Scotty

Saints Stalemate Not too much to say about this game. Jonny Hayes came close early on when he hit the post with Mannus beaten and Foran had a header saved. Sandaza came to life in the second half but Inverness held out for a deserved share of the points. With Dundee United losing at Aberdeen, St Johnstone take the lead in the race for Europa football but Inverness remain in tenth spot with Dunfermline now unlikely to overhaul them after another home loss, this time against Hearts. Full report to follow from Alternative Maryhill. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Marking Time You’d think that by now, given his insistence on meeting for a liquid breakfast at some unearthly hour of the morning of every away day, Capital Caley would know what time off-licences open in Glasgow. But no. He was, by his own admission, so busy getting random customers’ phone numbers at the Park Bar the night before, that he forgot to buy his carry-out then, and as our train left before eleven the next morning, Red Card, Govan Jaggie, Martinskye and yours truly were greeted with the unusual spectacle of him trying to nurse a coffee all the way to Perth. Once in the fair city, we met up with the early stages of the stag do of CTO original and legend Bronson and headed to the 208 – still the best pre-football venue in Perth – for a couple of hours, before a last drink in a very busy Muirton Suite. Then it was upstairs and into the ground. Expectations were, it’s fair to say, pretty low. Unsurprisingly, the travelling support was modest in size, but it gave the Caley Thistle players great backing, especially considering the disappointment of the last two results. I couldn’t make Aberdeen, but apparently the ICT supporters there were excellent, and although numbers were limited, and, to be honest, there wasn’t that much to get excited about, they continued that at Perth, singing from start to finish: several St Johnstone supporters made a point of commenting on this on forums after the game. Eyebrows were raised among the supporters and, by all accounts, among the BBC’s radio commentators, when it became clear that Terry Butcher had opted to stick with the back four he christened ‘the defence from hell’ after last week’s performance against Hibs. If his intention was to allow the players to redeem themselves for last week’s mistakes, then it largely worked, albeit against a pretty unimaginative St Johnstone attack. It was perhaps less surprising that Gregory Tade found himself on the bench after a wasteful performance up front against Hibs, but it was still a risk to drop the team’s top scorer and go with a lone striker (Billy McKay) with only a single goal to his name. As ICT failed to score, it could be argued that this was a gamble that didn’t pay off, but it did allow Butcher to play a central three of Jones, Tansey and Foran, who collectively turned in the team’s most commanding midfield performance since the departures of Davis and Cox. Presumably intent on atoning for Sunday’s collapse against Hibs and home defeat to St Johnstone the previous midweek, the Caley Thistle players took the game to the Saints from the first whistle. Inside the first two minutes Caley were awarded a free kick for a foul on Richie Foran then forced a corner when Hayes’ free kick was cleared by David McCracken. Shortly afterwards, Hayes came close to repeating his fluke goal of last weekend from the opposite wing, when his looping cross from the right landed on top of Alan Mannus’ net with the Saints keeper flailing. On ten minutes ICT came closer to scoring than they would at any other point in the game, when Hayes picked up the ball on the right just inside the St Johnstone half and ran at Liam Craig and Alan Maybury before cutting inside them and firing a low shot across Mannus and off the base of his far post from the edge of the box. At this stage, with Caley Thistle so dominant and the St Johnstone players appearing unable to cope with Jonny Hayes, it seemed only a matter of time before the Inverness team opened the scoring. This, however, was not to be. Although Caley Thistle remained the better team throughout the first half and had further chances, with Mannus having to fist clear a 20-yard bending shot from Foran, then Meekings firing the ball narrowly wide from the resulting corner, the game slipped into a pattern of speculative balls and midfield skirmishes that produced little in the way of flowing football or clear goal-scoring opportunities. St Johnstone’s best chances were a Dave MacKay free kick that flew wide and a weak close range flick from Francisco Sandaza that Jonny Tuffey took comfortably. Some credit for limiting Saints to so few chances must be given to ICT’s defenders. Their commitment, however, came at a price: Roman Golobart was the first to be cautioned, in the fifteenth minute, for a foul on Cillian Sheridan, Kenny Gillet followed him into the book just ten minutes later, and by the end of the game all four of the Caley Thistle defenders had been yellow-carded, along with Greg Tansey, mostly for challenges involving either Sheridan or Sandaza. ICT’s disciplinary record this season must be as bad as it has ever been. On one hand, this could suggest that the players are fighting for every ball; on the other, it could suggest that they have struggled to impose themselves and take control of games too often. Half Time 0-0 While some of the referee’s cautions appeared unnecessarily harsh, when it came to the biggest decision of the game, early in the second half, Kevin Clancy came down on the side of the Inverness player. St Johnstone had started the second half with far more attacking intent, and when Sandaza latched onto a long ball that caught out the ICT defence and cut in on Tuffey’s goal from the right, he looked certain to score. