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Time wasters wasting our time Was this going to be the game that breaks the Donkey's back? A home win would put Inverness in the driving seat whilst a win for Annan would revive their ailing hopes of avoiding the relegation play-off slot. Inverness were without Luis Longstaff, Alfie Bavidge and Calum Macleod, not forgetting long term casualties in Lewis Nicolson and Jake Davidson. Annan had their own injury issues with Tommy Goss. Undaunted they opened the scoring in the third minute, a deflected effort from Paul Smith. Virtually their only attempt over the ninety minutes. We, on the other hand were usurped by their tedious time wasting eleven behind the ball tactics and couldn't hit a coo on the arse with a big stick. Sean Murdoch, the referee, using the term loosely, was so far out of his depth it was unreal. A couple of penalty claims ignored and allowing the time wasting was his speciality. Paul Allan hit the post at the end of the first half and Jamie Smith made a handful of saves. Not a great day at the office as the temperature dropped before the end and the Donkey's took all three points. Meh! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A beautiful morning in the Sneck with the sun still shining by kick-off and kids for a £ raising the pitch of the North Stand an octave or two. It should have made for a great afternoons entertainment. Alas it went awry after only three minutes and went from bad to worse given our inability to break down the worst defence in League1. After only three minutes a corner into the box was punched clear by Dibaga. It was scooped into the air but not dealt with well by the defence and Paul Smith was teed up to rifle the ball low into the bottom corner from the edge of the box with a snapshot and possibly a slight deflection. Still, we all thought we have about ninety minutes to get something from this game. Wrong! We have no seen a brand of football quite like this since Hamilton used to bore us out of points a few years ago. Time wasting of the highest quality aided by the goalkeeper, the post, bad luck and diabolical finishing were our downfall on a day when much more was expected of us. Alfie Stewart met a ball in a similar position at the opposite end of the park but Jamie Smith got down well to save low to his left. Another effort on the six yard line was scrambled clear on the line as bodies got in the way of Stewart's volley. Remi Savage appeared to be flattened in the box and just on half time Paul Allan beat the keeper but hit the post from eight yards after good work down the left by Nolan and MacKinnon. HALF TIME: 0-1 Annan had done nothing but time waste since the third minute, ably assisted by an incompetent referee and a powder puff strikeforce. The second half was no different. Nolan curled an effort from twenty-five yards but Smith was equal to it to tip the ball over the bar in spectacular fashion for a corner. A minute later we 'scored' but it was chalked off for an alleged foul in the box. What an opportunity we spurned with twenty minutes left. Keith Bray beat the keeper to a great ball through the middle. Smith blocked with his hand and the ball landed nicely for Billy Mckay who skipped round the stranded keeper on the edge of the box and shot from sixteen yards. Unfortunately he picked out the only defender who was standing on the line and the chance was gone. A striker low on scoring confidence and it showed. Allan picked out a driving run from Keith Bray five minutes from the end but his header was sent wide as he lunged at the curling cross. Another goalden opportunity wasted. Annan could have added a second from their second attack of game in the 93rd minute but after a quick sucker punch break forward the shot from Josh Todd curled a couple of yards wide. Peter Watson was apparently the Annan bruiser trialist and he put himself about to good effect as we were bullied off the ball in a frustrating encounter. Annan did what they had to do because they couldn't match us in terms of quality and for reasons already stated they took the points and we had egg on our faces. Ragin'. Absolutely... FULL TIME: 0-1 After the euphoria of the Stenhousemuir game on Tuesday night this was a bitter disappointment although given the players available it was maybe not a surprise. Annan's anti football tactics didn't help and a useless referee into the bargain all made for a frustrating but predictable afternoons non entertainment despite a decent crowd. By the end of the game, the weather matched the football and it was bl00dy freezing. Ragin' aye. Reality check from Robert on CTO: A disappointing afternoon. The early goal gave Annan something to defend, and a mixture of the woodwork, great saves and poor finishing cost us. I’d like to see the penalty incident again when Savage looked to be clearly fouled, along with the alleged foul that caused our “goal” to be disallowed. I’ve said before that we’d have bad days and setbacks, but we picked a bad day for this one. However, back on 26 October when we had -3 points and were 15 points adrift of 9th, we’d all have grabbed being 8th in mid March and in control of our own destiny. We need to put this behind us, regroup and focus on getting a win next week. Pos Team Pld Gd Pts 1 Arbroath 29 17 53 2 Cove Rangers 29 18 48 3 Stenhousemuir 29 12 48 4 Alloa Athletic 29 5 40 5 Queen of Sth 29 -5 38 6 Kelty Hearts 29 0 36 7 Montrose 29 -7 33 8 Inverness CT 29 4 32 9 Annan Athletic 29 -23 30 10 Dumbarton 29 -21 09 Listen Oor Wullie Date: 15/03/2025 Venue: Caledonian Stadium Attendance: 1703 Referee: Sean Murdoch Inverness CT: 0 Manager: Scott Kellacher Lineup: Dibaga; Brannan, Devine, Savage, Nolan (R Thompson 83), Bray, Gilmour, Allan, Stewart (Cairns 73), MacKinnon, B Mckay Subs (not used): Rebilas; Strachan, Gardiner, Ewan, S Thompson, Walker, Keogh, Scorers: none Booked: Gilmour (90+5) Sent Off: none Annan Athletic: 1 Manager: Wullie Gibson Lineup: J Smith; Gibson, Hooper, Trialist (Bisland 78), McGowan (Bell 79), Todd, A Smith, Kilsby, P Smith, Brown (Ross 62), Maxwell, Subs (not used): G Fleming; R Muir, Strachan Scorers: P Smith (3) Booked: McGowan (58), Todd (63), Gibson (90+5) Sent Off: none a