Chance for redemption

If we fail to turn up again this weekend, the Northern Constabulary will surely send out a search party for eleven footballers dressed in blue and red. That would be two weeks posted missing; surely not.

It's the same scenario, different competition, Inverness against the top side in Scotland and on a hiding to nothing. Inverness were not at their best last weekend and Celtic benefited from that by effortlessly knocking the Highlanders out of the Scottish Cup.

So, what went wrong last week?

Well, we have not had our problems to seek on the injury front. We were down to the bare bones last weekend and it showed. Chris Hogg as we know is out for the season with knee ligament damage,read the fightback, feel the pain http://chrishoggthef...k.blogspot.com/ and you can share the pain and emotion it all brings. The cup replay at Dunfermline put the quick learning young Spaniard Roman Golobart all but out for the season and he has returned to his hometown of Barcelona to rehabilitate. Andrew Shinnie broke a bone in his foot in the same game and his season has come to an abrupt end as well. We loaned in Steve Williams from Bradford City and he looked excellent against Hearts, but he missed the last two games with a knee injury. Aaron Doran on his way back has done his hamstring and his leave will be extended now. Owain Tudur-Jones has missed the season so far with a serious knee injury, but thankfully he is nearing full speed in training. Billy McKay has missed the last three with a hamstring injury as well; maybe him and Doran are sharing the same one. We have had others who have flitted in and out of the squad at various intervals as well but for a team like Inverness, these are crippling blows and hard to overcome.

Because of the injuries, we have to keep changing the team lines and this disruption every week causes a lack of fluidity throughout the side. It's something we have had to live with since the start of the season and it took us a long time to come to terms with it, but this does catch up with you and further injuries have decimated the squad again and thrown us into disarray once more.

Our much lauded groundsman, Tommy Cummings has worked miracles on our pitch in the worst of weathers, but the pitch has looked tired recently after weeks of heavy rain, and three games in three weeks has taken it's toll on the surface with no time for recovery. It cut's up very quickly at the moment and Chris Smith will tell you all about the ball bobbling around on the divots. That's not an excuse, that is fact.

Were we robbed by Celtic?

No. Simple as that, Celtic deserved to win that game and we looked as though we could have played all week and not troubled the Celtic defence, such was our ineptness on the day. We simply had too few players willing to get their hands dirty and trying to make a game of it. The worrying thing for Celtic though, is that the statistics show that we had a similar amount of attempts and we even managed more corners, but the damning statistic is that Celtic scored two goals and we scored zilch. Even more worrying for them is that both goals came from errors by Inverness' makeshift defence. We matched Celtic for half an hour and looked as likely as them to score in open play. Stalwart Ross Tokely failed to cut out a ball forward and Samaras lashed an angled drive straight at reserve keeper Jonny Tuffey who failed to keep the ball out. The pace deceived him and it flashed through his palms into the roof of the net. Tremendous strike by Samaras, but oh dear, a comedy of errors from the Inverness last line, Proctor not tracking, Tokely not cutting out and Tuffey not stopping the shot.

Worse was to follow as Sutherland played Gillet into trouble near his own corner flag, his clearance was awkward and blocked by the Celtic attack, and Hooper chased a lost cause...... or was it. As Proctor dithered, he mugged him and sped off along the bye line only for Proc to fell him as he entered the box. Soft or not it was a penalty and game over. You might get away with these errors against some of the other SPL teams, but come on, against the top teams you have to be squeaky clean, and squeaky clean we were not.

Like February 8th, that game is history and it's back to SPL chores this Saturday. How can we change things?

