Scotty

Perspective A football match was played out at Rugby Park on Saturday and although it was an entertaining game, it paled into insignificance in view of the sad incident where an Inverness fan collapsed and died in the Frank Beattie Stand midway through the second half, despite frantic efforts by a doctor and medical staff to revive him. Fans could not help but be drawn towards the incident occurring a few yards in front of them and the result of the game was far from those that unfortunately witnessed this tragedy. He was later named as Mr John McDonald, an Inverness fan from Milngavie and the thoughts and prayers of everyone are with his family and friends. Chris Hogg touched on the word perspective in his blog about his rehabilitation after injury, and this could not be more appropriate given the circumstances on this day. The result of the game was the last thing on the minds of the Inverness support and this haunting memory will stay with those at Rugby park forever. RIP John. The size of the crowd could be judged by the low turn out at the Hunting Lodge, three hardy souls had made the effort, but they were rewarded with a heartening display by the visitors and before half time we had pushed our noses in front. However, shooting ourselves in the foot has definitely become a popular sport in the Highlands, Inverness anyway, and we were the architects of our own downfall as Jonny Hayes saw red and Killie took full advantage of the extra man to win a thrilling game by the odd goal in seven. It was good to see that Billy McKay had found his shooting boots with a brace and Steve Williams slotted a late one, but Killie made good use of the extra man and eventually overcame the depleted Inverness men who battled hard for a point they would have deserved. Capital Caley attended the game and his thoughts are below to give you a flavour of how it all happened. The result on Saturday was completely insignificant after the death of a Caley Thistle fan amongst the away fans mid way through the second half. My thoughts are with his family. Caley Thistle should have won this game. They were on course to win until Jonny Hayes was shown a red card for his second reckless challenge of the match. It was Hayes who nearly opened the scoring for Caley Thistle after 5 minutes but his shot skimmed the outside of the post. Kilmarnock were the first to open the scoring after 14 minutes with a Danny Racchis shot on target leading to the goal. Esson saved and it fell to James Fowler who netted with ease. Now I’m no goalkeeping expert but I did feel at the time that Esson could have held it. Video footage may prove me wrong however! Killie seemed to be playing the better football during the first quarter and were making the Caley Thistle defence work hard. A James Dayton shot from the edge of the box went just wide on the 25th minute as Caley Thistle struggled to get into the match. However, just before the half hour mark, Billy McKay netted the equaliser for Caley Thistle. Hayes' cross found Greg Tansey who’s shot rebounded to Richie Foran who passed to McKay who then slotted home. Caley Thistle then had the momentum. Within 6 minutes McKay doubled the Caley Thistle lead with another Hayes cross finding him before heading the ball across the line. With 5 minutes before half time, Hayes picked up his first booking for a challenge on James Fowler. It may have seemed slightly harsh but many referees will give a booking for that now adays. Caley Thistle went into the break at half time with the 2-1 lead and all the momentum after a great second part of the first half. Half Time 1-2 From the start of the second half, after various opportunities we could still not improve on our lead. I must say that there were no sitters and fault cannot be attributed to any player regarding missed chances. It was more to do with being genuinely unlucky. Greg Tansey had the first chance of the second half but Cammy Bell saved well. About 10 minutes into the second half, Hayes nearly got Caley Thistles third goal but went agonisingly wide. A string of chances then followed and the wood work saved Kilmarnock again. Everything was going Caley Thistles way and it looked like it was going to be only a matter of time before we scored a third goal. Hayes was having a great game until his moment of madness in the 58th minute. His rash challenge on Ben Gordon left the referee no other option but to show Hayes his second yellow and then red. From there, everything fell apart. Kilmarnock seemed to take a huge confidence boost from the loss of Hayes and attacked the Caley Thistle goal. Dean Shiels crossed in a wonderful corner that found the head of Michael Nelson as he all too easily scored Killies equaliser. Roman Golobart then came on for Aaran Doran who had a very impressive game. Unfortunately although it seemed sensible to shore up the defence, Caley Thistle were still unable to prevent Killie from scoring more. Shiels then put Kilmarnock into the lead on the 80th minute. His shot across the box didn’t look like it was going in however it was impossible for Graeme Shinnie to get out of the way and he turned the ball into his own net. Of course, Roman Golobart will be claiming it to add to his goal tally! Killie then went 4-2 up when William Gros passed to Shiels who slotted the ball past Esson. The brief introduction of Gregory Tade with a few minutes to go wasn’t enough to muster an equaliser but Caley Thistle came back into the game with 1 minute to play. Richie Foran crossed in and Steve Williams nudged the ball across the goal line. There was time for one final attack from Caley Thistle but we couldn’t get the break in front of goal. Overall, it was a very entertaining game where Caley Thistle looked set for victory until the red card. Another defeat, but no shame in the performance. However, the terribly sad events in the stand puts the game into perspective.

