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  1. Aberdeen only went and did it again didn't they!!!! 4 minutes into second half injury time Chris Maguire scored Aberdeen's 4th goal in a 4-3 win to keep their top 6 dreams alive and make it 17 games without a win against the Dons for ICT. This was a sickener for Caley Thistle in a game where the effort seemed to return to the players. This game had it all - 7 goals, 10 players booked, 2 sent off for off the pitch actions, and yet some excellent entertainment. Its been doom and gloom for the last few weeks but today's game, despite the last minute goal might have contained a glimmer of hope. Its bad for the defence to lose 4 goals, but there was effort, there were ICT goals, and there was entertainment... all things that had been missing in recent weeks. 29/03/08 Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, Inverness INVERNESS CALEDONIAN THISTLE 3 Bus (21 o.g.), Duncan (40), McBain (58) Team: Fraser, Tokely (Paatelainen 82), McGuire, Munro, Hastings, Proctor, Cowie, Duncan, McBain, Imrie (Hart 75), Niculae SUBS: Wyness, McAllister, Vigurs, Kerr, Malkowski ABERDEEN 4 Aluko (7), Nicholson (45), Miller (54), McGuire (94) Team: Soutar, Maybury, Considine, Bus (Maguire 46), McNamara, Foster, Nicholson, Severin, Aluko, Mackie (Duff 73), Miller SUBS: Pawlett, Walker, Touzani, Mair, Langfield Referee Dougie McDonald Attendance 5655 RIG: Just going to list various things I noticed or thought of during/after the game: Overall the game was poor in terms of the football played. Aberdeen seemed more likely to try and pass it but we were too reliant on hoofing the ball up the park as usual. However, there was some nice passing in places I felt. Our line up was odd. Not sure about Tokely in midfield really. He was caught out a lot by Aluko but stuck to his job well on most occasions. However, in our system the right midfielder needs to help cover back with our right sided full back and this he couldn't to due to this lack of pace and Proctor was often left exposed. The first Aberdeen goal was abysmal defending from Proctor, Tokely, Munro and McGuire. Far too easy for the lad to cut inside and stroke the ball past Fraser. Niculae being ball greedy! Why oh why did he not pick out Cowie all alone with an empty net in front if him? Worst decision by anyone of the entire 90 minutes. Odd goal to level with but we'll take it. I thought it was going to head out of play till Bus(s) arrived to smash a header into his own net. Duncans finish was a sweet strike and I believe his yellow for his celebration was incorrect however the highlights might clear this up as to what happened. Seemed that it was the reaction of Aberdeen players and fans that got him booked. Especially when you consider Nicholson celebrating in front of/baiting the ICT fans. Personally I think both should have been allowed but if MacDonald was to book Duncan then he should book Nicholson. It was a fantastic goal they equalised with but Hastings was too slow to close down and allowed Foster (?) too much time and space to pick out the runner into the box with McGuire static as Nicholson rose. Could Ikey have come for it? Cracking goal nonetheless but we made it easy. Duncans sending off - will be interesting to see just what he does with regards to "kicking the ball away" from MacDonald. Can't help but feel that there wasn't too much in it but we'll see (hopefully) in the highlights. Put us on the back foot for the 2nd half but we coped well under intense pressure at times though on other occasions we were falling apart. Seemed to galvanise the effort from the lads so that was appreciated given recent performances showing so little enthusiasm. Munro had a spectacular goal line clearance from Miller or Mackie I think it was. Miller then went on to miss an open goal as he sidefooted wide. More dodgy defending from us allowed this opportunity. Our free kicks at the edge of the box were atrocious. We had a horror one from Duncan against "Team X" but Imrie topped that yesterday with his one. Something we need to work on clearly. Any chance of Rankin giving the lads some pointers? Subs were interesting. I actually think the players he brought on were good - Hart added fresh legs and plenty of effort in the midfield and putting Marcus on retained our balance. However we could have used another pair of fresh legs in there to help us hold the ball up away from the goal. That's where Wyness came in. Players like McBain and Cowie were tiring badly although that's too be expected. We still looked a threat on the counter. Forced some corners and had a few reasonable efforts e.g. Marcus going for glory and I think Hart and Tokely both had breaks into the box that just failed to result in anything. Killer goal at the end where we just couldn't clear our lines and up popped Maguire to steal in to get the winner. Positives The sheer effort from the team was a huge positive and something we haven't seen in a long time. Some of the goals we scored were excellent I felt. I thought McBains goal was a great finish as it could so easily have got stuck under his feet (see Brown in the Rangers v Celtic game) Niculae was brilliant in holding the ball up and looking for the clever pass into space - no long ball mince here! Negatives The result obviously The possible lack of discipline from Duncan and Munro that resulted in the red cards The defence still needs a lot of work The fact that we were crying out for another pair of fresh legs to help take some of the heat off the lads towards the end was ignored FROM CTO Just back...traffic was shocking, much like our defending! However, I've been moaning about being bored at the last few games, and even though we lost that was an absolutely magnificent football match. We feared the worst after the Aberdeen opener, and at 3-2, but for the first time in months we had players out there who were sweating blood. Hundreds of fans stayed behind at the end to applaud the players off and they deserved it. Our third goal was a work of art as well - Niculae's one touch flick releases Cowie down the right, and his first time cross picks out McBain striding through the centre to score. Magic. POSITIVES Rossco - I was horrified by the decision to stick him on the right wing, and it took a while for him to settle there. But in the second half he was incredible. Had to be subbed because he looked like he would collapse from exhaustion. Roy McBain - also put in a magnificent shift second half, capped with a goal. Marius - simply a class act. Held up play well and set up so many of our attacks with clever flick on's. Hart - did well off the bench Brew - not his fault we lost. Tactically we were a bit better today, and the players gave everything second half. NEGATIVES Russell b***** Duncan - I think it is reasonable that your teammates receive a public apology. Whatever you got sent off for, you are an absolute moron. We're running out of central midfielders fast. Mind you, in his absence we looked twice the team we were. Phil McGuire - a wheelie bin would be more useful at centre-half. Utterly hopeless and a liability. Grant Munro - I don't care if the referee and standside linesman were completely incompetent (which they were) - if you were sent off after the game then you are a total idiot. Ian Black (or the absence of)- was apparently in the Heathmount while we were playing. Anyway, the best we've played in ages. At 3-3 we had at least as much chance of nicking it
  2. A humiliating 4-1 defeat today against Kilmarnock makes it 6 defeats in a row and 10 games without a win. The solitary win in 2008 came against freefalling Gretna in early January. Its time for changes at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium but will anyone have the balls to step up and make them...... 22/03/08 Rugby Park, Kilmarnock KILMARNOCK 4 Wright (38), Bryson (50, 56), Flannigan (64) Team: Combe, Lilley, Hay, Wright, Clancy, Fowler, Bryson, Flannigan, Taouil, Invincible, Fernandez SUBS: Di Giacamo, Wales, Hamill, Morgan, Johnston, O'Leary, Harpur INVERNESS CALEDONIAN THISTLE 1 Black (14pen) Team: Fraser, Tokely, McGuire, Munro, Proctor, Vigurs (Hart 62), Black, Duncan, McBain (Imrie 73), Bayne, Niculae (McAllister 77) SUBS: Cowie, Kerr, Hastings, Malkowski Referee Stephen Finnie Attendance 5100 tm4tj said: I did some hoovering, washed some dishes, picked the wife up from the shops, sat down and we had gone from 0-1 to 4-1. I almost left early, then I realised I was already at home.... From CTO: That long trip up the M77/A9 in the snow seems an awful lot harder when your team has just had a 4-1 pasting! I can't fault the team for effort. They tried but there was a big hole in front of the defenders which allowed Killie to run riot in the second half. Also, there seems to be an understandable lack of confidence with all the recent defeats and this was obvious in the last third of the field. Bursting forward from the halfway line didn't seem a problem but as soon as there was any pressure from the Killie defence, ideas would run out and the ball would be given away cheaply - again and again. My usual moan is that they are afraid to have a shot from distance but I couldn't fault them for that on this occasion (not that it happened often). There was a clear lack of cohesion today, set-pieces were wasted, second-half passing was atrocious and our team look like a mid-table First Division outfit struggling against better quality players in a genuine SPL team. As someone said above, we have made a habit of signing lower league players who will never be SPL standard. Can't fault the effort - just the quality is not there with a number of them. Our first half performance was reasonable though and I thought David Proctor had a very good first 45 minutes. We were doing fine before Christmas but I genuinely think all this contract signing hoo-haa has seriously affected team spirit and individual performances and has allowed certain players to think they are an awful lot better than they actually are. When these players have 26 caps for their country then I will understand why they should be holding out for a similar deal to the one Marius Niculae has. On the positive side - I was really impressed with the Rugby Park stadium (my first visit there). I thought the Killie folk (including the stewards) were really friendly. And the Killie pies ARE indeed as good as they are hyped up to be. I also had a chat with Jim Jeffries when he stopped to give my wee fella an autograph. He most definitely rates as one of the nicest and most pleasant guys I have ever met in football - a real gentleman!! Resident analyst Alternative Maryhill said: Amazed A96 managed to draw any positives out of that at all. It was deeply humiliating. We were just about passable in the first half, but having said that, we looked like we were playing a team even lower in confidence than us. Killie looked tentative whenever they had the ball. There was a bit of luck about their equaliser, but the moment their second went in it just felt like that they, their fans and our fans knew we were there for the taking. After 4 it looked like it was going to be 6 or 7. I have to disagree with the comment about not being able to fault the players for effort too - I didn't see too many throwing themselves into tackles, chasing every 50-50 and looking determined to rescue the game. McBain seemed to be hiding and I don't recall Bayne, surprisingly, doing much chasing back. Duncan set himself new standards for the ineptitude of his passing. Niculae and Black, as usual, started brightly and looked inventive but by half time had been dragged into the mediocrity of it all. Still wouldn't have subbed Niculae, but as the whole occasion was characterised by tactical idiocy from Mr Brewster, at least he was being consistent when he hooked Marius. Just three examples of Brewster's cretinous tactics: 1. If anyone can explain to me the wisdom of dropping Cowie and forcing Tokely, in effect, to have to run the entire length of the touchline for the whole game, I'd be happy to listen. Tokely did fight for the shirt yesterday, but he's too one-dimensional going forward to bring any real invention, and we did look exposed at the back. This 3-5-2 thing stops working when you're behind and both having to defend and trying to get goals back - all you end up with is knackered wide players who are neither fish nor fowl. 2. Why put Vigurs into a team which is already so low on confidence? There's no way he was going to make a significant difference. At times yesterday he looked quite classy on the ball and certainly looked like he was trying to make passes, but there didn't seem to be anyone really looking for it. Hiding, as I said earlier. If we had to change things, and we did, yesterday was surely a day for players with some experience but something to prove - Hart (who at least showed the right attitude when he did get on), Markus, Dennis. 3. Can anyone point to an occasion when the Bayne - Niculae partnership has been an unqualified success? I've not been to any home games this season so I may have missed occasions when they looked good together, but I've never seen it and it certainly isn't working now. The best performances I've seen this season have all, to my recollecton, had Marius partnering Wyness up front and Rankin wide left. So why not go back to tha... oh, I forgot. We can't. Because you sold Rankin and you've effectively pushed Wyness out of the club. Nice one. The second half was, I think, in 12 or 13 years of attending games, the most spineless and depressing performance I've witnessed from a Caley side, and that includes the Morton and Airdrie circuses mentioned by Arbroath Awayday. That bad. Don't know if there's any point in getting shot of CB now, purely because I don't see a replacement and it would be folly to panic and stick any old applicant in, but the thought of him still being here next season makes me shudder and relegation, on yesterday's evidence and given the recent travesties in man-management, would be highly likely.
  3. Caley Thistle lose to an 86th minute Billy Clarke goal in a game that could certainly not be described as a classic. That's still only 1 win in 2008 for the Caley Jags and if Gretna go to the wall before the end of the season, that solitary win might even be expunged from the records !!! 15/03/08 Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, Inverness INVERNESS CT 0 Team: Fraser, Tokely, Munro, McGuire, Hastings, Duncan, Black, Cowie (McAllister 80), McBain (Imrie 80), Niculae, Wyness (Bayne 53) Subs: Proctor, Kerr, Vigurs, Malkowski FALKIRK 1 Clarke (86) Team: Olejnik, Aafjes, Scobbie, Barr, Milne, Cregg (Riera 57), McBride, Arfield, Moutinho (Clarke 70), Barrett, Finnigan (Latapy 57) Subs: Bradley, Stewert, Ross, Supple Referee Calum Murray Attendance 4012 ICT’s wretched run of form continued unabated as Billy Clarke‘s late strike gave visitors Falkirk a deserved win. The visitors had to work rather harder for a victory than Hearts did a fortnight ago, but otherwise there were few positives for Craig Brewster to find after yet another lukewarm, passionless performance. Caley had only a single victory, against Gretna, to show for their first ten matches of 2008 and Brewster reverted to a 4-4-2 after the defeat to the Jambos two weeks previously. Dennis Wyness and Roy McBain were recalled, with Dougie Imrie dropped to the bench and Markus Paatelainen left out of the matchday squad altogether. Falkirk, meanwhile, continued with the same eleven that drew with Motherwell in their last match, with John Hughes continuing to go with an attacking triumvirate of Moutinho, Barrett and Finnigan. Under the backdrop of a clear blue sky and some unseasonable warmth, it was the Bairns who dominated possession throughout the opening period, with Hughes clearly upset that his side, clearly missing the injured Michael Higdon, had few chances to show for it. Carl Finnigan had the best of them, but his stabbed effort from six yards was blocked by a spread-eagled Michael Fraser when a corner caused chaos in Caley’s box. The first forty-five minutes followed a familiar pattern, with Falkirk given licence to knock the ball about and Inverness happy to sit deep and soak up pressure. Robert Olejnik was briefly called into action to turn a Niculae shot round the post, though the shot was drifting wide anyway. That was the exception, though, as the Austrian keeper saw very little action in a first half best described as uninspiring. The only thing the sides had to show for their stalemate was a bit of a suntan. Half Time: 0-0 Unfortunately for the increasingly frustrated home support, there was little change in proceedings after the break, leading both managers to make early substitutions; Caley hooking Wyness for Graham Bayne and Falkirk replacing Cregg and Finnigan with Latapy and Riera. Caley finally found some impetus, with Bayne inches away from reaching McBain’s ball across goal, then somehow managing to head wide from six yards while unmarked. Ultimately, though, it was the introduction by Falkirk of their veteran Trinidadian schemer that decided the game. Caley threw on McAllister and Imrie as they looked to nick the win, but instead got caught on the break. Receiving the ball in the centre circle, Latapy waltzed through the Caley defence, dummied Phil McGuire with a lovely body swerve, and squared the ball for another substitute, Billy Clarke to tap home for his first goal for Falkirk. Clarke was booked for over celebrating, but his delight was understandable with the three points keeping his side in the driving seat for a top six place. In the remaining four minutes Caley never looked like grabbing an unlikely equaliser, and the home support vented their fury at another dour, pointless performance with a cacophony of boos at the final whistle. Full Time: 0-1 They now head to Rugby Park next week with any hopes of finishing in the top half well and truly extinguished, and aware that their campaign is now increasingly in freefall.
  4. Inverness Caledonian Thistle were deserving losers in what has to be one of the worst performances they have ever put together since joining the SPL. The display on the park today was so bad it was verging on the comical and at times it was hard to know whether to laugh or cry. 0-3 going on 0-6 and we had nothing to respond with. 01/03/08 Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, Inverness INVERNESS CT 0 Team: Fraser, Tokely, McGuire, Munro, Hastings, Cowie (McAllister 83), Black (Proctor 73), Paatelainen (Wyness 46), Duncan, Imrie, Niculae Subs: Vigurs, McBain, Kerr, Malkowski HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN 3 Karipidis (22), Elliot (33, 47) Team: Banks, Neilson, Karipidis, Berra, Wallace, Jonsson, Palazuelos, Driver (Ivaskevicius 64), Mikoliunas (Screpis 72), Nade (Beniusis 84), Elliot Subs: Glen, Tall, Zalukas, Ridgers Referee Alan Freeland Attendance 4489 With only one win under our belt since Craig Brewster and Marius Niculae picked up Manager and Player of the month awards you could be forgiven for thinking that our demise is some kind of sick conspiracy. ICT seem to be on self-destruct and nobody seems to know what to do other than watch as the clock tics away!!! Recent results against Hibs and Celtic weren’t the best, but at least the team showed some willingness to fight and attempt to battle back in those matches, but against Hearts it was an entirely different kettle of fish. We got off to not too bad a start and were the ones applying pressure to Hearts in the first 20 minutes, albeit it phases and without much in the way of an end product. The only shot I can remember going in the direction of the goal was Duncan around the 15 minute mark, but even that sailed harmlessly high over the bar. We weren’t playing brilliant football, but we seemed to be edging it over what looked like an equally mediocre Hearts team….that was until the 22nd minute. Hearts won a corner and Driver delivered a high ball in to the middle of the box which Fraser looked to be coming to collect with ease, but for some reason he stopped and decided to back pedal towards his line giving Karipidis all the time in the world to pick his spot and head the ball in to the back of the net. This was the moment when the wheels really fell off for ICT, our midfield started to sit so deep they had the defence in their back pockets and even when we did manage to avoid tripping over each other and get the ball up the park, we had nobody to keep it there and it came straight back at us. The only time our midfield seemed willing to cross the half way line was when Fraser was taking a goal kick. To rub salt in the wounds, Referee (I use the word in it’s loosest form) Alan Freeland seemed to be making it up as he was going along. Despite Mikoliunas diving about like the Sugar Plum Faerie for most of the game it wasn’t until he tried to break the legs of Hastings that he caught the refs attention…and even then he got a yellow card for what was clearly a dangerous challenge and would have seen any other ref give a red without hesitation. On the few occasions we did push forward we were slow to get back and defend once we gave up possession and that was a regular occurrence during this match. Hearts second goal, and the first for Elliot in 2 years came when ICT were caught napping. We had lost possession on the left and failed to break down a run on the right before the ball was played down the line to Nade. Nade then made it look like he was out for a stroll in the park as he nutmegged Munro, stepped over a fresh air challenge by Duncan and then cut the ball back past McGuire who had left Elliot standing alone in the middle of the box….0-2 Hearts. The best efforts for Caley Thistle came towards the end of the first half when Niculae was unfortunate not to have stuck 2 half efforts away to level the scoring. The first chance came from a cross ball deep in to the box, but it was a little too high for Niculae to get above it to head it done and he nodded it over. The second chance saw Niculae again make a break deep in to the box as Tokely crossed the ball from the right. Niculae stuck out a leg, but the ball took a bounce and even at full stretch he couldn’t get enough on it to put it in to the net. 2 Goals down at half-time, but a glimmer of hope that we could actually create something up front and might be able to come back in to this if we could send out the real Caley Thistle team for the second half. For the first time I can remember in long enough, we actually made a tactically sound substitution at half time. Half Time: 0-2 Paatelainen made way for Wyness to give us 2 strikers up front. It wasn’t long before all hopes of a comeback were dashed though and on 47 minutes Black made the biggest error of the game. He attempted to pass the ball back through a crowd of players to Fraser, but he failed to get enough on the ball and it forced the Caley Jags goalkeeper to come out to the edge of his area to make the challenge. He was first to the ball but failed to clear it and was slow to get back to his line….this gave Elliot time to pick himself up off the ground and float the ball over the sauntering Fraser to make it 0-3 for Hearts. At this stage most of the team seemed to give up, even those who might have been accused of putting in some effort just weren’t bothering and the only people who seemed to be playing with any passion were Niculae and Tokely…we hadn’t exactly been peppering the Hearts goal, but for the bulk of the second half nobody seemed to be interested in having a go, even from distance. Freeland’s catalogue of ridiculous decisions continued to grow when he failed to book Mikolionas for diving, even after gesturing that is what he had done and telling him to get up. He also produced his card from his pocket in another tussle, but seemed to change his mind after much remonstrating from the Hearts players. The most bizarre decision of all came when the nearside linesman made what felt like the first correct decision of the game in awarding ICT a corner, only for Freeland to overrule it and give the goal kick. In all honesty, the poor refereeing had no effect on the outcome, but it’s no wonder other teams don’t want Freeland officiating their matches when you see such a poor and incompetent display as that…it really was a performance of the lowest order. Rory McAllister replaced Don Cowie on 83 minutes and showed that he was at least hungry to prove himself and win a starting place in the team on a more regular basis. A late drive from 25 yards would have had the Hearts Keeper beaten but it inched narrowly over the bar to put an end to what should have been a more comprehensive loss. Full Time: 0-3 “I Believe” is the adopted motto of the ICT fans, and they tried their hardest to lift the team throughout the match, but it becomes difficult when it is obvious to all that the team have lost belief and that the Manager and ICT Board are making decisions which are having a serious negative effect on the performances on the park.
