tm4tj

Finish with a flourish This Sunday sees the last game of a traumatic season being played at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium with 5th place up for grabs and the £80,000 that goes with it. Our rivals for that place are St Johnstone and it's them that pay us a visit early on Sunday afternoon. For Inverness a draw will be enough to secure the money, for Perth, nothing but a win will be sufficient to climb above us. The finale to the season has been something of an anti-climax for Inverness since the league cup final with only two wins since that day, and those were against struggling bottom six clubs Ross County and Partick Thistle. Over the same period the Perth club have totalled five wins, beating Dundee United twice and a sparkling Scottish Cup semi-final triumph over Aberdeen. Our last game saw Motherwell hold on for a 2-1 win in midweek. Inverness were somewhat overgenerous in the first half and presented Motherwell with a two goal cushion at the break. Graeme Shinnie's deflected effort gave us some hope and despite creating the better chances in the second half we failed to level the game, and with defeat, our chances to climb to fourth in the league ended. St Johnstone fared better against a Celtic X1 in a see-saw game that ended all square with the sides sharing six goals. One disappointment for Tommy Wright was an injury to hot-shot Stevie May and he will be assessed before Sunday's game. The Perth side have bigger fish to fry in a weeks time when they take on Tayside rivals Dundee United in the Scottish Cup final and Stevie May will be crucial to St Johnstone's hopes of winning the cup. It's made for him surely. He wears No 17. The games on the 17th, it's an omen I tell you. In the three meetings this season, Inverness have come out on top twice by single goal victories. The first game though saw St Johnstone thump us 4-0. May, Mackay and Maclean (twice) scoring the goals that knocked Inverness off the top of the Premiership. At the turn of the year, Inverness were eight points ahead of the Saints. The points gap is now down to one. Our quest to play like Barca has not always had the desired effect and has in fact contributed to a number of squeaky bum moments where we end up rushing pass backs and clearances as the opposition suss out our ball retention tactics. This has resulted in at least half a dozen freebies for our opponents, Dundee United being particular benefactors on a few occasions where Brill and the defence fell short with pass backs and clearances. Yogi's determination to see this through has not gone down well in some quarters but on the other hand I saw no complaints when we beat Ross County twice in Dingwall. Those games were played with a bit more swashbuckle and panache. Let's see a bit more of that and see if we can finish with a flourish. Swashbuckle and panache.................sounds like a dodgy firm of solicitors. Inverness defender Josh Meekings and captain Richie Foran remain out through injury. St Johnstone striker Stevie May and defender Gary Miller face late fitness tests after picking up knocks against Celtic although they are not as seriously injured as originally feared. Tam Scobbie and midfielder Murray Davidson remain out. tm4tj prediction:- The season is dying on it's feet now and despite a fantastic start to the campaign and great cup runs it's all gone a bit flat as speculation surrounding the squad and management suitabilities abound. Still, it could be worse. Look at the village pub team from Dingwall just managing to stave off a relegation play off game thanks to the haplessness of Terry Butcher's Hibernian. You couldn't script this could you! As for our own game, maybe a scoring draw to keep everybody happy. 1-1. We have our annual nutters out walking and cycling across Scotland and they will make the stadium before kick off having marched/cycled around 160miles from Motherwell..........as I said, nutters. To end the season on a more poignant note, and put all of this season into perspective. It was with great sadness that the announcement of the passing of Elena Baltacha was met at Inverness Caledonian Thistle and St Johnstone FC. Bally sadly passed away after battling liver cancer at the tender age of 30. She had reached the top of her chosen sport of tennis and was British number 1 for three years. The link of course with both clubs was her father, former USSR international footballer Sergei Baltacha who played for St Johnstone making 90 appearances before moving to Inverness Caley in the Highland league and then when Inverness Caledonian Thistle came to fuition, Sergei was the first manager of the newly formed club. Rest in Peace Bally, our thoughts go out to your family and friends.

