Challenging times ahead.

Back to SPL duty this weekend as Inverness head south to Motherwell for another away day.  With the year long run coming to end at McDiarmid Park Perth, a fresh challenge awaits Butcher's boys in 2011.

Can Inverness now pick up the pace again and push for a top six place, or has the focus on the away record taken it's toll on the bigger picture and hindered the bid for SPL points.  The defeat at Perth has come hard on the heels of back to back defeats at home and some quarters think that the bubble has burst on our season.  The challenge for Terry and Mo is to get the winning mentality back into the squad and ensure the early season form is not wasted.  Points on the board though should see Inverness well away from the relegation squabbles, but recent form suggests otherwise.

Last weekend saw a break from the cut-throat SPL rigours, and Inverness crept over the finishing line, eventually, thanks to the introduction of spanish star Dani Sanchez who scored one and set up another in the late late show against third division Elgin City.  We created enough chances to win half a dozen cup ties, but the lack of a real cutting edge saw ICT keep the fans on their toes until after ninety minutes had elapsed.  With Adam Rooney being targetted by our komrades in the Soviet Union will Butcher need to look further than the inexperienced Shane Sutherland to ensure the flow of goals remains constant?  Shane has shown up really well in the game time he has had, but unfortunately for him he can not buy a goal at the moment, not for the want of trying.  He is a great prospect, but the burden of carrying our top six hopes on his young shoulders may lead Butcher to dip into the January sales.

No league wins in our last six games is not the form of a team pushing for the top half of the league, but draws with Celtic, Rangers and Hearts in that period since thumping Hibs on the 20th November seemed like good results at the time.  The Hibs game coincided with Adam Rooney's last SPL goals, a hat-trick at that, and to add insult to injury (no pun intended) Hayes has missed the last three  SPL games which has limited the supply to the striker. Captain Richie Foran has been subbed frequently, which brings his fitness into question, as he seems to be a shadow of the fiery talent we saw last season, and Eric Odhiambo, after a great start to the season has disappointed recently.  Let's hope Terry Butcher has all the answers as we need to get back on track asap, and can we look forward to the prospect of a cheeky wee cup run after Elgin, with Morton or Airdrie coming to Inverness in the first week of February?  Some big names have already fallen, Killie and Hearts, and they will be joined by one half of the old firm after the next round of ties.

Ginger Jaggy has been checking out this fixture for you

On the road again with Fir park the destination. Caley Thistle have had an awful festive period with back to back home defeats before losing the long unbeaten record at McDiarmid Park. We did manage to stop the rot by beating Elgin City in the cup even though it took two stoppage time goals to get us through. This match could also be made even harder with the news that top goal scorer Adam Rooney could be on his way out of Inverness after a Russian club are reported to have made an offer to the ICT board. This has been rejected so Adam will remain our player for the time being .

A bit on our opponents Back to the action on the pitch and we face a huge game at Motherwell. If Inverness is to realistically stake a claim in the top six of the SPL, then a result at Fir Park will help us from being hunted down by the chasing pack. Motherwell has had an up and down season so far. They started so well, occupying 3^rd spot for quite a while under the management duo of Craig Brown and Archie Knox and star striker Nick Blackman. But since their impressive performance and victory in Inverness last November things have not run so smoothly for the Steelmen. First of all Brown and Knox decided to leave to become the replacements to Mark McGhee whose tenure at Aberdeen was terminated after a spell of appalling results including the 9-0 drubbing at Parkhead. To add to Motherwell's woes, on loan striker Nick Blackman's loan deal ended with Blackburn now deciding that he can team back up with Brown at Aberdeen. But even without their top goal scorer, they still have players who can win them games like Jamie Murphy, Chris Humphrey and Ross Forbes. So they will still have the quality to hurt us. Motherwell remain below us in 6^th but with all that has gone on in the last couple of months this has to be the best chance for us to extend our lead in the Top Six battle. Terry Butcher will be pitting his tactical wits against new well boss Stuart McCall who was appointed just before the Lanarkshire derby at New Year.

Form Guide and match history These two sides come into this match in indifferent form with both teams failing to secure a victory in the league in there last 5 matches. In that time both records are identical with both teams picking up only 2 points from a possible 15 on offer. Both teams did have a little respite last weekend with both on cup duty getting away from the slog of the league. Both teams made it through to the 5^th round with victories over Elgin City and Dundee respectively. We know Inverness scraped through with two stoppage time goals but Motherwell's result was one of the stands out results of the 4^th round. Going to Dens Park, lots of people saw a potential cup upset but instead Motherwell made it through comfortably winning 4-0. But that was undone on Wednesday night when Motherwell were easily beaten 2-0 by Dundee United at Tannadice . So the form of these two has not been great but it is definitely Motherwell who has the upper hand on us in terms of head to heads. Out of the 19 matches Motherwell have won 11 including being unbeaten in the last 5 encounters. Caley Thistle have won 6 of the league games against this weekend's opponents with the only positive result in our last 5 being a 2-2 draw at Fir Park in the bottom six match two seasons ago. In fact it was a late equaliser that played a pivotal part in our relegation from the SPL. We did though claim a 2-0 victory in the 4^th  round of the cup last season with Dougie Imrie scoring his last Caley Thistle goal and what a belter it was.

GingerJaggies thoughts and predictions Well this game will be difficult and maybe it is even more difficult than it would have been. Our poor form is a matter of concern as it is raising fears that the small squad we have is starting to creak. Add in the issue of Adam Rooney and this may be very difficult indeed. Rooney has been brilliant and I'm sure young Shane Sutherland is chomping at the bit to replace him, but with a lack of 1^st team experience we would be short up front. But Rooney hasn't gone yet and hopefully that will stay the same case. But with or without Rooney, we need to start again after that painful defeat in Perth which is not going to be easy against a decent footballing team like Well. Hopefully we will have Jonny Hayes fit and that will give us that spark and creativity that we have lacked in recent matches but I think this game will come to early for Hayes. I believe we can come out of this one unscathed and pick up a decent point.

Prediction 1-1

***Latest squad news***

Inverness are still without Gillet, McCann, Morrison and Hayes, but David Proctor might make the squad.  Lee Cox could also have to miss this one.

Motherwell are unchanged from midweek against United although Steven Saunders is still suffering with a hamstring problem and will not join the squad.

Other news

Celtic beat Hibernian 3-0 at Easter Road in todays early kick off to move eight points clear ahead of the rest of the games.  Goals from Hooper and a Stokes double, one a penalty, sees them moving well clear at the head of the SPL.

Dundee United v Hearts postponed due to waterlogged pitch.

Hearts young whizz kid David Templeton has been named as the Clydesdale Bank Young Player of the Month for December.  Scotland manager Craig Levein has been keeping a close eye on the youngster after a series of enterprising performances by the Hearts forward.

Further afield, Martin O'Neill looks set to replace Avram Grant as manager at West Ham.