  5. Caley Thistle could not end their winless streak that now stretches to seven games, but on the plus side, this was not a capitulation in the same manner as the last two games. Unlike previous games where certain players appeared to just be going through the motions, the Caley Jags fought hard to get back into this game and almost succeeded. After holding out for most of the first half, the Caley Jags went in at the break down by a goal after Scott McDonald scored on the stroke of half-time. On the hour mark, Samaras extended the Celtic lead but Caley Thistle fought back with a goal from Marius Niculae with 20 minutes to go. Despite several good chances, the equaliser wouldn't come but it was a far better performance than recent games. 27/02/08 Celtic Park, Glasgow CELTIC 2 McDonald (45), Samaras (61) Team: Boruc, Hinkel, Caldwell, McManus, Naylor, Nakamura, Donati, S. Brown, McGeady, McDonald (Killen 83), Samaras Subs: Hartley, Riordan, Sno, Robson, O'Dea, M. Brown INVERNESS CT 1 Niculae (70) Team: Fraser, Tokely, Munro, McGuire, Hastings, Cowie, Black (McBain 78), Duncan, Imrie, Paatelainen (Wyness 78), Niculae Subs: Vigurs, Kerr, Proctor, Gillespie, Malkowski Referee William Collum Attendance 56787 Ian Black made his 100th appearance for Caley Thistle in this game but Craig Brewster did have an enforced change with Graham Bayne dropping out through injury and he was replaced by Markus Paatelainen. Former Caley Thistle and Dundee United midfielder Barry Robson was on the bench for Celtic. Caley Thistle started with a 4-5-1 formation that has become familiar throughout parts of this season and were forced to soak up enormous amounts of pressure in the first half as Mike Fraser performed heroics in the ICT box. Donati was the first with a shot from the edge of the box in 8 minutes that Fraser held well, then Samaras twice went close either side of the 20 minute mark with a 15 then a 20 yard drive and in 28 minutes McGeady came close with an effort that Fraser caught at the second attempt with McDonald nearby. A minute later and it was Nakamura who shot wide of the post. All this before Caley Thistle had even had a sniff of a chance. However, as the half wore on, Caley Thistle did manage to get a little further forward. In 31 minutes Niculae made a break, found Paatelainen who in turn found Imrie but the recent signing could only put it wide. Imrie had another chance just before the break when an Ian Black free kick was headed back across the box but his volley went over the bar. Right on the stroke of half-time Celtic took the lead. Hinkel was fouled on the right by Paatelainen and from the resultant free-kick, Nakamura fired in a dangerous ball. His kick was met by the head of McDonald on the six yard line and Fraser had no chance at stopping him scoring his 25th goal of the season. Half Time: 1-0 Into the second half and Celtic went looking for the goal that would kill the game off. The first effort came in 51 minutes when Samaras hit the post but it was the same player who would extend the lead on the hour mark courtesy of some good work by Aiden McGeady. He beat a couple of players on the left then curled a cross into the box. Samaras was there to bullet the header past Fraser. 2-0 Caley Thistle got back into the game in the 70th minute through Marius Niculae with an assist from the Celtic defence. Scott Brown made a poor pass across his box that was pounced on by Niculae and he curled an excellent effort past Boruc. 2-1 From then on in, Caley Thistle tried hard to get an equaliser but it just wouldn't come. In 87 minutes Wyness came agonisingly close when his curling effort just went past the post and despite a late flurry of corners and free-kicks for ICT the ball didn't find its way into the net. Full Time: 2-1 A disappointing defeat but a lot of heart to be taken from this match as the Caley Jags once again looked like a team who were giving 100%. Lets hope that continues.
  6. In midweek against Motherwell, the game was lost in the first 10 minutes. Caley Thistle's slump in form over the last few weeks helped them to go one better today and cut the time taken to lose a match to only five minutes !!! Despite a better effort in the second half, the 3rd minute goal from Nish and 5th minute goal from Fletcher were enough to seal all three points in a game where the Caley Thistle attack was as effective as a marshmallow carving knife. 23/02/08 Easter Road, Edinburgh HIBERNIAN 2 Nish (3), Fletcher (5) Team: Ma-Kalambay, Gathuessi, Hogg, Jones, Zarabi (Hanlon 85), Beuzelin, Rankin, Zemmama (Morais 65), Nish, Shiels (Murray 75), Fletcher Subs: Chisholm, Kerr, Canning, McNeil INVERNESS CT 0 Team: Fraser, Tokely, Munro, McGuire, Hastings, Cowie, Black, Duncan (Paatelainen 72), Imrie, Bayne, Niculae Subs: Wyness, McAllister, Vigurs, McBain, Kerr, Malkowski Referee Kenny Clark Attendance 12552 Difficult to know what to make of this weeks game. Despite the fact that the CaleyJags were the first on the stats sheet with a shot on goal which came from a Bayne Volley from the edge of the box which had to be pushed wide it was Hibs who were to get on the score sheet first….and second. With Colin Nish and Steven Fletcher putting Hibernian 2 goals ahead within the first 5 minutes it was tempting to head back to the pub. Both goals were one on one and Shiels looked certain to add a third and probably would have had he not tried to nutmeg Michael Fraser when he had the entire goalmouth to aim at. There’s been a lot of rumour about tension in the ranks and you could have been mistaken for believing every word of it having watched the first 10 minutes of this game. It was a nightmare start, but Caley Thistle somehow managed to get themselves composed and started to come on to a game as Hibs looked to sit back. We had loads of corners and plenty scrambles on the goal line but somehow we always needed a touch too many and none of us really believed we would ever score. Delivery was dreadful from dead balls, usually over hit. The conditions weren’t ideal, the wind was making it difficult to play accurate balls in to the area and at one point it looked like we might need to call for someone to stick a finger on the ball to allow Imrie to take a corner as the ball kept getting blown away. Added to this, the pitch seemed to cut up really early which meant that the ball was bobbling everywhere. As the saying goes “it’s the same for both teams”, but with Hibs managing to get a couple of goals on the board early, they really had given themselves that extra advantage. Half Time: 2-0 Hibs were just as bad as us a lot of the time and their fans got restless in the second half, there were even a few boos. Hibs just had more quality than us and those wee shouts you heard were Bayne asking if somebody could get him out of Jones' back pocket….he was battling hard but winning very little. If Marius had Fletcher or even Nish alongside him instead of Bayners we would probably have won it. That's without mentioning Shiels, Beuzelin and Zemmama. For me, Niculae was our best player on the day. He put in a good shift and chased back. I would also give Rossco, Black and Fraser pass marks. Cowie did OK too, and with a little more service he may have found the net - A couple of times he was wide in space and screaming for it and nobody had the vision, or maybe he's got leprosy!!! Marcus did OK when he came on. Imrie looked like he's off the pace for the SPL, though I must say against St Mirren he looked star quality. It’s a pity Proctor is still out injured as I would like to see him replace Tokely at right back and Tokely replace McGuire in the middle alongside Munro. We did have plenty of chances but they always fell to the wrong man or just resulted in the ball bouncing about in a crowded penalty box. Russell will have to hope no big Scandinavians were at the game. Did a lot of chasing and mopping up as usual, but his passes were far more over the place than normal. Just sign it Russell, while it's still on the table. Best moment for us was the chant of 'there's only one John Rankin' after he nearly sliced it into his own net. P.S. - To the young blonde lassie who got a surprise comp in her hand at 5 to 3, I know you were trying to pass me your mobile no but it's OK, really...lol
  7. Caley Thistle's 500th senior game ended in defeat as Motherwell ran out 3-1 winners at Fir Park. 2-0 down after only 10 minutes, Caley Thistle had an uphill struggle to get back into the game but despite Don Cowie's 19th minute goal, it was not to be. There were plenty of talking points in this game - from tactics and team selection to a "stonewall" penalty claim near the end. 20/02/08 Fir Park, Motherwell MOTHERWELL 3 Clarkson (7,42), Porter (10) Team: G Smith, Quinn, Craigan, Reynolds, Hammell, D Smith (Lappin 53), Lasley, Fitzpatrick, Clarkson, McCormack (Maguire 73), Porter (J Murphy 89) Subs: McLean, D Murphy, Archdeacon, Daniels INVERNESS CT 1 Cowie (19) Team: Fraser, Tokely, Munro, fMcGuire, Hastings, Duncan, McBain (Paatelainen 76), Cowie, Imrie (Black 76), Wyness, Bayne Subs: Watt, McAllister, Kerr, Vigurs, Malkowski Referee John Underhill Attendance 4526 Manager Craig Brewster made two changes to the side that had managed a 1-1 draw with Dundee United. Out went Marius Niculae and Ian Black with Dennis Wyness and Graham Bayne replacing them. Russell Duncan made his 250th ICT appearance in this game. Motherwell started brightly and within 10 minutes had established a 2-0 lead. A couple of early chances came to nothing but in 7 minutes Ross McCormack found David Clarkson in the box with a pass and he took a touch before sending a powerful shot past Fraser. Three minutes later it was number two, this time down the left. Stevie Hammell crossed to the back post and Chris Porter was there to head home his 13th of the season. Caley Thistle at this stage were not in the game at all and further chances fell to Motherwell with McCormack, Porter and Clarkson combining to run the Caley Jags ragged. The only bright spot for Caley Thistle up to this point was a Don Cowie effort that had gone well wide but in 19 minutes he was to get one on target well and truly against the run of play. A flick from Wyness fell just nicely for him and he blasted a dipping, swerving shot past the helpless Graeme Smith from 25 yards. 2-1 The game was a little more open after this but Motherwell were definitely in the ascendency and in 25 minutes Mike Fraser did well to get down and push away a Ross McCormack effort that looked goal-bound. It all went pear-shaped again in 41 minutes when the ever impressive David Clarkson got his second and Motherwell's third. A corner was floated in by Hammell and headed out of defence but it only got as far as Clarkson on the edge of the box and he volleyed it into the roof of the net giving Fraser no chance. Caley Thistle almost got one back immediately through Dougie Imrie as play raged to the other end but Smith got the better of him in a one-on-one situation and Dennis Wyness couldn't connect with the rebound. Half Time: 3-1 The second half started brightly, with Porter hitting the bar just 30 seconds after the restart and a couple of minutes later, Ross Tokely heading the ball onto the junction of post and bar from a Don Cowie corner with the keeper well beaten. In 51 minutes, Caley Thistle hit the bar again. This time it was Grant Munro getting on the end of another Don Cowie corner. The first half, and the early stages of the second half were full of pace and action, but inevitably, when that happens things eventually slow right down and so they did. As the pace of the game dropped, so it seemed did Caley Thistle's chance to come back into it. In fact, one of the few highlights of the second half was the substitution of the referee. John Underhill was injured and 4th official Frank McDermott had to take over in 75 minutes. McDermott didn't have a lot to do but did have a moment of controversy five minutes from the end. In what looked like a stonewall penalty claim, Duncan went down in the box but the referee waved away the claims and the game fizzled out without any further action. Full Time: 3-1
  8. Midfielder Markus Paatelainen came off the bench to grab a late equalizer for Caley Thistle. A match of few chances appeared to be heading in the visitors’ favour, after Prince Buaben struck midway through the second period but the home side managed to nick a point when the Finnish midfielder struck with only six minutes left on the clock. 16/02/08 Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, Inverness INVERNESS CT 1 Paatelainen (84) Team: Fraser, Tokely, McGuire, Munro, Hastings, Cowie, Black (Paatelainen 80), Duncan, McBain, Niculae (Bayne 61), Imrie Subs: McAllister, Vigurs, Kerr, Watt, Malkowski DUNDEE UTD 1 Buaben (68) Team: Zaluska, Dillon, Kenneth, Wilkie, Grainger, Flood (Swanson 58), Kerr, Buaben, Gomis, O'Brien, De Vries (Hunt 46) Subs: Odhiambo, Conway, Robertson, Dods, McLean Referee Stephen Finnie Attendance 4087 Craig Brewster made two changes for the clash with his former side, with Douglas Imrie making his first start and Phil McGuire returning from suspension to compensate for the loss of the injured David Proctor. Imrie was preferred to Dennis Wyness, conspicuously absent from the bench, in a 4-5-1 formation. Craig Levein, meanwhile, clearly felt the need to freshen things up after the midweek cup defeat by St. Mirren, making five changes, the most notable being the decision to leave ex-Caley skipper Darren Dods on the bench, with Garry Kenneth partnering Lee Wilkie in defence. United also relegated Noel Hunt and David Robertson to the substitutes, with Mark De Vries partnered up front by winger Jim O’Brien. It was the home side who started brightest on a cold, icy afternoon in the Highlands, as first Ian Black fired high and wide, and then Don Cowie raced clear but pulled his shot wide of the post. Unfortunately, this proved to be the best chance of an opening period that could be only be described as mediocre, as neither team proved capable of keeping or using the ball, and the match descended into a midfield scrap. Cowie had another half-chance, shooting straight at Zaluska in the United goal, while Michael Fraser was required to make two fairly routine stops from long range Prince Buaben efforts. Caley got little joy in the crowded midfield area, with only Imrie offering a spark with some darting, incisive runs, while Marius Niculae was left isolated and lonely up front for much of the half. Half Time: 0-0 It was United who attempted to change things, bringing on Hunt at the interval for the ineffectual, and possibly injured, De Vries. And though the second half began in much the same vein as the first, it was the Irishman’s tenacity which broke the deadlock, as he side-stepped Ian Black and fired a low ball across the face of goal for Ghanaian midfielder Buaben to tap in. By this point, Caley had tried to find a spark of their own, bringing off Niculae and replacing him with Graham Bayne. Bayne brought a save out of Zaluska with a tame half-volley, while Imrie then had an effort deflected past the post. However, with his side looking impotent in their search for a goal, Brewster threw on Paatelainen for Black and the move paid quick dividends, the leggy Finn latching onto a Roy McBain pass and lashing the ball into the top of the net with time running out. Having looked comfortable, United were rocked and suddenly looked vulnerable as Caley looked for the winner. Don Cowie nearly provided it, his late lob catching Zaluska off his line, but Kenneth headed clear the danger. Full Time: 1-1 In the end, it would have been harsh, for this was a game where the draw was very much the right result.