It's Tough at the Top Last chance saloon for Inverness if they harbour any hopes of catching Dundee United in fourth place and the extra £80,000 that goes with each position gained. While we are looking to claim fourth spot, Motherwell can still secure second place currently occupied by Aberdeen, so plenty still to play for in these last two games of the season. United play Aberdeen ahead of our game at Motherwell so we will know what to do prior to kick off. We earned a good point at home to Dundee United at the weekend considering Yogi had to make late changes to the starting eleven. Our back four was decimated and we were without David Raven, Gary Warren and Josh Meekings with Graeme Shinnie swapping flanks to accommodate others. Carl Tremarco made an appearance as a makeshift centre back alongside Danny Devine and Danny Williams found himself in the full back slot normally occupied by Shinnie. Ryan Christie got his second start and scored the opener before United's second half pressure eventually paid off when Farid El Alagui bundled the ball home after Brill had been put under some heavy handed attention. Motherwell kept the pressure on faltering Aberdeen by defeating our challengers for the fifth position, resurgent St Johnstone by 2-1 at Fir Park. That was an excellent victory for Well as the Perth outfit had been on a seven game unbeaten run. First half goals from Lionel Ainsworth and Stephen McManus were enough to see off Saints and edge Motherwell to within one point of the Dons. Our recent thrashing at Parkhead was maybe put into perspective on Saturday when second place Aberdeen suffered a similar fate with Champions Celtic ending the season on a scoring frenzy, putting five past a normally resolute Dons. Motherwell have scored 61 league goals this season but their defence has let them down at times which leads me to think this could be an open game with a few goals in it given the defensive frailties of both sides recently. The two sides have met twice in the last six weeks and Motherwell came out on top on both occasions securing a 2-0 win at Fir Park and more recently a 2-1 win at Tulloch Caledonian Stadium. Our only success was a 2-0 home win way back in August when Foran and McKay scored the goals that gave us the three points. Since our blistering start to the season and the departure of a man in turmoil, we have slithered from second to fifth and our season is almost at a standstill as the goals dry up from our one man attack. One bright spot in the recent gloom has been the introduction of one of the hottest properties in the game, Ryan Christie who scored his second first team goal last weekend. We have been hit by some sort of bug over the last couple of weeks that has kept Marley Watkins and Josh Meekings out at some stage and late Injuries to Raven, Warren and Vincent has made life difficult for Yogi. Carl Tremarco filled the central defensive role very well against United despite his lack of height and Danny Devine once more fitted in very comfortably. Hughes will have a tough choice to make whether Warren and Meekings return to the starting line up if they have recovered sufficiently or does he keep faith with those who deputised so effectively. Vincent and Raven should return after injury, but Foran is out for the season. Award winning Graeme Shinnie looks forward to tonights game.......... Stuart McCall has had another tremendous season with Motherwell and his master plan in securing James McFadden will see them play in Europe again. Iain Vigurs' move to Well looks like paying off for him as well and with McManus and Sutton in the side there is plenty of experience to draw on. McCall will have an unchanged squad from the one that faced St Johnstone which means that Paul Lawson, Stuart Carswell and Simon Ramsden are still out. Here's what McCall and Sutton think ahead of the game........................ tm4tj Prediction:- Tough one to call once more although given recent form Motherwell should be favourites to take all three points. They have conceded plenty of goals though as have we, and considering what's at stake then we could take something from this game if we can cope with the threat of Ainsworth, Sutton and McFadden. Our old chum Iain Vigurs will also be a threat, especially at set pieces where his left foot seems to work particularly well against us. I'm looking forward to Ryan Christie having an impact on the game and being able to supply Billy McKay who needs to finish with a flourish after his free scoring early season form. 1-1 if we get our game plan right, if not, it could be a long night. Hello down below............. If we thought it was tough at the top, spare a thought for our near neighbours and Highland compatriots Ross County. They had a tremendous season last year and it looks like second season syndrome is catching up on them. Hearts are the form team in the bottom half and removing their fifteen point deduction, then one or two teams would really be in the mire. As it is, our olde gaffer Terry Butcher is having his worst nightmare as his current side Hibernian are in freefall and might yet fall right into the first division. These two meet tonight in Dingwall (Tues) and this result could have a massive say in who goes into the play-off game against high scoring Hamilton Accies, although Kilmarnock are doing their level best to keep everyone else in the SPFL. County kept the Highland Derbies going by leaving Terry Butcher and Hibs staring into the abyss. Aberdeen beat United so that also gives Inverness the chance to close in on 4th place.