Golobart back into central defence and his partner tonight was none other than Ross Tokely with Proctor and Williams on the bench alongside Graeme Shinnie. Jonny Hayes was nowhere to be seen and Shane Sutherland started, with McKay the lone striker and Gnakpa and Winnall on the bench with Tudur-Jones. Hayes apparently tweaked a hamstring last week but should not be out for long..........hopefully. United were a more settled side with goal threats all over the park and twin tormentors Jonny Russell and Gary Mackay-Steven leading the charge with big Jon Daly. They had a defence but they could have enjoyed this game from the stand as a powderpuff Inverness attack failed to carve out any serious goal threats although the stats will show a number of attempts on target, but none troubling Dusan Pernis in goal. I can't stomach much more of this drivel tonight and Ginger Jaggy can continue the report when he settles down.............. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Two weeks and two tales of woe in which Caley Thistle’s upward momentum has well and truly been clipped as we suddenly look over our shoulder. A win over Kilmarnock on Saturday in our game in hand will almost guarantee safety but our performance levels have nose-dived since the back end of January and Monday night saw this continue to deteriorate against a classy Dundee United side. We have to be thankful that Dunfermline have been poor all season otherwise we may not be looking backwards with any comfort. The game was a resounding victory for the Arabs and it could have been more had it not been for some decent stops by Ryan Esson. We do have good players and we are missing some key players but we are still lacking an out and out striker – some have queried why we haven’t tried Sam Winnall? Caley Thistle went into this game without Jonny Hayes who may have been off the pace in our last couple of games but we certainly missed him in this one. We lacked drive and quality with very little creativity. Terry Butcher would have been pleased by the opening of the game with Dundee United finding it hard to get the ball down and dictate the play with their excellent passing game. Unfortunately all that work was undone after a quarter of an hour from a comedy of errors at the back. First Kenny Gillet played a needless pass back to Esson who in turn made a poor clearance which fell to Richie Foran in midfield. His poor control allowed Ex Caley Thistle midfielder John Rankin to nip the ball away and hit a trademark long range strike which nestled into the top corner of Essons net. Great strike but shoddy play from the visitors. Inverness did create chances with Shane Sutherland blasting over from a good position in the penalty box. Then came our best chance when Billy McKay showed some tenacity in the box to win the ball and put a shot in that was well blocked by Dusan Pernis. The game continued to be hard fought but without Hayes, a lack of an outlet was very observant for every Inverness fan. Instead it was long balls with McKay and Tade barely winning any balls against Gavin Gunning and Sean Dillon. It was almost 2-0 before half time when danger man Johnny Russell was able to use his pace to get into the box and was only denied by an excellent full length save by Esson. Overall Inverness had held Dundee United well and had it not been for a lack of concentration on three fronts then it may well have been level at half time. But the downside was that we looked as dangerous as a mouse. Half-Time 1-0 The second half started as the first had finished with United in the ascendancy. This tale does have a common theme. The theme was poor defending and this again reared its head just five minutes into the second half. A free kick from Willo Flood was won by Jon Daly who had climbed above Ross Tokely, and his knock back found it's way to Scott Robertson who unmarked headed the ball into the bottom of the net. It was such a sloppy goal to concede with Daly dominating the penalty area and Robertson finding the freedom of Dundee to nod home untidily. Bizarrely going further behind stung us into some action. Claude Gnakpa came on for Nick Ross and his introduction definitely improved Inverness. Ross moments before going off was inches from an equaliser from a Sutherland Free Kick. The ball was definitely an improvement from the first half. It could have got worse when Esson dropped an easy catch, the goalkeeper watched on in relief when an off balance Daly stabbed the ball over. After that it was all Inverness for a 10-15 minute spell where some great chances had been made. Sutherland shot wide while Greg Tansey hit two decent shots that were comfortable for the Polish goalkeeper. But the golden chances fell first to Roman Golabart