  9. Club captain Grant Munro was the hero of the game for Caley Thistle. He scored the club's 1000th competitive goal and generally had a very solid game. Unfortunately however, one was not enough, and the points were shared when Billy Mehmet scored a late goal for the home side. With other results going Caley Thistle's way, this point was enough to take ICT into the top six. 09/02/08 Love Street, Paisley ST MIRREN 1 Mehmet (74) Team: Smith, Van Zanten, Barron, Potter, Maxwell, Murray, Dorman, McGinn (Hamilton 65), Corcoran, Dargo, Mehmet Subs: Kean, McCay, Brady, Millen, Miranda, Howard INVERNESS CT 1 Munro (28) Team: Fraser, Tokely, Proctor (Imrie 46), Munro, Hastings, Cowie, Black, Duncan, McBain, Niculae, Wyness (Wilson 76) Subs: Bayne, Vigurs, Rennie, Kerr, Malkowski Referee Calum Murray Attendance 3609 Elimination from the Scottish Cup at the first hurdle and inclement weather meant that Caley Thistle had endured a 20 day lay-off before this game at Love Street. It had also meant that the elusive search for the 1000th competitive goal that was so nearly achieved against Gretna on the 5th January had now stretched to 35 days.... A win was not the end result in this game, but goal number 1000 did come and it was perhaps fitting that it fell to an unlikely hero, but one who epitomises Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Manager Craig Brewster made only one change to the side that was defeated by Rangers on 20th January with Dennis Wyness coming back into the side at the expense of Markus Paatelainen. Of note on the subs bench were places for new signing Dougie Imrie and also 16 year old midfielder Connor Rennie who is currently making a name for himself in the U19 team. In the St Mirren side was Andy Dorman, a recent signing from New England Revolution in North America's Major League Soccer, and also a man who needed no introduction to the Caley Thistle faithful - Craig Dargo. Dargo has struggled with injury since moving to the Buddies and has still to score his first goal for the club. Fortunately for ICT, come the end of this game, his duck would still be intact despite valiant efforts that saw him called back for offside numerous times during the match. Dennis Wyness had the first chance for ICT early in the game when Potter misjudged a long ball but Dennis Wyness, in the box, and with only the keeper to beat spun the ball well wide. Ian Black then had a go, forcing a good save from Smith before Don Cowie tried his luck in 21 minutes with a free kick that the keeper fumbled. In 26 minutes, Dennis Wyness had another chance but again Smith got down to the shot and turned it out for a corner. Goal number 1000 came from the resultant corner. It was whipped in by Don Cowie, Wyness headed it down to Munro and he took a touch before hammering it into the net for his first of the season, and goal number 1000 for Caley Thistle. How fitting that the club captain, a player with ICT since he was a raw youngster, and the first real product of the ICT youth system scored the landmark goal. Half Time: 0-1 David Proctor had been struggling with a suspected hamstring injury before half-time and was replaced by Dougie Imrie at the break. This meant a bit of a reshuffle for the Caley Jags with Richard Hastings moving into the centre half role he has been playing for Canada recently, Roy McBain covering the left back position, and Imrie taking his place on the left of midfield. Imrie had a chance in 58 minutes but his weak shot was easily held by Smith. St Mirren however were beginning to come more into the game and goal hero Munro was spending more and more time being defensive hero Munro, marshalling his defence and stopping Maxwell and Dargo from getting clear chances although he did get booked for a challenge on Dargo. If Caley Thistle looked like scoring after piling on the pressure in the first half, St Mirren were looking the more likely in the second and in 74 minutes their hard work paid off with an equaliser. Former Ross County player Ian Maxwell crossed the ball into the box and it found the head of Craig Dargo. He headed it back across goal and it fell to Jim Hamilton who blasted it goalward. Mike Fraser produced an excellent save to deny Hamilton but the ball broke for Billy Mehmet who blasted it home from 12 yards. Both sides had chances to score the winner, with Barry Wilson coming closest. He fired just over the bar from the edge of the box after a Niculae cross with only four minutes to go. In the end it finished 1-1 and the points were shared. Full Time: 1-1 Goal number 1000 is out of the way, and the point took Caley Thistle into the top 6 if only temporarily. Fan Comments: The fan comments for this game come from the "Immortal Howden Ender" in his usual inimitable style, and including his patented "smileyometer"..... Well perhaps I was expecting too much. After a long lay off I was looking forward to three points and the feeling akin to watching a firework display - not a momentous firework display just an average - a few colourful roman candles and some classy rockets - well I got a few sparklers - one rocket from Granty - and a load of damp squibs. Jim Duffy described it as a surprisingly entertaining game - perhaps that was fer the neutrals - but I found it dull, uninspiring and down right frustrating. The first half felt like it was being played at half pace - almost a training game - we seldom looked troubled apart from two defensive errors - Royster and Proc - but despite being the better side we never really pushed forward. Why we didn't up the pace when we went 1-0 up is a mystery - they were there fer the taking. And what "system" were we playing in the first half - was it 4-3-3 or was it 4-3-1-2 0r was it 4-1-2-1-2. I am going to get pelters again but it looked as if we were playing a system around Marius - again. It appeared that Marius and Cowie were interlinking with Marius trying to come deeper and Cowie looking to go forwards. We also seemed hell bent on hoofing the ball to Marius or Wyness - that simply doesn't work. Why didn't we paly the ball on the ground and wide (like we did with Bazza on) and played to Cowie's strengths?!! I also have to say that again there was the aura of "togetherness" missing - they all played as professionals but apart from celebrating Granty's goal "team spirit" was dulled to say the least - and a few verbal spats going on - mostly involving Niculae. To be fair the loss of Proctor appeared to affect our "system" and the Buddies came firing out of the traps and their goal came after 10-15 minutes of constant pressure. We were lucky to come away with a point in the end. And again I would have taken on Bazza earlier, and Bayne as well fer Niculae. Bazza played wide right and we looked for him or Petrie every time - why didn't we do that with Cowie? In the first half we seemed obsessed with the hoof - and not under pressure - or playing it left !! They took on Hamilton and played him up front with Dargo and Mehmet - we could have and should have capitalised on that - but we retreated the line and played into their hands - until Bazza came on - plus our final ball or attempt at goal - apart from the late Bazza volley - were always poor. ***Starometer for today*** FRASER**** Nowt really to do in the first half but earned his wage in the second half - when he was Davy feckin Crockett at the Alamo - I thought he was really unlucky with the goal - have also to say that his distribution was very good. ROSSCOE ***** My MotM - he usually doesn't play his best at Love Street but he appeared to react very positively to the almost constant baiting from the junkies. He won every header from dead ball situations, he put in a few shuddering fair tackles, he usually tried to play the ball to feet and got forward a lot in the last 20 minutes. HASTINGS **** Thought he did well both at full back and at centre back - in fact better at centre back. Ok his distribution is usually a hoof but he certainly mixed it with Mehmet and Hamilton. GRANTY **** What a feckin well deserved and fitting goal. Solid game as ever but the hoofing got on my nerves. PROCTOR *** Relatively unrattled and dose try to play the ball out of defence properly. May have been his injury but a bad error almost let Dargo in for the equaliser just on half time. Lad hasnt got much luck - every time he looks like earning a run summat happens to him. COWIE *** What the feck are we doing to him tactically. He appeared to be played as Niculae's "legs" yesterday and that effectively took him out of the game. Why didnt we paly him wide right in Bazza mode from the start ?? And he came into his own when he moved inside and Bazza went right. Cowie is beginning to look more and more like a good striker - his pace would be a big bonus and he can score goals. DUNCAN *** Quieter than usual but was stuck in front of the defence for most of the game. Some of his passing was woeful again. BLACK **** 110% again and the one player who appeared to have the flair to create. But most of the time that he got the ball his choice of passes forward were limited. ROYSTER *** Given a lot of the ball in the first half - did OK but he is not a "winger", a crosser or a flair player - did OK at left back but caught out positionally at times. NICULAE *** To be fair that was his best game that I have watched but he is still a luxury away from home and was generally ineffective. He worked his socks off when he had to, he won his fair share in the air and some of his first touch lay offs were nice to the eye. His cushioned header for the Bazza volley was class. But sorry - we are still playing around him and his lack of pace and movement are shocking. He got in two shots but a player with more pace would have got them on target - plus why did he need a touch for the perfect 22yard free kick for a left footer. Not much more that I can say as playing him away from home just has to be contractual. DENZIL ** Bad day at the office but not helped by his front role. IMHO he should have been the one playing deeper. BAZZA **** That was a substitution just crying to be made and was just too late. He comes on and we start playing with width - why? IMRIE *** 45 minutes is not enuff to pass real comment. Suffice to say that he looks raw and off the SPL pace but he has a nice touch, looks pacey, determined and strong plus he looks as if he can defend as well - his left foot looks a la Rankin. Needs a run in the team - probably as a replacement for Royster. Our new Ultras were promising "singers" and two of my protégés even managed to get chucked out due to OTT stewarding.
  10. Second half substitute Jean Claude Darcheville popped up in the final minute to grab all three points for Rangers in front of a new record crowd at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium. Caley Thistle looked to have weathered the storm, including seeing a Charlie Adam "goal" chalked off for offside, but the last minute kick in the teeth means that Rangers have taken 9 points out of 9 from ICT this season. 20/01/08 Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, Inverness Inverness CT 0 Team: Fraser, Tokely, Proctor, Munro, Hastings, Cowie, Black, Duncan, McBain, Paatelainen (Wilson 69), Niculae Subs: Wyness, Bayne, Gillespie, Vigurs, Duff, Malkowski Rangers 1 Darcheville (89) Team: McGregor, Whittaker, Cuellar, Weir, Papac, Burke, Ferguson, Hemdani, Adam, Naismith (Darcheville 46), Cousin (Novo 75) Subs: Boyd, Lennon, McMillan, Broadfoot, Smith Referee Charlie Richmond Attendance 7753 FIRST HALF We are playing a 4-2-2-1-1 - Black and Duncan sat in behind the defence - Patti wide left - Roy wide RIGHT - Cowie (in a Rankin type role) almost in the hole behind Niculae. Thankfully Rangers are also playing a 4-5-1 system which is right up our street. The main danger is Burke who has obviously been tasked to test Rosscoe - and he is having some success. Hastings appears to have a grip on Naismith and with Granty man to man marking Cousin - Proctor is able to cover for Rosscoe. Both teams are playing on the counter attack and both are playing a high line and an offside trap. - to a neutral this half must have been so boring. Rangers are sluggish but we are tactically out manoeuvring them - so far. Patti (24) and Cowie (26) got in behind but McGregor got there first on both occasions. The first shot/header on target was Cousin on 27 but Fraser saved well. McBain showed his skill when he tried to chip McGregor on 38 and Duncan smashed the ball well over in the 42nd just after Fraser had saved well from Whittaker. At the moment we look surprisingly comfortable but I can see Walter hooking Naismith and putting Darcheville on for a 4-4-2. Brew must be happy as Walter, tactically, is playing into our hands - so far. To be fair nobody has really looked like scoring and the final balls from both teams have been simply awful. Tokely is toiling - McBain is "invisible" - Patti has not been seen as an attacking force - Duncan and Black are running the midfield - Cowie is working his socks off and Niculae is benefiting from that but we are not playing it to him - we are going wide all the time. SECOND HALF: Much better second half for the neutrals and to be honest - we blew it and Rangers just about deserved it. Was Walter logged in and followed ma advice??? Burke went left which ultimately won the match - Adam went to the old outside left position - we never got to grips with that but thankfully he didn’t play well. Cousin out muscled Proc early doors which was a taste of things to come. Proc needs to beef up to be a SPL central defender. Munro showed him how it should be done a minute later when he out muscled Darcheville. Walter was evidently going fer the direct route football - we should really have taken advantage of that as Ferguson and Hedmani were nullified because of it. Black and Niculae should both have done better with poor shots on target but never threatening McGregor. I thought the first goal was going to come after a ridiculous referee decision to give Darchville a free kick against Proctor. Setanta showed it was the other way but yet another example of Proctor being out muscled. Adam had a great chance in the 62nd when he smashed it way over after a defensive lapse by Proctor. Niculae "disappeared" in the second half but produced a sweet left foot strike in the 68th but it didn’t really trouble McGregor. Wilson came on for Patti - he was clearly struggling fitness wise. I don’t really understand why it wasn’t a straight swap and allow Bazza to play wide left but Brew swapped Bazza and McBain. Cousin, very fortunately "scored" and the replay clearly showed that it should have stood. Duncan was playing him on and he knew it judging by the expression on his face. I cant understand why we didn’t take Bayne on for Niculae as he was also clearly flagging - as was Hastings who was having a good match but Burke skinned him on several occasions in the last 15 minutes. And then Adam hit the bar in the 83rd. I cannot believe that Rosscoe got the Sponsors MOM - he was struggling against Burke in the first 45 and looked good in the second because he had nobody playing against him and was given loads of time and space. He got in the way of a Niculae header in the 86th and he went for goal in injury time when Niculae had cleverly tailed off to the back post and a pass would have meant a clear goal. Proctor was to blame for the winner and I hope Brew chastises him. He played like an immature full back sticking his hand up in desperation for offside instead of going for the ball or the man. Darchville even miss-hit the shot. Full Time: 0-1 A record crowd of 7,753 saw Rangers pinch it. Congrats to the North Stand as for the first time I recall, you could hear constant singing. It was one of those days that you can endure as we really deserved a point but i have no quarrels that Rangers shaded it at the end.
  11. Caley Thistle recorded another victory over Gretna today. Today's 3-0 victory takes the season tally to 10 goals scored against the borders side with none against. Another double from Marius Niculae, and a penalty from John Rankin all in the first half meant that Caley Thistle were on easy street but despite numerous chances in the second half, the Caley Jags still fell one goal short of scoring competitive goal number 1000 but its the three points that matter. Here's hoping that goal 1000 may come at Easter Road next week 05/01/08 Tulloch Caledonian Stadium INVERNESS CT 3 Niculae (34, 41), Rankin (39pen) Team: Fraser, Tokely, Proctor, Munro, Hastings (McBain 75), Cowie (Paateleainen 66), Black, Duncan, Rankin, Wyness, Niculae (Bayne 77) Subs: Gillespie, Vigurs, Duff, Malkowski GRETNA 0 Team: Caig, Barr, Collin, Innes, Horwood, Makinwa (McGill 88), Jenkins (Osman 51), Yantorno, Murray, Skelton, Deuchar Subs: Grady, Deverdics, McLaren, Canning, Fleming Referee Dougie McDonald Attendance 3919 Craig Brewster made two changes to the starting lineup after a disappointing defeat in the New Year fixture against Aberdeen. On-loan defender Phil McGuire was suspended for what might have been his last game for the Caley Jags - at least for a while - if a permanent deal cant be worked out with Dunfermline. His place in central defence was taken by the versatile David Proctor who may not have had success at Dundee United but is once again proving to be a very capable player in Inverness colours. Dennis Wyness also returned to the side with Graham Bayne dropping to the bench. Gretna had endured a horrendous journey up the A9. Opting to come up a day early, but were thwarted at Perth for 6 hours because of bad weather and didn't arrive until very late Friday night. Saturday was to be no better for them as Caley Thistle once again triumphed at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium with a 3-0 victory and made it 10 goals scored and none conceded against the visitors this season. This win was Caley Thistle's fifth home victory in a row at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium and seventh in the last 9 games, a record that has seen the club climb up the table from the relegation spot to currently lie seventh and only 4 points off third placed Motherwell. Going into this game Caley Thistle had scored 996 competitive goals but try as they might, they could only take the tally to 999 after this game and will have to wait for that 1000th goal. The home side, often slow to start was quick off the blocks in this game. Gretna has had a habit of completely capitulating if hit hard and early and this appeared to be Craig Brewster's gameplan. The first real chance fell to Ian Black in only 4 minutes when he forced a save out of Tony Caig after some neat build up play from Ross Tokely and Don Cowie. Dennis Wyness was next with a chance when a volleyed effort went close in 13 minutes but was again saved by Caig. David Proctor then had a header saved by the keeper and Ian Black had one blocked by Skelton and with 23 minutes on the clock, Caley Thistle had another three efforts on goal courtesy of a John Rankin corner. First Ross Tokely saw his headed effort blocked on the line, then the keeper blocked Grant Munro's attempt and finally Proctor had a shot diverted off the bar and out for a corner which came to nothing. Goals were coming, and even the neutrals could tell that only one team was going to score them. The first came in 34 minutes and it was from Marius Niculae with a major assist from Russell Duncan. Duncan surged forward from his own half deep into Gretna's and then laid the ball off to Niculae who looked up and then drilled a perfect shot low into the corner from 25 yards to make it 1-0. Five minutes later, it was Niculae again harassing the Gretna defence and this time he was needlessly pulled down by Chris Innes as a dangerous Tokely ball curled into the box. The ref had no hesitation in awarding a spot kick. John Rankin stepped up to take it and made no mistake. 2-0. At 2-0 Gretna did have a decent effort from Craig Barr but Mike Fraser held it easily enough. Back to the other end then and another goal from Niculae in 41 minutes. Marius doesn't seem to score single goals and today was to be no different. A Cowie corner was headed to far side of penalty area, Tokely headed back to edge of box and Niculae hit a downward volley into the net off the keepers left hand post Half Time: 3-0 If the first half was exciting and enjoyable from an ICT point of view, the second was a bit more mundane. Caley Thistle were on the hunt for competitive goal number 1000 but despite numerous chances, they couldn't get it. Gretna on the other hand, although they tried, put very little pressure on the Caley Thistle defence and when they did ICT usually went back up the park and had a go themselves. Niculae was the first to have a go just after half-time before Skelton tried his luck for Gretna. Just after that, Russell Duncan hit a tremendous twenty five yard shot to Caig's top left corner but he pulled off a fantastic save to tip the ball for a corner. Wyness then went close with a header that went just inches wide and then Rankin curled a shot just past Caig's post. Caley Thistle then came within a whisker of goal 1000 through substitute Markus Paatelainen. A Rankin cross found Markus in the box and he headed powerfully at the keeper but Caig managed to tip it over for a corner. From the resultant corner, Markus again went close but Caley Thistle just couldn't get that fourth goal. Gretna had a chance at a consolation goal in 77 minutes but Mike Fraser managed to push away Fabian Yantorno's shot. At the other end four minutes later Proctor hit the post and Paatelainen hit the rebound over the bar and that was about it. Full Time: 3-0 A fine victory, a clean sheet and 999 competitive goals. Its Hibs at Easter Road in the cup this week so a hard game but with confidence running high and Hibs lying below ICT in the SPL table, a win is definitely possible.
