It’s not a no: Caley 0-0 Ayr

By: Ian Rose | August 15th, 2009

Today’s match report is brought to you by the letter “M”, for “Missed”. Missed chances, and a huge missed opportunity for Caley Thistle. Our home opener, in front of a good crowd, against a newly promoted side. It should have been a win, and it almost was, as we went close over and over in the first half. But it wasn’t to be, and Ayr walked out of Caledonian Stadium with a point more than they should have done.

The squad (w/subs):
Esson
Proctor (Duncan 55′), Bulvitis, Munro, Djebi-Zadi
Cox, Eagle (Ross 75′), Stratford, Foran (Rooney 70′)
Sanchez, Hayes

There’s not a whole lot to tell, unfortunately. It was a first half of half-chances and a few missed just wide or high. Richie Foran actually netted early, but it was called offside. The call was late, but seems to have been legitimate. Just before the half, Robert Eagle went close as well, and Proctor’s header forced a good save from the Ayr keeper. But in the second half, we looked frustrated. I was frustrated and I was just listening to the match, so I can only imagine the frustration of playing in it. There’s just no way around it – these are two points dropped.

The rest of the league
There are two ways to describe how we did today in the context of the rest of the league. The glass-half-full crowd would say that we didn’t lose much ground to any of our league rivals. Dundee, Raith, Queen of the South, Ross County (spit) and Partick Thistle all drew as well, so it was one point all around. Dunfermline was the only winner, and so we gave back two of the three points we gained on them last week. For the glass-half-empty people, it can be seen as an enormous opportunity missed. If just one of those chances could have been converted, that would have gained us two points on almost all of our real competition, and put us alone at the top of the table. We have a tough few matches coming up – away to Dundee and home to Ross County, plus a cup game on Tuesday, and that would have been a big help to have those points.

On the bright side, we still haven’t conceded a league goal in our first two matches, and we retain our +1 goal differential. If it’s true that defense wins championships, then we can take solace in having two clean sheets. But defense doesn’t win anything alone. Defense can only get you one point per match – you need an attack to grab the other two. We are understaffed in that department right now, with Imrie and Barrowman out, but Sanchez, Hayes, Rooney and Foran have to step up in the meantime. We need goals.

It’s not a loss, and we’re still tied for the league lead, so I’m not crying over this one, but when I look back on the season in May, if we aren’t holding a trophy and a ticket to the top flight, I’ll see this as a chance missed.