Cove Rangers 2 - 0 Inverness CT

Scottish Cup - 3rd Round
Saturday, November 30th, 2024, 3:00 PM at Balmoral Stadium
Attendance: 539
Referee: Gary Hanvidge
Cove Rangers Inverness CT

Goalscorers
Declan Glass (89) pen
Grady McGrath (96)
None.

Team Managers
Paul Hartley Scott Kellacher

Starting Eleven
Balint Demus
Michael Doyle
Connor Scully
Will Gillingham
Ryan Harrington
Blair Yule
Mitchel Megginson
Reuben McAllister
Aaron Darge
Findlay Marshall
Adam Emslie
Musa Dibaga
Matthew Strachan
Remi Savage
Daniel Devine
Robbie Thompson
Charlie Gilmour
Paul Allan
Adam Mackinnon
James Nolan
Luis Longstaff
Billy Mckay

Bench
Nick Suman
Finlay Murray
Declan Glass
Grady McGrath
Dylan Lobban
Myles Gaffney
Szymon Rebilas
Sam Thompson
Lee Walker
Calum MacLeod
Calum MacKay
Ethan Cairns

Substitutions
Declan Glass -> Findlay Marshall (72)
Grady McGrath -> Mitch Megginson (91)
Calum MacLeod for Robbie Thompson (71)
Calum MacKay for Remi Savage (82)
Ethan Cairns for Matthew Strachan (91)

Bookings
Blair Yule (30)
Findlay Marshall (68)
Luis Longstaff (32)
Daniel Devine (68)
Billy Mckay (88)

Red Cards
None. None.
Appearances & Goals To Date
Musa Dibaga (GK) 14 apps -
Daniel Devine 232 apps10 goals
Matthew Strachan 17 apps -
Remi Savage 38 apps1 goal
Robbie Thompson 24 apps -
Charlie Gilmour 50 apps4 goals
Paul Allan 12 apps1 goal
Adam Mackinnon 17 apps3 goals
James Nolan 13 apps1 goal
Billy Mckay 314 apps113 goals
Luis Longstaff 52 apps3 goals
Calum MacLeod (sub) 19 apps1 goal
Calum MacKay (sub) 12 apps -
Ethan Cairns (sub) 8 apps1 goal

Starting Lineup
Youngest Player:James Nolan (19 years 64 days)
Oldest Player:Billy Mckay (36 years 48 days)
Average Player Age:24 years 114 days
Domestic Players:5 (45.45 % of starting eleven)

Matchday Squad
Youngest Player:Calum MacLeod (18 years 303 days)
Oldest Player:Sam Thompson (2026 years 127 days)
Average Player Age:23 years 100 days
Domestic Players:10 (58.82 % of matchday squad)

First Team Debuts

Milestones
Charlie Gilmour played his 50th major competitive game for the Club.

Cup of no Cheer



Jake Davidson, Keith Bray, Charlie Reilly, Connell Ewan and Lewis Nicolson were all missing for the The Caley Jags on Scottish Cup 3rd Round action at Balmoral Stadium, Cove. Fyvie was out for Cove. No scoring in the first half, not for the want of trying, but two very late goals, one from the spot after a dubious handball attributed to Danny Devine put Cove into the draw for the 4th Round. Substitutes Glass with the penalty and McGrath with a strike into the bottom corner sent the Caley Jags tumbling out of the cup after it was looking good for soooo long.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A mild St Andrew's day at Balmoral greeted the sides and a moment of respect before kick-off for a stalwart, Cove's former coach, physio, kit man and long time friend and supporter Mike Pirie who recently passed away.

There was an early touch of the ball in the third minute for Musa Dibaga who had to save a curling shot from Findlay Marshall when he let fly from outside the box. It was all a bit frantic in the opening exchanges with opportunities hard to come by on the artificial surface, the same could not be said for free kicks that were dished out at the drop of a hat. Danny Devine had our first serious attempt after quarter of an hour when his shot from outside the area was saved by Balint Demus in the home goal. The keeper did well again ten minutes later to deny an Adam MacKinnon header from eight yards out, the keeper pushing the ball away after MacKinnon met a great cross from the right. Robbie Thompson was next to have a go but his left footed shot on the run from the edge of the box was too close to the keeper who gathered easily. Dibaga saved a weak effort from Megginson, but it was Demus that had been the busier keeper and he was made to work harder five minutes before the break when MacKinnon let fly from eighteen yards and he pulled off another great save to deny the lively Inverness forward.

HALF TIME: 0-0

Cove started the half on the front foot and Reuben McAllister saw Dibaga gather his flick towards goal from Adam Emslie's inviting cross. Musa denied McAllister from a free kick, saving low to his right then smothering the cross back into the box as Cove began to push forward more although the game was littered with either petty fouls or poor refereeing. Probably a bit of both. Billy Mckay had an opportunity from a long ball into the box from the left side but he hit his first time effort into the ground and that made it easier for Demus to make the save. Savage was replaced by Calum Mackay for the final twenty minutes and that started the rot. Out of the blue, up step Mr Hanvidge to award a penalty when the linesman with a clear view signalled for a corner after Devine charged down an attempted cross from a couple of yards from his body. Incredible refereeing not lost on the entire Caley Jags staff and players. Substitute Declan Glass remained calm to slot the ball into the keepers right, unfortunately the keeper had dived to his left. That seemed to take the wind out of our sails and despite six minutes of added time it was Cove that broke forward to end the tie in the 96th minute. As we pushed for an equaliser, a ball out of defence from Glass found Grady McGrath sprinting forward unchallenged to dink the ball behind the exposed keeper. Game over and out of the cup for Inverness. Thank you Gary Hanvidge for ruining our weekend. Good luck to Cove in the next round.

FULL TIME: 2-0

A disappointing result given a possible pot of money if afforded a favourable draw. Bring on the "the league is more important anyway" brigade, which, whilst true, doesn't disguise the fact that this was a winnable tie that we lost. Meh! Another downside of this game was an injury to Remi Savage late in the game before the two goals were scored. Nobody happy with the penalty and a sucker punch when chasing the game thereafter.

Match report written by tm4tj