Appearances & Goals To Date
Starting Lineup
| Youngest Player: | Ryan Christie (20 years 43 days) |
| Oldest Player: | Greg Tansey (2016 years 249 days) |
| Average Player Age: | 27 years 93 days |
| Domestic Players: | 7 (63.64 % of starting eleven) |
Matchday Squad
| Youngest Player: | Ryan Christie (20 years 43 days) |
| Oldest Player: | Graeme Shinnie (2016 years 249 days) |
| Average Player Age: | 26 years 191 days |
| Domestic Players: | 12 (66.67 % of matchday squad) |
First Team Debuts
Milestones
| Ryan Christie played his 50th major competitive game for the Club. |
Easter Borefest:
Dundee came, they saw and almost conquered, but a quick reply by Man of the Match Graeme Shinnie ensured that the clubs shared the points. Dundee seemed intent on not losing and Inverness had little clue how to win all three points. In the end the draw was the right result given the ineptitude of both sides. David Clarkson scored in the Dark Blues first serious attempt before Shinnie scored moments later. Edie Ofere almost added the winner, but the ball squirmed agonisingly wide of the post, but that was about it.
Inverness blew another chance to close the gap on Aberdeen as they were held to a draw by mid-table Dundee in a rather scrappy affair where Paul Hartley will be better pleased than John Hughes.
A bright afternoon for the game saw Inverness attack the South end of the stadium from the start, and Dundee showed their intent by defending deep from the off, not looking interested in getting bodies forward.
Whilst Inverness had the bulk of the play in the opening half, few clear cut chances were created. What we did best in the first forty-five was have a go from distance. Greg Tansey fired a free kick through a gap in the wall but Scott Bain gathered easily. Tansey then danced across the Dundee defence some 25 yards out but his shot was once again too close to the keeper and he clutched the ball comfortably again. Aaron Doran made him work harder with a rasping thirty yard shot but again it was not far enough away from the alert Bain who punched the ball clear as Inverness held the upper hand.
Dundee were rarely seen in the first half and Esson could easily have sat on the bench with Brill, such was their lack of adventure.
Half Time 0-0
The second half began in stop start fashion as free kicks were being dished out like nobody's business. However, ten minutes in Dundee went over the half way line. Despite being in unfamiliar territory, they carved out a chance and when the move between Mark Stewart and Paul McGowan broke off Josh Meekings, David Clarkson tucked the free ball beyond Esson to give the visitors an undeserved lead.
This stirred the home side into a bit of a frenzy and two minutes later they were level. The ball was worked down the right flank with a long ball from Tansey. Watkins held it up and played a one-two with Nick Ross. His telling cross found Shinnie coming into the box at the back edge of the box. Graeme's tenacity saw him get the break of the ball under the defensive challenge and he slammed a left foot shot low into the far corner for a deserved equaliser.
In fairness to Dundee, after realising that they could cross the halfway line the game became more open and possession levelled out, but the goal threats still came from the home side, although they were not as frequent as the home fans would have liked.
The best chance went the way of substitute Edward Ofere after Watkins had nodded a long ball into his path. He stuck a leg out to divert the ball as the keeper came out but it bounced just the wrong side of the post. The right side if you were a Dundee fan and the spin took the ball just wide. Meh!
Doran had an opportunity on the left but he chose to blast the ball into the side netting when a cut back would have been more productive and that was the end of the incidents.
Full Time 1-1
In truth it was another disappointing game and performance on a tired pitch. It's just that time of year I'm afraid when our wafer thin squad fails to grind out results. On a bright not, the rest of the contenders are struggling to cope as well, but it's getting very difficult to see where our next win is going to come from. Nick Ross and Aaron Doran did their prospects no harm as did Eddie Ofere who almost nicked the winner. MotM though was captain supreme, Graeme Shinnie who showed great determination to score his goal and led the team forward at every opportunity. The lack of a proven striker was sadly evident though as we found it difficult to create clean space in a packed penalty box time and time again. We miss Billy making those runs across the defence to create the openings.
It's a tough couple of weeks coming up for us, with Aberdeen away and a double header against Celtic, one in the league and one in the cup and a game against the Arabs to come as well.
Match report written by tm4tj
