Scotty

Too easy for Dons Aberdeen won convincingly 1-3 with Kevin Clancy instrumental in the first two Dons goals. He was probably man of the match as the Dons won for the first time in five attempts. Lonsana Doumbouya glanced a wonderful opener for Inverness but after that it was Aberdeen that took full advantage of Clancy's assistance. A dubious free kick saw McLean level the scores and after another accidental clash, Clancy saw fit to award a spot kick which Rooney gratefully accepted to slot home. Clancy continued to control the flow of the game as the Aberdeen players threw themselves to the ground at will and it was no surprise (or maybe it was) when Maddison was eventually booked for simulation. They added a third deep into the game when they broke swiftly and McLean completed the scoring. One more assist from Clancy and he would have kept the match ball. Unbelievable Jeff! Plenty to ponder over for Inverness boss Richie Foran as the injury list grows, Brad Mckay stretchered off in the second half as we begin to court the fringes of the relegation tussle this early in the season. RIG was a bit miffed, but managed to squeeze out this report for us................... Some absolute telt today from Aberdeen to Inverness. A really comfortable Dons performance and an easy three points heading back along the A96. Decent start from Aberdeen but we took the lead against the run of play when Draper lifted a cute ball into the box and Doumbouya appeared in acres of space to steer a header past Lewis to put us one up. After that it was pretty much all Aberdeen with any chances for ICT at a premium. Hayes turned in an absolutely stunning performance and a lot of the Aberdeen attacks were coming down the ICT right with Hayes linking up well with Shinnie and also Maddison who was always on offer when Aberdeen drove through the middle. After a Maddison free kick was easily repelled by the Inverness wall McLean had better luck when he curled the ball low round the right edge of the wall and inside the post. A really good free kick and it brought Aberdeen deservedly level. The award of the free kick looked pretty suspect. Maddison seemed to go down very easily, a recurring theme over the course of the game sadly, but disappointing that we didn't defend the resultant strike a bit better. Minutes later Aberdeen were ahead. Hayes scampered into the box and Warren struggled to stay with him and Hayes went down as he collided with Warren. There was certainly contact between the two as Hayes clearly tripped over Warrens outstretched leg but, and this is coming with massive ICT bias, I did wonder if perhaps Warren had just planted his leg slightly ahead of Hayes which the winger then went down over. Regardless, I can probably see why Clancy gave it and again it was poor defending in the first place to let Hayes break into the box like that. Rooney had no issues finding the net with the penalty. Sadly, given how little we had threatened since our opening goal even at 2-1 down I couldn't see a way back into the game for us. However Tremarco saw an effort go wide and McLean nearly bagged his second when a shot that looked like it was already going wide was turned around the post by Fon Williams. Half Time 1-2 Into the second half and it was much the same with the Dons dominating proceedings and ICT resorting to lumping long balls in the vague direction of Doumboya. Aberdeen almost went 3 - 1 up when a fine cross from the right found Considine in the box and his downward header was met by Fon Williams who somehow managed to scramble it away. Aberdeen then saw a great chance for Shinnie go begging as he sped down the left and was picked out with a fine pass from Maddison however the former ICT man shot straight at Fon Williams. Maddison then paid the price for some of his earlier antics when he went down in the box under a challenge by Meekings and was booked. It was difficult to tell from the other end of the pitch if this was justified or not but given his previous histrionics and because I'm a seething, bitter mess right now I'm inclined to say yes. Shortly after Maddison nearly made headlines for better reasons as a fine free kick cracked off the base of the post with Fon Williams well beaten. ICT then lost Mckay to injury after a bad challenge from Shinnie which inexplicably went unpunished from Clancy. Aberdeen eventually got their deserved third goal when they seized on ICT losing possession after a corner and Hayes broke rapidly towards goal and he teed up McLean who drilled the ball past Fon Williams to seal the points. A really good counter attacking goal which triggered a mass exodus from the home support. Full Time 1-3 We seldom had a chance to speak of in the second half. A header from Doumbouya had Lewis scrambling to turn it over the bar, Draper wriggled into the box but his shot wasn't powerful enough to get past Lewis and Tremarco poked a late effort goalwards without really causing any difficulty. If we had got a goal back it would have made the game look a lot closer than it really was. Overall there can't be any complaints about the result and having read the comments from Foran it's good to see he's not trying to dress it up as anything other than what it was - a sound beating by a much better team. Clancy was an absolute omnishambles today with some really questionable calls. His decision not to at least give Shinnie a yellow card for his challenge on Mckay was bizarre as was his incredible call to allow Maddison to go down claiming he was injured, wave play on but then halt play as we got to the edge of the Aberdeen penalty area and allow Maddison to get treatment. But he wasn't the reason for our downfall today. There were plenty of errors from ICT that we should look to address before the next run of crucial games coming up against the likes of Dundee, Hamilton and Killie. Granted we were missing important players in Tansey and Polworth but our sole tactic of leathering it towards Doumbouya was easily being snuffed out by Considine and O'Connor yet we still persisted