Partick away @ Xmas

[tm4tj]

Xmas Fayre

 

A Xmas helping of Big Dunc's Turkey's and Kris Doolan's Roasters is on offer this weekend at a festive Firhill where a good stuffing needs to be avoided at all costs. First sitting is at 3:00pm on Saturday as Ferguson's fragile squad head to Glasgow ahead of the fat man with the beards arrival bearing presents for all. Let's hope he's not in our defence.

Venue H2H v Partick

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	26	12	7	7	39	33	+6
Away	24	6	6	12	25	39	-14
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	50	18	13	19	64	72	-8

Honours are pretty even versus Partick Thistle over the years with home advantage being the deciding factor in most games with the odd one going against the grain. Worryingly we have suffered a couple of heavy defeats away to Partick recently and that's something we need to avoid.

Last 10 Competitive Meetings Partick Thistle

0 - 0 (H)

1 - 0 (H)

1 - 5 (A)

1 - 0 (H)

1 - 4 (A)

1 - 0 (H)

2 - 1 (A)

0 - 1 (A)

3 - 3 (H)

0 - 0 (A)

First meeting this season ended goalless 0 - 0. This will be the day that Duncan Ferguson made his bow to the Caley Jags fans. The weather might have dampened the atmosherics, but inside the stadium it was a warm welcome for Big Dunc. He was without the long term absentees (MacGregor & Nicolson) plus more recent victims in Sean Welsh, Danny Devine and Wallace Duffy. After the first win last week, it was an unchanged starting XI that took to the sodden turf. Partick had our olde foe Brian Graham up front. Enough said. Neither side can complain about a point apiece but Partick will now know that they can not expect to pick up easy points against us. Best chance of the game fell to the visitors after Ridgers parried a swerving shot from McInroy. It fell to Adeloye but he blazed his hooked effort well over the bar from five yards. Inverness mainly looked comfortable without overly troubling keeper Sneddon and it ended all square in a very wet Highlands. In fact had Gilmour placed his shot within the bounds of the posts then we could have taken all three points. Meh!

Another step in the right direction for Inverness who matched high scoring Partick Thistle all over the park. Best for Inverness were the tricky Longstaff, the unflustered Ujdur and the driving force of Gilmour, with Ridgers doing his bit at the end.

Last Time Out

Inverness were back to their worst as they went down 2-1 to Arbroath at the Caledonian Stadium last weekend. All the goals came in the first half. Bird opened the scoring for Arbroath and Billy Mckay levelled just before the break. However the visitors went back up the park to regain the lead through David Gold. Poor day at the office for Inverness who now have just one win in their last five games and have lost the last two to teams below them in the league.

Last Five D L W L L 

Partick Thistle pulled off a good away win at East End Park beating Dunfermline 2-1. Todd scored after 82 minutes but it was too little too late for the Pars who were two down at the interval through Harry Milne (12 mins), and Brian Graham right on the break,

Last Five W W W L W

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Queens Park v Dundee United & Raith Rovers v Ayr United playing Friday Night 19:45
1.	Raith Rovers	16	12	3	1	29	18	39
2.	Dundee Utd	15	10	4	1	34	7	34
3.	Partick Thistle	16	8	4	4	33	26	28
4.	Dunfermline	15	6	3	6	19	17	21
5.	Morton	15	5	2	8	17	24	17
6.	Ayr United	15	5	2	8	18	26	17
7.	Airdrieonians	16	5	2	9	14	22	17
8.	Inverness CT	16	4	4	8	19	20	16
9.	Arbroath	15	5	0	10	20	30	15
10.	Queens Park	15	3	4	8	19	32	13

Saturday 23rd December

Airdrie v Morton

Arbroath FC v Dunfermline

Partick Thistle v Inverness CT 

Latest Team News

I imagine Dunc was less than impressed with our performance last week and will make some changes for this one. It's not a game we can afford to lose now given the last few results. Wallace Duffy missed out last week as did Roddy MacGregor and Sean Welsh was an unused sub. With the likes of Sheridan past his best it's becoming evident we will need to invest in the January sales. Duffy and Carson miss out again with Danny Devine struggling with a knock. Doran & Samuels are back on the grass 

 

Brian Graham is the top scorer in the Championship with nine goals. Anton Dowds has six to his credit.

Partick team v Dunfermline last week

Sneddon

 

McMillan   Muirhead   Neilson   Milne

 

Stanway   McInroy (Williams 75)

 

Lawless (Mackenzie 69)  Alston (Bannigan 60)   Fitzpatrick

 

Graham (Diack 75)

 

Subs Not Used: Mitchell; Robinson, Williams, Adeloye, McGinlay

 

[Robert]

I’ve a bad feeling about this one but really hope I’m wrong and the team gives us an early Christmas present by bringing three points back up the A9.

[Robert]

And tonight’s results not overly helpful with Queens Park keeping Dundee United out to draw 0-0 and Ayr getting a point against Raith in what sounds like a remarkable game. Ayr had 10 men from just before the break but led 4-3 going into stoppage time until Raith got a point with yet another late goal. Four points between 5th and 10th now. 

[+Gringo]

BBC Scotland defo choose the wrong game last night. That was dire stuff. Low crowd in a large stadium also made it a tedious watch. 