  12. Caley Thistle have yet to record a win over Aberdeen, and although today looked like it might be a good chance given recent form, the Dons maintained that record with a 1-0 victory. The game appeared to be heading for a 0-0 draw when Ross Tokely gave away a penalty in the 83rd minute. Barry Nicholson scored the spot kick and grabbed all three points for the Dons. 02/01/08 Pittodrie Stadium, Aberdeen ABERDEEN 1 (Nicholson 83pen) Team: Langfield, Byrne, Mair, Foster, Jamie Smith, Clark, Nicholson, Severin, Young (De Visscher 76), Miller, Aluko (Lovell 64) Subs: Jonathon Smith, Crawford, Touzani, D Smith, Soutar Inverness CT 0 Team: Fraser, Tokely, McGuire, Munro, Hastings, Cowie, Black, Duncan, Rankin (Hart 79), Bayne, Niculae Subs: Proctor, Wyness, Vigurs, Gillespie, Duff, Malkowski Referee Mike Tumilty Attendance 13372 Inverness Caley Thistle travelled to Aberdeen in good spirits after a convincing 3-1 victory and a fine display against Kilmarnock in their last game. Aberdeen would have been of a similar mind, despite a dwindled squad to pick from, given that they had gone 11 games without loss at Pittodrie Stadium. Darren Mackie, Michael Hart, Andrew Considine, Jackie McNamara and Zander Diamond were all missing for Aberdeen due to injury whilst Inverness CT travelled with a full squad. Everyone in attendance at the match took time out to pay tribute to Phil O’Donnell with a minute’s applause before the game got underway. The Caley Thistle fans are no stranger to a cold breeze given the location of the stadium, but the wind here at Pittodrie was blowing with a vengeance and it was no surprise that everyone was huddled up trying their best to escape it….even some of the players had donned gloves in an attempt to fight off at least some of the chill. The first real opportunity of the match fell to Miller, but he failed to threaten with a header that went safely wide of the mark. Mair had an attempt with the head shortly afterwards when Young played Aluko into the corner and he got the cross in to Mair inside the area. He failed to get any real power into the header and it was easily gather by Michael Fraser. Inverness CT were playing very much the better football and had most control in midfield, but both teams found themselves unable to make any real impact on the game, with the wind conditions so bad it was impossible to play anything accurate through the air and with the pitch looking like it had only been freshly ploughed that morning it was difficult to play the ball on the deck. With the Caley Thistle wing backs pushing forward so much in recent games and finding themselves within shooting range on a regular basis during matches then I think they could do with a little practice in that regard. Shots were few and far for both teams and on the only effort of any real note for ICT during the first half Richard Hastings was the last man in a great piece of play involving Bayne and Rankin, only for him to repeat his efforts of last week and send it, once again, over the bar. Half Time: 0-0 Neither team had been inspiring during the first 45 minutes and were in need of a little team talk, and the fans were desperate to head for a hot drink to try and warm the cockles. This game had all the makings of one of those affairs where both teams just spend 90 minutes cancelling each other out, although I suspect is more down to the wind cancelling everyone out. Marius Niculae had been largely quiet in the first half and Ross Tokely looked to be having an off day and was far less effective pushing forward from right back as we’ve come to expect. The teams took to the pitch for the second half and the only thing in our favour was that we were now playing with the wind at our backs. Given the stalemate of the first half I thought we might have seen one, or both, teams make some half time changes, but that was not to be. The second half was a carbon copy of the first with both teams failing to penetrate the final third of the pitch and cause the opposition any problems. A free-kick played long into the box by Russell Duncan found the head of Ross Tokely for the first real attempt on goal by ICT in the second half, but he couldn’t get high enough to head it down and it climbed harmlessly over the bar. Black looked to have used the wind to his advantage soon afterwards when he spotted a line to the net from 30+yards out. Despite the man on and being under a little pressure he rocketed a right foot shot at goal. Langfield who had been on decent form all day barely managed to connect with it and had to twist his body to get enough on it to tip it out for the corner kick. Niculae was next to test Langfield…Bayne had done what he does best and chased a lost effort to the corner, only for him to manage to catch the ball and bring it under control. He then sent it back down the line and it was crossed in to the head of Niculae who never got enough on it as he sent it low past the left hand post. Caley Thistle were managing to put some slick passes together and it was the next move down the right that saw the ball cleared to Bayne who was also denied by Langfield from the edge of the area. Hastings got another crack at goal when he made a terrific run to support the midfield and found the ball played neatly to his feet. With two Aberdeen players in front of him he had little option but to take a pop from 25 yards. This time the ball was low and travelling and the Aberdeen keeper did well to get a hand to it to parry it wide. On any other day and against a lesser keeper Inverness CT might have been a couple of goals up at this stage, but it wasn’t to be and the deadlock was broken under controversial circumstances. Miller had managed to break though into the area but was heading away from goal when Tokely had charged in to cover. There was shoulder to shoulder contact and Miller went down like a sack of seed potatoes…quite apt given the conditions of the pitch…and the referee was conned into awarding the penalty. Nicholson stepped up and sent Michael Fraser the wrong way before slotting the ball into the left side of the net to make it 1-0 to the home side with under 10 minutes left in the game. ICT had little to offer in an attempt to recoup a point from the game, and had it not been for another fine save by Fraser near the end when Miller again found himself through on goal, ironically after shoulder charging Munro off the ball in similar fashion to what he got his penalty for. Full Time: 1-0 Think it would be wrong to say the game was dull, but the conditions didn’t help and it resulted in a lot of sloppy play which was interlaced with some fine link up play by ICT. None of that changes the fact that we left without any points and have to come calling another day in order to secure that elusive first win over the Dons.
  13. There's usually goals when ICT and Killie meet and today was no exception. After an insipid performance a few days ago at the Falkirk Stadium, the Caley Jags were a lot more classy today. A Marius Niculae double and a Don Cowie goal earned Caley Thistle a deserved victory in the final fixture of 2007. Kilmarnock got a late consolation with a soft penalty award that Colin Nish put beyond Michael Fraser. 29/12/07 Tulloch Caledonian Stadium INVERNESS CT 3 Niculae (42,76), Cowie (52) Team: Fraser, Tokely, McGuire (Proctor 88), Munro, Hastings, Cowie, Black, Duncan, Rankin, Bayne (Wyness 83), Niculae Subs: McAllister, Vigurs, Wilson, Duff, Malkowski KILMARNOCK 1 Nish (86pen) Team: Combe, Hamill, Ford, O'Leary, Hay, Fernandez (Johnston 79), Fowler, Bryson (Koudou 72), Taouil, Nish, Wales Subs: Flannigan, Locke, Noble, Clancy, Harpur Referee Craig MacKay Attendance 4169 The Caley Thistle lads bounced back from a lack-lustre performance and narrow 1-0 against Falkirk on Boxing day to put together a convincing performance against Kilmarnock at home and secure all 3 points. The opening goal nearly fell to on loan defender Phil McGuire when the ball came to him inside the area. The fact that he found himself with his back to the goal didn’t seem to deter him and had it not been for the sharp reflexes of Alan Combe in the visitor’s goal then we would have been looking at one of the most impressive goals ever scored at Tulloch Caledonian Stadium. Inverness CT were on the ascendancy and Kilmarnock were doing little to threaten Mike Fraser and the Inverness goal. Bayne was next to have a go for ICT, but his header went narrowly wide. Kilmarnock never really came in to the game until the 25th minute when Fraser found himself well positioned to stick a boot on an effort from Fernandez who managed to penetrate the ICT defence for the first time in the match. Nish, who has a habit of scoring against us, was next to be denied when Michael Fraser had to dive full stretch to prevent a low ball from finding the back of the net. Marius Niculae has been starting to find his range in recent games and on 38 minutes he tested Alan Combe’s resolve when he hit a solid 25 yard volley towards the bottom right corner, which the keeper did well to push wide. Had it not been for Combe then ICT could easily have found themselves a couple of goals up at this stage, but we were keeping the pressure on and the effort was rewarded just before half-time when John Rankin placed a powerful shot at Combe who could only block it and watch as it fell to Niculae who slotted it away with relative ease. Half Time – Inverness CT 1 – 0 Kilmarnock It wouldn’t be your typical Caley Jags v Killie match if it finished with just one goal, and true to form another one was soon on its way after the break. Richard Hastings had been pushing forward and he played the ball into the path of Cowie who pulled off a sublime piece of finishing making it 2-0 to the home team on 52 minutes. Hastings was next to find himself in position and should have done more to reward himself for his efforts after his initial shot was blocked by Combe but fell to him again only a few yards out….thrashing at the ball he could only mange (somehow) to send it over the bar when it would have been easier to score. Kilmarnock were doing nothing which even looked like coming close to threatening Michael Fraser in the second half with the ball rarely finding it’s way into the Caley Thistle third of the park. With all the excitement being at the other end it was only going to be a matter of time before Inverness added another with Niculae feeling confident and taking every opportunity to pressure the on-form Alan Combe. He had another 25 yard effort go narrowly wide and somehow managed to fight his way through a crowded Kilmarnock defence before seeing another shot blocked, but he wasn’t to wait to much longer before he found himself on the scorecard for the second time. Combe had done well to block a shot from Graeme Bayne only to see the ball land at the feet of Don Cowie. As we all know Cowie is more than capable of finding the net, but Niculae obviously thought he was better placed as he cheekily pinched the ball from his under his nose and blasted it towards goal. Combe, again, managed to get a hand to it, but the pace this time was too much for him to have any real chance of keeping it from bursting the net in 76 minutes. It was pretty much the same story for the next 10 minutes with Caley Thistle being the ones applying all the pressure, but 4 minutes from time a moments slackness on the part of Phil McGuire gifted Kilmarnock a penalty kick after he handled it in the box. Colin Nish, desperate to keep up his scoring record against us no doubt, stepped up and slotted the ball home to finish off the scoring for the day. Full Time: 3 – 1
  14. Falkirk ended Motherwell's unbeaten run last week, and this week it was their turn to do the same to Caley Thistle with a 1-0 victory at the Falkirk Stadium. The only goal of the game came in the 35th minute from Gerard Aafjes but it was enough for Falkirk to secure the points and leapfrog ICT in the SPL table on goal difference 26/12/07 The Falkirk Stadium, Falkirk FALKIRK 1 (Aafjes 35) Team: Krul, Ross, Holden, Scobbie, Aafjes, Cregg, Thomson, Arfield (Milne 68), Barrett (57), Moutinho, Higdon (Finnigan 82) Subs: Olejnik, Mitchell, Allison, Riera INVERNESS CT 0 Team: Fraser, Tokely, McGuire, Munro, Hastings, Cowie (Wilson 62), Black, Duncan, Rankin, McBain (Bayne 62), Niculae Subs: McAllister, Gillespie, Kerr, McCaffrey, Malkowski Referee Craig Thomson Attendance 5265 ICT's fine winning run came to an end in a tame display at the Falkirk Stadium. While ICT looked very comfortable soaking up Falkirk's pressure in the first half, and hitting on the break, this all changed when the Bairns took the lead 10 minutes before half time. The second half proved to be the opposite of the first, with Falkirk making a good job of defending their lead against a lacklustre ICT side with too many square passes. A full carload from Lothian & Borders arrived at the Cadgers Brae for the pre-match warm-up: Mantis, Naelifts, Caleystan and Wanderer, plus Stephen the Hibby. Naelifts and Caleystan failed a late fitness test as they were discovered to be outside for a smoke. Mantis suffered a wallet strain, and Wanderer's wallet was sold a dummy by Caleystan who ordered a round and disappeared without paying for it. ICT were unchanged from Saturday as Brew decided it wasn't broke, so he sure wasn't going to fix it. However there was a bit of a scare when we arrived at the ground to find the players putting Zibi through his paces with no sign of Mikey anywhere. Craig Thomson got the game underway and both sides seemed to be suffering a reaction from big away wins at the weekend as the match developed into a low-key affair with neither keeper having much to do. However ICT should have taken the lead after about 12 mins when Niculae knocked on a McBain cross only for Rankin to hit the side netting when he could have squared the ball for Cowie. Sadly, this was to set the pattern for wee John's afternoon as he struggled to make a contribution. Meanwhile, Falkirk, despite dominating the midfield, were struggling to make any progress against a confident looking ICT, and often their attacks consisted of Arfield lumping the diagonal ball to the back post, which was easily dealt with by Munro or Fraser. Ian Black was really looking the part in the first half and appeared in most of ICT's creative play, and it looked as though ICT would slowly sap the life out of an unconvincing Bairns side before taking the lead. Niculae wasted another opportunity when he got a McBain pass tangled between his legs with Rankin in space at the far post. Nobody seemed sure whether he was attempting to dummy it or control it. To be fair to Marius, I thought this was one of his better games and for the first time I thought he deserved all those Champions League players around him to read his intentions... Anyway, after the half hour the Guinness and the cold weather took its toll on your correspondent's bladder, and I sauntered off, only to hear a roar, followed by 'Amarillo' being blasted into the toilets at a hellish volume. ***insert description of goal here- that's right, £20 and missed the only goal of the game*** Gerard Aafjes scored with a courageous diving header from a Jack Ross corner Ten minutes before half time Blackie was booked for blootering the ball into the stand. Despite his protests it was obvious that the ball was well out when he kicked it and Russeldinho had to act as peacemaker as Blackie threatened to repeat his episode of last Christmas at the same venue. Half Time: 1-0 The second half was largely uneventful, though there were a few scrambles at the far end as ICT chased an equaliser without much conviction. Too many passes. Nice passes mind you, but too many. Falkirk defended their lead very well and had the best chance of the half when Moutinho was through on Fraser, but Mikey is playing so well these days that it was no surprise when he blocked with his legs. Also sub Latapy wheezed into possession and, with about 4 ICT players holding back, tempted McGuire into a silly foul at the edge of the box. Uncharacteristically Latapy screwed the free kick tamely wide. With half an hour left ICT threw on Wilson and Bayne for Cowie and McBain, but the expected injection of pace from Barry never really happened, and Bayne put himself about as he did on Saturday, but minus the booking and the winning goal. Bayne won a free-kick which Barry took well but it was cleared. Full Time: 1-0 Overall, ICT were worth a point on the day, but the Bairns took their chance when it came. Bizarre moment of the day came when Rosscoe caught a ball which had gone out of play but spun back in. With the whole of the main stand baying for handball Rosscoe calmly accepted the award of a throw-in and was booed for the rest of the game. MotM was Ian Black
  15. Caley Thistle made it 5 wins out of 5 with a hard fought 3-2 victory over Hearts at Tynecastle. An excellent strike from Russell Duncan gave ICT a half time lead and a Rankin penalty extended it early in the second. Hearts fought back through Berra on the hour mark, and seemed to have secured a point with a 90th minute penalty strike. Graham Bayne however scored deep in injury time to win it for ICT. 22/12/07 Tynecastle Stadium, Edinburgh HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN 2 (Berra 62, Velicka 90pen) Kurskis, Neilson, Zaliukas, Berra, Wallace, Ivaskevicius (Mikoliunas 65), Jonsson, Palazuelos, Driver, Ksanavicius (Elliot 34 (Pospisil 65)), Velicka Subs: McGowan, Cesnauskis, Goncalves, Basso INVERNESS CT 3 (Duncan 22, Rankin 53pen, Bayne 90 ) Team: Fraser, Tokely, McGuire, Munro, Hastings, Cowie, Black (Wilson 81), Duncan, Rankin, McBain (Bayne 70), Niculae Subs: McAllister, Gillespie, Kerr, McCaffrey, Malkowski Referee William Collum Attendance 16202 Craig Brewster stuck with the same formation that has done him so well over the last four games, but due to David Proctor's red card las week, he was forced to make one change to the side with Ross Tokely returning from suspension to take his place. For Hearts, the surprise was probably that they kept faith in Eduardas Kurskis in goal and after gifting a late winner to Rangers last week, he was to have a late impact on this game too. Caley Thistle had the first attempts on goal in this skirmish with a couple of Ian Black efforts that had Kurskis looking a little less than confident and in 6 minutes, Hearts Velicka tested Fraser who couldn't hold his shot, but had McGuire on hand to clear. A couple of minutes later and it was Marius Niculae having a chance at the other end courtesy of a Rankin pass. Just as Marius was about to unleash his shot, Berra nipped in and cleared. Back to the other end now - in the 11th minute - this time with Lee Wallace tearing down the left. He then cut the ball across but Ivaskevicius was denied by an excellent Fraser block. The ball quickly broke back to the midfielder, whose second effort was deflected wide. Less than a minute later Ksanavicius hit the crossbar with a great 22-yard shot. A goal was coming, and with play ranging from end to end it really could have come from either side ... luckily for us, it was Caley Thistle who opened the scoring through Russell Duncan in 21 minutes and what a well worked goal it was. Ian Black started the move by finding John Rankin in space on the left, Rankin then managed to play a crossfield ball to Don Cowie who was on the edge of the box with his back to goal. He took a touch then played it short for Russell Duncan who blasted it low into the corner of the net. Hearts were dealt a blow just after the half-hour mark, with Ksanavicius limping off after a challenge from Ross Tokely. He was replaced by Calum Elliot. Hearts did have one more decent chance before half-time but Driver could only play the ball directly at Fraser after receiving a Velicka cross. Half Time: Hearts 0-1 ICT Into the second half then and five minutes in, it was Hearts who had the first real attack when Velicka had a chance from the edge of the box but it was pushed away by Fraser and the danger was gone. A minute later Hearts would be left rueing this chance as Caley Thistle went upfield and scored ! Russell Duncan broke up a Hearts attack deep in his own half, ran down the wing and waited until just the right moment before playing a perfectly weighted pass to Niculae that left the last defender helpless. Niculae bore down on goal and Kurskis was left with no option but to bring him down. A penalty was awarded, and perhaps surprisingly, the colour of the card issued to Kurskis was only yellow. John Rankin took the penalty, and although the keeper went the right way, the ball had been placed perfectly and he couldnt get a touch to it. 0-2. It was do or die for Hearts now and in the 60th minute, Mike Fraser, who had an excellent match once again, tipped a dipping Palazuelos shot over for a corner. From the corner however, Hearts equalised through Berra who powerfully headed it down and into the net, although, with so many bodies in the box and on the line, the last touch could have come from anyone. After this lifeline, Stevie Frail committed his last two subs in an effort to get something from this game and this was to prove decisive in the end. For the next 20-25 minutes Caley Thistle and Hearts traded attempts at goal, with both Niculae and Mikoliunas coming close but it was to be the final five minutes that would provide a lot of talking points. 5 minutes from the end, Russell Duncan chased down a ball that Kurskis was attempting to shield out for a goal kick and as the keeper picked it up after it had crossed the line, the two players briefly tangled. Kurskis however raised his hands to Duncan and when all was said and done, both players received yellow cards. Unfortunately for Hearts, Kurskis had been booked earlier when conceding the penalty and his yellow was quickly followed by a red card. Worse still for Hearts was that they had used all three subs so could not take off an outfield player and use their sub keeper so Lee Wallace was the player who was given the Keeper's top for the last five minutes. Despite the drama, Hearts went up the park and scored a last gasp equaliser... In what looked like a very soft award, McGuire was adjudged to have fouled Velicka in the box, was booked for it, and then Velicka himself sent Fraser the wrong way from the penalty spot. 2-2 and literally seconds to go. But it was not over yet!!! This time it was Caley Thistle's turn to go up the park and score. McGuire started the move on the half way line with a pass to Bayne, Bayne then passed wide to Cowie and he sent the ball into the box. A Hearts defender (Zaliukas) carelessly backheeled it into the path of Bayne and he sent it low into the net past a helpless Wallace from 15 yards. Final Score: Hearts 2-3 ICT and 15 points out of 15 for Craig Brewster !!