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, however, Roman Golobart appeared from nowhere, like Han Solo at the end of Star Wars, and nicked the ball off the toes of Vader Sandaza, shouldering the Perth striker to the ground in the process. It could have been construed as a foul – and judging by the scale of Steve Lomas’s tantrum on the touchline, he clearly felt a penalty should have been awarded – but ultimately it was shoulder-to-shoulder, and it’s hardly Golobart’s fault that he’s built like a brick shithouse and Sandaza goes over more easily than a scarecrow in a hurricane. The Caley Thistle players had their own appeal for a penalty later in the game, when Foran fell in the box under pressure from Jody Morris, but it appeared that Morris reached the ball first and Foran fell over the St Johnstone player. St Johnstone continued to dominate for the rest of the second half, and Jonny Tuffey had to be sharp to produce reaction saves from Sandaza and Sheridan shots and to beat away a free kick from Liam Craig, but in truth, the ICT support had nothing to concern them as much as the penalty-that-wasn’t. The Inverness players’ performance throughout the second half was uninspired, if solid, but towards the end of the game they had a couple of opportunities to take all three points. Gregory Tade replaced McKay on 84 minutes, and his characteristic determination to chase every ball unsettled the St Johnstone defence and allowed the game’s momentum to swing briefly back in Caley Thistle’s favour. A corner from Tansey was met by substitute Steve Williams, showing as he did against Rangers that he is a dangerous presence from set-pieces, and when Williams’ header was headed clear, it fell to Josh Meekings, in space inside the box. It looked a great opportunity, but Meekings rushed the shot, launching it first time high over the bar. And that, apart from a Shinnie shot comfortably saved by Mannus, was that. Nil-nil; another point further ahead of Dunfermline; and another performance that satisfied in some respects while continuing to raise questions in others. Full Time 0-0 To be honest, it feels a little like we’re just marking time until the end of the season now, and that what the ICT support is really interested in is finding out how Terry Butcher intends to plan and build for next season over the summer. There is no doubt that this has been an anticlimactic season after the seventh place finish in our first season back in the SPL; there is no doubt that some of the players brought in haven’t delivered and that the quality of performance has been patchy at best; and yet the team appears to have been unusually unfortunate with injuries, there have been some genuinely promising aspects (the form of Andrew Shinnie before his injury springs to mind) and there have been signs that some of this season’s signings (Tansey, Jones, Tade) could develop into very effective SPL players in a settled team with a little more creativity. In the meantime, let’s hope that the players use the remaining five games to show the manager that they’re worth considering for next season’s team: there are still fifteen points and places to play for, even though the top six has eluded us once more. 7th April 2012 Scottish Premier League Tulloch Caledonian Stadium St Johnstone 0 - /media/images/club_badges/stjohnstone.png TEAM: Mannus, Anderson, Maybury, MacKay, McCracken, Wright, Craig, Morris, Millar, Croft (Moon 36), Sheridan (Haber 73), Sandaza SUBS: Enckelman, Adams, Oyenuga, Kane, Keatings Booked: Maybury (71), Morris (88) Sent Off: none Inverness C.T. 0 - /media/images/club_badges/inverness.png TEAM: Tuffey, Tokely (Williams 78), Golobart, G.Shinnie, Meekings, Gillet, Tudur-Jones, Tansey, Hayes (Ross 84), Foran, McKay (Tade 84) SUBS: Mathison, Proctor, Morrison, Doran Booked: Golobart (15), Gillet (27), Tansey (44), Tokely (57), G.Shinnie (72) Sent Off: none Referee Kevin Clancy Attendance 3326