At the moment, our hands are tied because of injuries, so the personnel will be similar. What has to change is the attitude and aptitude of the players on the park, and the tactics of the management team need to adjust to the players on the park. Lumping long high balls up to a lone striker did not work last weekend. That won't work this weekend either. We are always better with the ball at our feet and running at the defence. Jonny Hayes needs to put his worst ninety minutes behind him and might find the smoother wide open surface at Parkhead suits him better (as a visiting player Jonny). About the only alteration we could have made at the back last weekend would have been to move Kenny Gillet into a sweeper role beside Rossco and fit Graeme Shinnie into the left back position. Foran has found his niche and was one of the few who looked like he gave a fork in his holding midfield role. Hayes, Tansey and Ross should be the midfield but has Tade looked jaded in the last few games? Maybe time for new boys Gnakpa and Winnall to make their first starts, or possibly Shane Sutherland. Let's be honest, it's a tough ask to take anything from Parkhead and we could be on a hiding to nothing, but looking at those statistics again does show that we were maybe not that far off the mark and Celtic were not quite as good as Neil Lennon would have us believe.

Celtic had the inconvenience of having to play in midweek. They visited Tynecastle, the scene of Neil Lennon being attacked by a fan, or not, as our judiciary system cast their eyes over the event. Hearts were the last domestic club to beat Celtic this season, some 23 games ago, a 2-0 win on the 2nd October, St Johnstone the only other SPL club to do so, 1-0 at Parkhead. This time, Celtic made no mistake and raced into a three goal lead before half time. The match finished 4-0 to Celtic who simply brushed Hearts aside. This sends an ominous warning to the rest of the SPL that the Bhoys are on a run and have serious ambitions to win the title this season. That result makes Saturdays task look even more daunting than ever. Celtic are now 13 consecutive wins in a row towards achieving their goal.

The Caley Jags stats for SPL games at Parkhead is somewhat disturbing. One point from nine games is not clever. The worst of these being a 5-0 drubbing in September 2007. Four of these games have been decided by a single goal advantage. Inverness have scored only five times, two of those coming in the 2-2 draw last season when we came from two down to snatch a point. Celtic have been scoring more freely, twenty-two goals in nine games, that's around two and a half goals per game. If you add in the three cup games at Parkhead then that's another eleven goals for Celtic and five for Inverness.

***Latest Team News***

The Inverness list goes on and on. Andrew Shinnie has had his operation on his foot, Chris Hogg has had a successful knee operation, Golobart is back in Spain, Doran has torn his hamstring and not to be outdone Billy McKay also has a hamstring injury. Owain Tudur-Jones is making progress after his rehab and may well find himself included in todays squad. He has missed six and a half months of this season and throwing him into the lions den might not be the best thing to do, but he is believed to be in the squad and maybe a cameo role awaits. Steve Williams resumed training this week, but looks set to miss out again. It doesn't rain but it pours; if Gregory Tade's tweeting is anything to go by, he will miss today's game through injury, which opens the door for Sam Winnall to start against Celtic.

Celtic fielded Daniel Majstorovic and new Polish striker Pawel Brozek as midweek substitutions, the rest of the squad were unchanged from the game at Inverness and I expect this weekends eleven to be along similar lines. Rabiu Ibrahim has been added to the squad but Thomas Rogne is doubtful with a calf injury.

This was last weeks starting line up against Inverness in the Cup.

And a wealth of talent are available just in case, Stokes, Isaguirre, Forrest, Cha Du-Ri and the midweek subs all champing at the bit to get on the park.

tm4tj Prediction:- After suffering last weeks meek attempt to stay in the Scottish Cup it would be simplistic to write off Inverness' chances in this one. Strangely enough, I believe we will perform better on the bigger stage at Parkhead. A win may be asking a bit much, but a performance would be encouraging for the weeks ahead as relegation is still a possibility and the bottom two clubs can not get any worse than they are at present. Would I be asking for too much if we could secure a point or should we be looking at a stroll in the park for Celtic? Fingers crossed, I'll look for a 1-1 draw.

sotonict will be making the long trek from Southampton for this game and he will be scribing the match report should he be able to avoid the perils of meeting up with the mob. So, look back online after the dust has settled and see what he has to say.