Falkirk 1-2 Caley: 2 Road Wins from 2

By: Ian Rose | August 30th, 2008

This is shaping up early to be a promising, if a bit of a strange, Caley Thistle season. On the road, where the team has struggled in the past, we have gathered up all six points available to us, both of them fixtures we lost last season (away to Aberdeen and Falkirk). At home, it’s been a loss and a draw, against new boys Hamilton and the team who had until now not even scored at Caledonian Stadium, Hibs. Not much of a home advantage right now, but we’ll happily take the points on the road.

Overall, a more dominant performance than I expected from the side today. Though I correctly predicted the score at 2-1 to Caley (that’s my one right pick for the season made), I thought it would end that way for very different reasons than it did. The last time I saw Falkirk play was last season, when their flowing passing was some of the best in the league, and when Michael Higdon was a striker to be reckoned with. Unfortunately for the Bairns, they were without Higdon today, but I have to doubt he would have done them all that much good. Their midfield was a shadow of last season’s, with some really poor short passes and no ambition going forward at all. It speaks volumes of the decline of the side’s quality that their keeper, Robert Olejnik, was by far their best player. He stood up to a steady Caley assault in the first half, and was the sole reason this match wasn’t over in forty-five.

To be fair, I have to amend that last statement. Olejnik, good as he was, wasn’t the only reason Caley couldn’t break through in the first half. The other was some very poor Caley finishing. Adam Rooney once again had some great chances, and once again missed them. He did well to dispossess Darren Barr and earned a promising one on one, but couldn’t close the deal.

Still, I have a lot of respect for John Hughes, and for Falkirk as a club, but this was not the Falkirk I am accustomed to seeing. Caley Thistle was, in my very biased opinion, far and away the better side on the day, but could have very well settled for a draw. It was 1-1 in the 85th, on the strength of a Don Cowie goal, his second of the season, and one for Falkirk’s Mark Stewart. A draw would have been a very kind result for Falkirk, but off the bench came Dougie Imrie, and only three minutes into his day, he slotted home an unbeatable shot to win the match for the visiting Jags.

A win on the road is always reason to celebrate, but our lack of finishing quality is worrying. We got a lot of chances from a really shaky Falkirk defense today, and gave up a few good opportunities ourself. If we keep that ratio the same, we’ll really need to become more efficient scorers if we want to get results against better teams than this. Still, well done boys. As you can see from the progress report below, our atrocious start from last season is already a sad memory as we sit seven points better by that measure. But if you look at the comparison of results in the same fixtures (albeit with the somewhat unfair comparison of Gretna and Hamilton), we are about on par with last season. Losses to Aberdeen and Falkirk away have been reversed, but so have home wins over Hibs and the promotion team. Should be a very interesting season for the Caley Jags and we happy few Inverness fans.

Season progress
At this point last season: 4 matches played, 0 points, 2 goals for, 10 goals against
This season: 4 matches played, 7 points, 5 goals for, 3 goals against

Comparable fixtures last season: 4 matches played, 6 points, 5 goals for, 2 goals against
Comparable fixtures this season: 4 matches played, 7 points, 5 goals for, 3 goals against