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Who did put the O and the Y in County? This weekend, with the focus away from Inverness, and Scottish Cup semi-finals being played, I took a look at what's been happening in the lower league, and look what I found. Our friends and good neighbours from 'over the bridge' are coming to join us next season in the big boys league. They have taken their time getting there, but now they have done it in style with five games still to play and an unbeaten run stretching way back to the second game of the season when Hamilton Accies whipped their ass' 5-1. They seemed to learn from that drubbing and have shown the rest a clean pair of heels since then and are now confirmed as champions after nearest challengers Dundee dropped a point in midweek. The quaint market town of Dingwall will be hearing a new sound sound come August as all sorts of neanderthals will converge on Victoria Park when the football season starts. The peaceful village sounds of cattle mooing their way along the highways and pegs being sold on the High Street will be a thing of the past. Yes folks, our neighbours have made the grade, moving up from the SFL and into the bad boys league in the SPL. No longer will it be Queen of the South or Raith Rovers visiting in their dozens, but five thousand Old Firm fans will be trying to squeeze into the revamped Viccy Park, at either end of the ground and the locals now have a massive selection and life style choice to make. Follow Follow, Hail Hail, or Ole Ole Ole Ole.....County, County. It's now the time to leave your Old Firm allegiances behind and support your local team. Like it or not, congratulations are in order. Let's not piss on their parade. Instead, remember the enjoyment we had on our special day at Ayr and how much fun that brought with it, not to mention a seven goal football feast and a sermon from Allah Butcher, from the pinnacle of the Somerset Park Stand. Aye, memories are made of this. Let them enjoy their moment, for soon enough the harsh reality of SPL life will slowly grind them down and the enjoyment and expectation that promotion brought with it will be a distant memory. The step up to SPL life may not seem like a big one, as most division one teams see the bottom six in the SPL as no better than half of the fizzy pop league. That may be the case in one off games, but the dog-eat-dog SPL quickly absorbs any silky football, any free flowing flair, and replaces it with cut-throat long ball boredom and defend at all costs, where not losing is seen as more satisfactory than winning games. Very soon the adrenaline rush will be sucked from the fans and replaced with fear and trepidation, the fear of losing, the fear of your rivals winning and the very real fear of relegation, a word synonymous with the SPL. But don't let me put you off. It's not all doom and gloom. There can be days when the world appears to be a better place, days like beating the Old Firm, days like Kilmarnock (3-6) and days like your first win over certain teams, Aberdeen springs to mind for Inverness fans. However, these can be overshadowed by a string of less than favourable results, the January transfer window or failing to beat teams because your own team are simply inadequate. County's rise to the promised land has not been meteoric, more pedantic, but nonetheless they have broken free this season after 18 years in the doldrums. Their unbeaten run of thirty league games and counting is a fantastic achievement akin to our own winning season, when Dundee's relentless march to the SPL was halted by our own winning streak as we overturned a 15 point deficit to win the league by 12 points. The similarities are uncanny. We won the title in midweek when Raith beat Dundee, County winning the title in midweek when Dundee failed to win. Our next game:- a celebration at Ayr, County's next game a celebration at Ayr. Then the chance to really celebrate at home, against Dundee, County have the same Dundee in Dingwall this weekend. It's all very Deja Vu. How the Gudgies will cope with life in the SPL is open to debate. They have a winning mentality at the moment, and that will give them a boost going into the top flight, but when you have to perform at your best week in, week out, then it starts to wear thin. A few home losses then the euphoria turns to anxiety, the anxiety to reality and the reality to a relegation battle, where tension takes over and underachievement is boss. It's a vicious circle, trust me, Inverness have gone through this, worn the T shirt got the hat, but as long as you can come out the other end smiling, then the SPL is for you. There are a few positives to be drawn from County's success. First on the list are three or four local derbies, ye canna beat them for the rivalry and banter, big crowds and a few drams. Secondly, the Central belt clubs will be a bit cheesed off having to travel the A9 twice as often next season. Third positive for Inverness is less travelling to away games (derbies) and the thought of taking 9 points off County is just magic. I suppose this is as close to a congratulation as Ross County will receive from CTO, but it would be churlish of us to begrudge them their little bit of history, one which like us, they have earned. There has been the usual mix of emotions on the forums inside here, but the general concensus of opinions is that the fans will welcome the derbies and the opportunity to put one over your nearest rivals. The banter created when the two teams meet will be a new SPL experience for both of us and one which should be embraced by fans of both sides. A Highland derby in the SPL, who would have thought that 18 years ago? ps. I never did find out who put the O and the Y in County.