who headed wide when McKay was in a better position just behind him. Two minutes later McKay should have done better when he got himself into the box and hit a shot that looped over the bar at the near post. A better finish was needed and it summed up our night and season as a whole. Claude Gnakpa did bring out a save from Pernis but Caley Thistle could have played all night and not have scored. There was still time for Russell to score the goal of the game even if the challenges were a little half hearted. The pacey front man received the ball from a Daly centre and he used great agility to get away from three or four defenders to finish coolly past Esson. After that the game petered out with United sitting comfortably 3-0 ahead. Full Time 3-0 That was the way the game finished and it highlighted a major gulf in class. The game was fairly even for the whole of the first half but the quality of delivery into the box was light-years between the teams. When Inverness did play along the deck and improved the crossing it was no surprise that we dominated for 10-15 minutes creating some real good chances, but our attempts at finishing were timid. We were already 2-0 down by then and on final reflections it was a majorly disappointing performance, not taking anything away from in form Dundee United. 5th March 2012 Scottish Premier League Tannadice Stadium, Dundee Dundee Utd 3 - Rankin (15), Robertson (52), Russell (78) /media/images/club_badges/dundeeutd.png TEAM: Pernis, Neilson, Dillon, Gunning, Dixon, Flood, Robertson, Rankin, Mackay-Steven (Armstrong 77), Daly (Lacny 80), Russell (Ryan 80) SUBS: Banks, Kenneth, Douglas, Dow Booked: Ryan (84) Sent Off: none Inverness C.T. 0 - /media/images/club_badges/inverness.png TEAM: Esson, Meekings, Tokely, Golobart, Gillet, Tade, Sutherland, Tansey, Ross (Gnakpa 66), Foran, McKay (Tudur-Jones 76) SUBS: Tuffey, Proctor, G.Shinnie, Williams, Winnall Booked: Golobart (37), Foran (52), Tansey (62), Meekings (82) Sent Off: none Referee Alan Muir Attendance 5994

Inverness fans due a refund as team fails to turn up Inverness played like a Highland league side; that's maybe doing the Highland league teams a dis-service, as they constantly lofted aimless balls forward, mis-controlled in defence and in front of goals, wasted throw-ins and free kicks and were, well, just generally inept. The Ibrox tax dodgers put aside their off field shenanigans to overwhelm a clumsy and hapless Inverness X1, who looked as though they were on a Sunday afternoon kick about in the sun. Oh wait, they were, unfortunately Rangers meant business and from the start they controlled the pace of the game and will not have an easier afternoons wages in a long time, assuming they will get paid. Rangers responded magnificently to adversity and sprinted out of the blocks scoring three first half goals before Steve Williams notched the consolation before the break. Davis, Aluko and Little were the first half scorers and Lee McCulloch completed the rout in the second half, and almost added a fifth. Ross Tokely found himself on the bench once more with Gillet partnering Williams and Shinnie at left back. Tade and McKay were on from the start. Ally McCoist put Perry, Little and Kerkar on the park with David Healy dropping to the bench, and it was the Rangers manager who's alteration made the most impact as Inverness struggled to cope with the pace and accuracy of the Gers strikers. A shell shocked Ginger Jaggy will take up the story when he calms down............... Well, the future may hang in the balance for Rangers but they showed a togetherness and performance to suggest that no one at Ibrox is lying down and ready to take the impending doom hanging over the club. In contrast, every Caley Thistle fan who was present and watching on Sky will know that for all the good possession Rangers held Caley Thistle gave them the freedom of Inverness. Terry Butcher was furious after the game and so he should be. This is the second Old Firm match where Caley Thistle have been bullied and made to look like Sunday league players. The days when Caley thistle really gave the Old Firm a match in the Highland Capital has disappeared for the time being. The idea of top six footballs still remains a possibility, but it is growing shorter by the week as Dundee United look to pull away from the rest of the pack. Rangers played their first away game from Ibrox since being moved in to administration and after losing to Kilmarnock hopes were raised that Caley Thistle could inflict more pain in front of the Sky Cameras. But for that to happen we had to perform at our best, this, on paper, was as weak a Rangers side that has travelled up the A9 but anyone expecting an easy victory would be optimistic at best. This