Surprise Surprise
East End Park is the venue on Saturday as surprise Championship leaders Inverness visit the Kingdom of Fife to take on surprise packet Dunfermline Athletic.
I say surprise packet, as that is exactly what The Pars have become under the guidance of former Alloa Athletic manager Peter Grant. I fully expected the Pars to be challenging at the opposite end of the table given their financial backing and the assumed quality of their squad. Unfortunately for them they find themselves languishing at the foot of the table and winless after four games with only a draw against Morton to show for their troubles. They do have a Fife derby to come against Raith Rovers, but that won't be easy either. They have shipped three goals against Partick, Arbroath and Ayr United and their fans are now talking boycotts in an attempt to use fan power to force the board to act now before their season is completely ruined. Look out for the mass exodus on the hour. However, beware the scalded cat!
In stark contrast, Inverness are on a winning run of five games on the bounce in the Championship, have the manager of the month in Billy Dodds, and sit top of the table having already beaten three of the favourites in Raith, Kilmarnock and Partick Thistle. What could possibly go wrong?
Stat Attack
| First Competitive Meeting |
| Aug 7th, 1999 | League | (A) | 0 - 4 |
| Most Recent Competitive Meeting |
| Mar 20th, 2021 | League (Championship) | (A) | 1 - 0 |
| Last 10 Competitive Meetings |
 1 - 0 (A) |
 1 - 1 (H) |
 1 - 3 (A) |
2 - 1 (A) |
2 - 0 (H) |
1 - 0 (A) |
1 - 0 (H) |
0 - 1 (A) |
2 - 2 (H) |
3 - 0 (A) |
| Biggest Victories |
| Jul 26th, 2016 | League Cup (Group C) | (A) | 5 - 1 |
| Heaviest Defeats <ouch> |
| Aug 12th, 2017 | League | (A) | 1 - 5 |
| Aug 7th, 1999 | League | (A) | 0 - 4 |
| Highest Attendance |
| Apr 10th, 2004 | Scottish Cup (Semi-Final) | (N) | 13,255 |
| Head 2 Head |
| Venue | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Agst | + / - |
| Home | 21 | 9 | 8 | 4 | 27 | 19 | +8 |
| Away | 22 | 9 | 8 | 5 | 28 | 25 | +3 |
| Neutral | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -1 |
| Total | 45 | 18 | 17 | 10 | 58 | 48 | +10 |
Overall stats sway in our favour with the last ten meetings showing that Inverness have been more dominant in recent years. A far cry from the 4-0 thrashing dished out on our first venture into the Championship back in August 1999 when the Pars brushed aside the upstarts from the Highlands who dared to move up through the leagues to challenge the central belt dominance. In our defence we were reduced to ten men and conceded two late goals.
| Pld | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | Pts | ||
| 1. | Inverness CT | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 15 |
| 2. | Kilmarnock | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 12 |
| 3. | Arbroath | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 10 |
| 4. | Partick Thistle | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 8 | 3 | 9 |
| 5. | Queen of the South | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 8 | -1 | 6 |
| 6. | Raith Rovers | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 4 |
| 7. | Ayr United | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 8 | -3 | 4 |
| 8. | Morton | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 9 | -4 | 4 |
| 9. | Hamilton Academical | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 12 | -6 | 4 |
| 10. | Dunfermline | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 11 | -8 | 1 |
Other fixtures this weekend, all 3:00pm Saturday
Hamilton v Ayr United
Morton v Raith Rovers
Partick v Kilmarnock
Queens v Arbroath
LATEST TEAM NEWS
Michael Gardyne missed out last week having picked up a knock in training prior to the Buckie Thistle cup game. Looks like we are mostly free from injury with Billy Mckay and Lewis Jamieson champing at the bit as they remained on the bench last week. Look for a relatively unchanged squad this weekend. If it's not broke, don't fix it! We have also recruited someone to watch videos. Good work if you can get it.
Dunfermline will have Owain Fon Williams, Nikolay Todorov and Kai Kennedy in their squad as they look to get off the bottom of the table.
Aaron Doran will make his 300th appearance this weekend. Let's see if he can add to his 50 goals he has scored for the Caley Jags
Back scoring goals on Saturday, Aaron Doran is a Highland hero!
— SPFL (@spfl) September 15, 2021
With an impressive back catalogue of screamers, which is your favourite strike from the Caley Thistle man?#SPFLHeroes | @ICTFC pic.twitter.com/8Cr9UYgPu9
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