Ton Up for Cup visit. ***Game On***

Scottish Cup 5th round action this weekend as Inverness play host to Greenock Morton.  Inverness left it late in the last round before seeing off a stubborn Elgin City with two goals after the ninety minutes had passed.  Dani Sanchez and Adam Rooney were the late scorers in time added on, and that saw Inverness progress to this stage of the national competition. 

That victory was a break from the rigours of the SPL for an Inverness side without a home league victory since struggling Hibs came calling in November. 

Inverness have asked for a pitch inspection at 08:00 on Saturday morning ahead of this game as the weather has been unrelenting since the postponement of the Dundee United game in midweek.  An early inspection should save most fans from making unnecessary journeys if game should be called off.

Inspection carried out this morning and it is game on.  Well done to Tommy and his team who have worked extremely hard to get the pitch ready for this game.

Morton forced their way into the fifth round at the second time of asking by defeating Airdrie United 2-5 at the Shyberry Excelsior Stadium, the first match in Greenock ending in a 2-2 draw.  Morton came back from the dead in the first game after Airdrie had stormed into a two goal lead just after half time.  Brian Graham quickly reduced the deficit and a couple of minutes later the Ton were reduced to ten men with Marc Smyth being sent off.  However, Morton stunned Airdrie ten minutes later with an equaliser from Stewart Kean.  In the replay in Airdrie, Morton went nap, ending Airdrie's interest in the competition with a comprehensive 2-5 cuffing.  Morton had raced into a 0-4 lead before eventually securing their trip North.  Alan Jenkins scored a double to add to goals from O'brien, Graham and a Monti penalty.  In the previous round, Morton eased past Dumbarton 1-2 after coming from behind.  A brace from Brian Graham being enough to win this tie.  Morton also finished this game with ten men, so beware if the ref flashes his red card in their direction.

In our last season in the first division, we managed to beat Morton in all four games.  Three of these games were won in convincing style, but last March, we huffed and puffed our way to a single goal victory over the Ton.  The scorer on that occasion was none other than Nick Ross, who has since come on in leaps and bounds, but strangely enough that has been his only goal for Inverness.  Inverness scored ten goals against Morton last season and conceded only one, that coming in a 4-1 defeat at Tulloch Caledonian Stadium in October.  Another odd statistic is that in November 1999, Morton thumped Inverness 5-1 at Cappielow on a friday night, but only two months later Inverness went one better up North and hammered Morton 6-2, these games being the two highest aggregate scores between the two clubs.

Morton will field former Caley Thistle favourite Stuart McCaffrey in the heart of their defence.  Caff played over 160 games for ICT and won promotion with us the first time round.  On leaving Inverness, he has played at St Johnstone before signing on at Cappielow in July 2010 on a free transfer after a season plagued with injuries at Perth.  Stuart's finest moment in the Scottish Cup came on a certain February evening at Parkhead, when supercaleywentballistic, great memories for a great servant at Inverness.  Another man familiar with this area is keeper Colin Stewart, who tried to keep the ball out of the County net for a while.  No easy task.

The Ton are on a bit of a roll at the moment, with Dundee being the only team to beat them in the last nine games.  Last weekend they beat local side Ross County 2-1 after going behind before half time.  Draws with Raith and Partick and a win over the Pars mean that Morton will be no push-overs in this game, and are not afraid to have a go after losing the first goal.  Given Inverness' poor home record, then Morton fans have every right to feel confident of  at least taking this tie back to Greenock to settle it, especially as Jonny Hayes looks like missing this one.

With the midweek SPL game against Dundee United called off two and a half hours before kick off, it begs the question how well will the pitch stand up to the horrendous weather thrown at it in the last twenty four hours?  Let's hope that a decision will be made long before any travelling fans require to leave for the game.  It's not a common feature of football in Inverness being called off due to the condition of the pitch, but since the SPL criteria of insisting that we installed undersoil heating, the spiking of the surface to enhance the drainage has been less efficient due to the depth of the heating system, thus making it more prone to surface water. Award winning groundsman, Tommy Cumming, will no doubt do his best to keep the games coming, but sometimes the winter weather can be too harsh, even for Tommy.

Ginger Jaggy has also put together a brief preview for this cup game, it just goes to show that great minds do think alike.

On Saturday (Weather permitting ha-ha) we welcome 1^st division outfit Greenock Morton to the Caledonian Stadium for a place in the quarter final of Scottish Cup. This year's cup competition looks like it will be as wide open as it was last season with a guaranteed elimination of one of the Old Firm in Sunday's clash at Ibrox. This could be our year to make a charge to Hampden. The dream of returning to Hampden after our last appearance in 2004 against Dunfermline at the semi stage is still a little way in the horizon as we first must defeat Morton and then win a potential quarter final.

