Aberdeen 1 - 0 Inverness CT

League Match
Saturday, April 11th, 2009, 3:00 PM at Pittodrie Stadium, Aberdeen
Attendance: 11,114
Referee: Alan Muir
Aberdeen Inverness CT

Goalscorers
Gary McDonald (79) None.

Team Managers
Jimmy Calderwood Terry Butcher

Starting Eleven
Jamie Langfield
Richard Foster
Lee Mair
Charlie Mulgrew
Scott Severin
Jamie Smith
Derek Young
Gary McDonald
Sone Aluko
Lee Miller
Christopher Maguire
Ryan Esson
Ross Tokely
Grant Munro
David Proctor
Lionel Djebi-Zadi
Pavels Mihadjuks
Ian Black
Filipe Morais
Brian Kerr
Dougie Imrie
Richie Foran

Bench
Bertrand Bossu
Javan Vidal
Stuart Duff
Sammy Stewart
Darren Mackie
Tommy Wright
Michael Paton
Michael Fraser
Richard Hastings
Jamie Duff
Russell Duncan
Iain Vigurs
Andrew Barrowman
Adam Rooney

Substitutions
Tommy Wright -> Lee Miller (84)
Darren Mackie -> Christopher Maguire (84)
Stuart Duff -> Jamie Smith (90)
Russell Duncan for Ian Black (65)
Andrew Barrowman for Filipe Morais (75)
Adam Rooney for Richie Foran (79)

Bookings
None. Ross Tokely (78)

Red Cards
None. None.
Appearances & Goals To Date
Ryan Esson (GK) 25 apps -
Lionel Djebi-Zadi 14 apps -
David Proctor 88 apps5 goals
Pavels Mihadjuks 14 apps2 goals
Ross Tokely 476 apps31 goals
Grant Munro 277 apps7 goals
Brian Kerr 6 apps -
Filipe Morais 9 apps4 goals
Ian Black 138 apps8 goals
Dougie Imrie 52 apps6 goals
Richie Foran 11 apps2 goals
Russell Duncan (sub) 288 apps9 goals
Andrew Barrowman (sub) 27 apps2 goals
Adam Rooney (sub) 34 apps6 goals

Starting Lineup
Youngest Player:David Proctor (25 years 43 days)
Oldest Player:Brian Kerr (2010 years 255 days)
Average Player Age:27 years 184 days
Domestic Players:11 (100.00 % of starting eleven)

Matchday Squad
Youngest Player:Iain Vigurs (20 years 344 days)
Oldest Player:Lionel Djebi-Zadi (2010 years 255 days)
Average Player Age:27 years 54 days
Domestic Players:17 (94.44 % of matchday squad)

First Team Debuts

Milestones

Caley Thistle fans were in a confident mood travelling to Aberdeen for todays fixture having secured a deserved victory over St Mirren at home last week.

ICTFC have only ever beaten Aberdeen once, and that was on the opening day of the season, however there's never much between the teams and it was only a late goal by McDonald that separated them this afternoon.

Inverness dominated early on in the game, but it wasn't long before Aberdeen were dictating the pace and putting on the pressure. On another day we might have made more of the squandered chances, but it wasn't to be and all focus is now on next weeks home fixture against relegation rivals, Hamilton.

*yawn* looks like rig was less than impressed

Another game to add to the list of dull Aberdeen / ICT "derbies" settled by the odd goal in Aberdeens favour. Thought we had a lot of the ball in the first half but struggled to create anything really clear cut. Morais and Imrie were wasteful with the ball at their feet all too often picking the wrong option. Aberdeen had a decent chance when Millers header was palmed away by Esson.

In the second half we were very poor. Continuously picked the wrong pass at the crucial moment and were much more sloppy in defence allowing Aberdeen to come into the game more and more and eventually they got their goal. No idea what happened as I was looking at my phone but looked up in time to see Esson stand as the ball looped over his head. Rather muted celebrations by the Aberdeen fans showed how little there was to get excited in what was a very poor game.

From an ICT point of view, Morais and Imrie didn't seem to click up front, Djebi Zadi had some last gasp tackles that saved a goal, Esson seemed somewhat shaky and Munro and McMajiks seemed a bit off colour also. Thought Kerr had a good game again for us in the middle of the park. I was worried about Well and HIbs fans talking of his lack of bite but he seems to be showing plenty of enthusiasm for us. At the end of the day it was just one to forget really.

from CTO:

I was so depressed by that on Saturday that I've left it until now to put in my tuppence worth. We were awful, the 2nd half was embarrassingly bad. We could have played for a fortnight and not broken down an Aberdeen side that was there for the taking. They were 1 free kick and 1 header better, that's all. The goal was nothing to do with Esson, it was Grantie's fault (again)

There needs to be a major cull in the summer, and we need to spend some serious money. Therein could lie a problem....

and:

Decent battling first half with little sign of a goal but Aberdeen were very nervous and there for the taking.

Started the second half really well and pinned them back for 10 mins but after that we were never in the game.

I'm sure we will stay up though, this was an away game at a team who are supposed to be after 3rd place. It's up to TB to get us a bit of creativity in midfield before the new season starts - don't fancy watching that sort of tripe every week.

Match report written by tm4tj



Pld W D L F A +/- Pts
1. Celtic 32 21 8 3 73 30 43 71
2. Rangers 32 21 7 4 65 24 41 70
3. Hearts 32 15 8 9 37 34 3 53
4. Aberdeen 32 13 9 10 36 31 5 48
5. Dundee Utd 32 12 12 8 43 40 3 48
6. Hibernian 31 10 11 10 35 37 -2 41
7. Motherwell 32 11 8 13 36 42 -6 41
8. Kilmarnock 32 9 6 17 31 43 -12 33
9. Hamilton Academical 32 10 3 19 25 46 -21 33
10. Inverness CT 32 9 4 19 31 51 -20 31
11. St. Mirren 31 7 9 15 25 43 -18 30
12. Falkirk 32 6 9 17 32 48 -16 27