It might get worse before it gets better. 

Inverness have got probably the worst fixture on the back of a poor opening sequence to the season.  One win in eight SPL games does not fill the fans with much confidence going into this game at Parkhead, and things could get worse before they get better.

However, cast your mind back to last season when Inverness went to Glasgow late November.  Celtic had hammered hapless Aberdeen 9-0 a couple of weeks earlier.  It was not looking good for the Jags as Celtic stormed 2-0 ahead after 65 minutes; but Inverness were made of sterner stuff then.  We were trying to preserve a long unbeaten away record, stretching back a year, and Foran and Munro managed to turn this game around as Inverness left the east end of Glasgow with a well deserved point and record still intact.  Only five of that team look likely to start this weekend.

This season, we seem incapable of turning anything around.  Confidence is low and morale seems to be stretched, even the gaffer is losing patience with some of the displays on view and bickering with the fans will not help.  We have been hit with an incredible run of injuries, and the list just seems to grow and grow.  That in itself is not an excuse as every team has to deal with this, but injuries in key areas has left us threadbare given the self inflicted wholesale changes at the end of last season.  News that Foran and Morrison are struggling just adds to the woe.  Butcher also bemoans the fact that he is unable to field the same teams in consecutive games.  It would appear that he has made more changes than Facebook and neither are popular with the masses.

Another defeat will see us slightly adrift at the foot of the table, albeit a long way to go, but the goal difference is usually a bit of a give away and a great indicator as to how your team are doing.  Well, at the moment we deserve to be where we are and unless something changes this weekend, then I see no reason to believe we will be in a healthier position after ten to five on Saturday. 

It's all doom and gloom.  Out of the Communities Cup at Ayr and losing our unbeaten run at home against a poor Hibs side.  Ayr have also been trounced by Partick and Morton, and therein lies part of our problem, the inability to convert the chances we are creating.  Worse was to follow as Aberdeen scored their first goals for this season against us and Robbo's East Fife even showed us how to do it as they dumped the Dons out of the same cup on Tuesday night.  Motherwell, Dunfermline and Dundee United have all scored three goals against us and that is the other part of the problem.  Ryan Esson, last seasons CTO player of the year, will be disappointed at this, but the fault lies further upfield as our back line seems to be shipping goals like nobodies business.  Roman Golobart played his part in United's killer second goal from which we never recovered, and Butcher let him know this.  He never re-appeared after half time.  It's not the first time the young Spaniard has been chastised, although this one was the straw that broke the donkey's back.  But he is not the only one guilty of erring in the final third.  Our midfield are giving the back four little help and outlets are at a premium.  Lack of a battling midfielder and a playmaker makes life difficult for us and we will have to weather the storm.  Changes and injuries are taking their toll and at the moment it looks like an uphill battle, Celtic possibly adding to our misery, however, we are at our most dangerous when written off.  Do so at your peril Mr Lennon.

Celtic meanwhile, limbered up for the big game by dumping our feeder club out of the Communities Cup at a sodden Victoria Park, Dingwall.  Sloppy defending was the main difference as Celtic eased into the next round.  So it would appear that County face the same issues as us, leaky defence and no recognised striker.  Ayr maybe made our result look slightly better as they held Hearts after ninety minutes.  Rangers provided the comedy in midweek by losing a very late goal against Falkirk in a 3-2 defeat.

Anyway, I digress, back to our own issues...................................

Alternative Maryhill has drawn the short straw and will tell us what to expect from this encounter.............

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Got my match ticket through the post this morning. The top right hand corner bears the legend 'For It's A Grand Old Team To See'. Oh cringe. Try telling that to the Celtic supporters who sat through the tame capitulation at Ibrox last Sunday, or the one-nil home defeat to St Johnstone, or the aggregate 3-1 defeat to FC Sion, or even the stultifying cup win against Ross County in midweek. This is a Celtic team that has frequently been poor and often no better than workmanlike even in victory this season, and there are unhappy rumblings in the global huddle. On the relatively moderate and sensible Kerrydale St forum, the 'We Are All Neil Lennon' thread has dissolved into a gloomy quarrel about whether or not Lennon is up to the task of managing the club, while on the rather less moderate and sensible MonTheHoops site, one of the faithful began a thread on the County game by asking 'Would it be worth taking the loss to ensure fanny face Lennon gets the bullet?' A grand old team indeed.