I'm not convinced we will come away with anything from Firhill today but there's always hope. You only have to look at the result from Villa Park last night to believe anything can happen. Mon the Caley Jags.

[CELTIC1CALEY3]

We actually have a good squad compared to last year's very injury hit squad. We can but hope they are motivated by our new Management Duo and at least grab a point.

[IBM]

I hope the weather is a bit better in Glasgow for our travelling supporters, anything from this game would be good for us after last week and if we could steal three points that would be great.

[tm4tj]

[IBM]

Goal...........Billy Mckay

[IBM]

It was Anderson with Mckay assist great start

 

[caley100]

Wow.. excellent start...   now keep it very tight for 90 minutes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

!

[IBM]

Goal Partick, we need another one now

 

[Yngwie]

6 minutes ago, caley100 said:

Wow.. excellent start...   now keep it very tight for 90 minutes!

We’ll, we kept it tight for 15 minutes, 1-1

[tm4tj]

A late goal for Arbroath on half time meant that Inverness had gone from 8th to 5th to 9th over the course of the first forty-five.

[alwaysblue]

how long will Carson be out? greatly missed

 

[Robert]

I’d have taken a point before kick off and we’ve retained 8th place with the other games being draws (all 5 were draws this weekend!) but only a point off 5th.

Kenny Crawford very positive about our performance on Sportscene and it sounds like we should have had a penalty.

But how can we go to Tannadice and Firhill and get draws then mess up against Morton and Arbroath? The good results give us hope for the second half of the season, but the bad results make us despair!

Edited December 23, 2023 by Robert

[Robert]

2 minutes ago, alwaysblue said:

how long will Carson be out? greatly missed

 

He’s out due to family reasons. I’ve no idea what the issue is, but his partner was expecting. I just hope everything is ok for him and his family. 

[caley100]

Family issues is the reason.  

And...  Late goal for Dunfermline keeps them below us.

Happy with point today, After the ***** last week its very welcome.

[Douglas Mackenzie]

Delighted with that draw which I would have taken before kick off. Well done ICT we needed something from this game.With weather was listening to Celtic V Livingston but watching live score for our result.Now no long nails left on fingers.Hopefully ee can build on this result.

[IBM]

It would have been nice to get a late winner but we will have to save that for another day.  An improvement from last week.

[CELTIC1CALEY3]

Hopefully take Morton very seriously next Saturday.

[The Mantis]

That turned out to be a valuable point thanks to the Pars late equaliser. Both sets of players deserve nothing but praise considering the awful conditions. We totally dominated the opening 15 minutes and had a couple of half chances to double the lead which appeared to deflect off a defender and trundle in. Partick scored with their first attack of the game and it was a case of tragic failure to clear the ball. Never would have happened with Robbie Deas in there. We’re playing with 3 centre backs and nobody seems to know what their job is.
We went to pieces after that and Partick murdered us for the rest of the half. Going by previous visits to Firhill we feared the worst for the second half but it never materialised. We really dominated the last half hour and had very few clear cut chances but it was like the Alamo with Partick defending scrambles in their six yard box and we must have had about 8 corners.
However we’re still trying to walk it into the net with nobody trying to take a risk. Graham was substituted having had very little influence for once. So was Billy, for Longstaff, and he must have been frustrated trying to pull down long balls from Ridgers all day with big Muirhead breathing down his neck.
Two shockers from Grainger the ref. He booked Ujdur for a clash of heads where the Partick player came off worst, and he missed a stonewall penalty when Cammy was hauled down late on. A draw away at Partick is not to be sniffed at against a team that has 29 points and a decent squad with Milne, Graham, Lawless and Alston.
 

[The Mantis]

Forgot to mention - fantastic support today 

[Caley Stan]

Big Dunc refers to 'our philosophy' in his post-match interview and I have worried that an overzelous commitment to playing it out from the back could be his undoing. But we were actually quite pragmatic today, playing the conditions well with Ridgers hoofing it when he had to. The second half performance was excellent and if we'd had Carson bombing into the spaces that Spoony and Shaw were creating on the right then I think we would've won. 

Their goal and the period after it showed that we still have a lot to do to improve at the back, and we also had nothing to bring off the bench. 2 good signings in January and we might be a half-decent side. And even if we're not quite there yet, the passion and some of the football mean it's fun to watch and be part of. 

*my opinions are based on 3 recent away games - I haven't seen a home game and appreciate that we might be pretty turgid when teams come up and sit off us.

 

[Robert]

Anderson’s goal is believed to be the fastest ever for us. The Courier is saying it came after 19 seconds. The previous fastest is believed to have been 35 seconds by James Keatings.

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/sport/midfielder-scores-fastest-goal-in-clubs-history-but-inverne-336969/

Edited December 24, 2023 by Robert

[Donald1973]

2 hours ago, Robert said:

Anderson’s goal is believed to be the fastest ever for us. The Courier is saying it came after 19 seconds. The previous fastest is believed to have been 35 seconds by James Keatings.

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/sport/midfielder-scores-fastest-goal-in-clubs-history-but-inverne-336969/

Watching it back there on the highlights I think it took longer to trundle in than it did to actually get to that point