Caley 1-2 Motherwell : A bad start to a long week

By: Ian Rose | October 26th, 2008

As I mentioned in the previous post, this is a big week for the Caley. A home match against Motherwell that we lost badly last season, a league cup quarterfinal against a team we know we can beat, and then a trip to Ibrox. This isn’t the way we meant to start it, a narrow 2-1 loss to the Well that leaves us feeling less demolished than last season’s, but no more secure.

There are some positives, like Adam Rooney finally getting a goal for himself. But the fact is that our last three league results have been 2-1 defeats, two of which have been at home. Going down 2-1 to league-leading Celtic is one thing, Motherwell is quite another. We need to start getting some points at home.

It wasn’t that long ago that Caley stood in fourth place, with only the Old Firm and Killie ahead of us and the rest of the league behind. Now, our standing is a twisted mirror image of that blessed time, with the Caley sitting tenth of twelve, only one point above last-place Hamilton.

I went into this long week with a lot of optimism. We could have realistically come away with a win Saturday, followed it up with a cup semifinal berth and moved on to Ibrox in high spirits. Now, only Falkirk and Hamilton stand between us and the drop. Considering how brilliant I know Falkirk are capable of being on their day, and the great start that Hamilton showed us in August, those are not good teams to have chasing you.

There’s still great chances to make this week one to remember. We can still put the Bairns out of the wee cup and show them that we will be favorites to finish above them in May. And we can still make a lifelong memory if we can pull off only our second-ever win at Ibrox. But it’s a sour note to start on.

And all that crying I was doing about preferring the goals to come from strikers? Forget it. Those last two 2-1 losses, our goals came from Garry Wood and now Adam Rooney. I didn’t mean anything by it, Don. You’re welcome back to the opposing goal anytime now.