  16. Caley Thistle were 2-0 down before half an hour had been played after Vennegoor of Hesselink had hit a quickfire double in 24 and 26 minutes. A Rankin penalty after Pressley had fouled Niculae in 42 minutes reduced the deficit to 1-2 at half time and another quickfire double, this time from Proctor and Cowie for Caley Thistle ensured that Craig Brewster's men made it 4 wins on the trot, achieved their first ever SPL win against Celtic and moved up to 7th spot in the table. All in all, a pretty good day at the office !!! 16/12/07 Tulloch Caledonian Stadium INVERNESS CT 3 (Rankin 42pen, Proctor 57, Cowie 61) Team: Fraser, Proctor, McGuire, Munro, Hastings, Cowie (Wilson 85), Black, Duncan, Rankin, McBain (Tokely 69), Niculae (Bayne 79) Subs: McAllister, Vigurs, Duff, Malkowski CELTIC 2 (Vennegoor of Hesselink 24, 31) M Brown, Caldwell, Pressley (Riordan 77), McManus, Conroy, S Brown, Hartley, Donati, McGeady, Vennegoor of Hesselink, McDonald (Killen 80) Subs: Jarosik, Sno, Balde, O'Dea, McGovern Referee Alan Freeland Attendance 7004 This game had the lot, and would certainly have been an entertaining game for the neutral spectator. With a penalty, a sending off, counter attacking football and most importantly goals, you cannot argue that only one word sums up the full 90 minutes - FANTASTIC!!! The game kicked off in the usual fashion - ball knocked forward and then passed back over the line - with Celtic attacking the North Stand. I couldn’t quite, however, understand the booing of Mark Brown when his name was announced over the tannoy. A superb servant to ICT through there progression to SPL football should surely require a little more respect towards the opposing ‘keeper. Anyhoo, the match took a wee while to get going, and the first real opportunity started with a sublime pass (or should that be ricochet) off referee Alan Freeland on 10 minutes. Ian Black taking the ball nicely in his stride, and with an attempt to thread through John Rankin, the ball ricocheted well off Freeland for Celtic to produce the counter. Phil Maguire, remaining as strong as he has done in recent weeks, was able to clear off the line. The ball rebounded back to Scott Brown, whom had the ball gathered at his feet by a brave Mike Fraser. Inverness took the game to Celtic, and with 3 wins and 3 clean sheets before this game, confidence was high at Fortress Longman and it showed in the flowing football that was on display. Marius Niculae again produced some superb touches and held the play up well for Rankin to slot back through only for Niculae to bring out a fine save from Mark Brown. Moments later, Ian Black was presented a chance from David Proctor, but his 25 yard drive went straight to the hands of the former Caley Thistle number 1. Despite plenty of pressure from ICT, it was Celtic who produced the opener in what was to be a very bad 60 seconds for the home side. On 25 minutes, Jan Venegoor of Hesslink nodded the ball to Fraser’s left hand post to produce a goal from a disputed Hartley free kick. And it was the Dutch man who once again hurt the heart of the ICT defence with another header, connecting with Aiden McGeady’s nicely curled cross from the right to make it 2-0. The scoreline at this stage certainly didn’t reflect how the teams performed. Scott Brown was rather lacklustre with his passing and ball control, and could not capitalise on the mistakes made on the ICT left when both McBain and Hastings drifted further and further into the centre of the park. Fortress Longman certainly lived up to its nickname, however, as ICT refused to rest or sit back. Michael Fraser had little else to do in the first half, as Celtic struggled to produce any more clear cut first half chances. A clearance from the back created some fine football to allow Niculae to break and change to course of the game. With only Stephen Pressley nearby, Marius Niculae was judged to be brought down in the box, and the penalty was rightly rewarded. Oh how I’d wished Fraser go one on one with Brown at this stage! John Rankin placed the ball and smashed it straight through Mark Brown. A let-off for Pressley you might say without so much as a booking, and silence in the South Stand as the first half petered out to a 1-2 scoreline. Half Time: 1-2 Renowned for their ‘never say die’ attitude in recent weeks, Inverness once again took the game to Celtic in the second half, but again it was Celtic who produced a chance. JVoH was just shy of his hat-trick when his driven shot from 18 yards deflected clear off the post. This was to be Celtic only real charge on goal for the coming quarter hour. Don Cowie and our Romanian superstar were linking up well with almost every break that ICT produced. Niculae holding up the play to set Cowie on his mazy runs and Niculae following up the play with a couple of efforts at goal. The initial shots not really troubling Mark Brown. The Equaliser was sure to come, and with 55 minutes played ICT worked hard enough for Celtic to concede a corner. Don Cowie sent in a superb cross, and certain contender for Man of the Match David Proctor, leaped high above 3 defenders to power his header past a helpless Brown. Silence remained in the Celtic enclosure as the ICT faithful played the part of 12th man in spectacular fashion. The drums on full force and even the Main stand singing, it was great to hear a chant of ‘Give Mark Brown a game, does he know it’s Christmas time?’ If Inverness were the side with heads held high, Celtic were a side who were obviously stunned to throw away a 2-0 lead. And it showed 5 minutes after the equaliser when Don Cowie produced what was to be the winner. Celtic were pressing but not producing any sort of quality balls for their strike pair and Richard Hastings' pelt up the park was to prove decisive. Stephen McManus was unable to deal with the high ball and Cowie managed to stick a toe to produce the end result. Absolute delight in the North and Main stands, and total devastation in the South. Celtics best chance for an equaliser came from a free kick on the edge of the box soon after. Phil McGuire was unable to connect fully to a clearance and Scott MacDonald was through. With David Proctor leading the chase, he unceremoniously brought down MacDonald and was rightly sent for an early bath. Surely this was to be yet another turning point to this fixture? It was Aiden McGeady with the resulting free kick on the very edge of the box, but his dipping effort didn’t have enough curl to sneak in at Frasers far post and a goal kick resulted. Brewster was forced to change the formation with Rossco making his return from suspension in place of Roy McBain. Celtic also rang the changes soon after as Gordon Strachan looked for an equaliser from his million pound superstars. Riordan was sent on as a 3rd striker, making way for centre back Pressley - who on a whole had a rather poor game. Celtic certainly didn’t want to loose on the road with Rangers on their tail with a game in hand also. Mike Fraser was a hero in goal, as wave after wave of Celtic attack ended in the grasp of the Caley Jags ‘keeper. Some superbly taken crosses from both set pieces and open play made it frustrating for the Celtic attack. Every ICT player was clearly on top form, and deserved to hold on for victory. But Celtic still had a few more chances to find an equaliser. ICT resorted to deep defending and the occasional counter attack, and could have made it 4-2. Once again Rankin, Cowie and Niculae were the centre pieces of the attack, constantly supplied by decent balls from Ian Black. Niculae was sent though charged towards the Celtic goal. Pulled back by McManus, no free kick resulted and again the ICT defence was forced to defend deep. More changes made, this time by ICT, as Cowie and Niculae were replaced by Wilson and Bayne. Standing ovations all round and Wilson was soon set through. Another chance for a 4th, but Wilson simply couldn’t get enough of a touch and the ball rolled steadily to Mark Brown. The closing stages were constant pressure from Celtic as they closed in on an equaliser, but Tokely, Munro, McGuire and Hastings stood firm. The traditional injury time goal from the East End outfit was not forthcoming, and Fraser produced a world class save to deny a top corner effort from McManus' powerful header. The 3 minutes of injury time were over, and Inverness recorded a well worked, well fought and well deserved first ever SPL victory of the greener side of the Old Firm. Full Time: 3-2 The run continues for ICT as they become the leagues on form side. Who would have thought that just 5 weeks ago, Inverness would go from 2nd bottom to 7th - just 2 points off 6th spot. Absolutely superb football for the full 90 minutes and even the half time entertainment produced more goals than the rest of the season. 75 points to 50 the final score!!
  17. Sponsor's Man of the Match Marius Niculae grabbed his first ever goal in the SPL just before half-time, and then scored another in the second half as Caley Thistle maintained their dominance over Hibernian at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium. Hibs have not won, or even scored at the stadium in more than three years and we are delighted to say the only scoring duck that was broken today was Marius' SPL one... 08/12/07 Tulloch Caledonian Stadium INVERNESS CT 2 (Niculae 42, 78) Team: Fraser, Proctor, Munro, McGuire, Hastings, Cowie, Rankin, Black, Duncan (Wilson 85), McBain (Bayne 72) , Niculae Subs: McAllister, Vigurs, Kerr, McCaffrey, Malkowski HIBERNIAN 0 Team: MaKalambay, McCann, Hogg, Noubissie (Antoine-Curier 80), Murphy, McCormack, Morais (Beuzelin 57), Kerr, Stevenson (O'Brien 57), Donaldson, Fletcher Subs: Zemmama, Joneleit, Gathuessi, McNeil Referee Kenny Clark Attendance 4224 Craig Brewster sent out the same starting line-up for the second week running, and this was hardly surprising given how successful we had been in taking 3 points from Dundee Utd the week before. From the off it was obvious that this game was going to be played at a tremendous pace and with both teams opting to keep the ball down and passing it about then we could be in for a pretty entertaining 90 minutes of football. With our formation of 5 across the middle Hibs were finding it hard to find a gap through to the goal and the first shot of the game came in 8 minutes as a result of a free kick after Black had fouled Donaldson. Murphy had decided to shoot direct from 20 yards out but the curled ball was easily taken by Fraser. Players on both sides were finding conditions underfoot a little difficult to cope with as the surface appeared a little greasy. This was resulting in some mistimed and clumsy challenges from everyone and it was such a challenge that lead to McGuire getting a yellow card on the 12 minute mark. The action was being played out mostly in the middle of the pitch with neither team doing much to trouble the opposition’s defence. Roy McBain managed to get a shot on target in 17 minutes but it lacked pace and was easily gathered for the save. Things looked like they were about to go sour for ICT on 25 minutes when Fletcher managed to find himself through one on one with Fraser. Fraser had been quick to react and had pushed out off his line to cut down the angle. Fletcher attempted to play the ball into the right hand corner but Fraser managed to make contact and parried it to safety. Hibs seemed to be caught in the frustrations of the miss and ICT got the ball forward quickly. Rankin spotted the keeper off his line and sent in a lob from 25 yards out. Had it been anyone other than Makalamby then the ball would have found the net, but the towering keeper managed to recover and used his height to great advantage in tipping the ball over the bar. The resulting corners saw ICT apply the first real period of pressure that any team had shown, but despite a 12 yard drive from Niculae they were unable to convert it in to a goal. Fouls conceded within range at both ends offered opportunities to get the scoring underway but neither team were able to capitalise. Caley Thistle were relying heavily on playing on the counter, a result of the lone striker role being filled by Niculae and the midfield sitting a little deeper than many of us would have liked to have seen. However, it was just such a play that saw Rankin play a defence splitting ball on to the edge of the box for the on rushing Niculae. Makalamby found himself committed and a long way off his line and Niculae made sure this was punished. For all his height there was no way the Hibs keeper was going to manage to get a hand on this one as it was coolly lobbed over his head and in to the back of the net. Given his frustration in the goal department since arriving at ICT it was hardly surprising that Niculae was over the moon to finally see one go between the sticks and he was joined in grand celebrations by his team mates as the Home Support roared from the stands and the final 4 minutes of the first half played out without much to report on. Half Time – Inverness CT 1 v 0 Hibernian Conditions hadn’t improved much when teams took to the field for the second half and I come to realise (not for the first time) that the trade off for a better view in the main stand is often having to suffer the full force of the brass monkey weather that comes hurtling along the Glen. Collins half time talk seemed to have sparked a little more urgency into the Hibs squad and they looked the brighter for the opening spell. Despite this the Caley Thistle back line seemed to be holding strong and it was 10 minutes in before Hibs managed to get a shot away when Donaldson should have done better than to shoot wide from the edge of the box. Makalamby seemed to be pushing his luck a lot when it came to collecting and distributing the ball and not for the first time in the match it looked like he had deliberately handled the ball outside his area. Fortunately for him, this was something that all three officials seemed blind to despite calls from the fans on each occasion. Collins decided to make some early substitutions on 56 minutes when Stevenson and Morais were replaced by Beuzelin and O’Brien. O’Brien getting an early welcome from Proctor with a heavy challenge only moments after stepping on to the pitch. Duncan shot narrowly over on the 60 minute mark and the return play saw Donaldson’s shot saved…shortly after Fraser pulled of another great save when Kerr managed to get a shot on goal from 12 yards. The clearance wasn’t the best and Donaldson found himself in a bit of a scuffle on the edge of the box before getting his shot in. The ball came off the underside of the bar before bouncing and being collected by Fraser. Hibs players were claiming that not only should it have been a penalty for Donaldson being pulled down, but that the shot had crossed the line…fortunately for us the linesman and referee disagreed and play was waved on. Fraser had come under a bit of unfair criticism from the North Stand in our last game at TCS but the cheers this week were “There’s Only One Mikey Fraser”…what a fickle lot we really are!!! The ICT dugout signalled that they wanted to make a substitution and Bayne was ready to take to the pitch. Niculae looked prepared to make way and had even gone so far as to roll his socks down. Much to his surprise he was not the man being hooked, and nobody could have faulted his effort if he had been, but it was a none to happy McBain who was waved from the field. The philosophy seemed to be that the best form of defence was attack and by bringing on the second striker this prevented Hibs being able to push so many men forward without leaving themselves exposed at the back. Black, Rankin and Cowie all had efforts on goal in the next 15 minutes of the game demonstrating just how important they are to this squad in terms of providing an attacking midfield option. However, it was that man Niculae who was to prove deadliest again on 77 minutes. He tee’d up his first shot at goal with his left foot, but despite it heading wide it was blocked and fell back to him, this time he took it on his right and made no mistake when sending it in to the bottom left corner beyond the reach of the outstretched Makalamby. Noubissie and Black had been having a right battle in the middle of the park the whole game with the smaller of the two men not giving an inch to his Hibernian rival. Black had taken a few knocks and almost come off worst in a couple of the encounters so it would have come as a relief to see Noubissie being replaced by Antoine-Curier on the 80 minute mark. The temp of the match had been high since the first kick of the ball and neither team seemed willing to let up as it continued in to the final 10 minutes. Russell Duncan had taken a knock and tried to continue but it wasn’t happening and he signalled to the bench that he needed replaced…Wilson coming on to relieve him. Hibs were pushing forward desperately in an attempt to claw the game back which was leaving them a little more exposed at the back. Every time they came at us we were ready to hit them on the counter it was an end to end affair for the final minutes of the game. Niculae came close to securing his hat trick, and it would have been well deserved had he not gone inches wide in the final play of the game. Full Time: 2-0 All in all a great team effort with every ICT player getting full marks for effort and commitment. With Tokely due back from suspension and Wyness hopefully available soon after problems with a hamstring then Brewster will be facing problems in terms of team selection as we head towards the festive fixtures. These are the kinds of headaches that no manager would ever complain about. We face Celtic next week, a match which we would have been dreading a month ago when things weren’t looking to good. However spirits are high among players and fans and I for one am thoroughly looking forward to the clash. Like a Phoenix from the ashes…Tulloch Caledonian Stadium is one again re-establishing it’s Fortress Status….long may it continue.
