Inverness CT 3 - 1 Kilmarnock

League Match
Saturday, December 29th, 2007, 3:00 PM at Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, Inverness
Attendance: 4,169
Referee: Craig MacKay
Inverness CT  Kilmarnock

Goalscorers
Marius Niculae (42)
Don Cowie (52)
Marius Niculae (76)
Nish (86)(pen)

Team Managers
Craig Brewster Jim Jefferies

Starting Eleven
Michael Fraser
Richard Hastings
Ross Tokely
Grant Munro
Phil McGuire
Russell Duncan
Ian Black
John Rankin
Don Cowie
Graham Bayne
Marius Niculae
Combe
Hamill
Ford
O'Leary
Hay
Fernandez
Fowler
Bryson
Taouil
Nish
Wales

Substitutes
Zbigniew Małkowski
David Proctor
Jamie Duff
Barry Wilson
Iain Vigurs
Dennis Wyness
Rory McAllister
Koudou
Flannigan
Johnston
Locke
Noble
Clancy
Harpur

Substitutions
Dennis Wyness for Graham Bayne (83)
David Proctor for Phil McGuire (88)
Koudou -> Bryson (72)
Johnston -> Fernandez (79)

Bookings
None. None.

Red Cards
None. None.
Appearances & Goals To Date
Michael Fraser (GK) 41 apps -
Ross Tokely 421 apps29 goals
Phil McGuire 14 apps -
Grant Munro 230 apps5 goals
Richard Hastings 318 apps3 goals
John Rankin 53 apps8 goals
Russell Duncan 243 apps8 goals
Don Cowie 23 apps6 goals
Ian Black 91 apps3 goals
Marius Niculae 21 apps6 goals
Graham Bayne 121 apps20 goals
David Proctor (sub) 53 apps4 goals
Dennis Wyness (sub) 232 apps101 goals

Starting Lineup
Youngest Player:Ross Tokely (28 years 303 days)
Oldest Player:Phil McGuire (2009 years 151 days)
Average Player Age:29 years 267 days
Domestic Players:10 (90.91 % of starting eleven)

Matchday Squad
Youngest Player:Iain Vigurs (19 years 240 days)
Oldest Player:Phil McGuire (2009 years 151 days)
Average Player Age:27 years 281 days
Domestic Players:17 (94.44 % of matchday squad)

First Team Debuts

Milestones

There's usually goals when ICT and Killie meet and today was no exception.

After an insipid performance a few days ago at he Falkirk Stadium, the Caley Jags were a lot more classy today. A Marius Niculae double and a Don Cowie goal earned Caley Thistle a deserved victory in the final fixture of 2007.

Kilmarnock got a late consolation with a soft penalty award that Colin Nish put beyond Michael Fraser.

The Caley Thistle lads bounced back from a lack-lustre performance and narrow 1-0 against Falkirk on Boxing day to put together a convincing performance against Kilmarnock at home and secure all 3 points.

The opening goal nearly fell to on loan defender Phil McGuire when the ball came to him inside the area. The fact that he found himself with his back to the goal didn’t seem to deter him and had it not been for the sharp reflects of Alan Combe in the visitor’s goal then we would have been looking at one of the most impressive goals ever scored at Tulloch Caledonian Stadium.

Inverness CT were on the ascendancy and Kilmarnock were doing little to threaten Mike Fraser and the Inverness goal. Bayne was next to have a go for ICT, but his header went narrowly wide.

Kilmarnock never really came in to the game until the 25th minute when Fraser found himself well positioned to stick a boot on an effort from Fernandez who managed to penetrate the ICT defense for the first time in the match.

Nish, who has a habit of scoring against us, was next to be denied when Michael Fraser had to dive full stretch to prevent a low ball from finding the back of the net.

Marius Niculae has been starting to find his range in recent games and on 38 minutes he tested Alan Combe’s resolve when he hit a solid 25 yard volley towards the bottom right corner, which the keeper did well to push wide.

Had it not been for Combe then ICT could easily have found themselves a couple of goals up at this stage, but we were keeping the pressure on and the effort was rewarded just before half-time when John Rankin placed a powerful shot at Combe who could only block it and watch as it fell to Niculae who slotted it away with relative ease.

Half Time: Inverness CT 1 – 0 Kilmarnock

It wouldn’t be your typical Inverness CT v Kilmarnock match if it finished with just one goal, and true to form another one was soon on its way after the break. Richard Hastings had been pushing forward and he played the ball into the path of Cowie who pulled off a sublime piece of finishing making it 2-0 to the home team on 52 minutes.

Hastings was next to find himself in position and should have done more to reward himself for his efforts after his initial shot was blocked by Combe but fell to him again only a few yards out….thrashing at the ball he could only mange (somehow) to send it over the bar when it would have been easier to score.

Kilmarnock were doing nothing which even looked like coming close to threatening Michael Fraser in the second half with the ball rarely finding it’s way into the Caley Thistle third of the park.

With all the excitement being at the other end it was only going to be a matter of time before Inverness added another with Niculae feeling confident and taking every opportunity to pressure the on-form Alan Combe. He had another 25 yard effort go narrowly wide and somehow managed to fight his way through a crowded Kilmarnock defense before seeing another shot blocked, but he wasn’t to wait to much longer before he found himself on the scorecard for the second time.

Combe had done well to block a shot from Graeme Bayne only to see the ball land at the feet of Don Cowie. As we all know Cowie is more than capable of finding the net, but Niculae obviously thought he was better placed as he cheekily pinched the ball from his under his nose and blasted it towards goal. Combe, again, managed to get a hand to it, but the pace this time was too much for him to have any real chance of keeping it from bursting the net in 76 minutes.

It was pretty much the same story for the next 10 minutes with Caley Thistle being the ones applying all the pressure, but 4 minutes from time a moments slackness on the part of Phil McGuire gifted Kilmarnock a penalty kick after he handled it in the box.

Colin Nish, desperate to keep up his scoring record against us no doubt, stepped up and slotted the ball home to finish off the scoring for the day.

Full Time: Inverness CT 3 – 1 Kilmarnock.

A great display by the lads in red and blue.

Match report written by CaleyD



None.

Pld W D L F A +/- Pts
1. Celtic 20 13 4 3 51 17 34 43
2. Rangers 18 13 2 3 43 16 27 41
3. Motherwell 20 11 2 7 30 25 5 35
4. Dundee Utd 20 9 2 9 28 27 1 29
5. Aberdeen 20 8 5 7 27 29 -2 29
6. Hibernian 20 7 7 6 28 26 2 28
7. Falkirk 20 8 4 8 33 35 -2 28
8. Inverness CT 20 9 1 10 28 34 -6 28
9. Kilmarnock 20 5 6 9 22 30 -8 21
10. Hearts 20 5 5 10 30 35 -5 20
11. St. Mirren 19 5 4 10 11 30 -19 19
12. Gretna 19 2 4 13 16 43 -27 10