ICT fans can look forward to seeing two bona-fide club legends at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium on Saturday – unfortunately, they’ll be playing for the opposition!

Queen of the South make the 470 mile round trip this weekend with none other than Barry Wilson and Dennis Wyness on their books. Bazza joined QOS when let go by Craig Brewster nearly a year ago, while Denzil arrived at Palmerston Park on loan from St. Mirren in September. It’s fair to say that there are a lot of home fans who wish the duo were still on our payroll.

Gordon Chisholm’s side lie second in the table, four places and five points better off than us, albeit having played one more match. However they were ejected from top spot last weekend, having crashed 3-2 at home to manager-less Morton. Just like in Caley Thistle’s last home league game against Partick, QOS found themselves 3-0 down at one point, and their late comeback fell short. ICT remain without a league win at home so far this season, but restored some much-needed confidence by beating Ross County in the Alba Cup semis, thanks to Robert Eagle’s somewhat fortunate strike. Despite winning only two of the first seven matches, we have lost only a little ground so far on our division rivals, but Terry Butcher and co. can’t afford anymore slip-ups on our patch for a while.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle Team News

The good news this week is the return of Dougie Imrie and Eric Odhiambo to training, though neither is likely to get further than the bench this week. Ross Tokely is also back from suspension. Apart from Rossco’s return to the side, it seems unlikely that Terry Butcher will otherwise change a winning team, though the performance against County did not match the result.

Out: Jamie Duff (knee); doubtful: Dougie Imrie (knee), Eric Odhiambo (broken foot)

Likely lineup: Ryan Esson – Ross Tokely, Nauris Bulvitis, Grant Munro, Stuart Golabek – Jonny Hayes, Lee Cox, Russell Duncan, Robert Eagle – Danni Sanchez – Richie Foran

Queen of the South Team News

Gordon Chisholm’s squad could be stretched to the limit after defenders Marc McAusland and Craig Reid caught the flu bug that kept midfielder Rocco Quinn out of the side last week. However, Quinn is fit again and could force his way back into centre midfield. David Hutton will continue in goal unless Ludovic Roy can recover from a thigh injury, while striker David Weatherston is struggling with a hamstring problem and long-term absentee Craig Barr is only recently back in light training and won’t risked. Steve Tosh and Neil Scally are definitely unavailable for the foreseeable future.

Out: Craig Barr (knee), Neil Scally (ankle), Steve Tosh (broken leg); doubtful: Ludovic Roy (thigh), Marc McAusland (flu), Craig Reid (flu), David Weatherston (hamstring)

Likely lineup: David Hutton – Craig Reid, David Lilley, Marc McAusland, Robert Harris – Barry Wilson, Paul Burns, Stephen McKenna, Willie McLaren – Dennis Wyness, Derek Holmes

Previous Meetings

According to (the occasionally inaccurate) Soccerbase, the two sides have met nineteen times, with Caley up 9-7 in wins. The last meeting between the sides came in April 2004 in the Highlands, with Barry Wilson striking for Caley in a 4-1 win. Ross Tokely, Stuart Golabek, Russell Duncan and Roy McBain all started for Inverness, while only Paul Burns and Jim Thomson survive from the QOS lineup.

The classic meeting between the sides came in November 2002, a 5-3 win for Caley in Inverness when Paul Ritchie grabbed a hat-trick against a Queen of the South side who included none other than Andy Goram in goal.

The Official Patented Hislopsoffsideagain Prediction

For all our woes at home this season, everyone should have got a massive fillip from last week’s win and, with our opponents stricken with injury trouble, I’m going to be positive and suggest a gritty 1-0 win for ICT.