tm4tj

Confidence Boost Required St Mirren are the visitors this Saturday as we continue our demanding schedule of games that has seen us play ten games in the last thirty six days, including the punishing League Cup final. The rigours of these games has seen us stumble somewhat in our quest to climb into the top three, and that looks a distant prospect at the moment. In midweek we went down 2-1 to Dundee United, a not unexpected result, but the manner of defeat was disappointing. We matched United all over the park, and but for two defensive lapses we could have taken all three points. Liam Polworth scored his first goal for the club, and what a goal it was, spanking the ball from 35 yards into the postage stamp corner. That's the keepers top left for those brought up on email, txt spk and facebook. Our defence has taken some stick recently. A couple of 5-0 hammering's seem to have taken it's toll and confidence at the rear is low with defenders passing the buck, and the buck stops at Brill who has failed to mop up the danger convincingly. Disastrous goals conceded against United in the cup continued in the league game on Wednesday despite the warnings against Partick, where Brill was closed down quickly on numerous occasions causing many a clenched cheek. Brill has been fantastic for us this season, but his performances have been erratic lately, and, despite his cult status in the North Stand, he is not immune to being left out. Let's hope he regains his confidence quickly as we need the back four and keeper to work in unison. The visitors gave United a tough time a fortnight ago, losing out after being 2-0 ahead. That was a sore one for the Buddies and they followed that up by losing to Celtic and St Johnstone. Those reverses have left St Mirren two points adrift of Partick Thistle in the race to avoid the dreaded play off place. The league table usually goes in order of goal difference, and at the moment St Mirren occupy that position, but it is tight. Richie Foran took a knock against United and Aaron Doran missed out altogether. Both could miss out again. With our top-six guaranteed and the possibility of climbing much higher looking remote, it's maybe time for Hughes to look towards next season, and that could see Polworth and Christie get more game time. Our midfield could also do with a revamp and maybe it's time for Nick Ross to show if he can replace Vincent who is flattering to deceive, or simply just not being played in the right position. Tansey looks to have cemented his place in the team and Watkins is a great replacement for Doran. Carl Tremarco is back in the squad after suspension. Paisley bad boy Jim Goodwin is champing at the bit to get back on the park after sitting on the bench since his return from suspension. He's no keen on that. Goalkeeper Marian Kello misses the trip north with a groin injury and will be replaced by Chris Dilo. tm4tj Prediction:- Maybe we will have to share the points. After all, it's St Mirren who have more to lose by getting beat, and that desire might see them more fired up for the battle than us, although if Ryan Christie is on the park, then his tenacity will see us give as good as we get. I'm going for an entertaining draw, but fingers crossed for a dramatic home win.

Opportunity Knocks Inverness get the opportunity to right a few wrongs on Wednesday night with a visit to Tannadice to play Dundee United, the team that rattled five past us without reply a couple of weeks ago in the Scottish Cup, not to mention we ended the game with only nine players on the park. The games really are coming thick and fast with another midweek game to contend with. This time though we can look forward to it with a bit more optimism after ending our recent drought with a 1-0 win over Partick Thistle last Saturday. We have had some entertaining and high scoring games with United, but the 5-0 Cup game was out of character somewhat. It's fair to say that Inverness maybe had one eye on the league cup final at that stage and the volume of games were beginning to take their toll. Well, we only have eyes for the league now and whilst I expect a tough game, I would be surprised if either of the clubs run away with this one. Our overall record at Tannadice has been decent, winning almost as many games as we have lost there. Our best performance was a 4-0 thrashing of United in August 2011, and who can forget the amazing 4-4 draw in December 2012, coming back from the dead to almost win it. So, we can create and score goals at Tannadice, but United have been threatening to swamp teams recently, winning five of their last six games and are bang in form just now. We have had a torrid time of it over the last six league games but have till managed to win three of them, including a tremendous away win in the local derby. It was good to get back to winning ways at the weekend and a bonus that Billy McKay it was that scored the winner. Mind you, he did his best not to score by spurning a great chance earlier when he sliced wide from a great position. Our problems arise when Billy fails to hit the net as no one else seems capable of scoring at