More misery for home fans:
Inverness struggled once more to take care of the visiting team with an uninspiring draw against basement battlers Hamilton Academicals. Despite opening the scoring, chances were at a premium and both keepers could have gone shopping, such was the lack of invention by both sides. Dani Sanchez latched onto a loose ball in the box to fire Inverness ahead, but Antoine-Curier netted a soft penalty to square the match right on the stroke of half-time. The only bright light for Caley Jags fans was the introduction of Jonny Hayes, back for the last quarter, and he showed enough in that short spell to remind us what we have been missing for the last few weeks.
Davie begrudgingly has a report ready after another grim stalemate.
That there are some games easier to report on than others is undeniable, and lately a succession of difficult jobs have landed off the back of some uninspiring results. The stygian gloom has been penetrated only by TB’s now celebrated rant at the SPL establishment. Yesterday, a glimmer of light and hope was dimmed by half time. The initial sparring in this match was pleasing, in that any verve and style on display was coming from the home side. Passing through the midfield was crisp, and there was a definite creative edge supplied by Sanchez. In truth the midfield looked a touch light, Duff being required to supply any grit needed. A couple of probing openings were supplied by Foran and Rooney, with Sanchez feeding a delightful reverse ball for Foran, who opened his body perfectly, but scooped it over the bar. All this before the opener arrived in 18 minutes. Pressure by this time had built to an extent that a clear cut chance had to present itself to Inverness, and it duly fell to Nick Ross, whose shot was parried out to the edge of the area by Cerny. Sanchez walloped it back across him into the left corner of the net and cued despondency from the small band of away supporters. At this point, you might have been forgiven for thinking that Inverness would build on this; my reaction was certainly that the goal was the first of a succession. How wrong. Nick Ross again had a shot on target in 25 minutes, but the Accies were dragging themselves back into things. Comfort could be gained from the fact that they looked like they could have played for a fortnight and fail to score. This theory combusted in 45 minutes when, instead of enjoying a half time cuppa, ICT were left spluttering over the equaliser from Antoine-Curier via the penalty spot. Rossco provided the challenge, about which opinions were neatly divided. The support provided the reaction, which wasn’t.
HT Inverness CT 1 Hamilton 1
I shifted my seat at half time, roving reporter stylee, as I limped across the stadium, (ice and bikes don't mix), to elicit more opinion from the home support when you would have thought they would kick on after an almighty boot from Butcher at half time. And yet, the more it went on, the more you could sense that all these recent journeys up and down the A9 had drained these lads, especially after Tuesday’s near miss. There was much huff and puff but no real quality of finish. Poor Adam Rooney. Being tailed by Stephane Chapuisat has affected him, and prospects of a life in Berne must be weighing on his mind. He is a shadow of the player who scored a joyous hat trick against Hibs not so long ago, and it was no surprise to see him subbed on the hour mark by Shane Sutherland. The other substitution of this double was Russel Duncan for the frankly inept Eric Odihambo. His touch, on which he relies, had gone on holiday without him. You can only hope they become reacquainted soon. Duncan scrapped and harried as is his want, but the major impact on the proceedings was left for ICT’s scorer Sanchez to depart and be replaced by Jonny Hayes. Welcome back. Within two minutes, he latched on to a trademark ball into the channel on the right and Gillespie was yellow carded for resorting to a rugby tackle to halt him. Obviously short of match practice, he lit up the remainder of this game, but the main beneficiary of his cross balls was gone, Rooney being bettered by neither Sutherland nor Foran. There is a curious malaise about Foran these days, yesterday he looked lost for long periods. A word has to be said about Mr. Finnie and his cohorts in that they would have been better served wearing funny suits and red noses. They could not have been worse. How a linesman can fix his unimpeded gaze on a ball and fail to spot that it has gone out of play on at least three occasions stumps me. The rest just mystified, but was at least spread without prejudice - no conspiracies here. The match ended, never having lived up to its promise from an Inverness perspective. Sure there were chances and you’ll see them on sportscene tonight but we will need a magnitude of improvement by Wednesday. I hope you’re sorted by then, young Adam.
FT Inverness CT 1 Hamilton 1
Postscript: Hamilton contributed well, and Doug Imrie played his part as the pantomime villain. There was a memorable cameo in the first half when a promising run was halted by his getting in a fankle and tripping over the ball. His rueful smile in the face of torrents of abuse from the North Stand showed a generosity of spirit that they appeared unable to show back. Think what you want about him, but it’s gruesome to witness and it’s time to move on.
Match report written by tm4tj/Davie
