Appearances & Goals To Date
Starting Lineup
| Youngest Player: | Roman Golobart (19 years 177 days) |
| Oldest Player: | Gavin Morrison (2013 years 42 days) |
| Average Player Age: | 25 years 76 days |
| Domestic Players: | 11 (100.00 % of starting eleven) |
Matchday Squad
| Youngest Player: | Aidan Chippendale (19 years 113 days) |
| Oldest Player: | Graeme Shinnie (2013 years 42 days) |
| Average Player Age: | 24 years 23 days |
| Domestic Players: | 16 (94.12 % of matchday squad) |
First Team Debuts
Milestones
Hearts come back off the ropes to snatch a point:
Inverness let the Jambo's off the hook by failing to finish them off when they were almost down and out midway through the second half.
Hearts keeper Jamie MacDonald provided the comedy show straight from the Festival as he allowed Nick Ross to hassle the ball away from him for Tade to open the scoring; sheer comedy genius.
Unfortunately for the homesters they could not shake off Hearts and the arrival of Templeton and Taouil gave the visitors the impetus to change the pattern and recover a point as Elliott knocked in the equaliser, via the post.
Overall a draw was probably fair enough although Inverness would rue a string of missed opportunities to take all three points when Hearts were on the back foot, but the substitutions sparked Hearts into life and the late goal was always a likelihood.
The visitors had a healthy crowd following them and the rain had given way to a balmy Indian summer afternoon, giving the game a pre-season feel about it and the players obviously felt the same as they settled into a rather turgid first half. There was no indication that the second half was about to become infinitely more entertaining with a couple of comedy acts on display. MacDonald and Golobart were high on the list, but they were only on the fringe as the wee lad that ran away with the orb in the middle of the second half stole the show, and the ball. It took a fair bit of persuasion to get the ball back into play and all was well again.
The pre-season theme was evident prior to kick off as the Immortal Howden Ender led a few visitors astray and sotonict is testament to this. Hopefully he will recover in time to relate his thoughts of the day after his sojourn North.
Inverness were unlucky not to come away with a second consecutive home win against their capital city opponents
In what was an at times, scrappy affair, Inverness more than matched the visitors who hadn't won away from home so far this season.
Terry Butcher named one of his deadline day signings in the team lines and he looked to have slotted in straight away. I'm sure there will be more to come from Dave Davis.
The Shinnie brothers were working tirelessly all over the park, infact it was Graeme who stopped an Andy Webster shot on the goal line after he had broken free from a corner.
Ian Black was his usual 'competitive' self and picked up a yellow card in the latter half of the first period. Inverness I believe could have done well to pick up on the former ICT players ability to see the red mist, but as the game wore on he looked to play more football, instead of bullying, so maybe he's learning!
Both sides cancelled each other out and the first half finished goalless, and bereft of entertainment.
Half Time 0-0
The highlanders came out with a bit more of a buzz in the second half and got a fortuitous lead when under slight pressure from Nick Ross, the Hearts keeper slipped up allowing the ball to rebound back to Gregory Tade who went for placement rather than power and slotted it into the far side of the goal.
Andrew Shinnie was unfortunate to flash a ball just wide as Inverness pressed forward, the wrong foot sending the cross agonisingly wide, and Tade might have had a hat-trick on another day, but McDonald made amends for his blooper on a couple of occasions.
The whole game had taken on a better pace now and there was a lot more flowing football and neat through balls being played. Hearts striker Arvydas Novikovas looking a more constant threat, however the defence of Golobart, Tokely, Shinnie and Piermayr were not letting any serious chances get through.
As the game slowly drew to a close, it looked inevitable that Hearts would grab an equaliser (both sides only had three attempts on target each), and the Hearts manager will be purring contently after both his substitutes worked in their favour.
It was then no surprise after 81 minutes when Stephen Elliott rose highest and he glanced the ball first off his head then agonisingly off the inside of the upright, and the game was level.
Full Time 1-1
As the game panned out both teams looked happy enough with the draw and the crowd of 4,106 went home in a more optimistic mood after the second half showing.
One small mention to finish off, Aidan Chippendale looked an exciting prospect after coming on with only 10 minutes remaining. His first piece of the action was to sprint from box to box like Usain Bolt; he could cause some SPL defences problems with his turn of pace.
Cheers for the report soton, hope yer heids OK and you enjoyed yer day out.
tm4tj man of the match was relatively easy to select. Andrew's brother Graeme, (see what I did there), has not looked back since his return from illness. Once again Graeme Shinnie was immense and Kenny Gillet will need to bide his time if he wants to play at left back for Inverness.
Overall it was the game of two halfs and both sides will be pleased with their point. Inverness looked to have the game firmly in their grasp until Hearts eventually woke up and believed they could get something from it. Decent debut's for the new loanee's and our back four did well, despite Roman doing some more Flamenco faux pas, but he cannae help it.
Dundee United at Tannadice next up for Inverness and I believe McGonagall will be chatting to wee Davie.
Match report written by tm4tj