  18. Ian Black scored a goal that commentators called a candidate for goal of the season in the 19th minute and it was this goal that won the game for the Caley Jags. ICT have now taken maximum points from their last couple of games and climb up another place in the table to 9th. 01/12/07 Tannadice Stadium, Dundee DUNDEE UTD 0 Team: Szamotulski, Flood (Milligan 79), Kenneth, Dods, Robb (Duff 38), Kerr, Cameron, Gomis, D. Robertson (Russell 80), Wilkie, J. Robertson Subs: Don, Bauben, Pope, McLean INVERNESS CT 1 Black (20) Team: Fraser, Proctor, Munro, McGuire, Hastings (Wilson 71), Cowie, Rankin (Vigurs 90), Black, Duncan, McBain, Niculae (Bayne 84) Subs: McAllister, Kerr, McCaffrey, Malkowski Referee Iain Brines Attendance 5845 With spirits lifted after a hard fought win over St Mirren last week, Inverness Caledonian Thistle travelled to Tannadice to face an on form Dundee United yet to be beaten at home this season. I was quietly confident that we would perform better this week after witnessing the team dig in and grind out the result against St Mirren…it’s not the prettiest football to watch, but it lifted the spirits to see an ICT team once again digging deep and playing for each other. I suspected that even with rumours aplenty in regards to player unrest that if we could keep it together on the park then we had a chance of taking something from the game and the 4/1 odds being offered by the bookies was too good to resist…lol. An early start for me and my travel companions as we decided to avoid the hassle of the A9 and take the scenic route south to Dundee. The weather was looking a little bleak, but the sun could be seen shining in the distance. We really do have some wonderful countryside around here and the views of early snow on the hills made the journey far more worthwhile than a mindless jaunt along the main drag. We arrived in Dundee in good time and a quick call to The Mantis confirmed the Dundee FC Social Club as the meeting point for a pre-match drink. Despite our early arrival, we weren’t the first and we were met by a few familiar faces. No sign of The Mantis though…his sending us here had obviously been a ploy to allow him to sneak of somewhere else!!! After watching the rare sight of a referee giving a late penalty against Celtic we wandered up to Tannadice, grabbed a pie and met up with a few more site regulars…I would name them all, but they just get a big head and seeing their name in the despatches so I won’t bother….lol. We took to our seats (ensuring the Immortal Howden Ender was well surrounded by moderators) and waited for the team to appear. We’d spent so much time gassing downstairs that we’d missed the squad call outs, but it became quickly apparent that the tactics for today were to be one up front. Not all that surprising, even though I had expected to see Brewster making an appearance. The rest of the team seemed to line up to make the formation look like a 4-1-4-1, although as the game progressed it became apparent that the centre of the park remained very fluid, constantly adapting to the circumstances. Even with a number of regulars missing Craig Levein seemed to have deployed some kind of ‘Chaos Theory Engine’ in his team selection and line-up with many players playing out of position, none more so than Lee Wilkie who had been placed (again) in the front line, just as he had been when Dundee Utd had visited us earlier in the season. Inverness CT to kick things off in the middle, and the first forward ball was played nicely in to touch....well it would have been nice if this was a game of rugby. It had confused Dundee Utd though, as they immediately returned the favour and we were back in possession. The first shot of the game came in the 2 minute mark when Niculae hit wide with a 25 yard effort and Rankin was next to have a pop but the ball went straight to the hands of Grzegorz Szamotulski. Dundee Utd’s game plan didn’t take too long to work out as time and again they kept lobbing the ball in to Lee Wilkie. As a defender he can be a handful to deal with, but as a striker he seemed lost and it was obvious that he had no instinct with regards to which direction the goal was. Munro and McGuire were doing a good job of keeping him reined in and allowed him very little room to manoeuvre, which is a problem for a 6ft 4 lump of a man with the turning circle of a cargo ship...add to that his insistence on trying to go through instead of around everyone and he quickly started to clock up the fouls. ICT had a great chance to go a goal up in the 16th minute when Dods fouled Ian Black just outside the box. Despite us having 2 men standing over the ball it was obvious Niculae was going to be the man to strike it. It was equally obvious that laying it off to Black who was standing unmarked to the left of the wall would have been the sensible option, but we never took it and Niculae drove the ball into the wall. This didn’t go down too well with Black and he left Niculae under no illusions as to his frustration. It was 18 minutes in to the game before Dundee Utd recorded their first shot on target, but this did little to trouble Fraser who caught it comfortably. We then went on the immediate counter-attack with a ball played through to Niculae on the edge of the area, he stumbled over the ball as he tried to turn the defender, but it broke kindly to Ian Black who spotted Szamotulski off his line and took full advantage by lobbing him from 25+ yards out. Dundee Utd 0 v 1 Inverness CT after 19 minutes For the first time in a few weeks we were actually winning the midfield battles and this seemed to be building confidence in our back line that were pushing forward and keeping United at a safe distance from goal. Even on the odd occasion when they did break our midfield and get a cross in to the box, a more confident looking Michael Fraser was dealing with everything easily – whether that was punching the ball clear or safely collecting the ball from the air. Add to that the fact that his kicking was much improved from the previous week and his game looks like it is really starting to come together. Neither team was doing much to test the keeper at either end, but ICT were holding on to the ball and passing well. Black, Rankin and Cowie were all taking turns at assisting Niculae with runs from the midfield and if I’m honest, he needed all the help he could get as he just doesn’t have the pace to play effectively as the lone striker. The first substitution of the game came in the 37th minute when Stuart Duff replaced an injured Steven Robb. The only other real action before the break came seconds before the whistle when Kenneth found himself with acres of space in the box, but he somehow managed to send his header wide of his mark to close off the half with ICT holding a one goal advantage. Half Time 0-1 The start of the second half was a little dull in comparison to the first 45 minutes and it wasn’t until 10 minutes in that we saw the first attempt on either of the goals. Duncan fouled Robertson 25 yards out but the resulting free-kick went harmlessly high over the goal and into the crowd. Moments later Kenneth was again left unmarked in the box allowing him a free header, but yet again he was unable to take full advantage as he failed to get it on target. ICT would need to tighten up a bit more on these balls being played in to the area or we were in real danger of conceding a soft equaliser. Lee Wilkie was still picking up the fouls as United had taken to playing the long-ball forward to him time after time in a bid to claw one back. We were beginning to wonder if the referee was aware of the persistent fouling laws when Wilkie eventually picked up a yellow card…ironically though it wasn’t for his constant barging or climbing over the heads of players…it wasn’t even for the way he’d taken to sitting like a little lost boy every time he landed on his butt…he had taken to whinging and found himself going into the book for dissent after mouthing to the ref when getting caught offside. If I had been Levein I would have hooked him at this stage in the game as it was one of those situations where a player looks destined to get himself a second yellow, the decision to leave him on became a little less bizarre when it was pointed out to me that Wilkie was now facing a 2 match suspension for going over the points threshold so risking a second yellow by leaving him on wasn’t such a huge gamble. Kenneth was to get his third chance at a free header in the 66th minute, but despite the hat trick of chances, he still couldn’t find the goal. The play that had led to this chance had, however, left Hastings stretched out on the sidelines having taken a knock to the head. He was making very little movement and at first it appeared that he was out cold…this wouldn’t have been surprising as I had heard the clonk from the stands. He was stretchered off and although I haven’t heard how he is I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a concussion. A quick re-shuffle of the team with McBain dropping back to fill in for Hastings and Wilson came on to take his place on the left wing…his addition marking an instant upturn in our attacking play and a swing away from what might have been considered a period where United seemed to be having a slight advantage, and taking more of the possession. Black and Rankin both had shots at goal, the second was spilled by Szamotulski but rolled wide for the first of what was to be 4 corners taken in quick succession, but we just couldn’t find that second goal to kill the game. A double substitution and a slight team re-shuffle came around the 80 minute mark for Dundee Utd as the pushed another big centre half to the front line to join Wilkie. This was followed soon after by an ICT substitution…Niculae had worked hard and couldn’t be faltered for his effort, but as I said earlier, his pace let him down a bit in the lone striker role and despite being able to turn defenders with ease he just didn’t have enough to be chasing down the through ball and creating any real threat. He did have some nice lay-offs for the likes of Cowie, Rankin and Black, who were pushing out from midfield, and on another day we may have made more of those, but this wasn’t one of those days. For some reason Niculae decided he wanted to shake the refs hand as he was replaced by Graham Bayne who had missed last weeks game due to suspension and he showed a little more of what you would expect for the position he filled. John Rankin had a shot saved from 12 yards when he failed to get any real power in to it, and at the other end it was Wilkie who was allowed space for the free header on this occasion, this time getting it on target, but failing to score as it was gathered by Michael Fraser. This marked the 90 minute point, but we knew we would see a further 3 or 4 minutes, at least, of injury time. We decided to use the last of our substitutions and John Rankin made way for the youngster Iain Vigurs. The lad must have thought that Christmas was about to come early as he collected the ball on the right and caught sight of the goal from 25 yards. He managed to get plenty of pace on his shot, but was unfortunate to see it slide wide to the right. That was to be the last real play in what ended up being 4 minutes of added time…something which seemed to upset the United dugout as the all started jumping around and pointing at their watches and creating a fuss. Full Time:0-1 The ICT team left the field under a well earned round of applause and I was off to the bookies to collect my winnings…if only Niculae had scored it would have been a good bit more…but perhaps I was asking just a little too much for one week!!!
  19. Man of the Match Don Cowie was the match winner today. His 6th minute strike for the Caley Jags was enough to secure the points and pull the team up one place in the table. For the second game in succession, there was a red card produced, but this time it was the Buddies Will Haining who got two yellows and not one of the ICT players. 24/11/07 Tulloch Caledonian Stadium INVERNESS CT 1 Cowie (6) Yeam: Fraser, Proctor, McGuire, Munro, Hastings, Wilson (Rankin 63), Cowie, Duncan, McBain, Niculae, Wyness (McAllister 90) Subs: Brewster, Vigurs, Duff, McCaffrey, Malkowski ST MIRREN 0 Team: Smith, Van Zanten, Millen, Haining, Miranda, Brady (Birchall 55), Mason (O'Donnell 81), Murray, Corcoran, Mehmet, Kean Subs: McGinn, McCay, Barron, Potter, Howard Referee Crawford Allan Attendance 3699 Since both teams have come head to head in the SPL, there has never been more than one goal separating the sides, and this match was never going to be any different. St Mirren came to Inverness with the prospect of going 8 points clear of ICT with a game in hand, so for ICT this was a must win fixture. The prospect of climbing further away from Gretna was also at the back of the mind. The only real surprise in the line ups was the loss of Ian Black, whom after his ‘huff’ against Motherwell a fortnight previous couldn’t get a place on the bench. Bayne and Rossco were both suspended for this fixture, again due to actions during the visit of Motherwell. The back 4 lined up Proctor, McGuire, Munro and Hastings with Fraser keeping his place in the ICT goal. Wilson, Duncan, Cowie and McBain filled the midfield with options in front through Wyness and Niculae. Former ICT star, Craig Dargo, was not included for this fixture with prolonged injury keeping him out of the side. Smith, Van Zanten, Mason, Haining, Murray, Mehmet, Brady, Corcoran, Miranda, Millen and Kean completing the starting opponents. It was ICT who took kick off with Allan Crawford officiating, and it was St Mirren who had the first opportunity 4 minutes in. From the first corner of the game, taken from the right, ICT managed to scramble the ball clear with no real threat from the St Mirren front line. Early on Stewart Kean and Franco Miranda combined well to maintain some slight pressure to the back 4, but Procter was always on hand to clear the danger. Caley’s first attack resulted in a superbly taken goal from Don Cowie to put them 1-0 ahead on just 7 minutes. Some fine one-touch passing in the centre of the park resulted in Roy McBain picking up the ball to deliver a lovely weighted cross from the corner of the box for Cowie to volley on the outside of his right foot into the bottom corner. Smith appeared to get a slight touch to it, but without a strong wrist to push it wide. The first half didn’t see many more great chances for either side, although Marius Niculae was showing some great ball control and link play with Wilson and Wyness. Dennis was clearly liking the ball played to feet more than the long punt up the park, and he managed to hold off the defence on a few occasions to hold up the play. Don Cowie was unable to make it 2-0 on 25 minutes. David Proctor, providing strong sliding tackles and very little in terms of mistakes, found himself assisting in some fine passing movements to deliver this opportunity. High and wide with this effort, but St Mirren remained on the backfoot for the next few minutes building up to half time. Niculae had a chance to run at the St Mirren defence soon after the goal kick, with a rare error from the Saints midfield allowing Russel Duncan to slot through for Marius. He checked past one defender with another to beat, and his snap shot appeared to take a deflection just wide of the post. To the surprise and disgust of the Caley Thistle support, a goal kick was awarded, allowing St Mirren to show they were not down and out in this fixture. Richard Hastings seemed to leave his man all to often in the first half, leaving Mark Corcoran with enough space to create an opportunity. David Proctor on hand to clear for a corner. Strong defending from Marius Niculae saw him clash heads with Miranda on the 6 yard box and the game was paused momentarily. Half Time: 1-0 Not by any means the most entertaining game of football so far, and far from the performance a few years back that saw would be 1st Div Champions St Mirren get gubbed 5-0!!! St Mirren came out fighting in the second half and created their first real chance of a goal. Stewart Kean, who has been the burden of so many teams during his career, was unable to remain stable in the wet conditions. His turn and shot after some nice link play saw his effort head high and wide of target with 50 minutes on the clock. From Fraser’s kick out, Cowie set Marius Niculae on yet another run. Wyness would have been a better option in hindsight, as Marius’ snap shot from just outside the box was not hit cleanly enough, and the slippery ball was easily gathered by Chris Smith. Wyness was evidently enjoying the ball played to feet, and had we stuck to the usual long ball routine, he would have certainly been out the game. His wee dinks to create chances, his ability to hold the ball up and his partnership with Niculae up front ensured we maintained decent spells of pressure in the early stages. The second half was end to end stuff for the majority, and St Mirren’s next chance came from a Free Kick on 53 minutes. Phil McGuire, who was having a good game in central defence, was on hand to clear off the line and set the midfield off. Russel Duncan, who was the match day sponsors eventual man of the match, sent the ball through to Niculae, who in turn provided Dennis Wyness with an opportunity to extend the lead. Once again the weather conditions making the game play sloppy, and Dennis could only see his weak shot saved once again by Chris Smith. St Mirren's best chances of the game fell in the last 20-25 minutes. Alan Millen provided a deep free kick into the box which was headed onto his own post by Phil McGuire. A fortunate escape! Franco Miranda on the right, was causing lots of problems for Richard Hastings and Grant Munro, and eventually managed on the odd occasion to provide decent deliveries into the box. With the continued pressure at the back, Inverness struggled to get the ball to the front pairing, and with the introduction of John Rankin, the ICT faithful were expecting good things. Stewart Kean and Gary Mason had superb opportunities to level the score with the later seeing a decent volley flash past Frasers’ left hand post, whilst Kean was only able to fire wide when one on one with the Caley number one. Approximately 10 minutes remained on the clock, and the Buddies were reduced to 10 men. Marius Niculae was released down the right flank, and managed to thunder his was past Gary Mason before being chopped down by Will Haining. Had he not already been booked it would have surely been a straight red. There seemed to be no real attempt to play the ball, and the referee had no hesitation in producing a second yellow card. John Rankin provided one of his trademark free kicks into the box and Niculae was unable to connect. The ball was cleared only as far as Russel Duncan. Provided with acres of space, Duncan was able to shoot from 25 yards but could not test the keeper. Referee Crawford had an indifferent game, with some decisions questionable. Deflected shots wide were not given as corners, strong tackles were awarded but some players went unpunished, but the most questionable decision came on 84 minutes. Marius Niculae managed to fight his way through for an attempt on goal, and was seemingly pulled back in the box. Cries of Penalty from players and fans fell of deaf ears and play was waved on. Inverness continued to hold on for a deserved and much needed victory. Craig Brewster said pre match that he wanted an early goal and it is that which proved decisive in keeping 3 points in Inverness. Full Time: 1-0 St Mirren now lie just one point ahead of Inverness in ninth with a game in hand, with that victory meaning ICT climb out of the bottom two for the first time this season. Falkirk taking their place above Gretna. 3,699 were in attendance on a wet and windy day at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, and most were glad to not only see a victory, but some well worked play by the front two, some solid defending at times by McGuire and Proctor (whom replaced McCaffrey and Tokely) and John Rankin showing why he should regain his status as a first team regular. Still work to be done mind, and perhaps some play seen on the training field should be brought into the fray on the park. Onwards and upwards to the dizzy heights of 9th for us next time round with a decent display at Tannadice? Lets hope so!!!
  20. You ever had one of those days where nothing went right? For Craig Brewster, this match will rank up there as being one of the worst..... Graham Bayne and Ross Tokely were both red carded, the fans were furious at what they saw as bad refereeing and the game was lost 0-3 as the team simply did not perform. Add the horrible early winter wind, rain, and sleet to this and it made today's game feel even worse. Motherwell's goals came from David Clarkson - one in each half - and Darren Smith who got a goal 3 minutes from time. 10/11/07 Tulloch Caledonian Stadium INVERNESS CT 0 Team: Fraser, Tokely, Munro, McCaffrey, Hastings, Cowie, Duncan, Black (Wilson 46), McBain (Rankin 79), Bayne, Wyness (Niculae 75) Subs: D. McDonald, Vigurs, Kerr, Malkowski MOTHERWELL 3 Clarkson (15,53), Smith (87) Team: Smith, Quinn, Reynolds, Craigan (Kinniburgh 81), Paterson, McGarry (Smith 70), Lasley, O'Donnell, Clarkson, Porter, McCormack (Grabban 70) Subs: Corrigan, Fitzpatrick, Murphy, Meldrum Referee Chris Boyle Attendance 3608 Craig Brewster made one change to the side that lost last week against Rangers. Don Cowie returned to the side and David Proctor dropped out altogether. John Rankin, whose continued absence from the squad prompted much discussion on the forums was listed as a substitute. Mark McGhee named the same side that started the previous week for Motherwell which meant an attacking 4-3-3 formation. Referee Chris Boyle was in charge of only his 4th SPL match in two years and had issued 12 yellows and two reds in the previous 3 SPL games. That would rise to 14 and 4 by the end of this game. The whistler has also been card happy in his other games this season with his stats for all 7 games he has officiated this season being 30 yellows and 6 reds !!! Anyhow, on to the game itself …. The first fifteen minutes were pretty turgid and there were no real chances. Motherwell probably had the better of play but the closest they came to goal was earning a corner in 10 minutes which went out for a goal kick. Another corner came in the 15th minute and Motherwell went ahead. Ross McCormack took an inswinging corner. It was headed on by Stephen Craigan and David Clarkson was on hand to turn it into the net. A couple of minutes later and Motherwell might have been two ahead – Chris Porter headed the ball into the net from a Ross McCormack cross but it was judged as offside. A minute after that Ross McCormack had another effort but his drive went over the bar. Graham Bayne had been getting pulled up all afternoon by the ref and after giving away more fouls in 23, 24 and 26 minutes, the ref finally booked him for persistent fouling. Although Motherwell were in the ascendancy, it was not all one-way traffic and Caley Thistle had three good chances near the end of the half. Tokely and Wyness combined to setup Russell Duncan and he decided to have a go from 20 yards. Unfortunately it went way over the bar. A couple of minutes later a Cowie free-kick was headed into the six yard box and Grant Munro got on the end of it. Despite some cheers from the crowd as the net bulged, it soon became apparent that it was bulging the wrong way and the shot had hit the side netting. 4 minutes from half-time and it was Russell Duncan again who had another chance, this time he shot from 18 yards but put it left of target. Half-Time ICT 0-1 Motherwell Craig Brewster made a substitution at half-time and this too has been the subject of a lot of debate. Many felt that Niculae for Bayne may have been sensible given the referee’s apparent dislike for Graham’s style of play but it was Barry Wilson who came on and Ian Black that was subbed. Rumours of a half-time dressing room bust-up and sightings of Blackie leaving the stadium before the second half even kicked off have been rampant ever since …. The folly of not subbing Graham Bayne at half-time would come back to haunt the Caley Jags gaffer after just 5 minutes. He was adjudged to have fouled David Clarkson on the half way line and the referee deemed it a bookable offence. As he had already been booked the red was produced and Caley Thistle were down to 10 men. Barely two minutes later and the game was effectively over. Ross McCormack made a run down the left wing and crossed to the back post for Clarkson. It was blocked near the line by Motherwell player Chris Porter but Clarkson blasted the rebound high into the net to make it 2-0. The fact that this goal was allowed to stand, with Porter not once but twice being in an offside position in many fans and players eyes ended it for Caley Thistle. From this point on every decision the ref made was questioned, the players became frustrated and it was inevitable that more yellows or reds were to follow. Roy McBain was the next one into the book as he lambasted the so-called “assistant referee” after a challenge from James Paterson and then he went back for more and was lucky not to walk for it. A red card however was coming in the near future and in the 62nd minute, it was issued to fan favourite Ross Tokely who was judged to have elbowed/punched Steve McGarry as the pair tussled off the ball. There is a suggestion that McGarry made the most of it, and that his own manager may have made a diving gesture to the player when he was subbed a little later, but the bottom line is that Tokely raised his hands (or elbow) to the player and you just don’t do that … to do it with 11 men on the park is bad enough, but to do it when you are 2-0 down and already down to 10 men is inexcusable. It is also somewhat reminiscent of a similar incident at Ayr a few years ago where the big man lost it, got sent off and was forced to spend the rest of the match in the team bus as ICT were hammered 5-1. The scoreline didn’t get that bad in this match, but it might have had the Motherwell attackers got more on target. In 66 minutes David Clarkson shot over the bar and Porter did similar in 70 minutes. Fifteen minutes before the end, Marius Niculae replaced Wyness but he could do nothing to get ICT back into it. It was definitely a rearguard action as the team went to a 4-3-1 formation with Cowie covering at right back and this meant that Motherwell could basically attack at will. The third nearly came in 77 minutes as Lasley powered through the ICT defence but his cross to Porter was intercepted by Hastings who did well to stop the attack. The last throw of the dice was to bring on John Rankin for Roy McBain in 79 minutes but it was too little too late by this time. 11 minutes isn’t very long to have an impact with 11 players on the park but with 9 its asking for a miracle. Although Don Cowie had just been announced as the sponsors’ man of the match, Motherwell sealed the win with a third goal just 3 minutes from time when “real” man of the match David Clarkson crossed for substitute Darren Smith who slotted home an easy chance. Many ICT fans didn’t see this goal as they had left in droves long before the final whistle in what was undoubtedly one of ICT worst performances in the SPL. Full Time: 0-3 Speaking after the match Craig Brewster had sympathy for Graham Bayne but lambasted Tokely saying “I certainly thought the first sending off is harsh as it seemed that everytime Graham Bayne went up for a ball in the first half he was punished and we told Graham at half-time to be careful. However the second red card is a disgrace, Tokely has let himself down and his team mates down, with ten men you are up against it but with nine men it is damage limitation and I will deal with him internally on Monday.” [source: www.ictfc.co.uk] Club Captain Grant Munro said something very similar “Ross's was a definite red card; what he did was very stupid and he let himself down firstly and also the team. I thought Graham's red card was harsh - it seems for some reason that he gets booked in every game he plays. He's a centre forward so he's got to be strong and I don't think he did much wrong from my own and the team's points of view. It's not about the referee, though, it's about how we perform and we were disappointing, simple as that. The game was very difficult when Graham was sent off and it was an uphill task when Ross stupidly got sent off so it was about digging in and keeping it respectable, but I thought we did that and played a lot better with nine men than we probably did with 11” [source: Scotsman newspaper]
