ICT -V- Elgin City : Matchday Thread

[Johnboy]

Hellgin made it tough for us and defended very well - I thought their keeper was outstanding. They might even have snatched a goal with 10 minutes to go, when Tuffey kicked a back-pass against one of their forwards - that one could have gone anywhere. Great game to watch - in suspenders until well into stoppage time.

Disagree with Hislopoffside - I thought Foran did well, plenty of commitment and a couple of decent overhead attempts - looked more likely to score for me than Rooney, who's not been looking as sharp as he has been this season.

Great to see Sanchez getting that goal - that must put him ahead of Eric in the pecking order. Blumenshtein not even on the bench today - doubt if we'll see him kick another ball for ICT, and wouldn't be surprised to see him move on before the end of the month. Rooney would be relieved to get on the scoresheet after some good work by Ross and Sanchez.

[DALNEIGHCALEY]

Hope the Caley Animals behaved themselves on their reunion

[MissICT]

I think I could have kissed Dani Boi :love03: was relieved to see him scoring and I agree with Butcher saying that Sanchez was like a new signing would love to see him playing a lot more as he changed the play I would also like to see a lot more from Sutherland as well!

[12th Man]

I had only just got back to my seat from queing for a pie at half time and the place was deserted did we win.

[hislopsoffsideagain]

Fair enough on Foran, Johnboy - I had forgotten that bicycle kick attempt. On the other hand he spent so much time slipping over and ending up on his backside (not the only one, mind) and I thought his use of the ball was poor.

[AJS]

The introduction of Sanchez and Sutherland was what won this game for us.

It was the same old problems throughout the game, silly, careless errors getting made and struggling to make anything happen in the final third. Odhiambo , im sorry but this boy shows no urgency or desire to get onto the ball at times, he really was liability and it was only when he came off that things started to change and they really did.

Elgin keeper, Donnelly. He made some excellent saves, best one was a crisp drive from Shane that was heading into the bottam far corner and he just got his tips too it. But he had no chance with Sanchez, lethal volley from the edge of the box. And then he played the perfect flick on to Rooney, to finish them off.

Elgin deserve credit. They played well and tryed to exploit our slow, ageing defence and Tuffey was called into action once or twice and they had a great support as well.

[Jay_7]

An absolutely disgusting performance from us. Fair play to Sanchez for coming on and giving us that creative spark that we'd been missing all game.

A win is a win, but there is absolutely no excuse for the first 89mins.

[Tug]

couldnt make the game but managed to put it on at work.

didnt sound good, surprised at the attendance, if the numbers are to believed then they outnumbered us

[Jay_7]

******* OF THE HIGHEST ORDER, GO **** YOURSELF IN ASS

Epic lol!

[MissICT]

couldnt make the game but managed to put it on at work.

didnt sound good, surprised at the attendance, if the numbers are to believed then they outnumbered us

I was sure they got the attendance wrong

[CELTIC1CALEY3]

The morale of this story is that we underestimated the 'pub team' from Elgin but won by not giving up. If you look at results in Scotland and England today it looks like a few pub teams got good draws or made it through. The Elgin fans had a great day out with Ross Jack and Barry to be congratulated on organising some enthusiastic part time players. Finally well done Inverness we are through.

[Cinejag]

I know - lets have a feckin replay anyway - Dani Sanchez can start and we can all go on a midweek train trip.

I FECKIN HATE THOSE BOTTLING MORAY BESTARDS

******* OF THE HIGHEST ORDER, GO **** YOURSELF IN ASS

sit down shut-up you had 2 shots all game. get over yourself

[MissICT]

I know - lets have a feckin replay anyway - Dani Sanchez can start and we can all go on a midweek train trip.

I FECKIN HATE THOSE BOTTLING MORAY BESTARDS

******* OF THE HIGHEST ORDER, GO **** YOURSELF IN ASS

sit down shut-up you had 2 shots all game. get over yourself

ummm..accoding to the Beep elgin had 0 shots on target

[Libero]

Glad to be through, it was painful viewing at times

plus points -

stopping the losing run

rooney back in the goals

sanchez' great finish

shinnie overlapping very well on the wing

sutherland looking dangerous when he came on

minus points -

profligacy in front of the goal

scrappy passing

hoofball too often

duffs corners

odhiambo had the close control of an elephant today

[+DoofersDad]

Anyone know what the minute silence was for?

I believe it was for the former Chairman of Inverness Thistle at the time of the merger. Who ever it was for it was great to see the silence impecably observed by both sets of fans.

[Scarlet Pimple]

I slept in for this one.

Doesn't appear to have been a very supercaleyfragilistic performance.

Let's just keep our fingers crossed that there is a gradual improvement and maybe some new (loan?) players will come in shortly.

I haven't seen Odihamabo too much but from the video that I have seen it may be that he is shy of a tackle and is not too robust--a question of his notbeing too willing to commit himself to going after the ball is it?

Pity that he does not have more drive since he is speedy enough and has some skill but methinks the grit may be missing. Comments please.

Good for Dani--maybe he has a bit of grit and determination to make a real contribution and to succeed.Should get his chance for sure from now on because something seems to be missing a bit in the team.

It's very difficult to comment fairly from overseas because we only get snippets of video to review games and performances.Sigh.