The broken record goes on. It's like a broken record and as Led Zeppelin will tell you, the song remains the same. This nightmare season continues as Inverness stuttered to another home lapse by losing to probably the poorest Hibs side on record. Despite dominating the first half the homesters could not for the life of them penetrate the Capital clubs rearguard and despite going ahead on the hour mark through our first penalty of the season we managed to capitulate rather easily and eventually lost 2-3. Greg Tansey converted the spot kick, but Paul Hanlon equalised soon after. Garry O'Connor put Hibs ahead in the 75th minute before a Jonny Hayes cross fizzed behind Stack in the Hibs goal. That should have seen Inverness close shop, but no, we managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of a draw when who else but bad boy Leigh Griffiths drove a ball across Tuffey to snatch the points with five minutes of the ninety left. If the home fans were left numb after the midweek defeat to St Johnstone, then they were completely flabbergasted by this reverse as we passed up chance after chance to kill off a disjointed Hibs side and still ended up losing the game. Terry Butcher will no doubt trot out the well used "11 strangers" and "injury list" excuses that has been done to death this year, but it is wearing thin on even the most ardent of happy clappers. He might as well publicly blame individuals for everything that has gone wrong this year, but hold on, he is. Is he God? Who is Terry accountable to, because he is the man that picks the team, he is the man that decides the tactics, he is the man that got rid of half a team and he is the man that replaced them with what? There have been extenuating circumstances this season, but surely the buck has to stop somewhere. So come on Terry, hold your hands up and say sorry, I have got it wrong. That might be a start. It's maybe not the match report you were all wanting to hear, and it's definitely not the match report I would have liked to type, but let's stop pussy footing around and get down to business. Somethings wrong and it needs fixed! I've said too much already, but ajsict92 might be more gentle when he completes the full report. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Reaching Breaking Point! The sob story of the ICT's 2011-12 season carried on today as for the third time this season they surrendered a lead and wound up losing a game 3-2 courtesy of a late goal. Terry Butcher promised changes to the starting eleven and he saw it through as Jonny Hayes, Kenny Gillet and Josh Meekings were all recalled for ICT with Thomas Piermayr, Shane Sutherland and Owain Tudur-Jones being dropped to the bench. ICT were adopting a 4-4-2 formation with Graeme Shinnie pushing up to left wing and Gregory Tade partnering Billy McKay up front with Butcher looking for a positive reaction from his players following his sides dire performance against St Johnstone in mid-week. Must admit it was a slight suprise to see both Hayes and Gillet return to the starting line up today after so many games out, though Hayes' performance was probably one of very few positives to take from this game. Unfortunately for Gillet he looked rather rusty and could be considered to be at fault for Garry O'Connors goal after faling to track the run of Doherty. ICT started this game looking very hungry indeed, exchanging some lovely passing moves from midfield and constantly looking to get the ball onto Hayes, who looked like he had barely missed any time on the pitch at all and it was he that carved out ICT's first real opportunity of the game when his dinked cross drifted over everyone but saw Gregory Tade attempt an acrobatic, overhead kick. Unfortunately for him he couldn't quite connect with it, but he was not far away and had he done so it would have been something very special. Hayes was then the main provider of ICT's next major moment in the game. A low ball across goal which eluded everyone but fell for Graeme Shinnie who unfortunately couldn't get it out of his feet quickly enough and his shot in the end was rather tame and easy for Stack to deal with. The few times Hibs were on the ball they always attempted to look for Griffiths and O'Connor but their efforts were foiled by what seemed to be a fairly solid Caley Jags defence. However Richie Foran had one serious lapse of concentration when playing a pass across his own penalty area as he left Jonny Tuffey facing an ambush of Hibs players to try and close him down but fortunately Tuffey was able to clear up quickly enough and spare his captain's blushes. As the first half went on ICT continued to look a threat and yet again with Hayes on the ball found themselves passing up a golden opportunity to break the deadlock. Hayes played an inch perfect through ball to Billy McKay who found himself one on one with the goalkeeper but with defenders closing in and the angle tightening McKay saw his low shot rebound off the base of the post and cleared away. This did nothing to disrupt ICT's persistent search for the opening goal and not long before half time. Greg Tansey played a delightful cross field pass for Hayes who beat his man, cut inside and shot high and hard, forcing Stack to parry it over for a corner which came to nothing. The referee sounded for half time with many ICT fans wondering how Graham Stack hadn't picked the ball out of his net yet. Half time: ICT 0-0 Hibernian The 2nd half picked up very much were it left off. Inverness pressing and Hibs having to cope with what was thrown at them. Gregory Tade managed to pass up another opportunity. A lovely passing move between Tansey and Foran finished with Foran teeing up Tade for another shot at goal, however his shot rebounded off Stack but Tade's embarassment was spared by the linesman