Inverness CT 1 - 3 Aberdeen

League Match
Saturday, November 19th, 2016, 3:00 PM at Tulloch Caledonian Stadium
Attendance: 4,867
Referee: Kevin Clancy
Inverness CT  Aberdeen

Goalscorers
Lonsana Doumbouya (15)
Kenny McLean (28)
Adam Rooney (pen.33)
Kenny McLean (89)

Team Managers
Richie Foran Derek McInnes

Starting Eleven
Owain Fon Williams
Josh Meekings
Gary Warren
Carl Tremarco
Brad Mckay
Iain Vigurs
Aaron Doran
Ross Draper
Larnell Cole
Billy King
Lonsana Doumbouya
Joe Lewis
Shay Logan
Andrew Considine
Anthony O-Connor
Graeme Shinnie
James Maddison
Kenny McLean
Ryan Jack
Jonny Hayes
Jayden Stockley
Adam Rooney

Substitutes
Ryan Esson
Alasdair Sutherland
Lewis Horner
Jake Mulraney
Alex Fisher
Scott Boden
Neil Alexander
Ash Taylor
Mark Reynolds
Niall McGinn
Peter Pawlett
Callum Morris
Miles Storey

Substitutions
Jake Mulraney for Larnell Cole (70)
Lewis Horner for Brad Mckay (76)
Alex Fisher for Billy King (84)
Niall McGinn -> Jayden Stockley (73)
Ash Taylor -> James Maddison (74)
Mark Reynolds -> Graeme Shinnie (91)

Bookings
Iain Vigurs (53)
James Maddison (67)

Red Cards
None. None.
Appearances & Goals To Date
Owain Fon Williams (GK) 62 apps -
Brad Mckay 10 apps -
Carl Tremarco 92 apps6 goals
Gary Warren 170 apps13 goals
Josh Meekings 185 apps7 goals
Larnell Cole 4 apps -
Ross Draper 178 apps16 goals
Iain Vigurs 79 apps16 goals
Aaron Doran 165 apps21 goals
Lonsana Doumbouya 11 apps5 goals
Billy King 17 apps3 goals
Jake Mulraney (sub) 17 apps -
Lewis Horner (sub) 28 apps1 goal
Alex Fisher (sub) 16 apps1 goal

Starting Lineup
Youngest Player:Brad Mckay (23 years 244 days)
Oldest Player:Josh Meekings (2018 years 114 days)
Average Player Age:28 years 155 days
Domestic Players:6 (54.55 % of starting eleven)

Matchday Squad
Youngest Player:Alasdair Sutherland (20 years 66 days)
Oldest Player:Josh Meekings (2018 years 114 days)
Average Player Age:27 years 143 days
Domestic Players:11 (64.71 % of matchday squad)

First Team Debuts

Milestones

Too easy for Dons:

Aberdeen won convincingly 1-3 with Kevin Clancy instrumental in the first two Dons goals. He was probably man of the match as the Dons won for the first time in five attempts. Lonsana Doumbouya glanced a wonderful opener for Inverness but after that it was Aberdeen that took full advantage of Clancy's assistance. A dubious free kick saw McLean level the scores and after another accidental clash, Clancy saw fit to award a spot kick which Rooney gratefully accepted to slot home. Clancy continued to control the flow of the game as the Aberdeen players threw themselves to the ground at will and it was no surprise (or maybe it was) when Maddison was eventually booked for simulation. They added a third deep into the game when they broke swiftly and McLean completed the scoring. One more assist from Clancy and he would have kept the match ball. Unbelievable Jeff!

Plenty to ponder over for Inverness boss Richie Foran as the injury list grows, Brad Mckay stretchered off in the second half as we begin to court the fringes of the relegation tussle this early in the season.

RIG was a bit miffed, but managed to squeeze out this report for us...................

Some absolute telt today from Aberdeen to Inverness. A really comfortable Dons performance and an easy three points heading back along the A96. Decent start from Aberdeen but we took the lead against the run of play when Draper lifted a cute ball into the box and Doumbouya appeared in acres of space to steer a header past Lewis to put us one up. After that it was pretty much all Aberdeen with any chances for ICT at a premium.

Hayes turned in an absolutely stunning performance and a lot of the Aberdeen attacks were coming down the ICT right with Hayes linking up well with Shinnie and also Maddison who was always on offer when Aberdeen drove through the middle. After a Maddison free kick was easily repelled by the Inverness wall McLean had better luck when he curled the ball low round the right edge of the wall and inside the post. A really good free kick and it brought Aberdeen deservedly level. The award of the free kick looked pretty suspect. Maddison seemed to go down very easily, a recurring theme over the course of the game sadly, but disappointing that we didn't defend the resultant strike a bit better.

