Championship begins with visit to Bairns

Here we go, matchday one in the Championship and we are off to Falkirk to kick off the new campaign on Saturday. The ball starts rolling at 3:00pm at the Falkirk Stadium.

Falkirk have signed a barrowload of players over the summer break. The enigmatic Greek born midfielder Dimitris Froxylias is one to watch out for. The former Dumbarton player was capped by Cyprus towards the end of last season and is a big danger at set pieces. Striker Dylan Mackin comes in after being on loan at Brechin City last season. Deimantas Petravicius a striker from Motherwell has signed on. Experienced Paul Paton has joined up. The one time Dundee United midfielder comes in from Plymouth. Keeper Leo Fasan moves to the Bairns having played for Udinese and Port Vale amongst other clubs. A late signing has been that of Marcus Haber. The Canadian striker joins the Bairns on a season long loan from Dundee.

In their last couple of League Cup games, Falkirk narrowly lost out to St Johnstone (1-0) before ending their group games with a 2-1 defeat of East Fife. They came from behind in this one with two second half goals from Dylan Mackin seeing them prevail. However, like us, it was not enough to sustain their interest in the competition.

Inverness were dumped out of the Betfred League Cup last weekend and suffered a humiliating 5-0 reverse. Anything more than a three goal defeat and we were out and I'm afraid we were outplayed after losing three goals in as many minutes in the first half. A further two goals sealed our fate and our demise saw Partick Thistle take our place in the draw. A bit of retribution for the Harry Wraggs I suppose.

Pastures new for some stalwarts of recent seasons. Most notably, club captain Gary Warren who has returned South and signed for Yeovil Town. Gary has been a great servant and fans favourite in his six years and 218 appearances. He missed out on two cup final appearances through injury and suspension, but he finally got his hands on a trophy last season as we picked up the IrnBru Challenge Cup. Iain Vigurs is another club captain who has left to re-join Ross County. A very talented player but occasionally let down by his temperament, however his midfield qualities will be missed this season. Jake Mulraney has gone to Tynecastle and the popular Connor Bell is now at Cappielow.

We have some new faces at the Caledonian Stadium though with defender Jamie McCart coming back to Inverness having previously been here on loan. Shaun Rooney arrives as a marauding right back from Queen of the South. Striker Jordan White comes in from Barrow to compliment our other strikers and Sean Welsh is a midfielder from Falkirk, not to be confused with Tom Walsh a wide player who was at Dumbarton. Angus Beith is here somewhere after joining from Hearts but he is injured at present.

Paul Hartley has brought in around fifteen players since the end of last season, the more prominent ones already mentioned above. To accommodate them, Falkirk released thousands of players too. In the departure lounge were Craig Sibbald, Tom Taiwo, Paul Watson, Louis Longridge, Robbie Thomson, and Rory Loy with five loanees returning to their parent clubs. 
The Bairns last starting XI against East Fife: Fasan, Kidd, Muirhead, Dallison, McGhee, Petravicius, Sammut, Brough, Mackin, Lewis,Turner.

John Robertson was disappointed with the performance of his defence at Tynecastle as we conceded four goals from crosses into the box and one from a superb free kick although the play leading up to the free kick left a lot to be desired. Carl Tremarco took a knock at Tynecastle. Sean Welsh could come off the naughty step having served his suspension. Plenty of options for Inverness this early in the season with Robbo still trying to get the most out of the players at his disposal.

More detail on the Official Site with their Preview.