Inverness off to wake up the Dossers

Inverness head down to North Lanarkshire this weekend to take on third place Motherwell in a repeat of the opening day fixture, one which saw the hosts win convincingly by three goals to nil. Let's hope Inverness have learned from that experience and are ready to reverse that result to keep the revival going.

It will be a somewhat sombre occasion this weekend as news of the sudden death of vice-chairman Bill Dickie has rocked the Fir Park club. Mr Dickie had been involved with Motherwell for the last thirty years and was Chairman of Motherwell for five years until 2008. Terry Butcher had worked with Mr Dickie in his spell as Motherwell manager and said, "I'll miss Bill when we're there on Saturday." He added "He was a real gentleman of football and Motherwell, he'll be sorely missed by Motherwell and those who knew him, because he was always there." RIP Bill Dickie.

Last weekend saw both clubs at home in the Scottish Cup. Motherwell cruised past Queens Park putting four goals past the Spiders without reply. Henrik Ojamma scored on his debut with Daley and Murphy (2) completing the rout. So, not much of a test for Well, but Inverness were given a sterner examination by the Pars. In poor conditions, the clubs served up a plate of tripe. Two goal-keeping errors epitomised this struggle and neither side could have complained had they been removed from the draw. However they will have to do it all again on the 18th of January to sort out a winner, let's hope the game is more entertaining for the TV audience than it was for those who turned up for the first error strewn kick about. Kenny Gillet was fortunate enough to be sent off and missed an hour of this rubbish, unfortunately I stayed to the end, all six minutes of time wasted additional minutes, just long enough for Hayes to capitalise on keeper Smith's fresh air shot; nuff said.

Hammell, Murphy and Lasley were the scorers back in July and although the scoreline was convincing, Inverness had their moments and hit the woodwork twice through Foran and Tansey but could not find a way back into the match. Lasley's goal was a thirty yard screamer, a feat he would repeat in the return fixture in Inverness. That game in October saw Inverness hammer Motherwell for most of the game, and still end up losing 2-3 with recently departed David Davis opening the scoring only for Shaun Hutchinson to level before half time. The crossbar saved Motherwell again before Andy Shinnie restored the home sides advantage but Lasley once more struck a ferocious shot through Esson into the roof of the net from thirty yards once more. Controversy surrounded the winner as Chris Hogg was sent off for downing Murphy on the edge of the box and from the resultant free kick, Hately smacked the ball off of Jonny Hayes' face/shoulder and the ball diverted beyond Esson and into the net for an undeserved winner for the Steelmen.

That result kept Inverness rooted to the foot of the table whilst Motherwell moved three points clear of Celtic and into second place. Inverness have yet to complete a clean sheet this season.

Recent form suggests that Inverness are relishing the task in hand whereas Motherwell have stuttered somewhat, losing to Rangers and Hearts away, and drawing with St Mirren at Fir Park. Like Motherwell, Inverness have been extremely erratic, but victory over Aberdeen and a draw at Easter Road has given the fans some hope for the future, although the turgid cup encounter against fellow SPL strugglers Dunfermline swiftly brought us back to earth with a thud.

Statomann is telling us that Motherwell are the lowest scoring team at home in the SPL with only seven goals scored this season. (3 of them were against us). This has brought them three wins, three defeats and three draws but only conceding nine goals in the process. Inverness have lost seven games away from home, winning only two with two being drawn. We have the worst defensive record on the road in the division, losing twenty-four goals but yet still scoring sixteen times. Motherwell though have an overall goal difference of zero and we are on minus twelve and that is a good enough reason for them to be sitting third on 34 points while we are third bottom with only 19 points.

Both clubs have lost the services of loan players with Davis and Chippendale returning south from Inverness. Stephen Hughes has departed from Motherwell after McCall opted to strengthen other areas of the squad. He played four times for Well since November.

Ones to watch for Motherwell will be their top scorers Michael Higdon and Jamie Murphy. Higdon leads the way with seven goals and his bustling centre forward style gives the defenders no rest. Murphy on the other hand is a pacey winger full of trickery and troubles defenders with his old fashioned wing play. He has scored six goals so far.

***Latest Team News***

Inverness are still without long term casualties Owain Tudur-Jones and Hogg the Blogg, although Jones has started light ball training and could be ready within the month. Richie Foran misses this one due to his cumulative yellow cards total reaching it's limit. Ross Tokely and Andrew Shinnie have started training again but this game could be too soon for them after both suffered shin/calf injuries at Ibrox. Steve Williams has signed a loan deal until the end of the season. He is a six foot four defender, but his fitness is a concern ahead of this game and he may have to be content with a place on the bench. A young squad played a bounce game away to Hibernian during the week and the likes of Proctor, Meekings and Doran all had a run out to gain some valuable game time.

Motherwell have a fairly consistent squad to pick from. New boy Henrik Ojamma did his prospects no harm with a goal in the cup game last week and will vie with Humphrey for a start. Steve Jennings will return to the squad if he shakes of his injury in time, but Stuart Carsewell is still recovering from illness while Steven Saunders is sidelined. Keeper Lee Hollis is not back to full fitness.

tm4tj Prediction:- This will be a tough fixture to take anything from, but given our recent revival and Well's stuttering home form we will do well to come away with a point. Anything more than that will be a bonus, but I will go for a low scoring draw, 1-1, and a third consecutive SPL game unbeaten.