Despondent Dons better than dire Inverness. Nobody expected much to happen today given the form of the two teams on display and the poor crowd confirmed that the novelty of SPL football has worn pretty thin. Sadly, this game was further evidence, if it was needed that something is wrong with the game in Scotland. Aberdeen are a shadow of their former selves, a team who once had the audacity to challenge the Old Firm in the heady days of the Ferguson regime. Today they were the better of two poor teams on show, something akin to a Highland League, end of season reserve game in the bottom six of their league. Yes folks, apathy has set in and we are just going through the motions, and for us it seems to be slow motions. Dire stuff indeed! The game was won by Aberdeen in the second half, as once again the unfortunate Roman Golobart, sporting a new haircut resembling a toilet brush, scored for the visitors, and Kenny Gillet confirmed our status as utterly hapless when the ball rebounded off him for Aberdeen's second goal in the last minute to signal a mass exodus from the home fans as they witnessed another dreadfully inept performance. I have been spared the ignomy of reporting on this couldn't care less performance as ajsict92 will tell us how we went from hopeful's to hopeless in 45 minutes of less than rivetting drudgery. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Show must go on......but definitely not this one. Two goals scored at home by ICT...but in a cruel twist they both went into our own net as the home slump suffered yet another personal low against an Aberdeen side that was looking to bounce back from their Scottish cup semi final defeat to Hibs last weekend. With Tansey, Tokely and Graeme Shinnie all suspended, change to the ICT starting eleven was inevitable, and it saw Steve Williams and Gregory Tade recalled and also a first start since August for Aaron Doran with ICT having both their main out and out wingers in Hayes and Doran back together in the side. Aberdeen had Jamie Langfield back in goals for the first time in almost a year. Langfield fully recovered following a brain seizure he had suffered. Despite the overnight downpour and rumours of a pitch inspection the game was played in beautiful sunshine with the pitch having held firm from the rain. It was ICT who seemed to begin the better. One or two neat little passes being exchanged here and there but little to trouble Langfield. You couldn't really disagree with those who described this fixture as "typical end of season" game. Aside from some money and those playing for new contracts there was little to gain from a win today. The first real chance of note fell to Gregory Tade who had a nice swerving shot parried down by Langfield but ICT did continue to press and almost snatched the lead when Jonny Hayes managed to cut inside and a get a low shot away which forced Langfield to make a smart save. Aaron Doran was the next player to test Langfield's gloves with a powerful strike that was rising and needed charging down from Langfield. Three attempts on target, but all too close to the keeper, however at this stage it did look promising. Aberdeen were struggling to get a foothold in the game and it was looking more likely that ICT were going to sneak the lead. Doran came even closer. Picked up the ball about 25 yards out and curled a lovely shot that went just over the bar. ICT did have the ball in the net from a corner, which was flicked on and saw Steve Williams swivel and dispatch a lovely volley into the net only to find the linesman had raised his flag for offside. With half time approaching Aberdeen began to find some openings. Josh Magennis, who was playing in an unfamiliar role at right back found himself on a rampant run towards the six yard box that required a wonderful last ditch tackle from Golobart to stop him in his path. Also just as half time was called Ryan Jack managed to evade Williams and release a low shot that had Tuffey rooted to the spot, but fortunately for him and every ICT supporter in the ground much relieved as it crept round the wrong side of the post. Half time ICT 0-0 Aberdeen Those that had headed off for a half time beverage, pie or loo break would have barely made it back to their seat in time to watch ICT fall behind in familiar circumstances. Magennis launched a long throw into the area and Golobart managed to divert his clearing header beyond Tuffey's reach and into the back of the net. A rather damning statistic for the young spaniard who has now made it a hat trick of own goals this season. It didn't seem to dampen the mood of the ICT faithful in the North stand as the Drums were taken out which was inevitably followed by the fans close by getting into full voice. However the support was beginning to wear thin as ICT's search for an equaliser became more and more difficult. The merrymakers were stopped in their tracks at one point when Gregory Tade was racing through on goal only to be bundled over at the edge of the box by Magennis who recieved a yellow card for his exploits. It was debatable that he could have walked as Tade did appear to have a chance to score but at the