Oh no, not another home game.

Wednesday evening has Craig Brown's rejuvenated Aberdeen come knocking on the door at Tulloch Caledonian Stadium looking for their share of cheap points from their over generous Highland cousins.  The 19:45 kick off may take the edge off of the crowd figures, but these three points are crucial to Butcher's boys instant recovery after a run of dismal results akin to Aberdeens own shambolic opening quarter of the season.  The Dons have taken on a new lease of life with ex-Scotland boss Craig Brown shoring up a leaky defence and giving them the confidence to start climbing the league, and they seemed to enjoy their Scottish Cup experience with a crushing 6-0 win over East Fife, Chris McGuire notching a hat-trick.  Celtic found out that the 9-0 humiliation was never going to happen again under the new management, although they did manage to score the only goal of a much tighter encounter.  So, it would appear that Aberdeen have made progress on all fronts recently, while Terry & Mo's lads have gone backwards at an alarming rate.  McGuire's opposite number at Inverness, Adam Rooney has been the subject of much transfer speculation since Xmas time.  His last league goals coming against Hibernian, also a hat-trick, but that was nine games ago, not the best of form for someone looking for pastures new.  It's possibly no coincidence that Rooney's drought has happened at the same time as fellow Irishman Jonny Hayes' enforced lay off and the other shamrock connection of Richie Foran's apparent lack of energy on the park.  Strange for a player who was putting his body where it hurt in the run in to the first division championship.

What can Butcher do to change this?  Well, the re-introduction of Hayes last weekend lifted the fans and should certainly give the team more energy.  He did more in his fifteen minutes on the park than most did in ninety.  He can't do it on his own of course, but Adam Rooney will maybe see more of the ball now that a supplier has returned.  Dani Sanchez has also shown that he can poach a goal when required, and he seems to have an eye for a defence splitting pass, if only the recipients could take advantage of them.  Russell Duncan, so often the scapegoat, staked a claim for a start with a bright subs appearance and was unlucky not to score, but for a goal line clearance denying him when he burst onto Jonny Hayes' slipped through ball after a jinking run by the little Irishman.  The defence, so often the backbone for grinding out results has not altered too much, so nothing needs to be meddled with there.  The midfield and creative area's are the ones responsible for our lack of success recently and that is where the likes of Nick Ross and Richie Foran need to show us an end product.  It's all very well weaving pretty patterns across the pitch, but the direct approach may pay more dividends and if Rooney can take advantage of the new energy available, then maybe all is not lost yet.

Inverness hold the upper hand in the two previous games this season so far, but I doubt they will find Aberdeen to be the same downbeat bunch of losers they were before Brown and Knox resurrected their season.  The Dons on the up, and ICT on a downer, it looks as though the tables have turned.  The ICT fans have been waiting for Hayes to return, let's hope we are not disappointed.

Ginger Jaggy has the job of picking up the pieces for this crucial encounter, and here are his thoughts before the teams battle it out for the three points.

Tomorrow night we face our third match of the season against Aberdeen. The dons are below us in the table but have a couple of games in hand, and they, like others from the bottom six look to close in on us and capitalise on our poor form. In the past this match has had a predictable outcome with the Dons usually coming out winners, having such a hoodoo over us that it took four full seasons in the SPL before we finally registered a competitive victory. But this season has been a fruitful one and we are looking for a third victory over our east coast neighbours this season.

Form Guide

The form of these two teams could not be at further ends of the scale. Back in November it was the Dons, who were coming into this encounter on the downward spiral. This time it is them who come into this encounter as the form team – how times have changed. Our form has suffered since the injury to Jonny Hayes. Caley Thistles goal scoring has been a problem and this can be attributed to the missing Hayes as Adam Rooney has not had the service that he thrived on earlier on in the season. But we can't just pin our bad run to wing wizard Hayes, this transfer window has seen a lot of speculation about the future of Adam Rooney and I'm sure that has been playing on his mind with a few below par performances. Last Saturday has shown that a revival may be on the cards with the return of the injured Hayes. In a game which Inverness produced some flair and passion in the first half, we failed to hold on to 1-0 lead given by the impressive Dani Sanchez who in my view should have been brought in way before the cup game against Elgin. Even though we looked short of ideas in the second half, the return of Hayes looks to be a big plus to everyone, the squad, the club, and also the supporters as we look for some much needed inspiration that has been lacking in the last few weeks. His 15 minute cameo breathed new life into the team and his inclusion from the start for Wednesday night will be a massive boost against the resurgent Dons. Caley Thistle is 9 matches without a win in the league and that will hopefully be broken on Wednesday night. There have been a lot of draws, some of which were welcome, but some like last weekend's result, and defeats to St Johnstone and St Mirren are not results that keep you in the top six.

