Dundee 2 - 2 Inverness CT: Dundee dish out deja vu to Butcher

Published on Saturday 6 March 2010 20:06

HIS side have already blown one piece of silverware this season after surrendering a two-goal lead to Dundee and yesterday Terry Butcher may well have seen history repeat itself.

Inverness seemed to be cruising to a promotion-boosting win, through goals from Richie Foran and Eric Odhiambo, before late goals from Brian Kerr and Gary Harkins drew Dundee level.

That sparked horror re-runs of their two-goal capitulation to Dundee in the Alba Cup final earlier this year and almost certainly consigns Inverness to another season in the First Division. "I'm absolutely sick and you could see by the reaction of our players at the end that they are sick too," said Butcher. "We had this game in our hands and were cruising for 75 minutes then we concede two stupid goals and shoot ourselves in the foot again.

"It's happening all too often and always seems to be against Dundee. When it went to 2-2, I thought: 'Oh no, here we go again it's dj vu.' We've made it very difficult for ourselves now and can't afford more slip-ups.

"It's normally my job to lift them but I'm looking for them to lift me in time for Tuesday because we must beat Queen of the South."

For Dundee it was another, albeit small, step towards top-flight football.

The league leaders started with the sense of purpose needed to grind out the win and could well have been in front inside four minutes.

Ben Hutchinson, who has yet to hit top form since his January transfer window loan move from Celtic, showed superb skill on the corner of the box to get to the byline. His cutback set up Leigh Griffiths perfectly for a crack at goal from 15 yards but a heroic save from Ryan Esson denied the Scotland under-21 star.

Ross Tokely was then the hero for the visitors as he got on the end of a dangerous Gary Harkins cross to avert the danger.

However, Dundee weren't having it all their own way and, as the first half wore on, Inverness began to gain in confidence. Their first real foray forward came on 27 minutes as pacey winger Jonathan Hayes drove into the box before drilling a disappointing low shot into the arms of Rab Douglas.

At the other end, Griffiths created another chance for himself as he played a one-two with Craig Forsyth on the edge of the box before shooting over from 18 yards.

Dundee then began to panic in defence and midfielder Andrew Shinnie came desperately close to scoring one of the most embarrassing own goals of all time. Foran crossed from the left and with Shinnie completely mis-kicking his clearance, the ball spun over a stranded Douglas before bouncing inches wide of the Dundee goal.

The heat was now on Jocky Scott's men and Douglas was again a relieved man on 34 minutes.

This time, Odhiambo lobbed him from 18 yards and with Adam Rooney unmarked, just two yards out, it seemed a certainty the former Stoke star would slide him. Somehow, however, Rooney merely succeeded in sliding his effort across goal to leave the score blank at the break.

Rooney then took less than a minute of the second period to make amends for that miss as his cross was superbly met by the head of Foran for the opening goal.

Foran turned provider for the second goal as his low cutback set up Odhiambo for an easy tap-in on 59 minutes.

It could have been even worse for Dundee as Douglas blocked a Lee Cox header from crossing the line after the home side again failed to deal with a Hayes corner.

However, Caley capitulated to surrender their lead. Dundee pulled one back as Gary Harkins had a free-kick charged down by the defensive wall and Kerr reacted quickest to fire a 25-yard volley past the stranded Esson.

Then, with the visitors on the rack, Harkins completely wrong-footed Esson with a deflected 20-yard strike to make it 2-2 and keep Dundee six points clear at the top.