Inverness CT 0 - 1 Falkirk

Scottish Cup - Quarter Final
Saturday, March 7th, 2009, 3:00 PM at Tulloch Caledonian Stadium
Attendance: 3,024
Referee: Steve Conroy
Inverness CT  Falkirk

Goalscorers
None. Carl Finnigan (29pen)

Team Managers
Terry Butcher John Hughes

Starting Eleven
Ryan Esson
Ross Tokely
Grant Munro
Lionel Djebi-Zadi
Pavels Mihadjuks
Russell Duncan
Ian Black
Filipe Morais
Dougie Imrie
Richie Foran
Eric Odhiambo
Castro Dani Mallo
Lee Bullen
Steven Pressley
Thomas Scobbie
Darren Barr
Arnau Riera
Patrick Cregg
Burton O Brien
Mark Stewart
Carl Finnigan
Steve Lovell

Substitutes
Michael Fraser
Richard Hastings
Roy McBain
Brian Kerr
Adam Rooney
Robert Olejnik
Dean Holden
Gerard Aafjes
Kevin McBride
Sean Lynch

Substitutions
Richard Hastings for Eric Odhiambo (35)
Brian Kerr for Ian Black (58)
Adam Rooney for Filipe Morais (75)
Gerard Aafjes -> Carl Finnigan (90)

Bookings
Russell Duncan (57)
Steven Pressley (37)
Darren Barr (57)
Castro Dani Mallo (57)

Red Cards
Lionel Djebi-Zadi (29)
None.
Appearances & Goals To Date
Ryan Esson (GK) 22 apps -
Pavels Mihadjuks 10 apps2 goals
Ross Tokely 472 apps31 goals
Grant Munro 273 apps7 goals
Lionel Djebi-Zadi 10 apps -
Filipe Morais 6 apps2 goals
Russell Duncan 286 apps9 goals
Ian Black 134 apps7 goals
Eric Odhiambo 7 apps1 goal
Richie Foran 7 apps1 goal
Dougie Imrie 48 apps6 goals
Richard Hastings (sub) 363 apps4 goals
Brian Kerr (sub) 3 apps -
Adam Rooney (sub) 31 apps6 goals

Starting Lineup
Youngest Player:Dougie Imrie (25 years 223 days)
Oldest Player:Eric Odhiambo (2010 years 220 days)
Average Player Age:28 years 75 days
Domestic Players:11 (100.00 % of starting eleven)

Matchday Squad
Youngest Player:Dougie Imrie (25 years 223 days)
Oldest Player:Lionel Djebi-Zadi (2010 years 220 days)
Average Player Age:29 years 40 days
Domestic Players:15 (93.75 % of matchday squad)

First Team Debuts

Milestones

Red Card Ends Cup Hopes:

Caley Thistle came into this game on the back of a wonderful victory at Ibrox in midweek that had sent todays opponents to the bottom of the league.

With the SPL relegation battle put on hold for a week, today's match not only gave one side the chance to progress to a Hampden semi-final but also the chance to take a psychological advantage going into the 6 pointer in two weeks time .

the early exchanges were fairly even, but things took a dramatic turn on the half hour mark when Lionel Djebi Zadi was ordered off for fouling Carl Finnigan inside the box. Finnigan took the resultant penalty and this proved to be the winner.

From Site:
Initial disappointment at going out of a cup i thought we had a fairly good chance of doing something in this year, further disappointment that we were beaten by a bunch of cheating, low-skilled and very poor falkirk team who, on the basis of today, we will beat easily in the league.

Overall a fantastic performance in the second half. If we had maybe taken either kerrs or duncans chance then we would have gone onto win, especially with forans chance at the end. In a way it is good that the team who put us out was falkirk as this game masks the problems they have at the club, and gets the fans off their backs for a few weeks. Its clear to see that they rely far too much on very poor players, like elvis (i would 100% have mihadjuks instead of him, diving cheating w*ker that he is) for example. We controlled the game with ten men, and the only shot they had on target was a penalty.

The ref gets a special mention as the worst in the history of mankind. Simply strange decisions, bad decisions and downright awful decisions prevented the game from being a classic. Every 50-50 went to Falkirk. We could and maybe should have had a couple of penalties as well as booking two Falkirk players who should have been sent off. Had we had a proper referee then things could have been different. Still, one more game for those bunch of no-hopers is exactly what they don't need, i look forward to seeing them floundering in the first division, with Elvis down there with them.

tm4tj:
Down to ten men I was still confident we could pull this off or a replay at the least. However, it was not to be despite some frantic scrambles in the Falkirk box the ball just never fell kindly enough for us, combined with Mallo's reflex saves we missed out on a great opportunity to progress. Imrie undid a lot of his good work by choosing the wrong option at the end, shooting wildly over when a pass may have been more productive, he saw the headlines before he shot methinks. One great run evading five scything tackles before being crowded out, but not enough composure with the final ball too often meant it was to no avail.

Great save in the first half by Mallo when Tokely lofted a header towards a seemingly empty net only for the keeper to make up a lot of ground and claw the ball to safety. Tokely McMagics and Foran get pass marks. Grantie gets a minus for constant hoofing, Duncan for cheating, Imrie for not passing, Black for stopping the ball with his face, Lionel for the rugby tackle, he should have left it to Esson, Kerr for not being fit, Esson for having nothing to do, Rooney for not being good enough, and the ref just for sheer inconsistency.

Ah well, out of the cup, but not out of the league yet.

Match report written by tm4tj/site



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