Motherwell -V- Inverness CT - Preview
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Inverness head down to Europa casualties Motherwell on Sunday for the fifth round of SPL games hoping to teach them a lesson after putting Arbroath to the sword in midweek.
Three points and five places separate the teams after the first four games with Inverness taking up a familiar position in the lower half of the league, but it's early days yet.
Motherwell have yet to win at home this season and Inverness have still to record their first three points of the campaign, although a very pleasing 2-0 victory over second division Arbroath in midweek heartened the spirits after the shambles of the Celtic defeat. Motherwell bowed out of the Europa league going down 3-0 on aggregate to Spanish side Levante in Valencia.
The transfer window has been closing and Inverness have brought in two players with Arsenal connections. Not the muti-million pound stories you see on Sky Sports, but with little funding in the pot then we need to scour the fringe player market and see what is available. Hot prospect Phillip Roberts has arrived on loan until the January window. He was top scorer for the Arsenal u18 team last season and often plays as a lone striker which would suit our style of play. Another signing is the aristocratically named George Brislan-Hall who has joined on a six month deal. He has been released from his Arsenal contract after a couple of injuries curtailed his appearances in their academy set-up and the defender will try his luck up North. Good luck to both these young lads.
One to remember:- Barry Wilson's 70 yard dipper, (it gets longer every year), in the Scottish cup as Inverness Caledonian Thistle took another scalp in the national competition, when as a first division side we knocked The Steelmen out of the cup on the 6th March 2004. 7930 fans witnessed that one, Gordon Marshall never, as the ball flashed past him into the roof of the net. That victory sent us onwards to the semi-final where we eventually lost out to Dunfermline after a replay.........meh. Teams on that day were.................
INVERNESS CT: Brown, Tokely, Mann, McCaffrey, Golabek, McBain, Duncan, Thomson, Wilson, Ritchie, Keogh.
Subs- Munro (for Thomson), Proctor (for Ritchie), Fraser, Hart, McMillan.
MOTHERWELL: Marshall, Quinn, Corrigan, Craigan, Hammell, Lasley, Adams, Fagan, Burns, McDonald, Clarkson.
Subs- O'Donnell (for Fagan), Wright (for Clarkson), Corr, K.McDonald, Kinniburgh.
Treatment Table
Nick Ross looks as though he will be out until the New Year with a shoulder dislocation sustained in the Celtic game, which may require an operation. Chris Hogg is not fully fit yet and Jason Oswell is still recovering from his achilles injury. Youngster Mathew Cooper is making progress after his ankle injury.
Gringo enjoyed doing the Arbroath preview that much he is offering his services for the Motherwell preview as well, and here are his thoughts ahead of Sunday's 15:00 kick off.
Can we steel this?
This weekend we head for the former steel town of Motherwell to disturb their Sunday afternoons peace and quiet in the support of our team in what could be a highly entertaining SPL encounter. The fixture was rearranged to be played on the Sunday because of Motherwell's all-to-brief delve into European competition. We will suffer many fixture changes this season but at least this one is for the 'right' reason. Unfortunately for Motherwell things didn't work out in their favour against the Spanish side and they will not progress into the next round. In Stuart McCall they have, in my opinion, one of the best managers in Scotland at the moment and they will be a team that will not be easily beaten at home or away.
Our encounters against Well have been pretty even Steven over the piece and we have managed to pick up points in half of our encounters. In fact we won there in the league on our first four visits and were fast becoming a bit of a bogey side for them before they got to grips with us and won the next four! Our last visit to Fir Park was back in January this year when Gregory Tade got the winner on 67 minutes with a cracking strike. Our record at Motherwell in all competitions reads W6 D3 L6 so, if your the kind of guy that studies these kind of statistics before heading to the bookies, you will not have an easy decision to make. And out of all 30 encounters between the two sides there has only ever one 0-0 draw so expect goals for this one. (There, that's put the kiss of death on that!).
Whilst Motherwell were enjoying the sun of Spain we had a mid-week encounter in the holiday resort of...Arbroath in a League Cup encounter. Bearing in mind the other results in this tournament, and us coming off the back of a wretched display against Celtic, nobody would have blamed folk for writing this one off before a ball was kicked. But ICT showed that they can bounce back from disappointment and hopefully they can apply the same energy on Sunday and get a decent result in the league, where possibly, it matters the most. ICT have had a day extra to recover from their mid-week game but I expect their journey back home was slower than Motherwell's! Hopefully the boys will be encouraged by the cup result and take this into the SPL game at Fir Park.
Current form ICT:-
The bounce back from the awful Celtic result was pleasing and it was also encouraging to see the amount of shots we took against Arbroath. Apart from last Saturday our form hasn't been too bad. We've managed to adapt to a more passing type of game but we still lack that security at the back and are exposed on far too many occasions. We go into this game on the back of a great result in a banana skin cup tie so hopefully this has added some confidence back in the side.
Current form Motherwell:-
After four SPL games they remain unbeaten and look to be a fairly solid outfit. Their home league form is very similar to ours in having not won yet but have only drawn their two games so far. Their European exploits may have an effect but, with the extra games they've played, they should know more about each other than their SPL rivals.
Team news
Inverness:– We expected new signing Reguero to play between the sticks in mid-week but it wasn't to be. Could he make his first team debut for this one? Probably not is my view. I would expect Terry Butcher to select the same starting eleven as Wednesday night but I believe Foran should be back after his suspension. We will, of course, be without Nick Ross through injury.
Motherwell:– A few players were 'rested' for the Euro game where they featured several teenagers. I doubt that McCall will entertain such changes in the SPL and I'd expect him to field the same side that lined up against St Mirren last time out. Hutchinson was red carded in that game (second yellow) so could be suspended for this game.
Gringo's prediction:– Another tough call for this one. Hopefully ICT will be encouraged by the fine win in that dodgy cup-tie at Arbroath and Motherwell will be travel weary. But didn't we think that about Celtic going into last weekends game? I don't think we can go by past games at Fir Park and we really need to be up for this from the start and also throughout the 90 minutes. I believe we do have the players (if we can keep them on the pitch for the full 90) to get a result in this match but it will be a tight affair, so, I will gladly settle for a 1-1 draw.
Latest Team News
Inverness have Foran and Jones back from suspension but Nick Ross is out along with Chris Hogg.
Motherwell will be without the suspended Shaun Hutchinson and Steven Saunders is out after knee surgery. There are doubts over Michael Higdon and Stevie Hammell, but McCall is confident that one or two of the players who were carrying knocks will make the squad. Those he is waiting on are Nicky Law, Simon Ramsden and Tom Hately who all missed out in Valencia.
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tm4tj in Previews 2012-13 ·
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