Scarlet

[davie]

Obvious from 15 minutes in that there was only going to be one winner in this. It's difficult to play that "killer" pass when a highly motivated opposition sit in banks of four and look to break. It is, after all, exactly what we base our away games on. We do cry out for a creative midfielder, and IMHO sanchez did more in his 15 minutes or so than eric did in the preceding 75. Just shows what Rooney does when he gets service. It might not work every time, but it did today. Elgin defended superbly and their goalie had one immense ryanesque save from sutherland late on - well done to them, and an absolute hats off to their support. Lots of moans today that we should have won this earlier and easier, but TBH that smacks of arrogance, especially when you consider Hibs, St Mirren and the arabs. Next round, nae replay, job done.Jay 7 what planet are you on?

Edited January 8, 2011 by davie

[+DoofersDad]

Totally dominant but the lack of confidence was obvious. The chances came in general simply because Elgin are a 3rd division side and not because anybody played well or created much. Innes was shaky at the back, Foran seems to have lost his creative touch but for me it was Odhiambo who was bottom of the class. His control was very poor and frankly, he didn't look good enough to play for Elgin, let alone in the SPL. After a great start to the season, he just seems to have gone completely off the boil and I would expect that to be his last start for quite a while.

Sutherland and particularly Sanchez when they came on looked a lot sharper than Foran and Odhiambo and turned the game. Hopefully they will feature rather more in the future.

A win is a win and given failure to win of so many top flight teams North and South of the border against lower league opposition I must be happy with that. It was not the confidence booster it should have been but hopefully the winning mentality and Sanchez can be taken forward into the SPL campaign.

[Bridge_Ender]

To be fair, that was the biggest game in Elgin's history since coming into the league and we had nothing to gain and everything to lose today. Really was a very odd experience being the 'big team' and was even a bit jealous of the big day out mentality of the Elgin fans. At least a 1,000 of them and they were noisy throughout the game, just like our away Cup games were when we were in the lower leagues.

Their keeper had 3 cracking stops, 2 with his feet, and Jamie Duff cleared one of the line which appeared to defy the laws of physics from where we were. On another day it could have been 4 or 5 nil comfortably. The final result was maybe harsh on Elgin given the effort they put in, a replay would probably have been a just reward, but the better and more dominant team won.

[quizzer]

Well, what can we say - we love you Danni... Can't rememember when we last saw you score up here, in the most part for lack of opportunity! One goal and one assist from short time on pitch today though = totally terrific. Fantastic finish for goal, and set Rooney up perfectly for second. Please please Terry, give us (him) more! Good on Terry for taking Foran off, not every manager would make that move and take captain off. Ross undoubtably (imho) our MOM, long may his form continue. Clean sheet for Tuffey, can't ask for more for a keeper. Top display from their keeper, not going to patronise them and say they deserved a replay, but they did... Anyone going by stats online/radio, don't be fooled - reckon very very few home fans thought Elgin were incapable of snatching victory with late breaks, pretty much everyone in stadium were holding their breaths. Results elsewhere show nothing to be taken for granted - we're through, and that's what matters.

[tm4tj]

Quizzer

"Anyone going by stats online/radio, don't be fooled - reckon very very few home fans thought Elgin were incapable of snatching victory with late breaks, pretty much everyone in stadium were holding their breaths"

Stats don't lie quizzer, we should have won at a canter. Elgin could have snatched a breakaway goal, but it looked unlikely although not impossible. We created so many chances to score it's embarrassing that it took 90 minutes to do so. I like bridge enders assessment, captures it all for me.

It would have been a great day to be an underdog, but it so often ends in tears after a stubborn performance. We tried to shoot ourself in the foot, but eventually wore them down, it's what usually happens. The stats have something like 21 efforts to 1 or 2, 13 corners to nil. The only place that Elgin came close was in the number of fans and the number of fouls.

Well done Sanchez, cracking finish and an assist for the second goal makes it difficult for Terry to ignore him for so long again. Eric I'm afraid was again out of sorts. If you can't do it against a mediocre third division side, then it's going to be difficult to cut it in the top league.

I'm liking the look of Shane though, big, strong and powerful, showed more in the few minutes on the park than one or two more prominent players.

[Mike]

Anyone know what the minute silence was for?

I believe it was for the former Chairman of Inverness Thistle at the time of the merger. Who ever it was for it was great to see the silence impecably observed by both sets of fans.

Charlie Cuthbert who was Thistle Chairman after Jock Macdonald, a real gentleman of the local game and sadly missed from the footballing community when the merger really took hold. my sympathy goes to his wife Marion and their family.

[TheKnowledge]

Their keeper was a Jimmy Calder rip off! Same shape and style.

Elgin were woeful. The best thing any of their players did was an accidental clearance of the line. Eric the Eel has absolutely no idea what to do when he gets the ball. Goes through the motions. He plays through balls to no one or runs up the wing and crosses to no one. I have to say it's pretty bad management to have one of your players running around clueless, all the time. We only had a couple of throw ins today but there was still only one person ever available to the thrower.

We were actually alright though, just needed a killer ball, which Sanchez finally got the chance to do. When he scored, everyone seemed happy for him. Why wait so long though? 10/10 for Butcher's look up at the crowd after Cox played that 'pass' though.

[MabawswaRichie]

Apparently Elgin have players who would 'walk into the ICT side'.

[tm4tj]

If that's the case, they never played yesterday, unless they are talking about Barry.