Yet as the cliché has it, a wounded animal is often the most dangerous, and if Celtic are desperate to make amends to their supporters for the old firm defeat, then they probably won't have a better chance than against an Inverness Caledonian Thistle team which doesn't have its troubles to seek either. Five points from eight matches isn't the worse start to a season the club has ever made, but with a defence regularly leaking sloppy goals, no natural goalscorers in the side, no emergence of a settled team and an apparent inability to maintain a high level of performance for ninety minutes, the supporters are understandably concerned. Terry Butcher can rightly claim to have been unlucky with injuries, and the loss of Jonny Hayes and Lee Cox in particular deprives the team of creativity, tenacity and SPL experience, but this alone doesn't account for the paucity of the second half performance against Dundee United last week. In contrast with the hooped masses, the ICT support remains almost unanimously supportive of Terry Butcher, but it must be hoped that there is no discontent or serious loss of confidence in the dressing room: over much of the past two and half seasons, the hallmark of Butcher's Caley Thistle has been its great team spirit, and this has been responsible in the past for claiming points from more talented old firm sides.

Hope from History?

On the last occasion I wrote a Celtic-ICT preview, I pointed out that despite the fame Caley Thistle had earned for two shock Scottish Cup victories over Celtic, the Inverness team’s league record against the Parkhead club was very poor, ICT having won only one fixture to Celtic’s twelve, with three games finishing in draws. Ten months on, the ratio looks slightly kinder to ICT: Celtic still have twelve wins, but ICT can now boast two, and the number of draws has increased to four. If the recent additions to the Caley Thistle team are searching for a boost to their confidence and a source of inspiration after their difficult start to the season, they could do worse than looking back at the performances of last season’s side against Celtic.

November’s fixture at Celtic Park was played against a backdrop of upheaval in Scottish football that often seemed to be approaching farce. Scottish referees were on strike in protest at questions over their integrity, mostly from Celtic, and it was only the night before the game that it was finally confirmed that officials from Luxembourg had agreed to take charge. What is less well-remembered is that ICT went into the match on such a fine run of form that even the Herald predicted they would take a point from Celtic Park. When Celtic went 2-0 ahead twenty minutes into the second half, few really believed that this would still transpire, but they had underestimated ICT’s determination, as goals from Richie Foran and Grant Munro drew Inverness level. In the match report I remarked, ‘This was a performance that epitomised what Caley Thistle have become under Terry Butcher: confident, composed, classy and unable to accept that they are ever beaten.’

Five months later, this was a description that many would have struggled to recognise. Having accumulated six wins and two draws from the nine league fixtures prior to their two-all draw at Celtic Park, ICT followed that game with a run which saw only three wins gained from twenty league games. When an in-form Celtic visited the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium on Wednesday May 4th for a rearranged match, it was widely felt that they would run out comfortable winners and take another step towards securing the SPL title that they were favourites to win. Instead, a Grant Munro-inspired ICT put Celtic to the sword and destroyed their title hopes; by halfway through the second half, when goals from Munro and Shane Sutherland had put ICT 3-1 up, the Inverness players were cutting through Celtic at will, and the scoreline could easily have been 5-1 rather than the 3-2 it ultimately finished as after Kris Commons’ injury-time penalty. Despite Celtic's recent uninspiring performances, a repeat of that tomorrow would probably be a greater surprise than it was last season; and yet stranger things have happened.

