Back to underdogs

Inverness travel to Glasgow on Saturday to face Champions League contenders Celtic at Parkhead.

After last weeks thrashing at the hands of a rampant Motherwell, Inverness return to the more familiar status of underdog. It was a bad day at the office last weekend as Motherwell brought Inverness' unbeaten run to an abrupt halt by capitalising on a lacklustre performance from the Highlanders who would not have looked out of place on the training ground. A similar session tomorrow could well see more records broken, however Terry Butcher will have other ideas and I'm sure the players will know where they stand.

It will be a new experience for some of our squad, never having played at Parkhead before, but the recent winning visit to Ibrox will stand them in good stead for the challenge ahead.

Our record at Parkhead is not the best, February eighth excepted. Other than that legendary cup win, we have only ever taken one point away from there. Our worst result in thirteen SPL games in the East End was a 5-0 hammering, and given last weeks slump against Motherwell then it's not looking too promising for us. We are, of course, big underdogs for this one and the element of surprise could work in our favour, but I won't be holding my breath. Anything you take away from Parkhead is a bonus, even keeping the deficit down can be challenging. Celtic have had some lapses at home this season though, dropping points to Hibs and St Johnstone and taking nothing from the visit of Kilmarnock. They did, however, fare slightly better against some Spanish club called Barcelona, a team littered with superstars, but as has been shown, their return to domestic football after midweek games seems to throw Celtic off kilter and therein lies our best chance of upsetting the odds.

Ross Draper was sadly missed against the Well and I'm afraid he is out again still suffering from an ankle knock he suffered against Killie. Gavin Morrison was included from the start last week, but it was a difficult game to judge him on as nobody turned up to play leaving him struggling to cope along with the rest of the midfield. Phillip Roberts was rested after a promising start to his Inverness career, but he could come back into contention given the inept display against Well. Reguero made a couple of gaffes last week but was also responsible for keeping the score in single figures although he will need more help than he got from his back four if we want to take something from the game.

Auldy Boy chats to Terry before the daunting visit to Parkhead

***Latest Team News***

Ross Draper is out again along with the usual suspects, Simon King (ankle), Chris Hogg (knee), Nick Ross (shoulder) and Ryan Esson (hip).

Celtic defenders Thomas Rogne and Kelvin Wilson are suffering from flu, (so were most of the Motherwell team allegedly). Emilio Izaguirre and James Forrest remain out and Joe Ledley is a doubt with a groin injury. Scott Brown is down to be in the squad despite his ongoing hip injury.

tm4tj Prediction:- I don't believe we are capable of upsetting the odds here, but I would be happy with an improved performance from the shambles of the Motherwell fiasco. A few players will be out to prove a point, and a point would be much appreciated. That might be our best hope, although we have upset the applecart before and we are more dangerous when our backs are against the wall. I would bite your arm off if you offered me a point before the game, it may be too much for us though so let's just keep the goal difference down to a minimum. Predicting an ICT result is like trying to win the lottery, but I am going for a 3-0 defeat to end our run of scoring in every game this season, whilst hoping for a return to playing football and snatching a point in a scoring draw.