Houston, we have a problem

Next up to Inverness are the Arabs from Dundee, who's boss Peter Houston has confirmed that United have not tabled a new contract for him when his present one runs out at the end of this season. It would appear from the lack of interest shown by the United board that they may be looking elsewhere should Houston not improve the clubs current situation. On the other hand it looks like he is trying to force the clubs hand into negotiations, and why not, after all he did bring home the Scottish Cup and has kept United in the top half of the league.

Both sides struggled to get through their third round league cup ties in midweek against second division opponents. United fared slightly better than Inverness as they overcame Queen of the South without the need for extra-time or penalties. A solitary Johnny Russell strike in the first half was enough to put United into the quarter final draw. Inverness worked even harder to dispose of Stenhousemuir after extra-time and penalties. It was a dramatic shoot out with the SPL side showing their mental strength to go through 6-5 after Ryan Esson saved Darren Smith's spot kick in the sudden death drama.

Inverness are racking up the draws this season and are the only SPL side yet to win a league game. Draw specialists we could be with five out of seven games all square. The other two finished with four goal doings at the hands of Celtic and Motherwell. The plus side of our season so far is our ability to score in every game, and our resillience at coming back from seemingly lost causes when our backs are against the wall, the two draws in Edinburgh evidence of that. We are, however, undoing that strike rate by gifting goals at the back as our minus five goal difference would indicate, although we do appear to be tightening up somewhat in recent games.

Dundee United sit three points above Inverness, albeit they have a game in hand against Celtic still to be played. They are without an away win yet but have only played two away from Tannadice, losing to Kilmarnock and drawing with St Johnstone. Their recent form has disappointed Peter Houston since the 3-0 derby win over Dundee. Two defeats and two draws have taken the edge of United's season so far, and last weeks 0-3 defat at home to Hearts has set alarm bells ringing down Tannadice way. Houston has asked his side to show more character after the poor result against Hearts, although in all fairness, that result hinged on a couple of decisions that went against the Arabs, and with a bit more fortune they could have got something from the game. Hearts keeper MacDonald doing some heroics, and United's strikers without their shooting boots on.

In this fixture at Inverness, there has been eleven SPL encounters. Five wins for United and only two for Inverness with four drawn games. United have won four out of the last five games at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium. We have only scored more than one goal on one occasion, last season, and we still lost that game 2-3 after being two goals ahead. The only no scoring draw was in September 2006. The last Inverness win was in season 2006/2007 when we tiumphed 1-0 thanks to a late Barry Wilson strike. Grant Munro had earlier been sent off for felling barry Robson, but we had the last laugh as Wilson's well placed shot secured all three points. Almost 4,000 fans were at that game in 2007.

Teams on that day were:-

Inverness CT: Fraser, Tokely, Dods, Munro, Hastings, Wilson, Black, Duncan, Rankin (Paatelainen 73), Bayne, McAllister (McSwegan 64).

Dundee Utd: Stillie, Dillon, McCracken, Wilkie, Kalvenes, Robertson (Samuel 46), Kerr, Gomis, Robson, Daly (Robb 73), Hunt (Goodwillie 81).

***Latest Team News***

Inverness are still without Chris Hogg, Nick Ross, Shane Sutherland and Simon King. Andre Blackman was not risked in midweek and will struggle to make this one after injuring his ankle against Hibernian. Owain Tudur-Jones could be back after suspension, depends on which tabloid you believe. The SFA website only shows a two game ban, so I will allow him to play, but Gavin Morrison is knocking at the door for a start and young Arsenal prospect Phillip Roberts looks like he could be worth a try at some stage after another interesting cameo at Stenhousemuir, where he also showed he had the bottle to put away a crucial penalty in the shoot-out.

Dundee United are without the talented Gary Mackay-Steven who is recovering after knee surgery. Jon Daly played in midweek and is hopeful of another ninety minutes this weekend.

tm4tj Prediction:- It's about time we broke our duck for this season and we have been getting better as the weeks have gone on, well most of the team have. David Raven seems to be the weak link and is usually the one that makes the error to allow the opposition in and leave us chasing the game. But we have proved difficult to shake off and if we can limit the errors at the back then we could be on our way to breaking that duck. Quack quack, 2-1 home win.

Mon the Caley Jags................