Inverness CT 4 - 0 St. Mirren

Scottish Cup - Rd 4 replay
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014, 7:45 PM at Tulloch Caledonian Stadium
Attendance: 1,326
Referee: Calum Murray
Inverness CT  St. Mirren

Goalscorers
Gary Warren (20)
Greg Tansey (pen.) (23)
Danny Williams (67)
Graeme Shinnie (90)
None.

Team Managers
John Hughes Tommy Craig

Starting Eleven
Dean Brill
Josh Meekings
Gary Warren
David Raven
Graeme Shinnie
Greg Tansey
Ross Draper
James Vincent
Danny Williams
Marley Watkins
Billy Mckay
Mark Ridgers
Jason Naismith
Marc McAusland
Jeroen Tesselaar
Sean Kelly
Jim Goodwin
Thomas Reilly
Isaac Osbourne
Kenny McLean
John McGinn
Steven Thompson

Substitutes
Ryan Esson
Daniel Devine
Carl Tremarco
Nick Ross
Aaron Doran
Liam Polworth
Ryan Christie
Marian Kello
James Marwood
Callum Ball
Adam Drury
Adam Brown
Gary Teale
Ross Caldwell

Substitutions
Ryan Christie for Marley Watkins (73)
Aaron Doran for Danny Williams (76)
Nick Ross for Billy Mckay (83)
Adam Drury -> Thomas Reilly (52)
Adam Brown -> Marc McAusland (62)
Callum Ball -> Isaac Osbourne (72)

Bookings
Graeme Shinnie (2)
Jim Goodwin (22)

Red Cards
None. None.
Appearances & Goals To Date
Dean Brill (GK) 62 apps -
Josh Meekings 121 apps3 goals
Gary Warren 94 apps11 goals
David Raven 92 apps1 goal
Marley Watkins 49 apps6 goals
Ross Draper 96 apps7 goals
Graeme Shinnie 160 apps6 goals
Greg Tansey 76 apps12 goals
Danny Williams 41 apps2 goals
James Vincent 36 apps2 goals
Billy Mckay 132 apps56 goals
Ryan Christie (sub) 33 apps5 goals
Aaron Doran (sub) 129 apps17 goals
Nick Ross (sub) 154 apps11 goals

Starting Lineup
Youngest Player:Marley Watkins (24 years 52 days)
Oldest Player:Greg Tansey (2016 years 126 days)
Average Player Age:27 years 88 days
Domestic Players:6 (54.55 % of starting eleven)

Matchday Squad
Youngest Player:Ryan Christie (19 years 285 days)
Oldest Player:Josh Meekings (2016 years 126 days)
Average Player Age:26 years 66 days
Domestic Players:10 (55.56 % of matchday squad)

First Team Debuts

Milestones

Buddies Hammered in the Cup:

Inverness dismantled St Mirren in the cup, scoring four and in reality letting St Mirren off lightly. First half goals from Gary Warren, and a Greg Tansey penalty put Inverness in control and strikes from Danny Williams and captain Graeme Shinnie completed the rout. after the break. The score flattered the Paisley outfit and Tommy Craig's peg is a bit more shoogley.

As expected, Marley Watkins returned to the starting eleven along with Greg Tansey. Nick Ross stepped down from the side that started at Paisley with Ryan Christie joining him on the bench. For St Mirren, Jim Goodwin came back into the defence with Thompson, McGinn and Osbourne starting again.

A sparse crowd of just over 1300 attended the game on a chilled evening after a bright winters day.

It was a fairly level opening to the game with the home side dominating possession and playing the passing game, often frustrating the fans as much as the St Mirren players. Indeed Dean Brill had more touches than the whole Paisley side. The retention policy would pay off soon enough as Inverness won a corner after 20 minutes. Tansey whipped the ball to the near post and Gary Warren bulleted a header behind Ridgers for the opener.

Three minutes later and Watkins latched onto a long ball that curled round the defence. As he forced his way into the box, Goodwin went to ground and appeared to bring Watkins down with his arm. Penalty no doubt and Greg Tansey hammered the ball to the keepers right, the goalie going the opposite direction.

We then squandered three great opportunities before half time. These were glaring misses and should have seen St Mirren buried before the break. Danny Williams trundled the ball into the keepers hands from ten yards, straight at the keeper when either side would have seen him score. Vincent did likewise from even closer range, cushioning a header into Ridgers' midriff. The third was more down to misfortune, Warren's back post header netbound until the defender threw himself at the ball, blocking it under the bar with part of his body.

Half Time 2-0

St Mirren were more stubborn for around fifteen minutes after the interval, and after 56 minutes Thompson headed over unchallenged. A warning for Inverness that there was still work to be undertaken.

Just before the hour, Meekings almost added to his seasons tally of three, but he was off balance as he tried to smash a shot with his right foot on the turn, the ball slicing well wide. The pressure was mounting now on the St Mirren defence as Inverness saw off their mini-revival.

Surging breaks forward were becoming more frequent and in one such surge, Williams fed McKay who smashed a close range shot off the underside of the bar, but when the ball came back out to the edge of the six yard box, Williams crashed a low shot into the back of the net.

This goal ended all hope of a St Mirren comeback and it was shooting practice for Inverness thereafter, The visitors goal leading a charmed life.

The arrival of Doran just added to the Buddies misery as he jinked and spun his way around the Paisley defenders. Doran, Christie and Tansey all missed efforts, but none moreso than sub Nick Ross who dallied before trying to get a shot away and the chance was lost.

However, captain courageous Graeme Shinnie showed his strikers how to finish, running onto a through ball to curl it beyond Samson and complete the scoring on a night to forget for the Buddies.

Full Time 4-0

In truth, Inverness crushed a toothless St Mirren side, scoring four and missing another half dozen great chances. The worrying aspect is that none of the forwards found the back of the net, but hey ho, as long as the rest are contributing it's onwards to the next round of the cup, where Partick Thistle will provide a sterner test. For Tommy Craig, your taxi awaits.... He was removed a couple of days later.

tm4tj MotM:- Garry Warren scored one, could have scored another couple and showed some fleet footed touches akin to Pele. Great all round performance from the big central defender. Ably assisted by most of the others, but notably Watkins, Williams, Shinnie and Draper.

Match report written by tm4tj



None.