the moment. United can't stop scoring just now and Nadir Ciftci is beginning to show his worth with goals aplenty. He scored twice against us in the cup and he scored a brilliant winner against Hearts last Friday. They have scored 19 goals in their last 7 games, and that includes drawing a blank against Perth. Inverness fans are fairly unanimous on one thing, and that is seeing more of Ryan Christie on the park. The youngster is destined for greater things and recent cameo appearances have whet the appetite for more game time from him, but that will be up to the gaffer. Carl Tremarco is banned for this one and Aaron Doran is undergoing treatment for his hamstring injury which kept him out of the Partick game. Yogi could freshen the side up and Marley Watkins, Nick Ross and Christie came off the bench at the weekend to ease the pressure of those on the park, Vincent, McKay and Foran in particular looking jaded after the tough schedule we have endured. Richie Foran picked up yet another yellow card and seems to be on a mission to top the yellow card charts, such is the aggression he is showing in the tackle department. He maybe needs to chill out or channel his energies into constructive and creative play rather than lunging at opponents and running the risk of leaving us playing with ten men. Danny Williams did his prospects no harm against Partick and can only get stronger as he gets some playing time and Danny Devine can consider himself unfortunate to have found himself on the bench as Gary Warren returned to the starting X1. United could be looking to rotate some of their squad with a view to some tough games looming and it is them that have the small case of a cup semi-final coming up. They play Aberdeen, Celtic and The Rangers in succession. That could see Ciftci being replaced by Brian Graham up front with their minds on the Aberdeen game where Ciftci is suspended. Gary Mackay-Stevens has not been 100% recently and Keith Watson is also suffering and neither may start with bigger fish to fry after us. On loan defender Curtis Good is still out with a hip injury. tm4tj prediction:- We call a lot of games tough, but this one scares the sh*t out of me given the Arabs current form and our lack of punch in front of goal. We had a shocker of a first half against Partick but turned it round after the break. I doubt United will be so lenient, and if we don't get our act together pronto, we could be in for a difficult night. Dean Brill will be an important player on Wednesday and he put in a confident and inspiring display to shut out Lyle Taylor on Saturday. Another of the same against United could see us take a point back up the road, but it won't be easy, although the opportunity exists to get some modicum of revenge for the cup drubbing. Of course there is the prospect of climbing above United should we win, so plenty to play for. Bring it on!

No rest for the wicked. I'm losing the will to live now as Hughes fever hits the forum after our recent drought. Yes it's been a disappointing week, but some folk need to take stock. Like it or not, we still have a thin squad and the recent deluge of games, whilst giving us something to think about, has taken it's toll on the players and it appears that some of the fans are starting to crack as well. Gone are the hopes of winning two cups, finishing second in the league and qualifying for Europe. Instead we have cries for Yogi's head and the ritual slagging of everything ICT. Supporters are fickle things and it seems that ours are no different. No sooner were we rallying behind our team at Parkhead, and three days later we are creating unwanted records and casting aspersions on our squad that make us look like Old Firm fans. Well, some folk have short memories and to turn your back on the team that got us to this heady heights is just plain ridiculous. We have a game this weekend and I do fear that we may have to go backwards before we can go forwards, but it's our team and they deserve a bit of support in the least. Remember, for better or for worse, richer or poorer, daddy or chips. Partick Thistle are the visitors on Saturday as our demanding schedule will see us play our sixth game in 22 days, and by Friday the 4th of April when we play County, we will have played 11 games in 35 days. It may not sound a lot, but for a club with our resources it has massive repercussions, the players visibly knackered at the end of 90 minutes. So, what can we expect when the Harry Wragg's turn up? Well, they beat us in Inverness already this season in a game better known as cornergate. We lost 2-1 after a bizarre sequence of events saw us score, but not score after our set piece corner routine was adjudged to be illegal and Dean Brill looking less than reliable when he dropped a cross at the feet of an astonished Kris Doolan who knocked the ball into an empty net from three yards; nightmare stuff. In the reverse fixture at Firhill, we conjured up a now familiar scoreline of 0-0, Partick feeling aggrieved at only taking one point when they had plenty opportunities to record their first home win of the season. That was a mini slump