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We are accustomed to Doran getting injured but it’s still a shame. I was slightly surprised that he got a contract extension this summer but he’s shown that he could still make a contribution to the first team this season.

Doran and Welsh.......how is maintaining contracts for these guys sustainable. Slow and poor recruitment along with inability to be proactive in new deals for existing players the last few seasons has ultimately allowed deals for these players to be put in place due to desperation and no alternatives with the same old outcomes. These are a Robbo and Dodds legacy issue and exemplifies our poor recruitment strategy.

MATCH POSTPONED Ton of Trouble Inverness face a basement battle with fellow strugglers Morton at Cappielow on Saturday. It's scheduled for a 3:00pm kick-off if storm Babet allows. It's also a coming together of our new manager and the one who thought he was top of the list for the vacant job, Dougie Imrie, the bookies favourite and who was in the running until Duncan Ferguson was announced. Could make for an interesting afternoon with the prospect of new signing David Wotherspoon getting a start. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Match Info/Tickets Supporters Bus David Wotherspoon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Venue Pld Won Drn Lst For Agst + / - Home 21 12 5 4 48 20 +28 Away 19 11 3 5 37 24 +13 Neutral 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total 40 23 8 9 85 44 +41 Last time at Cappielow we escaped with all three points: 2 - 1 Vital three points at Morton: Danny Devine was missing again along with Roddy MacGregor and Walllace Duffy for this vital clash at Cappielow which could define our season. That left us with a sparse bench. For Morton, Brian Schwake was given the gloves despite his blunder against Arbroath and condemnation from his gaffer. Scott Allardice opened the scoring with a tremendous half-volley, drilling a precision shot low into the bottom corner from outside the box. David Carson popped up with the winner in the 88th minute to take a valuable three points North. Nathan Shaw did well to win the ball in his own half before sending a long diagonal ball forward that was helped onto Carson by Boyd for the wee man to finish well from inside the box after a great run forward. That win moves us to within a point of fifth placed Morton. George Oakley started up front against his old club. From an injury point of view it all sounds a bit familiar. Last 10 Competitive Meetings 2 - 1 (A) 2 - 2 (H) 0 - 4 (A) 0 - 1 (H) 1 - 0 (A) 0 - 1 (H) 6 - 1 (A) 1 - 1 (A) 1 - 1 (H) 2 - 0 (H) Last Time Out: Inverness were held to a no scoring draw at home to Partick Thistle. A game of few clear chances with Partick squandering the best a few minutes from the end. Still, the clean sheet was welcome. Morton drew a blank with Queens Park on the same day as we drew with Partick Thistle despite a depleted squad due to flooding around Greenock An Inverness XI went out of the NoS Cup against Nairn County on Wednesday night. 2-2 after 90 minutes it went straight to a penalty shoot-out where Nairn's perfect 7 proved too good for Inverness when Zac Delaney saw his spot kick saved by MotM Nairn keeper Dylan MacLean. The other star on the night was the legend that is Ross Tokely who opened the scoring on half time. He assisted Steven Mackay to double Nairn's advantage then scored one of Nairn's penalties to round off a great night for the 44 year old veteran. Harry Lodovica was the man responsible for taking the game to a shoot-out with two well taken strikes. Alas, it was Nairn that stroked in all seven of their penalties to progress to the final where they will take on Ross County who beat Brora Rangers 3-0 in the other semi. Good luck to the Wee County! Latest Team News Having played in the North of Scotland Cup semi-final at Nairn, Duncan Ferguson will now be without at least two of those that were beaten by Nairn. It was mainly a second string squad with some returning from injury. However, Danny Devine came off with a swollen knee and Sean Welsh now has a back injury. Add Boyes with an eye infection, Aaron Doran with a hamstring, Wallace Duffy with who knows what and longer term Roddy MacGregor and Lewis Nicolson then Ferguson does not have his troubles to seek. The good news is David Wotherspoon could be ready after playing 45 minutes on Wednesday night. Jay Emmanuel Stewart (JET) has been on trial this week. Dougie Imrie's last line-up in the Championship, albeit a depleted one with only three subs>>> Morton XI v Queens Park: MacDonald Blues French Baird Waters Gillespie (McGrattan 72) Power Muirhead (Boyd 71) Crawford Wilson Oakley Subs not used: Ryan Mullen (gk)

Match postponed: https://ictfc.com/greenock-morton-match-postponed/

Have to disagree on this. Wr are a much better team with Welsh in it and he has been sorely missed this season. My understanding is that he played with an injury at the back end of last season and this has been the problem for the start of this season. Don't know if the injury sustained at Nairn is a similar injury. Doran can also still do a job for us in the Championship. His latest injury is a hamstring one which can happen to any player. Ferguson had obviously thought he was good enough to start the last 2 games.

Not often you see us sending out players to bigger clubs! https://twitter.com/ICTFC/status/1715427665719517302

Meh... That's another 4 hours of my life I won't get back

First year apprentice defenders Sam Nixon and Jack Walker have joined Forres on loan until 4 January.

Totally 100% agree, jobs for the boys contracts on a rolling year basis and now it's coming back to bite us. Time for a clear out, no loyalty ties required

One of the challenges in games like this is that we generally have a blended squad if first team, fringe and U18 players who aren't used to playing together. I'd much rather we just stuck out our U18s and allowed them to get the experience, and would also be more in the spirit of us entering this tournament.

Hope he'll be fit enough to drive himself and Doran to physio

A Google search is less than encouraging with his stats!

JET could do a good job for us in the Championship - things are definitely starting to look more interesting and hopeful…

Worryingly the P&J article has worrying news on our injury position: https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/sport/football/inverness-caledonian-thistle/6225495/ex-aberdeen-forward-jay-emmanuel-thomas-on-trial-caley-thistle/ Doran is out for a few months. Boyes has an eye injury, whilst Welsh, Wotherspoon and Devine all picked up knocks last night, although Wotherspoon will be ready for Saturday. It is good to see Ferguson being much more informative in his interviews than his predecessor.

I can understand your worries, however, given the quality of the pair of them and the extra experience Wotherspoon brings, it’s a good reason to be optimistic. Just need to keep everything crossed they can both stay fit to help us climb out of the mire.

Don't mean to be negative, but I'm slightly worried about them both being fit enough / injury free to even be on the park. Both will be a few weeks off match sharpness even if fit to go now.

Was Devine's during or after the match?

And with a stricter training regime hopefully they will get fitter.