Bit of Information on our opponents

Greenock Morton survived in the first division last year as we went on to become champions and promoted to where we are now. Morton has been in decent form of late and is in a comfortable mid table position. They recently beat our highland neighbours Ross county at Cappielow coming from behind to win 2-1 last weekend. They have only suffered one defeat in their last six matches in the league losing 1-0 at home to Dundee. They have had some impressive results in that period taking points off league leaders Raith Rovers away and Dunfermline at home. But this recent good run of form has stretched back from the tail end of November with a lot of scheduled games being hit by the winter weather through the Christmas and New Year period. Looking at their squad they have a few experienced players who have been around the Scottish circuit. One name that jumps out is defender Stuart McCaffrey who was a pivotal member of our first title winning team way back in 2004. The defender made over 150 appearances for us winning a 1^stdivision medal and a Challenge Cup medal in six brilliant years with the club. Other names in the squad include Darren Young who made his name at Aberdeen and Dunfermline even though his career has been plagued by injury.

Cup Form

The boys have not won in ten competitive league matches but we did manage to win our Scottish cup 4^th round tie against neighbours Elgin City at home in that time; even if only just. In a cup tie that we were clear favourites against our part time rivals we only just snuck through in the final minutes after being given a few scares. Elgin managed to create a few decent chances and almost won the tie outright missing a near open goal. It was forgotten man Dani Sanchez who scored a cracking volley when time had moved into injury time. Thankfully that goal gave Dani his chance to play in the SPL as many fans had been calling for. Elgin, heartbroken then conceded a second from Adam Rooney and we moved into this round even if not as comfortable as some fans had thought. Morton entered the cup in the round earlier than us winning 2-1 away from home at 2^nd division club Dumbarton. In the 4^th round they entertained another 2^nddivision club Airdrie United. The original tie had been postponed due to the weather. The game was rearranged for the 18^thof February the date of terry Butcher's priceless rant at the SPL. The game ended 2-2 with Caithness born Gary McKay Steven getting on the score line for the Diamonds. 2-2 was actually a decent result for Morton who were 2-0 down at home and facing elimination. The replay a week later at the impressive Excelsior Stadium saw Morton run out comfortable winners, winning 5-2.

Gingerjaggy cup prediction

It has been a hard time for all our supporters. We have been on a very poor run since the euphoria of our away run in 2010. No win in 10 has only been bettered by Hibs and Hamilton who are at the bottom of the league. But I think we have reached the light at the end of the tunnel. The window is shut now and Rooney can now concentrate on getting back to the form that earned him so much coverage. The two new lads look like they will add a bit of strength to a small squad and our last performance against Aberdeen was very good even with the one man disadvantage we faced for a long period of the match. There is a very good chance that we can produce a decent cup run and find ourselves at Hampden for at least a semi final if the draw is kind to us. Morton though cannot be underestimated and I don't think we will, like we did a few years ago, where we let home advantage slip by only drawing 1-1 at home to Partick and then losing the replay on pens. Terry will want to win as many games to gain some momentum as we push for the top six and a good cup run will do no harm. I am saying that we will win this one 2-0 with a good performance to add.

***Latest Team News***

Inverness have another late withdrawal to add to the list of Hayes, Gillet, Morrison and veteran Roy McBain.  Under 21 prospect Nick Ross has an ankle knock and will miss this game along with the u21 camp next week.  Opportunities abound for the January signings to stake a claim for SPL starts, with Hogg, Doran and Macdonald raring to go.  Lee Cox is also ready for battle, and Jonny Tuffey may get the obligatory call to play in goals in the cup games.  Grant Munro is suspended after his red card against Aberdeen, but Ross Tokely will not begin his suspension until possibly the St Mirren game.

Morton are not forthcoming with much team news yet, but their last squad for the Ross County game was as follows :-

Stewart, MacGregor, Smyth, McCaffrey, McKinlay, Kean, Jenkins, Tidser, O'Brien (Monti 60), Lyle (Holmes 87), Graham (Weatherson 57). Subs Not Used: Cuthbert, Bachirou.

Darren Young is trying desperately to be ready for this cup game after seven weeks out with an achilles problem, picked up in a bounce game against Rangers.  Peter Weatherson is still a couple of weeks away from full fitness, although he can contribute greatly from the bench.  He has featured in the last four matches, most notably scoring an equaliser against Raith with a free kick.  Derek Lyle who joined from Hamilton last month will be one to watch, having scored twice in the last two games for the Cappielow side.