for us at the time as we were in the middle of a four game losing sequence, sandwiched between losses to Aberdeen, Celtic and Ross County. Our form of late has seen us knocked out of the Scottish Cup, losing the League Cup final, and failing to score in our last five games. We have however secured a top-six place and can now concentrate on bettering our league position. Partick have started to fight for survival now and did record their first home win, and a good one at that beating Aberdeen 3-1 followed by a draw in Dingwall and another impressive 3-1 home win over Terry Butcher's Hibernian. It still leaves them in a dog fight at the bottom end of the table, but with players like Higginbotham and Lyle Taylor scoring goals then they could well steer themselves clear of danger at the expense of St Mirren, County or Kilmarnock, it's that tight down below. Latest news from both camps has Aaron Doran still struggling to shake off the hamstring injury that forced him to start the League Cup final on the bench and saw him withdrawn against Motherwell. Partick have Stuart Bannigan available after suspension and Aaron Muirhead back after injury. Other than that, for Inverness it's survival of the fittest which may see the very promising Ryan Christie start. Off the cuff with Yogi and two other bears............ tm4tj Prediction:- I'll take a long shot and go for Yogi's boys to break their recent duck and get all three points, but with Partick battling for survival I can also see this ending up very tense and very tight. Let's hope we can get the monkey off the back and give the players and staff a bit of leeway.

After the Lord Mayor's show............... ................. Comes the dust cart. The games are coming thick and fast for us this last few weeks and it has taken it's toll on the players legs, some looking rather weary at the end of a gruelling two hours of football on Sunday and an emotionally draining penalty shoot-out. Yes, it's off to Motherwell on Wednesday night for the bread and butter league games, but this one could define whether we will be able to sustain our challenge for greater things. We had a long day out in Glasgow on Sunday and although we gave it our all, we came home empty handed and it will take a bit of time to get that one out of our systems. One piece of good news today was Ross Draper adding another two years to his contract at Inverness and that means that most of the main characters are signed up beyond this summer. Good work by the board on that. Motherwell sit six points above Inverness although the Highlanders have a game in hand, which means a win at Fir Park would put us within three points of Well in the race for European football. Without the distraction of cup football to contend with, we can now concentrate on climbing higher in the league in the knowledge that top-six is already achieved. The Steelmen have conceded their fair share of goals though, but on the other hand they have scored plenty as well, which makes our job more difficult, but we are four goals to the good on goal difference. The first game between the sides saw Inverness run out comfortable 2-0 winners with goals from Richie Foran and Billy McKay up in Inverness. That was during our promising start to the season when goals and wins were commonplace, but much water has gone under the bridge since then. The goals have dried up. The form of both sides now is similar and somewhat erratic. Over the last five SPFL games Inverness have earned eight points out of a possible fifteen, that's one more than Motherwell. They do have the upper hand in the scoring though, with twelve goals against our four, but our defence is certainly much tougher to get past, conceding five in one game (Celtic), against the thirteen Motherwell have let in. It's four games without scoring now for Billy McKay and Inverness and that's a tad worrying, but good to see the defence has restored a bit of pride with a couple of clean sheets. Danny Devine slotted in very neatly against Aberdeen and deserves to keep his place in the team, but it will be a brave man that tells Gary Warren he will not start, so I expect him to return to the XI that takes to the field at Fir Park. John Hughes has no other concerns ahead of this top-six fixture. Keeper Lee Hollis has a broken finger and misses out. Gunnar Nielsen will replace him between the sticks. Also out are Lee Erwin, Simon Ramsden, Fraser Kerr, and former County midfielder Paul Lawson, with Henri Anier rated as doubtful. Steven Hammell, Zaine Francis-Angol and Stuart Carswell are all back after recovering from injuries to give McCall a selection headache before this game. tm4tj Prediction:- I'll give it a miss for this game as the boys deserve a break. It's been a hectic few weeks now culminating in that emotional roller coaster at the weekend that was physically demanding and emotionally draining. The players have to pick themselves up and battle on regardless, but with such a thin squad it does take it's toll. As I said, I won't make a prediction, but I'll make a guesstimate that a draw won't be a disaster and a goal scored would be a bonus.