Minutes later Aberdeen were ahead. Hayes scampered into the box and Warren struggled to stay with him and Hayes went down as he collided with Warren. There was certainly contact between the two as Hayes clearly tripped over Warrens outstretched leg but, and this is coming with massive ICT bias, I did wonder if perhaps Warren had just planted his leg slightly ahead of Hayes which the winger then went down over. Regardless, I can probably see why Clancy gave it and again it was poor defending in the first place to let Hayes break into the box like that. Rooney had no issues finding the net with the penalty. Sadly, given how little we had threatened since our opening goal even at 2-1 down I couldn't see a way back into the game for us. However Tremarco saw an effort go wide and McLean nearly bagged his second when a shot that looked like it was already going wide was turned around the post by Fon Williams.

Half Time 1-2

Into the second half and it was much the same with the Dons dominating proceedings and ICT resorting to lumping long balls in the vague direction of Doumboya. Aberdeen almost went 3 - 1 up when a fine cross from the right found Considine in the box and his downward header was met by Fon Williams who somehow managed to scramble it away. Aberdeen then saw a great chance for Shinnie go begging as he sped down the left and was picked out with a fine pass from Maddison however the former ICT man shot straight at Fon Williams.

Maddison then paid the price for some of his earlier antics when he went down in the box under a challenge by Meekings and was booked. It was difficult to tell from the other end of the pitch if this was justified or not but given his previous histrionics and because I'm a seething, bitter mess right now I'm inclined to say yes. Shortly after Maddison nearly made headlines for better reasons as a fine free kick cracked off the base of the post with Fon Williams well beaten. ICT then lost Mckay to injury after a bad challenge from Shinnie which inexplicably went unpunished from Clancy. Aberdeen eventually got their deserved third goal when they seized on ICT losing possession after a corner and Hayes broke rapidly towards goal and he teed up McLean who drilled the ball past Fon Williams to seal the points. A really good counter attacking goal which triggered a mass exodus from the home support.

Full Time 1-3

We seldom had a chance to speak of in the second half. A header from Doumbouya had Lewis scrambling to turn it over the bar, Draper wriggled into the box but his shot wasn't powerful enough to get past Lewis and Tremarco poked a late effort goalwards without really causing any difficulty. If we had got a goal back it would have made the game look a lot closer than it really was. Overall there can't be any complaints about the result and having read the comments from Foran it's good to see he's not trying to dress it up as anything other than what it was - a sound beating by a much better team.

Clancy was an absolute omnishambles today with some really questionable calls. His decision not to at least give Shinnie a yellow card for his challenge on Mckay was bizarre as was his incredible call to allow Maddison to go down claiming he was injured, wave play on but then halt play as we got to the edge of the Aberdeen penalty area and allow Maddison to get treatment.

But he wasn't the reason for our downfall today. There were plenty of errors from ICT that we should look to address before the next run of crucial games coming up against the likes of Dundee, Hamilton and Killie. Granted we were missing important players in Tansey and Polworth but our sole tactic of leathering it towards Doumbouya was easily being snuffed out by Considine and O'Connor yet we still persisted with it. Joe Lewis is enormous yet we played high balls into the six yard box most of the time we got our crosses in. As for our free kicks....Jesus wept. We really lack a striker who can play off the last defender and a midfielder with a real eye for a pass to play that hypothetical striker in. As it stands we are quite direct and rigidly stick to that direct style come what may. It might work well against some teams but it definitely wasn't working today and we didn't really have a clue what to do about it.

Match report written by tm4tj/RIG



None.

Pld W D L F A +/- Pts
1. Celtic 12 11 1 0 35 8 27 34
2. Aberdeen 13 7 3 3 22 12 10 24
3. Rangers 13 6 5 2 17 13 4 23
4. Hearts 12 5 4 3 21 14 7 19
5. St. Johnstone 14 5 4 5 19 19 0 19
6. Motherwell 13 4 3 6 17 20 -3 15
7. Inverness CT 14 3 5 6 20 27 -7 14
8. Ross County 14 3 5 6 14 25 -11 14
9. Kilmarnock 14 3 5 6 12 24 -12 14
10. Partick Thistle 13 3 4 6 15 19 -4 13
11. Hamilton Academical 12 2 6 4 12 16 -4 12
12. Dundee 14 3 3 8 12 19 -7 12