Inverness Caledonian Thistle v Clyde

Recap

Clyde at long last secured a win in the Highlands after nearly 3 years of trying. Not since their first season in the First Division had the Broadwood side managed a win in either Dingwall or Inverness. But, wearing Inverness change strips, Clyde fought hard to bring the points home to Cumbernauld and strengthen their chances of a runners up spot in the league.

With both teams needing a win to have a chance of second spot, it was a surprisingly lack lustre affair and indeed most of the talk among the away fans was to do with the tops Clyde were forced to wear. And indeed for much of the game it did look like a practice match between first team and reserves as both sides struggles to get to grips with a fiery park. However, both teams did try to play some football but it was almost 20 minutes gone before either side mounted any attack of note. Caley forward Hislop broke through on the left and tested Halliwell with a stinging shot. The newly re-signed keeper was up to it and pushed it wide with a fingertip save. Two minutes later Clyde mustered their first attack when Keogh headed well wide from a cross form Jack Ross. A minute later his Inverness namesake, Liam, headed wide from a cross from the right. But Clyde went ahead on 28 minutes when Simon Mensing got above the Caley defence to bullet home a corner from Paul Shields. 7 minutes later a lovely turn by McConalogue left him in space to find Cosgrove in space and his through ball was fired over by Mark Gilhaney. The young striker was the main man when the sides met at Broadwood only a few weeks ago, but was finding things a lot harder this time.

Indeed early in the second half he was taken off to be replaced by fit again David Hagen. His long punt two minutes after coming on was chased down by Keogh but Brown got a hand to his header and smothered the ball at the second attempt. Then, just after the hour, Clyde took a two goal lead. Hagen released Kernaghan on the left wing and he had all the time in the world to measure his cross for McConalogue to head home. But two minutes later Caley pulled one back when the ball ricocheted to Hislop, who appeared to be in an offside position, and he drove home low past Halliwell. Caley then had a lot of possession in front of goal but never did look like getting back on level terms. Indeed when Steve Hislop passed the ball back to Halliwell from only two yards out it looked as though Clyde would hold out.

STAR RATINGS (*****)

Halliwell **** Can be very happy with his contribution once again
Potter **** Solid at the back and fought hard for the points
Mensing **** Same as Potter, plus well taken goal
Kernaghan **** Class act at the heart of the defence (and left wing!)
Fraser *** Struggled at times but didn’t give up
Ross *** Usual reliable contribution from the Captain
Shields *** Found it hard to get into the game but stuck to his task again
Cosgrove *** Very positive in midfield, with varying degrees of success
Keogh *** Still not as consistent as he can be but showed flashes of his true form.
McConalogue *** Good goal but otherwise pretty quiet
Gilhaney *** Mark’s hardest game since coming into the first team
Hagen ** Looked lively after coming off the bench
Falconer ** Not much chance but had a couple of nice touches

KERNAGHAN’S REACTION

"I thought we were pretty lucky to get away with the win really. I think we got the goals that we deserved, but in the second half we were rubbish on the ball, although we defended well. We seemed to spend a lot of time on the edge of our box, similar to the last game here. In the first half we did ok, and put them under pressure quite a lot."

"The poor state of play in the second half made it disappointing at the end despite the good result, although the pitch didn’t help. It looked like the Horse of the Year show had just been held on it."

"Bryn Halliwell did well and looked assured. He came and took some good crosses and made some important saves."

"The second goal was very similar to the goal against Falkirk. We were 2 v 1, and Hagen played me in after I gave him the ball. I had plenty of time as no-one came out to meet me. I was looking for Stephen McConalogue to make some movement, so I had to wait, but he eventually pulled away and thankfully I was able to pick him out. It was a good header."

"Moving to third place was the good bit about today – we knew that if we took care of our bit we didn’t have to look to anyone else’s results. We’ve got St.Johnstone next week and we have a chance to move into second place now, although it will be another tough game."