Lloydy direkt från Inverness!
"The last match I attended was in Porto and from there it was on to Inverness, subtly different but both great settings for football"
Richard Lloyd såg Rangers andra träningsmatch på plats tillsammans med bl a Lungan, här kommer en rapport från matchen"
The last match I attended was in Porto and from there it was on to Inverness, subtly different but both great settings for football. Boavista's Loftus Roadesque stadium to ICT's small stand on the seafront overlooked by mountains.
Myself, KevinH and Lungan representing the mighty footballing nations of England, the US and Sweden had travelled up on Thursday, dropped in at the golf at Troon on Friday and then headed up for the main event in Inverness on Saturday. We stopped off in town to sample some of the local brews and Mr Fawn was indeed correct in his recommendation of the Isle of Skye beers - cheers!
We headed out from town towards the ground which was clearly left at the roundabout at the bottom, only it wasn't so accross the bridge into Ross County, a quick u-turn and back to Inverness. The club must have underestimated the numbers as we had to queue for a while and missed kickoff but we finally made it in, traversed the length of the ground to the 'away' end, put up the Swedish Hoops flags and settled back against the wall for the match.
Not much happened in the first half from an Rs point of view but it did rain, then it stopped raining, then it started raining again before stopping and the sun came out for the rest of the day. Great goal by the Inverness lad Hislop from a break following and Rs free kick, warmly applauded by all.
Usual cr@p cup of tea at half time but chatted to Joe Hylton and UG (an away game just doesn't seem right if I haven't seen UG!)
Second half we made a few changes, the mightly Furs came on (great Furlong 4 England t-shirts having been flown in especially from Stockholm) and a big lad at centre back, noone seemed to know who he was, least of all Scott Rushton who told Joe Hylton he was 'John something'. Anyway Mr Something was pretty useful and should probably be signed up. Failing that ICT's number 4 defended very well. Rose made his usual saving tackles and played well, Lewis Hamilton looked lively, positionally naive but that will come with experience. Rowly having played in the centre in the 1st half moved to the right in the second and looked far better, he should definately be out wide. Bean and Wes looked comfortable in the middle together and we started creating chances. A goal was just about coming and after a good shot, well saved, from Curo he bundled in a loose ball after the corner hadn't been dealt with very well.
Well thats about it, sign up the triallists, give Wes a chance in the first team proper, remind Day to catch the ball rather than flap at it, play Rowly out wide, Furs and Kev to start upfront, Curo as replacement, TT looked very much the 4th choice striker. Good showing from the travelling support as ever.
We came back down sunday so were able to read the local press - ICT have been in pre-season longer than us so they were a bit sharper, the ICT manager praised us saying we were dangerous on the wings and that we'd hold our own in the Scottish Premiership. There was also a comment about Pacman in that Thommo had recommended he take the Partick offer seriously and thanked him for the recomendation.
1250 miles in 4 days - must be mad :)
