Appearances & Goals To Date
Starting Lineup
| Youngest Player: | Ross Tokely (28 years 234 days) |
| Oldest Player: | Dennis Wyness (2009 years 82 days) |
| Average Player Age: | 29 years 198 days |
| Domestic Players: | 10 (90.91 % of starting eleven) |
Matchday Squad
| Youngest Player: | Iain Vigurs (19 years 171 days) |
| Oldest Player: | Phil McGuire (2009 years 82 days) |
| Average Player Age: | 27 years 212 days |
| Domestic Players: | 17 (94.44 % of matchday squad) |
First Team Debuts
Milestones
This was the 14th time Caley Thistle had gone head to head with Aberdeen and it was the 14th attempt at notching up the first victory against our East Coast neighbours.
Craig Brewster had made some changes to the team that faced Kilmarnock a fortnight ago – Hastings was back in the squad after being out with an injury which also saw him miss out on International duty for Canada recently, Wilson had been relegated to the bench to keep a space for McBain who pushed forward into his more natural roll on the left of midfield, but most noticeable was the change of personal between the sticks with Fraser being replaced by loan keeper Zibi Malkowski.
The Caley Jags didn’t get off to the brightest of starts and looked unsettled for the first 25 minutes of the game…this was most apparent in the 8th minute when Ross Tokely was drawn out of position, missed his tackle and let Young of Aberdeen through in a dangerous position. The rest of the defence seemed intent on standing back and allowing him to get the shot off. Unfortunately Malkowski wasn’t able to get down fast enough and the ball squeezed under his body and in to the back of the net, despite opinions that it should have been an easy save.
Aberdeen had taken early control of the game and continued to push forward; fortunately for ICT they weren’t able to produce an end product which was causing us any difficulty.
Niculae had the first real chance for ICT around the 20 minute mark but unfortunately it went straight in to the hands of Langfield. This seemed to spur on the Caley Jags though and they upped their game, we were on the ascendancy with Niculae, Wyness, Black and Cowie all getting a chance to shoot at goal as the game pushed on towards the half-time whistle.
HT: Inverness CT 0 – 1 Aberdeen
Having replaced Severin just before half time due to an injury, Aberdeen also had to replace Mackie at half time….on came the man who has posed more problems for ICT than the rest of the Aberdeen team together….Steve Lovell.
Caley Thistle started the second half brightly and it was our turn to dominate on possession and be making the push towards the Aberdeen goalmouth. However, we seemed to be suffering the problem as Aberdeen had done early in the game and were unable to produce much of a threat on goal. This wasn’t helped by referee Eddie Smith, he hadn’t had much to do the whole game, which was probably just as well as the majority of his calls seemed to be given the wrong way.
We were looking the most likely to score the next goal and that couldn’t have arrived in better fashion. A clever run in to the 6 yard box by Wyness was timed perfectly to meet an accurate cross from Hastings. Wyness had escaped his markers and was free to slot the ball confidently beyond Langfield…his 100th goal for ICT, but more importantly an equaliser and (deservedly) a chance for us to take something from this match.
Caley Thistle still looked the stronger of the two teams, keeping possession for large spells and still looked most likely to score in the final 30 minutes. In fact, it was an ICT player who was next to net…unfortunately in the wrong end. Ross Tokely jumped to defend against a cross in to the box and seemed to receive a slight nudge which saw him head the ball past Malkowski to make it 1-2 for Aberdeen.
McGuire was subbed off shortly afterwards, I had thought he picked up a knock earlier in the game and had been limping, so I’m not sure if he’d been trying to play through it and struggling or if he picked up another bang, but Proctor was to take his place having being brought back to Inverness by Brewster upon his return.
Niculae was unlucky to shoot wide around the 70 minute mark and their really wasn’t too much else to talk about us the ball seemed to spend most of its time in the middle third of the pitch.
Aberdeen then seemed to come back in to the game and were looking to try and catch us on the break, and had it not been for the slight eagerness of Vischer and Lovell who were both caught offside on separate occasions then Malkowski may have faced a tougher test.
Duncan looked like creating a carbon copy of the goal he scored against Falkirk last month when he wellied a right footed volley from about 25 yards out and had it gone anywhere other than straight at Langfield then Duncan would be holding 2 of this seasons top 3 goals for ICT.
McBain had been largely ineffective for most of the match and looked like a prime target to be replaced by Wilson who I’d spotted warming up and getting kitted up in preparation for the substitution. I was therefore slightly shocked to see that it was Black who had been signalled to come off the park…he had been struggling a little in the middle, but he’d also looked like one of our greatest threats when we were pushing forward and had a couple of decent shots on goal.
A tiring Niculae was replaced shortly afterwards by Bayne. Niculae has been unlucky not to have broken his duck in the SPL this season and he’d put in another good shift in the Blue and Red stripes. Some people remain unconvinced, but I have little doubt that he is making a valuable contribution to the team and will gain rightful recognition in due course.
Full Time 1-2
Other than Duncan getting a yellow card for being unable to keep his trap shut, the game kinda fizzled to a close.
Room for improvement on the part of the Caley Jags, but not an altogether bad performance. We face Aberdeen on their turf again in 10 days time – Halloween Night – maybe the Bogeyman can help us put one over on our Bogey Team.
Match report written by CaleyD
