Confidence Boost Required
An early chance to exact some revenge on Kilmarnock arises this Wednesday night as the Ayrshire men travel North to take on Inverness at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium for a 19:45 kick off.
It won't get us back into the Scottish Cup, but it will get our SPL form back on track if we can manage to secure all three points and make second place our own again, and will do our confidence no harm whatsoever. Another slip up and the teams below us are ready to pounce, queuing up to drag us back into the chasing pack with only five points separating second from ninth, that being Ross County.
No wins in the last four, but that does not mean we have played poorly. Despite going down to Celtic at the weekend, we were always in the game at 2-1 down before being hit on the break as we pushed for an equaliser, so let's not push the panic button yet.
Killie did us a favour by beating Motherwell on Saturday and that kept the status quo at the head of the table and with Dundee losing to Ross County, then relegation looks to be a mere formality. Hibs and St Johnstone played on Monday night and it was the men from Perth who moved closer to the top of the table with an emphatic win over a dismal Leith side.
Current form shows that neither club have been setting the heather on fire in the SPL with only one win each over the last five games. In fact the trends are similar with both losing two and drawing two as well, Killie having the most recent victory with that 2-0 win over Motherwell last weekend. Inverness have to go back to the 19th of January for their last success when a superb second half display blew the Dons away 3-0. Inverness are still the highest scoring home side in the league with 27 goals, but conceding 20. Killie have scored 17 times on the road whilst losing 16. Inverness have 5 home wins and Killie have won 3 times away from Rugby Park. When the sides met earlier this season, it was a point apiece at Inverness, with Andy Shinnie and Manuel Pascali scoring and in the reverse game at Rugby Park, Inverness snatched all three points in a 1-2 win where Shinnie and Liam Kelly scored before a Billy McKay penalty settled the game.
***Latest Team News***
Inverness' Captain, Richie Foran will miss another game after his knee injury at Kilmarnock in the cup. He joins Chris Hogg and Simon King on the sidelines. Ryan Esson looks set to continue in goal where his experience could prove vital, and Nick Ross builds up his strength after his return from injury with another ninety minutes under his belt against Celtic.
tm4tj Prediction:- These are usually free flowing games against Kilmarnock and this one should be no different. Inverness have something to prove to their own support that their bubble has not yet burst and we have the bottle for the battle. I can see us recording a confidence boosting 2-0 win with Billy McKay getting back amongst the goals.
And now for something completely different. The rearranged Highland Derby has been scheduled for Saturday 2nd of March with a 3:00pm kick off. Ross County's home match against Inverness Caledonian Thistle had been called off due to a waterlogged pitch on January 2nd but the game will now go ahead two months late....
.....weather permitting of course.
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