who flagged for offside. The passing up of opportunities continued when ICT won a corner. Hayes powered it into the box and via a slight ricochet Ross Tokely attempted a lovely volley but unfortunately he shot just over. A good attempt, but not necessarily an easy one. It was from another corner that ICT managed to grab the lead and for any ICT fan in the world it was probably in the most unbelievable way possible. The ball was launched into the box, McKay attempted to control it only to be bundled over by McPake. Someone's prayers must have been answered because for the first time since November 2010, Caley Thistle were awarded a penalty, much to the delight of the home fans, which turned to ecstasy when Tansey dispatched it into the top corner of the net. Almost immediately after ICT went in front they had a chance to double their goal tally. Billy McKay's deflected pass fell into the path of Tade who burst into the area and found himself with only Stack to beat but he held onto it for too long before striking it straight at the Hibs keeper who must have thought some greater power was watching over him today. He may have been right as within a matter of moments Hibs were level. A corner swung in from Griffiths saw Paul Hanlon lose his marker and catch a wonderful header that powered past Tuffey and gave the away support something to applaud. Pat Fenlon introduced substitute Tom Soares into the game who brought about a more direct style to the away side. Hibs attempted to get him more inolved in the game and it was his pass that found Doherty whose low ball across goal was curled in by an unmarked Garry O'Connor to leave Hibs fans joyous and many ICT fans wondering what they were watching. ICT found themselves up against it as they went in drastic search of an equaliser and it eventually paid off. Jonny Hayes had been essential to ICT's game throughout the afternoon and with seven minutes remaining he managed to draw ICT back on level terms in a rather unorthodox fashion. Hibs were caught short on a quick free kick which saw Hayes show Soares a clean pair of heels before firing a deep cross into the box. So deep that it flew over Stack's head and into the top corner of the net to give the home support some much needed relief. May not have been intentional but was duly accepted none the less. The relief only lasted for 2 minutes (yes thats right, 2 minutes) before Hibs regained the lead. The ball broke for Leigh Griffiths who beat Josh Meekings for pace and despite the angle being against him he managed to drive a low shot into Tuffey's bottom left hand corner. I'm sure Tuffey will be very dissapointed to have been beaten like this. It was all proving too much for many supporters who began to leave in their numbers as the boys went in desprate search of another equaliser with Owain-Tudur Jones and Shane Sutherland being brought on to support the attack but it was all too little, too late, and Hibs left TCS picking up a vital 3 points to aid their fight for survival. Full time: ICT 2-3 Hibernian To summarise.......well I really wish I could. I knew we could play better than what was seen against St Johnstone and at times today there was a great improvement to both the style and quality of play. As usual though we failed to take the chances that come our way as we could easily have been 3-0 up at half time before even getting a penalty. What was also clearly evident today was a lack of composure after conceding goals. Passes began to go astray and space began to open up for Hibs to exploit and while Griffiths and O'Connor may well have their badboy reputations, it cannot be denied that they are quality players and when given the chance could hurt us and this was a threat that was not suitably dealt with by the defence. This ICT side has lacked bottle this season, that has been clear as for the 3rd time at home we take a lead, lose it and then go on to lose 3-2 in a very cruel fashion. If I would give this young side any advice it would be to toughen up and start focusing on the nitty gritty side of the game. This is a point of the season were grinding out results is important. The last thing we need is to get dragged even closer into the relegation dogfight. ajsict92's MotM - Jonny Hayes - Slotted straight back into the team after a month out and was the main driving force behind our play today, supplied chances, took on opponents, was one of the very few players that seemed to genuinely fight for the team. No doubt he will have a long list of suitors come the summer. 1st April 2012 Scottish Premier League Tulloch Caledonian Stadium Inverness C.T. 2 - Tansey (pen.60), Hayes (83) TEAM: Tuffey, Tokely, Golobart, G.Shinnie, Gillet (Ross 82), Meekings, Hayes,, Tansey (Tudur-Jones 90), Foran, Tade (Sutherland 90), McKay SUBS: Mathison, Proctor, Piermayr, Winnall Booked: Golobart (81) Sent Off: none Hibernian 3 - Hanlon (64), O'Connor (75), Griffiths (85) TEAM: Stack, McPake, Doherty, Kujabi, Hanlon, Towell (Soares 62), Sproule, Stevenson, Osbourne (Doyle 87), O'Connor, Griffiths (O'Donovan 90) SUBS: Brown, O'Hanlon, Francomb, Claros, Booked: Griffiths (85), Sproule (88) Sent Off: none Referee Bobby Madden Attendance 3274