Inverness CT 2 - 0 Cowdenbeath

Scottish Cup - 3rd Round
Saturday, November 25th, 2023, 3:00 PM at Caledonian Stadium
Attendance: 1,037
Referee: Graham Grainger
Mascot: Ava Taylor & Rio Longden
Inverness CT  Cowdenbeath

Goalscorers
David Wotherspoon (80)
Billy Mckay (84)
None.

Team Managers
Duncan Ferguson Calum Elliot

Starting Eleven
Cameron Mackay
Zak Delaney
Wallace Duffy
Nikola Ujdur
Daniel Devine
Cillian Sheridan
Charlie Gilmour
Sean Welsh
Adam Brooks
Luis Longstaff
Nathan Shaw
Craig Hepburn
Greg MacPherson
Robbie McNab
Gregor Jordan
Jack Tait
Aiden McLaughlin
Jamie Docherty
Matthew McDonald
Zac Butterworth
Josh Jack
Ewan MacPherson

Substitutes
Mark Ridgers
Jake Davidson
Cameron Harper
Lewis Hyde
Robbie Thompson
David Carson
David Wotherspoon
Harry Lodovica
Billy Mckay
Adam MacDonald
Lucas Berry
Ciaren Chalmers
Scott Walker
Josh Blair
Michael Cunningham

Substitutions
David Carson for Wallace Duffy (70)
Billy Mckay for Cillian Sheridan (70)
David Wotherspoon for Adam Brooks (71)
Jake Davidson for Sean Welsh (89)
Harry Lodovica for Luis Longstaff (90)
Lucas Berry -> Josh Jack (54)
Adam MacDonald -> Matty McDonald (77)
Ciaren Chalmers -> Aiden McLaughlin (77)
Mikey Cunningham -> Ewan MacPherson (77)

Bookings
None. Jamie Docherty (34)
Jack Tait (90)

Red Cards
None. None.
Appearances & Goals To Date
Cameron Mackay (GK) 41 apps -
Zak Delaney 52 apps -
Wallace Duffy 85 apps3 goals
Nikola Ujdur 8 apps -
Daniel Devine 192 apps7 goals
Cillian Sheridan 4 apps -
Charlie Gilmour 17 apps1 goal
Sean Welsh 138 apps16 goals
Adam Brooks 11 apps1 goal
Luis Longstaff 15 apps1 goal
Nathan Shaw 62 apps13 goals
Jake Davidson (sub) 12 apps1 goal
David Carson (sub) 157 apps2 goals
David Wotherspoon (sub) 5 apps4 goals
Harry Lodovica (sub) 9 apps -
Billy Mckay (sub) 263 apps105 goals

Starting Lineup
Youngest Player:Adam Brooks (19 years 294 days)
Oldest Player:Cillian Sheridan (34 years 283 days)
Average Player Age:25 years 348 days
Domestic Players:5 (45.45 % of starting eleven)

Matchday Squad
Youngest Player:Robbie Thompson (19 years 217 days)
Oldest Player:Billy Mckay (35 years 42 days)
Average Player Age:26 years 112 days
Domestic Players:11 (55.00 % of matchday squad)

First Team Debuts

Milestones

Goalden Oldies

Inverness scraped their way into the hat for the fourth round draw with a less than impressive display against fifth tier Cowdenbeath. It was only after the introduction of olde heads Wotherspoon, Mckay and Carson that we took control of the game in the final ten minutes. Spoony and Mckay got the late strikes to win this tie over a hard working Cowdenbeath who can be well pleased with their performance as they shut Inverness down all over the park for eighty minutes. In truth, the mascots looked more impressive in the warm up than the Caley Jags strikers as they scored goals like a boss.

FULL TIME: 2-0

Robert on CTO: That was a hard watch. Cowdenbeath more than matched us until the triple change. Ferguson will have learn’t a lot about some players. Two great goals put an artificial gloss on a poor performance. I’ll cut Welsh some slack as he is still building up fitness after so little game time, and he made one magnificent cross field pass to Shaw. Delaney and Sheridan were the worst of the bunch, with most players guilty of slack passing and poor control in general.

It could have been different if our two early chances had gone in, one cleared off the line and one resulting in a good save. However, we didn’t kick on at all, reverting to square and backwards passing with little movement or threat. When we got scoring chances, we tended to pass rather than shoot when a shooting opportunity was on.

After the break, Brooks had a tame effort and Sheridan should have had two easy goals but messed up the opportunities. Thank goodness we stepped up several gears when Mckay and Wotherspoon came on. We need to get Wotherspoon tied up for longer.

Of the starting eleven, I’m struggling as to who get pass marks. Maybe Shaw and Ujdur but that would be about it. Brooks and Longstaff worked very hard but without damaging Cowdenbeath.

Cup ties are all about getting into the next round and that's what Inverness did....just. Unlike Dundee United and Arbroath, who have parted company with Dick & Dom.

Not an impressive performance by any means, but Big Dunc will have learnt that some of these players need to move on in January. We had made half a dozen changes to the normal Championship team lines but I'm struggling to find many positives from that. No surprise that we looked much better when Mckay, Wotherspoon and Carson entered the game. A couple of flashes of brilliance and it was game over.

Well done to Cowdenbeath who got their game plan right and snapped at our heels all afternoon making life difficult for us as we tried to break them down but failed badly. Sheridan looks off the pace but still had a couple of opportunities to score, something he would have done with his eyes shut a number of years ago. Brooks runs around like a headless chicken without threatening. Misplaced passes all over the park today, but one man not guilty of that was the impeccable Nikola Ujdur who was my MotM. His nearest rivals only played for the final ten minutes, Mckay and Wotherspoon and after that the mascots Ava and Rio were head and shoulders above the rest of the squad.

Match report written by tm4tj



None.