Appearances & Goals To Date
Starting Lineup
| Youngest Player: | Liam Polworth (21 years 143 days) |
| Oldest Player: | Greg Tansey (2017 years 213 days) |
| Average Player Age: | 25 years 343 days |
| Domestic Players: | 5 (45.45 % of starting eleven) |
Matchday Squad
| Youngest Player: | Jason Brown (19 years 239 days) |
| Oldest Player: | Greg Tansey (2017 years 213 days) |
| Average Player Age: | 26 years 48 days |
| Domestic Players: | 12 (66.67 % of matchday squad) |
First Team Debuts
Milestones
Another score draw, another late goal:
Inverness and Dundee played out their third 1-1 draw of the season and that man Kane Hemmings scored a late leveller again, after Ross Draper had given Inverness an early lead.
This result keeps the status quo in the table with St Johnstone managing a draw against Aberdeen and Ross County getting gubbed by bottom club Dundee United. It's all getting rather congested below the top three.
David Raven missed out once more along with Andrea Mutombo who was not risked after taking a knock in training. Lewis Horner continued at right back in Raven's absence and Danny Williams was added to the squad after being unavailable last week. Jordan Roberts seemed to be the main striker with Miles Storey being used wider.
Dundee as suggested in the preview would have the triple threat of Rory Loy, Greg Stewart and Kane Hemmings looking to cause all the problems with Gary Harkins dictating their play.
Inverness started where they left off at Parkhead, passing the ball briskly and probing with intent. Jordan Roberts had a shot saved and Miles Storey had one blocked as we took the early initiative.
From one of these accurate passes forward we took the lead in the thirteenth minute through Ross Draper. Liam Polworth threaded a brilliant through ball into the box where Ross Draper had made a perfect run to meet the ball and round keeper Scott Bain before clipping the ball neatly into the net off the base of the post.
The visitors were looking assured at this point but scoring the goal appeared to make us believe we could defend that advantage for the rest of the match and all urgency drained from our legs.
The only energy on display was channelled into fouling as a spate of yellow cards disrupted the flow of the game.
Owain Fon Williams even managed to pick up a booking just before the break for apparently time wasting as we killed the game as a spectacle.
Half Time 0-1
Paul Hartley must have spoken some harsh words at the interval and as we regressed, Dundee grew in confidence and took over control of the second half.
Dundee squandered chance after chance in the second period, starting as early as the 48th minute when Greg Stewart shot wide from ten yards when he really should have hit the target.
Hemmings made Fon Williams work as he shot at the target and Liam Polworth broke the one way traffic for a moment but he fired over.
Fon Williams was getting plenty of work to do and he saved a header from Paul McGinn as Dundee pressed Inverness back, and he followed that by saving from Paul McGowan soon after. The shooty-in continued and Kevin Holt and Craig Wighton were next up to test the Welsh keeper.
Hemmings and Stewart had near misses as we went further into our shell looking to protect what we had and Fon Williams was inspired saving from Stewart again.
Iain Vigurs almost stole the game with seven minutes left, but Bain saved, and that was crucial as Dundee levelled three minutes later. Gary Harkins headed a deep corner back into the box and Hemmings reacted quickest to score his 20th goal of the season from close range to square the game.
That ended the scoring and disappointingly for Inverness another late goal conceded cost us more points than we would care to remember.
Full Time 1-1
There can only be one MotM in this one and that goes to Owain Fon Williams who almost did enough to give us all three points with a string of excellent saves to keep our noses in front. Alas, our defensive play eventually cracked and it was no more than Dundee deserved. It's frustrating to lose a lead once more, but this is the third 1-1 draw this season, so it's not really surprising it finished that way.
Alternative Maryhill summed up the negative approach we adopted after scoring:- "It's a risky strategy given our tendency to concede late goals. It would be nice to think there was some reason for how negative we were after scoring, particularly as we did so well for almost an hour pressing forward at Celtic Park, and played some pretty good stuff throughout the game against Aberdeen. Maybe just an off day, but there's no way we'll get so lucky again if we try to do the same against Hearts or Hibs. Good day out in Dundee as always, but not between 3.30 and 4.50.
Hawkeye The Gnu added:- "Just back from Dundee - that game made my eyes bleed.
Disappointed not to have held on, but given the chances Dundee wasted in the second half and the eccentric performance of the referee (more on that later) I will take a point.
And Renegade was in agreement:- "Attempting to pass the ball into the net wasn't our undoing. It was desire from around a half hour onwards to time waste, defend and drop deeper and deeper for the remaining hour. For the first time in my football going life, I witnessed a keeper booked for time wasting in the first half! We invited Dundee onto us and for most of the game our goal lived a charmed life. Inviting a side featuring the likes of Harkins, Stewart and Hemmings to attack us was always asking for trouble. We were punished as a result.
Hearts coming up on Tuesday night before we head back to the capital for our cup game against Hibs on the Sunday. We will need to be a bit more adventurous if we want to defend our trophy.
Match report written by tm4tj
* - Table split into two divisions of six.