Dundee 2 - 1 Inverness CT

League Match
Saturday, November 26th, 2016, 3:00 PM at Dens Park, Dundee
Attendance: 5,094
Referee: Andrew Dallas
Dundee Inverness CT

Goalscorers
Craig Wighton (25)
Kostadin Gadzhalov (60)
Carl Tremarco (81)

Team Managers
Paul Hartley Richie Foran

Starting Eleven
Scott Bain
Kevin Gomis
Darren O-Dea
Kostadin Gadzhalov
Cameron Kerr
Tom Hateley
James Vincent
Paul McGowan
Kevin Holt
Marcus Haber
Craig Wighton
Owain Fon Williams
Josh Meekings
Gary Warren
Carl Tremarco
Iain Vigurs
Aaron Doran
Greg Tansey
Ross Draper
Lewis Horner
Billy King
Lonsana Doumbouya

Bench
David Mitchell
Rory Loy
Michael Duffy
Danny Williams
Julen Etxabeguren
Faissal El Bakhtaoui
Jesse Curran
Ryan Esson
Alasdair Sutherland
Jake Mulraney
Larnell Cole
Andrew Macrae
Scott Boden

Substitutions
Danny Williams -> James Vincent (64)
Julen Etxabeguren -> Marcus Haber (90)
Jake Mulraney for Billy King (66)
Scott Boden for Aaron Doran (75)
Larnell Cole for Iain Vigurs (83)

Bookings
James Vincent (57)
Tom Hateley (78)
Darren O-Dea (92)
Larnell Cole (85)

Red Cards
None. Lewis Horner (94)
Appearances & Goals To Date
Owain Fon Williams (GK) 63 apps -
Carl Tremarco 93 apps7 goals
Gary Warren 171 apps13 goals
Josh Meekings 186 apps7 goals
Lewis Horner 29 apps1 goal
Greg Tansey 166 apps26 goals
Ross Draper 179 apps16 goals
Iain Vigurs 80 apps16 goals
Aaron Doran 166 apps21 goals
Billy King 18 apps3 goals
Lonsana Doumbouya 12 apps5 goals
Jake Mulraney (sub) 18 apps -
Larnell Cole (sub) 5 apps -
Scott Boden (sub) 13 apps5 goals

Starting Lineup
Youngest Player:Lewis Horner (24 years 305 days)
Oldest Player:Billy King (2018 years 121 days)
Average Player Age:28 years 222 days
Domestic Players:6 (54.55 % of starting eleven)

Matchday Squad
Youngest Player:Andrew Macrae (18 years 203 days)
Oldest Player:Josh Meekings (2018 years 121 days)
Average Player Age:26 years 345 days
Domestic Players:11 (64.71 % of matchday squad)

First Team Debuts

Milestones

Dundee end Inverness hoodoo:

Inverness crashed to a 2-1 defeat at Dens Park despite dominating for long spells. This was Dundee's first win over Inverness since the Challenge Cup Final in 2009. League games go back 11 years since Dundee last won.

Goals from young star Craig Wighton and Kostadin Gadzhalov were enough for Dundee despite a late Carl Tremarco strike for the visitors, but it was Dundee who held on for that crucial win which lifts them to seventh in the league as we slump to tenth, just one point off the bottom. Our miserable day was complete when Lewis Horner was red carded in injury time.

Brad Mckay missed out with a shin injury sustained against Aberdeen and Lewis Horner was his replacement with David Raven also unavailable. Greg Tansey returned from suspension. The home side were without Yordi Teijsse and Craig Wighton continued in attack with Nicky Low and Mark O'Hara also unavailable.

Rig made the journey as he does to most games, here's what he saw............

Really disappointing result and performance. Foran is kidding himself if he thinks that was our best performance of the season though I suspect he is deflecting attention from the players. Whilst we did knock the ball about pretty well, especially in the first half, all too often our final ball was lacking or Dundee snuffed out any threat. The likes of King and Doran far to often failed to send in a really good cross for Doumbouya to attack and most of our efforts on goal were long range strikes that were always sent flying well over the bar and seldom troubled Bain. Good goal from Wighton to open the scoring driving right at Warren and slotting the ball beyond Fon Williams in the style of Thierry Henry. Dundee also had a penalty claim when Draper tangled with McGowan but it was difficult to see what happened from the other end of the ground. Just before half time there was a bit of a scramble in the Dundee box after a Tansey corner wasn't cleared and despite a number of sclaffed efforts towards goal no ICT player was able to turn it into the net.

Half Time 1-0

Second half was much of the same. ICT tended to dominate possession but Dundee created better chances. The second goal largely killed the game off. Free kick on the ICT left was whipped in by Hately, Doumbouya missed the ball and Gadzhalov powered the ball into the net. Whilst we did get a goal back when Tremarco somehow found the net after Bain appeared to cock up his attempted save bagging an equaliser probably wouldn't have been deserved.

Full Time 2-1

Dundee were much better than when we cuffed them earlier in the season whereas we seem to have gone backwards somewhat. Despite playing with 'proper' wide men in Doran and King we didn't really get much joy down the left or right flanks and Doran seemed to spend most of his time cutting in from the right and sitting inside leaving Draper to play on the right for large parts of the first half which seemed a bit odd. Vigurs went off injured which might go some way to explain his complete lack of effort when trying to defend Dundee attacks in the second half.

Another injury is not really what we need with Polworth and Mackay out but hopefully the former is back soon especially with Raven out and Horner now suspended. We're starting to look a wee bit thin, low on confidence and pretty toothless up front. Some massive games coming up now against St Johnstone, Hamilton and Killie. I think we really need at least two wins from that lot. Going to be a tight old season this one.

Match report written by RIG



Pld W D L F A +/- Pts
1. Celtic 12 11 1 0 35 8 27 34
2. Rangers 14 7 5 2 19 14 5 26
3. Aberdeen 13 7 3 3 22 12 10 24
4. Hearts 14 6 5 3 27 17 10 23
5. St. Johnstone 14 5 4 5 19 19 0 19
6. Motherwell 14 4 3 7 17 23 -6 15
7. Dundee 15 4 3 8 14 20 -6 15
8. Ross County 15 3 6 6 15 26 -11 15
9. Hamilton Academical 14 2 8 4 16 20 -4 14
10. Inverness CT 15 3 5 7 21 29 -8 14
11. Kilmarnock 14 3 5 6 12 24 -12 14
12. Partick Thistle 14 3 4 7 16 21 -5 13