same time it appeared that Aberdeen had men covering so the referee probably made the correct call. With the free kick so close to the goal you would have expected Langfield to be tested but Williams curled his free kick high over the bar. Butcher introduced Shane Sutherland and Nick Ross into the action who replaced a less than effective Billy McKay and Gregory Tade, with Sutherland looking more effective than his predecessor in the centre forward role, especially competing in the air with Anderson and Reynolds but ICT were still struggling to break down Aberdeen in the final third with no one in the box for crosses from Hayes or Doran, the odd pass going wrong here, the odd through ball being overhit there. It was an ever familiar tale that was repeating itself and one that is becoming rather sickening the more it is seen. Aberdeen didn't offer much of a threat going forward but they had the luxury of knowing they didn't need to as they continued to soak up pressure. ICT's efforts were becoming more and more frantic. Inverness won another free kick in a dangerous area when Hayes was chopped down by Anderson and this time it was Doran who took it, his effort was decent with it just going narrowly wide. Not long afterwards he swung in a free kick that found Williams at the back post and despite not being closely marked his header floated high over. Shane Sutherland then had what was arguably chance of the game. With time running out he collected the ball, beat his man and unleashed a lovely strike which seemed destined for the top corner but unfortunately and some might say typically his effort was inches wide. As if the match couldn't have got much more painful, as you can guess...it did. In what was a rather mystifying decision, Jonny Hayes was subbed for David Proctor with injury time looming with Steve Williams being shifted up front in as a makeshift striker. Question marks have been raised throughout the season over Proctor's contributions to the team but he did little to silence those critics as within a minute of coming on he was outmuscled and outfought my Magennis who turned him and raced through on goal and despite Jonny Tuffey making a good save from a 1 on 1 the ball simply rebounded of Gillet and trickled into the net to guarantee where the points would finish up at full time. What followed was that automatic sound of emptying chairs as it became too difficult for many to bare and the chorus of merited boos as the full time whistle went. Full time - ICT 0-2 Aberdeen To summarise:- In all honesty I doubt there were many who looked forward to this game or the run in but that's no excuse. With ICT all but mathematically safe and Aberdeen's top six and cup aspirations out the window it's safe to say that both sides have definitely failed what they set out to achieve at the beginning of the campaign. However with both teams containing players that had futures to play for it was clear that very few players were taking that statement seriously. Josh Magennis is one who is in that boat at Pittodrie and for me he was one who seemed to be intent on impressing his boss, he may have been in an unfamiliar role at right back but his performance was good and his effort was first class as he seemed to make the right hand side his own for most of the game and though he wont get the second goal credited to his name he can be happy with his contribution. I didn't see that kind of effort or endeavour from any of our players today. I don't know what that is down to, but it is very worrying that despite losing they seemed to not really give a toss. They can tweet and broadcast what they want to try and convince people they will change but I'm sorry words mean nothing now, put your thoughts into practice boys, not words and buck up your ideas if you really take playing for this club seriously. ajsict92's MotM - I'm finding it very difficult to pick anyone to be perfectly honest but I'm going to give it to Shane Sutherland. He did more in the time he was on than McKay did in the entire season and he managed to create for himself ICT's best chance of the game where he was very unlucky not to score. He has been persistently used as a winger this season in a position that is definitely not his strongest. He is a centre forward and there were glimpses today that if he is played there more he could definitely get better. Thanks ajsict92, that's as positive as it gets for this week folks. Killie next week, anyone for 3-6? 21st April 2012 Scottish Premier League Tulloch Caledonian Stadium Inverness C.T. 0 - /media/images/club_badges/inverness.png TEAM:Tuffey, Meekings, Williams, Golobart, Gillet, Tudur-Jones, Hayes (Proctor 88), Foran, Tade (Ross 64), McKay (Sutherland 62), Doran SUBS: Mathieson, Piermayr, Morrison, Winnall Booked: Foran (82) Sent Off: none Aberdeen 2 - Golobart (og.46), Gillet (og.89) /media/images/club_badges/aberdeen.png TEAM: Langfield, Reynolds, Considine, Arnason, Fallon (Smith 54), Fyvie, Magennis, Jack (Clark 78), Megginson (McArdle 70), Anderson, Rae SUBS: Rogers, Mawene, Fraser, Masson Booked: Jack (36), Considine (39), Magennis (61) Sent Off: none Referee S McLean Attendance 3487