Peterhead 0-0 Inverness

Peterhead 0-0 Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Betfred Cup
Tuesday 16th July, 2019

It’s taken only a week, which encompassed five matches and some pretty dire football at times, for the curse of the first goalless draw of the season to arrive.

To make matters worse, I had to leave a few minutes before the final whistle and wasn’t able to see the subsequent penalty shoot-out which the hosts won 11-10, as I needed to catch the last connecting bus service back to Aberdeen at 9.45pm.

Surprisingly, this time last year the last bus to civilisation from this remote part of Scotland departed even earlier than at present. The operator (Stagecoach) has recently opened a consultation process which could lead to an earlier finish in the future again.

With all that in mind, it felt a bit like ‘now or never’ for this trip!

Therefore, whilst watching a 0-0 draw and missing a higher-than-usual conversion rate in a penalty shoot-out may seem disappointing at face value, it’s only the Betfred Cup, it wasn’t actually a bad game and moreover, I’m just grateful to have got up to Balmoor Stadium to tick the ground off my ‘to do’ list.

I’ve seen quite a few managers come out with the usual cliches and clap trap over the past few days; ‘We won’t be firing on all cylinders’ and ‘The boys will need time to gel,’ etc, yet for Peterhead this proved to be exactly the sort of test that they’ll be grateful for in the long-term as they prepare to test themselves in a higher division this season.

For the opening 45 minutes, they had to sit back and keep their shape and composure as Caley Thistle dominated possession but couldn’t make any inroads.

Inverness’ biggest issue was their near-insistence in keeping the ball on the deck when, occasionally, a ball over the top towards big frontman Jordan White would have sufficed - and it’d have certainly posed many more questions of the home defence.

There was no bigger culprit for trying to retain possession at all costs than centre-back Coll Donaldson.

Before the break, every ball forwards that he played was low, lost or intercepted, and I’d hazard a strong guess in saying that he was on the end of some critical words at half-time because amazingly he decided to be more direct in his play after the interval.

Peterhead clearly grew with confidence and in the second half - attacking towards about 100 of their own fans who made a racket banging on the advertising boards, they started to get the upper hand and were unlucky not to grab a goal.

Jamie Stevenson forced ICT ‘keeper Mark Ridgers into a full-stretch save and then Aidan Smith went even closer when he demonstrated a great touch and technique to put Donaldson on his arse, though his effort was palmed away.

The game was beginning to open up and White soon tested Peterhead ‘keeper Greg Fleming with a powerful headed effort against the run of play at this point.

Nevertheless, Ridgers was soon in the thick of things once more and his fingertip action denied Scott Brown, Will Gibson and Michael Dunlop - the latter with a looping effort that he tipped over, via the woodwork, which wasn’t noticed by the officials.

Referee Steven Reid actually got two big decisions wrong on the night - both of which benefitted Inverness - and it’s fair to say the natives weren’t backwards in coming forwards to deliver some harsh verbal reviews (all justified) of his display.

Some late changes meant the affair became tighter once more in the closing stages before the penalty shoot-out which I never got to see!

All in all though, it was a good night out and I’d recommend Balmoor to anyone.

Yes, it’s in the back and beyond and getting their is a pain in the backside, but that’s the fun of these kind of trips. If you don’t embrace them, you don’t enjoy them!