Falkirk 0 - 1 Inverness CT

League Match
Saturday, August 4th, 2018, 3:00 PM at Falkirk Stadium, Falkirk
Attendance: 4,538
Referee: Steven McLean
Falkirk Inverness CT

Goalscorers
None. George Oakley (10)

Team Managers
Paul Hartley John Robertson

Starting Eleven
Leonardo Fasan
Thomas Dallison-Lisbon
Aaron Muirhead
Jordan McGhee
Deimantas Petravicius
Paul Paton
Tom Owen-Evans
Scott Harrison
Andrew Irving
Dennon Lewis
Marcus Haber
Mark Ridgers
Shaun Rooney
Coll Donaldson
Carl Tremarco
Brad Mckay
Joe Chalmers
Charlie Trafford
Tom Walsh
Liam Polworth
Nathan Austin
George Oakley

Bench
Lewis Kidd
Ruben Sammut
Tom Robson
Dan Turner
Dylan Mackin
Rees Greenwood
Robbie Mutch
Daniel Hoban
Jamie McCart
Riccardo Calder
Sean Welsh
Aaron Doran
Jordan White
Daniel Mackay

Substitutions
Dylan Mackin -> Tom Owen-Evans (71)
Rees Greenwood -> Deimantas Petravicius (74)
Daniel Mackay for Nathan Austin (71)
Sean Welsh for Tom Walsh (75)
Jordan White for George Oakley (82)

Bookings
Paul Paton (82) Shaun Rooney (40)
Brad Mckay (65)
Joe Chalmers (84)

Red Cards
None. None.
Appearances & Goals To Date
Mark Ridgers (GK) 49 apps -
Joe Chalmers 50 apps5 goals
Shaun Rooney 5 apps -
Coll Donaldson 38 apps1 goal
Brad Mckay 78 apps3 goals
Carl Tremarco 144 apps12 goals
Charlie Trafford 32 apps -
Tom Walsh 5 apps2 goals
Liam Polworth 165 apps15 goals
Nathan Austin 18 apps9 goals
George Oakley 48 apps14 goals
Sean Welsh (sub) 1 app (debut) -
Daniel Mackay (sub) 13 apps3 goals
Jordan White (sub) 5 apps -

Starting Lineup
Youngest Player:Shaun Rooney (22 years 14 days)
Oldest Player:Carl Tremarco (32 years 305 days)
Average Player Age:25 years 17 days
Domestic Players:7 (63.64 % of starting eleven)

Matchday Squad
Youngest Player:Daniel Mackay (17 years 111 days)
Oldest Player:Carl Tremarco (32 years 305 days)
Average Player Age:24 years 142 days
Domestic Players:12 (66.67 % of matchday squad)

First Team Debuts
Sean Welsh(Signed July 16th, 2018)

Milestones
Joe Chalmers played his 50th major competitive game for the Club.

Bairns Beaten: The opening game of the new Championship season saw Inverness travel to Falkirk and recorded their first points of the season when a George Oakley strike after 10 minutes was enough to settle the affair.

John Robertson opted for a front pairing of Nathan Austin and George Oakley with Aaron Doran and Jordan White on the bench. Captain Carl Tremarco got over his knock from Tynecastle and took his place at left back.

Paul Hartley had former Livingston striker Dylan Mackin on the bench with on loan Dundee forward Marcus Haber starting. Leo Fasan was between the sticks.

Falkirk got the season underway in front of an excellent support of over four and a half thousand.

Rig & Immortal Howden Ender will take it from here with this dual report ................

"As IHE says it was a 442 / 4411 for most of the game. Polworth spent most of the game tucking inside which brutally exposed Rooney on a number of occasions and led to Mckay getting dragged out of the middle to cover when he (Rooney) was taken apart. Left side was more impressive with Tremarco and Walsh getting a lot more joy especially in the first half with the latter sending over a number of good crosses and setting up the goal. When Walsh went off for Welsh Chalmers was moved to left midfield and Welsh slotted into the centre with Trafford. Austin and Oakley played as a two up front with Oakley often dropping slightly deeper to challenge for high balls.

We got very lucky today. Despite a good start we regressed more and more as the game wore on. Falkirk really came to dominate things as the match wore on but more often than not they ran out of ideas as they got closer to our goal. Walsh, as mentioned above, started well down the left and he set up the opener with a ball across the box sent in from the left and Oakley found a bit of space to divert the ball back across goal and into the net. We should have killed the game off when Austin found himself with a free run on goal after a defensive mix up but he never looked like he would score and he was smothered by the onrushing Falkirk keeper.

Falkirk thought they pulled level when a high free kick was headed beyond Ridgers but after a loooong delay, and with the players about to take the kick off, it was suddenly pulled back. I've no idea why the Falkirk goal was chopped off but I'm guessing it was a foul on one of Rooney, Donaldson or Mckay as they all ended up in a heap when the ball was floated in. The referee hadn't given anything but it seemed the linesman was the one who saw something wrong.

Following on from that we resorted to brutal route one football with aimless hoofs up the park for Oakley and later White to try and chase. Bizarrely we even seemed to be targeting Mckay with these long balls rather than White and these high balls were easily mopped up by the defenders. The one occasion we did get the ball down and pass it around we looked good. Chalmers, Welsh and Trafford quickly played the ball around 3 or 4 home players who were left chasing shadows so it was disappointing that we seemed to lack the composure to do this more often though perhaps that was more to Falkirk closing us down a lot better in the second half than the first.

Falkirk look exactly what we were like this time last season, a team clearly lacking cohesion due to so many new faces so we definitely got them at a good time. Whilst it's a very encouraging result I think we need to be cautious given how poor we were in the second half. Donaldson, Tremarco, Walsh and Oakley were probably my picks from today. Donaldson was excellent at the back although there were a couple of lapses on occasions. Tremarco and Walsh linked well down the left and the latter offered good defensive cover as well. Oakley was a handful up front but faded as the game went on. "

Match report written by RIG/IHE



Pld W D L F A +/- Pts
1. Ayr United 1 1 0 0 2 0 2 3
2. Dunfermline 1 1 0 0 3 2 1 3
3. Inverness CT 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 3
4. Ross County 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 3
5. Morton 1 0 1 0 2 2 0 1
6. Queen of the South 1 0 1 0 2 2 0 1
7. Dundee Utd 1 0 0 1 2 3 -1 0
8. Falkirk 1 0 0 1 0 1 -1 0
9. Stirling Albion 1 0 0 1 0 1 -1 0
10. Partick Thistle 1 0 0 1 0 2 -2 0