Team News

The ICT squad for tomorrow's game remains heavily depleted by injuries. Chris Hogg, Owain Tudur Jones, Aaron Doran and Jonny Hayes are definitely out; Lee Cox and Josh Meekings, although reportedly training again, are unlikely to feature; and it is being suggested that Gavin Morrison and Richie Foran are also doubtful. Foran perhaps hasn't been at his best this season, and last week came off early in the second half, presumably due to injury, but his absence would still mean a significant loss in terms of experience and potential creativity. Probably the most intriguing question will be over who is selected to play alongside Ross Tokely in central defence: will Terry Butcher give another chance to loanee Roman Golobart, replaced at half time last week by David Proctor after his fault for the second Utd goal, or will Proctor start in what many see as the utility player's weakest position? Greg Tansey, Nick Ross and David Davis are likely starters in midfield, but the other positions are less easy to predict, depending on injuries and the formation Terry Butcher chooses to play. Gregory Tade probably worked hard enough last week to retain his place up front, although many ICT supporters would like to see Billy McKay given his chance; despite again failing to convince last week, Andrew Shinnie is a contender to play in an advanced role either just behind or wide of Tade, particularly if Foran doesn't make it; and the other wide position could see Aidan Chippendale given his first start or last week's best player, Graeme Shinnie, pushed further forward with Kenny Gillet coming into the left back position. Whatever team lines up, what is certain is that it will contain several players who still have something to prove to the ICT supporters. Let's hope they begin tomorrow.

For Celtic, Neil Lennon is almost certain to make changes from the team that lost to Rangers last weekend. If Georgios Samaras is started again, there will be properly mutinous feelings among the Celtic supporters, and Lennon is likely to go instead with the team's most consistently productive strike force of Stokes and Hooper, or else play Stokes out wide and give new signing Mohamed Bangura his chance alongside Hooper. Central defence is an area of genuine concern: both Glenn Loovens and summer signing Kelvin Wilson came in for strong criticism after the Rangers game and Daniel Majstorovic is widely perceived to be a bombscare, an impression his performances against ICT last season strongly contributed to; yet with Charlie Mulgrew, another possible contender for a centre half role, suspended, it is likely that Lennon will perm two players from those three unless he chooses to move Mark Wilson inside or bring in Thomas Rogne, who has not played all season. Despite an injury to Scott Brown, the Celtic manager has options in midfield and in the wide areas. Beram Kayal is an almost certain starter in the centre, and Joe Ledley seems likely to line up alongside him. Ki Sung-Yeung began the season well but made no impact against Rangers last week and may be dropped. Many Celtic supporters are arguing for the return of Kris Commons, omitted from the starting line-up since the defeat to St Johnstone, but with Commons publicly contradicting his manager on Twitter over the state of his fitness, Lennon may choose to leave him out of the squad. James Forrest, who turned in a sparkling performance in the 4-0 over Motherwell, must be a strong contender for one of the wide berths while on the other, if Commons is again omitted, Lennon might be tempted to bring in Paddy McCourt, who was by some distance Celtic's most effective player against ICT last season.

Prediction

Confidence cannot be particularly high at Celtic Park right now, and even on Wednesday, when the team had something to prove against Ross County, they looked lacking in imagination. If ICT set out aggressively against Celtic and manage to take something early, then another famous victory could ensue. Yet for all the criticism they have received recently, players like Kayal, Hooper and Ledley have proven in the past that they are fine players by SPL standards, while tomorrow's ICT team will almost certainly feature some players who simply have not yet shown that they are up to the required standard. With their home support expectant and the greater resources and quality at their disposal, I anticipate a comfortable win for Celtic.

Celtic 4 – Inverness Caledonian Thistle 1

Other SPL news

The Communities Cup saw a few upsets during the week.  Top slayers were Falkirk, East Fife and Ayr United, who dumped Rangers, Aberdeen and Hearts respectively out of the competition. Well done to those teams for upsetting the SPL fall guys.  Good wins for Hibs, St Mirren, Dundee United and Kilmarnock, and of course Celtic who sorted County in a dirge of a game at Dingwall.  Ex-Ict manager John Robertson is the man in charge at East Fife and he must be well chuffed with his second SPL scalp, having already seen off Dunfermline.  ICT's conquerors Ayr United did well to put Hearts out after extra time and penalties, good luck to them also.

That leaves the draw for the quarters looking like this:- St Mirren v Ayr United Dundee United v Falkirk Hibernian v Celtic Kilmarnock v East Fife

These ties to be played on 25th & 26th October.