It's a Fair City right eenuff. It's back to the now Fair City of Perth this Saturday for our last game before the split. Let's hope this weekend is more productive than the last one when we crumbled badly against Hibernian, losing 2-3 in Inverness. That was on the back of a 0-1 defeat at the hands of St Johnstone last midweek and the long knives are out as the home fans get a reality check. The fable about Perth being a town has now been laid to rest, what will the fans find to squabble about next? Two winnable games and two poor performances have seen questions raised over the management teams ability to change things around and lift spirits. In all honesty, it's not just the last couple of games that has miffed most fans. We seem to be playing as poorly as we have done in the SPL and the system being deployed has not worked often enough. Does that make us a bad team? The harsh reality at the moment is yes, it does. Are we getting the best out of the players at our disposal? For most it would appear to be no. That is where our leaders come in and we need to see a bit more swashbuckle, a bit of panache, a bit of swagger even, but confidence would seem to be thin on the ground at the moment. Butcher has bemoaned the fact that injuries have curtailed our performances this season. That is correct, but most clubs go through this at some stage. Has he lost sight of the fact that it was him that removed half of our players before the season started, and we have never replaced them with adequate performers. The long ball tactic will go down in folklore up here, but it must be frustrating for 5ft 7in Billy McKay to watch numerous balls floating high over his head onto giant defenders nappers. I doubt we have used our players to the best of their somewhat limited ability, but surely Terry and Mo have a plan 'B' when things go awry and surely we need to get substitutions on the park earlier for them to make a contribution, especially when we are chasing the game and not just playing out time. It's not all doom and gloom although it sometimes feels like it. Jonny Hayes made his comeback from injury and showed us what we have been missing and was our most productive and creative player against Hibs. In spells, we did play some decent stuff, but errors crept into our game after we went ahead and some individual lapses made it easier for Hibs to take advantage of the situation. We were given and scored our first penalty since November 2010 (yay). Greg Tansey stepped up and buried it brilliantly. Why can't he be so effective with the numerous free kicks he wastes. He has not been the only wasteful one though and Tade and McKay need to up their strike rate after more guilt edged chances went astray. So Terry, charisma and spin alone are not going to keep us in this league, Dunfermline will manage that for us, but it would be nice to see a change of pattern, a change in the way we go about our business. Maybe the shackles that the SPL puts on teams holds them back, the fear of losing being greater than the joy of winning. Whatever it is, I hope we can be set free and lets get back to entertaining the fans and making it worth the money to come along. Alternative Maryhill has found the time to scribe the preview for this one, let's hope a change of author will get us back on track. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Two football clubs, both alike in dignity In fair Scotia where we lay our scene... If Caley Thistle supporters were pushed to identify the Scottish club most like ICT, I’d hazard a guess that the majority would opt for St Johnstone. The clubs are from similarly-sized cities, both are run to small, tight budgets, both have spent the last decade either in the SPL or in the First Division, each has yet to win a major trophy, each has found it difficult to expand its fan base beyond a core of around three thousand, both are (happily) remote from the central belt and the fans of both have been accused, by unimaginative supporters from the central belt, of loving animals just a little too much (meh). Last season’s SPL seemed to underline the similarity in size and potential of the two teams, with ICT finishing in seventh place and St Johnstone in eighth. Yet fast forward a year and St Johnstone are assured of a top six finish and contemplating the possibility of European football, while ICT are in tenth, with many supporters fearing for the club’s prospects next season. So why the dramatic change? The last fixture between the teams, just ten days ago, did not reveal an obvious gulf in quality: the difference in what was apparently a dreadful game was made by a penalty for St Johnstone. Looking at the St Johnstone team that started the game, however, what struck me immediately was how familiar most of the names were: this sort of continuity is something of a rarity in SPL teams these days. Moreover, almost every member of that St Johnstone team, even the more recent arrivals, had significant SPL experience as well as, in some cases, experience at a higher level: in