Floodlight failure sees Ross County v Inverness CT abandoned
TONIGHT'S (Friday's) Highland derby between Ross County and Caley Thistle in Dingwall was postponed at the break due to floodlight failure.
The Scottish Premiership tussle was locked at 0-0, with Inverness CT perhaps having the slight upper hand during the 45 minutes that were played.
Despite the best efforts of the staff and electricians within the stadium and the lights coming on again for a few minutes, health and safety reasons were given as the reason for the call-off at 9pm.
Fans were asked to retain their tickets for the rearranged game.
Both sides went into this fixture on the back of poor results.
County, who are growing stronger at home, went down 2-0 to Kilmarnock last weekend, so were determined to try and get back on track.
Inverness CT had lost three of their last four fixtures, including successive defeats against St Johnstone and Partick Thistle.
In May at Victoria Park, County's 1-0 win over their neighbours from across the Kessock Bridge ultimately denied ICT qualification to this season's Europa League.
County, who finished fifth in their debut campaign last term, have a proud home record over the Caley Jags, having not lost in the league against them since 2003.
That was all water under the bridge.
However, in the build-up to this clash, it was the water from the skies that was the main talk in the hours before kick-off as the surface soaked up a fair volume of rain.
There were surprising in both the team line-ups, with County captain Richard Brittain dropping to the bench and Kevin Luckassen stepping into the starting 11.
County injury doubts Graham Carey and Ivan Sproule were fit and starting.
For the visitors, Carl Tremarco came in for the injured David Raven, while forward Marley Watkins, who looked good when he came on against Partick, took the place of Ben Greenhalgh, who was benched.
Graeme Shinnie took Raven's right-back berth, with Tremarco on the left side of defence.
The Staggies began on the front foot and Stuart Kettlewell sliced a shot just past in the opening moments.
ICT stopper Gary Warren was booked in the sixth minute after a crunching challenge to stop Melvin de Leeuw in his tracks, although conditions may have played their part.
Nick Ross blew the chance to fire Caley Thistle in front on 13 minutes when his shot lacked bite after he got on to the end of a knock on by skipper Richie Foran, who met a Graeme Shinnie free-kick into the danger zone.
Visiting keeper Dean Brill was then called into action when he got down to clutch a shot from de Leeuw after a swift four-man attack.
Brian McLean kept the scores blank
Although Inverness CT had the edge, County came close on 33 minutes when Rocco Quinn teed up Dutchman Luckassen and he swerved it around the left post from just outside the box.
Five minutes before the break, ICT's Ross Draper went into referee John Beaton's book for a full-bloodied challenge on Luckassen.
It caused both sets of players to get involved in pushing and shoving and de Leeuw booked for dissent and was Mihael Kovacevic.
A furious Luckassen claimed he'd been elbowed by Draper in the incident as he received treatment.
Luckassen was booked in first half stoppage time for a challenge on Warren as the tempo was raised.
Ross County: Brown, Kovacevic, Gordon, Kettlewell, Boyd, Sproule, Quinn, de Leeuw, Luckassen, McLean, Carey. Subs not used: Fraser (GK), Micic, Mustafi, Maatsen, Ross, Saunders.
Inverness CT: Brill, Shinnie, Warren, Meekings, McKay, Draper, Foran, Doran, Ross, Watkins, Tremarco. Subs not used: Esson (GK), Devine, Greenhalgh, Williams, Polworth, Pepper, Agdestein.
Referee: John Beaton.