  21. A Kris Boyd goal within 30 seconds of kick-off and a second half Carlos Cuellar goal was enough for Rangers to see off the Caley Thistle challenge. After taking 7 of a possible 9 points from the Gers last season, this seasons numbers are a little less pleasing... 0 out of a possible 6! 03/11/07 Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow Rangers 2 Boyd (1), Cuellar (63) Team: McGregor, Hutton, Cuellar, Weir, Papac, Beasley, Ferguson, Hemdani, McCulloch, Novo (Cousin 60), Boyd (Darcheville 61) Subs: Naismith, Furman, Lennon, Faye, Carroll INVERNESS CT 0 Team: Fraser, Tokely, Munro, McCaffrey, Hastings, Proctor (Morgan 86), Duncan, Black (Cowie 87), McBain, Bayne, Wyness (Niculae 84) Subs: D. McDonald, Vigurs, Kerr, Malkowski Referee William Collum Attendance 48868 A smaller than usual army of Caley Jags fans turned up for this weeks SPL fixture against Rangers at Ibrox. Hardly surprising given the price of tickets to see any of the teams in the SPL these days and with away trips to play Gretna last weekend and Aberdeen midweek then wallets will have already taken a pounding. It’s been a strange week though. After a convincing performance against Gretna where we never looked to be in danger we were taken back down to earth with a bump in our CIS Cup fixture against Aberdeen despite playing some decent football. One never expects to go to Ibrox and come away with the points but given the fact that that our only loss there had been over 3 years ago, then we had reason enough to be upbeat. We were down in good time on the minibus and nosiness had gotten the better of me and I wanted to check up on the rumours that Barry Wilson had been dropped from the squad and would not be making the trip south with the team, so we headed round to meet the team bus….low and behold there was no sign of him. However, this didn’t stop the ladies battling to the front of the crowd to drool over the lads and offer some encouragement ahead of the game. The Wilson question had been answered, but curiosity remains as to the reasons!!! Best place to ponder over such things is in the pub, so off we went for a couple of lemonades before heading in to the game. Listening to the squad being announced things started to get strangerer and strangerer. Not only had Wilson not been included in the squad, but the on form Cowie who has performed consistently for us all season had been relegated to the bench with Proctor getting a start. I’d barely reached my seat when I glanced up to see the ball in the back of the ICT net. Only 34 seconds in to the game and a goal down…from memory that is the quickest goal we have ever conceded and actually quite fascinating when you consider we’d had the kick-off and the play leading up to the goal had resulted from McCaffery bringing Novo down from a free-kick just inside our own half. Ferguson took it quickly, passing to Novo who caught us napping - feeding the ball through a gap big enough for a 747 for Boyd to latch on to leaving only the keeper to beat. Oh Horlicks!!! Was this going to be a repeat of Wednesday night? Wyness was first to give the ICT fans something to shout about when only moments after losing the goal he was up the other end and testing McGregor…well, making him aware we had turned up at least, as he had little to do but catch the long range effort…still promising signs that we had some idea on the direction of the goal. Beasley was next to get the ball in the net, but fortunately for us he’d been flagged offside before he’d even touched it. 5 minutes in, and already Rangers are looking to run the clock down with wasted efforts after the whistle had been blown....lol. It wasn’t all one way traffic and although Rangers looked like they may pose a threat on a couple of occasions our defence, in large, seemed to be dealing with most of what they had to throw at us. Meanwhile at the other end Bayne had been given a couple of opportunities to open the scoring…going narrowly over with his first effort and having his second blocked by Cuellar. Munro also had a half chance with a long ranged left foot effort which went wide of the mark. Novo was next to notch up a conversion putting on over the bar and Duncan did the same for us at the other end. Had this been a game of Rugby we might actually have had our noses in front based on drop goals!!! Much of the action was taking place in the middle of the park with both teams making the odd toothless foray into the oppositions third which wasn’t causing either keeper too many problems. Rangers had a couple of half decent chances just before the break when Fraser got a string hand to a shot from Beasley to parry it for the corner and McCulloch went wide with a header. HT – Rangers 1 v 0 Inverness CT We were a goal down, but we certainly didn’t look out of it. It was hard to tell if Rangers were just “doing enough” and had it in them to step up the pressure if needed, but we had been knocking the ball about well and only seemed to be lacking a bit of creativity in order to open up some better chances at the front. The defence who have come under a lot of criticism this season seemed to be performing a little better, partly down to the presence of Proctor who was dropping back to cover for Tokely when he was making charges forward…although this did leave us a bit lacking in the middle on occasion. This seemed to have been the reason for replacing Cowie, but with us being a goal down and it getting to the stage where we might need to chase the game then thoughts during the HT chat among fans surrounded substitutes and whether we may see them before the magic 79 minute mark. Caley Thistle appeared to have the majority of possession at the start of the second half but it was 10 minutes in before we saw the first effort from any team go near the goalmouth when Bayne popped the ball over the bar from the edge of the area. Fraser gathered a shot from Beasley without much effort and Tokely picked up the first yellow card of the game following a slack tackle on same. Caley Thistle looked to have been handed a golden opportunity when a Weir, attempting to head back to McGregor, succeeded in putting it over the keeper and into the front of the goal…a yard quicker off the mark and we would have equalised, but McGregor recovered and eventually managed to smother the ball. Not surprisingly, Rangers were the first to make some changes when Novo and Boyd were replaced by Cousin and Darcheville on the 60 minute mark. Rangers started to turn the screw at this point and it wasn’t long before substitute Darcheville left his mark on the game. His clever ball from the middle of the area was met by Cuellar who scored into the bottom right of the net, leaving Fraser with no chance at a save. Frustration seemed to be setting in and Hastings was next to pick up a yellow card for a tackle on Hutton. The game was crying out for a tactical change on the part of Inverness, especially now that we had gone 2 down. We needed to bring on players to give us more of an attacking threat, be that someone with pace coming in to the midfield or us sacrificing a man at the back to put a third forward on the park, who knows, but the change was needed. We had been creating chances the whole game, but they were mostly long(ish) range efforts and we weren’t doing anything to carve our way through the back line of Rangers. Our long balls in to the box were being crowded out and it was only from set pieces we were getting any penetration. McBain and Duncan had both had chances and Proctor was caught offside when it looked like he may have stolen a chance to go through one on one with the keeper but the only keeper being tested to any degree was Fraser. If we weren’t putting it over the bar then we were playing it straight in to the hands of McGregor. The “Magic 79 Minute Mark” had come and gone with still no sign of any changes for ICT, this was all getting rather frustrating. Then finally on 84 minutes we made a change with Niculae coming on to replace Wyness. Again a baffling decision, what we needed was more of a threat, so why take of our top scoring Striker!!! 2 minutes later we made a double substitution. Black and Proctor coming off to be replaced by Cowie and Morgan. 4 minutes left in the game and we’re looking for miracles. In truth, other than a late shot by Cowie we rarely saw the ball again. Full Time: 2-0 Yet again the lads on the pitch had, for the most part, done what had been asked of them by the manager. I remain perplexed by the late use of substitutes in games where they are crying out for changes earlier on, and this “like for like” change of players on the pitch is doing little to change the tactics even when subs are made. Early in the season some of the players looked like they needed a good kick up the jacksie to get them going but things changed around when Brewster arrived…now it’s Brewster that looks like he needs the kick to get him going so as to prove that he has more about him as a manager than just getting the squad fit.
  22. Team: A big win for Caley Thistle today, both in terms of the scoreline and also in getting a little bit further away from the relegation zone. Dennis Wyness slotted home a second minute penalty after Ross Tokely had been fouled in the box and a Don Cowie free kick on the half hour mark extended the lead. Second half goals from Barry Wilson and Roy McBain sealed a 4-0 victory. 27/10/07 Fir Park, Motherwell Gretna 0 Team: Caig, Cowan (Graham 46), Horwood, Grainger, McGuffie, Jenkins, Murray, Hogg (Grady 66), Skelton, Yantorno, Buscher (McMenamin 79) Subs: Deverdics, McGill, Paarpalu, Fleming INVERNESS CT 4 Wyness (2pen), Cowie (31), Wilson (73), McBain (75) Team: Fraser, Tokely, McGuire (Proctor 79), Munro, Hastings, McBain, Black (Wilson 60), Duncan, Cowie, Niculae (Bayne 72), Wyness Subs: D McDonald, Vigurs, Kerr, Malkowski Referee Mike McCurry Attendance 1096 It was going to be a long day as it was, and it was one made even longer for me when I received a call during the early hours of the morning to let me know that I was to be an uncle again as my brother and his wife had been blessed with a son weighing in at 5lbs 5oz who was to be named Michael Rury. A toast to their good health would have to wait as I had to be up and about in a couple of hours to ferry the ICT faithful to Fir Park for the game. Ironically, interest in attending the game was high as everyone wanted to be part of the crowd that was tipped to become the lowest ever in the SPL. Gretna had organised a Family Fun day for pre-match entertainment and that meant an early start to allow the youngsters (and the young at heart) to attend. The decision had also been taken to brighten things up a bit by participating in the “Wear it Pink ” campaign in support of Breast Cancer Research. The ladies were dressed head to toe in pink, whilst the only pink from the lads was the colour of their cheeks resulting from a sherbet or two in the Social Club pre-match. Those travelling on the CaleyThistleOnline minibus were split into two buses this week. Maimie was first with her bus with me following on after a couple of pick-ups. Male arrogance was in full flow and we were confident we’d catch them on the A9 despite the 10 minute lead. That wasn’t to be, although both buses pulled in to Ballinluig one after the other for the breakfast stop. Maimie was first away again, and we were all ready to roll until it was discovered that we’d somehow managed to pay for breakfast twice…TM4TJ and Billy the fish weren’t having this and had to go back in to reclaim some funds for the beer when we got to Motherwell. Finally we were back on the road and despite short visit to the crematorium at the request of Caley100 we made it to Fir Park. We were made very welcome at the Social Club and were mingling happily with the Gretna and Motherwell fans (they were waiting on their bus to take them to Parkhead). Spirits were high, the songs had already begun and a quick call back to the Innes Bar confirmed what we all suspected….Scooby wasn’t available to give us a lift the 50 yards from the Social Club to the Stadium!!! Predictions for the crowd were coming in at around the 600 to 700 mark whilst predictions on the score were based around a 1-2 or 0-2 for ICT. My own prediction had been 1-3 as clean sheets haven’t been our speciality this season. There had been much speculation about the team, would Brewster make himself available and would Zibi get another chance in goal….as it was, Craig Brewster went with only one change to the starting line up for this match against bottom of the league Gretna with Michael Fraser coming in to start against the on-loan Zibi Malkowski. Gretna had also gone with a change of goalkeeper by bringing in Caig and had made changes in most other areas of the field. On entering the stadium the crowd looked more than the predicted 6 or 700 and the Caley Thistle faithful had turned out in good numbers and high spirits. The songs had started before the teams were even on the pitch and the majority of the travelling support was in good voice. It wasn’t going to take much to have the Caley Jags fans singing today but rewards for the twelfth man came early. A long throw by Munro into the box led to a chance for Tokely to stick the ball in to the net at the left post, his chance was impeded by barge from Cowan, but the result was a deserved penalty. Wyness stepped up to do the honours and he sent Caig the wrong way as he placed the ball comfortably into the bottom-right of the net. Caley Thistle looked to be in control of the game from early on with Gretna doing very little to threaten. We were defending from well up the park which seemed to be frustrating Gretna and it became obvious early on that they were relying heavily on Fabian Yantorno. Marius Niculae was next to threaten the Gretna goal. He picked up the ball on the halfway line and made direct for the Gretna end. He was closed out with about 25 yards to go but managed to stop and control the ball for a shot which went low and narrowly wide of the post. Gretna’s first shot on goal came shortly afterwards following a foul by Tokely on Yantorno 35 yards out. Yantorno decided to shoot direct but it offered no trouble to Fraser and dipped harmlessly on to the roof of the net. The chants were coming thick and fast from the travelling Caley Jags fans….”Your just a Pub Team from England” and “Shall we sing a song for You” being directed at the very quiet Gretna Support. Niculae then came close again. Caig had come off his line to chase a high ball to his left but missed it in dramatic fashion only for it to fall in front of the goal a few yards out. Niculae was at full stretch as he clipped the ball on the volley with his right foot. Had he got a little more on it then Grainger would have been unable to reach it and clear it from the line. Nobody seems more desperate to score for ICT just now than him, and you have to wonder what he has to do to get his name on an SPL goalsheet as he continues to be denied. Dennis Wyness was fouled about 25 yards out on the left side of the pitch shortly afterwards and the balled was placed for Don Cowie to take the free-kick. His shot was well struck and it curled around the wall and inside the near post to make it 0-2 after 31 minutes. Then came one of the most bizarre bookings I have ever seen. It could only have been given for dissent as not only was the ball nowhere near the booked Paul Murray, but he hadn’t been involved anywhere in the play. It didn’t take long for those around me to agree that given the poor effort by Gretna in the game so far, he’d been booked simply because he was…eh….”not very good”, and the rest of the Gretna team would be booked for the same thing if they didn’t get their act together. Inverness CT weren’t playing at their best but Gretna had nothing to offer which was caused us any trouble. McBain did manage one other shot on goal before the half-time whistle and the Caley Jags were cheered off the park for a dominating first 45 minute performance. HT – Gretna 0 v 2 Inverness CT One half-time substitution for Gretna as David Graham was brought on to replace David Cowan and it looked like Gretna were going to go for broke and risk 3 at the back. Caley Thistle looked sharp for the first 5 minutes of the second half getting off to a very positive start with Niculae heading narrowly over from the penalty box and Wyness also going over with an attempted lob from the left side of the area. For the next 20 minutes or so it looked like we were going to be happy to defend our lead and we allowed Gretna to come at us a bit more by choosing to defend a bit deeper. Yantorno was caught narrowly offside about 20 yards out and moments later he missed narrowly wide from 25 yards out. Ian Black was down injured on the far side of the field and it seemed to go unnoticed as play continued. Then McGuffie had a text book copy of Yantorno’s effort missing narrowly right. It looked like ICT had gone to sleep and if they weren’t careful Gretna were going to get themselves right back in to this game. Black had to make his own way off the pitch to receive treatment and the decision was quickly made to send Barry Wilson on in his place. Philip McGuire received a soft yellow card for a mis-timed tackle on Yantorno. Although it didn’t appear that any contact was made, Yantorno had decided to go to ground. His recovery was miraculous though. The moment the card was shown he was up and ready to take the free-kick which sailed harmlessly over the bar. Frasers goal kick was picked up well by Gretna and they came right back at us with Skelton opting to shoot from 30 yards out. The ball looked like it was going safely (if only narrowly) wide, but Fraser was taking no chances and a spectacular dive saw him getting a full hand behind the powerful shot and pushing it out along the line. Niculae made a desperate attempt to chase and keep the ball in to prevent the corner but a chasing Gretna player posed too much of a threat and he knocked it safely out. The Caley Thistle fans had been giving James Grady a bit of a hard time when he was warming up in the first half (we seemed to have songs for everyone and everything today), and he had now been take on to replace Steven Hogg. About 20 minutes in to the second half and we finally looked like we’d got ourselves together again and were back to defending from further forward and quickly breaking down the little threat Gretna had been showing. It was also time for our second sub with Bayne coming on to replace Niculae up front. Wyness had a shot pushed out by Caig with about 20 minutes left on the clock. Cowie knocked the resultant penalty in to the box but the clearance didn’t go too far before being played back in. Some nice touches from ICT saw us carve their defence apart - the play started with McBainplaying the ball wide to Wilson who cut inside and played it through to Munro on the edge of the area, Munro played it straight back to Wilson who touched it off to McGuire for him to play the killer touch behind the defender leaving Wilson with the simple task of taking a touch before slotting it into the bottom right corner. 0-3 This was the catalyst for the first of the Gretna fans to start departing from the stadium to chants of “Cheerio” and “We Can See You Sneaking Out”….not to mention my favourite of the day “Relegation to You” (sung to the tune of Happy Birthday to You). I was getting hoarse and the Stewards seemed to have all but given up on telling us to sit down… ”What’s the point, we’ll be standing to celebrate the next goal soon” was one reply to them…made all the funnier by the fact that whoever had said it was spot on. No sooner had we stopped cheering the third goal when the 4th one came. And it was a goal from nothing. A run of the mill ball played in from the right to McBain about 30 yards out. He must have saw the gap and the chance because he simply let rip with a shot into top dead centre….his name on the score sheet and a Free M.O.T from Caley100 (that’ll teach him to keep his gob shut…lol) Substitutions by both teams with 12 minutes on the clock did little to change the flow of the game. Proctor came on to replace the booked McGuire and Gretna swapped Buscher for McMennamin The last 10 minutes saw ICT simply knocking the ball about and killing the clock. Yantoro did manage his party trick of knocking a ball over the bar one more time from a fair distance out, with our own Wilson and Tokely having half chances of their own. Caley Thistle fans had taken pity on the Gretna support that had remained to the end and we even took to cheering on their players when they had the ball. Fortunately I managed to spell Gretna correctly when doing a round of “Gimme a G…Gimme an R…etc” From here on in I don’t think we let Gretna within 30 yards of goal and McCurry should receive a humanity medal for putting them out of their misery on the stroke of 90 minutes with no time added. Full Time: 0-4 I said after the Hibs game that we were going to give someone a hammering sooner rather than later due to the way we had been playing back then. The truth is, we weren’t at the top of our game today, but we didn’t have to be. We always looked ready to shift up a gear if it was needed whilst Gretna already looked like they had engaged everything at their disposal. The journey home…..well that’s a story in itself and shall be left for discussion on the forums!!!