Rangers team still have quality players which could still have competed for the league if they hadn’t had a ten point deduction. The opening to the game was encouraging for the home side as they pressed from the off against their battered and bruised opponents. But with their first attack the champions (for not much longer) took the lead through their best player Steve Davis who ran the show all game. On six minutes the impressive Salim Kerkar was played through on the Caley Thistle right and his simple ball into the centre was tapped home by the industrious Northern Irishman. From that point Rangers looked like they could score every time they attacked. It was not really due to Rangers attacking but more down to our defence looking as shaky as a house built on sand. Sone Aluko missed a sitter from close range as he failed to put his back post header on target from only five yards out from a brilliant Davis cross. But the ex-Aberdeen wide man was not to be denied only a few minutes later when an Andy Little cross was poorly cleared by Kenny Gillet and Aluko from 18 yards drilled the ball low into the corner of the net. Caley Thistle did show glimpses of getting back into the game with Greg Tansey making Allan McGregor parry a powerful drive before Billy McKay troubled the Rangers defence with a decent run and cross with no one to profit in the middle. The game was then ended as a contest when Kerkar again played a terrific ball in behind Meekings and Little finished superbly over Esson to complete Rangers dominance. But that wasn’t the end of the scoring in this half as Steve Williams powered a header into the Rangers net from a Tansey corner to keep the game breathing but only just. Half Time 1-3 The second half did not yield as much action as the first which on a positive note meant that Caley Thistle was not really humiliated as badly as they could have been. Inverness brought on Proctor to replace the bedraggled Meekings. The second half started encouragingly when Jonny Hayes delivered a tempting ball into the box which Gregory Tade put wide at the front post but via a deflection. Had that gone in then at 3-2 the game may have been different but yet again our defence proved that we were never going to win this game. They were bullied at a corner and a header from Maurice Edu was cleared off the line by Nick Ross before Davis struck a low shot which Esson did well to put past the post with his foot. The ball travelled through a ruck of bodies and Esson showed lightning reactions to turn it round the post with his foot. We had escaped but with little happening at the other end it was likely that Rangers would increase their lead. They did on 72 minutes when Caley Thistle again gave the ball away cheaply and it ended up in the back of the net. Little again drove at the defence and played a lovely ball to Kerkar whose weakfish effort was parried by Esson and the rebound was slammed home by Lee McCulloch. Gregory Tade spurned another opportunity from a tempting Hayes cross but it would not have counted as he was flagged for offside, and Rangers almost made it five late on when McCulloch saw his fantastic volley crash off the bar and away. But Television Replays do appear to show that the ball did cross the line. The game ended without any more meaningful action. What was shown was that Rangers can’t be treated lightly as they played very well for the circumstances they are in. In fact it is perceivable that quite a few members of the squad that did play or at least made the journey north will never play with each other again. Caley Thistle made Rangers look like world beaters with a performance which was inept at best. Full Time 1-4 Terry Butcher has a lot of work to do if we are to make top six now starting with Dundee United next week. The odds are against us but we must not forget that we were the form team through January and the only team’s that had beaten us were the Old Firm. So let’s write this match off and start afresh for next week because surely we can not be as generous as we were on Sunday. 26th Feb 2012 Scottish Premier League Tulloch Caledonian Stadium Inverness C.T. 1 - Williams (40) /media/images/club_badges/inverness.png TEAM: Esson, Meekings (Proctor 46), Williams, Gillet, G.Shinnie, Ross (Gnakpa 71), Hayes, Tansey, Foran, Tade, McKay SUBS: Tuffey, Tokely, Tudur Jones, Sutherland, Winnall Booked: Gillet (42), Foran (62) Sent Off: none Rangers 4 - Davis (6), Aluko (16), Little (36), McCulloch (72) /media/images/club_badges/rangers.png TEAM: McGregor, Bradfoot, Goian, Bocanegra, Perry, McCulloch, Davis, Aluko (Wylde 85), Edu, Kerkar (Celik 81), Little (Hemmings 85) SUBS: Alexander, Bedoya, McCabe, Healy Booked: none Sent Off: none Referee Willie Collum Attendance 6416