Looking at the Dons and it has been a massive transformation from the team who were bottom of the league just before Christmas. A 9-0 thrashing, a manager under pressure, players playing below their ability; things at Pittodrie looked gloomy since topping the league after the first few matches of the season. Since the departure of Mark McGhee Aberdeen have been a different team, those same under performing players now look like troubling any team in the league. There last poor performance was a 5-0 nil thrashing at the hands of Hearts in the interim period between the departure of McGhee and the arrival of Craig Brown. Since Brown has taken charge of the team they have been on an excellent run of form which only came to an end with a creditable 1-0 defeat at Parkhead on Saturday when they pushed the Glasgow side all the way. They have beaten Hibs, were held only by a late David Goodwillie goal against Dundee United so they have had some decent results. Aberdeen were not a team of poor players, they were a team playing poorly, and low on confidence not to mention the huge amount of injuries they had sustained. But since the arrival of Brown and Knox they have regained that confidence. In some ways Aberdeen suffered a lot of what we have been through in the last month. A lot of goals scored by Scott Vernon have been down to the excellent form of Chris McGuire. This parallel to our problems with the missing Jonny Hayes and with Rooney's lack of quality service, and this was a major problem for Aberdeen. But these two are in excellent form now and with the addition of Nick Blackman who showed real talent at Motherwell,  it will make Wednesday a very different proposition altogether.

Recent Fixture History

We actually hold the advantage in this stake as we have recorded two victories over the Dons this season. A few seasons ago we had zero in the win column against the Dons but all of a sudden we have beaten them three times. The first of these being at Pittodrie in 2008 when we thought we were going to have a great season especially with our new star striker Andrew Barrowman scoring on his SPL debut. Winning against Aberdeen and Barrowman opening his account made us think we could have a good season with both ducks broken, but how wrong were we. This season has been a breath of fresh air against our not so close neighbours. Since our first victory in 2008, we followed that up this season by breaking our home duck over the Dons as we recorded a welcome 2-0 victory, one of the few comforts at home this season. We kept it up by continuing our long unbeaten away record with a 2-1 victory at Pittodrie in mid November which was just about the last straw for their beleaguered boss Mark McGhee. However, overall Aberdeen still has the best record in the head to heads with 8 wins out of a possible 17. Inverness has only recorded the three mentioned victories, 2008 and our two league wins this season. But lets not listen to statistics as I think with Jonny Hayes back we may just sneak a win we desperately need to reinvigorate our season.

Prediction

This is a tough game to call when putting all the elements together. This should be an away win if we take into consideration the form of the two sides, our dreadful home league record and our overall head to head stats. But football is more than that and with Jonny Hayes looking hungry after his 15 minutes against Hamilton I feel we can do something in this one. We have not yet been destroyed by teams at home this season and are normally reasonably tight defensively. If we can grab the first goal then I think we can win this one. We have had a few disappointing results when we have led teams at home but Terry will have drummed into the players to cut out the slack mistakes and loss of concentration. A lot of our problems this season at home is when we fall behind and end up chasing the game which we struggle to do. The first goal is key but I will be optimistic and go for a 1-0 win.

1-0 Inverness is Ginger Jaggies shout.

***Latest Team News***

Inverness will have Jonny Hayes available after he came through his comeback cameo at the weekend.  Lee Cox is back training after his knee injury and David Proctor will also be in the squad.  Gillet and Morrison are still a week or two away from inclusion in the matchday squad. Terry Butcher is looking for a more ruthless approach in front of goal and maintains that this weeks training sessions were very lively with the squad looking sharp.  Let's hope he has worked on the throw-ins as well.

Inverness are reported to have signed AAron Doran on a loan deal from Blackburn Rovers until the end of the season.  The 19 year old winger has played for the Republic of Ireland at u19 level and has made first team appearances for Rovers as a substitute.  If International clearance comes through in time he may be able to be called into action against the Dons.

Aberdeen boss Craig Brown makes his first visit to Inverness as the Dons manager. David McNamee has returned to full training and could be included in the squad.  Another man with a chance of playing is enigmatic winger Sone Aluko, back after achilles problems.  Brown's priority is to get points on the board and steer well clear of the relegation battle, and he is aware of the task in hand after taking Motherwell up north previously. 

Other News

Morton look to have secured their place in the cup game at Inverness barring a major collapse, they are leading Airdrie 0-4 with twenty minutes to go.  2-5 Final score, Morton it is.

Hibs have signed Ross County player Martin Scott for a fee thought to be around £80,000.

Rangers have confirmed an interest in Scotland and Derby star Kris Commons.

Former Partick Thistle midfielder Charlie Adam is being touted as a multi million pound player by Blackpool after he put in a transfer request.  They have already rejected a "derisory" four million pound offer from Liverpool.

On a wider view, former Dundee United, Rangers and Scotland player Andy Gray has now been sacked from his lucrative Sky TV contract after he made sexist comments about female officials, and unacceptable and offensive behaviour revealed since this came to light.