  23. It took a Ross Tokely goal to win this game. Unfortunately, the goal was an own goal and it meant Caley Thistle still haven't beaten the Dons as they held on to win it 2-1 One bright spot however was the 58th minute Dennis Wyness goal... a goal that sees him become the first player to hit 100 goals for ICT. 21/10/07 Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, Inverness INVERNESS CT 1 (Wyness 58) Team: Malkowski, Tokely, McGuire (Proctor 67), Munro, Hastings, McBain, Black (Wilson 81), Duncan, Cowie, Niculae (Bayne 85), Wyness Subs: D McDonald, Vigurs, Kerr, Fraser ABERDEEN 2 (Young 8), Tokely (62 og) Team: Langfield, McNamara, Diamond, Mair, Foster, Nicholson, Severin (Byrne 43), De Visscher (Touzani 79), Young, Miller, Mackie (Lovell 46) Subs: Aluko, Maguire, Smith, Kelly Referee Eddie Smith Attendance 6023 This was the 14th time Caley Thistle had gone head to head with Aberdeen and it was the 14th attempt at notching up the first victory against our East Coast neighbours. Craig Brewster had made some changes to the team that faced Kilmarnock a fortnight ago – Hastings was back in the squad after being out with an injury which also saw him miss out on International duty for Canada recently, Wilson had been relegated to the bench to keep a space for McBain who pushed forward into his more natural roll on the left of midfield, but most noticeable was the change of personal between the sticks with Fraser being replaced by loan keeper Zibi Malkowski. The Caley Jags didn’t get off to the brightest of starts and looked unsettled for the first 25 minutes of the game…this was most apparent in the 8th minute when Ross Tokely was drawn out of position, missed his tackle and let Young of Aberdeen through in a dangerous position. The rest of the defence seemed intent on standing back and allowing him to get the shot off. Unfortunately Malkowski wasn’t able to get down fast enough and the ball squeezed under his body and in to the back of the net, despite opinions that it should have been an easy save. Aberdeen had taken early control of the game and continued to push forward; fortunately for ICT they weren’t able to produce an end product which was causing us any difficulty. Niculae had the first real chance for ICT around the 20 minute mark but unfortunately it went straight in to the hands of Langfield. This seemed to spur on the Caley Jags though and they upped their game, we were on the ascendancy with Niculae, Wyness, Black and Cowie all getting a chance to shoot at goal as the game pushed on towards the half-time whistle. Half Time : Inverness CT 0 – 1 Aberdeen Having replaced Severin just before half time due to an injury, Aberdeen also had to replace Mackie at half time….on came the man who has posed more problems for ICT than the rest of the Aberdeen team together….Steve Lovell. Caley Thistle started the second half brightly and it was our turn to dominate on possession and be making the push towards the Aberdeen goalmouth. However, we seemed to be suffering the problem as Aberdeen had done early in the game and were unable to produce much of a threat on goal. This wasn’t helped by referee Eddie Smith, he hadn’t had much to do the whole game, which was probably just as well as the majority of his calls seemed to be given the wrong way. We were looking the most likely to score the next goal and that couldn’t have arrived in better fashion. A clever run in to the 6 yard box by Wyness was timed perfectly to meet an accurate cross from Hastings. Wyness had escaped his markers and was free to slot the ball confidently beyond Langfield…his 100th goal for ICT, but more importantly an equaliser and (deservedly) a chance for us to take something from this match. Caley Thistle still looked the stronger of the two teams, keeping possession for large spells and still looked most likely to score in the final 30 minutes. In fact, it was an ICT player who was next to net…unfortunately in the wrong end. Ross Tokely jumped to defend against a cross in to the box and seemed to receive a slight nudge which saw him head the ball past Malkowski to make it 1-2 for Aberdeen. McGuire was subbed off shortly afterwards, I had thought he picked up a knock earlier in the game and had been limping, so I’m not sure if he’d been trying to play through it and struggling or if he picked up another bang, but Proctor was to take his place having being brought back to Inverness by Brewster upon his return. Niculae was unlucky to shoot wide around the 70 minute mark and their really wasn’t too much else to talk about us the ball seemed to spend most of its time in the middle third of the pitch. Aberdeen then seemed to come back in to the game and were looking to try and catch us on the break, and had it not been for the slight eagerness of Vischer and Lovell who were both caught offside on separate occasions then Malkowski may have faced a tougher test. Duncan looked like creating a carbon copy of the goal he scored against Falkirk last month when he wellied a right footed volley from about 25 yards out and had it gone anywhere other than straight at Langfield then Duncan would be holding 2 of this seasons top 3 goals for ICT. McBain had been largely ineffective for most of the match and looked like a prime target to be replaced by Wilson who I’d spotted warming up and getting kitted up in preparation for the substitution. I was therefore slightly shocked to see that it was Black who had been signalled to come off the park…he had been struggling a little in the middle, but he’d also looked like one of our greatest threats when we were pushing forward and had a couple of decent shots on goal. A tiring Niculae was replaced shortly afterwards by Bayne. Niculae has been unlucky not to have broken his duck in the SPL this season and he’d put in another good shift in the Blue and Red stripes. Some people remain unconvinced, but I have little doubt that he is making a valuable contribution to the team and will gain rightful recognition in due course. Full Time: 1-2 Other than Duncan getting a yellow card for being unable to keep his trap shut, the game kinda fizzled to a close. Room for improvement on the part of the Caley Jags, but not an altogether bad performance. We face Aberdeen on their turf again in 10 days time – Halloween Night – maybe the Bogeyman can help us put one over on our Bogey Team!!!
  24. Its always worrying when you hear your opponents are struggling to field a full strength side, that the bookies have made you favourites and that a lot of money has been placed on your team to win. These things are often a recipe for disaster as the understrength side go on to play well and defy the bookies odds, and the so-called favourites seem blasé that they just have to turn up to win. With the benefit of hindsight, the statisticians or the more cautious amongst us would perhaps have looked to previous results and know that 5 of the previous 10 SPL fixtures between the sides had ended in score draws. 05/10/07 Rugby Park, Kilmarnock KILMARNOCK 2 Koudou (1), Nish (56) Team: Combe, Fowler, Wright, Lilley, Ford, Flannigan (Locke 87), Gibson, Bryson, Hammill, Koudou (Jarvis 70), Nish Subs: Noble, Murray, Rascle INVERNESS CT 2 Ford (22 og), Cowie (61) Team: Fraser, Tokely, McGuire, Munro, McBain, Wilson (Hastings 80), Black, Duncan, Cowie, Niculae (Bayne 63), Wyness (D McDonald 86) Subs: Proctor, Vigurs, Kerr, Malkowski Referee Iain Brines Attendance 4456 Its always worrying when you hear your opponents are struggling to field a full strength side, that the bookies have made you favourites and that a lot of money has been placed on your team to win. These things are often a recipe for disaster as the understrength side go on to play well and defy the bookies odds, and the so-called favourites seem blasé that they just have to turn up to win. With the benefit of hindsight, the statisticians or the more cautious amongst us would perhaps have looked to previous results and know that 5 of the previous 10 SPL fixtures between the sides had ended in score draws. And so it was on Saturday …. Kilmarnock fielded a side that was certainly not ‘first choice’, naming only 5 substitutes, and conceding that only one of those could last more than 10-15 minutes if called upon. Caley Thistle on the other hand, with an unchanged starting 11 from the one that beat Falkirk 4-2 the previous week, underperformed and the end result was a 2-2 draw. Within a minute of the kick-off, Mike Fraser had conceded a horrendous goal. Craig Bryson hit an effort from 20 yards and Fraser judged it to be going out. Unfortunately his judgement was wrong and he could only push it onto the post where it bounced out into the path of Aime Koudou who had the easiest of tap-ins to make it 1-0. Barry Wilson shot wide in 10 minutes and then in 18 minutes a neat one-two between Wyness and Niculae ended with a fierce shot from Wyness that was well saved by Combe. The 21st minute equaliser was equally strange. Fraser Wright sliced a clearance on the edge of the box under no real pressure from Wyness and there seemed to be a mix-up between Simon Ford and Alan Combe. Combe was coming for the ball, but Ford tried to head it back to where he had been seconds earlier and despite Combe scrambling back he couldn’t stop it as it rolled into the net to make it 1-1. Further chances fell to both sides in the first half with both Lilley and Bryson coming close for the home side and Don Cowie coming close for ICT but it ended all square. Half Time: 1-1 If the first half goals were weird, the second half goals seemed a little more orthodox in nature ! Marius Niculae had the first real chance of the second half and forced a good save out of Combe in 48 minutes but it was Colin Nish who would put Killie in front again after 55 minutes with a route one goal. A long kickout from Combe bounced deep inside the ICT half and Fraser opted to come out for it. Unfortunately for Ike, it was met by the head of Nish at the edge of the box and he headed it over him to make it 2-1. Five minutes later, Caley Thistle got back on level terms through Don Cowie. The close season signing from Ross County who has been in sensational form since his move to ICT blasted a 25-yard free kick round the wall and into the top right corner past the helpless Combe. A goal of real quality that later had manager Brewster proclaiming it as “top drawer”. As the game drew to a close both sides had chances to win it with Ryan Jarvis having a good chance for Killie and Graham Bayne coming the closest for ICT. Full Time: 2-2
  25. Do-Do-Do-Do...Dennis Wyness scored twice as Caley Thistle made it three victories in seven days. Ru-Ru-Ru-Ru...Russel Duncan takes man of the match for his box to box performance and chipping in with a fantastic goal of his own. Ummm...Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba Ba-Ba Black Sheep...He may have been a bit of a Black Sheep last season but his new found temperament is paying off dividends as he now spends more time on the park than he does off it and is contributing to the score sheet. Some fantastic individual performances today, but not at the expense of the team who played total football for the bulk of the 90 minutes and walked away deserved 4-2 winners. 29/09/07 Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, Inverness INVERNESS CT 4 Wyness (7, 54), Duncan (18), Black (32) Team: Fraser, Tokely, McGuire, Munro, McBain, Wilson (Morgan 87), Black (Hastings 75), Duncan, Cowie, Niculae (Bayne 87), Wyness Subs: D McDonald, Vigurs, Kerr, Malkowski FALKIRK 2 Milne (28) , Arfield (47) Team: Krul, Holden, Scobbie (Allison 72), Barr, Milne, Arfield, Cregg, Latapy (Wallner 72), Moutinho (Barrett 72), Finnigan, Higdon Subs: Aafjes, Riera, Craig, Olejnik Referee David Somers Attendance 4011 What a week it’s been, and the Caley Jags couldn’t have topped it off any better than they did in today’s match against Falkirk at Tulloch Caledonian Stadium. We’d barely taken to our seats when Don Cowie got in the first shot of the game – a powerful volley which he just couldn’t hold low enough and it went over the bar. Yet again ICT were setting out their stall early and letting the opposition know that they were in for a game and we didn’t have to wait long for the opener. Marius Niculae looked like he was going to get his name on the score sheet first but his shot was deflected, only for it to fall to Dennis Wyness who stuck it away for his 3rd goal in as many games. Caley Thistle were linking some great moves together and providing some entertaining football but I felt they were sitting off Falkirk a little too much and this allowed for a couple of longer ranges efforts which could have, and probably should have troubled Fraser more than they did. Russel Duncan is a player who seems to come in for a little more criticism than most and a few of the fans would have been starting to warm the humble pie around 15 minutes in when Duncan’s strike from the edge of the area left Krul only able to tip it around the post. Duncan wasn’t to be denied with his next shot though, despite the best efforts of the Falkirk defence. He hit a rocket from about 30 yards out which would have been trouble enough for Krul even without the deflection which saw it rise and then dip quickly into the back of the net. ICT were spraying balls into the Falkirk area like there was no tomorrow and everyone seemed to be trying to get in on the action. Ian Black was having a great game alongside Duncan and neither seemed afraid to get forward and have a go, but as I said above, we were affording Falkirk too much space when they were on the attack. I thought Latapy was playing a bit deeper than normal, but with his intelligent play and ability to find himself that extra yard before placing some very nice passes to the front line, he always looked dangerous. Mikey Fraser looked confident between the sticks today and he dealt with crossed balls, and corners well and even though Falkirk had a few shots on target none of them seemed to trouble him too much. Falkirk were next to score though and despite being caught wrong footed Fraser did well to get a hand on the ball and almost succeeded in pushing it wide. Kenny Milne was awarded the goal, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the replay shows it to have come of an ICT boot in an attempt to clear the cross. Ian Black was to restore the 2 goal lead only 5 minutes later and it was a goal that you would have to see to truly appreciate. Niculae headed the ball in towards goal as Black made his run, it looked like an awkward ball and I thought Black had missed it but he cleverly got the outside of his boot to it to send it in to the corner of the net and beyond reach of the outstretched Krul. Even at 3-1 I never felt totally comfortable as I still thought we were sitting off Falkirk a little too much and I would have liked to have seen us put a man on Latapy who time and again managed to get the ball beyond our midfield and defence and had it not been for the fact that the Falkirk front line were struggling to threaten our goal with anything serious then we could have been more troubled. Caley Thistle were creating plenty of their own chances and at the Half Time mark the game could just has easily been 3-3, 5-1, 5-3 or any such thing. It really was reminiscent of the days under Steve Paterson when the philosophy seemed to be if they are going to score then we’ll just have to make sure we score more. Half Time: Inverness CT 3 v 1 Falkirk – but a feeling that either team was capable of scoring a few more. Falkirk started the second half the stronger team and were rewarded for being the quicker off the mark with a goal only a minute after the restart. The ball seemed to rattle uncomfortably around the box, ICT working to clear it as Falkirk struggled to find the connection to put it in the net. When the ball did finally break from the area it dropped right in front of Scot Arfield who didn’t need to think twice before hitting it on the volley from about 20 yards out, a well taken ball sent through a crowded box and beyond the reach of Fraser….3-2 Ross Tokely nearly regained the 2 goal lead within a minute when his header from a Barry Wilson free-kick was saved by Krul and Black was unlucky to go narrowly wide from about 25 yards out. Dennis Wyness had been on form the whole match and as someone commented “He thinks he’s back playing in Div 1” – a comment aimed more at the predatory instinct we witnessed from him in those days as opposed to his standard of play which was undoubtedly top drawer. The drag, shuffle and scoop were all being used to full effect, we could see them coming and so could the Falkirk defence, but they were powerless to counter it. No more so than on 54 minutes when some fancy footwork and a little flick allowed him to sail through the Falkirk defence before placing the ball past the oncoming Krul at a tight angle into the far corner….4-2, a 2 goal lead and 35 minutes left on the clock…the ICT of latter years would have been looking to shut up shop and just play the game to an end, but that was not to be the case. This looked like a team who had a point to prove and for much of the remainder of the game they did just that. For much of the first half and the start of the second it looked like Falkirk could come back at us but we didn’t give them enough of the ball to allow that in the final half hour. Even when they were on the ball the failed to do anything with it and Fraser was on form and picking cross balls out of the air as if this was nothing more than match practice. Barry Wilson was unlucky not to have added his name to the score sheet on a couple of occasions and at times you had to wonder what Niculae had to do to get the ball in the back of the net. Any doubts anyone may have had about the value of his contribution should have been laid firmly to rest after today. He may not have found the net but he set up some great chances for others and on any other day would have bagged a couple for himself. Caley Thistle also pulled off one of the nicest set pieces I have ever seen them do. Faced with a free kick about 30 yards out 3 of them stood over the ball. I thought we were going to see a repeat of an earlier set piece which saw the ball tapped sideways for Niculae who shot just wide but they sold me the dummy and Falkirk were momentarily stunned as well. I can’t remember who did what exactly but it went something like….Cowie runs up and steps over the ball but continues to the edge of the 18 yard box, Wilson looks like he’s going to blast it or tap it off for Niculae but leaves it and Niculae plays the ball to the waiting Cowie who, by this time, had found himself plenty of space on the edge of the area and was unfortunate not to have one of the other players who were running in get on the end of his cross. Hope they show this one in the highlights as it really was very cleverly done. Falkirk went for a triple substitution on 72 minutes – Scobbie, Latapy and Moutinho being replaced by Allison, Wallner and Barret. Latapy had been the only one really threatening ICT and I was glad to see him being replaced. The replacements offered no real threat for the remaining 20 minutes and I think Falkirk may have had only 1 shot on goal between making the subs and the end. This could also have been in part due to our own substitution of Black for Hastings shortly afterwards when it looked like the decision had been made to strangle whatever play we’d allowed Falkirk to have for the bulk of the game. You’d have been forgiven for thinking that the match today was being played without a referee as he was, for the most part, anonymous and let play flow. However, he did make one baffling decision towards the end when Cregg fouled Rossco just inside our own half. Rossco had managed to stay on his feet and had clear space in front of him but instead of allowing the advantage the referee whistled for play to stop and killed the momentum. Niculae, Wilson and Duncan all had half decent, if long range, shots at goal and Niculae even looked like he was through one on one with the keeper but was adjudged to be offside and was very unfortunate to have to watch his header come off the bar shortly before being replaced by Bayne. He and Wilson left the field to a standing ovation (Morgan replaced Wilson). Wyness seemed to get shot shy towards the end and should maybe have been a little more selfish on a couple of occasions but I think we can forgive him that. I think it would be unjust of me to suggest that ICT shut up shop for the final 5 minutes, but they certainly weren’t going to allow Falkirk to have much of the ball. Falkirk scrambled time and time again, but it was to no avail as ICT quite simply proceeded to run rings round them, none more so than Don Cowie who seemed to have the ball glued to his feet at times as he ran up and down the touch line. A stronger team might have punished us for giving them so much space today, but Falkirk weren’t the stronger team and ICT were pretty much in control for the bulk of the 90 minutes. The whole team played well and I don’t think I could fault a single man. Special mentions for Russell Duncan…He was like a man possessed today and despite Black having had one of the best games I’ve seen this season I think Duncan may have just outshone him by the narrowest of margins. Black deserves special mention as well, he apparently wasn’t feeling too well when he took to the field, but it didn’t show, in fact I hope he doesn’t feel too well when he takes to the pitch again next week...lol. And finally Marius Niculae…he gave it everything today, set up some nice chances for others, tracked back well when needed and it was cruel not to see him get on the score sheet. He’s gone a long way towards proving that he provides just as much value in his contributions to others goals as he will when he finally catches a break and starts slotting them away himself in the SPL.
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