defence, Dave Mackay, Frazer Wright, David McCracken, Alan Maybury have all played many times in the top Scottish division; Jody Morris, Chris Millar and Liam Craig provide similar SPL experience and continuity in midfield (and on Wednesday were supported by Lee Croft who, although a recent addition to the SPL, has several years’ experience with English Premiership and Championship clubs); while strike partners Sandaza and Sheridan, revelatory this season, had both shown plenty of promise, if not consistency, with established SPL teams in the past. All this without mentioning the SPL experience on the bench, in the shape of David Robertson and Steven Anderson, and also held by the temporarily unavailable Calum Davidson and Murray Davidson. By contrast, six of the starting eleven for Inverness (Piermayr, Golobart, Tansey, Jones, Tade, Mackay) had never played in the SPL, or with each other, until this season; and three more (Tuffey, Shinnie, Sutherland) would be classed by most as having had limited SPL experience. Only Tokely and Foran can compare favourably with the large majority of the St Johnstone team in terms of the number of SPL games played. When the two teams are considered in terms of their experience in this league, their experience of playing together, and the levels they have played at, is it any wonder that St Johnstone sit eighteen points and five places better off than ICT at the time of writing? Pointing this out is not intended as criticism. Terry Butcher felt he had to rebuild last summer, and opted to go, for the most part, with young players from the English reserve and lower league football, having previously had success with this policy in the shape of Jonny Hayes and Lee Cox. Yet most would agree that, even bearing in mind the injuries ICT have endured this year, the season has been disappointing and that further work will have to be done on the squad over the summer. The model of the current St Johnstone squad would suggest that, if possible, it would be a shrewd move to seek out experienced Scottish players to bolster ICT’s squad and ensure SPL survival, allowing the younger players to develop under less pressure. Anyway, enough of worrying about the future for now. Before that, Terry Butcher’s players have an opportunity on Saturday to make amends for the defensive errors and goalmouth profligacy that led to them throwing away a game they dominated against Hibs last Sunday, as well as to prove to St Johnstone and their own supporters that the gap between the teams is not in fact a fair reflection of any gap in quality. Individual errors apart, the performance against Hibs did contain some glimmers of hope: the return of Jonny Hayes from injury provided a greater attacking threat and more of an outlet for balls from the back, and consequently, in the first half at least, there was far less of the long-ball stuff that we had seen the team revert to in recent weeks; Roman Golobart again showed that he is a defender prepared to carry the ball forward and look for the opportunity to start attacking moves, rather than merely clearing his lines; and Greg Tansey had a more effective first half than I have seen him have for a long time although, by the second half, his game seemed to have deteriorated along with that of the rest of the team. Bearing in mind that the last game against St Johnstone was a close-run thing, and that ICT were still without Jonny Hayes when it was played, all hope for Saturday is not lost: if we can cut out individual errors at the back; if McKay and Tade can show more composure in front of goal; if we show patience with the passing game and our players are prepared to take their players on; then we have a chance. But we seem to have been saying ‘if’ an awful lot this season... Whatever happens, the CaleyAway crowd will be there as usual: small but vocal, pessimistic but defiant, pished but standing, and hating everything in a high-visibility jacket. See you in the Muirton. Or the Tulloch. Or the 208. Or all three. Alternative Maryhill's Prediction:- St Johnstone 1 – Inverness Caledonian Thistle 1 ***Latest Team News*** Inverness have no fresh injury worries on top of the long term missing Chris Hogg and Andrew Shinnie. Jonny Tuffey will still deputise for Ryan Esson and Aaron Doran will look to get involved as he will need match fitness after his lengthy lay off. If you have not already done so, take at look at this http://chrishoggthef...blogspot.co.uk/ This will tell you all you need to know about the man and his battle to get back to fitness, but it is also an intriguing insight into how the mind works when faced with adversity. Good luck with the rehab Chris. St Johnstone are without the suspended Fraser Wright. Marcus Haber may miss out, and the Davidson's, Calum and Murray are pushing for fitness. Should they be fit, then Maybury and Millar could make way to accommodate them. Derek Riordan could make his SPL comeback should Steve Lomas require an extra striker of proven quality, but he may have to start on the bench.