with it. Joe Lewis is enormous yet we played high balls into the six yard box most of the time we got our crosses in. As for our free kicks....Jesus wept. We really lack a striker who can play off the last defender and a midfielder with a real eye for a pass to play that hypothetical striker in. As it stands we are quite direct and rigidly stick to that direct style come what may. It might work well against some teams but it definitely wasn't working today and we didn't really have a clue what to do about it. In summary.... Date: 19/11/16 Venue: Caledonian Stadium, Inverness Attendance: 4867 Referee: Kevin Clancy Inverness CT: 1 Lineup: Fon Williams, McKay (Horner 76), Warren, Meekings, Tremarco, Draper, Vigurs, Doran, Cole (Mulraney 70), King (Fisher 84), Doumbouya Subs (not used): Esson, Boden, Sutherland Scorers: Doumbouya (15) Booked: Vigurs (53) Sent Off: none Aberdeen: 3 Lineup: Lewis, Logan, Considine, O'Connor, Shinnie (Reynolds 91), Maddison (Taylor 74), McLean, Jack, Hayes, Stockley (McGinn 73), Rooney Subs (not used): Alexander, Pawlett, Morris, Storey Scorers: McLean (28, 89), Rooney (pen.33) Booked: Maddison (67) Sent Off: none

Tough day at the office. Ten man Inverness went down 3-0 in Glasgow as Celtic eventually wore us down and dominated from the time they took the lead. Nothing surprising about the result, but disappointing to have a man sent off and Liam Polworth crocked. A tight first half saw Inverness go in at the break level. A couple of great chances for Celtic, a superb save from Owain Fon Williams and a half chance for Doumbouya produced no goals. Just after the break Scott Sinclair raced between the centre backs to knock the ball behind Fon Williams to open the scoring. Leigh Griffiths scored a tap-in after slack play from Inverness, and Greg Tansey was red carded in the move that led to the goal, having been booked in the first half. The third goal was scored by sub Tom Rogic with a deflected shot to complete our misery. Inverness were missing David Raven, Carl Tremarco and Aaron Doran with Lewis Horner, Billy King and Owain Fon Williams coming back into the starting XI. Celtic had a pretty potent strike force on from the start with Leigh Griffiths, Scott Sinclair, Patrick Roberts and man of the moment Moussa Dembele all lining up. The first half might have been level in score, but Celtic were mostly on the front foot, that means that we were mostly on the back foot. Best chance of the half went to Leigh Griffiths who saw his close range effort brilliantly turned onto the bar by Owain Fon Williams. For Inverness, Lonsana Doumbouya wasted a half chance and Ross Draper headed straight into Craig Gordon. Celtic squandered a handful of chances which would not have impressed Brendan Rodgers as we kept them at bay. Half Time 0-0 The second half was only a couple of minutes old when Scott Sinclair nipped into the box to get on the end of a smart Callum McGregor pass and he duly dispatched the ball behind the keeper. Just after the hour, Sott Brown came off injured being replaced by Nir Bitton. A double Inverness replacement saw Jake Mulraney and Alex Fisher replace Billy King and Lonsana Doumbouya. Celtic had replaced Mikael Lustig with Emilio Isaguirre in the first half. Moments later Griffiths got a tap-in after Fon Williams stopped Dembele from scoring, the ball breaking kindly for the Celtic striker. Greg Tansey was sent off for his involvement in that goal and there was no way back for the visitors. The Bhoys final change saw Tom Rogic take over from Moussa Dembele with around twenty minutes left. Last change of the match had Larnell Cole coming on for the final fifteen minutes as Liam Polworth was crunched and left the field in pain. With Inverness down to ten men, the final whistle can't come soon enough as Celtic's domination increased. It was no surprise when Rogic added a third after eighty three minutes, the away defence ran ragged by this time. Full Time 3-0 Inverness were seldom seen as an attacking force in the second half. The same could not be said of Celtic who surged forward at every opportunity. No disgrace going down to a rampant Celtic, especially having to play for around half an hour with a man short. There's little point going through every event on the park, suffice to say, we were second best and got away with some missed opportunities for Brendan Rodgers' side, but that's what you get at Parkhead. Tough shift for Inverness. Although it was a bad day at the office, the overall results were favourable and we retained our top-six status for now. As is the case for most teams visiting Parkhead, damage limitation is the first choice and I don't think we can be too vexed at going down 3-0. A couple of observations from RIG who was at the game. "The closest we came to a chance on goal was a free kick from Vigurs after Mulraney had been bundled over as he looked to break clear but I can barely remember us getting out of our half in the second 45". RIG picked out "Mckay as probably our best player (again) and I thought Polworth did well until his injury. Tansey and Vigurs were both poor in terms of their passing with Tansey especially slack at times. All in all, disappointing result but we can't realistically expect to complete with Celtic when they can start players like Dembele, Griffiths, Roberts and Sinclair". Fair enough RIG. Anyway, nothing to see here, big team beats wee team, move along please......... Date: 05/11/16 Venue: Celtic Park, Glasgow Attendance: 54152 Referee: Crawford Allan Celtic: 3 Lineup: Gordon; Lustig (Izaguirre 14), Simunovic, Sviatchenko, Armstrong, Brown (Bitton 61), McGregor, Griffiths, Roberts, Dembele (Rogic 69), Sinclair Subs (not used): De Vries, Gamboa, Christie, Forrest Scorers: Sinclair (48), Griffiths (63), Rogic (83) Booked: none Sent Off: none Inverness CT: 0 Lineup: Fon Williams, Horner, Warren, Meekings, McKay, Draper, Tansey, King (Mulraney 61), Vigurs, Polworth (Cole 77), Doumbouya (Fisher 61) Subs (not used): Mackay, Boden, Sutherland Scorers: none Booked: Tansey (43) Sent Off: Tansey (65)