Football Brunch

Penniless Hearts visit the Highland capital this Saturday for a 12:00 noon shootout with Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

The Edinburgh club are being hounded by the tax-man looking to recover a £450,000 debt, amid fears that this latest debt could send the club down the same route as The Rangers. They are already contesting a £1.75m tax bill for unpaid PAYE and VAT, and have defaulted on players wages on more than one occasion recently. The Scottish Cup holders are warning fans that this is not scaremongering and the club could be out of business before the end of this month if financial backing does not improve. Tough times ahead for the Jambo's, and tough times ahead for Scottish football.

However, they have fixtures to fulfill and will be in Inverness on Saturday for the lunchtime kick off.

With Hearts having to offload high earners at the start of the season, they have struggled to gain any momentum and an inconsistent campaign sees them third bottom with thirteen points, five adrift of Inverness. Hearts have only one win in their last five games while Inverness have won four with the one drawn game against St Johnstone. The Jambo's have a poor scoring record on their travels this term, only scoring four times, but they are also set up well defensively away from Tynecastle only conceding five goals in their six fixtures. In contrast, Inverness have scored twelve at the Caledonian Stadium, but have leaked eight goals, mostly in the early part of the season.

The first game between them ended all square when Inverness made a late comeback with ten men to break Hearts as Conor Pepper netted the equaliser in stoppage time. Novikovas and Sutton, from the spot, had put Hearts two up at the break, but an Andy Shinnie penalty threw Inverness a lifeline and they never gave up, even once reduced to ten men when Richie Foran was sent packing for a rash challenge. Pepper's goal was just reward for the battling qualities given the predicament.

There is more at stake in this SPL encounter now that we know the League Cup draw. This is a great chance for either club to lay down a marker for the semi-final and with Inverness on a confidence rush just now, then they could be the ones to set the standard.

Hearts have a new set of youngsters to take on the mantle from last seasons cup winning team with Callum Paterson catching the eye and he will be one to watch.

Ross Draper is struggling to be fit for this game and he has been influential in recent games, forging a good understanding with the long man, Owain Tudur-Jones. They compliment each other in midfield, Jones doing the play-making with Draper an excellent box to box grafter. Butcher could have an easy decision to make should Draper miss out though with Foran getting more match time since his enforced injury time out.

The Long Man speaks to Iain Auld before the visit of the Jambo's.

Antonio Reguero also talks to Auldy boy ahead of the weekends game against Hearts

***Latest Team News***

Inverness midfielder Ross Draper is out of tomorrows visit of Hearts after twisting his ankle against Kilmarnock. Chris Hogg, Simon King and Nick Ross are still all out longer term.

Hearts midfielder Ryan Stevenson is available for selection after missing last weekend's defeat by Dundee, but Mark Ridgers, Jamie Hamill and Dale Carrick remain on the sidelines through injury.

tm4tj Prediction:- The form book shows that we should be considered favourites, but that's not something that sits too well with us. However, we are free scoring, have tightened up the defence somewhat due to the influence of Gary Warren and I believe we have enough in the tank to lay down the gauntlet for the League Cup game. 2-0 for the locals.

Mon the Caley Jags