Charlie Christie: Good positive start for new manager at Inverness Caley Thistle
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New Caley Thistle manager Duncan Ferguson kicked off his managerial career up north with a very welcome win at Arbroath.
Gayfield is never an easy place to go and to produce such a positive first half display was testament to the character of the players as they showed their new boss that they had the determination to turn their disappointing start to the league campaign around.
Duncan would have been even more delighted early in the second half as club record scorer Billy Mckay added a superbly taken third goal. Although a late Arbroath two-goal fight back gave cause for concern the players managed to see the game out and collect those vital three points.
Tomorrow will see the ICT boss experience his first match at Caledonian Stadium when Partick Thistle travel up the A9. I’m confident that there will be a larger than normal crowd at the match given the interest the ex-Everton striker’s appointment has gained. Kris Doolan’s side will offer up a significant challenge as they have real experience throughout their side, but they can also be inconsistent as they showed recently when being comprehensively beaten 3-0 at home by Arbroath.
If we can curtail the contributions from the creative duo of Steven Lawless and Stuart Bannigan, we will give ourselves a real chance to gain another win and make further inroads into climbing the table.
n Scottish football’s headline news this week was the sacking of Michael Beale as Rangers manager.
Having previously worked under Steven Gerrard, Beale was appointed manager in November last year.
But early promise ended with another trophyless season for the Ibrox side lending to Beale stating that a ‘major rebuild’ was required at the Glasgow club.
Money was made available for Beale to spend on the squad in the summer.
But very few of those signings have made the impact required and an opening day defeat to Kilmarnock was not the start to the season Beale required.
After a dreadful away display against PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League qualifying round, Beale desperately needed a win against a depleted Celtic side at Ibrox in early September.
But the writing was on the wall after losing 1-0 with Kyogo Furuhashi’s goal the difference.
The appointment of their next number one will be a hugely important one.
One Premiership title and one Scottish Cup win in over a decade is simply not good enough and the challenges facing the new manager will be significant.
